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.