03.10.03 - 6:06 p.m.

"BIG BAD: Nathan Fillion (of the late Firefly) joining Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a murderous preacher in league with the First in a five-episode arc beginning next month, reports Variety. "

Yeehaw! I am only setting myself up for disappointment by getting excited, but yeehaw anyway.

I'm entertaining fantasies of moving to small, picturesque towns again. Stars Hollow-type towns where Dan can live himself a Norman Rockwell existence and I can...well, I'm not exactly sure what I'd do in a town like that, but maybe plant green beans and start painting again. In my small-town dreams we always have a room with lots of natural sunlight for my studio.

I went to three art museums this weekend (the National Gallery, the Corcoran, and the Hirshhorn) and one karaoke bar. Guess which kicked my ass harder? I pretended that I could afford a Larry Rivers print that Dan and I could hang in the den of our quaint-small-New-England-town home and felt many pangs of sadness over the fact that etching is VERY HARD TO DO when you don't have, oh, acid, ink, metal and a press at your disposal. Printmaking rules. I suppose I could sit around and do woodcuts, but that holds only a limited appeal for me.

The bar negated all the culture I had absorbed earlier in the day. I remember singing along with all the karaoke dolts in the corner, talking to the Keebler Elf for far longer than I wanted to, debating with Denise whether Tom Ridge is smarter than the Monkey (consensus: probably), and being unable to tear my eyes away from Queen of the Damned playing on the bar TV. Lena Olin was in it! She looks considerably less hot in Edwardian velvet than in a black tank and capris.

Matt needs to get a new shower curtain, stat.

I still think this town is getting the best of me.