"What part of 'meet me at the stick' didn't he understand?"

Plants.

Take a moment, if you will, and think about them. If possible, go outside and take a look at what might be growing in your yard.

Got that?

Now, take a moment to ponder some of the stranger plants you've seen growing around. Odds are, there's not much around here that's too exciting. I will admit I've seen some pretty funky stuff growing on a bagel I left in a drawer for waaaaaaaaaay too long, but that stuff was so odd it may not even count as actual plant life.

Is a fungus a plant, or is it just a fungus? I'm not sure. Both tend to be green, and they grow. But I digress.

Getting back to weird plants. I can almost guarantee that whatever you thought of is nothing compared to some of the plants I saw today at the Botannical Gardens with Janice. Ho-Lee Cow. Damn, man. The climatron has got to be one of the strangest, weirdest, coolest place I've been in awhile. There are some trees in there that defy description. There were palm trees (I think) with leaves that had to be nearly 8 feet across, and almost as tall as the dome itself.

Do yourself a favor and check it out if you have the chance. The Gardens are vast, so it's easily an all day excursion.

I want to grow my own herbs now, too.

Just so you know.

Friday night is opening night for the 2004-05 Traffic Club Bowling League at the Trop. We're down to 3 person teams this year, so things will move along quicker, and, I think, more competitively. We'll see. I've not bowled since April or something like that, so I can only imagine how horridly I'm going to bowl. Despite the grueling pace of our league's season, we don't get anything like spring training. If we burn our mouths on the toasted ravioli, we don't get time on the DL. Blisters are suffered through. It's rough, yes, but we are professionals, and we do what we can.

Lets' compare some examples from the day in baseball.

Cardinals: Pitcher Jason Marquis picks a man off second, and pitches 7 innings of shut-out baseball en route to his 13th win of the season. The Cards win 4-0 and sweep the Pirates.

Cubs:Mike Remlinger hits a man to load the bases in the top of the 8th, and hits* the very next batter to drive in a run, before surrendering another4 runs as the Cubs lose to the Astros. At the moment, they are tied with San Diego for the wild card, and if the Giants hold on, the tie will be three-way.


*He may not have been hit. The ball was up near his head, and may have hit his bat and/or hand. Regardless, the pitch was way too high and inside.

I don't mean this as any slight against fans of the Cubs (Max, Leah), I just wanted to point out why I think the Cardinals have a good shot to go all the way this year, while the Cubs may have trouble making the playoffs. Time will tell. The Cubs have a good team, they just have trouble with the fundamentals and their emotions. When you can't consistently do the little things, it's hard to get anything big done over the course of a season.

Anyways, I think I have to go.

Don't I?


Turn the key. Start a revolution.
Dave


p.s. 24 and 48 are not the same number.

I could smell the cooking of my mother.

Exactly three people will understand that title.

I applaud you all.

Know what I'm saying?

Heh.

And remember: some people like to study rocks.

Whatever.

Aaaaaaaaaaaanyways.

While it's still fresh(ish) in my mind, let me try and recount the experience from dinner tonight. So Janice, Jess, myself, and a couple of my former coworkers are eating at the Bread Co. on Lindbergh. We're sitting around talking when an old guy (there's just no other way to put it) takes out one of those wooden train whistles, and gives it a couple toots. Why? I have no idea. If I'm not mistaken, he said something to the effect of "Here we go!" after he blew the whistle. I can't recall. After that, he walks up to us and starts talking. A lot. About....um....well, I'm not sure what, exactly, but the 4-5 stories he told had no real connection to each other. During the first story, he pulls out a yo-yo. When he finished, he yo-yos (?) once, and starts up again. When he's done, there goes the yo-yo. Then he starts talking again. His wife, who I believe had gone to get their car, comes in and tries to get him to leave. If he noticed her, he gave no indication, as he would keep on talking. A couple times he did notice her, but he'd just brush her off and keep going. And going. The whole thing lasted a good 10-15 minutes.

It was really hard not to laugh at the whole situation, but it was clear the man wasn't all there. Maybe Alzheimer's or something. I'm not an expert, so I'm not going to try and diagnose him. Point is, it made me feel bad when I was laughing, so I had to keep myself calm. In a way, it was sort of sad. I have the utmost respect for his wife (I assume she was his wife) for remaining calm, and just staying with him through everything.

That said, the man was better on that yo-yo than I've ever been.

