I feel like sharing now...

Come on over! This blog is moving...

2008-09-06T11:10:00.002-04:00

I've been trying to figure out how to blog from my iPhone to this blog and not having much luck, even with published methods. I found out about how easy it is to blog from the iPhone to Wordpress so announcing...

http://ifeellikesharingnow.wordpress.com

I was very impressed how easy it was to import all my Blogger posts right into my new blog.

This is the last post on this blog.

The Dog Park

2008-08-31T17:40:00.001-04:00

Yay Skip. A picture of myself I actually like.

The Sleep

2008-08-31T17:28:00.001-04:00

This was taken our 2nd or 3rd day with Shiloh. He certainly has warmed up to us fast. Pictured is Skip, Shiloh and Blossom (behind) taking a nap.
Canon G9, F2.8, ISO 200, 7.4mm

Spooky

2008-08-30T19:50:00.003-04:00

This was Blossom's DogScope the day we got Shiloh. For the record, I had never even heard of a DogScope. Skip showed me this.

She makes me want to use Crystal Meth

2008-08-27T17:58:00.001-04:00

It would be worth the rehab just to have Kristin Chenoweth, Interventionist, sing to me at my intervention.

See more Kristin Chenoweth videos at Funny or Die

Shiloh's Middle Name

2008-08-27T17:51:00.002-04:00

Just so you know, his name is Shiloh Hillary Dayton. He's man enough to handle it.

Blossom is 2!

2008-08-24T15:53:00.002-04:00

Can I still call her baby? She is 12, I suppose.

The First Portrait

2008-08-24T15:15:00.003-04:00

Well we've had Shiloh a little over 48 hours now and he is just a joy. He loves to wrestle with Blossom, say hi to the cats, lay on your lap, get affection, sleep next to you, go for car rides, go to the dog park, eat treats and run around the house like a fool. There were some concerns that Blossom wouldn't take too kindly to another dog but they are getting along just fine.

They were nice enough to pose for some pictures on Friday night, here is one of them.

What's New?

2008-08-21T05:17:00.003-04:00

Anticipating the arrival of Shiloh...

Still traveling to Pittsburgh for work most weeks...

Still pretty burned out.

Skip is still getting treatment for his car accident last September and still isn't allowed to exercise.

My photography is coming along albeit at a slower pace than I'd like. My next class starts in early September.

I see the Doctor again tomorrow about my knee. Neither is still really fixed so I'm going to try to get him to go back in there and fix it.

We're looking forward to my sister's wedding in Colorado in October. Skip is looking forward to making the wedding cake!

We're Daddies (again)

2008-08-20T20:16:00.002-04:00

We found out tonight that we got Shiloh. We should find out tomorrow when we can pick him up, hopefully on Friday!

If anyone has any tips on getting the dogs to love each other, let me know!

Keep your fingers crossed

2008-08-18T04:37:00.001-04:00

We put in an application on this adorable Beagle yesterday.

Bigger, Better and Longer

2008-08-11T17:36:00.004-04:00

I posted earlier this year about the awesome video from How I Met Your Mother called Sandcastles in the Sand.

I found that you can actually get the full video from iTunes for free! It's longer, includes the full song and did I mention that it's free? It definitely holds up over time. If you've ever watched the show I'm sure you'll find it a hoot.

Pittsburgh Water

2008-08-05T05:16:00.003-04:00

Pittsburgh may be the #1 city in the country for soot, but it does have some pretty water.

Canon PowerShot G9, ISO 800, F8.0, 1/3 sec

Don't tell Skip

2008-08-04T22:51:00.003-04:00

I have had a crush on Neil Patrick Harris forever and I'm glad to see he's getting the recognition he deserves. He recently did a great interview in Out magazine worth checking out.

Your Way Holidays

2008-08-03T20:47:00.003-04:00

Skip's travel agency is really taking off. He opened Your Way Holidays last year and as things are going now he'll be doing it full-time by next year. He sold so many rooms for a certain cruise last year that we are going on a cruise for free in one of the six penthouse suites (including hot tub)!

Hillary!

2008-08-03T20:45:00.001-04:00

My Hillary shirt and I had a great time at Baltimore Gay Pride. I did get funny looks from the Obama Pride booth but I got hugs and some great comments from a lot of people there. I still love me some Hillary.

Bradley Whitford!

2008-07-27T21:41:00.002-04:00

A last minute decision on where to eat for dinner found us running into Bradley Whitford, currently starring in the Tony-award winning Boeing, Boeing. Love, him, love him, love him! I miss West Wing.

Dunkin Donuts

2008-07-27T18:22:00.003-04:00

Here is a really bad picture taken at probably the biggest camera store in the world, B&H Photo Video in Manhattan. Seriously, it's bigger than any Best Buy I've ever been in, probably by 2.

But back to the point. What can you possibly buy at Dunkin Donuts for which you would need a bag this size?

Taken with a Canon G9, F3.5, focal length 16.8 mm, no flash (and no focus or proper white balance!)

Not much can make me go wow at 5 am

2008-07-24T05:19:00.002-04:00

but this quote did.

"I really hate jaywalkers. I despise them. Since I don't run the country, all I can do is yell at 'em. The other option is to run 'em over, but as a compassionate conservative, I would never do that."

Well why is that quote wow-inducing, you ask? It was from Conservative Robert Novak in 2001 (Reliable Source, Lloyd Grove). Last Sunday he hit a pedestrian in DC drove away. Someone had to chase him down and stop him until police arrived. Robert claimed that "I didn't see him there" although a witness claimed the person hit "is sort of splayed into the windshield."

Lovely.

Those eyes

2008-07-14T03:24:00.003-04:00

Taking a good picture of Blossom staring at me while I am driving while I am actually driving is no small feat.

The Catch Up

2008-07-14T02:59:00.007-04:00

I realize it's been forever since I've done any type of substantial post, so at 3 am let me see if I can catch you up...

