4051,
3051, 5005;
Wednesday 3109,
3067,
3146Wednesday January 31 dc: 43,712 acres
MEtRoday: Tuesday
4051,
3051, 5005;
Wednesday 3109,
3067,
3146
D6 tonight with Todges. We tried to catch the Matthew Barney lecture at the Hirschorn, but by the time I got there, it was already 'event closed' since the auditorium only seats 250. T was inside, waiting for a ticket, but sacrificed his spot in line to meet me outside. Isn't that nice? So we went over and had hot chocolate by the skating rink, where I tried to get T to go skating but he wasn't too keen on the idear. So instead we walked up to the E Street Cinema to see what was playing. T had already seen Notes on a Scandal, so we saw The Queen. I thought it would be a history of her reign, but it really focused on the seven days between Lady Di's death and funeral. Helen Mirren did a fantastic job portraying the stoic Queen Elizabeth II and Michael Sheen, who played Tony Blair, was pretty impressive too. I thought the Cherie Blair character was a little over the top though.
There was a great symbolic subplot, where Mr. QE2 was taking Princes William and Harry hunting to keep them busy after Diana's death. They are hunting a 14-point stag that has been spotted on the 40,000 acre Balmoral estate. There is a scene where the Queen is four-wheeling through a river in my Ranger Rover and gets stuck. Of course, the stag shows up, all peaceful like, full of grace and passivity. Before this scene I thought the stag stood for Diana as she was hunted down by the paparazzi. But after the Queen shoos the animal away because the hunters are getting near, I realize the stag also represents the state of the monarchy in England, and how fragile its continued existence is.
On an unrelated note, would someone please use a rocket launcher to shoot down that damn helicopter that's been circling above my apartment for the last hour? I'm trying to get some sleep. Much obliged.
Monday January 29 some family updates
MEtRoday: 5140,
3095, 3209,
4009
I'm an Uncle again! William Louis Hooker, Jr. was born today at 6:42 am. He is 7 lb, 11 oz and 19-1/2 inches long. Good and healthy too! Will, Mom, Dad and Miss Sarah Jane are all doing well. I'll be going down to see the new addition to the family this weekend. I can't wait! I guess the surname will be passed on for another generation now. For a while there I thought I was doing to be the last male in the line, being the youngest. Phew. That's some pressure off.
Last fall, my Uncle David in Florida passed away. My grandmother and grandmother were staying with my Aunt Carol while he was ill, and kind of helping out around the house with chores and stuff. After David's passing my aunt had decided to move up to this area, and was in the process of getting her house ready for sale when my grandfather needed emergency bypass heart surgery. He is doing well, but they stayed down there for the winter to nurse him back to health, and did not want to risk transporting him during his recovery period. Well now my aunt is coming up here in a couple of weeks to look at a house close to where my parents live, for herself and my grandparents to live in, too. They are getting pretty elderly and plus my aunt wants to be around to help with my mom's care. She was originally planning on doing this in April but it seems it be happening quicker than anticipated, so that's exciting. It will be nice to have them closer.
Sunday January 28 this, that and a small bitch session
MEtRoday: 
3089
D5 dinner last night with Todges. I was thinking of going out for sushi, but when T offered to cook at his new place, I was all for that. I picked up a couple of bottles of Honig 2005 Sauvignon Blanc and was on my way. T prepared handmade salmon patties with roasted garlic mashed potatoes. Yum. Dinner discussion: Textile Museum, my Mom, T's ceramics, upcoming Color School exhibits and how they relate to student work, ghosts residing at Hell House, broken glass, our own cooking histories and abilities, high school reunioins, pawprints on white couches and starched bedsheets.
This afternoon I met up with Alice, Becker & Don and Goldy for brunch at Henry's. This was the pitstop for the day's grand event, The Academy's Royal Ball at the Almas Temple. Our friend Miss Veronica Blake was being crowned Queen of the Ball so of course we were going to lend support. Miss Blake had graciously reserved a prime table for us up front, and we all settled in and got cozy, and John and Lori arrived just in time for the show to start. For much of the show is seemed The Academy was playing to its own audience, but we were happy when Veronica was able to get in stage and receive her crown. Congratulations Veronica! Getting out of the show at 7:00, it was a long day for everybody but a fun one as well. it was good to see friends achieve goals and spend time with peeps I hadn't seen in a while.
