I am --> Brewniversity Pledge

Last night I officially became a Pledge in Taco Mac's Brewniversity! In order to become a Pledge (and get a shirt) you have to buy 13 different beers. I went to The Fred last night and was planning on just having one beer there and then heading over to the Taco Mac in Duluth so I would be closer to the hotel for the end of the night. Well, that plan failed.. I went in and met some awesome people and decided to stay. I ordered a Avery Hog Heaven to start along with a five cheese crab dip. The Hog Heaven is a Barelywine which has a very IPA flavor and feel. While I was drinking that Sean ordered a Corsendonk Christmas and Natasha (the bartender) asked if he wanted the tap or the bottle so he ordered both to do a taste test. Sean let me and Jeff have some as well so we could all make partake in the test, all three agreed it was better in the draft. My second beer of the night was a Rodenback Grand Cru which is a sour red ale, the first sip sorta punches you in the face but after that it's amazing! A little bit later Jeff ordered a La Rulles Tripel and let us all have some.. Was still hungry after the dip so I got their spicy fried shrimp which was so hot my mouth was on fire, need more beer to wash it down with so I got my own Corsendonk Christmas to finish off the night. While I was eating my shrimp Sean and Jeff both left and when they were leaving we did the whole "nice to meet you" and another of the regulars who towards the other end of the bar said "what?! you guys just met tonight!?" lol! Finished off the night chatting with a guy named Tony who had just come in and was a big foodie so we were swapping exotic food stories.. All in all, it was a great night. Now I did not officially hit my 13 purchased beers but since I don't live in the area Natasha counted the ones I shared and gave me the shirt! :D

It was so icy last night, I don't think Georgia even has rock salt or sand for the roads and sidewalks. I almost fell on my ass like 3 times going into The Fred.. Today has been a "take the good, take the bad" day so far, woke up to find my water in the room undrinkable again so I didn't shower or brush teeth. I had extra water at the room the first night I knew the water was undrinkable but then it was fine so I didn't get any last night, turns out they had another pipe issue last night.. Apparently Duluth is not meant for prolonged cold. The good, got my seat upgraded to first class!

Currently sitting on the plane and using the free WiFi, Delta is offering free WiFi during the holidays.. :)

Busted Pipes and Power Outage

The problem with living in an area that is generally warm is that the buildings are not built for cold.. The Courtyard is no exception to this rule, they had a few pipes freeze and burst.. I got back to the hotel after work and went to the hot tub to raise my temperature because I just can't seem to get warm this week. Then some nice relaxing time and finally a shower before heading out, turned on the shower and was shocked by the brown water and the loud noise coming from pipes! I let it run for a second and it didn't change, tried the sink and the same thing.. Went to the lobby and the lady told me they had "a few pipes" freeze and burst, how many is a few? Apparently a few was enough to close the first floor on half the hotel, they had 6 inches of water in some rooms! Well, no rinsing off chlorine for me.. Off to Taco Mac and the speak easy!

Not tonight!! I drove to the Taco Mac and asked the guy at the regular place if they served food downstairs, his answer was only finger foods so I decided to eat at the regular Taco Mac to eat. Had a Portabella Mushroom Wrap and a Tommyknocker Hop Strike before heading downstairs. I went to "The Fred" and after ringing buzzer a few times went upstairs to ask why they were not answering door, found out they are closed on Monday and Tuesday! Wish the website would have said that! Went back to the closer Taco Mac and had a few more drinks with the guys from class. Ommegang Adoration and Terrapin Hopsecutioner to finish the night before heading back to hotel. Water issue was not cleared up so I messed around online a bit and then headed to bed, as I was getting ready for bed the hotel lost power! Ok, end of that night, it's bed time... Just as I was falling asleep the power came back on and so did my lights which woke me up..

The water issue was resolved this morning so I was finally able to take a shower..

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More updates since last blogs..

My car is fixed.. Guy from Virginia paid for the damage his plywood did and the lady's insurance company paid for the damage to my bumper/fog light area.

Jessie's elbow is healed, it actually healed really quick.

Taco Mac

I know I have not blogged in a long time and I'm not going to do the recap thing because it would just be too darn long..

The problem with blogging your life is when it gets too complicated to sit down and write about it.. That and I guess some stuff does not need to be in a public forum, at least not while it's happening..

Anyway, I'm down in Duluth GA this week teaching and it's smeggin' cold! When I found I had a class in Duluth in December I figured it would at least give me a break from the cold, boy was I wrong! It was 20 with a wind chill of -5 when I landed (those numbers are Fahrenheit unfortunately.. Last night it fell to 10 with wind chill of -11!

My students told me about this placed called Taco Mac which is a 99 type restaurant with 100+ beers on tap and 200+ beers in bottle! They have a frequent drinker program called Taco Mac Brewniversity, you get credits for each different beer you drink and when you get a certain number of credits you get benefits like 13 gives you a shirt, 125 gives you a 20oz for the price of a 16oz and so on.. The food was good, I had buffalo chicken tacos and the beer was awesome! Beers had last night: Unibroue La Terrible, Left Hand Nitro Sawtooth, Red Brick Laughing Skull and Warsteiner Dunkel. They have a bunch of locations, was talking to a random guy at the bar and he was telling me one of them is designed like an old speak easy, apparently you have to knock on the door and show your Brewniversity card to get in.. Going to that one tonight.. Not that it should surprise anyone but within five minutes of being there I had made a new friend who lives in the area now but is from NY and a Mets fan! I am meeting him tonight at the speak easy...

Laire was good this weekend, I played "Brother Hawk" because Daimone is still a Drowned One and finally started to learn Warlock skills. Still no word on my Druid quest but at least I have one master class started. I left Saturday night so I could be home for Sunday since I had to get laundry done and what not to get my flight on Sunday.

Speaking of my flight on Sunday. I got to the airport and found my flight was delayed from 6:07 till 7:00 then 7:30 then cancelled! I was in a bit of a panic and found out that AETravel's website does NOT work on the Droid OS! I had Becca log in and start looking for alternate flights but luckily it was not needed since the 3:30 flight was getting ready to leave and they had extra seats which they put all Elite status people from the 6:07 flight in. Even my luggage made it on the flight which shocked me because they told me it probably wouldn't till the morning..

Other news since last blog..

I got my renewal notice for the Mets season tickets and I mailed it back asking to move to section 424 again. In past years I have heard back in late January if not early February and was shocked when they called me a few days after I mailed the letter in to move me. They could not get me 3 seats in 424 but they did move me to section 426 which is a significant move from last year. That and the price went down about $40 per seat so it's all good all around... :)

Jessie's mom is having financial problems, no surprise here, so we are trying to sell her stuff out of the Kingston house and will eventually be trying to sell the house as well. The sale is this weekend so most of our free time has been spent driving back and forth and trying to get things ready to be sold. Thanks to Shane for helping us out during the week when we couldn't be there. If you want to come shopping come on down, she has a lot of good stuff and we are selling it all pretty cheap.

Celebrating 15 Years of Delicious Discoveries

We spent two days in Disney World before heading home..

Day 1 - Breakfast at Fort Wilderness and then head over to Epcot. Jessie used her 2005 pass and had an issue at the gate because the ticket was too old to be read in the new scanners so we had to wait while they gave her a replacement ticket. Hit Soarin' which had a 70 minute wait (no fast passes left for day) and then Captain EO which is the Michael Jackson movie they had back in the 80s, they brought it back this year in honor of Michael Jackson's death. I admit it's a bit cheesy but I love it, I want his outfit for a new FI character! Afterwards we went into the World Showcase and spent too much money on food and drink. This year happens to be the 15th anniversary of the Food and Wine Festival which was super cool since it was also our 15th anniversary! Their tag line is "celebrating 15 years of delicious discoveries" which pretty much sums up our marriage too! Anyway, we hung around the World Showcase till Illuminations (did a few Kim Possible Missions) and then headed out. Checking my Disney World app for the Droid we found that the Magic Kingdom was open till midnight so we headed over there. If you can only ride one ride in the Magic Kingdom which do you ride? Apparently the Country Bear Jamboree! Don't judge us... :P

Day 2 - Breakfast (I mean lunch) at Fort Wilderness and then over to Downtown Disney to shop... After wasting time in the stores (nothing worth getting) we headed over to Epcot for more delicious discoveries.. :) This time we went to Innoventions and Spaceship Earth before heading into the World Showcase. What did we eat... Here is a full list of what I ate, keep in mind I didn't eat *all* of each of these, Jessie split most of them with me:

Chile - Shrimp Ceviche
Desserts and Champagne - Dark Chocolate Sensation
Argentina - Grilled Beef Skewer & Roasted Corn and Cheese Empanada
Poland - Kielbasa and Pierogie
South Korea - Lettuce Wrap with Pork and Kimchi Slaw & Black Raspberry Rice Wine
South Africa - Pinotage
Brewer's Collection - Hovels (many)
Germany - Spaetzle Gratin with Ham and Cheese & Sausage in Pretzel Roll
Hops and Barley - Pican Bread Pudding
United States - Bison Chili
Japan - Tuna Sensation
Australia - Grilled Lamb Chop
Morocco - Kefta Pocket
Belgium - Steamed Mussels & Waffles with Berry Compote
Spain - Seared Albacore & Red Wine
France - Escargots & Chocolate Creme Brulee & Pomegranate Wine
Ireland - Lobster and Scallop Fishermans Pie
Canada - Cheddar Cheese Soup & Maple-Glazed Salmon & Riesling & Moosehead Beer & Icewine
New Zealand - Scallops & Lamb Slider & Pinot Noir & Cabernet Sauvignon
15 Beers for 15 Years - Fischer Amber & Abita Amber & Viru Pilsner

Great food, and lots of it... I have to say, if you were a vegetarian there is not much you can eat, if you're a vegan? You can drink! Almost all of the vegetarian courses had cheese in them.

