Antiwar Protest and Weekend Wrap-Up

I'm back from the antiwar protest. It was a huge turnout; the Mall was absolutely packed. We heard several speakers. My favorite was the mayor of Salt Lake City. The man was on fire.

I don't remember exactly who said it, but one of the veteran representatives giving speeches noted that Bush did not use the word "veteran" once during his State of the Union address, which shows you where his presidential priorities are. He would prefer to ignore them entirely, nevermind the looming VA budget crisis. My stepfather is a Vietnam vet, member of Veterans Against the Iraq War and has Hep C as a result of his service as a medic. The VA is his health insurance. He's currently non-symptomatic, thank goodness, but veteran healthcare is obviously a big issue for our family.

I notice my house is now smelling a little unusual. My dad started making his own kimchi because he says the stuff at the Korean supermarket is too expensive, and he's been cooking mackerel inside, in the George Foreman toaster oven. I like mackerel too, but we only ever grill it outside because it's kind of whiffy... oh well. His operation has been moved from Monday to Friday and will now involve an overnight hospital stay. There's bad news: he also has some work that needs to be done on his tendons. But on the other hand, there's more cartilage than they thought, so his range of ankle motion after the surgery will be increased.

On Friday the satellite television people came to install the Japanese network. As usual, they screwed up and installed a bunch of Chinese networks instead. It's tempting to blame ethnocentrism, but they probably screw up just as much dealing with non-international channels. The Japanese network is on a completely differently satellite which they need a different dish for, so they'll have to come back and do it next week.

We're settling in now to watch Rome and Battlestar Galactica.