Infinite points to Cindy for being so patient and, well, talkative with the guy the whole time.

Last night was trip two (dos) to Six Flags this month. The lines were much shorter, and I enjoyed the rides a lot more, probably because I could just enjoy them, as opposed to getting jolted by the new experiences. Mr. Freeze is still the, yes, coolest coaster around. The Boss still is, and still no Bruce. Special kudos to Jess for a.) riding the Boss, and b.) not biting Janice's arm off.

We also saw "Weird Al" Yankovic, although he may have been downgraded to slightly unusual. He was, of course, highly entertaining. The Eminem 'interview' was probably the funniest thing I've seen since I saw it last year. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. And, believe it or not, I think I enjoyed the concert itself much more than the 4-pack show from last week. Jim West is one bad-ass guitar player, and Steve Jay is almost as hot as Mr. Womack.

And that's saying something.

October 24. The Pageant. Joe Satriani. Oh. Yes.

November 22. New U2. Hot. Damn.



Know what I'm saying?
Dave

25 Minutes to Go

A bit more, maybe.

I'm sitting at work, waiting for an author to speak tonight. It's sure to be a smash, especially considering no one seems to have heard of this guy. Yep. Yee-ha.

Actually, my only real point here is something I forgot to mention last night.

After mass yesterday, we stopped off in Krakow (that would be Crocko to me and you) for, drum roll please, the greatest hamburgers in the world! According to mum and Mike, anyways. Of course, it's pretty hard to screw up a hamburger. Anydangways, I had me a double cheesburger, and I gotta admit, it was really great.* Not skimpy little burgers, not too dry, not over seasoned or anything. Damn tasty burgers. I approve.

World's greatest?

Maybe not the best, but definitely up in my top 3 or so. It's a tough call between those, Steak 'n Shake, and Kenrod's. Actually, K-burgers are probably out just because it's impossible to fully enjoy one. Any burger that requires a day of fasting just to finish is hard to consider the tops. And S'nS is a bit pricey.

So I guess they are the best.

See what a little thinking will do for you?

Crap. Now I'm hungry.


Swarthily,
Dave



*Do you know who said that? Have you figured it out?

Astronomy Domine

Whew...lots to get to tonight.

First- greatest name for a band I've heard this weekend: Butch Wax and the Hollywoods. More on them in a bit.

Jump back to Friday. I went with Tom to see Effervesence. I mean Emminessence. No, wait. Evenesence. I think that's it. Anyways, I went to see that band at the Um.B.Pav. They were also playing with, in no particular order; Seether, Breaking Benjamin, and Three Days Grace. I'd like to tell you a lot about the night, but I can barely recall anything about any of the bands. Seether covered a Pearl Jam song and Ev. covered a Smashing Pumpkins song. Other than that....

Wait. All four bands had 2 (2) guitarists. Usually not a bad thing, but in this case, totally pointless, as both guitarists, 98% of the time, were playing the same thing. So why bother? And to top it off, none of it was really all that good. There were some cool riffs, and a handful of decent solos, but overall, the show was unremarkable. The band members of Ev. had zero interaction with each other. The bass player moved once.

Maybe I've set my standards too high or something. After a steady diet of CM, 'Tones, U2, Pearl Jam, and the like, it could be that I've come to expect a lot of my live acts, and none of those bands lived up to them.

Or they sucked.

No, they didn't suck. Simple Plan sucks. These guys......they just need to expand their horizons a bit.

That said, I had a good time with Tom, which is always a plus, and easily made up for the ho-humness of the music.

I went with Streudel to visit mum and Mike last night. We ate at a really snazzy Italian place in New Haven called Aldo's. Pizza was superb, and the town, which was right on the Missouri River, was a wonderful little place. That's counting the place that advertised "Gun's, Knife's" and something else which escapes me. We saw a "big ass rock" dedicated to the grandfather of streakers, whose name also escapes me. It was pretty weird. Once it got dark, we trucked up road a little ways and pulled off in a park-y kinda area so I could do some fine astrophotography.

Absolutely amazing conditions last night. Clear and cool, and, even better, a number of leftovers from Thursday's Perseid meteor shower. Best of all, I actually got to see the Milky Way. I've not seen it in person before, and it's an amazing spectacle. I picked up the prints today, and even though Walgreen's didn't print them too well, I could see the incredible amount of detail I picked up. I have pictures of the Milky Way that I took. Myself. It's So. Freaking. Cool.

