Master of Magnetism

Lots of computer based news today. The biggest bit of that is I finally bought a new Mac. I kind of went almost all the way out and bought a MacBook Pro. I got the lowest end model, but that still runs ~$2000, so thankfully I was able to work the student discount angle, which reduced the price by $200.

It's definitely the fastest computer I've ever owned, but we'll see how well if fares at the LAN party... I mean super cool party with a bunch of awesome guys doing really neat stuff, that's totally not nerdy at all.

What finally spurred this was the fact that they just released these new, faster ones, they had a sweet rebate deal going on when you bought a computer and an iPod, and I also got a bunch of offers for 0% balance transfers until next summer.

Oh yeah, that's another thing, I got the 30Gb iPod with Video too. I have to send in the rebate for that though.

For my old computer, I just bought off the Subaru forum a DVD burner (it had a DVD reader, and an external CDRW) and installed that yesterday, and also decided to put in the refurb hard drive I got on a warranty return. Well the DVD burner went in fine, but when I fired up the computer, the refurb hard drive started making some really nasty noises and then did the "click of death". So the refurb hard drive is dead, and I have to sent that back, and hopefully they'll send me a new one.

All of my files are still on the old computer and when I wanted to sync up my iPod, I kept getting all sorts of freezes and what not, so I ended up doing a lot of troubleshooting of the USB hub and swapping ports for the cables and I've eventually gotten it to sync at full speed. Those kinds of issues are why I wish the latest iPods still were FireWire capable.

With the new computer I should have a few less of those issues, as it has built-in USB 2.0, and should play nice with the new iPod. So happy with the new laptop. It has the nice MagSafe connector where if you kick the cord, it will detach instead of dragging the whole computer to floor. The power of magnets. Awesome.

Knocked

I saw Knocked Up this weekend. It was vulgar, crude, heartfelt, touching and hilarious. It really gives all us normal guys the hope that we too can hook-up with drunk hot chicks, get them pregnant and make them fall in love with us. Maybe that wasn't the moral of the movie, but nonetheless, it was really funny. If you loved The 40-Year-Old Virgin, you're likely to like this.

That was Saturday, actually Gerry and Melissa came over and Austin and I and them went to dinner at Pasquale's before the movie. We had a crazy waitress. She was old and feisty. Gerry's friend Josh ended up meeting us at the movie also.

Saturday during the day, my dad came over with Sydney and Bentley, and so the dogs played alot. I was actually watching Scooter this last weekend, as "Mike" was in New Jersey looking for housing. I may have mentioned that before, but I'm too lazy to look at my previous post. He was supposed to be with Beckie for the actual weekend, but she ended having to housesit and catsit for her cousin... or something along those lines.

Friday night Austin, Kevin and I had a few beers at my house and then went over to the Berkley Front. Austin and I had gone for dinner at Rexy's earlier. Rice is so my nemesis.

Memorialness. The wheels come off.

Ah, the looooong weekend. So long. So drunken.

Friday, Austin and I had a couple of beers at the Berkley Front and did some discussin'.

Saturday, I went to Sam's to pick up some supplies for Saturday, and then headed up to Anna's for her birthday barbeque. Once I got there I proceeded to eat too much, drink way too much, sat around the bonfire and generally had a good time. We burned pallets and cardboard and pretty much anything else we could find. I think we drank all the beer in Anna's house. I ended falling asleep on the futon in the basement as there was no way that I was going to drive home after drinking all that beer and the shots. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that the futon was supposed to Sarah's bed for the night. I think Beckie tried to wake me about 3AM but I was having none of it. I finally woke up about 8:30AM to drive home. Nobody was up except a couple of the dogs. I had to get home to my dog.

Later on Sunday, I went shopping and stuff. Later, John, Julie, Jessica and Ari showed up for the barbeque. The weather decided to clear up, so it was actually nice by the time I got around to grilling. I just did some hamburgers and a Michigan salad. Everybody ended up leaving around 8 or so, and I called Austin to see what he was up to. We ended up heading over to the WAB for some beers. We would have gotten liquor, but we were sadly informed that they no longer have $1.50 well drinks on Sundays. We could this had been a detriment to their business, as it was definitely not as busy in there as I had remembered it being when there was the special. We didn't stay that late as Austin was heading to Cedar Point in the morning.

On Memorial Day, I took the dog for a walk and made a picnic lunch and then headed up to Pine Knob to watch the autocross. I got there just as the third heat ended and the fourth was about to start. I took some pictures of some of the guys I knew racing and also took out my R/C drift car and played around some. When everything was done, a couple of the suby people met up at Mr. B's in Royal Oak, where we had some dinner, and of course, I had another beer.

