Who you trying to get crazy with, ese? Don't you know I'm loco?

I finally did a photo dump (I said 'dump' - heh heh) onto my computer from my phone and found these fun images. I like the first one because the bottle looks giant in front of me and also like my head is attached to it. The second one is from waaayyyy back all the way to July 4 (well, only like 3 weeks ago). You can't see her, but Julienne is playing with a sparkler while Matt looks on, completely enthralled by the action. The most recent photo is from a local Chinese supermercado. We couldn't figure out if it was candy for people or snacks for your doggy, but I loved the packaging! Ah... whimsy that can seemingly only eminate from Japan. If anyone out there can read Japanese (I'm pretty sure it's Japanese, anyway) please let me know what the packaging says!

I recently re-watched Snatch and I'm still amazed how much I love that movie. I know it has it's detractors, but I think it's well put together with lots of energy and has a cleverly written script with a large and varied group of interesting characters. The soundtrack also reflects my high opinion of the movie. Do yourself a favor and lookup Mirwas - Disco Science, off the Snatch soundtrack.

gossamer

The concept of gardening for food isn't new to me, but this is the first thing that I ever planted and eventually ate (thanks to Cathryn for knowing when to pick it!). Holy shit this tomato was good! Now I know why some people are so fanatical about growing their own vegetables. I hope to one day grow an entire salad. It would be nice to eat something that I'm sure wasn't sprayed with yummy chemicals.

But you know what's really great? I switched auto insurance. I'm saving almost 9% a year with Allstate Auto Insurance. What can I say, the advertising with the ex-president of the United States from 24 worked on me! Plus, after being a 21st Century customer for 17 years, they agreed to cancel my policy without so much as a thank you or "here's what we can offer you if you stayed with us". Feh. Slowly but surely I'm starting to learn the lesson of not everyone cares or appreciates if you give them business.

And now to reveal something SHOCKING AND SCANDALOUS!!! I watch Oprah from time to time and while I wouldn't classify myself as a fan, I would definitely tell anyone who asked that her show can often be worthwhile. Why I bring this up you ask? She did a whole series of shows on something called the "Debt Diet". It was really fascinating to hear the various stories people had, how much in debt they were (!), and how doable it was for them to get out of it (which they eventually did in an often surprising small amount of time).

There are several main things you're supposed to do to help alleviate your debt, but I forgot them (check on her site, buy the DVD, etc. - however I do remember one of the easy ones was to simply ask for a raise). The other thing I remember was the pie chart of your budget, which I can share with you, my loyal and very interested readers: 35% housing, 15% transportation, 20% debt (meaning use 20% of your income to manage and pay down debt), 10% savings (pay yourself), and 20% everything else (food, haircuts, movies, etc.)

Well there you have it. Plant tomatoes to eat, save on car insurance, and get rid of your debt by watching Oprah.

Best blog entry EVER!

ERRATA
I got the pie chart info wrong! Sorry about that. 'Debt' is 15% and the 'Everything Else' part of the pie is 25%.

Less smog, more blog

Yep, it's a slow blog day when you're posting pictures of garbage. But it's just not ANY garbage, it's my bulky waste pick up. The garbage that says, "there's been a lot of work done in order to make this pile". Construction debris was piled waist high, the doors that I've kept all these years never found a use, likewise for the vanity stand, and the flourescent tube holder was sent off, too. I always feel bad for creating so much refuse, but this really needed to be done! Hopefully, only one more bulky waste pick up will clear out the rest of the crap.

Have you ever passed by that candyland looking house in Oakland and wondered if they were cooking children there? That place is called TJ's Gingerbread House and they serve Cajun style food. Apart from having the nagging susupicion that we were all going to end up buried in the backyard, the restaurant is actually really interesting and looks great once you get inside. All the food is VERY good and the service is, um... eccentric (the main hostess has quite the personality!).

I've been working a lot lately, and if you stay at work long enough, you get to see fun stuff. Like a pile of toilet paper rolls in the corner of the elevator. Speaking of elevators, I read that you can turn some elevators into express mode by pressing the floor you want plus the close door button. Steve said he'd try this out at his work and I can't wait to hear the report. If anyone else knows this works or have heard about it, please tell me!