Overheard quotes from the show:
"I'll catch up with you later, Destiny."
"The universe is downstairs."
"Just because it's over doesn't mean it didn't happen."
Did anyone see the Jasper Johns article in today's WaPo? ARRGGGH! I just tried to find it online. The fascists at WaPo might make you register to read the article, and doing this is bullshit. This whole process of having to log in to news sites so they can track your progress is unethical. I encourage you to enter entirely wrong information when registering. For instance, they now think I am an Afghani female, born in 1900, job title other, job industry other, primary responsibiity other, company size not applicable. What the fuck does my profession and company size have to do with my wanting to read an article? Fuck you, washingtonpost.com. Your local news has always centered on the suburbs and your main articles are three days behind what I've already read on CNN and drudge report. Can you tell this has pissed me off? Actually, screw the Post, to spare you the agony (and deny them a hit) I've cut and pasted the entire article here. (And unlike those lazy WaPo coders, I will present this article to you with correct punctuation.) I just remembered bugmenot.com. They're a free service that allows you to log on to password-protected sites without entering your personal information. Enter in the website you're needing a password for, and they cull their database and provide you with a name and password which you can use to log on. Try them if you want to read the article on the WaPo site, there is also an online gallery sampling Johns' work.
[Deep breath.] Jasper Johns' exhibit opens today at the National Gallery and runs through April 29, "presenting more than 80 paintings and drawings. The works on view illustrate how Johns toyed with the conventions of artmaking during the first decade of his career." If you are unfamiliar with Johns' work, history and examples can be found here, here and here.
MEtRoday: Friday 1159,
2038, 1130;
Saturday 1087
Everyone in Europe uses Skype for instant messaging and VOIP. It's similar to IM or Yahoo Messenger, but a little more robust. You can make free phone calls on it, and if both users have webcams you can do video conferencing. Ziska just got an iSight camera, and my iMac has one built in, so we were wanting to test out the video link. Since I was having difficulties with dlink and she's six hours ahead of me in Munich, we could never catch each other online at the same time. But today we were able to make it happen.
Audio and video were clear and audible. Understandably, there's a slight lag in voice time and video framerate, but hey, it's free. Paul, Ziska's brother, called her while me and Z were talking, and she was able to patch us thru on a conference call. Pretty cool.
Thursday January 25 you'll speak when you're spoken to
MEtRoday: 5167,
1282, 3030, 5039
My impetus for a new life (or at least a recharged one) is not going to happen. At least not right now. I spoke with potential new landlady Colleen today, and her sister has someone who is interested in the apartment. And she's also wanting to have an Open House to show the place. I was aware of these other possible scenarios going in, but I thought my speedy actions in submitting an application and charming interview with her and her husband Monday evening would have made me a shoe-in. Sho' not!
So fantasies of saving $400 a month in rent, of being able to commute on one train straight into the H8ST8 (and get a seat, to boot), to move out of the Noisiest Apartment Building on Capitol Hill, of exploring an exciting Staffer-free neighborhood will have to wait. Obviously I am not a prime candidate.
Ironically, as I get on my first train home for the evening, the Home section of today's paper is in the seat I'm taking. The main story is about how to match your towels and shower curtain with the color of your bathroom tile to create a bold, striking effect that will make guests want to return for re-defecation. My bathroom tiles fit none of the descriptions they stated and therefore my bathroom doesn't matter and definitely does not deserve a new bold, striking effect. I should have known.
Wednesday January 24 define celebrity
MEtRoday: Tuesday
5144,
5070,
5122,
3164, 3224;
Wednesday 5165,
2040,
4090,
4067, 3267, 3153
Single has posted a blog. It's a love/hate thing with celebrities. And let's face it, we all love seeing and hearing about Lindsay going down. (Her career, that is.) I'm just hoping he can really dig up some dirt. Might be kinda hard in this town, and the last thing we need is another attempt to promote those monkeys in all the granite buildings here into superstars. They say DC is like Hollywood, only uglier, and I believe it.
