Christmas Wishes

On the long list of things I'd like for Christmas which no jolly fat man is capable of bringing me (an end to the strike, a fair contract for the WGA, the completion of my last assignment for Rewrite 101), there are a couple things that seem like they should be doable, if the powers that be would just *try*:

- The Treo 755p for Verizon. The last, profoundly buggy phone in this line came out... two years ago? And this version has been out on Sprint since May. And yet, no Verizon version. WTF? I mean, not like I have the cash for it anyone, but still...

- Butternut squash ravioli in a brown butter sage sauce, but with no pasta. I had a weird interaction with some meds recently, which caused me to avoid carbs for a week or so. In which time I discovered, a la Oprah, that wow, carbs really bloat you up. I'm prepared to still ration myself the odd slice of bread now and then, but I see no reason to eat half a pound of pasta just because I like the butternut squash filling. I will get to the bottom of this!

- A public transit option from Santa Monica to the Barham gate @ Universal City that doesn't take TWO FRICKING HOURS! Jesus!

- Some way for Whole Foods patrons to move through the store without getting their cart mixed up with someone else's. Someone not only shanghai'd my cart, but they took out the the spaghetti squash I'd put in there. But left everything else. And yet, I've done the same thing myself on other days. (Although I just walk away from a cart when I realize what I've done, instead of dumping the groceries I don't want and making off with it.)

- A filter that prevents you from repeatedly visiting upsetting blogs. The truth is, a sane person can only post so often. Which is fine, even if doesn't provide that much reading material. But an off-the-hook nutball will post three, four times a day, and usually on a series of outrages and universal wrongs that make, frankly, very compelling reading. Except that after a couple of hours, I'm all wrung out from empathizing and being outraged on the blogger's behalf. The truth is, I should stay away from those blogs. But I am weak. And that is why I need my computer to do my thinking for me.