Finally, a word about safety. No matter how lazy you are (like me), always, always, always, choose a safe and stable platform from which to climb up on and dismount from. I used a living room chair to pull down the screen and wasn't so careful about how I placed it. The result was my shifting weight causing the chair back to sharply snap up and dig into my hip/ribs as I stepped off the chair. Did it hurt? YOU BETCHA!!!

It's a bird! it's a plane! Awww... it's just another fucking blog.

So hear are some snaps from our trip to Chicagoland. It was hot, humid, windy, and fun! We went to the Field Museum to catch the Tut exhibit, but were only allowed to take photos of less known artifacts (hence the 3 legged um... toad for luck and the freaky cool mask). The reflective bean thing was fascinatingly beautiful and we also had an amazing meal on the Navy Pier and then watched Memorial Day fireworks.

Let's see... that was about a month ago. After that, Rajan and Amit helped me tear down the drywall in the separating wall in the garage to help make room for the new laundry units and bring more light. Hooray for LG and my loving parents who footed the bill!! Why you ask, do I need laundry units? Cathryn of course! :) Many folks know already, but setting up cohabitation takes a looooonnnnggg ass time. Who knew you needed stuff like closets and storage cabinets? And I just know Cathryn is waiting... patiently waiting... always waiting... for the next opportunity to make a 'runner' for our dining room table. Sooner or later, I'll find out what this 'runner' thing is, and I'll know her true plans!

Speaking of Cathryn, the other day she asked me whether or not I liked cereal. I then realized that I hadn't had cereal in many years. Of course after that, I could not think of ANYTHING else. What kind of cereal would I like? Does cereal still taste good? How expensive is cereal these days? Am I still a touch lactose intolerant? Is cereal still cereal? Cereal cereal in my cereal? I should cereal the cereal now so I can cereal. AUGGGHHH!! Short story long, I found a box of Honey Bunches of Oates - one of my old favorites - on sale for $2 and by sheer luck purchased lactose intolerant milk for Cathryn's tea (I was only looking for the 2% thing). So last night at about 1:30am, we were eating a cereal snack and I just had some cereal for lunch. Mmmmmm...

So how much can I write about cereal? Read on! A long time ago, I had a discussion with a friend of mine about milk first or cereal first. She swore that of course you'd pour the milk first, so you could see how much milk you were drinking. No way! It's always been cereal first for me and cereal first it will stay. Who gives a shit about milk??? I need to know how much cereal I'm going to be eating and can always add milk as I go. She was really nice, but that always bothered me about her from that point on. No doubt my strong opinions about this matter will draw lines in the sand, but I'm okay with that. Goddamn milk firsters...

Gallstones are my copilot

Blogger is acting squirrelly today. Of course it could be my ISP, hosting service, registrar, my computer, my browser, or solar flares. Isn't it amazing how much technology we rely upon? After having to literaly DUCT TAPE a part of my car back onto itself (though you'd never see it), and being ever tempted by all the Target and Best Buy ads, sometimes I ponder what would happen if I just flushed it all away.

If you ladies reading out there ever wondered what men's rooms looked like, the top photo is from the men's room at Wish - a trendy bar on Folsom (in between 11th and 12th). I rather enjoyed the cool lighting and the obvious dankness of it all. The clothes rack is from Kohl's. I wonder if whoever designed it had a Z in their initials.

I went to Kaiser today and through an ultrasound procedure discovered that I have a few gallstones. I still need to talk to my doctor about them to see how serious they are, but the news kind of sucks. It's just further confirmation that I'm not as healthy as I could be and that I have the body of a 60 year old man.

And finally, in the creepy time news section of my life, some dude with a hoody pulled over most of his face knocked on my door tonight. I didn't answer it of course, but I snuck around out into the side yard to see if he was going door to door or not. I got outside in time to see him start up his junky american sedan parked out front and then tear off down the street. Apparently he only wanted to visit here. I'd say that's rather unsettling. Anyone have a shotgun I can borrow for awhile?

FUGU ME!!!