From the press release:
Today I am launching a new blog called Celebri-spiral, which explores all aspects of celebrity pop culture. I am continuing to write about dating/relating, which has my current column and several recent articles posted. But in 2007, I am taking on celebrity culture daily via the blog-the good, bad and (usually) ugly.
If you love, hate, or (like me), are conflicted about loving/hating celebrity pop culture, I welcome your comments! There are three weeks of posts to get started. Please feel free to share with friends who might be interested.
---
Tonight is D4 with Todges. We're going to the Duplex Diner, which all the moes here call simply "The Diner", just like they do with Tommy, Martha and for that matter, Lindsay. The problem with this is that there is another restaurant up the street that's open 24 hours a day called "The Diner". So even if I said "Todges and I are going to the Diner tonight" everyone would think Duplex, I still make the differentiation.
MEtRoday: 0589,
5123, 5161, 3216,
1036,
5078,
4089
Bear with me, I simply must graph this massively warm palette:
Today begins the virtual training program for the Cherry Blossom 10-miler. This is a free program they offer for entrants to work you up to being able to complete the course. My assignment for today, and I chose to accept it, was to walk one minute, then run two minutes, for a total of 30 minutes. So I just went ahead and ran for 25 minutes. I wasn't awake enough yet to do all that fumbling with the speed of the treadmill so I set the timer and knocked it out.
Now I'm sitting here, on my 2nd delayed Metro train of the morning. Mechanical problems. The first train's doors wouldn't close. I'm assuming this has something to do with the massive 1" snowfall that happened yesterday, perhaps too much salt in the doors. Because in DC, when it snows or sleets or even rains everything shuts down or malfunctions. The terrorists don't need a dirty bomb, they just need to wait until it snows or there's an ice storm. Pandemonium will easily be within their grasp at that point.
I talked to Colleen today. She's the landlady at the new apartment that I'm wanting to get. I'm going over there tonight at 8:30 to fill out an application! Hopefully it will just be me filling one out and she can get back to me, say, tomorrow morning and tell me I've got the place. I've already got it in my head that it's my New York Apartment: in a less-white neighborhood, tinier but still cozy, in a walk-up, and above the rooftops. I'll have to get super-organized to fit everything in there, but I'm ready to cleanse and sell and reduce and make it happen.
And then I heard from Todges and he wants to go have dumplings in Chinatown. How can I turn him down? So tonight is D3. I'm sure y'all can figure out what that stands for.
MEtRoday: none
Happy Birthday Ken! Happy Birthday Ziska! If you'd like to email and wish them a happy birthday, you can click on their names and send them a message. I don't want to give their email addresses out, so these futurejunkie emails are temporary and will only be active for a few weeks.
Today is our first snowfall of the winter. If it's not snowing where you are, here are instructions on how to make your own snowflakes. Have fun!
UPDATE: I can't believe I forgot to post this photo! This is my niece Sarah Jane during her first real snowstorm. Ain't she a cutie?
Saturday January 20 scene from union station
MEtRoday: 1182,
1067
There is nothing funnier than watching 50-year-old white couples in tuxedos and ballgowns trying to navigate public transportation for the first time in their lives.
And then I saw Ashley Simpson on the 'tro. She's just as skanky in real life.
Tamera was having a party tonight to celebrate, among other things, her brand new swanky condo on DC's new Rodeo Drive. She must be doing well for herself, because her place was absolutely gorgeous. Her office is located in her upstairs loft, and she has a huge roof balcony, too. There were a lot of people there I hadn't seen in a while so it was nice to have a glass of wine and chat with them. But I couldn't stay for long, since I was off to meet Todges for date #2.
Todges just got the keys to his new apartment a couple of days ago, so he has slowly started moving some things in. He invited me up to show me the place; he's very excited about it. It's Penthouse level, occupying six of the front eight windows of the building and has a nice view of the Washington Monument.