Watched Illuminations again and then headed back to the cabin. Left early in the morning on Monday and drove to Harry's house in North Carolina. Ate dinner and went to bed.. Next day drove to Norwalk and dropped Jessie off before I continued on to Becca's house for a bit and then finally home.

When we drove up we took the "round about way" so we didn't have to go through DC, Baltimore or NYC. It was 50 miles and many fewer hours! I recommend that for anyone driving down.

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Since I've been back.. Wednesday night was our actual dating anniversary and we went to Pioneer brewery in Sturbridge and then to 420 steakhouse in Sturbridge. Both places were great and I recommend them both.. Thursday we watched a bunch of TV and Thursday night Becca came over for a nice night in. Friday me and Jessie hung out and went to see RED in Lisbon. RED is the new Bruce Willis, John Malcovich movie and it was AWESOME! Can't wait for a sequel! Saturday night I went over to Becca's house and had another nice night.. Sunday I went to Lynz's house for brunch and lots of cleaning..

We are almost caught up on Glee, two more episodes to be current.. Want to get those both in this week so I will be current when RHPS episode airs next week.

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Tomorrow is back to work for me... Jessie however is off till Thursday because the doctor told her not to go in.. She will be going to the doctor again on Tuesday to do more x-rays and see how things are healing. It looks like she won't need surgery after all! :D

Disney World or Bust!

So, when last we left our vactioneers they were safely at the Salvatore’s house after having endured a cold and rainy chowderfest and some lovely home made fish and chips… After a rousing game of Candyland and Chutes and Ladders the journey south began anew.. Next stop – Uncle Larry’s house..

The journey was slowed by rain and some bad traffic around Baltimore but in the end we got there just as dinner was being served. Pasta with chicken meatballs and home made sauce, garlic bread and a very tasty salad. After dinner there was a lot of playing with phones. Uncle Larry has an iPhone and of course me and Jessie with our Droid Xs had to show off and compare. One of the funniest things of the night had to be Jessie and Uncle Larry trying to exchange phone numbers via Bump. They probably could have written their information on a piece of paper, hid it somewhere in the house and played hide and seek and it would have been quicker and easier. Although honestly not as funny! I did get an awesome app and I recommend anyone who wants to be “in the loop” with my travels should get.. It’s called TripIt. Whoever is travelling emails the confirmation emails to their system and it keeps track of flights, hotels, car rentals, etc. The really awesome thing is that it will even tell you what gate your flight is at once they assign one and if there are any delays they show up real time. If you download TripIt you can add me as a contact and you will be able to see my trips. Add me using my gmail account. In the morning we had poached eggs and hung out for a bit before heading on the next leg of our journey.. This time to Harry’s house in North Carolina..

We were driving along, singing a song and enjoying the day.. Took the long and winding road over to the Blue Ridge Parkway and took that for most of the trip south. Stopped a few times to take pictures and generally enjoy the ride, it was still cloudy but at least it was not raining anymore.. Got off the Parkway and got back onto normal roads.. A little while later we got stuck behind a truck carrying an open trailer on a one lane road (one land in either direction). Now I know you’re thinking ‘man that must have sucked with him going all slow and stuff’ but honestly he was not going that slow which in the end caused the problem when his straps snapped and the plywood he was carrying decided it wanted to fly at us. Three pieces of flying plywood is not an easy thing to dodge! I did however prevent any of them from coming through the windshield, I swerved and one of them hit the driver’s side view mirror cracking that, scraping the paint above the door down to the frame and denting the roof right by the roof rack! Got the guys information and the number of a witness as well so hopefully there will be no issue getting everything paid for.. My poor car, it’s been through a lot these last few weeks..

Anyway, the trip was rather uneventful after that and we got to Harry’s house around dinner time. Went to a English Pub / Sports bar with Harry, Nicole, Rich, AJ and Rich’s daughter for dinner. Jessie got sorta waylaid into talking to Rich’s daughter for most of the night but a good time was certainly had by all. I had a sammich called a “Black Forest” which was turkey and bacon on a pretzel roll, so good.. After dinner we went back to Harry’s and watched the first two Family Guy episodes of the season. The Clue episode was amazing but the Rush Limbaugh episode was lame. Next day (Wednesday) we went over to Beckie’s house and had lunch with Beckie, Keith, Rich and AJ at a Greek place near their apartment and work. Went back to Beckie’s and watched two great movies.. Finding Neverland was amazingly done, the cinematography was so well done, they really brought the fantasy to life! Plus it “mostly” follows the true story behind the creation of the play Peter Pan. As with many of my double features (Equus / Lord of the Rings the Musical || Christmas Carol with Patrick Stewart / Woman in White) I apparently like to do one big budget extravaganza and one super low budget minimalistic show. Today’s second movie was The Gamers: Dorkness Rising! It was on Beckie’s Netflix Instant watch so we figured what the heck, if it sucks we can always shut it off. Honestly about 10 mins I was ready to shut it down but maybe 15 mins in I was hooked! The dialogue was great and it was one of those movies that just effortlessly told its point and hit all the jokes spot on while still keeping a serious plot line. It did a great job of showing the different style of gamers and if you game at all (or know someone who does) I recommend watching it.. btw – I mean game in the terms of D&D and/or LARP.. That night we went to a tepanyaki place for dinner, the chef was very good, he toned down the “show” but the cooking was very well done. He did do a smiley face with the rice with lemons as eyes and the standard onion volcano. I had the snapper and it was cooked perfectly, I also had a sushi roll which was spicy salmon tempura’ed with caviar on top! So good.. Went to a local bar after dinner, AJ knows the owners and he is usually able to name the nightly special if he calls ahead of time so we had $2 Fat Tires! The short jokes were in full force with Keith kneeling on the floor as a “bench” for me to stand on so I could reach the top of the pool table in the bar.. The night ended with me and Nicole playing pool at the house before bed.

We woke up a bit too early (8am) and left for Disney World, GPS estimated our arrival at 6pm so we figured we would be there for a late dinner. First stop, Starbucks to get some quick breakfast and coffee.. Right next to Starbucks there was a “steak and lube” place, that’s right everyone it’s finally that all in one car service steak place.. I know you’ve always thought man, this Jiffy Lube takes too long, it would be so much better if I had a steak while I waited.. Well, if that’s you then you’re prayers are answered! Ok, so… like I said, first stop Starbucks.. Second stop, the urgent care across the street! Jessie stepped off the curb weird and turned her ankle, she stopped her fall with her arm and broke a bone in her elbow! A few hours and some xrays later Jessie left the urgent care in a splint and we were told we needed to see an orthopedic doctor to confirm the break and get more details about what to do. We could have hung out in North Carolina till 5pm when we could go see the orthopedic doctor but we decided to keep on fucking that chicken so off to South Carolina and then Georgia before stopping in Savannah for the Orthopedic Urgent Care. Results? Bone is compressed and broken, probably need surgery, should probably cut vacation short.. /sigh – or as the new internet trend likes to say FML..

So, we arrived at Fort Wilderness at ass-o-clock at night (I want to say 2am) and hit the bed.. Since we were under the impression that we might have to leave as soon as Saturday we decided to make sure the first place we went was Universal Islands of Adventure so we could see the Harry Potter area. As it turns out Universal is doing their Halloween Scream Nights so we got a ticket to that as well. For the Halloween Night we got the “express” pass which gives you fast passes once for every ride and attraction! If we didn’t do that there is no way we would have gotten through everything in the one night. But let me back up a bit… Ran into Islands of Adventure with the concept of eating in Hogsmeade but the line at the Three Broomsticks was OMG out of control! Speaking of lines, there were lines to get into the gift shops! And not just little ones, they actually had queue areas so people could line up to get in to the gift shops! I sorta feel like that’s worth saying a third time.. Lines to get in gift shops! Anyway, we ate at the empty Jurassic Park area and came back. The Hipogriff ride was pretty lame, but the main Hogwarts ride was awesome and even if that was the only thing there I would say it was worth the trip. We had some butter beer which is not alcoholic. It’s like cream soda with a butterscotch twist, and whatever they put in causes a head that just keeps growing and foaming! It was very tasty but I could really only drink like 1/3 of one, Jessie drank most of it. They also had a microbrew that was made specifically for the Harry Potter area, it was a Scottish red and was very tasty. After we drank we wandered around the shops (yes, waited in the lines) and I was very impressed at how they did the shops and even had things like the expendable ears in Zonkos. Oleanders had a series of wands based on birthdays. My wand was “eh”, I took a picture and will post it to Flickr.