I was out and about in the mission district during the daytime (for once) and all the shops were open! We wandered through shop after interesting shop. This particular book store was all sci-fi, all fantasy, all the time. I really had to withhold my urge to buy this great HR Giger book, but then I spotted this book that quite possibly has the suckiest title for a book that has ever been written and my yen to buy a book quickly vanished. Far be it from me to judge a book by its cover, but I think the title explains everything – rickshaw dancing causes centrifugal forces which the main character will use to defeat the main antagonist and at the same time sexually satisfy the main love interest. Brilliant!

Last night, Cathryn and I finally got to try out this great French restaurant called Le Theatre. I thought the waiter was a bit uppity frenchie at first, but then I realized he was handling the ordering for all the tables in the restaurant! After things quieted down, he was much more pleasant. But the service in general was excellent and the food was amazing! I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes French food or wants to try out a new place. Speaking of French food, if you've ever eaten at the French Laundry, please tell me about it!

My head is weak, my heart always speaks, before I know what it will say

So while surfing eBay, I came across this HUGE collection of legos for sale. The auction was astounding in its shear size and quality. Check it out here (I don't know how long the images will be hosted, though). I emailed the seller what the dealio behind all the legos was, but he/she nebulously replied, "yes there is a story, there always is.. hehe.. I would like to tell it but I will save that for later.. I hope you enjoyed the auction." Which of course made me feel even more curious, but I have to respect someone else's privacy. Dang! I don't know what the retail value of all that lego is, but the auction ended at $19,400, didn't meet the reserve, and I'm guessing probably didn't even come close.

I had lunch with my oldest of my two older sisters this weekend and it was great to see her. These days I don't really get to see my siblings unless it's a family event of some sort. It's really strange, but lately I've been feeling more "like an adult" or something. I'm starting to see all of my family as regular people leading their irregular lives like everyone else.

Of course they've always been that, but from my point of view as the youngest, I guess I've always assigned some weird expectations of infallibility to certain things about their lives. For most of my life, they always had all the answers, all the toys, and all the fun stuff to do. I guess maybe I finally feel more like a peer rather than the whipping boy. Weird!

p.s. The title is one of my favorite lines from the lyrics of "Crooked Teeth" by Death Cab For Cutie

Cole slaw is the devil's fuel

I've been working like I mean it lately. Holy cow it's been busy! I've submitted so many TPS reports, I'm dizzy. I miss blogging. Literally.

Since the weather has been better, sometimes at work we'll take a break and shoot some hoops for 20 minutes. I've never done that before, and it's a great diversion from driving the desk all day. It's funny, but for most of time, "work" was mostly physical hard labor type stuff. Now, it's been distilled to moving your finger slightly to type or click a mouse and moving your arm a little.

I haven't been working ALL the time of course. In between, I've helped Merima move, Ann pick out drip irrigation accessories, shopped with Cathryn at Target, went to a party or two, and played a video game or three. It really has been a whirlwind of a week or so, but it's been good. I even found time for a few trips to the gym!

Intergalactic Planetary

Here's a shot of me and Cathryn in Pontiki form hanging out underneath my computer. I was going to put in a sample conversation (written in screenplay form), like:

SQUARE: "Hi there! My name is Walter."
[says with anticipation]

EGG: "Ummm...hmmmm..."
[looks off into the distance]

...which is better than I used to do in real life. But I think it would be more fun to mad lib it yourself (let your imaginations run wiiiiiilllllllllddddddd!!!!).

In music news, the power of Google once again prevailed as I found out the cool song that's being played in the Jaguar XK commercial. The song is called I Turn My Camera On by Spoon. I think Spoon must be a cool band, because I did an iTunes search and they showed up on the OC and Veronica Mars soundtracks - two shows that I don't watch, but I know are popular with the kids these days (actually, I caught an episode of Veronica Mars once and it was pretty good - but I still think the OC sucks big donkey ass... or maybe it's just because I can't relate to trust fund whiny anorexic white chicks).

Whoops! I gotta cut down on the vitriolic commentary... since Jack Johnson just started playing on my iTunes I feel instantly more peaceful. Not that I'm a fanboy, but after finding out about how he got started and listening to the calm nature of his music, he's a performer that's easy to root for. Speaking of peaceful music, I've noticed lately that not only 80's style music has come back, but so has its happy poppy lyrics. Happiness is a good thing :) Next purchase hopefully: The Lovemakers Times of Romance.

