24/7

In the shuffle of moving things around my apartment this weekend, I came across some papers. I'm typically pretty good about keeping my "things" together (letters, cards, etc.) but every now and again I'll put something someplace where it doesn't belong.....I guess because I know that at sometime in the future I'll run across it again and it will make me think.

So this weekend at the bottom of a drawer, in the bottom of a cabinet I found a card and a few other things from when I moved from Atlanta.....among those things were a letter from my Grandmother (she passed away in August), a thank you card from a friend who I had helped at a party and the following poem:

UNTITLED - Keavn Snoe

I saw a friend cry last night
not from any pain or fright
but simply from a single word
that cause so much grief and hurt.

I don't think he knew
how each of his tears slew
a little bit of happiness in my heart
how it hurt to see him fall apart.

I didn't cry for him that night
though if I'd watched him a little longer I thought I might
I did, however, feel bad
that I'd seen him so vunerable and sad.

Not for me for I feel that it was fine
but for him inside his mind
because I don't think he wanted me to know
that within him tears also flow.

I pretend to have seen nothing
though I know it will bring
a denial on both sides
of emotions either wants to hide.

So to him I would like to say
that I'd really like to be friends with him in future days
and I hope that you know my firend,
that it is okay to cry again.

My friend Keavn is a jewel that stands out among diamonds. He has a quick wit, a sharp tongue and a deep understanding of the things that surround him. I feel that I'm an "observant" person, but he is 100 times more observant than I can ever hope to be.

If you liked this poem (and I'm sure you did), Keavn has just released his first publication of his collected works called 24/7

Find him at Keavn Snoe

If you have a few extra dollars to spend on a book this month, think of supporting Keavn I know that you'll enjoy his poetry.

Here are a couple of reviews that are on Amazon:

C. Bridges - This is a book you can read over and over. It fits itself with what ever situation you are going through. It really makes you think about the importance of relationships and what you are contributing to them. I love it!

Angela B. - Wow! 24/7 is poetry extraordinaire. Keavn Snoe has given voice to many of my own thoughts and feelings.

**A NOTE PLEASE ** I want to help my friend Keavn spread the news about his book, would you do me a favor of posting a link on your blog to this post so that we can drive his book sales through the roof? Thank you!

Sunrise.....Sunset....

You know that song from Fiddler on the Roof?

Well I'm not talking about that, ok....we'll talk about that another day.

Instead, are you in love with Sunsets? Are you a vampire and you're always looking for the best time of day when you can start your night? Well there's a website out there hooked up to webcams all over the world that constantly give you shots of the sunset.

So if you enjoy romance graby your honey and a bottle of wine (or grab a bottle of wine and tell your honey to come along) click on this LINK and enjoy a neverending Sunset!

Book Review - The Time Travelers Wife

Find the BOOK here


What an interesting book, the story revolves around two people Clare and “What’s His Name” (Hey I’m lucky I remembered Clare’s name) – no his name is Henry.

Henry is a time traveler, but he can’t control it, it’s sort of a spontaneous thing that just sort of happens, oh yeah and when he travels he goes naked – so no clothes, no jewelry, no filings in his teeth – just his physical body.

Clare meets Henry for the first time when she is 6 years old and he is in his mid-thirties…..she is out in a clearing in the woods and the woods and this naked man appears and knows who you are, wouldn’t that be freaky? This "clearing" acts as the major place where they meet when he's "in town"

All of the chapters start out by telling you how old Clare is and how old Henry is, from the perspective of Clare the story is fairly chronologically placed, but Henry is many ages and sometimes he is two ages (like when he time travels back to himself when he is 5 years old).

For all of Clare’s life she has known about Henry, but Henry is not aware of Clare until he is 28, so it’s sort of odd the first time they meet. Clare knows EVERYTHING about Henry but he knows nothing about her. Clare at this point knows that Henry is going to be the man that she marries but Henry has no idea.