We grabbed a bite of thai food at Regent and again had great conversation. We talked about new starts, as T has just moved, and I [hopefully] am getting ready to also. We talked about the purging of material goods that always comes with a move, and how liberating it feels. We talked about other things too, but I won't bring them up here. I guess those have to remain a little more private, because I think we're going to have date #3 and I can't be spilling the beans on everything.
It was around two when I was getting to the Metro, and a train was just coming into the station when I was getting there, which I'm always thankful for.
MEtRoday: none
Why haven't there been any pic posts this year? I don't know! I'll have to work on fixing that.
Due to a press inspection in Gaithersburg, I found myself stuck in Beltway rush-hour traffic. Ugh. Contemplating the time it would take to get down to the GW Parkway, and then into town and across the 14th St Bridge, I diverted onto River Road, not knowing where it would directly take me, but I knew it headed east and into town. (I'm pretty good with directions and maps. For example, I know that US Interstates with even numbers run east-west, with the lowest numbers toward the south and the highest in the north, and odd-numbered Interstates run north-south, with the lowest numbers in California and the highest numbers on the east coast. I also know that house numbers on DC streets are odd-numbered on the right hand side as that street moves away from the Capitol.) Once River Road entered DC and merged onto Massachusetts, I noticed five cars in a row taking a left and so I followed them. They led me to Reno and then to Porter, one of DC's under-the-radar crosstown streets that put me on the other side of Rock Creek Park. From there I skirted through Mount Plesant to Irving, another one of DC's quick crosstown streets. From there it was a quick right on Georgia and then Florida to 4th and you can guess the rest. It only took about 40 minutes! Freeways are not always the quickest.
Thursday January 18 …and it breaks my heart
MEtRoday: 3178,
2020,
3017,
1144
Miss Bernice is readying herself for a cruise vacation next week, so last night after class we went out to Tapatini's to hang out a bit. We talked about new relationships, and the highs and lows that life throws at everyone; we talked about my Mom and how she is doing.
Bernice asked me when was the last time I was down. I told her it was when Hum died, and how this thing that I had, this matching set of girls, almost a novelty, was gone—or rather, changed. And how we think people, pets, buildings, cars, most anything really, is always going to be there, but knowing full well that everything has to go sometime. I told her it was different for me, and different for Rattle, but we've got each other to help us through. And we're doing okay.
Then later an old game show was on the TV, and this woman had a profession that celebrity guests were trying to figure out. It turns out she makes artwork out of cremated people and pets. It was odd and a little creepy.
Then I got to thinking about when people answer the question: "If your house is on fire and you could only grab one thing, what would it be?" Most people reply with photos, computers, jewelry. The question to the answer is: Do you grab your loved one's cremains, or let them be consumed by the ashes of all of your other belongings?
MEtRoday: 5048,
1166,
3150,
4060, 3266,
1190, 1232
Tonight was date #1 with Todges. After debating several eateries, we decided on the new Alero on U St. Then I added we should meet for drinks first, so we went to Tabaq, which Melba had told me about. They had a nice roofdeck, with a great view of the cityscape. Get there early in summertime, because it's gonna be p-q-t packed.
I have to pause here to mention today's MEtRoday. It's a first: I was on every line today. So you know what I have to do:
Fittingly enough with today's spectrum of train lines, this article was in WaPo. ColorField Remix will run April–July, and I will be documenting as much of this as possible, so please stay tuned. And I just realized that my MEtRoday graphs are actually just simplified Kenneth Noland paintings. So maybe if Kenny were to ride the Metro today, his graph might look something like this:
Back to Todges. After Tabaq it was on to Alero. Now I learned in Texas that if you're eating an an unfamiliar Mexican restaurant, you order the Tacos al Carbon. It's a benchmark. If they will do those well, then you're pretty much set on all the other cheese-laden dishes and the succulent seafood offerings. So I had to order the TAC while Todges had his eyes set on the chicken casserole: chicken cooked in red wine with ham, pimientos, black olives and Spanish herbs. (Served with white rice and black beans.) Mine was good, but not the best I've had. Todges' was salty. But the conversation was superb. And also Fab5Fabio's sister Christiane was a couple of tables over, celebrating a friend's birthday!