Snoo Snoo for my Woo Woo

So I need to write this for no reason except for pure catharsis. I tallied up my cholesterol the other day and it was 205. I've never even been close to borderline, much less slightly above it when it comes to cholesterol. And of course, I'm feeling fat and very much out of shape. And my forehead broke out in a lot of pimples because I scarfed a bunch of those Reese's peanut butter and chocolate eggs. And try as I might, I cannot help poking around on eBay for good deals on DVDs. Even though I have plenty to entertain me. Even though as far as collections go, mine isn't too shabby at all. Speaking of eBay, it's the one thing that seems to be consistently displayed on my browser in the foremost window whenever my boss decides to pay a rare, but sudden visit to my desk. Lovely. Just lovely. I also feel badly I can never seem to find enough time for everyone I want to have time for. I think I'm too mean, too obsessive, and too neurotic. And lately, my memory is leaking worse than, um, some clever analogy that I could make if I could remember it. I say things like I'm sure I know it because I think I do, but then the person I'm talking to tells me I'm full of shit. Of course, I'm full of shit! But normally I know it instead of just forgetting it and then realizing that I'm wrong. Sucks! I know things can be worse (so much worse!!), but I just wanted to write this down and publish it so when things ARE truly tough, I can read this and think, "What the hell was I thinking that this stupid shit was making me feel down about myself???"

Drink the wine and save the water

I found some really cool beer drinking glasses (pilsners?) at Ross for cheap and I've never really found myself craving a beer before until now (vodka yes, beer no). I don't know if it was the excitement of drinking from a cool glass instead of one of my hand me down cups, or if its shape really did make a difference, but the beer tasted tastier than usual. Add some smoked almonds to the mix, and I'm in my own bar! Granted, it would have been better with some friends around...

My war with spiders continues. After gardening on the weekend, I got an itchy kinda painful welt behind my left ear. Pimple I thought. Nope! I looked in the mirror today to see two tiny puncture wounds. DAMN SPIDERS!!!! After all those years of catching and releasing, I'm now gonna mercilessly kill you and all your kind! (only the small surburban kind mind you - any of the ilk that I see that were featured on the Discovery channel's report on animals of the Amazon basin I'm backing away from very slowly and then running in the opposite direction from and shouting something along the lines of "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!"). Please click here to see what I'm talking about :)

My hands are HUGE!!!

Ha ha! I suppose that's what I'd really believe if I were high as a kite, but this is just a clever shot by Cathryn which artfully captures the magic of foreshortening. That glazed over look in my eye is from eating far too much and then drinking too much water afterwards because I was thirsty. I felt like I ate about two dozen dried sponges and then immediately drank a gallon of water. Shoot me now... (I'm glad no one did, though).

So I just came home from the tax guy and while the whole process was painful and costly, it wasn't horribly painful and costly, so I'm jazzed (yep, I just referred to myself as being "jazzed" because that's how I feel). On Monday I return to their office and sign papers/drop off the check. I still can't believe that considering how inept I perceive the government to be, the only way to hide from them to avoid taxes is to live in a cabin in the woods with a banjo and a squirrel as my only friends.

One last note, we finally did enough taxi missions in GTASA so that they now all have NOS! Hot dawg!!! Yep. I'm a geek and this is me embracing it :)

If it weren't for TV, I'd have nothing to vegitate my mind with

I saw an advertisment for a show hosted by Trya Banks - the next one is going to be about phobias. They showed some dude who's deathly afraid of clowns and then they're going to march out scary clowns in front of him. Same goes for some woman who's fear is spiders - they're going to let a giant spider crawl on her. Then, to make things ridculous, they're showing some woman who's afraid of styrofoam. I turned the channel.

Last night I saw some hunting show with an annoying blonde woman as the main hunter. I've seen other hunting shows though and they always have this ironic (to me anyway) shot of the hunters going, "WOW! This is SUCH a beautiful animal!", right after they've just turned it into a corpse.

Getting back to the phobia thing. Last night while I was in the shower, I looked over on my left shoulder to soap it when I was surprised to find a spider there! Yes, it quickly got rinsed down the drain - but wwhooo-yaaaaa-yikes!!! I haven't a clue where it came from, but I do know it's now swimming in the SLZ sewage system.

