Walking in a winter wonder... WTF is up with this weather?

It's the day after Christmas and the weather is... not crappy, but disappointing. It's just too warm and rainy for Christmas.

Actually the rain is the most annoying part. Especially with little dog paws getting all muddy.

Other than that, though, I had a good Christmas. I got some cool stuff. I got a bunch of work clothes, which I needed. I got a University of Michigan garden gnome, a couple Lego sets, some tools, a book I had already bought myself, a DVD from Austin, a cool glass from Tess, a knitting project and a new wallet to replace the one Skippy had eaten.

In other news, my friend and fraternity brother Jared is flying in from LA and is going to be crashing here for a couple days before he heads up north for New Years. Should be a lot of fun. I haven't seen Jared since he graduated. He's been working in Hollywood. Austin and I are headed up to Lansing in a while to pick him up and also meet up with Aaron Travis, another Frat brother. Should be interesting.

That's why we lost the World Series...

This is actually a week or so old, but for the people that might not have seen it, I'm showcasing it here.

Apparently the reason that Zumaya* was benched when his arm was inflamed was because he'd been playing too much Guitar Hero. I can attest to the injury factor, as my arm kind of hurts right now, 'cause I played a bunch of GH last night.

Article at Joystiq

*Zumaya's one of the Tiger's pitchers, ya' know, just in case you were completely confused.

Boombas, Airports, Non-Magsafe Power Connectors

Picked up Dan from the airport tonight. The airport was crazy. Like, crazy traffic.

I couldn't take Skippy for a walk because of the afore-mentioned picking-up-Dan-from-the-airport, so I asked Beckie if she could stop by and take him for a walk. She did, and for that, I thank her.

After picking up Dan, we stopped by his house to drop off his luggage, and then headed to the Shores Inn, where we had some food. Jackie showed up after a while. We had the Boomba-size beer, which are in giant mugs. Eventually, this dude came over and said, "Can I ask you a random question?". And then he asked if he could have our empty mugs, because the bar was out of clean ones. Apparently Tuesday is $2.95 Boomba night, so there were a lot of people drinking out of these big ass mugs. Strange.

In computer news, I was getting up from my couch and the cord for my laptop was somehow wrapped around my foot and I accidently yanked my computer right off the table. Luckily the cord plug was the only thing damaged, just a little bent up.

Forging boldly ahead

It has come to this.

I, like Ryan have undertaken the bold step of migrating to the new Beta version of Blogger.

There's definately some nice things being done here. I like the new template editing system, with the "widgets" for the side sort of how Wordpress has them.

Had a lot of fun this last weekend (shifting gears here)...

Thursday went to dinner with Austin and had lousy service at Outback.

Friday, went to dinner with Austin and Beckie at Steak n Shake. That was pretty decent.

Friday was also the bar for Austin's birthday. We went to the Berkley Front. Many of Austin's friends showed up. Jackie, Jessica, Jenn, Betsy, Lea, the aforementioned Beckie, Kim, Emily, Josh, Fabian, Travis, other Jackie... some other people that know some of the other people. Austin is a Venn diagram, with many intersecting friends groups. There's some interesting social interaction math in there somewhere.

Saturday I went down to the Handmade Detroit Craft Fair where Austin and Gerry were selling their dolls. I bought something for my mom there. After Austin was done with the fair, we went for sushi at Nippon Grill.

Sunday I traveled down to Dearborn to Tess's work, 'cause they were having a holiday fair also. I bought my grandma a vase for Christmas. Morbidly (but practically) my mom suggested getting something that I'd like, as it'd eventually get back to me. It is pretty cool.

Beckie texted me when I was in the midst of buying to see if I wanted to do dinner. We also wrangled in Austin to go with us. We ended up going to TGIFridays which I hadn't been to in a while.

I didn't watch nearly as much television as I could have, but I'll get caught up eventually.

Checkbook? What's that?

Looks like I'll have to be making use of my checkbook a bit more frequently the next couple days. It's because Skippy decided that my wallet would be fun to chew on, and in the process of that, he got a hold of my bankcard and put some teethmarks right through the magnetic strip and even tore off the corner. Ergh. Don't know how long it's going to take the bank to send out a new card. What's most annoying is that it was the only card that was damaged.

Thanks. If you say it too many times in your head, it's starts to sound weird.

Yet another Thanksgiving has gone by. It's been a long, long weekend.

Wednesday was the Tap Room with Dan, Kristen, and Jessica with a special appearance by Austin and Sam.

Thursday I hung out with the family, fried 2 turkeys, made stuffing, ate too much and watched Cars.

Friday I went to a party at Muriel's with Dan and Austin, had some keg beer and Jello shots, then we met up with Beckie and Ryan at The Bosco in Ferndale. We also had food afterward at The Delmar. Unfortunately beer, jello shots and gin do not mix well.

Saturday, Austin and I helped John and Julie move their new exercise machine in the house. Then we went to Texas Roadhouse. Mmmm... delicious. Dan wasn't feeling well and didn't end up making it out. Austin and I went to a party in Westland, and then a party in Royal Oak. The party in Royal Oak was a "College" party, so there were kegs, beer pong, a beer bong, and the police.

This morning, Austin and I went to Wah Court in Canada for dim sum. It was delicious. Customs was also relatively painless.

I realized that this weekend has been relatively inexpensive for food and beverages. I didn't pay for beer at any of the parties I went to. I did spend a fair amount on Wednesday though, but food has been mostly leftovers, with the exception of today and late-night breakfasts. So sleepy now.

Like A Bee, I'm Busy, See?

Lots of stuff went on this weekend and actually during the past week.

Austin and I watched Battlestar Galactica on Monday and Wednesday. Tuesday he and I went to Jordan's to play Guitar Hero II all night. Wednesday also include Guitar Hero after BSG.

Friday night was Jessica's surprise Birthday Party. She was very surprised.

Saturday, I went to see Borat with Austin, Gerry, Melissa, Steve and Elizabeth. Then we went for food at Ted's and back to Austin's for more Guitar Hero.

Sunday I went to the Lions game with Julie. Julon's neighbor, Dave, came also with his son, Max. The Lions suck. After the game I went to my parents for dinner and then over to Austin's where Beckie and Jackie picked us up on our way to see The Return with Jenn, who we also picked up.

Much busy-ness.

Now, 2 second movie reviews.

Borat: Hilarious and disturbing.

The Return: Slow and false advertising.

From Rags to... uh... Rags.

I officially hate my mortgage company's website.

They double drafted me for my mortgage payment. If not for the money Jenn payed me back, I'd have about $50 in my checking acount. Thankfully they're going to refund my extra payment.

Here's the full story. They switched their system recently and made everyone resignup for the internet account management.

Well, somehow in the midst of this, they lost track of my autopay for my mortgage. That's why right before I left for vacation I had to scramble around to make sure it got payed. I thought I had it all straightened out when I got back, but when I deposited a couple checks yesterday, I noticed that my balance was only a little more than the amount I had deposited. This disturbed me.

I logged into my bank statement and saw that there had been a second draft from my account by the mortgage company. Logged into mortgage website and saw the 2 payments. I sent them email through the website but noticed they said it would take 3-4 business days to respond. Bah.

I called customer service up this morning and they were sort of able to remedy everything. They are going to credit back the second payment to me, and reinstate my autopay service on my second loan.

I just have to be very careful this next billing cycle to make sure that they don't do this again. Bastards.

Completely unawares

Last night we surprised Beckie. Haha! Jackie and Sarah organized the whole thing because Beckie normally goes to S&J's on Wednesday to watch Top Chef, so they knew she'd be there, and not expecting anyone. The look on her face when she walked in an saw us all was priceless. (Photo available for $39.95 plus S&H) Good times.

Plus Jenn was there, so she gave me a check for her half of the Hawaii expenses. Yay. I can pay off part of my credit card bill!

Couch inclined

Well, I got a new Shuffle. I managed to get the old one working because Apple posted a utility to fix the problem, but I sent it back anyways. We'll see what happens with that.

This last weekend there were many Halloween partying oppurtunities. I took advantage of some of them.

Friday, I went to Austin's parent's house for a little while for Allen's birthday party and then went to Ann Arbor with Austin to see Dave Grammer's band. That was a good time, Dave was dressed as Gallagher, but didn't have any watermelons thankfully.

After seeing the band, Austin and I went to the Necto. The gays were fabulous. Jeff was dressed as Jem from the 80's cartoon series. Austin's costume was the "Hastily-Prepared-Crappy-Cylon" which people thought he had spent a lot of time on, but which he was trying to make kind of lame. I of course, went as Magnum P.I. for which my only preparation was shaving.

Austin, Beckie and I all kind of pooped out before the costume contest winner was announced, but Ryan posted pics for the truly interested. I drove Austin back to his parent's and headed home.