MEtRoday: 1204,
1186, 3060, 3224
Tonight I talked to Todges for 1:04:44.
Monday January 15 three months until tax day
MEtRoday: none
Today I woke up and decided I would bike to work. Because of the holiday, there wasn't a lot of vehicular traffic or traffic on the path, which was nice. I made it in 45 minutes.
After work I biked to Mira's apartment, to check it out and see if I would like it to be my new place of residence. It is smaller than Jump Street, but totally doable. I'll have to reduce some of my crap, but that's always a good thing. And the fact that it's $400 less than what I'm paying now, I don't see how I can resist. She's going to talk to her landlord at the end of this week to tell her that she's moving out, and plan on being moved out by the end of February. It's specifically a word-of-mouth thing, the landlord doesn't advertise that the apt is available. Cross your fingers!
Wednesday I have a date with Todges, whom I met at Halo with mcG on Saturday night. I gave him my Barbarella Moo card, and he was hooked. Could turn out to be the best twenty bucks ever spent.
Here you can find lots of technical info about the recording of Seven and the Ragged Tiger.
MEtRoday: Friday
1226, 5049, 1121;
Saturday 1152,
5186
Air Florida was one of the first discount air carriers, or at least one of the first I remember. Now discount carriers are all over the place, while many have come and gone. Think: ValuJet. AF flew from National to places like Ft. Lauderdale, Miami and West Palm Beach.
Twenty five years ago today, I remember being at a K-Mart in Herndon, H8ST8, with snow coming down like a mofo. I was there to waste some time with my friend Charlene, who worked behind the Kodak counter. I was 17 and apparently had nothing better to do; I was a senior in high school. Never mind that there was a complete blizzard outside, I still drove in it. At some point, she had some work to do, so I wandered by the electronics department, to test out the stereos. When I got there, all of the televisions were tuned to the same scene, something odd-looking, while people stood there and watched, still and silent. On the screen there was a helicopter and some people that had apparently fallen through the ice in a lake somewhere.
What I didn't realize at the time was this: Air Florida Flight 90, while taking off from National, had crashed into the Potomac River, taking part of the 14th Street Bridge with it. And when planes crash with live footage, people watch. Silently.
The plane had not been de-iced properly, so once it took off the pilots could not adjust the flaps to gain altitude, and the plane went down less than a minute after takeoff, hitting the 14th Street Bridge as it went down at the height of rush hour. It crushed seven cars and plunged into the ice-covered Potomac.
What we were watching on television was the helicopter's attempt to rescue the four or five people that actually survived the crash, made it out of the water-filled cabin, and even then found a hole in the ice to find oxygen. They were clinging to something, the ice or some floating part of the plane, while the helicopter circled and tried to throw a life preserver down to them. I heard the jet fuel had temporarily blinded them as they desperately tried to grab hold of the life presever, their bodies paralyzed by the freezing water. Eventually five people were lifted to safety.
You can see an illustration of the flight path here and more information about the crash can be found here.
These events were soon made into a TV movie starring an unknown Ken Olin, soon to be of thirtysomething fame.
Thursday January 11 pimp your ipod
MEtRoday: 5075,
1209,
5129,
?XXXX
Add some fun, colorful and artistic skins to your iPod. For shuffles click here. All other iPods click here. That's all. Drive thru and have a great day.
Wednesday January 10 mary tyler moore is homophobic
MEtRoday: 3068,
5139, 5110, 3130
Actually it's the writers fault. Their names are David Davis and Lorenzo Music. Have you ever heard of two more contrived names? Maybe they were hiding something by using pen names. Wink wink.
In the Season Two episode "Ted Over Heels", look at how they setup the hetero zinger right before they slam The Gays:
Rhoda:
I bet I know why Ted's been acting weird.
Mary: Oh yeah, why?
Rhoda: He's in love!
Mary: Ted? In love? I don't think so.
Rhoda: Mary, please, will you take my word for it? You're talking to the expert
on men falling in love. With other women, of course (insert zing here). When
a guy starts acting weird, tries to look sexy and borrows a rose, he's either
in love or trying to stay out of the Army.