Our cruise to the Bahamas was simply amazing. We got sun, did yoga, pilates and stretch classes, walked forever, swam in a lagoon, kept over 300 pictures that I took (once I trimmed down the 600+ I actually took, had wonderful food, a pretty small room, got room service at midnight, perfect weather all four days we were in Bermuda and came home to a very excited Blossom. The picture was taking with my iPhone as we were leaving the islands. All the real pictures are on my other laptop which is already packed for my imminent drive to Pittsburgh. I'll post some better ones in the coming days, promise.

I've been in Pittsburgh every week with no end in site. The draining of my soul and energy continues.

Skip's travel business is finally taking off. We are even going on a free cruise next year because he sold so many rooms for Carnival's first cruise out of Baltimore in years. He still has rooms left if you're interested.

His cake business is doing well although he's scaling back a bit due to the travel. The wedding cake he did last Friday was the heaviest he has ever done. I do a minimum of 5 hours of hard cardio a week along with yoga, stretching and lifting and I had to really concentrate to not drop that thing. Skip of course can't pick it up yet. His car accident was in December and he is still not even allowed to work out. Guess who gets to mow the lawn!

Blossom is doing well and as cute as ever.

I finally found a few hours this week to get more studying done for my Digital Photography hobby. I want to get some more knowledge in before my second course this fall so I watched another DVD on using my camera and am working through a 7 or 8 DVD series from Strobist.

My sister is getting married in October so we will be driving to Colorado in late October with Blossom for the festivities. Skip will be making the cake (brown!) and our friend/previous next-door neighbor was kind enough to let us host and stay there. I want snow. I want snow. I want snow.

The last weekend in July we'll be cashing in a few Hilton points (I'm at about half a million right now) to see a few shows in NYC. A Catered Affair has been on my list and since it closes at the end of the month and prompted the trip. I've seen Xanadu but wanted to see it one more time and wanted Skip to see it. Since it didn't win any Tonys I didn't want to waste any time.

My knee is slowly getting better. I can do three days in a row of an hour on the elliptical cross trainer without much of a problem any more. A few months ago I could only do my normal elevations for the first day and had to dial it down the second two days.

We FINALLY found a good Vietnamese restaurant in Baltimore. Security Square Mall of all places!

People keep asking if I'll be getting the new iPhone. Honestly I don't think so. If it could do turn by turn directions and replace the Garmin then I probably would, but supposedly it can't, so no. I already have the upgraded software and some cool new apps (Remote, Mobile Banking, PhoneSaber, Bejeweled 2, etc.)

How's that? If I could figure out why Blogger won't publish my pics when I send to the email address I would be doing a lot more blogging. Just one more thing in my life to troubleshoot...

43!

2008-06-27T17:37:00.002-04:00

Skip and I are going on a cruise tomorrow. It's our first and I'm starting to get excited. I went to the Doctor today to get a patch for motion sickness (just in case) and evidently my resting heart rate is down to 43 beats per minute. She said that must be wrong and did I exercise? Well, 5 - 9 hours of cardio a week along with stretching and lifting will do that to ya.

Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along

2008-06-27T14:16:00.003-04:00

Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is working on a new project titled Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along.

How can something with Joss Whedon, Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillon be anything but incredible?

You can check out the trailer here.

How was your day, Jeff?

2008-06-03T21:43:00.001-04:00

Well, I broke a record. 9 and 1/2 hours of meetings in 11 hours. That's after doing 1 hour on the eliptical cross trainer and then chest/arms/abs/stretching.

Then I had a wonderful Indian dinner.

RIP Mitch Mullany

2008-06-03T21:29:00.004-04:00

I always thought Mitch Mullany was so cute and funny. His show Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher was horrible but I watched every episode because of him. I'm certainly not used to reading about someone my age dying.

What the hell?

2008-06-03T21:21:00.002-04:00

TNT has started a new way to advertise. They literally pause a show while it is airing, the ad shows up in the bottom corner and when it's done the show starts again. I just saw this during Family Guy on TNT. Well, Mr. Bill Engvall, there's one more reason I won't see your show.

Despicable.

Karma and Vista

2008-06-02T10:20:00.002-04:00

I replaced the graphics card on my Mac Pro on Friday. A side benefit is that the card supports DirectX 10. So what does my brain do? It tells me (totally without my permission) that I should now upgrade my boot camp partition to Vista. I had tried the Release Candidate and totally hated it, but now that Service Pack 1 is out I decided to give it a try. First I decided to be bad and try an actual upgrade rather than a clean install. It took forever of course and ended up leaving to take Blossom to Day Care and to go to the gym.

When I was in Day Care buying some more tickets for Blossom, a guy came up to me and asked if I had a white Honda. Well of course I do, and he told me that the car had rolled backwards. Into another car. Down a slight hill. It was one of the groomer's cars and there was a very small bump which she wasn't worried about. Skip had to bang our bumper back into place but that was the extent of the damage.

I think, though, this was the universe's way of punishing me for doing a Vista upgrade.

I got home and the install was totally hosed. I ended up having to do a clean install. It actually turned out pretty well (minus the microsoft normal abnormalities) and I haven't had any real problems yet. Fingers crossed.

Things I love...

2008-05-28T21:02:00.005-04:00

Welcome to a new feature of this blog called Things I love...

I love my new Cudos shoes. They're water shoes that I wear when doing my water aerobics classes. These shoes are the first I've found that actually fit. They even have great support for all that bouncing!

I also love ice cream cones from Chick Fil-A.

And Donna Summer's new song Stamp Your Feet. Totally age-inappropriate so just try not listening to the words too much.

Dog Park Heaven

2008-05-27T20:56:00.003-04:00

Blossom had a great visit to an enclosed dog park in Annapolis for Memorial Day. She liked playing with the big dogs and the not-so big dogs. What she didn't like is the other beagle giving me attention.
Nikon D300 - f/13.0, 1/200, ISO 200

Wii Fit

2008-05-26T20:50:00.004-04:00

My blog seems to have a Wii slant (ha ha) lately, hope you don't mind.

Luckily I pre-ordered Wii Fit from Amazon the first day it was available. It arrived when I was out of town but I got to play it as soon as I got home last week.

