Ok, I’m in love with Apple again. Leopard looks really cool and it’s coming out in October so I’ve calmed down a little bit.
First Try.
Today Earl and I had my dad and his wife and my sister over for a get together on our new patio. Dad is going to be out of town next week for Father’s Day so we decided to celebrate a week early. This is the first time that we’ve had company on the patio and we were a little hesitant since we don’t have a lawn or landscaping installed yet. The contractor has left several mounds of dirt and promises to be here the first part of the week, but whether that really happens remains to be seen.
Even though I now do the majority of the cooking in our merry little household, when it comes to entertaining company Earl takes control of the kitchen and I just clean up behind him and stay out of his way. Here he’s getting the spare ribs ready for the picnic.
Since we weren’t serving tuna fish or kibble for the get together, Tom had to eat his regular food in his bowl. I kept him company and chatted with him so he didn’t feel left out.
And I took this shot by standing on one of the mounds of dirt that is destined to become beautiful landscaping. By taking the picture from this angle, one can’t notice the “Yucca Flats After The Blast” motif we have going on directly behind me.
All in all it was a good day.
Observation.
While many think that gay men hit all the circuit parties on Saturday night, Earl and I are proving to the contrary this evening. Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve ever been to a circuit party before. Anyway, Earl and I are sitting in the café at Barnes and Noble with our Macs back to back, meaning we’re facing each other. There’s not a lot of people here in the café this evening, perhaps they are at the circuit party. There is one guy who thought he was hot stuff with his newish computer until the boys opened up their Macs. Mac trumps newish every time.
Earl is listening to iTunes and being super studious and putting entries into Quicken as we sit here. This is a good thing, for I don’t think he’ll scold me for the receipts I have turned in for the week. At least not in public. At least I hope not.
I have a couple more blog entries waiting to be posted today as I’ve been messing around with vidcasts today but forgot to bring along the cable to upload the files to the computer. Much to Earl’s chagrin these will be posted by the end of the weekend.
I always find people-watching at Barnes and Noble to be such a fascinating exercise. There’s a woman ordering a mocha-chocha-la-la-loo-loo at the counter when in fact I believe she just wants a cup of Sanka. I think that Barnes and Noble should provide translator services for those that don’t speak snobby latte. There’s been several layers of confusion on all involved with the ordering process. I think it would have been easier to squeeze some Joe out of Juan Valdez. She asked for coffee with a little milk and ended up with a latte. She’s now returning it because there’s too much milk in it, even though it’s half and half. “I thought you meant a little creamer.”
There’s two kids (one boy, one girl) yelling at the top of their lungs and showing their somewhat rotund, bare stomachs at each other and yelling “cheese” in unison at varying intervals. Oy.
Earl has discarded the aforementioned receipts with nary a cross glance in my direction, so I think I’m safe as far as the checkbook goes for the week.
It’s fun to surf in public at Barnes and Noble.
Dancing With Eye Candy.
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.