(Mary giggles)
Ouch. And then, later in the same episode (remember, this is 1971):
Mary:
You know, Ted, I was sort of going through the company rule book and I didn't
find any rule that said two employees couldn't fall in love.
Ted:
Oh really?
Mary:
So
I was wondering why you told Betty that.
Ted:
Uh, I thought it was this company,
maybe it was another company I worked for… maybe it was the Navy.
(Mary giggles)
This TV show was watched by millions of people. Is it any wonder the public thinks that gays and lesbians are not fit for military service after their own viewing habits have been subtely conditioning them over the years to hate?
---
The dlink is back! Thank Christ, Taffy! Seriously, dlink, if you'd like to reach an agreement, alls you gotta do is hit me up.
Tuesday January 09 many different topics in this post
MEtRoday: Monday 5178, 2004, 3067, 4044;
Tuesday 5076, 3234, 1195, 3291, 1254
Please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please!
Happy Birthday JJ!
Remember dlink from September? No? Well that was the neighbor that I was "borrowing" high speed internet access from. Tonight there is no dlink. dlink, I told you I would pay didn't I? Won't you please return? Or maybe one of these other password-protected friendly neighbors might want to share some bandwidth in exchange for a Hamilton a month?
Since I'm going to have to take this html file to work and upload it there, I won't be able to add the links the way I wanted to. But I wanted to yak about the Metro disrailment that happened on Sunday. If you don't know, one of the subway cars jumped the tracks near the Convention Center Station. It was the fifth car in a six car yellow or green line train. Metro has had a few serious accidents in the last 12 months, some of them deadly. After reading the WaPo article and also the update in the Express, I discover that all of the cars involved in the recent accidents are 5000-series cars, produced by the Italian company _________. I don't try to sway the numbers in my MEtRoday, but if I've the choice between a 5xxx and a 3xxx I'm getting on the 3.
UPDATE: It was a Green Line Train. From WaPo, "It was the fifth derailment involving 5000-series cars, which were manufactured by CAF Inc. of Spain and went into service in 2001, and at least the ninth for Metro in the past four years. A report on the first four derailments, issued in October 2004, said they took place on side tracks and involved trains with no passengers aboard that were operating at speeds of 5 to 10 mph and making tight turns on tracks that were not lubricated properly." Still…
MEtRoday: none
This morning after kickboxing, I did a test run of the new bike by seeing how long it would take me to ride to work. Granted, this was on a Saturday morning so I didn't have typical vehicular traffic to deal with, but I did have tourists and walkers in the path to contend with. Not to mention the strollers and uncontrolled children at Gravelly Point.
I thought it was about six miles to work, timed long ago on Libby's speedometer but Mapquest says it's closer to eight. I left at 10:39 and arrived at 11:17, a total of 38 minutes. Not bad, seeing as how the Metro takes about an hour. The only problem is that we don't have any showers at work. But maybe if I back off the speed and go at a tad more leisurely pace, say, getting there in fifty minutes, then maybe it won't be quite a workout and I'll arrive not so sweaty. But honestly, I don't see the difference between that and getting on a Metro car packed full of people that is so super-heated that I'm stripping down to a t-shirt, drenched by the time I reach L'Enfant Plaza. Is this TMI?
Melba had her Twelfth Night Cocktail Party tonight. She had a retro theme so I wore pink and black. I went over a little early to help her setup: for instance, when putting the 10-oz mixer bottles on the bar, I made sure to arrange them all with labels forward, in perfect rows, 0.25" apart. I don't think anyone noticed.
The food menu was entirely retro: deviled eggs (with vermouth-soaked chopped olives), meatballs, pig-in-blankets and a homemade cheeseball with parsley and walnets, just to mention the highlights. And sitting in Melba's fabulous living room, admist the complements of chairs and wall-adornings, having a cocktail in a thin highball glass, I felt retro indeed.