After we finished up the HP area we went back to the car so Jessie could call insurance company and figure out a plan for back home doctoring. The plan is to go home early (probably leave here Monday morning) and hopefully get her in to a doctor later in the week. I rested in the car for a bit while she made calls and then we headed back in for dinner at a Latino place on CityWalk. I had a snapper with chorizo and rice which was very good. Got into the Halloween night a few minutes after the opened and was immediately impressed when he walked through the first “scare zone” which was a Mexican Day of the Dead theme. They have six “scare zones” which are just parts of streets dedicated to different themes (Day of the Dead, Witch Trials, Cyberpunk, Zombified Mardi Gras, Fear Revealed [which was a empty trail with pumpkins and fog] and the main Halloween one). They also had random guys walking around with chain saws who would try to sneak up on you and turn their chainsaws on right next to you! I have to admit I jumped a bunch of times while walking down the streets. My favorite area was either the Cyberpunk (awesome costumes) or the Witch Trials (super hot witches)! Aside from the scare zones they had eight actually horror houses, some were amazing and some were just pretty lame. Not going to go into each one (this blog would be even longer than it already is) but the basic concept was you go through a maze like building and people would jump out at you to try and scare you. Except in the best one, they had an Insane Asylum one and the people were not hiding and trying to jump at you, in that one they were just hanging out and talking to you and then would jump at you. They did an amazing job of creating “crazy people”! The other favorite was called Havoc which was cyberpunk-ish, basically it was like being on a mod at Future Imperfect! The Zombie one could have been cool, but it fell short. The worst one was probably the Orphanage which had burned down. The worst thing in the park? Bill and Ted’s Halloween Adventure! It was just smeggin’ bad, so bad I don’t even want to write about it..

I’m going to end this blog here. The next day starts our time in the actual Disney parks so I will save that for another blog..

I have to say it.. Goodnight my lovelies
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Here is something you may find cool. So, the hotel charges $9.95 a day for internet which is lame’o. So, I typed this blog on the laptop in Word, transferred to my phone which opened the document, copied the text to a clipboard and pasted it into my blog site! How’s that for super rad! That’s right, I just said rad.. Deal with it..

Close the door!!

I'm on vacation and on the way to Disney.. We are taking the slow route to Florida.. We left Saturday and got all the way to Brooklyn! Left car at my friend Michelle's house and went into Manhattan for a pre-NY Anime Fest show. My friend's old dance troop was preforming so we went over to check it out. They are a super cute trio who dance to J-Pop and Anime songs.. After them a guy came up and sung a few songs, he was good too so it was a fun time. While we were at the show Jessie's friend Charles showed up and the 4 of us hung out for a while, we went over to the Mets Clubhouse shop because it was close by but didn't buy anything. After that Jessie wondered off with Charles and Me and Michelle went to Perfect Pint in NYC for dinner. I had The Perfect Cheese Steak which is "ny strip steak, applewood bacon guinness barbecued onions with irish cheddar and porter cheese", it was so good but oh so not healthy.. After dinner we went back to Michelle's house and played Mario Party with her room mates.

Went to bed far too late and woke up too early.. Long drive again... This time to NJ.. I know, we are getting real far in our journey towards Florida... Stopped at Matt's house and went over to a Chowderfest. Chowderfest is outdoors, sounds good right? Smeggin' weather didn't want to cooperate, it was cold and windy and if that was not enough it started to rain as soon as we bought our tickets. Was standing in line doubting the intelligence of going but oh well... It actually ended up being a really good time. They have two tents setup, one for "white chowder" and one for "red chowder", because of the rain everyone was staying under the tents and you really had to push your way to the front to get to the chowders. First place we went was a red chowder and it tasted like tomato soup. Left the red tent and me and Jessie waded into the white tent while Matt, Daniel and Sile went to get other food.. Once we got our system of pushing down we actually made it through the tent pretty quickly, most of them were good but the best was Panzone's Pizzza & Pasta which took 3rd place in the White category. This place Stefano's ended up winning both the red and the white but they were both crappy.. They must pay people off because they apparently win almost every year. Honestly I didn't have many of the reds but the one I liked the best won 2nd place in Reds.

After the fest we came back to Matt's house, Sile made home made Fish and Chips for dinner! So good... I took pics of the making process and the end process but my Droid cable is in the car so I won't be uploading any pics today.. Well, at least not yet... Went to bed super early (9:30) and slept for about 12 hours! My body really was in need of that after coming back from CA..

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Speaking of coming back from California.. Wednesday night I went to AT&T Park to see the Giants play the DBacks. I was going to take the train but ended up missing it, I was standing in line to buy my train ticket when the train left... Oh well, at least I didn't buy the ticket yet. Driving to AT&T Park shouldn't be too bad anyway, it's about 40 miles from Santa Clara and it was before rush hour so no problem.. /sigh... It took me almost 2 hours to get there and I got to park in the main A lot for $30!! What a bargain.. The stadium is in a beautiful area, it's right up against the SF Bay, the right field wall is right up against the water. I got in about 15 mins before the game and walked around the stadium, by the time I got to my seat the first batter had already hit a home run and the DBacks were up 1-0. The view from the seats were awesome and the people next to me were really cool. The guy right next to me was a season plan holder and he originally lived in NY and was a fan of the Giants before they moved to CA so we talked a lot about Ebbets Field, the Polo Grounds and even Shea when it first opened. In the 4th inning I decided to go eat, the food on the upper level was not very exciting but the food on the field level was.. I got a crab sammich which was on butter toasted bread and served with cheese, it was very tasty! Unfortunately for me, while I was in line for food the Giants rallied and scored 3 runs to take a 3-1 lead. That was the final score which means all the runs were scored while I was not at seat.

Thursday was flight back day, but the flight was not till 10:45pm so I went up to Muir Woods after class and before my flight. The Muir Woods are right above SF and very beautiful! I posted pics on Flickr, go check them out. I don't think pictures can truly capture the amazing awe inspiring brilliance but they are still nice.. I felt very recharged from wondering the woods.. In the back of the parking lot they have a "first amendment area", it was a taped off area of the parking lot with sign saying this area was set aside for freedom of speech...

The flight from SF to Detroit was quick and I slept for most of it. The flight from Detroit to Boston was really annoying... We got on the plane in time for an "on-time departure" but the luggage people took way too long to load the plane to we ended up leaving about 20 mins late. Now the fun starts! Started to rise (got to about 10,000 feet) and they realized the door was not closed correctly. Had to turn around and land back in Detroit to reclose the door! Landed, opened door, closed door, refueled the plane and were ready to go again... Unfortunately now it was an "in-air incident" which means lots of paperwork... Left about 3 hours later than we were supposed to... Once in the air I slept again for a bit of the flight and then watched some Glee.

Ran home, showered and went to meet Becca for lunch.. I didn't even unload the car first because of all the delays in Detroit.. After she went to work I came home and started laundry and the process of getting ready for vacation.. Lynz came over for dinner and finished helping me pack..

And now the story wraps back around... About to leave NJ and head to my Uncle's house in West Virginia..

--Diversion of the Day

Tattoo Time?

I want to get my second tattoo at some point during the winter which means I need some help with my design. I have a vision but don't have the art capabilities to make it happen.. My vision.. A circle of spirit animals on my left arm from shoulder to just above elbow. I want it to be in the same celtic and tribal mix as my other tattoo. If you have any artistic eye and would like to help me design my new tattoo please read on and send me some drawings.. :)

Dragon on the top, clockwise of him would be a polar bear, clockwise from him a dolphin, clockwise of him an owl. In the center would be a pixie/fairy. I was thinking of having each animal in a minimalistic line art style sort of like the elements on my the other tattoo. In terms of the actual circle, it could be that the animals intertwine with each other or there could be a faint celtic knot ring like on my other tattoo. The pixie could again be intertwined with each other animal or could stand on her own or could have a faint celtic cross behind her and touching the circle. All of the animals are male except the pixie.

Email me your designs or post them as comments here..

Here are some examples of artwork I found on the web for tribal animals.

Really like these:

http://www.ideatattoo.com/media/catalog/product/cache/3/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/t/a/tattoo_professionist_animal_3.jpg

http://th04.deviantart.com/fs12/300W/i/2006/317/8/6/tribal_eagle_by_xx_trigrhappy_xx.png

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:dU_4DOjR-gqemM:

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:QXhkIZ0Ig2I6MM:http://i392.photobucket.com/albums/pp9/newtattoodesigns/Animals%20Tattoo%20Designs/Bear/bear.gif&t=1

http://www.tribaltattoopictures.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/tribal_dragon_tattoo.jpg

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYkg4tdhLs9XkdBeDWsjkVzvdccH4GmDiz5qnG6r87RvEO2YC2xK5vQfryMDLszvPjNz3svxgKy6o40yxczMeMGH4AWevZeJj4_gGa4rnh5ct5KqoaxA6m2hOpcPygmNgAQsWwtLs7ZQF-/s400/tribal-lion-tattoo-designs_03.jpg

Here are some others:

http://www.tattoos.org/galleries/Tribal_Tattoos/5-animals-tribal-design.jpg

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA4gMd4BHMYbX6aQ9544eXmUJsl7g1Ftq7NI27Ere0ycSg7wO6fI7ORbPrpoUx0LdIjzK0BlZaJVfwqxE8vqcp1dmsLEG0DdUVxH3VsE-3k5_N7PiIinNlzN2TI6VXLoUO_V-aOO9L_3s/s400/tribal_predator_tattoo_design_TATRPR05.jpg

http://www.towertattoo.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/tribal-tattoo-2.jpg

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A Series of Uppers?

What does Randal know anyway, life is *not* a series of downers, what a depressing thought... I for one can say for sure that life is a series of uppers... Lets take the last week..

