I found out this evening that the sales manager at my gym is on the lam. The cops searched his house and found a pot growing operation--including a pound of processed buds (no idea what this means) and TWENTY FIVE plants, along with grow lights and other equipment.

Dude.

Sounds like it sucks to be him.

I'm watching Obama and Michelle at the Youth Inaugural Ball right now, and they're making me want to swoon and cry at the same time. Could they be more in love? Gods, it's nice to see.

Dude. If you go to the "Sasha Obama's Sassiest Moments" over at Huffington Post, you see that she went for Halloween as the Corpse Bride.

Sweet.

I love them together, but I do not love the dress. I just saw her get entangled in it while dancing, plus it looks particularly lumpy from the side with the one shoulder.

I love your account of the day, Sarameg, and it's great to "meet" T and see y'all together.

Today was kind of amazing. The feeling in the air... just amazing.

So I found out that Franny's whole school watched the inauguration together in the auditorium. I think it's great that they took the time to do that.

I stayed at my friend's house for the day watching the events on tv (the other two guests left after the benediction). Had loads of fun toasting every significant moment with champagne, from the swearing in to waving bye-bye to W.

Just got all caught up on the 600+ posts here--you guys do the best watch-n-posts!!

MSNBC has intermittent ball coverage. I loved our president trying to find a White Sox fan amongst the Chicagoans he was talking with in Afghanistan while at the C-in-C ball, and then when he introduced Michelle and she didn't come out right away, he said, "I think I've been stood up!" And then, after they had their dance there, a military member of each gender got to dance with them. The woman dancing with Barack was having fun, but the guy dancing with Michelle seemed a bit nervous.

Plus, the picked a fellow significantly shorter than her. Awkward.

I've skipped, but will go back and catch up.

It was an amazing, glorious, fridid, intermittantly crushing, magical, gracious day.

My crew and I ended up at the base of the Washington Monument which turned out to be one of the very best spots.

I could not believe how much I cried. It's like my cynical heart is breaking a bit at a time and will be rebuilt into something I don't recognize.

Except for an monumental cockup with the parade tickets (which did not effect me), the day seems to have gone perfectly for everyone but Teddy. Bless him.

The diversity of the crowd, the joy, the fervent dedication to stepping up. It was all amazing.

Very late to what has surely been commented on in volume:

I mean, she has a whole bowl of food that she likes and eats, and it was still full. Why save the treat?

Mona is proving to be a perfect pack member. NOT eating her food without you is a sign of respect. Along with those gorgeous eyes, her manners say...she's a keepah.

I'm exhausted and will catch up tomorrow.

Happy New World y'all.

Happy New World y'all.

Amen to that, bonny!

Interesting. Obama's reference to Khe Sanh wasn't just a nod to one of the few traditional battles of Vietnam, nor to Bruce Springsteen's lyric. The anniversary of that battle is tomorrow.

I also thought it was interesting that with all the parallels being made to MLK and Lincoln, that Obama chose to quote George Washington in his speech. (A point underscored by the current cover of the New Yorker. Incidentally, I once had lunch with Drew Friendman, the artist of that cover.)

I think that was a deliberate and interesting choice (though we shouldn't be surprised by his deliberation at this point). Not in a self-aggrandizing way, but in the sense of taking office in a time of crisis. And also rooting his message of renewing the country by referencing specifically the new nation. I think he used the word "nation" way more than "country." I think that was deliberate too.