Spent the weekend with The Banana at a family reunion. The Italian side of the family. There was a lot of food.

And gambling. Which led The Banana, at one point, to ask me "Why are we playing musical chairs for money?" [Not that she was complaining. She loves winning money. And she did!]

In the meantime, I lost in the first round of the Texas Hold'em Tourney.

On a side note, the Brothers and My Niece The Sports Fan both knew the answer to a Quizzo question my team did not answer correctly the other night: "What was the longest baseball game ever played?" (Options: 21, 26, 33, or 38 innings)

My team - led by Baseball Fan/Train Buddy Bryan - guessed 21.

My Niece said, "33. That's the minor league record." (The Quizzo question, I believe, was about the pro's. For the record, the minor league record was actually 32 innings.) After clarification by moi, "Oh, 26 then."

Brother #1 said, "25. If you go by hours, it was 8 hours 6 minutes." (The Quizzo question actually asked specifically about innings, but, of course, my brother was right about time!) Then, "26 if by innings."

Brother #2 said, without hesitation, "26."

Duh. I felt kinda less-than-knowledgable at that point. The correct answer was 26.

[In my family, you're supposed to know these things!]

Last night, I gathered a group of friends and "train buddies" and we went to play Quizzo.

What fun!

Our team, "Stranded by SEPTA," (and we were, indeed, stranded by Septa - and the storms - later in the evening!) came in 4th place with 97 points. So close to the 100 Point Club. Not bad for our first effort, though.

Dissention came in the form of Johnny Depp. For some reason, I thought "consensus" would be a good decision making method. Thus, I "lost," 3-2, the vote for the Who is Sexier? type of question. Johnny Depp vs Jude Law. My team voted for Jude Law. Johnny (duh!) was the answer.

Hey, if this lesbian thinks Johnny Depp is hot, don't you think the team should have agreed with me?

Oh, that Ricky-boy. Changing his statement already.

So, today he sez' : "No, no; I didn't say I wasn't going to run in '08. I said that right now I didn't think I'd run in '08. That's 3-1/2 years away, anything could happen between now and then."

Flip, flop, flippity flop.

So, I stayed up late last night to watch the Jon Stewart show 'cuz, you know, Rick-y boy was gonna be on.

Really.

Santorum had this to say about families (you know, as in "It Takes a Family" - his new book) :

• It's in the best interest of children for families to have 2 parents = 1 man, 1 woman.
• While not every family will have that, it is the "ideal" to be worked towards.
• To that end, then, the government should support the ideal and help folks achieve it.

The Gal wanted to know where she fits in to all of this.

On a good note: yesterday Mr. Santorum decided not to run for President in 2008. He'll be too busy trying to hold onto his Senate seat in PA!

Today, an answer to that age-old question: just what do gay and lesbian parents do . . . on the weekends?

If your family is anything like mine ("over-programmed"), you do the following:

• Have your daughter's birthday party 3 weeks early so her best friend can attend.
• Help the party guests - all girls - make shrinky-dinks and - yum!- s'mores.
• Set up a tent and 2 inflatable air mattresses so they can "camp" outside.
• Let the girls in the house at 11:30 p.m. when they find a Daddy Longlegs has taken over the tent.
• Let them stay up until 1:30 a.m. giggling in their sleeping bags on the floor.
• Make them chocolate-chip pancakes for breakfast (okay, the Gal did that one).
• Accept their 'vote' that the birthday party continue until later that afternoon.
• Sit through yet another viewing of "The Parent Trap" (Lindsay Lohan version).
• Drive everyone home and go to the pool (hey, it's 95 degrees here!).
• Come home at nightfall, and start the laundry.
• Go to bed, ready to do it all (or something just as exhausting) again the next day!

Actually, the next day we went to an Indigo Girls mini-concert (a brief set in the middle of the 'xpn music festival). . . our daughter's first! Outside the womb, that is. Like any good mother, I took her right up to the front (Emily side) during the mad "rush the stage" portion of the show (in this case, as soon as they introduced The Girls).

Then we took the ferry home and made a Flat Penny for our collection. I think that was her most favorite part of the weekend.

Well, for some reason Air America ditched my favorite a.m. talk program - "Unfiltered" with Rachel, Lizz and Chuck D. And they have substituted, of all things, the Jerry Springer show!

However, they have given Rachel Maddow her own program. At 5:00 a.m.! Who do they think her listeners are? Soccer moms up early getting the mini-van ready for the day?

Thankfully, one (namely, me) can download her show daily and listen as if it were live, and it's still a pretty good experience. She had an exceptionally good one yesterday - Day One of the Battle Over John G. Roberts.

Rachel had some great "Facts About John Roberts": He's . . .

• not a woman
• not a consensus candidate = he's very much a conservative Republican
• was an attorney (for Bush) in the Bush v Gore case
• very young (only 50) = could serve, potentially, for another 50 years!
• only a judge for about 2 years thus far = not much of a 'record'
• worked for Reagan and Bush I and Ken Starr
• once filed an amicus brief supporting Operation Rescue
• in fact, Operation Rescue is endorsing him! so is Concerned Women for America!
• as a government attorney, supported the "domestic gag rule"
• wrote in a brief that "Roe v. Wade should be overturned" - he saw "no constitutional basis for a woman's right to have an abortion" (and the case wasn't even about Roe v Wade !)
• is against Affirmative Action, and the Minority Business Program in Defense Dept.
• in favor of banning flag burning
• is for religious ceremonies in public schools
• was attorney for mining companies who wanted to 'remove mountaintops' in Appalacia, so they could mine there, and prevent local residents from suing

And that's just for starters.

So, there I was, minding my own business last night, channel-hopping, hoping to find some remnants of a decent television program when I came across images of John G. Roberts, Jr., the man Bushie has tapped to be the next Supreme Court Justice.

You may have noticed I've not been writing lately. My life got a bit crazy these last couple of months. I had even stopped watching or listening to the news. Really. Train Buddy Bryan had to update me about the whole Karl Rove thing. I barely knew there was a new Shuttle on the launch pad. I've actually been listening to music at work [but, that'll be a topic for another day on this here blog!].

So, yes, I had a moment of shock and awe. I did know that Sandra Day O'Connor was stepping down; but, somehow, I imagined Bushie picking a more moderate candidate. Some "compassionate conservative" perhaps. But Mr. "white-male-Roe v. Wade-should-be- overturned"? Puh-leeeese.

So much for a "woman's seat" on the court. Goodbye Diversity. How can we, as an educated first-world country NOT have a Supreme Court that is reflective of our populace?