Good morning (I'm still on

Good morning (I'm still on morning even though it's 12:30). We went to Friendly's this morning for breakfast and then off to Old Navy for casual clothes. When we left it was one degree out. Now, it's made it's way all the way up to a balmy nine degrees. I was reading through the new digital photo magazine last night. The good news is that there are some cool software packages out there I'd like to explore that aren't too expensive. The bad news is that the camera of my dreams is now available for around $8000. Maybe someday.

Gay camp vandalized (article from The Advocate). Vandals tore down a gate at the entrance to a camp for gay men and lesbians north of Pollock, La., and made off with a large wooden sign, acts the camp's operator says were motivated by hate. "As far as I'm concerned, it was a hate crime," said Skip Ward, who operates the rustic Manitou Woods camp. Ward said that in the approximately 10 years he's run the camp, he's never had problems with vandalism before. But the camp's existence only recently came to light, prompting some area residents and ministers to condemn it. Ward, 82, and his partner of 13 years, Joseph Gary, 40, discovered the damage when they visited the camp Thursday afternoon, he said. The front gate had been torn down, two large telephone poles that supported the front sign were snapped in half, and the 20- by 3-foot hand-painted "Manitou Woods" sign was missing. The pair said they also found fresh tire tracks and beer cans. "You can see where someone tied a chain around the pole and tore it down," Gary said. The 12-acre retreat along Fish Creek has been the subject of controversy for the past two weeks after local ministers and some residents came out against the camp. "If those people just came out here and saw what really goes on here, they wouldn't hate us so much," Gary said. After assessing the damage to the front gate, Ward and Gary inspected the three habitable cottages on the premises as well as the camp dining hall and found nothing amiss. Ward said the damage to the camp property comes to well over $500. From March to November, Gary said, he spends every day on the camp property acting as caretaker. He said he had not planned to return until mid March, when the camp reopens for the year. "I'm guessing I'm going to have to come out here and stay out here," Gary said. "I feel threatened now." The couple said the gate and sign were both intact when they last visited the camp the previous weekend.

Gay poster divides Beaverton, Oregon schools (article from The Advocate). The Beaverton, Ore., teachers union and district administrators are divided over a classroom poster advertising a support group for gay teens. The union says the district, which recently ordered an out gay teacher to remove the poster from that teacher's classroom, is inviting harassment of gay students by showing bias against gay educators. District leaders counter that they are trying to closely monitor controversial speech. A new rule, finalized this week, bans classroom displays that do not relate directly to the material taught there. Teachers also are forbidden to display posters that do not relate to school-sponsored clubs. The gay high school teacher is the adviser for the school-approved Gay-Straight Alliance. Administrators did allow nearly 30 other teachers--most of them heterosexual--in the same school to keep the same poster, said Charlotte Meuwissen, a heterosexual teacher at the school. District administrators have now allowed the gay teacher to put the poster back up. Trisha Parks, president of the Beaverton Education Association, argues that administrators are harassing gay employees by unevenly enforcing the rule. Union officials asked school board members this week to throw out the regulation, which was written by 15 central administrators. Tom Greene, the assistant superintendent who originally asked the gay high school teacher to remove the poster, said the rule is not directed at any one group of students or employees but rather is an attempt by district officials to more closely monitor the teaching of "controversial" subject matter.

Snowstorm Barrels Toward Northeast. Snowstorm Barrels Across Ohio Valley Toward Northeast; Two Washington Airports Closed. Here we go again! In our area, we are expecting 6-8 inches of snow from this storm. Is anyone else sick of snow?

Dolly the sheep, the world's first mammal cloned from an adult, has died after being diagnosed with progressive lung disease, the Roslin Institute said today. Is anyone else ready to get cloned now? I thought about getting cloned once because of all the people I've met, I like myself the most, but now I'm not so sure. ;-)

Think before you kiss! A 20-year-old woman with shellfish allergies went into severe anaphylactic shock after kissing her boyfriend, who had just eaten a few shrimp, doctors reported on Friday.