Saturday morning I drove to GP to help Kristen move. She had hired movers besides all the relatives and friends that showed up to help move, so, there wasn't so much to do. It was very nice of her to feed us though, and I did help by returning the truck. That seems to be a common thing for me to do on these moves. I just don't want to move myself anytime soon. We've also decided that if we have to help Jessica move again, it should only be in the months of May or September.

I had dropped off Skippy at my parent's house in the morning and after the move, I went back there for dinner. Then I fell asleep on the couch for a couple hours and came home. I decided not to go out that night and just watched TV for the rest of the night.

That's also pretty much what I've done all day today. I'm still doing a lot of catch-up on tv, though I've gotten caught up on some shows, but I still have many shows that I am mutiple weeks behind on.

I did leave the house to have dinner with Austin. We were going to go to TGIFridays, but the one that Austin had looked up had been converted to a Kruse & Muer so we went to Chili's. Then we watched some of Season 2 of Battlestar Galactica. Nerds.

I should go to bed earlyish. I reset all but my alarm clock, so I should remember to do that before I go to sleep. Sleepy.

Shuffle interrupted

This is a bummer. My iPod Shuffle decided to crap out on me. I went through all the troubleshooting steps, and even used my PC to try to restore the software, but something has gone inconceivably wrong. I guess Apple's gonna send me a new (refurb) one and I send mine back. Hopefully I won't be too long without it. Maybe I'll just have to buy one of those Nanos...

The Boys are Back in Town

I'm back in Detroit. I'm back to to work. I don't know how a 2 week vacation can seem so short. I had an excellent time though.

The 2 days back at work were surprisingly rough. It was hard to wake up, especially because of the 6 hour time difference. Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to get back into a more normal schedule.

Of course Skippy was very happy when I got back. Although I was happy to see him too, that quickly faded when he began misbehaving. Friday morning, he was staring out the gate, so I went to see what he was looking at.
There was a loose dog. When I opened the gate to grab the other dog, Skippy darted off. I had to chase him about half a block. After I got him and the other dog, I put Skip inside my house, but only closed the screen door, and didn't lock the gate.
I called the number (there was also an address) on the loose dog's tag, and then just decided to walk him to his house, which was down the block.
When walking back to my house I saw Skip in the front yard. The screen door must not have been latched. I ended up having to chase Skip about 4 or 5 blocks.
Then that night, since I was up late because my schedule's still screwy, I let him out and he started howling which woke up my neighbor. When I went out to get him, he started running around the yard like some kind of loon. What a goof.

My Birthday Deathbed

"Dead & Bloated" - Stone Temple Pilots

I am smellin' like the rose
that somebody gave me on
my birthday deathbed
I am smellin' like the rose
that somebody gave me
'cause I'm dead & bloated

I just heard that song on the radio. I like the "birthday deathbed" line.

Anyways, weekend was fun. I was very drunk on Friday. I think because Beckie kept handing me her half-finished drinks. That and Jager-bombs. Denny's sucked. Steak and Shake was ok, if a bit weird. I was so very tired driving home from Sarah's parents.

Saturday during the day I ran a bunch of errands. I went to get my hair cut at the Berkley Chop Shop, but they were booked up for the day; I dropped off my Birks at the shoe repair to get them resoled, but they were loaded up with repairs and couldn't get them back to me until mid-October. I shouldn't have left those errands until the last minute, but it happens. I also was looking for some new shoes for walking/winter. I went to Oakland Mall.

I had forgotten how much I dislike the mall until I went to the mall. I didn't find what I was looking for there, but I did stop at the barbershop in the mall. It was not the greatest haircut I've ever gotten. I think my bangs ended up a little uneven. Oh, well, my hair grows pretty fast so it'll be shaggy again soon enough.

After the mall I went to Dick's Sporting Goods, and found some shoes that are kind of sneakery-boot-ish and should be good for the winter.

Later, after Austin had napped, we went to dinner at Rexy's for Thai. It was pretty good. We just kind of hung out at my place afterward. The girls were hanging in Novi, but both Austin and I were tired, so we didn't end up going out to meet them.

I cleaned more on Sunday. I cleaned the stove and vaccuumed, and finished cleaning the bathroom. I started some more laundry. I went to my parents house for dinner, my mom made Jambalaya. That was very good. Skippy's dewclaws were getting long, so we were going to clip them when I was there. One was fine, but the other was not, it started bleeding when we tried to clip it and Skip would let us touch it. I hope it's not infected or anything, 'cause it'll be hard for me to take him to the vet. I'll see if he'll let me do anything to it tonight. I'm gonna give him a bath. Haha.

So, just a few more things to do before I go.

Counting 5-4-3-2-1

Counting down the days until I leave for Hawaii. 5 more. Or is it 6? It's 5 days but do I count today also? That would make it 6.

Many things to do.

I need a haircut. I need to get my Birk sandals resoled. I need to clean more. I need to decide what I'm going to pack. I need to do more laundry. I need to figure out how I'm getting to the airport.

I did start to clean my bathroom. I scrubbed the tub and the toilet. Still need to do a bit more. Still need to vaccuum. Still need to clean the kitchen. Still need to give Skippy a bath. Still need to change the sheets and towels.

I want to get some new walking/hiking shoes. I want to get a new external case for a hard drive for the computer to save all the TV it'll be recording while I'm gone.

I should have gotten new glasses. I should get LASIK.

All in all, there's nothing that really is a major roadblock. It's gonna be so hard to concentrate on work the next couple days.

Just like Jessie Spano

I'm so excited! It's like less than 2 weeks until my trip to Hawaii. I have plans and not planned other things. Mostly things depend on Jenn. Probably I'll just have to pick some times and let it be at that.

*Several hours later

I booked the interisland flights. I couldn't use only one airline because of trying to find non-stop flights and at times I thought were reasonable. I also have cars reserved finally. Woohoo. Also my credit card called me, no literally, it got out of my wallet and asked me if there was any suspicious activity. Actually I got an automated call. It's all right. Just because there were several transactions in a row they flagged it.

I'm still feeling sick today. I've kept myself rested by planting myself on the couch and watching TV all day. It's been nice. Although I didn't end up going out with Austin to his friend's surprise birthday party or to Ypsi to see Dave Grammar's band.

Productivity. It's a good thing.

(Ooo. I need to do laundry also.)

Can't believe I told you so

Strangely, I haven't had much to write about recently or rather I didn't feel much like writing. Last weekend I had Bentley and Sydney again. Monday was the 5 year anniversary of 9/11, which is a little hard to believe that it's been 5 years, and to believe that it's only been 5 years. Monday I also ended up having to drive to my mom's to drop of the dogs. My mom had some pictures of New Orleans and Biloxi that she took when she was down there. It's pretty amazing the destruction that was done.

Less depressingly, Austin, Beckie and I have had dinner a couple times this week while Beckie's housesitting at Julon's. Tuesday we went for sushi, and Thursday we went to the Blarney Stone which had extremely slow service. I think tonight, Austin and I might go to late-night Dim Sum.

Tomorrow is super-cool day, when Austin and I are going to Gerry's and then I think there may be something in the evening, but I'm not sure.

In vacation news, I was up late last night and finally booked one hotel for Hawaii. I still need to figure out where else we'll be staying on the other islands.

I bought The Office seasons 1 and 2 "Severance Package" special edition box set at Best Buy at lunchtime. Kind of ironic to bring The Office back to the office, even ironickier is the "Severance Package" considering the downsizing that is happening or will happen or might happen.

I'm sorry if this is just a dis-jointed jumble of thoughts, but the complaints about not updating had just gotten so frequent, I was compelled to put something up.

Three Dog Night

So, I'm watching Bentley and Sydney this weekend. My mom went down to New Orleans where my dad is going to be working for a couple months or so... he's not sure how long the project is supposed to last.

Anyways, the dogs are here until Tuesday. It was definately cramped last night in my bed with three dogs vying for position. At one point I was lying diagonal with my head in the corner and my feet hanging off the side.

There have been lots of happenings this weekend. Thursday night Dan, Austin and I went to Luna in Royal Oak with Coronado for his birthday. We ran into Austin's friend Alex there. She was using us a defense from this guy she knows that was at the bar.

Friday Dan, Austin and I met with Jenn and Beckie in Novi for bar-ness. Beckie left early but we stayed and also went to Mixx Lounge. We went to Denny's and there were drunk assholes sitting at the next booth.

Saturday, Lani dropped off the dogs and then at night I went to Austin's for poker. I lost, but Dan came in second.

It's now Sunday, and supposedly people are coming over. Fun.

Come On I Wanna Lei You!

It was a busy weekend. Friday was Jordan and Ellen's fundraising* Luau party**(*****)**********. Saturday was Rob and Emily's*** birthday party******(*********). Sunday, after going to dinner at my parents*******, Dan, Austin and I went to the WAB for drinks. Last night Dan and I met up with Jenn in Novi for Happy Sushi and Snakes on a Plane******** and drinks at Mixx.

*Jordan and Ellen are doing a Triathalon for Leukemia/Lymphoma.