The first thing you do is take a test. You get weighed, do some balance tests, etc. so the game can decide how you look and your BMI. It can't really calculate your BMI since it doesn't know how much of your weight is muscles. Very evident when I saw my fat self on the screen there. I am down from a size 38 to a 32 and a lot more muscley (is that a word?). I tried not to take offense.

There are many different sections of games you can play, the first being yoga. Well I do yoga almost every day but this is nazi yoga. Not only do you have to do the pose correctly, but if you aren't almost perfectly balanced, the game knows and tells you. Talk about a work out.

Yoga is of course only one of the sections. Skip loves the running game and I always know when he is doing the hula hoop game because I hear the laughing coming from him.

This is a fun, fun game. Even the people that aren't playing enjoy the experience. Come over and try!

is David......Ahhhhhhhhh!

2008-05-24T06:56:00.003-04:00

People are upset because the American Idol finale ran late and their Tivos didn't always let them see which David won. If memory serves, American Idol finales always run long. Someone taped what her Tivo recorded along with her great reaction...

Snow!

2008-05-22T10:30:00.004-04:00

Can't believe I haven't posted this yet...

Last week when I was driving to Pittsburgh I drove snow for about 10 minutes on the top of a mountain! There wasn't much traffic so I actually stopped and put my window down to do a little basking.

The life of Blossom

2008-05-14T05:12:00.002-04:00

When I'm home I sleep like a mummy. Blossom is under the covers, pressed up against me from the right side and Lucy is pressed up against me on the right side. Rolling on to my side takes a bit of planning to not squish anyone. When I'm gone, evidently they both sleep near my pillow and actually sleep close to each other. I have never seen this phenomenon myself but Skip got a picture. Blossom actually takes her fluffy (the blue thing) and pulls it up to my pillow and sleeps there. This picture is the only time I've seen the two of them actually touching.

I'm not sure how she does it, but yesterday when Skip picked up Blossom from day care, she was on top of a dog house. The workers told him that Blossom likes to get up there but then only lets her friends up with her. I am not sure what is happening, as I did not raise her to be an elitist snob. As long as she votes for Hillary and doesn't hurt anyone or anything she can do what she wants.

Vindication

2008-05-13T19:07:00.003-04:00

Remember how much I worried about the movie Hairspray?

Well I was right, it was awful. Just putting famous people in a movie does not make it good. John Travolta was just awful, Queen Latifah was even worse. The whole spirit of the original movie/musical was just thrown out the window to make a buck. And that new song they added, "Ladies Choice"? Horrendous.

Harvey Fierstein (the original Edna) recently did an interview where they asked what he thought of the movie. His reply...

[Looking nauseated.] It was hard to watch - I think they missed the point. I'm very glad it made $100 million, or whatever it was. I'm the ghostwriter, so I get the checks. Send me the checks, John Travolta!

Things Younger Than John McCain

2008-05-13T19:03:00.004-04:00

Like the Hindenberg disaster. This is too funny! Not the disaster, the web site.

I've come around

2008-05-11T13:14:00.003-04:00

I used to think that the comic Brewster Rockit Space Guy! was pretty stupid but I've come around. It's actually pretty intelligent and funny.

Today's Mother's Day strip is especially funny. Check it out. If you read this after Mother's Day, click on Archive and pick 05-11-2008.

Can't Speak French

2008-05-06T04:40:00.002-04:00

Every once in a while a song grabs you on the first listen and your brain just gets a little more mushy for having heard it. Can't Speak French by Girls Aloud did that to me recently and I can't stop listening to it. Here is my favorite version of the song and here is the video. Pure poppy goodness.

Worn Down

2008-05-04T16:38:00.003-04:00

Life is wearing me down. I'm going to Pittsburgh almost every week now, leaving Monday morning, coming back Thursday night.

While I'm in Pittsburgh, my days are something like this:

5 am - wake up

5:30 - 6:30 am - gym

7 am - at work

6 pm - leave work

6-9 or 10 - eat out/talk about work with co-workers

11 pm - bed

And of course in there is the fun of dealing with the client.

Weekends are a exercise in hurrying up. Hurry up and get the bills paid, laundry done, bag packed, etc. all to get ready to go again.

It's not like I just started travelling, but not sure why it's so tiring these days. At least I still make time for the gym.

Weight - 194

I Know My Kid's a Star

2008-05-03T21:43:00.002-04:00

I don't get into many reality shows but I have been sucked in by I Know My Kid's a Star. Having performed through my school years, having gone to a Performing Arts High School and then having done performing arts Sign Language Interpreting, I find this show extremely interesting. The delusions, the egos, the Moms wanting to make up for their broken dreams, all so dramatic. The kids with obnoxious mothers actually are pretty cool and know what's going on with their Mothers and at times have even tried to stand up to them. The Moms of course don't want to hear it. Only one girl has any sort of talent, of course, but now it's all about the drama between the Moms. I can't believe I watch a show hosted by Danny Bonaduce. Ugh.

It's about time

2008-04-30T07:53:00.003-04:00

I used to work as a Sign Lanaguage Interpreter and the big rage was the first generation Blackberry devices that could be used to actually text back and forth instantly. We take it for granted now but it was a breakthrough in being able to talk to my Deaf and Hard of Hearing friends (and of course for them to talk to each other). Finally in 2008 AT&T has stepped up and offered a data plan geared towards their needs. I shudder to think about how much money they've spent over the hears for a voice plan that many of them couldn't use.

Discrimination part ???

2008-04-29T22:55:00.003-04:00

Who can keep track? Here is the latest incident experienced by Skip. Evidently Home Depot still doesn't care if one of their employees is called a faggot. I would have love to have seen the outrage if the N word was thrown around.

Skip's words...