I look up at the stars, and I know a lot of people might feel insignificant, or tiny, or something like that. When I look up, I'm totally taken aback at the sheer coolness of it all, and I feel honored to be able to take it all in.

--End nerd section--

Tonight I went to St. Ferdinand for a Journal shoot of the above cool band. Very nice time. The band had infinitely more presence and overall coolness then anyone I saw Friday night. And all they were doing were old R&B covers. Hmm. Maybe the source material had something to do with it. But they were still cool.

And by R&B, I mean Aretha Franklin, et al. Back when there was real rhythm and real blues in the music. The stuff holds up really well over time, as all good music does.

I'm gonna go watch the Cardinals now.

"Reaching for the stars and I got my head in the clouds."
Dave

*%^$@!!!

Bowing to popular opinion, I am now going to try an "angry" post.

Are you ready?

Good. Here goes:



Snarl.

Whoa. Did you feel it? I'd better go cool down a bit before I go any further. Even better, I think I'll go kick me some puppies instead. Excellent way to relieve stress.

Oh yeah, I hate you all.

bye!
Dave

I am a donut.

Reason #47 why taking a day off work isn't always the best idea: you may come back and find your Godzilla figures kidnapped. I kid you not. I stroll in this morning and find a ransom note on my desk. Yes, a ransom note. Surprisingly, whoever kidnapped the Big G let him write his own note, as it's in first person. I've also been given a Polaroid of the poor guy, making a phone call from somewhere in the building. All of this because someone wants a bag of cookies (Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies, to be precise). I think my coworkers have too much time on their hands.

We'll, um, see how that plays out.

Here's something to chew on: as previously noted, we went to Six Flags on Saturday. I think we were there for maybe 7 hours or so. Well, six, if you take out our lunch break. So, six hours at the park, and maybe...oh, I don't know, 7 minutes or so were spent on actual ride business. So that's a lot of walking and/or standing in line. A lot of time was spent walking, because we didn't exactly plan our attack very well. But, in the end, is it worth it to wait so long for such short thrills? In this case, I say 'soitenly,' even if I did feel as though I might die every 3 seconds while riding the Boss (and no, Bruce didn't show up). I still think the basic premise of almost every amusement park ride is pretty silly (how many ways can we move you in circles?), but the coasters at Flags, Six are pretty good at keeping it interesting.

I shot the Relay for Life for the NorCo Journal on Friday, and it offered a stark contrast to last week's Miss USA day. That event was a bunch of fluff and hoo-ha for a lady who stood around and looked pretty, and this was a lot of cool stuff for people who were, and still are in some cases, fighting a tough illness. Basically, I think they deserve it more than she did. It was pretty spiffy, really. Many candles=visual goodness. The only downside, I think, was the somewhat lame version of 'Amazing Grace' on bagpipes. Usually a can't miss, I know, but the guy playing it didn't seem totally into it.

I think there was more I was going to say about it all, but I got distracted and forgot. Plus, I really should get to working, so....

Dave

...we came in?

Potentially exciting news from the Broadway world.

Huh? Yes. yes, I know seeing the word 'Broadway' in one of my posts is like going to the store and seeing a new line of llama spit from Pepsi. Or seeing the Cubs win a playoff series. But bear with me here, as this is pretty cool news.

May I?

Pulled this off of Yahoo!:

"Pink Floyd's "The Wall" is coming to the Great White Way.

 

Miramax Films has pacted with former Sony Music chief Tommy Mottola to develop and produce a Broadway musical based on the seminal rock opera.


Roger Waters (news), who co-founded Pink Floyd in 1965 and conceived the semi-autobiographical 1979 concept double album, will write the Broadway show's book and arrange and orchestrate music for the stage production.


The album, which includes such Pink Floyd hits as "Another Brock in the Wall," "Comfortably Numb" and "Hey You," follows the journey of disillusioned rock star Pink, who looks back at the experiences that forged his neuroses. Like Pink, Waters lost his father in World War II.


Waters, who acrimoniously left Pink Floyd in the 1980s, sold the stage rights to the project to Miramax and Mottola, who runs his own Universal Music-based label, Casablanca Records."

See, I told you it was cool. For anyone who's seen the movie, you'll be happy to know Roger Waters is going to put a few laughs in the musical, since, well, there wasn't anything very amusing in the film.

I'd also like to point out that the terrible error in the above is not mine, and that the show won't be containing any songs about the squinty dude from Pokemon. That's another show.