**That party was so straight. Especially the hetero-man circle pictured here...


***Emily is Jordan's sister, and Rob is friends with Dan**** and also Dave and Lori and Gerry, and Jordan, and I'm not actually sure how they're all interconnected but somehow Austin's friend Betsy from Border's is now dating Matt who knows Dan**** and there's a lot of lingering man hugs.

****Dan being in this case, not Dan Mitchell, but a Dan that knows Austin's youngest sister.

*****This was the first of several things Hawaiian-related that happened this weekend.

******During the party Jenn called me to tell me she had booked her ticket for Hawaii.

*******While at my parents, my dad gave me a couple of his uncles phone numbers, those that live in Hawaii.

********The beginning of the movie starts in Hawaii. Jenn and I will have to watch out for M*therF*cking! Snakes! on our plane ride back.

*********I forgot to mention that I made a mistake driving there and ended up not staying on 275 but getting onto 96, but I realized my mistake soon enough and we enjoyed a scenic jaunt down Newburgh Rd. Except for that part where the bridge was out and we got detoured.

**********Thanks to Coronado for pointing out I had mis-asterisked one of my addendum.

Ladies, prepare to be boarded...

They just need to crosspromote with beer makers...

Thu Aug 24, 9:59 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters)

Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. won U.S. approval to sell its Plan B "morning-after" contraceptive without a prescription to women 18 and older, the company said on Thursday.

Younger girls still need a prescription for Plan B, Barr said in a statement. The Plan B pills may prevent pregnancy when taken within 72 hours of sexual intercourse.

The Food and Drug Administration approval follows more than three years of controversy. Backers and opponents of wider access had fiercely lobbied the agency, and the feud stalled the nominations of two FDA commissioners.

Plan B will be kept behind pharmacy counters, Barr said. The pills should be available in a dual nonprescription and prescription package by the end of the year.

"While we still feel that Plan B should be available to a broader age group without a prescription, we are pleased that the agency has determined that Plan B is safe and effective for use by those 18 years of age and older as an over-the-counter product," Barr Chief Executive Bruce Downey said in a statement.

I call Shenanigans!

It's Monday, and yet again, I'm compelled to recap some of the weekend's events.

Really, the low point of the weeekend was Friday morning. I had to go down to Ford for meeting and missed the company-wide meeting, where they announced that were going to be having a headcount reduction. That basically shot the whole workday. I've definately got to get some feelers out there, and have an idea what I can do if I do get layed off. Still sucks though.

Friday night though, Austin and I played Magic with John Machiorlatti and Chris2. Eventually, John, Austin and I met up with Beckie and Jenn at some bar in Novi. John took off back to Lansing after a while, but Austin and I stuck around to help get the girls home. We met Jen, Jenn and Beckie's new bar friend. There were shenanigans. Eventually Austin and I figured out hope to lock Jenn's apartment to keep out any potential rapists prowling Novi.

Saturday, Austin and I went to a LAN Party at Gerry's. We kicked butt. Then we headed off to Toledo for the Mitzvah. We got to Ryan's before everyone headed off to the bar, so we walked over to RHouse with them. There was drinking. More shenanigans occured.

Sunday, we went to IHOP and then the scariest Dollar Store ever. When Austin dropped me off at home, I went to Mike's to pick up Skippy who'd spent the night there. Later, I went to GP to go to the visitation of a friend's mother who had passed away last week. I at least got to catch up with some of the other RATs there.

All in all, it was pretty busy weekend, and I'm paying for it now. People need to stop doing things I want to do. Darn it.

Sometimes you just gotta face it

Automated Taunting Machine

So, this story really begins Wednesday night, when I went to dinner with Austin and Audrey. I was going to pay with my checkcard, but it got denied. I thought it was odd, but figured that some pending debits or something confused it. I was also unable to pay for lunch on Friday with my card and began to get concerned. Then Saturday when the ATM told me my card was canceled, I realized the depth of my problem.

Speaking of Saturday, Austin and I went to Ann Arbor and picked up Sam for dinner at Blimpie Burger and then to Jay and Eric's housewarming. Their condo is really nice. I also went with Austin to his friend Alex's for her birthday after getting back to R.O.

Back to the checkcard saga, I called them today, and found out that because a vendor that had my credit card info had a security breach, they sent out new cards and the old one expired on Wednesday. I had not received it, but talking with the customer disservice representative I found out that the new card had been sent to my parent's address. Thankfully my mom had not thrown it out, so I am now able to get money out of the bank! Yay!

Friday, lest I forget, I went over to John and Julie's to hang out with Jessica who was dog-sitting Max. Jackie also stopped by after having drinks with What-his-name. We watched Monk and Psych and also House which I haven't watched much before.

Livin' Long and Prosperin'

Best inspirational posters ever...

For more of the posters go to this site. They're awesome.

Via TVSquad

As Rod Stewart would say...

Every Picture Tells A Story...


Sand castles at the beach


Apparently I am Lance Bass


Jessica, Ryan and Austin debate the finer points of crossword puzzles


John does his best to not be flipped out of the hammock by Max


Beckie imitates Slash


Austin gettin' his nerd on

The Lines You Amend

Beckie had much to say about the cottage. I do not have as much to say. I do have pictures, but I can't post them yet, as my memory card reader is acting up.

Getting to the cottage was relatively easy except for a detour and me berating Austin for not knowing how to get there, even though he'd only been once. The Beckie-mentioned "Squ" game was quite amusing.

Saturday morning was when the drinking began in earnest. I think the only non-alchoholic drink I had all day was a glass of milk at breakfast. I think this was also the case for Jessica, Ryan and Austin. We went to the beach for a couple hours and Austin and I did Ultimate Fighting in the water.

Tess cooked dinner and it was awesomely tasty. There was more drinking, and the fire pit and s'mores. Jessica was determined that we have no beer that had to be taken back home. So she tried to drink it all. I cut her off eventually. I also totally rocked the Pat Sajak "All Easy" crosswords puzzles. And Su Doku.

Sunday, Ryan and I volunteered to return the bottles to the Beer Store. It was kind of a long wait there, as Monday is a Civic Holiday*, and the Beer Store is closed. Having accomplished returning the bottles we set out to find a secluded dumpster in which to illegally dump the excess trash from the weekend. We found a trash can at the park and dumped and ran.

While we were gone, breakfast had been cooked and I had breakfast and lunch, lunch being a BST, a Bacon, Spinach and Tomato(e) sandwich.

I signed the guestbook and was berated for including the phrase "wherenot else" which I thought was perfectly suitable as a turn of phrase deriving from "whatnot else". A supposed English major disagreed.

The drive home was uneventful except for the aforementioned Beckie-mentioning of the wallet incident and the Austin-tiny-bladder incident. We also stopped at Steak and Shake for dinner, which was very tasty. I had a strawberry milkshake. When I got home I had to go to "Mike"'s to pick up Skippy, where I had left him for the weekend. I was pretty tired, but I managed to watch Feasting On Asphault with Alton Brown. It's a really good show.

I'm pretty tired at work today. I nearly considered calling in. But I still came to work. Sleepy. Apparently I did have some stuff to say about the cottage.

Did I mention it's hot?

So, the weekend was hot. Very hot. It's gonna be hot today, and hot tomorrow. Hot.

I feel I should recap the events as I experienced them. Let's rewind back to Wednesday.

Beckie had finished the bar, so I ended up going out to Jenn's to hang out with Beckie, Jenn and Mike(OOAM*), whereupon we went to Gus O'Connors and sat in the other corner booth until our corner booth opened up. Jobe and Susan eventually joined us there. Gus's strangely closed at midnight so we headed over to 5th Ave. for more drinks. I headed home after 5th Ave.

Friday Austin, Beckie and I carpooled to Ann Arbor to go to the Necto with Ryan for dancing and drinking. I drank a blue-flavored fishbowl. And lots of other stuff. Sam met up with us as did Jackie with her friend Trina and Coronado showed up also. Sam apparently made out with 2 "chicks". There were a lot of shirtless dudes. It was also 7000 degrees in the Red Room.

After the Necto, the carpool stopped at Denny's for food. Driving home I nearly fell asleep. Austin puked behind my garage.

Saturday I went to Beckie's cousin's where we went to Fishbone's for more drinking, and I had food, as I hadn't eaten earlier. Jennifer was upset with Jim because... well, for some reason, but it's why we were at Fishbone's and not at the show seeing Jim's friend's band. I was tired and didn't feel like going to Jackie and Sarah's so Beckie and Ryan dropped me off at my car on their way over there.

Sunday was Julie's birthday brunch. The food was delicious. I also went to dinner with my parents. It was my mom's birthday. We ended up going to Lily's Seafood in Royal Oak, as we were going to go to the Redcoat, but I forgot that it's closed Sundays.

One more strange thing. This morning when my alarm went off, I couldn't figure out why, as I didn't really realize I had to get up for work. I just didn't think it was Monday already. So sleepy.