This all added up to be a not great weekend for me dietwise. I ended up cutting my hair on Sunday. With the haircut, I lost .8 lbs for the week, which probably means there was a net gain in bodyweight.

As for the t-shirts, I ended the experiment, and wore all of my t-shirts, though I think I somehow missed one. I have to check.

This coming weekend, I'm watching Scooter for "Mike", as he's heading to NJ to look at places to live and such things. "Mike" dropped him off last night and I have to find out when I can return him.

The Ultimate T-shirt

That's ultimate as in final. I have reached the end of my experiment. By my tally, I have 102 t-shirts. I was happy that I broke the one hundred mark.



Click on the picture to see the rest.

Lawn, lawn time ago

Well, I missed the Comic-Con this last weekend. I could have gone, but my dad came over on Saturday and we tilled and raked and graded and moved dirt and put down grass seed and fertilizer behind my garage and under my tree in front, so that hopefully I can have grass instead of dirt.

OMG, The Office last Thursday was hilarious. That was one of things we discussed while at the Necto on Friday night for Beckie's birthday. I drank quite a bit and went way off the diet at Denny's later. I also forgot to communicate to Beckie that Jessica might need a ride. Originally I was going to ride with Beckie and Austin, and Jim and Jennifer were also going to come, filling the car, but they were delayed and ended up driving separately. The Necto was quite fun though.

Saturday there was the aforementioned yard work and then later, I went to Westland to a party for Matt's sister Sarah (who are people that know Jordan and co.)and that was amusing. There were a lot of Jesus Christ songs, but not in the way you'd normally think.

My dad brought me a magnetic dart board. I have to try it out sometime soon.

Sunday I went to Meijer and bought a weed trimmer. It cost them $4.89, because I had a variety of gift cards and bottle deposit slips. Then I had to stop by Julon's to let out Max for Jessica and then went to Sam's Club. I was driving the Saturn most of the weekend to save gas. My parents picked me and the dog up to visit my sister, 'cause she's moving and needed boxes and moving help.

This post is really all over the place, but it doesn't really matter much. It's been a scattered day.

Dropping like flies

Well, diet, week 4 has come. I didn't weigh in last week because of my sickness, but this week I weighed in and had lost 8.2 pounds for the last 2 weeks. That's a total of 13.8lbs. I'm in the 250s. Crazy. I weigh less than 2 Austins. It really hasn't been that hard, aside from forgoing a lot of my favorite things, at least sushi is pretty good, relatively.

I'm mostly recovered from my illness. I'm still coughing a bit, but my throat is ok.

Thursday I had to rearrange my garage so I could get the trailer out so my sister could borrow it, then my Dad borrowed my Saturn and Lani's car stayed at my house the weekend so she could use my Dad's truck to tow the trailer. There was also some minor drama with trying to get the lights on the trailer to work.

Dan came home for the weekend. Nice.

Weekend was low-key for the most part. Friday I stayed home and watched TV so I could rest, Saturday, Jessica, Dan, Austin and I went to see Spiderman 3. It was decent but sort of a mess plotwise. Sunday I went with my parents to visit my Grandma for Mother's Day. Lani also came by to drop off the trailer and get her car.

Monday, Dan and I met up with Austin and Beckie at Augie's for dinner and drinks. Augie's also had Guitar Hero set up. We of course played a bit.
Tuesday a big group met up at Xochimilco's for dinner. I had some delicious chicken fajitas. Dan and I split a liter of Margarita. There was a pretty good storm going on all night, and when I got back home, Dan had come along also, we went to watch Veronica Mars, which I had recorded, but about 10 minutes in, the signal cut out, and recovered only in the last 5 minutes. My cable was intermitently out for a couple hours so, internet and TV were all screwy. I ended having to download a torrent of Veronica Mars.

I sent in a hard drive for warranty a couple weeks ago, and I got it back yesterday. I had sent in a 160GB drive and awesomely they sent me back a 250GB drive. I think I'll replace the 120GB drive that's currently in my computer. It's getting pretty full.

In The Great T-Shirt Adventure Quest 2007 news, I loaded in my latest batch of photos, bring the total to 92. I think there are maybe 8 shirts still left in my drawer, so I just might break 100. That would be awesome. I expect to make the animation sometime soon.

