Greetings from the Merlot Madam

Somewhere between the treadmill and my first glass of wine, I decided to -- whoops! Silly me, I went and left my wine on the kitchen counter!

Ok, back! I didn't just get off the treadmill, for the record. That happened around 5. Afterwards, I spoke with a friend online regarding some interesting info, which then lead to a 45 minute roast of paranormal television and nutty exopolitical leaders. I think I even mentioned David Sereda's name, which is a rarity. That reminds me -- Joseph Capp of UFO Media Matters just posted a new article called UFOs: Deconstructing Sereda. I think a few of you just might enjoy this, so give it a read if you've got the time (and lets face it, if you're reading the crap I'm writing, you've certainly got the time.

Speaking of crap I write, I finally broke down and purchased a domain for IHW. I wanted to break 6 months to see if it was actually being read or that I actually kept maintaining the site before doing so. And while it will probably affect my page ranking, I figured I might as well do it now rather than when its way too late. So, the new official URL is: http://www.interstellarhousewife.com/

This year really started off with a moderate bang in UFOlogy and related fields. We had the darling Mr. Ritzmann taking a short leave from Paratopia (though I think he's back), the David Jacobs debacle, the annual Zorgy Awards (congrats to Leslie, Regan, BOA and Paratopia!) the arrest of long-time scheister Sean David Morton, a new extrasolar planet, a Pink UFO and the appearance of way too much corned beef in my fridge.

My, oh my -- I hope UFOlogy didn't blow it's load all up front! Oh, I'm not really worried. I'm 105% certain someone will say or do something completely stupid, soon enough (excluding myself, of course).

Regarding the David Jacobs and Emma Woods tapes: I'm still pretty much in disbelief over the whole nasty affair. I've written a fair amount on it, as I had previously mentioned, but I think I'll wait a bit and see what Mr. Jacobs has to say, if anything, before I finish it. I've read so many threads about the subject that I get a little nauseous every time I type his name.

Not long ago, I mentioned to a friend that I was tinkering with the idea of creating a podcast. No, I don't think I'm important enough to have an actual podcast, where I like interview people and stuff. Not at all. I was thinking more along the lines of a monthly wrap-up type deal, covering all of the ridiculousness in UFOlogy that's been in the news. I would want to keep it around 20 minutes or so, and would prefer to share the seat with a co-host -- which is why I was mentioning it to my friend -- (who shall remain nameless... unless he doesn't want to remain nameless). He's all for it, and I will be too, once I get my workload back to a reasonable schedule. It's not set in stone, and it may not happen at all, but if time and interest allows, I'd like to give it a whirl. And if we do move forward with it, it will be a joint project and not something specifically IHW-based. It will also probably bare a permanent [Explicit] tag, because I know the both of us all too well.

The McMinnville UFO Festival is coming up soon. This, I guess, is the Oregonian/PacNW version of the Roswell Festival. I was plannig on attending, but I'm not entirely sure I will be able to. If I do go, I will most definitely meet up with the honorable Regan Lee and the lovely Erik Stitt. Or the Lovely Regan Lee and the honorable Erik Stitt?

By the way, Erik posted an absosmurfly hilarious introduction to the paranormal for newbies interested in digging their hands into the dull splendor that is paranormal investigation and research. I highly recommend this post.

St. Patrick's Day came and went. I hostessed a low-key gathering of a few friends on the Saturday prior, and drank a respectable amount, though not enough to cave my head in, come morning sun. As the actual St. Patrick's Day arrived, I kept a quiet evening with my girlfriend and watched a film called Hunger, which detailed the last month of Bobby Sands' life in the H Blocks, just before and during the hunger strike which took his life (and the life of nine others), in 1981. It was a moving, gritty and often hard-to-watch film, but it is one of the best films about The Troubles, I've seen. Yes, I know this has nothing to do with UFOs -- a woman can't live on saucer-cheese alone!

Spring approaches, and most of you are probably just tickled pink about that fact. I, however, am almost never ready for it. Still, I do have a few things to look forward to. One is that I hope to procure a decent reflector telescope. The other is that the weather will be nice enough for long drives out to the middle-of-nowhere for some intense star-gazing. I won't be looking for UFOs, I'll just be looking up -- because believe it or not, outside of UFOlogy, I have a legitimate interest in astronomy and the universe in general -- even if we do happen to be relatively alone in this part of the galaxy.

I guess that's about it for now -- just wanted to catch up with all of you! Things are smoothing out for me a wee bit, so I will probably be able to post again on a more regular basis!