Then the cops showed up. About fifteen of them. Not because of the party, but because of the car-jacking that happened on Benning Road right under the nose of federal marshals. Some party guests were leaving, turning around in the road, and their BMW X5 was swiped (no one was hurt) as the stolen car came speeding down the street. Then the car-jacker smashed into a parked car and tried to flee into the field leading towards RFK, but he was captured. That kind of turned the tide of the party, unfortunately. The cops were there for at least two hours, filling out reports, taking photos, chatting in the street, etc. They were still there when I left. But that doesn't mean I didn't have a great time.
MEtRoday: 5183,
3020, 3020, 2035
I was really wanting that last train to be the 5183 again, that would have made for a great round-trip graph.
It turns out that if you do actually put an iPod shuffle through the washing machine that it might not work. Mine charges, shows up in iTunes, but once it's disconnected it will not play. I guess the water (or the soap) affected the buttons but not the circuitry. Isn't it odd that the moving parts don't work but the non-moving ones still work? I've gone through all the Apple support-recommended restarts and restores, but nothing is seeming to correct the problem. Since it's under a year-old it still has a warranty, but now that it's after six months, there is a $29.95 mailing and handling fee. So do I spend the thirty bucks and get it refurbed and hope that they'll just give me one of the new clip shuffles? That would be sweet.
The reason this is an issue is that I'm registered for the Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run in April and training begins in two weeks. I'm going to need to have a working shuffle since my 20 gig iPod is too bulky to run with. Melba has offered to give me hers since she already has a nano that she uses, so I may take her up on that offer. Isn't that nice of her?
MEtRoday: ?1005,3048, 3033, 3257
Want a free album download from iTunes? Then you'll have to be quick-witted. Head over to Patrick's, where he's started his first quote of the month contest for the '07. The rules are simple, leave a comment with a clever quote from television, film, radio or your own personal quotes that haven't gotten the air time they deserve. He'll pick the best of all submissions next Wednesday, and to the winner he'll award an iTunes $10 certificate. How fun is that?!
After that, jump to Curtis', where you can leave (also with a comment) a fun Friday haiku.
Your
third e-task of the day would be to pop over to bluejersey.com and
buy me a tshirt vote for Jay's
"Lassiter Space" for best New Jersey blog of 2006 so he can
win the Screaming Carrot Award. Believe me, he will just shit
twice and die if he wins. You will have to register with Blue Jersey
in order to vote but, unlike a George Bush administration, it's quick and
painless.
Wednesday January 03 i have made a choice
MEtRoday: Tuesday 5122, 5059,2010, 4031, 4027; Wednesday 1020, 3020, 4000, 3256
People frequently ask me if I missing having a car, and if I will get another one. I usually shrug this off, biking around on Ziska's 8-year-old bike, not wanting the face the daunting $400 car payments that would be in my future for the next five years if I purchased a new car. So I stay status quo, letting everything ride, so to speak.
Now, I have made a conscious decision and I've bought a new bike. I'll take some pix of it in the daylight this weekend and post them; she's pretty fine lookin'. And inexpensive as they come, too. It's a ship grey Bianchi Avenue Hybrid, extra-tall 23" version, 700c rims (in black alloy no doubt) and black crank arms. She rides like a dream, smooth shifting, and glides along with very little effort it seems. If you see me riding about this weekend, wave to me a jaunty hello and I'll stop and we'll have a cocktail or a coffee.
(Was anyone other than me upset that that Blue Line 3256 totally ruined those nice-sounding numbers today?)
Monday January 01 all is quiet
MEtRoday: none
It's raining this morning, which I think is quite nice for all those hungover peeps who were out last night celebrating. I'm up quite possibly the earliest ever for me on New Year's Day, which is 9:30. I am feeling much better, thank you. See if only I had found that Zicam a day earlier maybe I could have gone out and enjoyed cocktails with Jeff & Chris at the pHierce School. It was best that I stayed in this entire weekend though. Otherwise how would I have gotten through four episodes of Lost, six episodes of Golden Girls, the three-hour premiere of 1978's Battlestar Galactica, Shrek 2 and A Bug's Life?
Here's WAPOs yearly in/out list which is always fun to read. Guess what's on the IN side? Zicam swabs! I'm so hip it hurts.
Happy New Year everyone!