"A fellow associate asked me to help a older male customer with window tint in the decor department. I walked over to the customer to tell him with tint was the one with the mirror side. I started to speak and said "This is the one..." I was cut off by the customer very loudly stated " Don't come over here with your attitude you flaming faggot... You sissy boys are going to show me the respect I deserve." I was blind-sided I just turned away and said I was done and walked away. I went down the aisle where a policewoman that I had spoke to earlier and she asked me what happened. I told her. She asked me if I wanted her to say something to him. I told her no thanks. She said she would not have been able to keep her mouth shut she would have had to say something. I went over and told my supervisor what had happened and he said I am glad you didn't say anything back. (I knew he felt it was no big deal really) I also told him I would not help the customer and he went over to help him. I was back in the aisle with the policewoman and the customer walked down the aisle and from where he was he could not see her. He started to snicker at me and she stepped out and said what did you say. He said "nothing". she said I thought so. She was leaving too and I told her to have a nice day and she said "see ya later sweetie, smooches!" We laughed and she went on her way.

I dare you to watch it only once...

2008-04-26T07:10:00.003-04:00

Ah, Robin Sparkles you fake Canadian teen Pop Star, I can't get enough of you. As someone who still loves Debbie (oh, sorry, Deborah) Gibson, I'm the perfect target audience for this. I could have picked about 100 umm 100,000 guys hotter than James Van Derbeek (sp)?

If you don't watch How I Met Your Mother it's time to start! This is the second Robin Sparkles spoof they have done.

Check out Sandcastles In The Sand. (better quality video with the links)

And in case you missed it, here is her first video Let's Go To The Mall.

Sunny Pittsburgh

2008-04-23T08:02:00.003-04:00

Here is a picture of my office view in Pittsburgh. How much money do they spend to cut the grass like that? I can't complain, it's a lot of green for this part of the city, I'm just happy to have a window!

He was a good dog

2008-04-18T09:52:00.002-04:00

We had to put Gaston to sleep a few days ago. He was 16, 2 years older than most dogs of his type live. He got to the point where he couldn't stand still without his paws giving out on him and would fall down just trying to eat his dinner. At night he had dementia and would just wander in circles.

It's a very sad thing but I feel good that he's not suffering or confused any more. When we took him to the Vet's office of course the adreneline kicked in and he seemed great for about 5 minutes or so until he started slipping again. He also tried to go under a desk that he was clearly too tall for multiple times, but this is something he has done all his life. Skip and I are convinced that our time in Colorado extended his life by at least a year but even there his eyesight and hearing started to fail him. As scared as he was of loud noises (especially fireworks) that was actually a good thing.

The funny thing about Gaston is he never actually gave you affection. Never nuzzled, never licked you, he would just walk up to you and give the goofiest grin, even though he was usually telling you that he wanted food or a walk. Sometimes he would use you has his personal scratching post and did like little massages, but he wasn't the most demonstrative dog. We loved him all the same and his special little smooches with one of our cats will be missed.

We will miss you, Gaston. You were a good dog.

40th Birthday Cake

2008-04-06T18:55:00.004-04:00

Here is a 40th Birthday cake. Normally we get to photograph the cake at home but this one had to travel to Ocean City so the picture was taken on-site. The numbers are edible white chocolate and this cake debuted Skip's new marshmallow fondant! Everything on the cake (except for the base) is edible.

Easter Cake

2008-04-06T18:41:00.002-04:00

Here is a simple Easter Cake made for Easter Dinner.

An Ocean City Sunrise

2008-04-05T21:26:00.004-04:00

Last weekend we were in Ocean City for a birthday party. Good thing we had an oceanside view room because it was waaaaay too cold to go on the beach that morning. It's not as pretty as a Colorado mountain sunrise, but it will do!

[Nikon D300, 18-200mm VR zoom lens at 50mm, 1/500 of a second at f/4.5 and ISO 200, hand held.]

My Sweetie

2008-03-26T07:30:00.003-04:00

Still sick. Fever hit 103.5 last night. Sweated out the sheets twice last night. Even Blossom doesn't want anything to do with me.

I realized that although it's very minor in the scheme of things, the thing I dislike the most about where we live is the lack of good food nearby. The closest good sushi is 25 minutes away, same for a whole foods, and for my favorite food, Vietnamese, we're probably talking an hour (Arlington). My sweetie Skippy was nice enough to get me some last night on his way to pick up Blossom. It was kind of like cheap Chinese, you're glad to eat it, but you know better stuff is out there.

Weight: 196.2

I Dare You

2008-03-22T09:22:00.003-04:00

Sick as a dog. Still. Hate it.

I dare you to watch Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years without crying at least once. Let me know if you didn't cry so I'll know where to send a card of condolence and an electric blanket to warm your frozen heart.

Smelly Memories

2008-03-19T07:24:00.002-04:00

I loved living in DC. I did not love walking by a Starbucks and being assaulted by the nasty overwhelming odor of coffee. I've never liked coffee. I've never tasted coffee. The closest I've come to tasting coffee is an accidental (small) spoonful of coffee ice cream that I thought was chocolate. So you can imagine my relief when Starbucks stopped all that smelly nonsense and you couldn't even tell they sold coffee the air was so clean. Well evidently they have had enough of that and they are going to grind their beans in-house again. Sigh.

The robot cat i.e. Welcome to my Digital Photography expansion!

2008-03-17T21:47:00.002-04:00

Now that I've got some more experience with Digital Photography I've decided that I would expand this blog by making it a Digital Photography Blog also. The name still fits and you'll get more posts!

Here are my first subjects. When I saw this scene I ran to get my camera as this cat never ever sits in a lap like that, I'm telling you this girl had her hypnotized. The picture turned out way too dark but with a little Photoshop magic it looks much better. Obviously I didn't do anything about the room clutter.

[Nikon D300, 18-200mm VR zoom lens at 18mm, 1/25 of a second at f/3.5 and ISO 100, hand held.]

A first and a second

2008-03-17T19:46:00.003-04:00

This is the closest I've seen Blossom sleep to any other animal in the house. But then, a day of playing does make her awfully tired, so she isn't too picky about where she sleeps, as long as it's close to one of her Daddys.
As for the second, Blossom got picked as Doggie of the Week again. But of course!

The Hon Princess

2008-03-16T21:01:00.003-04:00

Deb's party was a great success and ended with some unintended nudity (you know who you are, cute ass). Here is the cake, almost 4 feet high!