Thursday, Friday and Saturday were all great days/nights, each one very different, and each one with a different beautiful lady. :D

Thursday night I went over Becca's house.. Got the tour of her house, met her mom and went to dinner at a local pizza place. I always like my pizza plain (especially when trying a new place for the first time because that's the true test of the pizza), but most people find that to be "not enough" so it was great to find out that she also likes plain pizza.. Not to say I don't like pizza with crazy toppings either but sometimes you just want cheese and sauce, maybe it's because I grew up with plain NY pizza? We also had a spinach croissant like appetizer, it was too much food, lately I've found I'm back to eating smaller portions which is a good thing.. After dinner we mostly watched Shock Treatment (god that movie is bad) and listened to lots of good music while chatting about the life the universe and everything.

Friday night I went over Lynz' house, on the way there I was thinking about how we had not had a true night out in a long time and how we have this great comedy club (Funnybone) close by and never go.. So, after looking up the comedian for the night we decided he was funny enough based on his online clips and went.. Being the smart people we are we knew that getting food in Man-town would be a long and drawn out process so we grabbed some wonderful sushi at the Asian Bistro by her house before going to the club. The headliner was Matt Braunger, I had never heard of him but as I said, his online clips were pretty funny. I'm glad to say he was funnier in person than he was on his clips too! The first two guys (don't remember their names) were also really funny, the MC was a guy with a mustache and he did this whole bit about how having a mustache makes him a "wild card", you never know, he's either the best cop in the world, or he's on to catch a predator. He's either a porn star or a gay porn star, you can never tell.. The second guy was also really funny, he did this whole bit about being metrosexual which was really funny, I had not heard that term really used since Queer Eye and it was cool to see it brought back.. Finally was Matt, he did a whole thing about people throwing up and it was so funny even Lynz was laughing at it. Go check out his site and his bits, I want to get his MP3 CD he was that funny. His taco bell bit and his Easter bit were also top notch.. I left the show and my stomach muscles hurt because I was laughing so hard! Funny Bones has a deal where if you buy a shirt you can get in for free on Thursday nights as long as you wear the shirt. Got a shirt, who wants to go on Thursdays? During the drive there and back we played "new" music for each other, I put new in quotes because it was not really new, just new to each other. How is it that I have dated someone for that long and they never really heard ManOwaR?

Saturday I went to the CT Ren Faire with Jessie. I was walking in and got grabbed by my friend who was in the receiving line so me and Jessie ended up standing in the receiving line with her. It was a little odd to be in the receiving line but also pretty cool too, heck it's not like we aren't dressed well enough and it's not like we don't go there enough.. This years show is an all musical cast show which was awesome, I filmed all the cast shows on my Droid so if you're interested I can show them to you but I will not post them online because you should go see it live. If you can't I will show them and I may post them on youtube after the faire closes for the year. Everytime I started to wander and look at shops I was getting waylaid by friends working different booths, not that I'm complaining because they are people I don't see often and I did eventually look at all the booths I wanted. I just felt bad because I kept getting pulled away from Jessie, mom and Joe. This years faire is also a "choose your own ending" where the faire goers vote on the ending, of course good won. I'm going to go back on Oct 23rd and hopefully I will see evil win. After the faire closed we ended up spending lots of time chatting with a friend of mine and we finally left around 7. We got invited to the after hours party but I had to catch a flight at 5am out of Boston so I needed to get a nap in at least.

One other thing I just wanted to add, Jessie and my mom each bought a dress at Aetas Designs. Great deals and great materials and workmanship. Jessie's dress was off the rack but needs some alterations, total price $65.. My mom is having a dress made from scratch and the price? $115!! For a hand made dress!? Check them out, you won't be disappointed..

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Got up at crazy o'clock and drove to Boston. Wanted to be there for 3:30 because that's 90ish minutes before my flight. Funny thing is that the stupid airport does not actually open till 4 so I spent some time staring at empty booths. Checked in and was the first person through security. Watched a few episodes of Glee while waiting in airports and being on flights. I slept the entire first leg of the flight and most of the second and we landed in SF 40 minutes early! I'm glad we landed early because it was close timing to get into Oakland. The SF airport is actually south of SF, when I got in the car it said it was in the 80s, I drove north through SF and while doing so the temp dropped to the low 60s just to have it rise back up to the 90s by the time I got to the stadium in Oakland. I don't know if I could live in area with this kind of crazy temperature zones. I have to remember to bring a long shirt at least when I go to the Giants game on Wednesday.

Anyway, I got to the Coliseum and found out that parking was cash only so I had to turn around and go find an ATM. Got cash and drove back, while waiting in line to pay a guy came up and handed me a free parking pass! Guess the benefit of going to the last home game of the season is everyone is looking to dump their free parking passes. The outside of the stadium is very run down and the area around the stadium looks like a demilitarized zone. I was expecting the stadium to be a dump so I was not surprised by the area. I am glad to say however that the inside of the stadium is very nice indeed. The seat I had was amazing, right behind home plate and very close to the field. The food was top notch, I'd actually put the food in the top 10 for stadium food. The upper deck had nothing but generic stadium food but the lower level had an irish pub, cheese steaks, a farmers market, etc.. The beer was vast as well, they had booths for Fat Tire, ShockTop, Pyramid, and others. The only place they had American Piss beers was at the generic stadium food booths. I had a cheese steak, fries and a fat tire. I guess it says a lot about the fans and the area that all the booths had glass walls between the customers and workers. The only bad thing about the stadium is it's a 100% non-smoking stadium which means the bathrooms become smoke houses. The first season at Citi-Field the Mets tried to make the stadium 100% non-smoking and they quickly realized that by doing so you create bathroom smoke houses so now they allow smoking on the forever ramp. The game itself was pretty lame, the Rangers crushed the A's and I lost interested in the game itself pretty quick so I wandered the stadium for a while and ended up leaving after the 6th inning.

Yesterday I had a date with a girl I met on OKCupid, we went to a brew house called Fault Line and then hung out at the hotel and hot tub. She is very cool and we are planing to go out again tonight.. :)

I sort of want to go to the Winchester Mystery House, maybe I can convince her to go there tonight. It's about 8 miles from my hotel..

A series of downers?

George Lucas has nothing on Terry Brooks when it comes to ending a book/movie on a series of downers... I just finished reading Bearers of the Black Staff which is book 1 in the Legends of Shannara series and I have to stay a bit stunned on the way it ended. In the last hour of so of the book half of the main "good guys" get killed!? I'm not saying he leaves them in cliff hangers or anything, he just outright kills them.. I'm obviously not going to say who lives or dies but holy jeez.. What a serious series of downers.. And Randal thought Empire Strikes Back ended on a series of downers, at least in that movie none of the main characters got killed...

The really shitty thing is that the next book does not come out till next year, when will I learn not to read a part of a series as soon as it comes out.. Wait, I did learn that but apparently I must have forgotten... On a side note, I still have not read the latest Wheel of Time or the third Eragon book so as I said, but..

Anyway, if you have not read the new Terry Brooks book yet don't.. I'm NOT saying don't read it ever, I'd just wait till next year and read both of them together..

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As you may or not know Luna loves peeing on my bed, she did so the other night and I ended up trying to sleep on the normal (select comfort) bed. I was in bed for about 10 mins before I started getting real itchy so we decided to take it apart and really clean it the next day. When we did so we found mold growing, yum... Anyway, called Select Comfort and they mailed us an entire new bed, now the question is do we put it together or do we sell it? Ever since we got that bed Jessie has been unhappy with it so we are thinking of selling the *new* bed on eBay and buying something else. I am probably going to list it tonight but if anyone who is reading this is interested ($1200?) let me know and I will end the eBay auction.

This last weekend I went to Brad's house for his AnimeFest, I really think each year it becomes less of an appropriate name. The entire time I was there I don't think there was actually any Anime on, people were watching movies but not Anime.. I for one played Heroscape, which is basically a board game version of Shining Force, Castle Ravenloft which sucked and Empire Builder which is always one of my favorites. I really want to get Heroscape but I have to admit the size of the board makes storing it rather daunting, I actually got up and walked away from Castle Ravenloft it was so bad.. What can I say about Empire Builder? We realized that Empire Builder is to thank for all of our Board Game hobbies, back when I was working at Saturday Matinee my friend Joe introduced me to that game and I in turn pulled Brad and Christian away from console gaming long enough to fall in love with it.. I wonder how many other people owe their board game addiction to Empire Builder? After all these years and many, many board games later it's still one of my all-time favorites!

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I'm about to start some crazy long time away from home, I guess I can't complain too bad because two weeks of that time is vacation but.. At least it's not as bad as it would have been, I swapped one week of travel with another instructor. Next week I'm in Santa Clara CA, I will be going to an Oakland A's game on Sunday and a San Fran Giants game on Wednesday so it will be a fun trip.. I get home Friday morning and we will probably leave for Disney World Friday night or maybe Saturday morning. I was supposed to go to Dallas as soon as I got back but that's the week I swapped out so I will be teaching in Franklin instead, then the next week I go to Mclean VA.. So I will be home one of the next five weeks... Will have to make sure the time I am home is as full as possible..

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Speaking of as full as possible.. Saturday I'm going to the CT Ren Faire with Jessie, my mom and Joe.. If anyone is interested in joining us let me know... This year they are doing an all musical show..

Accident free since 1995?!