*Other Other Asian Mike**

**We need a better appellation for Mike.

From The Free Press: Gov. not to blame for economy

Governors are not to blame for economy
July 23, 2006

BY KEVIN J. MURPHY


So on a recent morning I'm flipping through the New York Times and I come across an article entitled "Faltering Economy Obstacle for Granholm." The gist of it was that Republicans, at both the state and national levels, are attempting to pin the blame for Michigan's lackluster economy on Gov. Jennifer Granholm. It reminded me of the late '90s when Republicans, at both the state and national levels, attempted to give credit for Michigan's robust economy of the time to then-Gov. John Engler.

I shrugged it off then as politicians simply trying to take credit for good things that happen on their watch. The article in the Times, however, is no shrugging matter. If Republicans persuade enough Michigan voters that Michigan's economy is foundering because of Granholm, they could swing an election via a patently false claim.

I address this not from any political standpoint but as an economist. The basic economic question is whether a state's governor can significantly influence the economic performance of the state -- and the answer from the economics profession is no.

Government, to the extent that it can influence macroeconomic activity, does so through two channels: monetary policy (i.e., interest rates) and fiscal policy (taxing and spending). States do not engage in monetary policy.

States, of course, do set some of their own fiscal policies, setting tax rates and determining the amount they want to spend on public goods and services. But many states, including Michigan, choose to tie their own hands by requiring a balanced budget.

Now having your fiscal house in balance may sound like a great idea, but it can be problematic from an economic stabilization point of view. During a recession, personal income naturally falls, driving down the state's two main sources of tax revenue -- the income tax and the sales tax. When you force yourself to balance the budget, then the state must cut expenditures at exactly the wrong time. Such cuts only serve to make a bad situation worse.

My basic point, then, is that the state's poor economy cannot be blamed on the governor. She simply does not have the fiscal or monetary policy tools at her disposal either to have caused it to tank in the first place or to yank it out of the doldrums now.

So whom should we blame? For better and for worse, our fortunes in Michigan have been tied to the auto industry for the better part of the last hundred years. Auto sales are extremely sensitive to national economic conditions. If the U.S. economy slides into recession, consumers stop spending on consumer durables like automobiles. The consequence for a state like Michigan can be disastrous.

Given the recovery of the U.S. economy, why haven't we followed suit? I have four possible answers:

First, the national recovery has not been very strong or very sustained. Both the federal budget deficit and the trade deficit are positively huge by historical standards. Some indicators look good, but a lot of other traditional indicators have been pretty flat.

Second, because of fears about inflation, the Federal Reserve has been engaged in a prolonged program of raising interest rates. Higher interest rates are bad news for sales of large goods such as automobiles.

Third, the auto industry is clearly undergoing major structural change. Gas prices have tripled in the last decade. Demand is shifting away from the SUVs and light trucks. The market for vehicles is more competitive than ever before, and this exerts constant downward pressure on market share for the domestic companies. As local automakers scale down, that puts a drag on our prospects for recovery.

A fourth possibility is that those who would blame the governor are simply exaggerating. Consider that Michigan's unemployment rate has averaged 7.4% over the last 45 years. The current 6% rate doesn't seem so bad. Moreover, using the same 45-year window of data, Michigan's unemployment rate has exceeded the national rate by about 25% on average. With the current U.S. rate at 4.6%, we are almost exactly where we have traditionally been relative to the nation.

Finally, comparing the state's employment situation at the same points of Engler's first term to Granholm's first term, one finds Engler had both higher unemployment (6.3%) and 300,000 fewer jobs (4.5 million versus 4.8 million).

I'm not trying to tell anyone whom to vote for come November. I bristle at the thought, however, that the election might be hijacked by a slick campaign of disinformation. Let the election be decided on the basis of which candidate presents the stronger vision concerning issues over which the next governor really does have control.

KEVIN J. MURPHY is a professor of economics at Oakland University and a political independent. Write to him in care of the Free Press Editorial Page, 600 W. Fort St., Detroit 48226 or oped@freepress.com.

Well, Duh!

Lance Bass of `N Sync reveals he's gay

07/26/2006 10:37 AM, AP


Lance Bass, band member of 'N Sync, says he's gay and in a "very stable" relationship with a reality show star. Bass, who formed 'N Sync with Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Joey Fatone and Chris Kirkpatrick, tells People magazine that he didn't earlier disclose his sexuality because he didn't want to affect the group's popularity.

"I knew that I was in this popular band and I had four other guys' careers in my hand, and I knew that if I ever acted on it or even said (that I was gay), it would overpower everything," he tells the magazine.

'N Sync is known for a string of hits including "Bye Bye Bye" and "It's Gonna Be Me." The band went on hiatus in 2002. Bass has also found headlines for undertaking astronaut training and failing to raise money for a trip into space.

Bass says he wondered if his coming out could prompt "the end of 'N Sync." He explains, "So I had that weight on me of like, `Wow, if I ever let anyone know, it's bad.' So I just never did."

The singer says he's in a "very stable" relationship with 32-year-old actor Reichen Lehmkuhl, winner of season four of CBS' "Amazing Race."

Bass and Fatone, 29, are developing a sitcom pilot inspired by the screwball comedy "The Odd Couple," in which his character will be gay.

"The thing is, I'm not ashamed — that's the one thing I went to say," Bass says. "I don't think it's wrong, I'm not devastated going through this. I'm more liberated and happy than I've been my whole life. I'm just happy."

Damn Death...

You scored as XIII: Death. Death is probably the most well known Tarot card - and also the most misunderstood. Most Tarot novices would consider Death to be a bad card, especially given its connection with the number thirteen. In fact this card rarely indicates literal death.Without "death" there can be no change, only eventual stagnation. The "death" of the child allows for the "birth" of the adult. This change is not always easy. The appearance of Death in a Tarot reading can indicate pain and short term loss, however it also represents hope for a new future.

XIII: Death		75%
II - The High Priestess		69%
XIX: The Sun		69%
VIII - Strength		63%
XVI: The Tower		63%
I - Magician		56%
XI: Justice		50%
XV: The Devil		50%
X - Wheel of Fortune		50%
0 - The Fool		44%
III - The Empress		38%
IV - The Emperor		38%
VI: The Lovers		25%

Which Major Arcana Tarot Card Are You?
created with QuizFarm.com

Stolen from Coronado

Cobra Starship - Snakes on a Plane

Sweet video from the soundtrack of the movie whose whole premise is right in the title... Snakes on a Plane.

Melting...

It's hot. I had to wait until the sun went down a bit to take Skippy for a walk. It was still steamy. He apparently doesn't understand why god created air conditioning.

I've been watching a lot of brainless TV this summer. Well, more brainless than normal. One of the things I've been watching is Kyle XY, on the ABC Family channel. It's kind of John Doe for teens. There's also new seasons of Reno 911!, Chappelle's Show, The Dead Zone,The 4400, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, Monk, The Closer and new shows Psych and Saved. I'm still rather far behind on some of the other shows from the spring. I need another long weekend just to catch up on some things. 4 days of lounging about watching TV would be awesome.

Friday went to play poker with Austin's friend Brian somewhere in the wilds of Wixom. I lost $40 but won back $10 in the last game. Still, fairly inexpensive for a night's entertainment. Saturday I was supposed to go to the roller derby with Austin, but my stomach was still acting up. I went to my parents on Sunday for dinner. I also talked to Dan on the talking box for a while.

Man, sometimes I just don't know how to end these posts.

It's still hot out. Even with the rain.

Tongue Tide

Weekend was fun. Went to Jenn's Friday for "Fry-day". We deep fried many things and also went to Gus O'Connors for drinks. Then we deep fried more things after the bar.

Saturday I went to Austin's and we used our newly devised system to decide where to get dinner. The dice chose Tubby's. It was good. Then Austin had ordered the UFC 61 on pay-per-view and we watched that. Jordan and Gerry, and also Steve came over and watched too. After that Austin and I met up with Beckie, Jenn, Ryan and "Full-Asian" Mike at the Coney. The food took a while to come out. I think I may have pissed off Beckie with a comment I made.

Somehow, from my brain to my mouth, whatever I was attempting to say ended up not being as funny as it sounded in my mind. This happens to me frequently. Maybe I'm only funny in my mind. Anyway, I didn't mean to offend, I don't usually mean to offend or be mean, but somehow the words just come out wrong and it gets construed wrongly. I can't even blame alcohol for the afore-mentioned incident, as I hadn't been drinking. I guess maybe that's why I usually follow the adage of, "Better to keep quiet and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt." Also, maybe some topics are better left unjoked about.

Anywho, beyond that I had a couple cups of coffee at the coney, and I was up for a couple hours after I got home. I read a travel book on Hawaii I had gotten at Sam's Club earlier that day. Then I slept in until like 3 or so in the afternoon. Lovely.