My apologies

2008-03-16T08:35:00.004-04:00

I tend to forget that a certain sector of my audience likes the gorey stuff (hi Sarah and Ruth!) so here is a wonderful picture of my shaved knee three days after surgery. I think I'm done with the drugs and hopefully I'll be able to get back in the water on Friday. The Doctor seems optimistic that the surgery helped and in 8 to 10 weeks he'll do the other knee. By then it will be way too hot to bike :-( but at least I'll be ready for the fall. By the way, that's Stevie's tail saying hi on the left side of the picture. Sarah has taken to calling him "Stevil" as he has a bit of a growling issue, especially when it concerns other cats trying to horn in on his catnip.

Today is Deb's big birthday shindig at our house, wait til you see the cake!

MacBook for Sale

2008-03-13T21:28:00.006-04:00

We're doing a little consolidation of machines here in the house and I'm putting up my MacBook for sale at $1400.

Model: MacBook 15"
Color: Black
Processor: 2.16 GHZ Intel Core Duo
Memory: 2 GB 667 Mhz DDR 2 SD Ram
Hard Drive: Serial ATA, 160 GB
Optical Drive: Matshita DVD-R
Display: 15" LCD
Graphics: GMA 950 (mac resolution 1280x800)
AirPort Extreme: Built-in
Bluetooth: Built-in
Camera: Built-in
OS: Mac OS X 10.5.2 Tiger
AppleCare: Until August 2010

Oh Ellen, you're so funny, Oh Sally, you're such an idiot

2008-03-13T17:04:00.002-04:00

So you've heard about the Governor of Oklahoma, Sally Kern? Evidently she thinks we gays are trying to indoctrinate two year olds and feels strongly that we are THE biggest threat to civilization, more so than terrorism and Islam. A great write-up is on Duane Moody's site here. Even Ellen DeGeneres has something to say about it. She almost never talks about gay things here but you just can't help but love her for how she handles this...

Surgery, blech

2008-03-13T12:11:00.001-04:00

At least I got to come home a day early from Pittsburgh.

I had knee surgery this morning. Not totally sure how it went, I'll see the Doctor tomorrow and find out.

The medication they gave me at the hospital is wearing off....

Work and School, Work and School

2008-03-05T20:05:00.002-05:00

Here I am again in Pittsburgh. I've had pretty good Sushi. I've had excellent Vietnamese. I've been taking online Photoshop classes (since my Digital Photography teacher does not know what the hell he is doing) from lynda.com. I take them when I wake up. I take them at night. I'd take them during the day but that's when I'm working.

The good news is I'll be back in NYC in the next few weeks. My camera can't wait!

I'm thinking about starting a Digital Photography Blog with the goal to post one new picture that I've taken every day and talk about things photograpy-related. I'm trying to decide if it should be just a part of this blog (it would be sharing after all) or if I should start a separate blog. Opinions welcome.

Rick Astley would never...

2008-03-02T11:59:00.002-05:00

Many thanks to Electroqueer...

Quick Hits

2008-02-28T06:31:00.003-05:00

After more than 2 months, I finally started traveling again. This week it is Pittsburgh. I'll be in Pittsburgh or NYC for the forseeable future. At least there is snow here, as opposed to balmy Baltimore.

After a 3 month wait I finally got to see a specialist for my knee. First of all, I have never had a Doctor take a personal call while talking to me (not even an apology) but he took two different personal calls right in front of me with no remorse. Ugh. If it didn't take so long I would want to switch Doctors. I'll be having knee surgery in mid-March so that will keep me home for a few days.

In the water aerobics class, older citizens seem to love to use the same pool lanes as the water aerobics class to float around. Usually they are very courteous and move out of the way if they are in the deep end and the class moves down there for example. But not one rather large gentleman who refused to move. When I reminded him that there was a class in session he told me to "get your faggot ass back to the other end". All manner of hilarity ensued after that including the lifeguard, management, the gentleman insisting that he was a part of the class (which made the teacher laugh) and him insisting he never actually called me a faggot and how could I prove it. A tiny bit of investigation revealed that he is mean to pretty much anyone and unfortunately his language is status quo for him. I've only been back to one class since the incident so we'll see how that goes.

Skip is still out from his car accident and still not feeling much better after almost four months.

My current work assignment has a new Project Manager and lead architect and both are turning out to be very capable and easy to work with in the face of a challenging client. Fun work.

Two new songs I am liking this week - So Much Betta by Janet from Discipline and Backwoods Barbie (a true Dolly classic) from Backwoods Barbie by Dolly Parton.

Now I'm on a roll but my Project Manager likes to have team breakfast at 7 am so it's time to hit the shower...

A Sad Day, A Happy Day, A Broadway Day

2008-02-24T06:20:00.002-05:00

What's sad...

Today is the last day for The Color Purple on Broadway. Loyal readers will know I have had a hate/love relationship with this musical and I have no idea how it is now that Fantasia is gone but I am still sad to see it go.

What's happy...

Kristin Chenoweth is performing at the Oscars tonight!

Well I thought I was pretty smart. But...

2008-02-23T18:56:00.002-05:00

I got tired of managing multiple backups due to multiple partitioned drives, etc. so I decided to move my Mac install to a 1 TB drive and the Boot Camp partition to it's own 250 G drive. Not so hard, use SuperDuper to backup the Mac and then to restore it to another drive. Used WinClone to clone the boot camp partition and then move it to another drive. Then early this am before the gym I was wiping the old drives so I wouldn't have to worry about accessing old data and of course I delete the Windows partition. So with no backup of my Windows data I start the install process and now I'm mostly done except that I have a c: drive with almost nothing on it and a d: drive with most everything on it.

When I was a kid... Super Mario Galaxy edition

2008-02-21T12:25:00.002-05:00

Remember the SNES? It was popular when I was in high school/college. I remember playing games on it with two kids I babysat in college. Some nerd (I mean that in a good sense) has put up a video on how Super Mario Galaxy would have looked like on the SNES. Incredible! You can see it here.

Bunnies and Cupcakes

2008-02-20T15:57:00.001-05:00

I can't believe I watched an entire Microsoft ad. Wait, wait, don't go away. It has Amy Sedaris and bunnies and cupcakes!