Not anymore!! I was driving home tonight from Milford and a lady ran through a stop sign and slammed into the front passenger side of my car! I saw her coming and tried to brake, but I had a choice between crossing into on coming traffic and hitting someone there or letting her hit me! I've always been one to say that accidents are avoidable, but this one was not.. I pulled over and walked back, while I was walking back she backed up from to make it look like she was well in front of the stop line. I just figured she was backing up to get out the way. I told her I would move the car and call the cops, she asked that I wait to call them.. No such luck lady, I care too much about my car to not report it. I went back into my car and traffic stopped for me to pull a u turn in the street and pull down the side street she was coming out of. While I was moving my car I called 911 and told the cops what happened and where we were.

I get out of the car and she puts me on the phone with her sister who tells me that if I don't call the cops she will come down with $4000. Umm, no thanks... Cop shows up and this lady forgets how to speak English and puts her sister on the phone who promptly tells him that it was my fault, that I was turning into the road and hit her. Unfortunately for her there were pieces of her car in the road I was driving down (rte 16) and even some pieces in the on coming traffic lane of that road. The cop looked at my car and could tell from the damage the angle of impact. He took my insurance, reg and license. The lady has (I know this will shock you) no license and no insurance! She had a little girl with her and didn't know her (the girl) birthday even though it was "her daughter".

I felt bad for her till she tried to tell the cop it was my fault! Seriously!?! I suddenly didn't feel too bad that her car was totaled and that she was facing a minimum fee of $500 and a maximum punishment of jail time. When I say her car was totaled I mean it, the entire front end was smashed in. Damage to my car you ask? If I didn't care so much about my car it might not even be worth fixing, the fog light is sorta out of whack and the bumper is cracked. Gotta love Subaru tanks!! I posted a picture of the damage to Flickr if you want to see it, actually with the new settings on this blog it's probably in the left hand column.

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On a happier note.. FI was amazing as usual. Friday night was brutal with the bugs attacking, within the first 10-15 minutes of game I was killed, quick deathed and drained a vitality! Happy to say the rest of the weekend went MUCH better! I went on a mission Saturday night in which we had to break into a section of Aleph Complex and we did such a great job the NPCs who were in the building didn't know who had come in.. The only thing they heard was the computer announcing the microwave barrier and been dropped and then a few minutes later that it was back up. Thanks to my keen eyesight we avoided all the traps and the computer hacker who was with us did such a good job she didn't trigger any of the computer traps which would have released a horde of NPCs on us.. Go team sneaky!

a Wedding and a possible Funeral

I hate playing catch up but I apparently suck at this blogging thing lately. I would really like to get back into my daily blog mode but alas it keeps not happening.. It's not even like I don't have anything to say I just can't seem to find the time to say it. When it gets a few weeks out then it feels like I either need to write a smeggin' novel or not blog at all.

As you know (if you read the last blog) I had recently gotten my Droid X. After having it for over a month now I have to say I still love it. I do however wish the stupid 2.2 upgrade would be pushed to it already. I "check for updates" on the phone every day and still nothing.. The version of Android OS I have is buggy and it's annoying when little things hang or when you can't access all your contacts. The biggest bug I've had is the Social Networking app which does not work with any contact that is linked with a phone book contact.. This problem only happens if you try to hide anyone from the app so it's not a big deal, but still slightly annoying.

Oh, and speaking of issues with my phone... My stupid SD card died!? I lost all my pictures from the day I went to see Adams Family and the Mets game with my dad which included maybe the best picture I've had of him in a long time. I also lost all the pics and videos of my mom's "4th of july" bbq. Lesson here - copy pictures to your PC on a regular basis.

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Speaking of my mom's 4th of july bbq.. Because of everyone's crazy weekend schedules my mom moved her 4th bbq to Aug 21st, that's kind of like the 4th of july right? It was fun but it was also sad that Jessie and Lenny were missing. Lenny was out in Chicago and Jessie was taking care of Hoyle who had just had hernia surgery. Did have a blast hanging out with the kids and shooting off fireworks! And as always the food was very good as was the company.. :)

The week before the bbq I was in NYC again for work. I drove down on Sunday and went to the 8pm Mets game, after the game I went back to the hotel to find out they don't have a bar right now (construction) so I went to a local bar down on the corner. They had Abita on tap and the bartender was very cool, I ended up hanging out there till they closed.. I don't really remember what I did what day anymore but I ended up hanging out with Michelle and Jim one night, we met at a vegan place and then brought food back to his apartment. We just hung out on his balcony for a lots of hours chatting, listening to music and playing with phones.

While in NYC I went to see Expendables with a bunch of guys from Laire. It was very good, lots of unnecessary action and lots of good one liners. As Schwarzenegger was walking away in a huff Bruno asks Stallone what's wrong with that guy to which he responds oh, him, he just wants to be president! The bad guy telling a female captive that he does not believe in hitting women but that guy over there (Jesse Ventura) has no problems with it! Gotta love big stars making fun of each other on film.

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The day after my mom's bbq me and Jessie went to the beer and chili festival at Mohegan Sun. The stand out chili for me was Willi Brew Pub's chili, I had never had it because I am not one to normally get chili in a restaurant but I will make sure I get there more often. The best thing at the chili/beer fest was probably the ice cream! A company in Old Lyme called ironically enough Old Lyme Ice Cream Shoppe makes ice cream with beer, they had a few flavors to try and I was very impressed. Perhaps someone who lives or works near there should pick some up one day when they are in the area.. (hint hint)

Lush stopped making Tramp again!? When we first found Lush in Montreal I fell in love with Vagabond/Tramp, this is now the second time it's been discontinued.. Hopefully it won't be for very long this time. 

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My dad had gotten tickets for us to sit in the Delta Club for a Mets game on the 28th. We decided to make a long day of it and got tickets to see Adams Family: The Musical on the same day.. The musical was good, the casting was great (except Pugsley), the story was all original and very well thought out and written, the dialog was classic Adams Family and they did a few awesome in-jokes throughout for the loyal Adams Family fans. The only thing that fell a bit flat was the music unfortunately. Some of the songs were very good but overall they were just eh. I think it would be more successful as a play and not as a musical. I do however recommend seeing it if you are an Adams Family fan. It is crazy expensive so maybe wait till it does a touring cast. It was very cool sitting in those seats for the Mets game, we had waiter service so you never had to leave the seat! Just wave your arm and a guy would come and take your order..

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This last weekend was a mix of great and REAL bad! Started out great, went to Laire on Friday and was pleasantly surprised at how painless check in was this weekend. We had a bunch of pre-regs so I thought it was going to be a painful night but in the end it was not bad. Went to bed after my work assignment because my back was killing me and I was tired. Played all day / night on Saturday and lots of fun playing Daimone. I have been playing Brother Hawk more lately so it was a nice change of pace, plus Rich, Harry, Bryan and Corina all showed up so we had almost the entire Order for the first time in a very long time. Sunday I played during the morning and then left to go to Vin's wedding. Vin's wedding was very fun, I had a blast dancing (thanks Dianne for pulling me up to Come on Eileen) and catching up with Mike, Steve, Vin, Randy and Matt.

After the wedding was the problem... I went back to Laire and was not in fighting form on Sunday night, very tired from the dancing.. But, after fighting for a while I got back into form and was fine by the end of the night. Monday the town got over run, I was in good form but we were getting pressed hard! The mages got so low on power that I was told there was not enough power to give out spell defenses, I should have taken this as a sign to stop fighting so hard. But, one of the Order was down and dying and after arguing and trying to convince the other Order members to assist me in saving him I did the only thing I could do. I grabbed too little support and ran out after him. A second or two into the rescue attempt my support had fled and I was forced to run back towards the line, on the way I got hit by a dark paladin's lucky shot and fell. Was brought back to lay next to my dying brethren and was turned into a Drowned One (think zombie but more powerful). Spent the rest of the event as Daimone the Drowned One attacking the town! I have a 1 in 20 chance of coming back.. If that fails it will be a sad sad end to an epic character. At least I died trying to save my men..

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This weekend is Future Imperfect, hopefully it will go better than Laire did last weekend.

Staycation 8/6 - current

Staycation, all I ever wanted...

After a long night / morning of flying I went home, did laundry, packed and left for Laire... Friday night I did my logistics shift and went to bed! I got woken up in the middle of the night with someone trying to kill me in my sleep, no... Not in game, sorry... The rest of Laire was good but too quick.. I tweaked Chatima so he would be more assertive and had a very fun time playing him.

I left early so I could spend some time with Jessie but that was thwarted by important phone calls... Monday was craft day, me and Kevin got a lot done and Hoyle came over a bit latter and we ended up watching TV till too late.. Tuesday was dinner and it was nice to be able to veg out there.. Janine came over on Wednesday and we watched Wicked, I have not seen it in a while and it reminded me how much I like it.. Wednesday night me and Jessie caught up on Next Food Network Star and Daily Show. Thursday I basically hung out all day and worked on my medical pack for FI, I would probably have finished it but someone took the glue with them when they left on Monday night so I spent a lot of time on Wednesday and Thursday morning getting glue.. Thursday night me and Jessie finally had some time to ourselves without any distractions.. :)

We went to Turtles Taco Shop which is right down the street from us, I've eaten there before and I know they say they are SoCal influenced but now that I've recently been to Wahoo's Fish Taco I certainly agree.. The same fresh and vibrant flavors are here in little Putnam.. I will probably be bringing all my dates there... At least for a little while.. Speaking of bringing my dates around Putnam, Bella's Bistro finally has gluten free pasta and pizza dough.

