i'm getting really bored of political analysis blogs. i don't know if it's because i'm oversaturated with the campaign, or if it's because they've all started sounding the same to me. probably both.

i think blogs are very important, and i would never understate the effect i believe they've had on the media and journalism and the way people write and think about it. but...at the same time, i feel like when it comes to political blogs, the people writing them are often cut from the same cloth. middle-upper class white educated males, anywhere from 20-50 in years. i mean, there is obviously a lot of room for difference in that subset of people, and there are many political blogs that i think are excellent and often offer fresh perspectives. but so much of it is, to me, a rehash. there's that echo chamber problem going on. and it's gotten kind of loud.

blogs do, obviously, offer instant analysis, open conversation, and new lines of thinking to their readers. but sometimes i think that people spend so much time reading dozens of blogs daily that they forget to just sit down, look at a newspaper, and think for themselves about the issues.

to me, the blogs that are most interesting are the ones that comment intelligently about current events, but that also offer some insight into the author's own life and personal narrative. blogs that offer some diversity in subject matter, and in authors. i want more female bloggers. i want younger bloggers. i want granny bloggers. i want more diverse bloggers. i want bloggers from other countries. i want to KNOW about who's writing behind the screen.

and i can find that, i think. so i'm going to search them out, and cut down the political blog roll. it's just not as fun.

the weekend was good. minutiae, not so fascinating, and i feel uninspired and like i might need more coffee, so details aren't like, ready to pour forth willingly from my nimble fingers.

anyway - friday night, went to dr. dremo's in clarendon with charles, tommy, becca and naomi. dremo's is a good place, pretty much a dive, and last year it was shut down for over three months because its roof was deemed hazardous so the county condemned it. now - new roof, decent atmosphere, good size, cheap pool tables, and an amazing jukebox. i always hear flaming lips, radiohead, etc. either the jukebox is limited to awesome cds, or the dremo's clientele is more musically appreciative than they look. yes, i judge books by cover. i also got kind of hit on by a strange guy in the bathroom line, whose opener was that he works for an "evil insurance company." he went on, but i kind of zoned out and did the nod and smile thing until i could make a dash to the relative safety of the restroom. note to men: bathroom line, bad place to pick up ladies. really, we just want to pee.

saturday morning, the housemates and i went down to becca's mom's to help her family pack up for an impending move to north carolina. highlight of the day: their dog, penny jo, the CUTEST dog to ever roam the wilds of northern virginia. she was a chihuahua-daschund mix, which, really, is not as repulsive as you might imagine. more chubby, mini daschund than gross hairless chihuahua. so i'm a sucker for small dogs. so what? you want to make something of it, asshole? small dogs are cute. i don't care if makes me a pansy-footed candy-sucking liberal. er. or something.

saturday night, i got dolled up (ie blowdried my hair) and went out with tommy for dinner at obelisk, an italian restaurant in dupont. my choices from the fixed price menu: puntarelle salad with pecorino and blood oranges; tagliatelle with rabbit ragu; um, squab. roasted with a side of swiss chard. everything on my side was excellent except the squab, which is some sort of tiny fowl. i mean, it was cooked perfectly, very tender and meaty and all that, but i just didn't like the taste. also, it had little feet, little claws, roasted, and still on it. which i somehow didn't notice till tommy pointed them out halfway through. i kind of lost my appetite after that. i'm a wuss.

tommy had: lobster and cranberry bean salad; gnocchi in gorgonzola sauce; seabass accompanied by an entire fried artichoke. not just the artichoke leaves, but the whole damn thing. also all very good, but the gnocchi - i mean, i never say off the hook. but these gnocchi were, very clearly, off the hook. i have never tasted gnocchi with that texture - they were like edible cotton balls, which isn't a very appetizing comparison, but that's what it was like. amazing.

we drank a dolcetto d'alba with the meal (a red, and one of the few wines that i recognized by type) and finished with some really good parmigiano-reggiano cheese. i had a pear-caramel-walnut tart with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert, and tommy had moscato pudding, and then we both had a shot of moscato grappa. drinking grappa serves mainly, i think, to showcase just how good everything else in your meal really was. shudder. yet i continue to drink it. mostly to prove how lamely europhile i am. no, wait, that's what the espresso at the end of the meal was for.

anyway, really good meal, good service, and i was drunk off wine by the end of it, which was all i really wanted.

this is already longer and more boring than i ever could have anticipated, so i'll cut the tedious descriptions short. rest of the weekend was uneventful, except for the meet the press i/v (i'm too biased to comment so i won't really try, except that i thought it was neither better nor worse than i expected out of both russert and bush), a trip to target and a chicken breast sandwich from crisp n juicy. and sex and the city.

also, i got the first tiny twinge of spring on sunday. i mean, i had to wear a jacket - but if i wanted to be bold, i could have gotten by with just a couple of layers. and target had bikinis for sale, and all of their new snazzy patio furniture out, which foretold of many friday barbeques and outdoor beer pong tournaments to come. i'm ready. winter's been too long.

ps - trivia night tonight. i'll be there around 6:30-6:45. we desperately need a semi-clever name. suggestions?