Maybe meditation would help

So it's late and I'm up. Not unusual I suppose, but what's making me not able to sleep is thinking about personal problems. My brother recently pulled some uncaring shit on me for the nth time and I've basically wrote him off. I'm done. I think I've reconciled me feelings about that and I'm okay. But today I saw a really shitty response in my movie night evite from a friend I've known since high school.

Last week his daughter had a first birthday party and it was a big deal with catering and lots of people. I forgot about it, missed it, and phoned later in the week with an apology. He never called back and instead wrote something nasty and really passive aggressive in the "no" repsonses. Mind you, I've sent him at least a half dozen evites for various things and this is the only time he's ever responded.

So basically I wrote him an email that outlined the fact that it would seem that it was okay for him to be too busy for my stuff, but not okay for me to be too busy for his events (which are large family and friends gatherings which just suck for me). And I finished by stating that if an apology wasn't enough, to not to bother sending me any more invitations in the future.

So now I lay awake and ponder: am I too harsh? Am I too full of myself? I think I'm a decent fellow, but god fucking damn it if some people just piss me the fuck off sometimes. Being a little fellow and soft spoken around strangers, I've experienced a lot of people trying to push me around or try get their way because they don't think I'll push back. So I've been pushing back, but just once. Then I'm gone. Am I being over zealous in utilizing such a tactic?

I don't know. It bothers me, but in a way I don't care. I'm feeling so much happier with my life lately that when people try to pull bullshit like that with me it feels like poison, and I can't get far enough away from it. I'm still working on not getting walked over by strangers, but by family or friends? I won't tolerate it. They should be nicer because it's me. They should forgive me because I'd forgive them. Moreover, we're supposed to be on the same fucking side >:(

Food makes the poop

So... I'm having trouble expressing myself through words lately. Or at least I think so. I probably normal, so I appear, to people mostly. Damn. I'm sure you know what I mean. But it's like that. Maybe my brain is waterlogged. I mean, I enjoy the rain as much as the next mushroom, but fuck! Enough with all the rain all in a row with no sun and warmth already! There is an upside to all of the weather, though. My lavender is growing like crazy and the jasmine vines are pretty happy too. I think I'll plant some ferns to see if they'll survive the summer.

Oops, sorry for seguing into a boring suburbanite! How about talking about my latest fun ebay score? I bought some JBL Creature Speakers for a mere $45 buckaroos and now I'm jamming with a nice bass thump while I work :) I never invested in computer speakers before because I thought of them as being too much of a luxury item - but seeing as I'm pretty much chained to this thing day in and day out, I've been pretty happy ever since! Aenema never sounded more like the energizing anthem that it is (that's music that MUST be listened to at the loudest level tolerable).

Speaking of which, I was out this Saturday eve to catch Kid Koala at the Independent. He was very good, but the DJ before him, Mike Relm, was AMAZING! Some of his stuff went on a bit long for my taste, but his syncing up of his scratching with video was nothing short of brilliantly entertaining

{ This photo taken on Divisadero in front of a convenience store. We bought Chicklets, Listerine Stripes, and Peanut M&Ms before the show. }

Temporal displacement in a multi-verse complicates quantum theory

I was trying to figure what I'd blog about this go around, but I couldn't think of anything (I could rant, but even I get tired of complaining all the time). So this will be more of a photo blog, since I've been dyin' to post some older photos and I've got some fun recent ones to share.

The first two photos are from Harsha's 30th birthday celebration at Luka's Taproom. Cool place (Asian girl fight!), strong drinks, and crowded with people out to have a good time. There was also a photo of Cindy, me, and Haydee, but the lighting was a bit unflattering, so I decided against posting it since I value my life. I rather like the one of Cathryn and Amanda though - from their vantage point, they could see me and Cindy playing Super Pacman below while Haydee watched on. This was a total geek moment, because Super Pacman was a favorite tabletop arcade game for me way back in the day and I think it's exceedingly rare. The rest of the night was spent hanging out, chatting, playing some pool, drinking, doing "laps" around the bar (not me, though), and was topped off by walking in lots and lots of rain to the car.