[insert Monty Python quote about plague]

I'm still sick. I stayed home from work yesterday after misguidedly deciding to go in on Tuesday. I went to the doctor, and she decided it was strep throat, so I got a prescription for antibiotics. Of course, she warned me if I was still sick after the antibiotics were done, that I should go back, 'cause it could be something worse. I wikipedia'ed it and determined that if it's not strep, it could be mono, but I don't think that's it, as I haven't been fatigued really. Anyways, I dropped off my presciption at Meijer (the doctor's office is in the parking lot of Meijer) and then stopped for lunch.

When I went back to pick up the prescription, I returned the remainder of my cans and bottles there. There was only about $15 because it was mostly bottles. I had sort of planned a doctor's visit/bottle run because of the proximity and also because my dad is supposed to be borrowing the Saturn (which had all the bottles in the back) and my sister is borrowing his truck to tow the trailer which is currently deeply ensconced in my garage.

This of course means that I have to rearrange everything in the garage in order to get the trailer out. Ugh.

In appearrance news, my hair is really starting to get out of control. It's approaching poodle status. Also, I think I forgot to take a picture of myself yesterday in my t-shirt. I will have to check my camera.

Illin' but definately not Gellin'

I have fallen victim to whatever Austin and/or Beckie had contracted. (I blame Austin) Wednesday morning I woke up completely stuffy and my throat hurt. I came home early that day because I felt sick. I managed to power through on Thursday and Friday.

Of course, Friday was Ninja Prom. I got all Ninja-ed up, and because I ran out of cough drops, had to stop by Walmart in my Ninja costume. I was surprised that no one said anything, but I think I got some weird looks. After my retail experience I went to the Prom. It was pretty fun, they crowned a King and Queen, and had a raffle and you could have your picture taken, like at Prom. I actually won something in the raffle. I won a Darth Vader FatHead, which is this giant wall sticker.

Not sure where I'm going to put it, but I'll figure it out.

Here's a picture of me in the ninja costume.


Try to find the ninja in this picture.


The next day, eventually I met up with Austin and Beckie and I drove us down to Toledo for Ryan's Graduation celebration. We stopped at Hardee's for dinner. They have pretty good burgers for fast food. When we got to Toledo (after taking the "Detour of Doom") we headed out to Fat Freddy's, a bar that The PD (Ryan's boss) works part-time as a bartender. They had for appetizers some interesting things, like broiled asparagus with garlic and parmesan, and poblano pepper rings like onion rings. John and Julie left after while as did Jack and Ben (?), but the rest of us, being Ryan, Beckie, Austin, Jay and I headed to RHouse, which was very draggy. As in dudes in women's clothes. Very slightly unsettling. All this time my throat had still been bugging me. After the bar, we went back to Ryan's, I got some tylenol and we eventually headed home at 3AM.

Sunday, I woke up way too early but couldn't get back to sleep for the coughing, and watched TV and eventually fell asleep on the couch a couple different times before actually making it to my bed for a nap. I didn't really do anything else on Sunday.

This morning, I was still feeling crappy, so I called in sick to work. I think I'll take a nap this afternoon. I would really like to be better already. I don't know, I might actually have to go to the doctor, though I don't have one, so I have to find one. What a pain.

If only I was this talented

From xkcd


I came across this again thanks to Coronado, but I had seen a couple of this person's comics before. Today's comic is also pretty funny. Bookmarked!

Novi, Nachos, Weight Watching, Waiting

After much prodding, goading and peer pressure by my co-workers, I joined Weight Watchers which is being sponsored by work. What's cool is that half the cost of the 13 week program is being paid for by work and if I meet my weight loss goal, I get the other half refunded. The WW program seems pretty simple, and really what it comes down to is portion control and avoiding certain "bad" foods. I'll get to some of the bad ones in a minute.

Friday evening, John came over after being banished from his house because Julie was having a girl's night, and we met up with Austin and Beckie and Beckie's cousin Jennifer at the Little Tree for sushi because it was Jennifer's birthday. There were also quite a few other of Jennifer's friends who came out also, so our party was pretty large and as such we had to wait for-ever for our table. I had a roll and a chili-tuna salad. Tasty. I decided not to go to the bar afterward with everyone.

Saturday, I went shopping, I went to Trader Joe's and bought some foodstuffs and then went to Sam's Club for more stuff. Later I went out to Novi with Austin and Beckie (man, I really need a shorter way to refer to them) to meet up with Jenn to celebrate Jenn being done with classes for the semester. We had drinks (bad) at Jenn's then went to 5th Avenue for more drinks (bad) and then over to Gus O'Connor's for beer (bad) and nachos (even worse). At some point at Gus O'Connor's, Austin's illness of the last couple weeks got the better of him and Beckie drove him back to Jenn's apartment to get some rest. Jenn and I discussed future vacation plans, including the possibility of vacationing together again, what our respective parents would infer by this, and also my apparent lack of picking up on flirting. Eventually Beckie returned and we headed over to The Mixx for another drink (bad). Closing time arrived and we headed back to Jenn's where we recovered for a bit before Beckie drove us home.

