December 13, 1999

I realize this picture is really unclear, but it's a lovely winter tableau, created by Jim's brother. There is a little tree on the left and some wood stacked up. Then there is a woodcutter on the right, wearing overalls. Oh, but he has no head? Yes, that is the woodcutter's head with an ax in it, on top of a log. Everyone else in the family got a little winter scene, and we get a Fargo-esque nightmare. Jim's brother is sick. Sick, I say!

So I spent a lot of time this weekend nurturing my latest addiction. No, not Snood, although I am addicted to that game still and spend a lot of time saying things like "I hate the Snoods! Ha! Take that, you Snood!" and Jim looks at me funny. No, the latest is the shows "A Baby Story" and "A Wedding Story" on The Learning Channel. If you are not familiar with these shows, they each take a half-hour to tell the story of one couple's adventures in either having a baby or getting married, depending on the show. On our digital cable, there is a channel called "Discovery People" that runs mini-marathons of both shows (along with the Reunion one, which I don't watch) and I always get sucked in.

"A Baby Story" is my favorite. I don't have a baby and I don't plan to have a baby in the near future, but I love to see how different couples approach what ultimately, ends up being a common experience. I find myself getting annoyed at the husbands, which doesn't bode well for Jim if we ever have a kid. I totally respect the men for wanting to be involved in the process, but I think if I was in labor, having a man stand by me and try to tell me what to do would be annoying. I love it when the women just snap too, and forget the cameras are there, and start yelling at everyone. Also, I can understand wanting to have friends and family nearby, but I do not want people taking pictures of my hooha with a baby coming out. No one wants to see that. I get some sort of sick satisfaction out of watching these people with these really idealistic "birth plans" (I want to have my baby underwater, with birds chirping and Mozard playing and no drugs) start screaming for drugs and end up having their baby the old-fashioned way like everyone else. I am a terrible, terrible person and I will, I am sure, endure the most painful births ever if I have children because of it.

I couldn't really get into "A Wedding Story" at first, but now I enjoy it as well. I watched two this weekend that really got me thinking. One featured two people that met over the internet, and true to stereotype, they were both big fatties (in the interest of full disclosure, I am also a big fattie, although not as big as the male in this wedding, so I feel okay about calling them big fatties). It really made me think that I don't want to be fat when I get married, which is really shallow, but I'm being honest here. The groom's family were all crying and I kept imagining that they were thinking, "Thank God someone married my fat brother." I know that is awful, but that is what I thought. And I don't want anyone thinking that at my wedding.

Anyway, the second episode featured two young Christians who had been dating for two years and had never kissed. Never. Their first kiss was going to be right after "I now pronounce you man and wife." At first, I thought this was just ridiculous. I can see holding out on sex for marriage if that's your thing, but kissing? As the episode went on, it started to seem kind of romantic, because they were both so excited about the kiss and all. The thing that made me uncomfortable was that the groom had some "experience" in his past, including drinking, drugs and "kissing" other girls, before he found God. And I got the feeling that it was okay, because he was a guy, but it would not have been okay for the bride. Then the groom was decorating the honeymoon suite before the wedding, and he put up a sign on the door that I guess was a quote from the Bible about how God made woman to be man's helper, and that turned me right off. Now, I have nothing against Christianity, but I also consider myself a feminist and sometimes the two conflict, especially in certain denominations. So there's that.

Anyway, this is what I did this weekend. Plus some other stuff, which I'll talk about later this week.

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Taxation on e-commerce sites is a hot topic right now. I think this article does a good job explaining the various positions, and where things stand currently.

Two shoppers, one mission: buy Christmas gifts, one in a mall, one on the web.

Will Buffy switch networks when the contract runs out? As much as I love this show, I can definitely see the major players leaving after two more years, and I don't know that the show would have much left to say after two more years. I would rather see it end than overstay its welcome, you know?

Who doesn't love hearing how celebrities plan to spend their New Year's Eve?

Salon writer Joyce Millman runs down the good, the bad and the ugly in TV in 1999. I agree with most of her picks. "Freaks and Geeks" must be saved!

Time magazine comes to the conclusion that the Columbine killers just wanted fame, so they give them more fame by publishing articles about them. And then I link to them, so maybe I'm just as bad.

I have a new WWF article up in which I correctly predicted one of the major plots of last nights Pay-Per-View. Dumb luck!