The photo of the water bottle on the table isn't exactly the best photo ever, but I think it's pretty interesting nonetheless. In the background are folks milling about having some food to eat.

Cathryn enjoys her yams, and this is what they look like when they're done. If you asked me, they look like Fear Factor slugs that you'd have to put in a blender and eat. Look out! They're slowly crawling away! The top one's name is Ted, and below him is Larry.

The last pic is from the SF Independent Movie Festival at the Castro. The movie we saw was "The Proposition" with Guy Pierce of Memento fame. The theatre was incredibly beautiful and they had an organist playing beforehand. Before the awful movie started, there was a big ovation for the music as the organ and organist slowly descended below the stage - very old school and very cool!

After the fest, Cindy and I motored on over to the after party thanks to Erica and Arthur (who I keep calling Paul for some unknown reason) and we bumped into Subir as well as Micah. We all had a tasty meat appetizer thing and fun drinking from the open bar. All in all, a very enjoyable evening.

Well, I hope you enjoyed a random walk down my memory lane. Next time I promise to write about riveting things such as: cell phone plans, gutter replacement, radiant barrier foil, what's at Costco, and hats.

Look out for the moops

I felt my last blog was so serious and dramatic, but I really did want people to take from it good stuff and not worry too much about me, 'cause I'm tough and getting better! (famous last words I'm sure). Speaking of which, please check out my comment on Shelley's blog entry about a rare form of breast cancer. There's lots to be aware of out there!

So my adventure on the road to health continues. Ah, there's nothing like riding on BART which is a veritable germ factory. There are people sneezing, coughing, and blowing their nose on every train. This one poor fellow got to sit next to this woman who was totally sick. The aforementioned sneezing, coughing, and blowing noses was her trifecta and he got a front row seat! I SO woulda moved!!!

On the music front, I purchased my first CD in a very long time. I highly recommend Goldfrapp's new release, Supernature. It has the glory of 70's electronica mixed with today's electronica and it's all held together by the sexy overtures of Alison Goldfrapp (I still can't believe that's her name). The songs are all kinda similar, but I love the sound, so it's all good to my ears.

Oh, I almost forgot to talk about the pictures... you can see my dorky head to the left of Mark's behind (thanks, Julienne) and one of George's cats is relaxing on a kitchen chair. Thanks for the fried food, George!! I ate: 1 drumstick, 1 wing, 1 thigh, 1 breast, 1/2 porkchop, 2 cups total of potato and macaroni salad, and 2 scoops of cookies and cream ice cream. Yeah, I've been eating like there was no fucking tomorrow since I've been better. Sooner or later, my bloated form will float away into the sky before bursting into flames.

OH THE HUMANITY!!!!!

p.s. I love this quote that my Google homepage delivered to me...
"Talent hits a target no one else can hit;
Genius hits a target no one else can see."
- Arthur Schopenhauer

Feeling like dying is overrated

Ah... so much to say, so little time and energy. So as most of you may or may not know, I've been ill, very ill many would say. Long story short, I caught the nasty flu that was going around which caused me to develop bronchitis. Because of Kaiser's stellar care and my own reluctance to throw in the face of every health care worker my complete medical history, the bronchitis irritated my asthma (which I thought I no longer had), and I ended up in the emergency room to get respiratory treatment after 12 merciless days of fever, aches, no appetite, no sleep, and constant coughing. The coughing was so severe at one point that I now have a chipped molar from passing out onto the bathroom wall/floor.

Why would I ever share the ugly and personal details of what happened to me? So I can say for certain to everyone who reads this, don't be like me and be reluctant about your medical history! Know it backwards and forwards and really push it on to medical personnel so that you might even sound worse off than you are, because they would rather not treat you if they don't have to! I'm sure some (maybe all?) of you already know this, but I had to learn it the hard way and wouldn't wish my experience upon anyone. The upside is that I'm now finally on the mend (it's going ever so slowly, but at least it's going) and hopefully now I have some antibodies to use against future flus (H5N1 anyone?).