And, also, for what it's worth, 'Another Brick in the Wall' is a 3-part song, and part two is the popular one everybody and their brother knows. So if someone says "I love 'Another Brick in the Wall'" to you, be sure to ask which part they mean, and see if they look at you like you asked for some of the aforementioned llama spit.

Don't you hate it when you can't find a CD you want to listen to? I had nearly half my music collection with me yesterday, and not a single thing seemed worth listening to. It was pretty sad, really. This morning, I grabbed mu uber-case, with all the good stuff: U2, CM, BF&FT, Satch, and PJ. I should be good now. If not, that exasperated scream you hear around 11:43 this morning is me.

Someone's turning 19 tomorrow. Can you guess who?

Someone else has been taking guitar lessons for a little over 5 years now. Up until the past few months, I never considered stopping (although I did for a bit last year, when there wasn't an evening slot available), but now I'm giving it some thought again. Two reasons, really: 1.) it's $55; a month 2.) I'm think I may have got most of what I can, instruction wise. I'm gonna keep up for this month, and maybe next, and see how things go. If I don't feel like we're covering anything new, I might go ahead and stop. I'd hate to do that, as it's usually a fun time, even if we don't cover new stuff, but it's a bit too much to spend each month if I'm not really learning.

So, we'll see.


Isn't this where...?
Dave

"So what's your plan now? Let's run screaming!"

I went to buy some cat food on Friday afternoon, and it reminded me of an observation I made the last time I went to buy cat food. I noticed, as I was walking around the store (I had time to kill, mind you) the big bags of dried cat food all featured pictures of ladies holding their cats (the cats were, as I recall, unimpressed with the prospect of being on a cat food bag). Anyways, I got to thinking: are these bags implying cats are an inherently 'female' pet? And if so, what would society say about me, being the owner of not one, but two (two) cats? I never gave it much more thought after that, and I saw a guy shopping for his cat on my second trip, so I got over it.

Speaking of cats: Janice and I went to the zoo this afternoon. I find it interesting to note that no matter how large a cat may be, it still acts like my cats. You know, sleep 27 hours a day, come up every so often to eat, and maybe spend 10 minutes a week doing 'cat' things. Namely, scratching the furniture. I also didn't see anything remotely funny about the hyenas, but maybe that's because they took a cue from the cats and slept all day. Hell, the black monitor lizard in the herpetarium was far more active than the cats we saw. Now, I'm not saying I didn't enjoy myself. I had a smashing good time. I'm simply stating that cats are lazy

I went out last night for another round of astrophotography. Not much happened. My shots came out okay, I think. The prints from Walgreens are over exposed, since they don't know any better, and the scanner at home is pretty iffy at best. My scanner at work should provide some better results. I was shooting with a full moon (blue, even), so it was an uphill battle. I'll have to try again at month's end, when we have a new moon. I confused some poor lady at Walgreen's when I dropped the film off this morning. I asked for 'negatives only,' and she looked at me like I asked for a bottle of llama spit. So I settled for prints.

I don't necessarily feel like going into the specifics of my day yesterday, save for the fact I worked up more of a sweat keeping ahead of the parade then I did at soccer on Wednesday. Also, a note to parade planners: it's generally a good idea to put the main focus of your parade at the end, not first.

Just my thoughts, mind you.

And really, I find it silly to honor someone with an entire month in their name, a theater named for them, and blah blah blah, all because they stood around and looked pretty. Shoot, I work my butt off sometimes and don't even get a lousy 5 minutes in my name. What gives?

The main question is, of course, what would I do with 5 minutes in my name? Would I use the time for good or for awesome?

Something to ponder, for sure.

Another thorny issue: how do you best spend a week (4 days) when your boss is out of town? Stroll in at nine, leave at two? Two hour lunches? Rearrange his desk? Actually, I might go for the gusto and wear shorts one day this week. Maybe Thursday.

We'll see.


Iggins!!!
Dave

Just creatures for awhile

We had a Canadian author at work tonight. How aboot that, eh?

Nice goal, eh?

Um. Yeah. Anyways, he was a humor columnist, so, naturally, he was pretty, well, humorous. Two points stick in my mind, mainly regarding the war in Iraq. He mentioned that, being Canadian, he gets asked, when in the States, why Canada didn't send troops overseas.

1.) They're military force is still in Afghanistan, and he's doing all he can.