New Music Video From David "The Hoff" Hasselhoff - "Jump In My Car"

It's awesomely cheese-tastic. Shweet. That's right, it's Hofficial... your favourite cult icon wants to take you home! The one and only David Hasselhoff of "Bay Watch" and "Knight Rider" fame returns with a cover of the 1975 classic 'Jump In My Car' and its a doozy. Recorded in Sydney last year with the legendary Harry Vanda (AC/DC, The Angels), the Ted Mulry Gang tune has been re-vamped with full Hoff gusto and this music video promises to rock the socks off all his Hofficial fans. Watch it, enjoy it, share it on Google Video, courtesy of Sony BMG Australia. Want more? Buy the buy the track on iTunes Australia by clicking here: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=155871591&s=143460

Maybe I should take this again...

Reserved Leader

Pork on the Fourth of July

Lots of stuff happened this weekend. Here's a few keywords.

Mystery Friday.
Cornhole.
Car Parts.
Karaoke.
TV.
New Pornographers.
Late Payments.
TV.
Rolling Dice.
WAB.
Berkley Front
TV.
Superman Returns
Dogs.
BBQ Pork Loin.
Cornhole.

I'm sure that I did some other stuff, but it escapes me at the moment.

Ms. Austin

My Placesetting Card
Originally uploaded by M Kawamoto.

I went to Austin's cousin's wedding on Saturday. The ceremony was at St. Hugo of the Hills, which is a really nice church. It was a bit different than other churches I've been to though, there was this throne for the priest, and giant altar in the middle of place. There were also some Filipino wedding traditions that they followed, which was a little different. Still, a beautiful service.

The reception wasn't for a couple hours after that though, so I went home for a bit, saw Beckie who was taking the dogs to a dog park (Thanks Beckie and Sarah too.), and chilled out. I decided to stop by the Apple Store at Somerset for a bit as the reception was at the Somerset Inn, across the street from the mall. I ran into Audrey, Allen and Austin's cousin Michael there, as they had mentioned they were going there. We left the mall and went to the reception.

They had name tags for all the tables and Vic (Austin's cousin) mentioned something about my tag being under Austin's name. When I found the tag (as shown above), I laughed. And then I was teased mercilessly as "Ms. Austin."

The reception was a lot of fun. Austin was quite drunk when the wedding party entered the reception. Also, Austin had put his guest down for a vegetarian meal, so I had to finagle the waiter into bringing me the beef entree. The food ended up being pretty good, and the rest of the party was a good time.

So, Congratulations to Vic and Lea. Thanks for the good time.

Edit: Forgot to mention that I've been dogsitting Scooter this last weekend. That's why Beckie and Sarah (Beckie's sister) came over to walk and play with the dogs (plural, you see). "Mike"'s picking up Scooter this afternoon.

Also, I love parentheses. Even if I use them incorrectly.

Love the grammar ninja!

Car bombed...

Went out to Novi last night to go out with Jenn. We ended up going to Gus O'Connor's again, and sitting in the same booth we sat in last time. We waited for other people to show up, but only Jenn's friend Mike (Another Asian Mike) and his friend Tom showed up.

We had Irish Car Bombs and some more beers and Jenn and I had those Chambord drinks that she likes, and well, I hadn't had anything to eat since 4:30, so I was pretty drunk. Actually on the drive back to Jenn's I began to feel drunker, as some of the alcohol must have begun to absorb more. I ended laying on the floor of Jenn's bathroom for a while as I was a bit spin-y. Then I passed out on her couch. Another Asian Mike and Tom were sleeping on the floor.

I woke up about 5:15AM and headed home. I didn't know that it actually starts to get light outside about that time. Obviously because it's so close to the solstice that there are a lot of hours of daylight, but I just didn't realize I slept through so many of them usually.

Oh, my liver.

Card Sharks and other sea creatures

Friday was uneventful except for going to dinner with Dan at Olga's.

Saturday was hot. I mostly watched TV and stayed in the air-conditioning. Austin and I did end up going to the El Grande Azteca Mexican restaurant across from Oakland Mall. We were pleasantly surprised to find they had finally acquired a liquor license. Later, we headed to Beckie's cousin's house where Beckie was cat-sitting the hairless cats. We played Balderdash and eventually UNO all while drinking 'forties'.

Playing UNO reminded me of another card game we used to play a lot in high school, Egyptian Rat Screw, or as we commonly abbreviated it, ERS. I couldn't remember how to play it so I ended up looking it up when I got home. The rules sounded familiar, as did the warnings of violence.

Here's links to some various sites with the rules. One of the variant rules that I had never heard of, was the "Pyromania" rule, where if 666 was played, then the deck had to be burned. We probably would have gotten in a fair amount of trouble for kind of pyromania.

Egyptian Ratscrew
Egyptian Ratscrew

Last night Dan and I went to the WAB for cheap booze and they had $2.50 margaritas. Excellent. Austin also stopped by for a time. Good times.

Ha!

Pearls Before Swine for today

Close Encounters or rather Near-Close Encounters

Totally weird.

I went to dinner with John last night, 'cause Julie was working late. We ended up going to the Quizno's on 14 Mile, and we're sitting there eating, I'm on the phone with Dan, and I look up and I see a car that looks familiar turning into the parking lot. I'm looking at the driver and it looks a lot like Fisher. The car pulls in and it is Chris. He sees John and I and gives me kind of a dirty look and then turns his car around and drives off. Freakin' bizarre.

Also, last night we also played poker at Austin's. I played horribly and got screwed a couple times. I ended up losing second. John was actually one of three left at the table by the time I ended up leaving, so I'm not sure how John placed.

Like a Good Neighbor

I was going to mention this before, but this last weekend I had a bit of a confrontation with my neighbor, but it was in a good way. My neighbors to the left I haven't talked to much before, and when I was outside this weekend, the neighbor asked me if I didn't like them. I don't dislike them and thought they didn't like me, and we realized that we had just kind of misunderstood each other. We're starting over. I'm making an effort to say hi and just be a good neighbor.

I know that I didn't really make an effort before, but as is my way, I mostly keep to myself. That and most interactions we had had before weren't always positive, e.g. the late-night-howling episode. So, really it's really mostly my fault that we haven't been neighborly.

So in the knowledge that I'm likely to be living next to these people for a least a couple more years, I might as well be friendly if not necessarily friends.

Toledo! Oh, Toledo!

I'm still rather tired this morning. I don't think I even heard my alarm clock this morning. This is due to my weekend.

Friday Austin and I went out to Novi to have dinner with Ryan and Jenn. We went to Happy Sushi and um, yum, sushi. Then we went over Fountain Walk to the Emagine to see a movie. We were going to see The Break Up but had just missed a showing and decided against waiting for the next showtime, instead opting to go to a bar. We went to Gus O'Connors in the "Main Street" Novi area. We sat in a booth that had window directly to the bar.

Convenient. We had some Irish Car bombs and I think I had a Boddingtons, Smithwicks and a Black and Tan. Tasty. Someone had a craving for ice cream so we headed to Meijer after that. I bought some Skippy stuff, like rawhides and a bowl mat to help contain his spillage. I think I ended up getting home about 3, not sure, but it was late.

Saturday morning I had to get up to meet "Mike" and drop off Skippy for the night. "Mike" and I went out to get some dim sum too, as he had a exhibit that evening and he had a performance piece that involved serving dim sum food, so he was picking up a to-go order also.

After leaving "Mike"'s, I did some yard work and also decided to wash and wax my car.

Later, Austin and I went down to Toledo for Ryan's "June 10th" party. Austin and I hadn't eaten yet, so after stopping in at Ryan's we went out to Long John Silver's. There were some pretty sketchy people around. There was a guy at the restaurant wearing a Dio t-shirt. On our way back to Ryan's we stopped at the liquor store. I'm not sure who was dodgier, the people that worked there or the customers. Anyway though, I bought a six-pack of Beast Ice tall-boys for only $3.00. Awesomely cheap. After a bit of pre-partying, we went to the RHouse. There was much drinking. It was amazingly cheap at that bar. I ended up falling asleep/passing out soon after we got back to Ryan's apartment.

Jenn slept inside a monkey.

In the morning we went out for pancakes. IHOP not very international we decided. I also unfortunately had to cough when I had a mouth full of coffee, spraying some on Ryan. This made Jenn laugh hysterically for several minutes.

Eventually we made it home. I was tired and after picking up Skippy from "Mike"'s I did laundry and watched TV. I also watched Grandma's Boy, which while it did have a few funny parts, is probably much funnier if you are as stoned as the guys acting in the movie, writing the movie, directing the movie, and editing the movie.

Yawn.

Beep beep boop *beep* bloop! blurp...

Well, looks like the wireless portion of my router has died. That's $50 bucks I didn't really want to spend. I guess I can get by as the regular wired part is still working. I'm not sure what caused it to stop working, but I did have a brief power outage yesterday morning, and that could have fried it. I guess it's time to upgrade. I'm going to try a few more things tonight to try to revive it, but from looking on the internet, it's not an entirely uncommon thing to happen with these, especially considering it's about 4 or 5 years old.

