I always love a good 80s pop tune on a sunny Saturday afternoon, so here’s a live performance of Dead or Alive’s “In Too Deep”. Pete Burns (the lead singer) has never done anything for me, but I’m really grooving on his backup singers/dancers.
Surface.
As a diehard geek, I get excited about the new technologies that are being introduced on an almost minute-by-minute basis. We are seeing cool, new things everyday; for example, the upcoming Apple iPhone has a “wow” feature that a mobile phone rarely achieves. I don’t see me owning an iPhone any time soon (mostly because of price), but I think we’re about to see the next big leap in mobile communications.
While the iPhone is quite exciting and intriguing, there are few things that make me gasp with excitement when I see technology. I usually have this “yeah yeah yeah” approach when I see new ideas, especially when they come from the folks at Microsoft. However, Microsoft Surface made me say out loud, “now that’s cool.”
I never thought I’d be referring gentle readers to the Microsoft site, but take a look at the Microsoft Surface website. Talk about a cool piece of furniture!
And while I’m on a technology discussion, I’m just going to say that I’ve just about forgotten about the upcoming release of Leopard. It’s so yesterday.
Sunshine.
Sometimes its good to get in the car, drink in some sun through the sunroof and drive through the Catskills. And that is what I did today.
Life is good. Don’t let anyone ever tell you differently.
Horrifying.
After a busy evening of mowing the lawn and whatnot, Earl and I decided to go to one of the local ice cream stands for a refreshing treat. With the weather relatively nice, the place was crowded. We got in the shortest line, where two or three people were standing in front of us.
Until the nice family directly in front of us was joined by four gangly looking teenagers, presumably their children, and several busloads of friends. Naturally they all formed a mob in front of the 2-foot by 2-foot window and barked their order directly into the face of the window attendant, as if they were yelling into the clown’s mouth at Jack In The Box.
While the general assembly of fine family was each waiting their turn, two of the more nerdy children passed the time by “Force Blocking”, “Force Knocking” and “Force Lightsabering” each other. These two nerdy children were decked in glowing aluminum across their teeth.
Luke Skywalker wannabe tendencies aside, I instantly felt bad for these two nerds for a couple of reasons.
First of all, to the casual observer it would appear that they were destined to a life in mommy’s basement playing some obscure video game with others like them that are peppered throughout the quiet corners of society. I know I sound like a judgmental crank when I say this but I’m just calling it like I see it. I’ve seen what happens to those that place “Force Blocking” and refer to their friends as Jedis. Where’s a good Star Trekker when you need him in a sea of all these silly Jar Jar Binks wannabes.
Secondly, there are few things more horrifying on a summer night than seeing a teenager with their teeth clad in aluminum and rubberbands eating a wildly flavored ice cream cone. There are sprinkles spread from wire to rubberband and from zit to stray hair on these poor children that are already in their awkward stage, so Mommy and Daddy decided to ramp up the awkwardness by adding radar capabilities to their mouth.
Been there, done that. I think I was the only child in Upstate New York that had silver CAPS put on two of my bottom teeth that were designed to PRY my the two top teeth over them OUT when my mouth was closed. This is how I endured my time in eighth grade. The dentist urged me to assist the two solid, silver CAPS that were designed to pry the two teeth above them out by prying them with a popsicle stick when I watching television.
Not that I’m bitter or anything.
So after resisting the urge to “Force Fling” an ice cream cone into the mother of this catastrophe’s face for not tipping the server after buying $19 worth of ice cream (she seemed like the type that could easily afford a buck, considering she wore an outdated prom dress to get ice cream), Earl and I finally had the opportunity to order our treat for the week.
I glanced to the right and saw the sprinkles flying around The Young Jedi.
Horrifying.
Numbers Game.
I want to know how that guy with the awesome mustache in “SuperSize Me” ate nothing but McDonalds food for a month and only gained 30 pounds. How did he do it? I have a Burger King meal once in a weekend (for the first time in a month or so), eating nothing but vegetables and reasonably numbered caloric/carb/fat craptastically healthy food otherwise and I pack on five pounds.
I can’t figure this out. My clothes are fitting reasonably well. I have not pelted anyone in my math class with exploding buttons or snaps from my clothes. At Hillside I was able to jump from the ground up onto the big rock on our site which looked to be a little above knee level. By the end of the summer I hope to be able to jump up onto a picnic table from the ground as I figure if the cat can do then so can I. This past weekend I also did pull ups and then pulled myself up into the rafters of the open air shower to convince myself of how strong I was. I was naked at the time to keep it interesting.
But I jumped on the scale this morning and saw that I’m gaining weight. I’m really hoping that I’m the added weight is from muscle and not fat. If the pants explode then it must be the latter. I don’t know why I obsess about the digital readout of that blasted electronic scale.
I think I’m going to go workout.
Pride.
I recently discovered another blogger, Kelly Stern, by way of Pete and Sean (and others). Kelly is challenging bloggers to celebrate diversity by posting a picture of this naturally occurring rainbow. I think this is a wonderful way to “spread the idea of diversity” and so I have joined in on the challenge.