Much Better

2008-02-20T10:41:00.003-05:00

A new video for Paula Abdul's song "Dance Like There's No Tomorrow" has been released and it's much better than what they put together for the Super Bowl. While watching it I couldn't help but think about how much more I would have liked it if I didn't know what I now know about crazy Paula. I like my stars to be mysterious.

RIP Madge

2008-02-20T08:50:00.003-05:00

Emily Perry, who played Dame Edna's sidekick Madge Alsop has died at age 100. She never spoke but was always so funny. I especially like how Dame Edna fleshed out her character in her megaselling book My Gorgeous Life: An Adventure.

RIP HD-DVD

2008-02-19T12:34:00.001-05:00

Yay it's over. Not that Blu-Ray is that impressive. I watch Blu-Ray if netflix sends it in that format, but as I buy almost any DVDs as it is, I can't imagine when I'd buy anything on Blu-Ray.

If you were unfortunate enough to buy a HD-DVD player, perhaps you need to know the Top ten things to do with your now-defunct HD DVD player.

I wasn't going to watch the Oscars...

2008-02-15T17:25:00.003-05:00

but now that Kristin Chenoweth is performing, I shall have to make an exception.
I also just found out that she's six months older than me (to the day)!

Valentine Love

2008-02-14T16:25:00.000-05:00

I have not laughed out loud at a video in a long time. Get freaky!

Of course he did!

2008-02-13T07:41:00.002-05:00

A beagle won Westminster!

Thank you Apple!

2008-02-11T20:50:00.000-05:00

Even though we technically can't use them in my Digital Photography class, I am very much into RAW camera files since they are the largest you can get (for large scale printing) and are totally unprocessed. So if I purposely oversaturate a picture and don't like it, it doesn't matter since when the picture is taken, I have the camera save a jpeg (saturated) and a RAW (unprocessed) copy. RAW is a fairly new format and hasn't been supported for my Nikon camera until today's 10.5.2 update from Apple. Now even iPhoto can handle my RAW files. Thanks, Apple!

This is what a rough night of bingo will do to you

2008-02-10T16:48:00.000-05:00

Do Not Mess With Me

2008-02-10T07:04:00.000-05:00

How is it that the sweetest cat in the world can look like such a thug in almost every picture I ever take of her? Right now she is curled up asleep in my lap while I read the Sunday paper online.

Splish Splash

2008-02-07T21:19:00.000-05:00

Some of you know that I have been battling some knee problems for a while now, to the point where I basically had to stop doing cardio in September. Last week I decided that I would do water aerobics (low impact) but of the three weekly classes I could take at Bally's, I can only go to the Wednesady night class. And that assumes that I'm actually home during the week that shouldn't last much longer. I joined another gym that has more than 15 classes a week and have taken six(?) in the last week. Being an Aquarius, I love, love, love me some water and the classes are a lot of fun. At Bally's I am one of six or so guys, but at the new gym I'm always the only guy. C'est la vie!

Don't want to pay your library fine?

2008-02-06T07:27:00.000-05:00

If you belong to a certain Massachusetts library, you can play Dance, Dance Revolution to work off your fine!

Syrupent

2008-02-03T07:41:00.000-05:00

For Sarah's wonderful Mexican fiesta last night, Skip made a great Viva Pinata cake of the snake Syrupent. It's a huge cake. At the end of the party only a part of the tail was gone. Now it has gone to a better place in the land of Deb and Keith. You can see more of Skip's cakes here.

RIP

2008-02-03T07:13:00.000-05:00

Nurse Amy! Nurse Amy Vining from General Hospital has died of renal failure. She was always so fun. Whenever someone said something juicy she was just around a corner, behind the door, etc. ready and willing to spread that gossip. I used to be so addicted to General Hospital for a few years when Anna Devane came along.

Some people born on my birthday

2008-01-25T15:08:00.000-05:00

Mischa Barton (22)
Nicole Lenz (28)
Tatyana Ali (29)
Matthew Lillard (38)
Mary Lou Retton (40)
Natassja Kinski (49)
Yakov Smirnoff (57)
Gennifer Flowers (58)
Aaron Neville (67)
Neil Diamond (67)
Ernest Borgnine (91)
Oral Roberts

This will probably come out wrong

2008-01-25T13:22:00.001-05:00

If you want great table scraps for your dog(s) you should give Lebanese Taverna a try.

No really. They are one of my favorite restaurants and I'm so happy they finally opened up a location in Baltimore. I always get the same thing and last night was determined to try something new and it happened to be a raw meat dish. Well I just wasn't into it so it made up the basis for Sarah's treat to her dogs.

My favorite dishes there are the Kibbeh appetizer and Shish Taouk. Only the peppers from the Shish Taouk escaped my greedy lips.

Fun Facts for my Birthday

2008-01-24T14:45:00.000-05:00

129,650 People

Approximately 129,650 people died worldwide on January 24, 1969.

129,650 People

Natural disasters in 1969
Hurricane Camille
Minnesota Tornado Outbreak of 1969
Ohio Fireworks Derecho
People who died on January 24 (various years)