This is what I have.

This is what I'm considering getting.


Yes, they look nearly identical. But the new one would be faster for computers that support that speed. So, any of my neighbors leaching off my signal could download whatever they wanted faster.

Poker? I hardly know her!

Well, there was a lot of poker playing this weekend. Thursday night we played at Austin's, I came in 4th, just out of the money.

Friday night, Austin and I went to his cousin's friend's place to play. I ended up down about 20 bucks that night.

Saturday, John came over to pick up his chairs and tables. We were putting something in the trunk of John's car and because we didn't latch the gate, Skippy managed to push it open and took off down the street. Luckily we cornered him in a neighbor's yard before he got too far. Later, I went to Austin's where Gerry and Jordan eventually showed up and we played Guitar Hero. They left after while and being hungry, Austin and I went to late night Dim-Sum place for food and then to Lucky's in Novi to meet up with Steve for his birthday.

Sunday, my parents came over to plant my garden, I now have 3 tomatoes and a jalapeno plant growing. I also cleaned my gutters out as there was a tiny forest growing in them.

I watched two movies I got in the mail, Date Movie, which was horrible, and American Pie: Band Camp , which was less horrible. Band Camp definitely was the more boob-filled movie. Neither is the pinnacle of film-making, but at least I laughed more than 3 times at Band Camp.

I still a lot of TV to catch up on in the meantime. You know where you can find me, chilling on the couch in the A/C, drinking a beer.

One too cool dog

One too cool dog
Originally uploaded by M Kawamoto.

Skippy is cool. Way cool.

And what happens when you drive too fast...

Doesn't that dog look like Skippy?

Holiday! It could be so fine!

Well, I'm back to work after a short long weekend. Bummer.

I took Friday off, and made the cornhole platforms with help from John, and when to the Apple Buffet with Austin for dinner. Austin was disappointed that there were only 2 items with apples in them at the chinese buffet. Later we went to see Art School Confidential which was pretty good. We met up with Elizabeth and Andrew and (his wife and I can't remember her name) and after the movie we ended up at Gusoline Alley for a couple beers. When I got home, I had to do some prep work for the barbeque. I made the Baja Fresh-style salsa and the teriyaki marinade. It was pretty late by the time I was finished with everything.

Saturday was the barbeque. By all accounts, apparently everyone had a good time. Cornhole playing, beef on the barbeque, totally gay dog-on-dog action, beer and wine. The weather was nearly perfect. There were some drunken antics, but nothing that hasn't been seen before.

I still have a pretty decent cache of beer leftover, and some of the food. I guess I'll just live off it for a little while.

Sunday, Austin and I met Jordan to see X-Men: The Last Stand (no really, we mean it, unless it does well and then, well, just kidding!). It was pretty decent even though it seems like they do some things that would make it difficult to continue the series, although in the comic books, they revive characters all the time. Whoops! Was that a spoiler?

Didn't really do much else on Sunday, although we did go to Best Buy after the movie. I bought Me and My Katamari for the PSP. It's awesomely weird.

Monday I went to Pine Knob to watch the autocross event. I actually got to ride along on Brad's first run. It was pretty cool although I was holding onto the "oh-shit" handle the whole time. I just hung out there all day watching the cars race around. It was pretty freakin' hot though. The heat can be really tiring.

I watched some more Doctor Who finally. The werewolf episode was decent. The next episode should be interesting. I still have a lot of TV to catch up on, I think there's more than 5 episodes each of Supernatural, Invasion and Crossing Jordan. There's also a new season of My Fair Brady starting now, and Monk, The Closer and a new series Psyche coming in the summer.

I need a vacation from my weekend. Whew.

Howl at the Moon

Yep, it's another dog post. What has Skippy done now, you might ask. Well, he woke me up at 2 in the morning to go outside. He then decided to serenade the neighborhood. I yelled at him to stop and went outside to bring him in, but he, of course, ran away from me. As it was cold I gave up and went back inside. A little bit later, my neighbor knocked on my door to tell me to take the dog inside. I was very embarrassed and thankfully her visit distracted Skippy enough where I could grab him by the collar and get him inside.

I'm beginning to realize how lucky I was with Muffin, my first dog. There's definitely some relearning I need to do.

In non-dog related things, Happy Birthday to Beckie! Also a congratulations to her on getting a job also. We celebrated Beckie's birthday on Saturday night at her cousin Jennifer's house. We also learned that in the Battle of the Sexes, most men must be morons. Fortunately the men at the party were somewhat higher evolved.

Friday I went to Small's with Austin and Kevin, a former co-worker of Austin's. We saw a couple bands, The Recital, Zoos of Berlin and Canada. All pretty decent, Zoos of Berlin sort of reminded me of early Chicago, and Canada was very Decemberists-esque.

Saturday during the day I went to the Comic Con with Austin, Gerry and Jordan. It was nerd-tastical. I got a couple new Buffy figures and a comic book by Frank Cho (or Liberty Meadows). After the comic con we went back to Gerry's where Austin threw the Ultimate Warrior at Jordan's car and then locked his keys in the trunk. He had to borrow his parent's car to drive back to his place to get the spare key.

Yesterday I did some cleaning around the house in preparation for the party next weekend. I can't believe it's nearly Memorial Day weekend. The spring has kind of flown past. I mowed my lawn and cleaned up the basement somewhat. I still need to vacuum down there, but I picked up all the big stuff. I'm taking Friday off this week so I can do some other things around the house to get ready. Also need to shop for food. Sam's Club, here I come.


* Just ran the post through spell check. It wanted to replace Jennifer with either "conifer" or "sniper". Hee.

Rub-a-dub-dub, Skippy in the tub

Skippy found something... something horrible smelling. And then he rolled in it.

There was no way he was staying that stinky. I had to give him a bath. Thankfully I didn't get a wet as he did. Actually, he was pretty good about it. He didn't try to jump out of the tub or anything. He did give me an awfully pathetic look though. Dogs.

In other news, I have booked my flight for Hawaii. I posted about it on my other, other blog, Mike Goes to Hawaii, but since I don't think many other people know about it yet, and there's not much there yet, people might not have heard. I leave on October 4th and get back on the 18th, a day after I start that flight. Ah, the joys of jet lag.

Ima Gonna Go Postal!

So annoying. I ordered The Big Lebowski through Blockbuster Online, and for the second time it has shown up broken. I'm gonna go bitchcakes on them. How am I supposed to make a copy when it keeps showing up cracked and broken?

Other things... last week Dan was in town. We went to a movie on Wednesday, we saw Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic at Brew and View at the Magic Bag. Friday we went to dinner at the Redcoat, and then went to the Berkley Front where we met up with Tess and some of her friends. Saturday I played poker at Austin's. I ended up winning. I credit Phil Gordon's book. I had it with me. I haven't read much of it, but having it there seemed to act as a good luck charm. Either that or I just played smart.

Yesterday I took Skippy to John and Julie's for Max's birthday party. Skippy seemed to have a good time.

I watched Alias and I'm watching Lost now. Very interesting.

I guess that's all for now.

Of birds and bricks, ladders and licks

Ah the excitement.

Friday I went over to Sarah and Jackie's for Cinco de Drinko. I took Skippy with me, and he had fun playing with Louie and Duke, although I think he was a little tired of Louie trying to hump him by the end of the night. I didn't end up going to the bar to see that band with Jessica and Beckie.

Saturday was a long day. Skippy woke me when he wanted to go outside. I took him for a walk and then went over to a co-worker's to get some paver bricks to fill an area in my driveway. Then my parents stopped by on their way to a garden sale, and John came over to help me fix my chimney cap.

I had to climb up the ladder which freaked me out a little bit, but I flipped the cap back on top of the chimney, and didn't know that there was still a bird in the top of the chimney. Not so good. But there's no way I'm getting back up on that ladder. I think I'll have to call a chimney sweep or some such thing.

After that, John and I went to Home Despot and got some stuff he needed and some stuff I needed. I got new light fixtures for my garage, and for my side door light. I also got some of the parts for my cornhole boards.

Edit: Later on Saturday I met up with Tess at Grissoms over on the east side for Karaoke. I rocked Touch Me by The Doors. It was a birthday party for one of Tess's friends from Ren Faire. There was much mischief. ( I had meant to include this, but somehow forgot)

Sunday, after walking Skippy, I went out to Pine Knob (DTE Energy Center is for chumps) to watch the SCCA autocross event. Autocross is car racing against the clock around a course set up in a big parking lot. I know a bunch of guys from the Subaru club that were racing, so I hung out with them. I was on my way home to go to dinner at my parents when Beckie called to see if I wanted to do dinner.

So Austin, Beckie and I ended up going to dinner at Alex's of Berkley. After dinner we hung out at my place and watched The Forty-Year-Old Virgin with the commentary. It was hilarious as usual. "Be like David Caruso in Jade"

I guess that's about it. I guess this weekend will have Dan-related activities as he is to be back in town, judging from the email I just got.

