When I tuned into the live streaming of the legislature on VT public radio Tuesday to follow the same sex marriage proceedings, I was surprised to find the Senate discussing rules about maple sugaring on state land.

But I guess it’s all in a day’s work. Regulate sap collection, make history. Then yesterday I happened to attend a real deal sugarhouse in full boil for the first time. A friend of Holly’s took us to his family operation. It was amazing. We drank fresh maple syrup right out of the pan, as soon as it was cool enough.

And look. Our friend Nichael has put up PDFs of our Daily Distress project!

Governor Stoat vetoed the same sex marriage bill yesterday, as he promised to. This morning it gets sent back to the Senate for an override vote, which is expected to pass. Then it goes to the House, where NOBODY KNOWS WHAT WILL HAPPEN! The House voted last week 94-52 in favor of the bill, but pro-same-sex marriage Republicans could vote NOT to override the veto. 100 votes are needed for an override.

I would just as soon be tied in a burlap sack and tossed off a bridge as married, but I’m gonna be pissed off if this all comes to naught. And ecstatic if it doesn’t.

Now it’s the next day. I had to give up trying to blog from my little phone. In fact, it was so hot, and I was so uncomfortable sitting on the floor, that I left halfway through. But my friends Cathy Resmer and Don Eggert from our local alt weekly Seven Days live blogged the hearings, as did my friend Lauren Ober from the Burlington Free Press, if you want to check out their very witty running commentaries on the proceedings.

Maybe I’m biased, but the arguments for same sex marriage were so eloquent and rational, and those against so turgid and witless, that I will be very surprised if the legislature does not do the right thing.

I used to use this for drawing expressions. I’d look at it and draw as I made a face. Now I use a digital camera for that. Well, actually, I don’t use a camera for expressions, generally. I seem to be able to manage drawing those out of my head.

Then there’s this broken plastic L ruler I could never bear to throw away.

This thing was so great, but I could never find a new one. I must have bought it in the ’80s. Just a flexible see-through L ruler, good for quick right angles. It was perfect for marking the spaces between the panels in Dykes To Watch Out For. Finally two years or so ago I dropped it and it had become so brittle, it just broke into pieces.

Dead rapidographs, eraser nubs, unsatisfactory automatic pencils. White out is another digital casualty.

Then I started looking around the room and noticed other obsolete stuff taking up valuable real estate, like these Kodak Carousel slide boxes. I’ve always loved how they looked on my shelves.

The graphic design is beautiful, plus they just made me feel important, or legitimate, somehow. I dragged these all over the country for years, giving talks about my work. Until Powerpoint came along. Now they’re going into the storage area. With the 8-tracks and the stereopticon.

Huh…this is weird. I was going to post one more picture, but on an unrelated note. A very nice woman named Robyn gave me this little Ganesh sculpture in Maine the other week…

…and I don’t have her address. So I wanted to say, in case you’re looking at the blog, Robyn, could you email me your address so I can thank you properly?

But as Robyn handed this beautiful, weighty little statue to me, she explained that Ganesh is the Remover of Obstacles. So, um, I totally didn’t see it coming when I started to write this post, but I think he’s having an effect already.

I saw The Reader last night, and am still feeling somewhat flayed. God.

Thanks to Steph for that great list of graphic novels on the last post! Good resource. And the folks who made additions to it. If I ever have time it would be cool to keep a page of folks’ recommendations and reviews going on here somewhere.

Thanks also to the people who contributed to the iPhone/unemployment discussion on the last post in a kind, open way.

Here’s my cat playing with a broken string of mardi gras beads. I know, I know, this is potentially dangerous, but she was well supervised and I assure you, no animals were harmed in the making of this video.

Here’s my brother playing a song called “Decay” with his band False Icons last month at Webster Hall.

I know you folks are probably not, for the most part, the right demographic, but if you like this, you can get the whole album here!

I know, this is all very irresponsible and self-absorbed. But I’m going to consider it an experiment. What insights might arise in this becalmed state, when one is not being constantly buffeted about by the 15 minute news cycle?

Maybe none. Maybe I’ll spend the rest of my life being frivolous, like I was at the Drag Ball last night. Holly and I went as schoolboys. Look, I found the Hogwart’s school crest and photoshopped it to read “Dragwarts.”

Here’s my friend the Queer Theory Professor hemming Holly’s gray flannel bags yesterday afternoon. Doesn’t she look very Tailor-of-Gloucester-like?

Here’s Hol and me in our caps and scarfs. And check out my spirit gum sideburns.

The ball was really fun. Here’s Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, chatting up a sailor. He gave me a copy of The Communist Tranifesto.

Things got pretty wild as the evening progressed. This schoolboy appears to have a penchant for ladies’ lingerie

Whoever makes a coherent comment incorporating all the random items that comprise this post WINS!

1. Last night I went to Outright Vermont, our local queer youth organization, for their annual celebration and awards ceremony. Here are some pix taken by the board chair, who is also a professional photographer.

2. Here’s my cat watching a hairy woodpecker this afternoon. She hurls herself against this window fifty times a day, but I have yet to capture that part on video.

3. A concerned citizen emailed me to notify me about Rachel Maddow’s appearance on the Martha Stewart Show. She thinks Martha has a crush on Rachel. Just watch Martha’s hand on the carrots–that’s all I’m saying.

4. Here’s an interesting argument in the Women’s Review of Books by Carole DeSanti about “what women writers’ lives look like these days.”

5. The phenomenal Gretchen Phillips has just released a new album, “I Was Just Comforting Her,” and is about to do a West Coast tour.