2007 - Guadalupe Larriva, Ecuadorian politician
2007 - Krystyna Feldman, Polish actress
2006 - Chris Penn, American actor
2006 - Schafik Handal, Salvadorean politician
2006 - Fayard Nicholas, American tap dancer, one-half of The Nicholas Brothers
2005 - Chalkie White, English rugby union coach
2005 - Vladimir Savchenko, Ukrainian writer
2005 - June Bronhill, Australian singer
2004 - Leônidas da Silva, Brazilian footballer
2003 - Gianni Agnelli, Italian auto executive
2002 - Elie Hobeika, Lebanese Forces militia commander
2002 - Peter Gzowski, Canadian broadcaster, writer and reporter
2001 - Les Brown, American band leader
2000 - Bobby Duncum, Jr., American professional wrestler
1998 - Walter D. Edmonds, American author
1993 - Thurgood Marshall, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
1992 - Ricky Ray Rector, American murderer
1991 - John M. Kelly, Irish politician and academic
1990 - Madge Bellamy, American actress
1989 - George Knudson, Canadian golfer
1989 - Ted Bundy, American serial killer
1988 - Werner Fenchel, German mathematician
1986 - Gordon MacRae, American actor and singer
1986 - Flo Hyman, American volleyball player
1986 - L. Ron Hubbard, American writer and founder of Scientology
1983 - George Cukor, American film director
1982 - Alfredo Ovando Candía, Bolivian president and dictator
1978 - Herta Oberheuser, German doctor
1975 - Larry Fine, American actor and comedian
1973 - J. Carrol Naish, American actor
1971 - Bill W., American co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous
1970 - Caresse Crosby, American poet
1966 - Homi J. Bhabha, Indian physicist
1965 - Winston Churchill, soldier, politician, historian, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Nobel laureate
1962 - André Lhote, french painter.
1962 - Stanley Lord, captain of the SS Californian the night of the Titanic disaster
1961 - Alfred Carlton Gilbert, American swimmer and inventor
1960 - Edwin Fischer, Swiss pianist and conductor
1955 - Ira Hayes, American World War II hero
1948 - Arthur Liebehenschel, Commandant at Auschwitz concentration camp
1948 - Maria Mandel, Camp Leader at Auschwitz
1943 - John Burns, English politician
1939 - Maximilian Bircher-Benner, Swiss physician and nutritionist
1932 - Alfred Yarrow, English shipbuilder
1924 - Marie-Adélaïde, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg
1920 - Amedeo Modigliani, Italian painter and sculptor
1911 - David Graham Phillips, American journalist and novelist
1895 - Lord Randolph Churchill, British politician
1883 - Friedrich von Flotow, German composer
1882 - Levi Boone, Mayor of Chicago
1877 - Johann Christian Poggendorff, German physicist
1856 - Rabbi Yechezkel of Kuzmir, Polish Hasidic leader
1769 - François de Chevert, French general
1709 - George Rooke, English admiral
1666 - Johann Andreas Herbst, German composer
1639 - Georg Jenatsch, Swiss politician
1626 - Samuel Argall, English adventurer and naval officer
1595 - Ferdinand II of Austria
1473 - Conrad Paumann, German composer
1376 - Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel, English military leader
1366 - Alfonso IV of Aragon
1125 - David IV of Georgia
1002 - Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 980)
772 - Pope Stephen III (b. 720)
41 - Caligula, Emperor of Rome (b. 12)

I am a wimp

2008-01-22T19:39:00.000-05:00

I love almost everything Nicole Kidman does with Moulin Rouge and The Others being some of her best work. I perused Netflix to find some of her other movies and got Dead Calm today. I got about 1/2 way through the movie and I can't go any further. She's alone on that boat with that crazy sexy psycho and Sam O'Neill is no where to be seen or help her. I just know that crazy sexy psycho is going to hurt her and her little dog. I just can't watch it anymore.

I'm a College Student (again)!

2008-01-22T18:12:00.000-05:00

I wish I could do online training classes. I read the text and it just makes no sense to me. Being a kinesthetic learner, I need to see something and hear it explained. To that end, I have always wanted to learn how to take pictures on something other than the Auto mode so I enrolled in a Digital Photography class for the Spring at the Community College of Baltimore County. Like the airport, it's only about eight minutes from the house. I have been known to take a good picture here and there but it will be nice to actually know what I'm doing.

Blueberries!

2008-01-22T18:11:00.000-05:00

I've taken to making tuna fish to eat after my workouts and tried adding some blueberries to the mix this morning. Yum!

RIP

2008-01-22T18:07:00.000-05:00

It's hard to believe that Heath Ledger is gone at such an early age. I always appreciated that he had been more interesting in great roles than commercial success.

Play the "Candidate Match Game"

2008-01-22T13:14:00.000-05:00

Have you done this? It's a quiz on usatoday.com that shows you which Presidential candidates are most closely aligned with your beliefs. I'm definitely a Hillary guy but I was very interested in my results. At least they are all Democratic! Sad to say I haven't even heard of Mike Gravel.

The Coat

2008-01-19T18:47:00.001-05:00

Here is Blossom's winter coat. She doesn't like being cold.

Valentine's Day Candy and Cake Orders

2008-01-17T10:28:00.000-05:00

Skip is taking Valentine's Day orders again this year. You can check his order form out on his web site.

I know, I know, shameless cross-promotion! Luckily I will not be partaking of his candy this year but I will have a special piece or two set aside for smelling!

Weight: 205

My weight

2008-01-12T10:21:00.000-05:00

The good news is that I'm now down 20 pounds from when I got my hypnotherapy session on November 29th. 26 pounds to go!

I've been working remotely for more than a month now. I'll have to try on clothes before I pack for my travels since what I wore the last time definitely doesn't fit me now.

Weight: 206.8

Sleep? What sleep?

2008-01-12T10:14:00.000-05:00

I realize that this post will be laughable to those with children, you may use the time you would have used to read this post by getting a moment of zen...

Skip drove to the hypnotherapist in Pittsburgh yesterday to get a session geared towards weight loss. My mom and I had both been previously and have found that is has been very worthwhile. After the session Skip met my Mom at a local mall to drop off her Christmas goodies and then it was off to West Virginia to see his family. This means of course that I was alone in the house last night. No so big a deal for Skip as I'm away a lot, but I don't think I've been alone in our house in over three years, so it was very weird. Skip lets the dogs out in the middle of the night and all that jazz but now it was my turn.

/whine

The problem is that if it is past 3 or so and I wake up I don't get back to sleep. Blossom wanted to go out about 1 am so they both went out and we went back to sleep. At 4 am Blossom woke me up again and she was UP. Now this is very weird because anything earlier than 9:30 am is early for her. She stayed up and wired for a good hour before she decided it was nap time. By this time, of course there was no way I was going back to sleep. Unlike the people in the world with kids, I seem to need at least 6 hours of sleep a night.

/endwhine

She's back!