2.) Bush invaded Iraq right as the Stanley Cup playoffs were starting.
  
3.) In hockey, the French will still fight.

 
3 points. Like I said before. But, yeah, he was funny. Not Dave Barry funny, but funny all the same. I can recall at least 5 good laughs.

It's been awhile, but long-time followers of No Moore, none of whom read this blog, will attest to my odd tendency to deflect the ball into our own net. I think I can safely say I've vindicated myself for those times. Somehow or other I managed to sprawl across an empty net last night and whack a ball, deflected by one of our own, out of harm's way.

I don't want to name names, so we'll call the guy who deflected that ball "Steve." 

But it's okay, because, as I said, I've done that many times myself. That said, I think we as a team played pretty good last night.

We lost 2-1.

I'm like, Mr. Comma tonight. Have you noticed?  

In other thoughts:

I've been listening to and downloading a lot of 311 the past few days, and it reminded me of something from their show last August at the Um-Bee-Pav. Last song of the show was 'Down,' which was their first big single from '95. Lead singer Nick Hexum dedicated the song to their old school fans. Now, there were many people at this show who were probably 14-16 years old, and started going nuts as if they were old school 311 fans. Now, that album is almost 10 years old, and it was already 311's third major release. Before that, they had about 3 indie records. I started listening in '95, and don't even really consider myself old school. So for a bunch of kids who were 6 or 7 years old when that song came out to be acting like they've been with the band forever kinda irked me.

Or maybe I'm just going elitist or something. When you're as old as me, it's hard to tell.

I'm glad this week is almost over, since it's been dragging it's feet ever since Monday morning. Tomorrow may be Friday, but it took forever to get here. I'll be glad for the weekend. And I only have a four day week next week, culminating with a trip to Six Flags. The next week brings another concert at Um-Bee-Pav with Tom, and the following week sees another trip to VI Flags and a Weird Al concert.

Fun times ahead. Can you see them? They're just off to the left, behind those sycamores.

 
Comes and goes, it comes and goes.
Dave

His sitting was out of control by the end.

Sounds like me at work sometimes.

Like Friday, for instance. I spent more time sitting around thinking about working than actually working. It was one of those days. I also have taken to using my computer for downloading concerts, due to it's rapid (fast) internet connection. My current conquest is the massive 311 show from March 11 (ya know, 3/11 day). 68 songs!!! It makes for a lot of listening. I have to make sure I don't let downloading interfere with actual work, though. I think I'm doing okay.

I've been thinking, and I'm trying to decide if I like rediscovering bands I've always liked, discovering all new bands, or discovering the entire catalogue of bands I've always liked (i.e. Rush). I suppose two and three are sorta similar, but not enough. I bring this up mostly because I'm still on a Rush kick, more than a month after the concert. I think it's because their catalogue is quite large, and I only know a small portion of it. Getting to know the span of their 17 albums is quite a treat.

Still, it's always nice to go back and get into the splendor that is U2. The new album this fall is making it a lot more exciting. It's good stuff, believe you me.

Which reminds me: for being a tried-and-true U2 fan, I hereby award Jess an additional 17 1/4 points, which moves her above the boat parade guy and Richard Nixon to take a solid lead in fourth place on the points list with a total of 24 1/4.

Janice and I helped mum and Michael James move into their new house today. It's a very nice house. The basement has, oh, I don't know, about 87,000 turns and closets. It's extremely cool, but the potential of getting lost is high. The entire house has something close to 3 million light switches and another 16,000 outlets. That said, it's a wonderfully nice house, and I can't wait to see it when they get everything unpacked. The only downside? I want either move or redecorate my house. I think the second option is more likely, but I need money and an idea. Or two. So, any suggestions are welcome (even if you haven't seen the house!).

I was really disappointed with the weather this weekend. It was supposed to be sunny and not too hot, but instead, we get cool and rainy. What the hell? Rains out my Journal shoot and my plans to go shoot some stars, something I haven't done since last September. Sigh. Why must I be tortured so? By the by, if you've never gone out to take some star pictures, I highly recommend it. It's different, and very relaxing.

Just watch out for The Man.

The only other thing I want to say today: sometimes, some people just need to, as Bev might say, "just move on."

 

We'd better have another wienie roast.

Dave

Always Forever Now

With the proper punctuation, that might make for an interesting advertising slogan, but I don't think U2 would go for it, so I'm not going to expend anymore thought on the issue.