Sunday, I was supposed to go to dim sum (bad) with Austin and his family, but he was still too ill to go, so I stayed home and slept some more. Later I went to my parent's house for dinner and went with my dad to get his birthday present, a wheelbarrow. In my family birthday presents for my dad tend to be practical and useful for the rest of the family. In the past, presents for my dad have been various tools, a snowblower, a bbq grill and now a wheelbarrow, which will in all likelyhood be used for a project at my house in the coming weeks. I also stopped by the Mitchell's house to drop off MaryBeth's harddrive and the backup on my portable harddrive.

So, a fairly busy weekend. What I'm really looking forward to is this coming weekend is the Ninja Prom. That should be fun. I've got my ninja costume, but I want to spice it up a little bit. Look for pictures later in this space.

It should arrive in time for my birthday.

If you were sitting at you computer wondering what you could possibly get me for my birthday this year, look no further.

Ultimate Collector's Millennium Falcon™
Item #: 10179
Ages: 16+
Pieces: 5195
Price
USD 499.99
Preorder this item today, will ship by 1 Oct 2007
Limit 5 per customer

Build the ultimate Millennium Falcon™!

This is it - the biggest, most spectacular LEGO® Star Wars model ever! Straight out of the classic Star Wars movies comes the Ultimate Collector's Millennium Falcon, Han Solo's famous smuggling starship. Every detail of the modified Corellian Engineering Corporation YT-1300 freighter is here, all constructed to scale with LEGO minifigures. At almost 3 feet (90cm) long, it's the ultimate centerpiece to any Star Wars collection!

This Exclusive First Edition set includes an individually numbered Certificate of Authenticity, sealed within the product box, available only until the first production quantity is gone! Don't miss out, pre-order yours today!*

• With over 5,000 pieces, this is the biggest LEGO set ever made!
  
• Model is built completely to minifigure scale - minifigures can sit inside and man the controls!
  
• Landing gear provides a stable base for model to stand on!
  
• Ship is over 33" long, 22" wide and 8" tall! (84cm long x 56cm wide x 21cm tall)
  
• Radar dish rotates and elevates and boarding ramp extends!
  
• Top and bottom quad-laser turrets rotate for realistic play!
  
• Cockpit top can be removed to access minifigures!
  
• Includes 5 minifigures: Han Solo, Chewbacca, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia Organa!
  
• This special set also includes a display card with detailed ship specifications!
  

*Please note: In the interest of fairness to all customers, the certificate number that you receive will be randomly chosen.

And it will even ship in time for my birthday. Start saving those pennies now.

New toys!

I got my new computer speakers delivered yesterday. They are pretty cool.

You can't really tell the scale from the picture, but they are pretty big. The "satellite" speakers are about a foot tall, if that helps your mental picture.

The sound is so much better than my previous free crappy speakers. Woo.

Kiwis, cake and skates

A little bit of a weekend recap.

Michelle (Chellee) came into town from San Diego for her birthday this weekend. I haven't seen her, for, um, about 4 years. So, it was pretty cool. Of course, Michigan decided to reward her homecoming by sending us some of the crappiest April weather that I can remember.

Friday, I took the day off and went shopping and cleaned. I went to Sam's Club, and Kroger. I returned $24 worth of cans to the store, although I still have about the same amount left to return. They're sitting in the back of the Saturn still.

Speaking of the Saturn, I've been driving it the last week or so, because the weather has been so cold and lousy, and I had already put my summer tires on my Subaru. The summer tires don't work so good when the temperature is below 40 degrees. I was too lazy to put the all-seasons back on the Subaru.

Anyway, back to Friday, after starting my cooking for the party, I ended up going to see Blades of Glory with Beckie and Michelle. It was pretty funny. I give a B. (mostly because it was ridiculous, but not terribly smart) After the movie, we went back to Beckie's apartment where we had drinks, and played video games. Michelle and Beckie decided that my hair needed to be straightened. See Pic.

Also, Beckie and I somehow managed to statically shock and kill one of her Guitar Hero controllers. After Guitar Hero, Beckie and Michelle played Mendels Palace. It was a kind of weird game. I headed home and did some more stuff to get ready.