As always, I am ever thankful for my family and friends who helped me out in one way or another and I'm better for it. The most interesting part of this whole experience was the psychological impact this had on me. It's quite a thing to not feel like you're ever going to get better and be basically shut in for two weeks (the chicken pox wasn't nearly as bad for me). I have no clue how people who are sicker than I was deal with such feelings of isolation and despair. Of course, now I'm highly motivated to get physically healthier and get mentally tougher.

I'll leave you with one of many of my favorite lines from The Princess Bride that I feel is particularly apropos... "Get some rest. If you haven't got your health, you haven't got anything."

Someone please turn this blog up to 11

Merima was right, even I couldn't stand to see the blog about vomit anymore. I'll be keeping this shortish, 'cause I've been so sick (and still am very much so) this past week it made me miss having the chicken pox. I did manage to have some fun before I got ill on Sunday though (oh yes, a Beastie Boys shout out).

The top image is from the RJD2 concert Cathryn and I attended. He was absolutely amazing and so was the opening DJ - Wax Tailor. However, if you see the "MCs" Aceyalone or especially some wife beater wearing doofus named Bus Driver, hopefully you'll be in a car and you can run them over for me. They tortured us with their horrible style and weak rhyming (seriously, repeating "Check 1, 2"and "throw ya hands up" barely qualified for music when it was first done and definitely doesn't now).

The second photo is of the ottoman! Hmmm.... definitely more fun live than pictured. But there you have it. I'm sure now all of your lives' are now complete.

I'll leave y'all with one last thought - actually a dieting tip! Drink 20-30 glasses of water a day and you won't feel like eating ANYTHING. Bleh. Even hot dogs taste too salty for me. O what has the world come to :(

Finally, SOME EFFEN SUN!!!!

I'm not sure if I have SAD (seasonal affective disorder), but I sure am finally feeling more productive and motivated to do things lately. So have you ever wondered about the constant under construction portions of my place? This situation was so laughable, that I finally recorded it. To get 3 IKEA lights under the cabinets (picture 1), it took 6 hours (8 if you're obsessive like me), plus all the tools in picture 2, and two unpictured ladders and two helpers. The ridiculous part? It's still not done. I have yet to do the dark cabinets on the far end of the room. I learned a lot as always, and was very satisfied and happy with the results - not to mention that no one got electrocuted - hooray!

For the Target faithful, I totally scored an unbelieveable deal! For everyone else, please skip to the next paragraph because my detailed account of my purchase will be boring as hell, and the next paragraph will cover vomiting : O **...**:: . . # (the color of the vomit has been approximated).

So every now and again Target will ship in all this cool stuff that looks like Pier 1 or Cost Plus furniture and call it the Global Bazaar. The really nice stuff is still too expensive for me, but every now and again they'll have a clearance sale to sell of the display stuff. This beautiful leather ottoman/bench thing which I coveted was originally priced at $350. It was on clearance last week for $250, but it still seemed pricey for what it was. On a whim (or desperate grasp at straws - you can be the judge), I dragged Cathryn with me to see if it was still there. Inside the store, it sat there, patiently waiting for me in all its leather glory. But it had no tags on it, so we got a Target dude to help us. We got the right guy, 'cause when I asked him if he could give me an additional discount for some sticker residue on the sides, he called it in and got me an extra 20% off!! I was completely buzzing on a shopper high after we stuffed the thing in the car and drove off. Thanks Target dude!

As promised, I will now write about vomit. Yep, it's what happens when you eat something bad, have a flu, or if you're like me, drink WAY too much all at once. The culprit this go around was two glasses of wine and about a third or half a bottle of Bacardi (like I would remember) spread over three giant rum and cokes. Vomitting is such a dichotomy; it feels so great to relieve the nausea, but at the same time it's an experience that most would put at or near the top of their "sucks to be you" list. I'm just glad I didn't get it everywhere and I wasn't too inebriated to clean up what little missed. The best, absolute BEST part about the evening's vomit filled episode? After it was done, I was greeted with jubilant hallos and immediately fed a Jumbo Jack and fries. Still drunk, I consumed the food of the Gods in their fast food form and thankfully enjoyed every slow, focused, bite. I love my friends!!!!

RECENTLY BOUGHT AT TARGET®
1 Indian Style Leather Ottoman ~ $195 on clearance!