Spin Cycle.
I am seriously considering asking for another washer and dryer for our home. And quite frankly, I find the thought ridiculous. It’s not that I have some sort of weird laundromat fetish (though I do find experiences at the laundromat oddly enjoyable) it’s just that I want to get the task done as quickly as possible. I don’t know how large families keep up with laundry. Hell, I don’t know how couples with a kid or two keep up with laundry. I can’t keep up with laundry and there’s only two of us. It’s a good thing Tom wears his fur coat 24/7.
Earl and I are going to a business gathering tonight. We need to look presentable so that means I can’t just throw on a pair of baggy shorts and a t-shirt as I’ve become accustomed to since becoming a college student. I need to look nice and Earl likes to do the same. This event, coupled with our recent camping excursion, has resulted in my being handed the task of making sure the laundry is caught up.
I still live by the “empty washer and dryer by the end of Sunday night” rule, however, this week I achieved the goal by not doing any laundry. Running around the Mulberry Bush dictates that we should do our wash on Monday so that’s what I did. Except that I lost interest after the first load and a half. I think I was distracted by “Leave It To Beaver” being moved to another time slot on TV Land. Perhaps it was an engaging chat on insant messenger. Whatever the reason, Earl and I were knee-high in dirty clothes in the laundry room and Earl gave me “the look”. I hate it when he gives me “The Look”, which is not to be confused with “The Look of Love” or even “The Look of Lust”. This was “The Look of Laundry”, which is almost as deadly as “The Look Of You Spent Money Again”.
One of the issues I have with laundry is that we both have closets full of clothes but Earl has elected to limit his wardrobe to two pairs of work pants, two pairs of jeans and a smattering of shirts. Since 2+2=4 (thanks college math!) and there’s seven days in the week, and probably many more ensemble changes, this means that I could theoretically run overtime on keeping up with the wash.
I’d continue this entry but the dryer just played it’s annoying buzz to let me know it’s time to get hustling with the laundry.
Oldies.
I was just able to import all of my old blogger blog entries from July 2002 to May 2005 into the current incarnation of “Life Is Such A Sweet Insanity”. Looking back over these moldy oldies makes me realize a couple of things:
- I babble on and on about the same things.
- I’m constantly looking to improve myself.
- I’m sort of eccentric in an odd way.
Now I just need to figure out how to get that first year’s worth of manual journal entries into the software. Maybe I’ll save that task for the next rainy day.
Stick To The Schedule.
When I became a full-time college student, I assumed responsibility for the upkeep of our merry little household. This involves cooking, cleaning, keeping up with the laundry and most importantly, enjoying television programming while doing the aforementioned chores.
My channel of choice is TV Land with occasional romps with Lifetime. Completely bored with what modern television has to offer, I feel much better when I escape in the likes of Mayfield, Hooterville and Vitavitavegamin.
I usually start the day off with back to back episodes of the “Golden Girls”, for if I was not to do this I would definitely lose major gay points. From there I spin the dial to channel 301 which is TV Land. At the beginning of my college career this landed me in the middle of the adventures of Wally and the Beav, but this past month it skewed me into farm country with Green Acres. I’ve since learned that TV Land likes to rearrange the schedule willy-nilly for today when I was hoping for a serving of hotscakes I ended up with a beautiful Pernell Roberts in Bonanza.
Now, I’m not one to complain about major beefcake such as Mr. Roberts, however, it’s hard to listen to the wisdom of Lorne Greene when you’re in the mood for the insanity of Hooterville. I ended up spinning again and landing on Frasier, which I never quite ‘got’. Frustrated with the lack of Arnold the Pig and non-plussed by the humor of Frasier, I opted to pop in my Isis DVD.
I wish TV Land would just stick with the program. It’d make us classic television viewers less cranky.
Camping Recap.
Well Earl and I are back from our first camping weekend of the season at Hillside. This weekend’s theme was “Bears In The Woods 1”. We’ll be back for the sequels this season.
We survived the planned power outage just fine by groping our way through the woods with wild abandon. The relative lack of light actually made the campground feel a little more “tribal” which I find to be a good thing when you’re camping in the woods.
The weather was picture perfect for most of the weekend. Today was the only day of rain, when Mother Nature made her presence known with an impressive thunderstorm. Earl and I had the camper packed up in just in time; we were able to keep everything relatively dry. We have our set up and knock down procedures down to a science.
Last night we had dinner with 1st Earl and our friends on “Utica Way”. There’s not a lot of people from my “past” that I would give the time of day to, let alone sit down and break bread with, but we enjoyed dinner with 1st Earl. He’s a good guy, plus he makes a fierce Chicken Marsala.
Our friends Sean and Jeffrey are no longer “Hillside virgins” and seemed to have had a delightful time. Sean can rip up a dance floor like few I’ve seen before. We made a lot of new friends (hi guys!) this weekend and hung out with old friends (hi guys!) as well. It was good to be back in the groove again.