Shuffle shuffle razr razr

Well, I did it. I got a new phone.

EDIT: My number has not changed. Feel free to continue to not call me.

But first, a little about my day. I had more training in Dearborn this morning, but we finished early. Like over an hour early. At this point I had decided to go to Compusa because they had a deal on RAZRs. I know there's one somewhere in Dearborn, but I gave up looking after driving around a little bit, and decided to stop by home to let the dog out and have lunch. I also ended watching Veronica Mars. OMG. It was awesome.

Anyway, went to work, left at 4:30, and headed to the Compusa near Oakland mall and got my new RAZR. The deal they have going on this week is, for new activation or 2 year contract extension, FREE RAZR*! (*After $50 rebate, but I'm good with those things) And if you bought any accessory, you get a free iPod Shuffle (512MB). So I got a new phone, a car charger and the iPod for $72 out the door, and I'm getting $50 back once I send in the rebate form. Totally awesome! I am currently rocking out on the Shuffle. It's going to be nice for walking the dog, so I don't have to wear the 20gb. Man I am such a dork.

Staccato like gunfire

Well, a couple quick things, while I still remember.

Friday night I went to see Slither with Jessica. While it wasn't a very scary movie, it was a lot of fun, and pretty funny.

Saturday, I took Skippy over to "Mike"'s for a playdate with Scooter. He had fun. "Mike" told me about a piece he was working on for a show at the Detroit Contemporary (or whatever it's called these days) which involved Dim Sum. It sounds very amusing. I also went to the mall to look into getting a new phone. The guys at the T-Mobile store gaped in awe at the "old-and-busted"-ness of my phone. I may get this phone. Or I could just get a RAZR. I don't know. After my adventures (not!) at the mall, I went to Best Buy with Austin. After that I had to pick up Skippy and feed him, but then went to dinner with Austin at the Thai Silver Bowl, which in accordance with my Asian Restaurant Law had dingy decor but very good food. Then we played Tekken 5 back at Austin's.

Sunday I had dinner with my parents and my sister at B-Dubs (Buffalo Wild Wings, for those not down with the lingo) out in Novi, being approximately the same distance for my parents as for my sister. Ummm... tasty wings.

Yesterday, I had to go down to Dearborn for training in some Ford related stuff. At least I got to expense lunch. Later, I met Austin at the Berkley Front where he was hanging out and celebrating with some people. His friends Jackie (Rachel's sister) and John had just graduated, so there were a bunch of people that came out. We watched the Wings lose and the Pistons win. Jackie also told us she saw Chris at the graduation, he was working for the U of M Dearborn bookstore again. She also referred to him as "creepy". The bar closed around midnight and Austin dropped me at home (I had walked there) and went off to meet up with all those people at another bar.

Today, I was supposed to have more training in Dearborn, but the instructor is ill, so I'm going next week. Tomorrow I have another training session, but only in the morning. It kind of sucks, because the classes start right at 8, and because of the construction on the Southfield, it's kind of slow to get there, which means I have to be up extra early.

I noticed birds flying into my chimney the other day. What has happened is that the cap on the chimney got partially blown off in all those wind storms we had a couple weeks ago, so now the birds can get in there and build a nest. Dammit. I have to get up on the ladder and try and fix the cap and keep the birds out. Otherwise, the basement will just fill with carbon monoxide. I'll have to call John to hold the ladder.

Damn Skippy

*Started Monday night*

Skippy has continued his disobedient ways. I did find this which might help me. I had left him out this morning and got a call from my neighbor (she's now working nights) about him howling. He doesn't want to come when I call him. This may be partially my fault for making him come for unpleasant things.

*Thursday morning*

Well, I've been taking him out in the morning on the leash. He still isn't real good about listening, but I read that's not unusual for Beagles/Beagle mixes. I guess I have to continue to work with him to train him better. Work? Man, dogs. Darn cute log of a dog.

Quite Possibly the Best Thing You Could Do For Your Car

Sometimes, sometimes, the Secretary of State gets something right. This is one of those rare times. In case you haven't seen this before, you can look for personalized plates and see what's available and it will even let you see what it looks like.

Plate It Your Way

Here's a couple I came up with.







Thanks to Temporary Madness for the link

I Can Feel It

Weird weekend. I had Good Friday off, but on Thursday one of my co-workers collapsed at work and was taken to the hospital. They think it may have been a blood clot in his heart, but it is likely related to stress caused by his supervisor. He should be ok, but I haven't heard anything more about him.

Friday, since I was off (er... had a holiday), I went over to a guy from the Subaru forums house and helped him install some parts on his car. I took Skippy with me and another guy from the forums brought his dog. The dogs played. The weather was totally awesome.

I was supposed to pick Dan from the airport, but he missed his flight due to an incompetent cabbie. I ended up going to dinner with John at Memphis Smoke where we sat in the upstairs outside deck and had beers and food. I was not feeling so hot and didn't do anything else that night. Dan's rescheduled flight was supposed to arrive at 8am so I went to bed a bit early.

Saturday morning as I was getting ready to leave for the airport when I got a call from Dan. He had fallen asleep and missed his flight. He was able to get it rescheduled again for the afternoon. I picked him up and we went to late lunch at Lucy's in GP. Saturday was hanging out at Sarah and Jackie's. We watched Shaun of the Dead. Hilarious every time I see it. I was tired though, because of the early wakeup for the non-flight.

Sunday I drove down to my Grandma's house and had dinner there. Skippy tried to take off a couple times, so I had to run him down. He certainly enjoys making me chase him. Also, I think he's shedding his winter coat, leaving the interior of my car a hairy mess. I need a giant lint roller. There had been talk of doing something Sunday night, but everybody was tired and whatnot, as was I so I stayed in and only watched a little TV.

Today, after work, I went to get my oil changed. When I got home, Dan called, needing a ride to the airport. I took Dan to the airport. It was uneventful.

The second your body is ready: grow one.

This weekend was pretty good, although Friday I didn't do much, as I was feeling pretty tired. Saturday, though, I talked on the phone with Dan for a while. That night I went out to dinner with Austin, Steve and Elizabeth. It was for Elizabeth's birthday so we went to this Cuban restaurant downtown called Vincente's. It was really good, but we didn't really realize what the drink prices were, and between 5 of us (Elizabeth's cousin Sarah also came to dinner) the liquor portion of our bill was ~$80. Mojitos are awesome though. I will be serving them at some party in the future.

After dinner we went to the Town Pump where we met up with Gerry and Melissa, and a couple other of Elizabeth's friends. I guess the Town Pump must be a popular stop on bar crawls as we saw at least 4 different bachelorette parties come and go. Austin was picked to do a shot with one of the bachelorettes. I don't know about everyone else, but I got pretty decently drunk. *fuzzy memory recollection* I think I had 6 pints. In any case I was a little hungover this morning. My parents came over for dinner and I ordered pizza. The delivery guy forgot the breadsticks and came back later with them, I forgot to add tip to the credit card slip, so I gave him a couple buck when he returned. It would have worked out either way.

Ooo. Check my MySpace profile for a picture of my latest facial hairstyle. It's inspired by a television sitcom. That's it I guess, for now.

The Great Skip-scape

I decided to go a show after having dinner at the Redcoat with Austin, Beckie and JohnandJulie. The show was at the Berkley Front, and was this band, The Singles, who Austin and I had seen before, but for whom the new drummer was Brian G. formerly of Catalog Only.

Skippy was being a brat and didn't want to come inside so I thought he'd be ok outside, as the garage was open if he wanted to stay dry. Now I had some reservations about leaving him outside all day, and as it turns out, those reservations were well founded.

I drove over to the Front and I'm inside for only maybe 15 minutes, when I get a call from "Mike". It turns out that Skippy had managed to escape from the backyard and was found by a neighbor just down the block. The neighbor was on his way to the bowling alley and dropped Skippy off with me in front of the Berkley Front. I then drove him home and locked him in the crate. After that I went back for the rest of the show, having only been detoured for maybe 15 minutes.

The show was pretty good, although the second band, The Red Rocks were kind of meh. Brian's band, though, was really good, but having seen them before as a four-piece, I felt their sound was a little thin as a power trio.

Back to the fence issue, the weak point is my gate. It's only really held up by some bungie cords, and Skippy was able to push the gate enough to stretch and squeeze out. Maybe I shouldn't let him get any skinnier. :) Anyway, I guess I'll have to think of a way to fortify the gate if he's going to stay outside when I'm gone. I also need to get him a new I.D. tag with my phone number on it so "Mike" doesn't get calls about him.

I just insulted him in a Scottish accent... "You're just a big fat log!" Skippy that it, not "Mike".

I guess I'm lucky he didn't get too far and didn't wander out into the street at an inopportune time.

Now he's trying to look all innocent and put-upon. Stupid, cute, dog.

I don't want to grow up, I'm a Toys R Mine kid!