Yeah, I know: it's not a Rush lyric.

10 points to anyone who can tell me which U2 album that song appears on. I don't award points as often as I used to, so I think this is a golden opportunity for someone to move up in the standings.

You didn't know about the standings? Well, currently, they are as follows:

1.) Janice: Q
2.) Tony Womack: 87
3.) Steve: 79
4.) Richard Nixon: 17
5.) that shirtless guy from the boat parade: 11

Everyone else is tied at 10 or less, so it's a pretty tight race. Tony's been moving up for the past month or two just on his hotness. Winners will be announced at the end of the year, and your prize packages will be mailed out c/o the Funny Farm, Chalfont.


Mmmm....I just realized I've been taking guitar lessons for over five years now and I still haven't mastered Where the Streets Have No Name, the greatest song ever written, I think. Considering it was the first song I ever had my teacher figure out for me, I should probably get back to it. Maybe once I finish this Rush song.

Have you ever had a feeling of total euphoria? Maybe some wave of total perfection rush over you? Sorta like...goosebumps to the Nth degree? If not, save your pennies, and go see U2 next spring on the road, and see if it happens when the intro to Streets comes up. It's a feeling I can't quite describe, but it was one of the best feelings I've ever had.

It's the power of music!

I think, and it might be close, that the Edge is almost as hot as Tony Womack. I mean, he's the Edge. Everyone calls him that. He makes wearing a beanie look cool. His goatee is even cool.

And did I mention he plays the guitar really well?

I haven't really said much of anything, but I'm working on posting thoughts as opposed to a recap of what I've been doing. It's a work in progress.

Janice's grandma is, apparently, a black-belt in karate. I'm duly impressed.

I've also reached the end of my thought train.



Dave

[insert Rush lyric here]

From the Ain't It Cool News Department:

I'm excited to report that Neil Peart (that's pronounced Pee-rt), drummer extraordinaire for the power trio, Rush, has the same birthday as me.

Cool, huh?

The greatest act can be one little victory.
Dave

An exercise in self-indulgence.

I'm going to keep this post brief. Short. Succinct. Terse. To the point. Cut straight to the heart of matters. Get to the point. Cut to the chase. No beating around the bush.

And so on.

Hut sut raw, sitting on a monkey, and so on, and so on.

........


There's a new rule for whiffle ball:

12 If a ball is hit, strikes the pitcher/fielder/whatever, and proceeds to deflect over the fence, that ball is, of course, a ground rule double.

You can't make this stuff up.

I'd like to point out that my previous post contained a slight error. The Cardinals, alas, did not sweep the Cubs, although they made their closer look pretty bad in the third game. I am happy to say our reps in the All-Star Game did a damn good job of representin'.

Special bonus points to mum for being uber nice and cleaning my bathroom yesterday after dinner.

Retroactive bonus points to mum for the uber cool card she gave me on my 16th birthday.

Imagine, if you will, opening that card, and finding a key taped to the inside.

A key!
To a car!
A car key!
In my card!

Also, were the words "here's the key to your car. If you can find it, it's yours."

Sweet!
Wait!

Ha! My mom, ever the joker. I still have the key taped to the inside, and never did try to find the car. Mom almost topped herself the next year with the 3-D Godzilla birthday card, but the key still wins.

My room is back to a state of almost cleanliness. I actually have a decent amount of extra storage space, and I'm not sure how to use it.

Ideas?


I'll be waiting over here.



By? By-tor? Buy? Bye bye!
Dave

Searching for the lost Xanadu.

Still going.


Anyways.


Somewhere in this world, likely in Japan, is a man (most likely) sitting comfortably in his house, basking in his wealth. This man, sometime ago, probably in the mid-eighties, decided that characters in video games should make a little noise when they jump. And his boss agreed, and now, for the past 20 years or so, I've had to listen to strange little noises in video games when my character jumps.

And for that, I need someone to go find that guy and take care of that little problem.

Yes, that's right: I need someone to go back in time and kick him right in the shins.

You may wonder why I'm expending all this energy to complain about such a trivial thing. Well, the simple reason is this: I got my old Nintendo working again, and bought the first 3 Mario games. Lotsa fun, and surprisingly, still challenging. Having spent the last few years beefing myself up on computer games, I figured I'd breeze right through those oldies.

Not quite. They can still be mighty frustrating at times. But fun all the same. So I can deal with it.