This week has been full of downloading great little apps for my Droid X. Such a great phone by the way, only touch screen I've actually liked.. It's so responsive... Anyway, because I like to share, I got:

Games: Phit Droid 3, Phit Reload, a Scavenger Hunt game, Andoku Sudoku, GODroid, Dominion Card Shuffler

Utilities: Adobe Acrobat, a Bar Code Scanner, Ebay, a Shared Shopping Cart, Unit Converter, Flickr Droid

Travel: Fandango, Airline Checker, Yelp, HappyCow, NYC Subway maps, DC Subway maps, I downloaded the Chicago subway/bus map but it sucked.

Toys: Shazam (figures out what music is playing), Google Goggles (not very successful app thats supposed to determine what things are by taking their pictures, MotoTorch LED, SportsTap

If you have any other suggestions let me know.. Always looking for good apps.

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Tonight Lynz is coming over, it will be nice to spend some time with just the two of us.. Tomorrow me and Jessie are going to our friends Sarah and Mark's house for dinner and then depending on how late that goes to Rob's party. Sunday I drive to NYC for the 8pm Mets game and to teach next week.

Smegging caught up batman!

I'll try to make this a more regular thing again so you are not bombarded with this stream of blogs.

Oh, and I also updated Flickr and Youtube if you have not already seen..

:D

Irvine Week 8/1 - 8/5

Are you tired of reading blogs today? I am breaking them up to make the download quicker, you may have reached the end of a part but not the end of the complete blog, please check your library for the next part of this blog... :) If you get that semi-quote you get points..

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Anyway, so now to Irvine... I think I hate the time difference between home and CA.. It's nice going but it sucks coming back.. But more on that later..

I got to Irvine Sunday night I honestly don't remember what I did after arriving.. Did I eat anything that night, other than on planes or in airports? Hmm... My flight was almost bumped, I got to the airport and of course they were overbooked so they offered to fly me to LAX instead of Santa Ana but in first class. I agreed but they ended up not needing me so I went off on my normal schedule to Atlanta and then to Santa Ana. I know I ate in Atlanta but I'm not sure if I ate in Irvine.. I'm going to say no, I think I got in pretty late so I just hung out in the hotel once I checked in.

Monday I ended up chatting with a girl on OKCupid during the day and made plans to hang out on Tuesday. I decided to go up to Downtown Disney after work and watch some of the Mets game at the ESPN Zone during happy hour and then hit Brennans for dinner. Well, apparently the ESPN Zone does not have a happy hour!? Or at least they don't offer any drink deals, they do offer food deals but I didn't want to eat there. While I was at the ESPN Zone Sarah (the girl from OKCupid) ended up texting me to see if we could meet up now instead of Tuesday. I left Disney, met her and went to Wahoo's Fish Taco for dinner. It was very good and very cheap.. SoCal Mexican is certainly a unique flavor, it's very fresh and alive if that makes sense. It was so nice after dinner, we decided to go to the beach and grab some wine, unfortunately the search for wine was harder than we thought and he sun was going down too quickly.. So, switch to plan B. Go to the hotel and have wine and chocolate in the room. :) She is a very cool person and I'm looking forward to hanging out with her again next time I'm in town..

Tuesday I went to Newport Beach and ended up eating at a brewery near the beach. I had a cobb sammich which was a great idea! It was turkey, bacon, avocado and cheese on a sweet bread. The beer was really good too, they had a blonde on happy hour special so that's what I had and it was right up there (if not better than) with Red Hooks old Blonde Ale. Watched the sun set over the beach and went back to the hotel and hot tub for the night cap.. Oh, and I also went to the short man's store on Tuesday before dinner and got two new shirts. One of my shirts had apparently ripped so I was in dire need of a replacement and what better town to be in need of a shirt.. Before we leave the topic of Tuesday, I went to the former site of Diedrich Coffee and had a moment of silence for that company as I enjoyed my Starbucks iced coffee...

Wednesday I decided to hit the Irvine Spectrum to get sushi at the cool place I have a frequent buyer card for... Things do change over the years let me tell you.. Plan - go the Fox Sports club and have a beer during happy hour while watching the Mets game, then go get sushi.. Fox Sports Club, gone! Sushi place, gone! Well smeg... How about plan b - go to the Yard House for a beer and then the new sushi place for dinner... The new sushi place was banging, I got what they called deluxe sushi combo which was mackerel, toro, abalone, and a few others with a toro tuna roll! As if toro was not tender enough they chopped it up for the roll... Sooo good, it was like butter in your mouth! After dinner I ended up hanging out in the courtyard at the hotel chatting with some of the people who were there for the swim competition..

Years ago Irvine high school built a massive pool facility with many Olympic sized pools. It was a massive burden on the tax payers but I guess it's paid off because they hold competitions there many times a year where people come in from all over the world.

Thursday I basically puttered around after work.. I went to Panera and ended up sitting outside at the seating area for hours while I played with my phone and enjoyed the sun. I also grabbed a screen protector and then went to the beach once again for a bit before finally heading to the airport for my LATE flight.. I really, really hate the red eye! But these are the things I do for Laire... I got a 9:40 flight (CA time) and landed in Atlanta after VERY little sleep around 4am. Hung out in Atlanta for 2 hours pacing the airport terminals and then flew to Hartford. I did sleep on that flight, I actually fell asleep before we took off and woke up on landing... WIN! Still was not nearly enough sleep.. Came home, did laundry and headed to Laire...

Sweeps week.. 7/23 - 8/1

Got home on Friday the 23rd just to run back out again to Boston.. Jessie had gotten tickets to see Marc Maron at a bar in Allston, she listens to his WTF podcast. I listened to it once or twice and have been eh about it but I figured it would be at the very least funny.. I called the club and they assured me that the 7pm start time was accurate so against Jessie's better judgement I met her on the way and we drove up without eating first. I just have to say Smeg off to that bar! The doors opened at 7 but nobody went on for a long time after.. I can't be too upset at the cock knockers because we did end up with front row seats which is really great because of the way Marc Maron makes eye contact with his crowd and really seems to connect with them..

The first guy (who runs the comedy show there every week) came up and was pretty funny, he did a bit about hybrid Halloween costumes and did a Marty McFly / Abe Lincoln mix which was very good, his Michael J Fox impression was perfect and Abe Lincoln stressing out about getting back in time to free the slaves was awesome. He did another bit which was almost awesome, I saw almost because he went a bit too far with it.. It was about how he found a leather jacket at a hand-me-down clothes store and what he could deduce from the previous owner by what was in the pockets.. Great joke during the inspection of pocket number one, went to far when he looked in pocket number two.

The second guy was a local guy, Sean Sullivan, and he was very good. He did a bunch of jokes about buying a house in a horrible area and about buying a new toilet for that house. His stand out bit was certainly about the toilet..

Finally came Marc Maron who was the best of the night.. The only thing I will say about him is that if you ever get the chance to see him grab it.. I think he has a comedy central presents and a few other recorded stand up bits, actually I know he does because we have one on our iTunes. If you like funny with a bunch of real thrown in check him out.. Seeing him live will make me go back and try the WTF podcasts again, just need to get off my arse and put them on my iPod.

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Saturday was Scott's wedding, me and Jessie drove down and checked in at the Brooklyn Bridge Marriott before the wedding and then walked over the church. The church part was a church wedding, the music really stood out for me which is not surprising since music is a big deal to Scott. They actually had one of Scott's friends there via webcam so he could watch the wedding which was a really awesome idea.. The reception was a ton o' fun! It was nice to see everyone (including my brother) be silly and relax, it was so silly and relaxed that I even ended up on the dance floor for the end of the night. Lots of great pictures on my cousins facebook site, they had a silly photo booth which ended up being the biggest hit. You go in and click the button and it would take four pictures.. Great idea, will steal it... :D After the reception the place had a burlesque show so we stayed for the beginning of that, I was so tired and it was a very low energy show that we didn't stay long. It was more like half naked cirque de soleil then what I think of as burlesque. I want my burlesque to fun, goofy and high energy, I guess I can thank Pam for that..

Sunday we drove home and I got to spend a little bit of time with Lynz at Thompson Dam before the super work of cleaning my house on Monday..

Sweeps week... I was a bit stressed out about getting my disaster area of house set up for the bbq.. Luckily for me Kevin and Hoyle came over and helped me rip through the basement on Monday! We even cleaned the windows in the basement and garage! Vacuumed basement floor, walls and ceiling.. I don't remember which day I figured this out (might have been Monday), but the Furminator works wonders on getting cat hair off furniture! I spent a lot of hours working on each chair, couch and cushion so that our pet allergic friends could bare to be in the house for an extended period of time. I was going to bail on Tuesday dinner to clean but once again, thanks to Kev and Hoyle, I felt that I was able to go because the house was almost done. Wednesday I went to the Mets game and watched the Mets come back in the late innings just to lose in extras because our manager does not manage to win.. When you're home you can't reserve pitchers for innings yet to come, you need to play each inning in extras as if it were the last. Because of that he left one guy in too long and we ended up losing. That really sums up the entire season for the Mets.. We don't need to win today, as long as our players are healthy and rested tomorrow! How can your team lead the league in shutouts and era and be under .500!? Sigh... Maybe they will lose so many games between now and the end of the season they will have no choice but to fire him and bring back Bob Vay..

