6.27.2008

happy friday!

Happy Friday, All! It's going to be a scorcher in my neck of the woods today. Nothing much to report, so random bits in list form:

That's all I've got. I need to water my flowers because, like I said, it's going to be a scorcher today.

Have a great one.

6.24.2008

In California I dream of snow.

berry delight

I should give a proper recounting of my latest trip down to the Bay area. It was a great visit. KFR, Re-B, and A. (+J!) were there to welcome me to the Golden state with fun and food (see the above picture). Lots of food. And vino. Not as much vino. The reunion was fantastic, particularly considering that A. was on another continent for the last 9 months and shall make another trip to other continents here soon.

On the work side, things went just as well. My presentation went swimmingly and my Big Doings meeting proved quite fruitful as well. Let's see here, what else was good??? Breeze, the nice horse I rode around for a bit, didn't buck me off. Believe me, he was so antsy in the beginning I believed getting bucked off was a distinct possibility.

Finally, I wrapped up the week with another entertaining dinner with A. and J. We went to a fantastically yummy pizza joint and stuffed ourselves appropriately. Good times.

self portrait on horse breeze

6.22.2008

Cantona

Last week I had the great good fortune to be able to reminisce about the Manchester United team of the mid-90s. Thus I offer up one of the many fantastic goals by Eric Cantona. Yes, he may have cleated a fan in the chest once. Bygones. He was a fantastic stiker.

6.21.2008

Technology is RAD...

... except when it isn't. I probably shouldn't be on my computer at the moment. I don't get it. I return from the Mecca of technology in America (a MOST entertaining trip) and all of my own gadgets do not work properly. Its as if they know I talked to fancy people about fancy new technologies. Jealous types, my tech gadgets.

First of all, my cell phone is nothing but crunchy static that loses incoming voice mails. This must be remedied. As I go to have my phone looked at I fire up my trusty iPod for some nice tunes. Not so fast, hotshot! My iPod decides to go all SRV Diag Boot screen on me. Seriously? As I go to get the phone fixed??? I have no idea what SRV Diag Boot means. I only know that I stumped the "experts" at the Apple store (seen while the people tended to my phone) and am a hair's breadth away from losing my warranty. What to do, what to do: purchase AppleCare, have half the cost of that returned to me by saving me shipping and handling for the prostrate iPod, and then have another year of warranty for whatever refurbished replacement they send me. Phew.

Um yeah. I might have also purchased a fancy sleek keyboard as the one my computer came with drives me batty. I love the feel of the new one... like typing on a laptop. Much better. Okay, okay. Technology is still RAD. I just had a bad tech day.

6.15.2008

Attacking Birds!

Attacking Birds!


Couple of things: first, a bird dive-bombed me in the grocery store parking lot. Twice. I had to take a picture of the warning signs put in place by the thoughtful people there. It was entertaining, if not a bit disconcerting.

Second, I make my own attacking bird! trip down to the Bay for Big Doings and important visits. I anticipate a major Hug Atttttttaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack. And I anticipate being ridiculously full as A! gets her notorious Old-World-force-feeding on. I'm definitely not complaining, because everything is always SO delicious. But one must be mentally prepared for such a feast. Its very much like preparing for Thanksgiving. One should eat breakfast (check!) and one should also have some form of noon hour bit-to-eat (banana! check!).

Oh, one more thing. Yay Dad! Thanks for everything!

That is all.

6.11.2008

coffee please.

coffee

I should say upfront that I'm currently sitting in a meeting. I should be doing work that needs to be done, but I find myself looking through Flickr and lamenting the fact that we didn't even break 60F yesterday. I'm also dreaming of more coffee magically appearing in my coffee cup. Sun and coffee, is that too much to ask?

In more entertaining news, my old college roommate sent me a lovely update of the police blotter from our college town. Classic. I offer up a selection of the goings-on in our wee little college stompin' ground:
  • A female subject allegedly hit a male with a stick on Sixth Avenue.
  • A male and female were allegedly drinking alcohol on a bench outside a Chestnut Street residence hall.
  • Neighbors reportedly blocked a driveway on Pioneer Trail Road in Easton and wouldn't let a farrier leave because he drives over the speed limit.
  • Damage to a tree was reported on Chestnut Street.
  • A woman reportedly put a man's cell phone down her shirt and refused to give it back at the Memorial Pool.

6.09.2008

Sopranos and such

A busy weekend of not much and a few things. Accomplishments in list form:
  • Season 1 of The Sopranos taken off the To Watch list
  • BBQ --> purchased/used
  • Patio --> Cleaned
  • Plants --> potted (yay! hostas!)
  • Gnome lights --> purchased
Of course, I completely disregarded other necessary things while watching an entire season of The Sopranos. Such is life.

6.03.2008

In other entertaining news....

I had the great good pleasure to call my boss the other morning to explain why I would be late to work. Just so we're clear, I made the call from my car in the parking lot of said work building.

Ahem: "Yeah, hi. So, I'm going to be late to work this morning. I mean, I'm at work. In the parking lot... but I seem to be trapped in my car. By my seatbelt. It won't unbuckle. At all. I can't really get out."

Um. Yeah. Oops. This, of course (and thank goodness), made my boss erupt into a fit of laughter. Well, lets be honest, I was laughing quite a bit myself. Anyway, I just started the car back up and drove to the dealer to get it fixed. And yes, I had to loosen the strap a whole bunch to crawl out. I'm glad it didn't catch and lock up as I'm not flexible. Yeah. They managed to extricate the clip from the buckle part (probably with an entire bottle of silicone) and ordered me a new part. Yeeeehaw!

Thinking back on all the reasons I've been late to work or have to step out for a while (various sundry appointments*, etc.), this pretty much takes the cake. The only thing that could possibly rival being stuck in the car was when I had to step away from work for a few minutes to wash my car as some unlucky cat puked on the hood.

Welcome to my world.


*I boldly scoff in the face of redundancies and mobster types