2008-01-09T07:45:00.000-05:00

I used to love, love, love Susan Powter. I loved her books, how she talked, how she could motivate you, oh she was just the best. Well she's back and now she's a big ol' dyke! Well not big, she's still a tiny thing but...

I even Tivo'd an episode of Fresh Prince of Bel Air recently just because she was on it.

Yet another reason to love her...

2008-01-07T13:35:00.000-05:00

Sorry, Keith.

I love Celine Dion. I've loved her since her very first English album. When I used to sign language interpret I used to work at some Drag Shows/Contests where they would sing her songs. Heaven. I've seen her in Vegas. If she asked me to marry her I would say yes.

As if there was ever a question, she said in a recent interview that she'd love her son if he were gay.

And her latest song, Eyes On Me (my favorite from her new album) comes out tomorrow. Huzzah!

If you want the best...

2008-01-06T10:10:00.001-05:00

Chicken with Cashew Nuts I have EVER tasted, it's available at Peking Duck in Alexandria, VA. I first ate it almost 20 years ago and amazingly not only is the restaurant still there but it still tastes exactly the same.

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Looking Back, Looking Forward

2008-01-01T06:34:00.000-05:00

2007 was full of fairly major changes in my life, which most years seem to be... Some are of course only important to me.

Skip and I moved back to the DC/Baltimore area to be closer to Skip's family. As several of them are in ill health this was a wise choice but it hasn't done any favors for Skip's asthma, Gaston's well-being or my love of snow!
I transitioned from full-time contracting to full-time employment contracting on the same exact assignment for a great company.
I got Premier Executive on United again and missed 100K by just 10,000 miles. If we had only waited another 3 weeks to move...
I saw a hypnotherapist about my weight issue and ended the year 17 pounds lighter than I had been on November 29th. I'm in the stage of having to try every piece of clothing on because it's all either too big or too small but that's a good thing.
I had some knee issues in the fall that I'm hoping were weight related. I stopped lifting for a while and have gone back in the last few weeks (but only doing calf raises for my legs, no squats, etc. Yesterday I did 60 minutes on the elliptical cross-trainer without any knee pain so that is great. A visit to a specialist later this month will give me more details...
I spent more time in NYC this year than I have in my whole life combined and that is of course a great thing! I saw several amazing shows such as The Color Purple (with Fantasia, the original cast was so bad I walked out) and Xanadu.
I wished for snow on my last night in Colorado (August 30th) and got it! We got enough to cover the driveway. It made me estatic but did not sit well with the neighbors.
I got several more Domino certifications this year (all in New York City). For 2008 I have 5 tests to take to be all caught up.
I rode the Amtrak train for the first time in over 15 years (all but one ride on the Acela Express) and love it! Much less hassle than a plane.
I rode the subway in NYC for the first time in almost 20 years and am happy that I know how to figure out the system.
After 4 years of wishing I got to see Celine Dion in Vegas while in town for my company's Holiday party. Getting the DVD of the show for Christmas made it even better.

For 2008 I don't have too many goals, but they include:

Weigh 180 by April 22nd. Hey I didn't pick the date, my hypnotherapist did, so what choice do I have? :-)
Pass my 5 outstanding exams by June 1st.
Spend more time in Arlington/DC.

I'm sure there's a lot I forgot, but it's probably back in this blog somewhere. A great big thanks to my Skippy and all my wonderful friends and family that make this life a lot easier.

I leave you with yet another picture of Blossom taken on December 31st. I hope you all have a wonderful new year.

In no specific order...

2007-12-28T16:30:00.001-05:00

Here are the songs I am listening to the most these days...

Eyes On Me - Celine Dion
Bleeding Love (Moto Blanco Mix) - Leona Lewis
Do It Well (Moto Blanco Radio Mix) - Jennifer Lopez
Nothing Hurts Like Love - Daniel Bedingfield
Dancin (JJ Flores and Steve Smooth Remix) - Aaron Smith & Luvli
Feedback - Janet Jackson
Soul Kiss - Olivia Newton-John
Erotica (Live from the Confessions Tour) - Madonna
Take Me 2 The Sun - Discofreaks

Lie down for a second...

2007-12-28T16:28:00.000-05:00

and Blossom made herself at home between my legs.

For My Company Directory

2007-12-28T16:25:00.000-05:00

Work asked us to post a picture for the company profile. So I showered and shaved and here's mine. I desperately need a tan.

The sock puppet

2007-12-23T16:56:00.000-05:00

Here is one of the sock puppets on sale at Cafe Hon in Baltimore. The glasses and hair are very associated with Baltimore.

Cafe Hon

2007-12-23T16:52:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we got a taste of Baltimore for Lunch by eating at Cafe Hon. They serve great food and even have a gift shot dedicated to all the tacky things that Baltimore is known for such as funky glasses and beehive hairdos.

Finally!

2007-12-20T07:33:00.000-05:00

I've been sick for the last six weeks. Lots of Doctor's visits, some time off work and I am finally feeling better! So I just got home from the gym about 30 minutes ago. I hate breaks from the gym, I always feel like such a slug when I start back up.

About three weeks ago I went to a hypnotherapist to get some help with my weight. 14 pounds and counting! It's amazing how I don't crave sweets. I will make an exception for Christmas Eve/Christmas Day though. To that end I picked out two kinds of fudge and four kinds of Christmas cookies for Skip to make this year. I can't imagine being able to eat more than one of each but it will be fun to smell them! I can't believe how fast I get full these days.

I'm working from home for at least two weeks for the holidays and yay for that. Not that I don't love Manhattan in December but it is nice to be home.

Last but not least - Blossom won Doggy of the Day for the 11th day of Christmas at Day Care yesterday. We won a free day of day care and a humongous umbrella set. Seriously, it's so big I couldn't fit it in a big suitcase.

I shouldn't be here...

2007-12-12T21:37:00.001-05:00

You may remember how much I loved Fantasia in The Color Purple. I had gotten a ticket to see her one more time before she leaves the show on January 6th. Well, Fantasia didn't show for this performance so I stood in a LONG line for a refund. Evidently she has missed more than 50 performances during her run!