Thursday and Friday were spent prepping food and making sure all the last minute shopping was done. Oh, I forgot to mention, as if the normal load of getting the house ready was not enough.. We had a pipe burst in the basement! Luckily it was the outbound pipe so there was no water running into the basement unless you ran the sink and/or dishwasher. Almost $400 later we were able to do the dishes which had been piling up.

The bbq was great, thanks all for coming out! I even got to get out from behind the grill and play some games and hang out..

Sunday morning I got up and with Brad and Chris' help got the place cleaned up before heading out to Irvine...

--This weeks cleaning and being home was sponsored by teaching an online class!

Deep in the Heart of Texas - July 18 - 23

I flew to Dallas on Sunday and met up with my friend Christine, she was a student of mine back in Chicago and we ended up hanging out that week a few times. Anyway she was waiting for me at the hotel when I arrived so I got changed and we went to dinner. Well, actually it was a bit early so we first went to the Stadium Cafe bar for a drink. Dinner ended up being at a micro-brew house that had opened up since last time I was there. The beer was just 'eh' but the food was actually really good. When I say the beer was 'eh' I'm being nice to it.. Christine actually didn't finish hers and I had to "down it" after I finished eating. We were walking back to my hotel room and walked by the comedy club which appeared to have an open showing, last time I was in town the comedy club was closed to the public for a best in texas competition. We went in and found that Jon Lovitz was doing a show that night, actually he was doing a show as we entered. The CC machine was already shut down and the box office was technically closed but they took some cash and brought us to a pretty close seat. The show was awesome!

Monday night I brought Josh to the Magic Time Machine, it was certainly not as cool as the first time. This time we had Wild Bill as our waiter and he might as well have been any generic dude. Not only that we were sat no where near the bathroom so I didn't get to see any cool bathroom heckling. The food was still amazing but the show was lacking...

Speaking of lacking shows, Tuesday night I went out with Josh and a few students to a Tepinyaki place, when the guy said "this one is japanese ketchup" I laughed till I realized it was ACTUALLY ketchup!! Then I was just sad.. The cook was very slow and did almost no tricks, and the ones he did do he did sub-par like the onion volcano. He absolutely killed the sprouts with soy sauce but he did an awesome job on the steak, scallops and shrimp so once again the food was great but the show sucked..

Wednesday we went to a mexican place and I had an amazing portabella mushroom burrito. It was an asian/mexican fusion dish, it had sesame seeds and a oriental style mushroom gravy.. So good! We didn't take advantage of it but when we arrived they had an avocado and some lemon on the table for you to make your guacamole. You could either make it yourself or have them make it at your table. We chose neither.. The chips they gave us were nice and warm and perfectly salted and the salsa was OMG amazing! I tried to buy some but to no avail.

Thursday I went to the Ballpark at Arlington to see the Texas Rangers.. I would rank the stadium pretty high up on the list.. What makes a good stadium? Food, view and ambiance.. The food - how about a bacon wrapped hot dog slow cooked over a bed of onions!? Not feeling that? How about some beef brisket, or a chicken fried steak sammich? The view - eh, I got row 1 in the upper deck and the bar was annoyingly in my view the whole game, I could either lean forward or scrunch down but I could not just sit normally without having the pitchers mound be blocked. If I was not in row 1 this would not have been a problem so I don't want to kill it on that. The ambiance - they have a giant kids play area behind center field complete with batting cages, pitching cages and a whiffle ball park. Unlike Citi-Field the lines were not crazy for the whiffle ball, probably because you had to pay ($1 per kid). They also had a statue of Nolan Ryan with all of his achievements in the middle of the kid play area. They had a Rangers Hall of Fame but it was closed due to a private party which sucked. The field level was very open and as you walked around the concession stands you got a view of the field which is nice, but the upper deck was not. The upper deck was the standard go through a tunnel to the food area behind the seats, I guess they all can't be Citi-Field.. My biggest knock on the stadium was the scoreboards, they looked like they were straight out of the 80s which does not make sense since it's a somewhat new ballpark. Before the game they did a great introduction with a song from each year the club was in existence with highlights playing during each song. Oh, and the awesome (or hysterical) thing was they played Deep in the Heart of Texas during one of the breaks! I laughed, then videoed the scoreboard!

Woke up FAR to early on Friday to get to the airport..

This week was Josh's co-teach for this class so we took turns teaching and watching.. Once he gets qualified it should free me up to do the Symm Config class more which is an online course which means more home time..

--Diversion of the Day

New York Week July 13 - 17

New York Week:

I just re-read my last blog and I actually don't have to much more to say about New York week, Thursday night I met up with a girl from OKCupid. I went over her sublet and we chatted for a while and played a game she is co-designing called Mingle, it's a game designed to help you get to know each other better. It was a good game but the ending mechanism needs a bit or work. If the game goes massive I can say I played a beta version.... :)

Class got out at a decent time on Friday so I decided to see if I could grab an earlier train back. Waiting in line at Amtrack in Penn Station sucks! But it was worth it since I got on the earlier train afterall. I was planning on the fact that I was not going to be able to get on an earlier train so Jessie went out for the night. I stopped at Mohegan Sun to hit LUSH on the way home and the place was empty! It was so empty I decided I'd eat there and ended up at Bar Americain where I even ate the squash! I got a cod with mussels in a spicy corn sauce, the cod sat on a bed of raw spaghetti squash.. The sauce was so good I probably would have eaten anything you put in it..

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One day home is CERTAINLY not enough, but I guess that's what you get sometimes.. I was home for Saturday and me and Jessie spent a nice lazy type day hanging around Thompson Dam..

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Flew to Dallas on Sunday - to be continued in next blog.. I decided I would write these as separate blogs to make the reading time less overwhelming..

phew

I've been away for a while... I'll be back soon I promise.. I have to catch you up on NYC and Dallas, our BBQ and Irvine.. In the meantime I uploaded a bunch of pics to Flickr and a video to Youtube (the ones from my old phone).. Enjoy..

I will really be back soon, I'm on vacation next week so at the latest I'll put something up Monday or Tuesday..

Back..

In the New York Groove...

I'm teaching in Manhattan this week, I'm actually right in Penn Station.. Well, I guess it's technically in 2 Penn Plaza which is right upstairs, the entrance is also the entrance to Madison Square Garden.. Hotel is right in Times Square..

They are in the process of closing Broadway to cars! They are starting in Times Square (47th - 42nd) but I guess the plan is to close it to cars for most of Manhattan, I think it's a good thing because that stupid street does not follow the grid anyway so I think it will help car traffic and it will certainly help people walking in Times Square.. They are starting to put neat things to look at in the middle of the street, right now they have a "runway on Broadway" which is a row of mannequins dressed in designer clothing.. Speaking of designer clothing, Macys is going to have a Material Girl collection starting in August. I can't wait to see what they have.. :D

My office being in Penn Station has a great view of the Empire State Building and the building down the street has this really cool air bridge. I took a picture and will post it to Flickr later today..

I came down by train on Monday, I found out you can take Amtrack from New London right into Penn Station. It was supposed to be a quick train ride but the train had some kind of issue and therefore had to drive real slow.. We ended up being an hour late to arrive. Felt like kind of a dick pushing through Manhattan with my luggage but I was not about to take a cab 10 blocks. Got to the hotel and unpacked before heading out into the mob that is Times Square, took some time to check out the runway and then grabbed a salad wrap at Chop't which was very good. You start by picking your salad base, I picked mixed greens, then you pick up to four additions (mushrooms, cucumber, egg and cheese) and then a dressing (bacon thousand island), they take all that and cut it up and put it in a wrap. It was actually so big I only had about 2/3 of it. A friend from Laire picked me up around 8pm and we went to a bar in NJ for drinks and wings. Got to hang out with a bunch of people I normally only see at Laire so it was lots of fun but I didn't get back to real late..

Tuesday I went and hung out with Jim, we met at his new apartment which is super awesome, he even has a patio big enough for table and chairs.. We went to a mexican place for dinner and afterwards to a sports bar for drinks with one of his friends.. His friend of course assumed I was gay and when he found out I was not could not give me enough crap for it.. Not in a bad way, just in a really funny way.. It was very funny to be discriminated against for being straight.. lol

Yesterday I meet up with Rick and Michelle. We were going to go to Shake Shack, they opened a new one in Times Square, but the smegging line was insane! We ended up going to 5 Napkin Burger which was voted best burger in NYC, it lived up to the hype! Here is a good trick, when you forget your ID in the hotel room just talk about working in a bar as the waitress comes up and bingo no carding! Michelle dropped her stuff off in my room before we went out and she realized she forget her ID. We were actually talking about Laire and she was saying something like "she came up to me at the bar and asked if I would charge her cell phone, I said I didn't want it behind the bar because I don't want to be responsible if anything spills on it", the lady waited till she was done and asked what we wanted.. It was not done on purpose but it is a great technique! We planned to go to a 9pm show of Toy Story 3 so we went to Dave and Busters to kill some time, we played some good games and one real bad one before heading to the cinema. The movie was great!!! It was very touching and very well done, I won't say too much about it other than to say it revolves around Andy going away to college. Señor Lightyear was OMG funny!!