Saturday, I busied myself with party preparations. Unfortunately the weather refused to cooperate. I took the Skip for a walk, and waited for people to arrive. They eventually did. John and Julie brought pierogis, and a salad. I made delicous ribs and chili. Julie also brought a cake.

Beckie and Michelle showed up a little bit after them and then other people started to filter in. Jackie and El Dave, Jessica, Austin, Lani, Michelle's friend Eugen (Yugin?), and Beckie's friend Colleen. We eventually played a drinking game to Spaceballs. It was pretty brutal, the most brutal rule was drinking whenever Dark Helmet's visor went up or down. We also played "Don't Quote Me" which is a game I got somewhere for Christmas.

The party eventually wound down and people headed home. I cleaned up a little and headed to bed.

Sunday, I went to my parent's house for dinner and then over to the Mitchell's house to help MaryBeth with her computer. The hard drive died. I tried to recover whatever files she had not backed up. I ended up staying there for a couple hours trying different things. She was probably buying a new hard drive today and then reinstalling and restoring everything. Major bummer.

Oh, and I still have a ton leftovers from Saturday. Anyone is welcome to come by and chow down. I had leftovers for lunch today. And for dinner. I still have almost half the cake too. Ugh, gonna go into sugarshock.

Check up, shots, drugs.

Guess who lost 7 pounds? No, not me. Skippy! He's down to 35 pounds, which is about where he's supposed to be. I had to take him to the Vet yesterday for his yearly shots. I also had to bring along a fresh stool sample so they could check for worms. Lovely.

The vet was really over-cheerful, especially about the poo. Kind of disturbing.

So, Skippy got his shots and blood drawn, and I got his heartworm tablets. He got a cookie. Then we walked home. The vet's office is only about 6 blocks away.

I also fired up the grill for the first time yesterday. I had steak and asparagus on the grill. Delicious.

Clipper-de-doo da day!

I shaved today. Now that may not seem like some sort of momentous event, but I have literally not shaved since New Years or possible earlier. I haven't gone clean-shaven or anything, but it was getting warm enough to get rid of the neck beard. Here's some pictures for comparison.

Left is before, Right is after.

I still need to get a haircut. It's just wet in the one picture. Speaking of the pictures, these are also part of series of pictures I've been taking. Basically, I'm taking a picture of myself everyday, wearing a different t-shirt, until I get through my entire collection. It's partially to document the number of t-shirts I own, and also as kind of a strange social experiment.

All That's Green

Ah, St. Patrick's Day. 'Twas a drunken one.

We decided to get to the bar early as to beat the crowds. There was a bit of mis-communication regarding the plan, and we had to return to Austin's place to pick up Dan.

We got to Augie's about 4PM. John and Julie were there, and we commenced with the drinking. There were a lot of fun things happening. A bagpiper came in, and then the liquor girls started coming around. There were Pucker girls giving out hats and t-shirts. Later the Molson girls came around handing out keychains and gloves and bottle cozies.

We drank a lot of Augie Bombs (Razz-Matazz vodka and Red Bull) and Jaeger Bombs and Irish Car Bombs. Beckie and Ryan were drinking "old-man" drinks, like Manhattans and Tom Collins. Jessica showed up a bit later, as did Sarah, who came out after work.

There was a band playing, Rockstar, an '80s Hair-Metal cover band. They were pretty cool.

We ended up leaving about 12:30, and according to our waitress, we were her longest tab, which also ended up being ~$600 for the whole group.

Picture-time!

Ryan with a green twinkle in his eye, or it could just be the Leprechaun Gold.


Beckie displaying her "schwag"


Sarah is too cool for this bar


Jessica and I on our "wedding day"


Austin is from another planet


Sarah and Dan looking ready for some ultraviolence. Either that or some more drinks.


And finally, green beer.

After the bar we reconvened at Austin's and played a bit of drunken Guitar Hero. I went home and stopped by White Castle on the way and got some food. I had a bit of a problem with my change as I had a $20 and exact change and got back some miscellaneous change. I had to wait (and hold up the drive-thru line) while the cashier figured out the discrepancy. I got my correct change eventually and went home, ate my food and went to bed.

Sunday (technically afternoon, but morning to me) I met up with my parents and sister at the DIA for lunch and the Ansel Adams exhibit that's there now. The exhibit was really cool. A lot of the pictures were of the Southwest, where I've lived and done a bunch of traveling with my parents. Beautiful country out there.

Later, Austin and I went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. I love call ahead seating. I also love steak.

One final note, this weather sucks. Where is spring already?