I have my performance review at work tomorrow. My boss has guaranteed I'm not being fired, so I suppose it's safe to go through with it. Supposedly I'll be getting a raise as well, so I might as well see it to the end. Odds are good we'll talk as much about the Cardinals being 9 games up on the Cubs (yeah, I'm predicting a sweep).

Sorry, Leah.

For those curious, Tom and Rachel are back in the country after their honeymoon. Tom was telling me yesterday about something that I think only men can truly comprehend. Or not, I could be wrong. Anyways. Rachel's mom came up to visit them and have dinner (BBQ). She and Rachel took it upon themselves to make the fire, and as Tom told me, it wasn't quite as he would have done it, and thusly, the coals weren't all that warm, and the burgers were slow to cook. I think, and again, I could we waaaaaaaaaaay off, the creating of a BBQ fire is a real 'guy thing,' and we can get pretty picky about the way it's done. Of all forms of cooking, I think BBQing is the 'manliest' form. Nothing against the other ways of cooking, but it's hard to beat cooking right over a fire.

Although, mom was always pretty adept at grilling.

Well that certainly puts a kink in that theory.

I have to start cleaning my room this afternoon. I may not emerge until sometime on Tuesday, if I get as involved as I usually do. And by involved, I mean completely destroying the room and then reassembling it in some new order.

You'll get that.

And with that, I'ma gonna go tend to some other tasks before the cleaning commenses. I need to get as much done as possible in time to watch the Cardinals sweep the Cubs.


They said they were going to buy me lunch, but I don't see anyone taking me to Chik-Fil-A.

Dave

Between the wheels

Today was one of those days I really resented having to go spend money on food (it happens every once in awhile). I'll admit I rarely have a super concrete plan for the week dinner-wise when I hit the store, but I wasn't terribly into it today, which didn't help. And about half-way through, there was an anouncement on the PA that the storm knocked out the computer system or something, so the only way to pay is by check or cash.

Great. Because I have that much cash on me. And my checkbook.

So I started aimlessly wandering the store for a few minutes, trying to figure out what to do. Put everything back? Store the cart with someone somewhere and go grab some cash?

Then I remembered there was an ATM up front, so I went to use it. Like I said, I wasn't all there this morning. The only nice thing I can say about the ATM is it let me take out $50, or, had I wanted to, $30 (my bank's ATMs don't do that). I was still cranky though, and I ended up spending more than I wanted to. Maybe if I had a plan going in.

I spent the rest of the afternoon finishing my task of cleaning/straightening/etc.ing the basement. Lots of fun, believe you me. It's simply amazing how many empty boxes one can accumulate over time. Everytime I'd move something, there'd be an empty box. Every time I got rid of some old papers, boom, an empty box. Inside the empty boxes were, yes, more empty boxes. Even when I thought I'd got them all, I found another box with about 3 or 4 boxes in it. They now have an entire shelf all to themselves. All in all though, it went pretty well, and the basement is in better shape than it was (although at this writing, I've yet to run the vacuum). It's not perfect, but I've decided I can live with "pretty good" this time.

In other news:

I really hate Charter. Not only do they (in my mind) rip me off price-wise, but they don't even list prices on their website for other services in the event I decide to go with something else. If they do list the prices, they don't seem to be logically placed (as in "with the service description').

I did, however, get a reduction and a credit from Ameron, so I don't pay them this month, and will begin paying less next month. Whee!

I do like Janice's computer, as I was able to download an entire concert in about 12 hours, as opposed to the 100+ it would have required at home. Thanks to Janice and her computer.

Yesterday was my first 'proper' 4th of July in many years. Last year I was shooting for the Journal; the year before, shooting for the Word; the year before, I went to Dave's to blow some stuff up; and the year before (2000) I went downtown with Tones for the VP fair. So it's been 4 years. But yesterday, I went with Janice to Jess' (Jess's?) family lake house on Lake Tishimingo. There were many people, not limited to Janice's other boyfriend, Vince, and his dad, Mark (yes?), who gets points for being a really cool guy. Many other people I didn't know. Food. Plenty of. Dessert. Yum. And fireworks, too. Real honest to goodness, colorful, boomy fireworks. I was pleased.

And hey, tomorrow starts the week, but it's Tuesday!

Chew on that, why don'tcha.

I'm gonna go have some soup. And maybe talk to someone. Or I may not talk. But I'll still have the soup.


I can't think of anything to say.
Dave