Okay, so it's been a while since I've blogged. I've been mostly adjusting to a full time position and its accompanying 45-80 minute commute to and from work. I find that my ability to blog, answer emails and even phone calls has been pretty severely curtailed. I know lots of people do everything I listed and more (kids, TV, clubs, skeet shooting, etc.), so it's probably just a matter of scheduling. I hope to figure it out soon. I started this blog entry on Jan 13 at 3:02AM (blogger logged it), and I will finish it tonight!
I uploaded a bunch of pics that I thought the blogosphere might enjoy and there will be a random narrative. These images aren't in any particular order.

A foggy night on our block. I leaned on the door frame and held still for this long exposure. Be sure to click on this image, as I uploaded a really big version.

Our brand new fake pre-lit Xmas tree. It's tall and slender like a super model, but with less vomiting and more personality. I picked this up the day before all trees at Target went on clearance for 30% off. The next week, I found that some of the exact same trees were still in stock, so I bought one at reduced price and then returned it with my original receipt for a do it yourself price adjustment. Not my most honorable moment, but the exchange netted a cool 30 something buckaroos. So we got a great tree at a great price. Thanks Target!

I bought my sister a Sunshine Buddy for Xmas off of eBay and the seller included these really fun rubber bands. When you stretch them, they're round like a normal rubber band, but relaxed they take the shape of small rubbery figures. Fun!

The bottom of a delicious ice cold Pepsi. I think this was an especially good batch of cans. We never did get around to writing down the lot number.

Me circa 1980 with a 5 pound bar of Hershey's. Because we operated a liquor store at the time, it was easy to get the 50, 100, or whatever amount of Hershey's wrappers you needed to collect in order to cash in a very special chocolately offer. If you ever want your kids to
not like chocolate, let them ravage a 1/3 of a 5 pound chocolate bar in less than a week, and then because it's a giant freaking bar of chocolate and takes up a lot of room in the fridge, force them to finish the rest of it over the following 4 weeks even though they can't stand the sight of chocolate any more.

My first meal at the Apple cafeteria was apple stuffed pork loin with seasoned potato wedges and steamed vegetables. I've since discovered other yummy dishes there like wood fired pizzas, curly fries, bacon cheese burgers, burritos, and got healthier fare at the double salad bar, and make your own sandwich bar. The food is very reasonably priced and quite tasty :P


Stairs in the men's room?

The above three shots were taken at the newly renovated
Grand Lake Theater in Oakland. It's quite beautiful and I hope many people keep going there so it stays in business. We were there to watch the re-release of Blade Runner. The theater operator came down before the show to tell us about the quality of the print, where to sit for the best sound, and a bit about the theater. It was really neat to actually feel like we were supporting a business instead of being just another butt in the theater bringing in money. The whole experience was really good. I
love Blade Runner and to see it on the big screen so clearly was a visual feast. By comparison, the DVD is muddy (though I'm sure the remastered versions are of the same quality that we saw that night). As a bonus, there's delicious sushi nearby.

I can't remember exactly what we were eating this night, but I do remember that the gravy we made from powdered gravy mix looked like this by the end of the meal. Even looking at it now I feel the urge to fling it on someone.