The resemblance is uncanny...

How is it that I meet people who look so much like me?

Exhibit A

This is from the LAN party Austin and I went to on Saturday. That is Taiki. He's 3/4 Japanese. We played Wolfenstein ET and Unreal Tournament. I also played a bit of Guitar Hero as seen here.

Friday night I went to see 300 with Austin, Beckie, Jim and Jennifer. I was called last minute. We were going to see the an 8:15, but it was sold out so we went to The Shamrock for a beer or two until it was time for the show. The movie was decent. A lot of waxed up dudes in thongs. But it was just like a comic book. Visually awesome.

Thursday night I had dinner with John and then went to see Steve's band play at the Berkley Front.

I just finished watching a new show on F/X called The Riches, which stars Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver. It was pretty good though a lot darker than I expected.

More Hot, More Pot!

The reluctantly triumphant return and subsequent cancellation of The O.C.: Oakland County Berkley Sty-lee!

The last time we heard anything from Berkley Stylee was nearly a year and a half ago, so the "previouslies" have been skipped in the interest of expediency.

(BTW, Those interested can read all those previous episodes by clicking here.)

Except there was this one bit of previouly on The O.C.: Oakland County Berkley Sty-lee, whereupon there was a continuing non-appearance of Hot Blondes, hot redheads, or even hot brunettes.

And now back to the show...

Network Executive: Frankly, we'd forgotten that we still were producing episodes of your show. Bob was supposed to cancel it, but I think he had that heart attack right before he came to see you. Other Bob should have done it, but he ate 3 dozen Jello shots and passed out. So really, the only reason we're airing your show at all is that we ran out of any other programming, and we don't have the rights for Everybody Loves Raymond reruns.

Me: Yeah, I kind of wondered. Seems like I never could find where my show was on the schedule. I just kind of thought my TiVo™-like DVR was acting up.

Network Executive: Yeah, well sorry about that. So seeing as how The O.C. has ended, we're thinking that your show's popularity has had a similar decline. Do you have any juicy storylines? Sweeps just ended, so we sort of blew our wad with all the various pregnancies, drug overdoses, murders, births, lesbian affairs, beastiality and basket-weaving plots.

Me: Well, we had this poker game the other night.

Network Executive: Naw, they just did that the other night on Desperate Housewives. Really, what could Ian have had in his hand that would beat Mike's full house?

Me: Well, there was also Hot Pot. Austin, Beckie and I went to his parent's house for Chinese New Year. There was bowing and stuff.

Network Executive: That's great. The promo guys can put ads on that say "The O.C.: Oakland County Berkley Stylee returns. More Hot! More Pot!"

Me: That's completely missleading.

Network Executive: Kid, that's the just how it works. Now lets see if we can make a sow ear into a glass of spilt milk.

Me: Holy mixed metaphors!

Stay tuned for the possibility of more episodes of The O.C.: Oakland County Berkley Stylee where there may be additional silliness, occasional zaniness and possibly more hot lesbian action. But probably not.

Vehicular asshattery

Ugh. The VW Tourareg should be renamed the Tool-rig as I was behind 2 different Tool-rigs today at lunchtime and each was going under the speed limit and generally driving ass-hattily.

Jello, how are you?

I thought I had something amusing to say about the Oscars, but I guess I don't. Actually I didn't even watch any of them. I did hear that Scorcese finally won, for which I'm glad, as that's probably the only Oscar-winning film I saw last (but really this) year. I'm also glad that Eddie Murphy did not win, because he doesn't deserve an Oscar until he has made enough good films to erase the memory of Pluto Nash, Daddy Day Care, Norbit and any other of his numerous horrible films.

Dan's home this weekend. Yay! Picked him up from the airport Saturday, and we ended up going to the Tap Room. Yesterday was brunch at Julon's. Friday night, Austin and I played "How Many Jello Shots Does It Take?" while playing Guitar Hero, and we both did over 30 jello shots. A word of advice. Doing that many jello shots may make you drunk, but you won't be drunk for long, and really, it just makes you kind of ill.

Blow Me

I used my snowblower last night to clear my driveway. Unfortunately, I ran out of gas with about 10 feet of the driveway still covered in snow, which meant I had to finish it by hand. Hello back pain. What's worse is my shoulder hurts, and I have no idea how I hurt it. I blame the dog. He's a convenient scapegoat.

Hm, I'm trying to think what else has happened recently. There was a lot of snow. I started a subscription for the Buffy Season 8 comicbook at the local comic book shop. I had dim sum last Saturday morning. I went to Beckie's housewarming, where Skippy did do something bad.