---Diversion of the Day

FiveFingers Take Two

My VibramFiveFingers broke again the other day, I put the piece of the strap somewhere for safe keeping till I had a chance to sew it back on.. But... It would appear that wherever I put it is so safe that I can't even find it now... The only thing left to say is SMEG!

I kinda need them functional for this weekend since I'm playing Chatima and wear them as him.. I decided today to look for a knockoff pair but after searching for a while I'm finding that Vibram is doing a great job of shutting those places down as soon as they show up.. grrr.. The few that were still up and running were charging $50-$60 for the shoes + shipping.. The only place on ebay I did find for $25 wanted $25 in shipping and is in China so no hurried shipping would be available.. I hear REI has a crazy return policy so I might just buy a pair there and that way every time they break I can bring them back. I sent Vibram an amusing email today, they had a big thing on their website about if you have any information on counterfeit ones you should email.. Here is my email..

I purchased a pair of your fivefingers back in August of last year. They ripped for the first time in April, when I called your company the response was "well, you're not supposed to wear them everyday" and "we know they rip, you should try duct tape".. With comments like that how can you expect people to *not* purchase counterfeit ones? I sewed mine in April and have been wearing them everyday until they just ripped again. I now begin the process of looking for a counterfeit pair, I understand that they will probably fall apart in less than a year but how is that any different than yours?

Anyway, I ended up cutting the straps off today, I was reading on the vibram forums and people said that the shoes stay on with no straps. There are few people who say otherwise but at this point I don't really have another choice since I lost half of one of the straps anyway.. I figure I'll wear them today/tomorrow this way and if I really need to I can stop and REI on the way to Laire tomorrow..

....

Anyway, back to the Zev Zev..

I was up to Saturday July 3rd which was spent at my friend Chris' birthday party in NY.. Well that's not entirely true, most of the day was getting there.. We had a lazy morning but it was a good lazy because we didn't really have a time in mind to be there. He had these fireworks which can only be described by watching it in action. I have found a youtube video so you can enjoy the smegging beauty.. They are called Magic Snakes!

Sunday morning we (me, Jessie, Dianne and Randy) went to a raw restaurant in Beacon NY called Superfood Citizen, I can't find their real website in my 1.5 seconds of searching so here is the google link... :) I had a pizza and a "purple drink" which was all very good. The purple drink was beets and mangosteen as well as other good stuff. It did however make my pee purplish for the next few days.. After brunch we went to Brotherhood Winery which is right near their house. It is the oldest (never closed) winery in America, they made a alter wine before prohibition so they petitioned the government to stay open because the church needed their alter wine.. Gotta love the church?! Smegging politics.. Anyway, they make a really good riesling and one of the best meeds made commercially.

Monday was a craft day.. The main accomplishment was getting my Laire closet fixed, we took everything out of it and made a new frame for the top and then re-supported the straps and actually nailed it into the wood. It is MUCH bigger now and has everything in it.. We also found the tent we will get for FI, it's the Coleman Hampton Tent, it's $199 at Target but I'm sure I can find it cheaper online when we are ready to order. Interesting.. I may need to go get that now.. I just did a search for that tent and it's not listed on Coleman's website and the only sites I do see it on are more than Target... It's apparently a discontinued tent.. Here is a picture of it from an ebay listing..

Tuesday was dinner, Hoyle brought a little grill and we used that and Ryan's to grill up some tastiness!

Last night I went to my brother's house for dinner because we will be watching the kitties while they are away.. So you know how a lot of houses have a little loft area above stairs? Well, they have one of those areas and it's been just a wasted area till now... They made it a cat haven with their food, water scratching posts and play things.. So cute and probably the best use of that space I've seen.. :D

All night by the ...

All night by the dead Zev

All night by dead Zev I did lay

If only my tears could be real

I would rust myself away

All night by the Zev Zev

All night by the Zev I lay

I found her tongue along my casing

Licking my dirt away

All night by the Zev Zev

All night by the Zev I did sigh

As she whispered sweet nothing to Stanley

While plunging a fork in his eye

All year by the Zev Zev

All year by the Zev I lay

I found her fist jammed in my neck stalk

And pleaded for it to stay

All year by the Zev Zev

All year by the Zev I lay

I found her smile bathing my being

Oh it should always be this way

That's right, that made no sense and no bearing on anything really.. Just felt like posting it..

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I have not blogged in a while because I really have not had the time to sit down and type stuff up, and when I have I've been dealing with other stuff and junk.. Speaking of which..

I just got my PC fully working again, apparently McAfee had installed an update of Site Advisor and it decided to block most programs that were trying to get out to the web including McAfee updater!? Anyway, after fighting with McAfee Tech Support and then finally fixing it myself (with a co-workers suggestions) I am back up and running, and apparently blogging.. :)

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Now the daunting task of running back through the last two weeks, jeez, it's really been that long.. If you're out there reading I'm sorry for the disappearing act.. Last time I blogged I was teaching in Milford on antibiotics for Lyme's Disease and getting ready for Laire. Stupid antibiotics made me so tired, especially when in the sun.. Laire + Sun Avoiding Antibiotics = Not a good idea.. I played Chatima to boot which means I got to wear a sleeveless shirt and LOTS of sun screen! I actually had a real enjoyable time playing him, got to laze about the camp and just sorta enjoy the weather. I am a bit disappointed I went to bed early on Saturday because I didn't get to see the awesome big battle but, sleep won out in the end so oh well..

.... - Week in DC

Left Laire on Sunday and drove to Mclean, Monday night I went to dinner at Zaytinya with Pam. I got into DC early so I walked over the National Mall and the Washington Monument before circling back to meet at the restaurant. It's a greek mezze restaurant, we got a few dishes and they were all very good but the best one was probably the lamb special dish. After dinner we wandered around the city for a bit and ran into a street corner big band, they were pretty good and surprisingly all dressed in shirts and ties carrying big brass instruments in the heat! Speaking of heat, for dessert we went to Pitango which is a gelato place that uses all grass fed milk.. After dessert we wandered around a bit more before I dropped her at the bus and headed back to Mclean. Tuesday I had dinner at Pam and Christian's house, they made fish tacos and cauliflower which was very good. It was the first time I had met Christian but it felt like I was reconnecting with an old friend instead of meeting someone new. Lots of fun was had just sitting around the kitchen table chatting and telling stories.

Wednesday I went to Gordon Biersch with Josh and Marvin from work.. I got them to use my frequent buyer card for all our bills so I should get some serious points for that.. Thursday I went into the city pretty early and went to the Smithsonian for a bit before heading over to the Folklife Festival, I was a bit disappointed in the festival because they were in "rain mode" which meant everything was either closed or mostly closed. The main concert was supposed to be at 6:30 but they cancelled that because it started thundering. I went to the American Museum which was a thrill a minute, they had such artifacts as Archie Bunker's chair..

Drove home on Friday and once again got stuck in MASSIVE traffic in CT! I'm getting real sick of 95 between Greenwich and New Haven, it used to only be bad around Stamford and New Haven now it seems to be bad the entire way!

.... - Two Weeks Home!?

Saturday I went to Kaitlyn's birthday party, the food was awesome! Her dad made chicken wings which were a-maz-ing... I unfortunately didn't hang out there too long because I was still on the antibiotics and was already getting tired so I didn't want to press the tiredness while attempting to drive home.

Sunday I went to the Mets/Twinkies game with Kevin and Hoyle. It was a good game and the weather was great, the stadium now has Poutine at the fries place.. Oh wait, it's not poutine, it's Disco Fries.. What a stupid name, they would probably do better just calling it Poutine. If you don't know, Poutine is fries with cheese curd, cheese and brown gravy.. I had it for the first (and many) time(s) in Montreal so it was nice to have it again.. But, um.. Should have realized they would American size it! For $10 it was enough food for me and Lynz to be full on.. I ate about half of them and then had a few bites of a pulled pork sammich from Blue Smoke. We sat in our seats till about 3:30 when we moved to section 424 which is where I want my seats to eventually be. They were already in the shade and the view is so much better there. Not that my seats stink but those are better..

Had a nice (but very quick) week at home, Lynz and Anja came over on Monday and we finished up watching Life. Tuesday was dinner. Wednesday I went with Lynz to dinner at Asian Bistro for our do-over anniversary (remember the beginning of this f'n Lyme's Disease started on our actual anniversary).. Thursday.. Thursday.. Something just occurred to me... Feel a tangent, must control it... nooooooo

It's amazing how you communicate with each person in a different way, I would say I talk to Jessie and Lynz at least once every day.. Any re-cap or important conversations however are either done on the phone (Lynz) or in person (Jessie), if I look back in my IM logs for Friday I don't see anything about Thursday.. Then I realized that used to be my fail safe because I would always IM Holly with the re-cap of the day/weekend before.. It's just odd to me that in the entire time I was with Holly I don't think we had one conversation over 10 minutes via the phone but yet we talked almost every day..

Anyway, back to Thursday.. I figured it out (I think).. I remember watching the last episode of Two Pints of Larger and a Packet of Crisps, I think that was Thursday.. Then again that could have been over the weekend. I know we watched some Chopped and ICA as well..

Friday night was the Putnam Fireworks, Hoyle came over for that and before hand we went to Bellas for Big Al's BBQ. We got to the fireworks right before they started and somehow still managed to get the best possible spot! We were literary right in front of the shoot off point.

... I'm going to end this blog now because I want to go home.. Will blog more later.. In the meantime, enjoy..