We interrupt our vacation for a short announcement. Grace The Spot has been nominated for Best New Blog in the 2008 Weblog Awards!!! Voting will begin January 5th, 2009, so tell your BFF, everyone in your entourage, the people you text because you don’t want to speak to them, the exes you’re still friends with (and even the ones that you’re not), your inappropriate crush, your non-sexual life partner and anyone and everyone else to get ready to do some gratuitous licking clicking on our behalf. We’d ...

Yes, we’re still alive, but even bloggers need vacations. We’ll be back with new content on January 1. Until then, check out the full list of Stuff Lesbians Like. Been there, done that? Check out the most popular blog posts of 2008 on AfterEllen. Seen that too? Then start a debate in the comment section below. Any topic. But make sure you start fighting over something really petty, like grammar and spelling, so you retain internet street cred. Until the shiny apple in Times Square washes this wretched year of 2008 away… peace out! ...

I’ve been busy doing nothing except being a bit ill, not eating a lot and watching Darts and despairing at Israel and the lack of leadership from anywhere else in the world on the situation. Received an interesting comment today on the Equality Authority Issue (which won’t be going away anytime soon!). Look at the make up of the board of the National Disability Authority and the Board of the Equality Authority. See anything of note? Are competent disabled people (or people working in the disability field) such a rare species in Ireland that so many ...

There was a time, sometime between June and October, when I was full of a feeling I’d never felt before. I had this idea that everything was going to be okay, because America wasn’t really that bad, and Americans were smarter and more compassionate than I thought they were. For the first time, I was excited about the future and especially the political future of this great country. It was a longer fall than I thought, the distance between that hope and this disappointment. I felt a shimmer of an ache during the debates when it was made perfectly clear that ...

Bayou and I were out and about yesterday when we saw the worst signage. It was for the Double Tree Hotel, offering its premises for holiday parties. “Have your holiday office party in our restr. Call XXX-XXX-XXXX now.” As we looked at it, Bayou uttered what we were both thinking: “The way that’s written screams ‘restroom’ to me, not restaurant.” I laughed and agreed. “What a place to have your holiday party, in the shitter. ‘Here, have your holiday party just like Larry Craig would have! Recreate the ambiance of the Minneapolis-St Paul airport bathroom here in Seattle!” We were both cracking up by this ...

• Healthy Weight Without Dieting Everyday healthy eating has more influence on your weight than any diet you try. This section shows you how to eat healthy without dieting – and maintain your healthy weight.

...

• 6 Exceptional Web-based Image Editors - Six Revisions Web-based image editors have several advantages to its desktop counterparts. The most obvious benefit is that they allow you to work on any computer. This article shares 6 of the finest, free online image editors that are capable alternatives to desktop applications like Adobe Photoshop and GIMP.

...

Thank you so much to Jodi at Jodi’s Journey for this “Your Blog Is Fabulous Award”.The rules for this one are that you have to mention who gave you the award with a link to their blog and admit 5 addictions and then pass it onto another 5 blogs:1. the computer2. Bargain hunting (I have a black belt in bargain hunting)3. Entrecard4. Chocolate5. CanningI am passing this award on to:1. Liz at A Mom On Spin2. Petra at The Wise (*Young*) Mommy3. Chat Blanc at Wit’s Bitch4. Erin at ...

Before advocating for equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons was possible, LGBT people had to first become visible. Although sexual variance has existed throughout history, LGBT people have had varying degrees of visibility. Only relatively recently in our nation's history have "lesbian," "gay," "bisexual," and "transgender" become visible and recognized identities. In her 2008 biography Sex Variant Woman: The Life of Jeannette Howard Foster, Joanne Passet gives us a rich account of lesbian history as she documents the life of the courageous woman who, in 1956, first published a "bible" of instances of "sex variant" ...

A ...

aha. i have been trying for a small while to get the hang of putting twitter posts into my blog. mainly because you can do twitter by sms, so i could do lots of updates easily.  not that that is necessarily a good thing, as clearly i’ll end up posting all manner of shite.  why can’t you blog by sms?  that would be a great thing. but i just couldn’t make the post thingy not use the first bit of the tweet as the title of the post, which was just plain annoying.  (as is my over use of the word just, i ...

goddamn twitter (again!) ...

My computer keeps overheating and switching itself off… Is there anything i can do to save it? ...

That's what Campbell soup is for its inclusive new Swanson ad campaign that includes a two-mom family in one of its spotlights on celebrity chefs.  The rabidly anti-gay American Family Institute is, of course, demanding that Campbell pull the ads:“Not only did the ads cost Campbell's a chunk of money, but they also sent a message that homosexual parents constitute a family and are worthy of support.”Yeah, and?To Campbell's further credit, the company is basically telling the AFA to take a corporate hike:"Our position on this is pretty straightforward,” company rep Anthony Sanzio told AdAge. “Inclusion and diversity play ...

to be jolly.  apparently. and i am in good spirits actually, though i have been without internet for days and days and days while spending the festivities with The Boys. i managed to not offend the host by refusing the gravy (which i did last year, on discovering that the giblets had been liquidised into it) and i managed not to eat a ton of crap, surprisingly.  i didn’t even drink that much, though i did keep myself topped up with bucks fizz during christmas day. pregnant friend *still* hasn’t had her baby and is due to be induced at any minute. *** other friend ...

Speaking of babies. Oh my word! My 'lady parts' are hurting just thinking about this. This baby needed 6 month size baby clothes.14 Pound Baby Born in Orange County, CALola's Diner©2008 ...

He is no longer a baby. He is 14 years old today. Much to his chagrin, I (aka the not ‘fun Mom,’ aka the ‘bad cop’) got him an electric razor for his birthday and that pair of slippers that he snooped and found before Christmas. (Couldn’t return them because what are the odds of finding another pair of Men’s size 14 slippers?) Oh don’t worry, he got something fun too. Anastasia (aka the ‘fun Mom’, aka the ‘good cop’) got him a wireless controller for one of his video game systems.Now just a short trip down ...

Oh, latest update in the gadget saga. I decided to stick with Verizon and get a Blackberry Curve. Part of me had been strongly yearning toward ditching Verizon (my contract had expired) and running off to T-Mobile and the G1. I'd played with it several times in the store and liked a lot about it, plus the T-Mobile would have allowed me to get a cheaper contract. I've been using my phone for three things: calling K. (mostly for brief logistical things, but once or twice each day), calling my mom (for longer periods, usually once a day) and checking ...