No real plans for this weekend, though I still want to see Music and Lyrics, which got a surprisingly decent review in the paper.

You are the one that is the buster

Ugh. My back is still kind of sore. And I'm kind of tired.

For what had promised to be a nerdy weekend, it didn't end up being that too much. Austin and I were supposed to play cards on Friday, but one of the other players canceled, so we canceled the game and will probably reschedule sometime later. Austin and I still ended up going out for Middle-Eastern food and watching anime.

Saturday, I got up unnaturally early (at least for a weekend) and headed to Austin's where we carpooled to Beckie's parent's house to load the truck for her move. It took a surprisingly short amount of time to load the truck. We then headed to The Apartment (Mark Deux) to unload. We had to wait a bit for Beckie to get her keys and the rental agreement signed and whatnot, but then got her stuff unloaded fairly quickly and with few problems.

Austin and I took off after Beckie and her dad went grocery shopping, and I went home to walk the Skip, while Austin had to stop by his work to sort out some robot issues. After attending to these errands, Austin picked me up from my house and we went to the LAN party at Gerry's.

There was much bustin' of caps at the LAN party. I clumsily attempted to ensnare Gerry's friend Meaghan in my nefarious plan to see silly romantic-comedies.

Sunday I went to IKEA to meet my parents and sister for lunch and shopping. We tend to meet somewhere on the west side of town so as to be somewhat half-way between my parents and Ann Arbor. I bought a small rug for my side door and a recycling bin so Skippy will stop rooting around in the bag I had been using for collecting the recyclables. Later I met up with Austin and Beckie for Thai food.

Watched BSG last night. Awesome. Also watch The Dresden Files. That was pretty decent, kind of a magical version of Monk.

I doesn't take a Hero

Short, interesting article involving something near and dear to my heart, Guitar Hero. I can't say for sure that playing Guitar Hero has lessened my desire to play "real" guitar, but it might have caused me to get back into a little bit, especially introducing me to songs I might not have considered learning to play before.

The Low Cost of (Guitar) Heroism
If a teenager can become a make-believe guitar hero, will he ever bother to master the real thing?

Oh, yes, it gets much worse.

Relating to my previous post, I just saw the commercial for Music and Lyrics which has 2 of the romantic-comedy standard bearers, Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore. I want to see it also. Geez, the fact that all these rom-coms come out around Valentine's Day makes it that much worse, considering my perpetually single status, leaving me with noone with which to camoflauge my girlish obsessions.

I have a secret...

I have a strange predilection for romantic comedies. I kind of really want to see Catch and Release and Because I Said So. Ehh. I don't know why. Catch and Release maybe because it's got Jennifer Garner and Kevin Smith. Because I Said So maybe because of Lauren Graham and Mandy Moore. I know it's horrible. I'm such a girl.

Not a lot to say, but I'm going to put something here anyway

Got Dan sent back to New York. Went to Coney with Austin. Watched Dragonslayer with Austin and Beckie. Played Guitar Hero. Walked dog. Went shopping. Went to Sam's Club. Tess and her friend Paul came over. We watched Beerfest. I played more Guitar Hero. Had dinner at Red Robin with Austin, Beckie and Jackie. Watched more TV. Made eggs, hashbrowns, bacon and toast for dinner Monday. Watched 24 season premiere. Saw Jack Bauer have a Lost Boys flashback.

*Added later...

Ok, so here's were things get interesting. Or interesting-er.

I was headed out to dinner with Beckie and Austin (no overly cute conjunction of their names as of yet) and as I was literally less than a 1/4 mile away, sitting at a stop light, I got rearended. Actually the car behind me got rear-ended and that guy hit me. We all pulled over into a parking lot and waited for the cops. I then got nearly simultaneous text messages from both Beckie and Austin asking where I was. I called Austin and explained the situation.

Us three that were involved in the accident walked around and inspected the damage. Fortunately, all that was damaged on my car was my license plate and the frame were a bit bent. The guy that got hit harder, his car had the rear bumper cracked, and I think there might have been a crease in his front bumper. The lady who hit him, well, her car was wrecked up. Her whole radiator was pushed in and leaking, headlights smashed, and her airbags even went off.

The police were called (not by me) and we sat and waited for the police to come. We waited for more than 1/2 an hour before the guy took off, and I left shortly after that. The lady stayed and waited for the police.

I traveled the little bit further to Papa Vino's where Beckie and Austin were already eating. The waiter was very nice and put in a rush order for my food, so I got it fairly quickly. Tasty.