Interesting article from New York Magazine about the demise of the generation gap and all us "old hipsters" who like the same things all them young kids like. Oh, Seth Cohen... where have you led us?

Up With Grups

A few photos to share

Here's the pictures I promised of the porch and of my car.

Freshly repaired porch
Originally uploaded by M Kawamoto.

Let's Vet It Started

I took Skippy to the vet today to get some shots. Skip did not like the needles. His ears were kind of gunky too, so they gave me some stuff that I have to squirt in there. Skippy is not amused. Other than the ear thing, Skippy is healthy, if a bit chunky.

The vet also gave me an up-to-date record of his shots so I can get him licensed in Berkley. Then he won't be illegal.

In other news, I got new wheels for my car. They're not actually new, but new to me. I bought them off another member of the Suby board. They look nice, but now the car looks a little high, so I might need to put in different springs, and then different struts and a different exhaust and a bigger turbo and then engine management... and generally this is how it goes when you start modifying your car. Wheels are like a gateway mod. I'll put up a picture of the car with the new wheels sometime soon.

Wow, I actually have variety of small news items, another one being I had my porch fixed. These guys that fixed John's porch came and replaced the crumbly steps and blocks in the porch and mortared over the whole thing, making it look good. That picture will be posted later.

Beer as big as your head

At the Hofbrauhaus with our 1 Ltr beers
Originally uploaded by M Kawamoto.

Drew's girlfriend Erin sent this picture to me. Yes, the beers are as big as your head. So tasty. I think we are all fairly drunk by this time, but I finished that beer and started another before we left. So drunken.

I was in Kentucky?

I went to a wedding this weekend. It was one of my fraternity brothers, Adam. The wedding was in Cincinnati, so Austin and I drove down there early Saturday. Our hotel was on the Kentucky side of the river. At one point in my drunken thought process last night, I exclaimed, "I'm in Kentucky?!" in both amazement and confusion. Below, find a few pictures I took which will further detail the weekend's events.


Here is the accident that had us backed up in traffic for an hour, less than 25 miles from our destination. A truck had slid off the road, through the barrier and into the ditch. We had to merge from 4 lanes to one, on the shoulder. Suck.


This was the view from our balcony. I knew that heavy drinking was in store that night, so the Waffle House kitty-corner from the hotel was a welcome sight.


Adam and Andrea. The happy couple walking down the aisle after getting hitched.


This is the centerpiece on the tables, and also, the pitifully small glass of champagne they gave us for the toast.


The Bar Commitee had enough members that night to call quorum. From left to right, Joe (Adam's friend and best man, but not a Delta Chi member), Austin, Me, Dan Fanton, Drew, and the groom, Adam.
There was an open bar, which we took advantage of. Also, by random chance, and proximity to the bar, we chose our table, and thankfully ended up getting called to the buffet line early. It could have been disastrous had we eaten last and used that time to drink.


The bar stopped serving liquor about an hour before the hall was kicking us out, so to be sure to keep his buzz going, Austin wisely prepared and got a back-up drink.

Ok, now for the rest of the evening that I don't have photos for. We left the hall about 11:00, and went back to the hotel to drop things off (like my camera) and then headed out for the bar. Everybody stayed dressed in their tuxes/dresses/suits, thus we were looked at rather strangely when we got to the bar. We went to the Hofbrauhaus Newport, a German beer hall. I had 2 of the liter mugs of beer and then a bit more. There was a polka/pop/rock cover band playing and everybody dances on top of the benches and there clinking of mugs and oh so much drunken antics. We drunk dialed a couple people. I think. It was really fun time.

After the bar we hung out in Drew's room for a while and pranked Joe, who fell asleep. Bad idea in a room full of drunk people. We started stacking ice cubes on his crotch. Hilarious.

In the morning I was awoken by the maid. After checkout Austin and I went to breakfast at the afore-mentioned Waffle House with Joe, Drew and Erin (Drew's girlfriend). After that we headed back to Detroit, with a drive that was thankfully uneventful.

As a side note, I had forgotten that southern Ohio is pretty southern. They's got a bit of an accent down there, darlin'.

flowerpot antitrust

I got some spam in my junk mail... I thought it was amusing as poetry.

flowerpot antitrust

prerequisite to YWCA as fax sinister lubricant and showing
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engineer the woods,
callousness sack heartbroken the sanctity
the cartoonist lastly definitive as headmistress,
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intricacy,
payoff gaudy e-mail,

Dormus Interruptus Skippus*

Grumble. Skip woke me up this morning at around 3 to go outside. Well, it's better that than him peeing somewhere inside. He didn't want to go out because of the rain when I was wanting to go to bed, and I figured he'd be ok until morning. It's still better than if Max has to go in the middle of the night, because I can just open the door and let Skippy out, whereas John has to take Max out on his leash. Max's leash that is, not John's**. The wonders of a fenced yard.

At least with this rain, some of the salt will get washed off my car. And it's supposed to be warmer this weekend. Excellent. Not that this winter was really that horrible. Probably just means we'll get mid-May snow.

*Worst Latin Ever.

**Just kidding.

Week 2 with the Skipper

Well, week 2 of dog ownership went a bit better. Skippy didn't chew up anything, or have any accidents. I still need to find some canned food that he likes, he doesn't really like the diet stuff, but he likes the diet Iams dry food alright.

Big thanks to Beckie's Mom for reimbursing me for Skippy's new crate. I really appreciate it. Thanks.

Friday Night's All Right For Magic

Friday, Austin and I played Magic again with John Machiorlatti. It was pretty fun, as we watched The Aristocrats during it, The only thing that was annoying was John's notoriousness as a bad loser and winner. BTW, The Aristocrats is pretty damn funny.

Saturday, my computer was acting all wonky, so I had to buy a new hard drive and spent the time while the computer was copying files to watch a couple movies and some anime. I watched a couple more episodes of Full Metal Panic: FUMOFFU.

After I watched DIG!, Austin and I went to his friend Alex's (who works at Borders) place. She was having a birthday party for a friend of hers, who also works at Borders. Actually there were several people who work at Borders at the party. We ended up staying until after 3.

Today I'm at my folk's and I don't think I'm doing anything for the Oscar's. But at least my computer at home is working again and recording stuff.

Holding and folding

Went to Austin's last night for poker. I didn't want to leave Skippy alone for the evening, so I took him with me. He's not real stable in the car, I think for one because the seat material is kind of slippery and for two, because I drive sort of aggressively. All of Austin's poker buddies liked him though.

Anyway, I was doing O.K. at poker at first, I won the first hand with a pretty decent pot, but didn't really win a lot of hands after that, staying in a few hands that I should have stayed out of, and eventually losing to Austin. Still, a lot of fun for 5 bucks. Tonight is a more nerdly type of cards. And I'm not sure what's going on the rest of the weekend. Sunday is the Oscars. I'm probably going to my parents for dinner, and then maybe to Tess's afterward to watch. I think Saturday, Austin and I wanted to go check out some bands at the Blowout. Weirdly, it's no longer the "Hamtramck Blowout" just the Blowout.

Dogs have two speeds...

Fast enough to pull the leash out of your hands and slow enough to trip over.

As much as I've been complaining, I really do like having Skip. I had just forgotten how much work dogs can be.

This morning, I let him out, and I wanted to leave, but he decided it was playtime and didn't want to come inside. Eventually I got him to come in. It was much the same story after work, when I was leaving to meet up with a Subaru club I go to on Tuesdays. I was just about ready to leave him outside, but he decided to come in on his own.

Once the weather gets a bit warmer, I guess I should be able to leave him outside all day, I'm just not sure if he'd try to escape the backyard.

For now, though, my neighbor has been nice enough to stop by once and a while during the days she has off to see how he's doing.

To keep him a bit occupied when I'm gone though, I got him a Kong and they had some kind of biscuits you can stuff inside it, and that was driving him nuts earlier, trying to get at the treat. Hee hee. Dogs are silly.

This has really turned into a dog blog of late, a d'blog if you will. Actually I won't, as that is ridiculous.


Random photo of Skippy lazing on my couch.

Late nights and Monday nights

Well, Skip decided to wake me up last night at 3:30 to go outside. I was not amused. He also decided he wanted to play when I was trying to leave this morning and didn't want to come inside. He can be a little bastard sometimes.

In non-dog stuff, this season of 24 continues to kick ass. In honor of that, I am submitting this link for your amusement:

Top 24 Jack Bauer Facts

As funny as Chuck Norris facts, but because I'm afraid of being roundhouse kicked, or tortured as a terrorist, I decline to say which is actually funnier.

Feather Skip-plosion

Bad dog
Originally uploaded by M Kawamoto.

This is the new crate. Skippy managed to scoot the crate over enough to get a hold of my down comforter and ripped a hole in it. There were feathers everywhere. There are still feathers everywhere that escape the vacuum. Skippy is a very naughty dog. See how guilty he looks? I'm keeping him, but he needs to be broken of some bad habits. Any tips or tricks would be appreciated.