Today, my neck is a bit sore. I was trying to think why, and then I remembered the accident. Since there wasn't any real damage I kind of put it out of my mind. It's kind of ridiculous, because this is the second time I've been rearended while stopped at a stoplight. Maybe it's karma from when I rearended a Comcast van in High School. When, oh when, are we finally going to perfect beaming technology?

Wii Like to Play

Shoulder's still a bit sore. Went to Jim and Jennifer's on Sunday to play Nintendo Wii. It's a lot of fun and more athletic than you would think. Wii Sports bowling was really fun. I think I might get a Wii next year. We also played Guitar Hero. Jim is now addicted too.

Last night (Monday) Dan and I met at the AMC Forum to see The Departed. Excellent movie. Jack Nicholson skirted the edge of over-the-top-scenery-chewing but other than that, I really enjoyed it.

Saturday went down to Toledo to Ryan's and played games. Apple to Apples, Cranium, Dukes of Hazzard card game, Phase 10... I thought there was something else, but maybe I'm wrong. I once again bought 6 tall-boys of Beast Ice for $3. Ohio beer prices are amazing.

Friday went to Jenn's for the Fry Party. Fried cheesecake, pizza rolls, mini-corndogs, all delicious. Jenn's work friends Andy, Laura and Troy were there. We also went to Gus O'Connor's where Jenn stared a guy out of the corner booth. After Gus's we went over to 5th Ave. where there was a '90s cover band. Based on the few songs we heard I could basically extrapolate their entire setlist. Ryan actually stopped by after the Necto to hang out for a bit too.

I'm kind of hoping this next weekend will be kind of quiet. Too much stuff been going on recently.

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Hold on, this is gonna take a while...

Well. I'm back to work after a seemingly too short vacation. I'm still a bit sick.

I started to feel a bit sick on Saturday, but on New Year's Eve, I was deep in the midst of a cold. I figured I could drink it off. Alcohol kills germs, right? You can kill them on the inside, correct? I asked Sam, 'cause he's a doctor, to confirm that quinine (an ingredient in tonic water) would fight a cold. He couldn't confirm that as he had passed out. I still proceeded to drink like a fish.

I realize it's been a bit since I last updated. I just didn't have any compunction to sit in front of my computer and procrastinate.

So, in the days following Christmas, I was up to a bunch of stuff. Tuesday, Austin and I drove out to East Lansing to pick up my Fraternity brother, Jared, who was in town to visit with us and also his roommate out in L.A.'s family. We had dinner there in enemy territory with Jared and Aaron Travis, another frat buddy. We drove back home and Jared crashed at Austin's.

Wednesday we went to lunch at the Redcoat, and that night, played poker. I came in 3rd, winning back my money.

Thursday, Austin and I drove Jared to Ann Arbor, where we had lunch, wandered about campus and left Jared with his roommate. That evening, Dan, Tess and I went to Casino Royale, which was really good.

Friday night, I met Tess and Dan for karaoke at Grissom's on the east side. I ran into Jim (Beckie's cousin's boyfriend) there. I sang a couple songs. It was good times.

Saturday John and Julie called and invited me and Dan to see a movie at the Emagine. We saw The Holiday, very cute and charming, surprisingly good. Then Dan and I headed down to Tess's for bad movie night. I started to feel a little sick by this point. Bad movies included the end of Deep Blue Sea, Ghost Ship, and I only stayed for the beginning of The Fog (2006). I said several times while we were watching the movies, that I could write a better movie. Maybe some day I should try. Anyways, I was getting tired, and the Benadryl was making me sleepier, so I went home early-ish.

Sunday I felt much more sick. I was still determined to party. Dan, Austin and Sam came to my house and then we headed off to Jordan's house where we hung out for a while and then went to Beckii's for the remainder of the evening. We played Scattergories, and High/Low, Sam did not do so well at this game, I was a bit better. Many Jello shots were consumed, and Austin, Dan and I played the fastest game of darts I think we ever have, because we were trying to finish before midnight. We almost did, but when we resumed post-countdown, I managed to win. There was also the afore-mentioned Sam passing-out, and various others puking. We left there somewhere around 3:30 and when we got back to my place, Sam crashed on my couch to sleep it off.

New Year's day, Monday, I eventually made it over to John and Julie's for the Rose Bowl, which sucked. I was also feeling a bit hungover and still sick, which didn't help any. I did also watch on my computer, the Christmas Special episode of Doctor Who. It was excellent.

I think that about wraps up my last week or so... I still need more sleep and TV watching time.

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.