Henry travels back in time to meet with Clare and help her through difficult times, he very rarely travels forward in time though. He travels to familiar places and familiar people and those that are aware of his ability think nothing of it when he just pops in from the middle of no-where. Henry doesn’t have control over his time traveling, either where, when or what time he’ll travel to, but on the other hand Clare knows exactly when he’s going to show up because he gave her a list of dates. The chapter of their last "meeting" was very touching, as Clare knew that this would be the last time she would see Henry before she actually met him in real life.

Henry does go "visit" some places on a regular basis though (like watching his parents push him in a baby carriage down the street, or to a traffic accident) how he's able to revisit these places is not explained.

Each chapter tells about the time they spent together, how they would meet in the forest and sometimes sneak him into her house. How they had sex on her 18th birthday (for the first time) and how they have trouble having a baby because the baby wants to time travel before it’s fully mature and won’t stay in her womb. Towards the end of the book it becomes a very fast paced page turner because you want to know what happened, and then when you reach the last page it's all tied up neatly with brown paper and twine so you can sit and say to yourself "it's all finished"

It’s a wonderful story and I would highly recommend it, a very interesting story, just enough science fiction that it’s not overpowering and just enough romance that it’s not too girly. It is set in Chicago (which is a plus for me) and is actually set not to far from where I live. I've been to several of the places that are in the book, but as for houses etc she never gives a # so I'd never be able to find them. The author actually lives in Chicago and teaches at Columbia.

Michael rates it 4 out of 5 stars

Books Books and More Books

I should start by telling you that I don’t read. Well I hardly read, I mean I read your blog posts and I read newspapers and I read magazines, but I don’t read books.

When I was growing up, I was a voracious reader, but then again there really wasn’t that much else to do. In the summer when we weren’t working (I grew up on a farm so we were always working) there wasn’t a lot of other things to do, we had no VCR’s, no DVD’s, no Cable, no NetFlix, although we did have an Atari 2600 with the dual joysticks. But really, there wasn’t a whole lot to do, especially when you’re a teenager, and you can’t drive, and even if you could drive the closest “big city” was over an hours drive away. So in absence of all things to do, I used to read a lot….a whole lot.

But as an adult, I don’t read like that any longer, and the real reason is, I don’t have any unstructured free time. In this day and age of go-go-go there’s always something to do, there’s a play to go see, a movie to go watch, a dinner to eat at a fancy restaurant (well if you call Wendy’s fancy), there’s always something to do….and for me, honestly if there is something else to do besides read a book, I’ll do it.

Now don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy reading a whole lot, but it’s only when it’s the last thing to do. For example, when I go to Cancun and I’m sitting on the beach relaxing…I enjoy reading a book….but not for example when I’m at the Gay Beach and there are cute boys running around. For example, when I’m on an airplane and literally have nothing else to do, I enjoy reading a book….but once I’ve gotten to my destination, I’m done reading.

The Boyfriend reads constantly, but he has two hours a day when he’s riding the train to work and there really isn’t anything else to do….me on the otherhand, I drive to work and it takes me 7 minutes. So by the time I get to a good part in my book, I’m already at work so what’s the use in that, you know what I mean.

Also, I have no problem putting a book down half-way through. If it doesn’t keep my attention or make me care about the characters, I have no problem putting it back on my bookshelf never to see the light of day again. Others I know feel as though they have to finish a book, no matter what…me uh huh….I could care less whether the neighbor was doing what they said or find out if the baby did get hurt when it was dropped on it’s head. I have no allegiance to bad writing and poor story telling.

Well since I’ve been traveling a lot I’ve actually read a few books….yes you read that correctly I said “a few books”

So let’s see I think this’ll be a 4 parter because I’ve read three books and this post is already way too long for me. So hold in there.

They just can't contain themselves

Someone wonderful is having a birthday today and therefore everyone is all a twitter here in Chicago. They have festivities planned all day today, starting with going to the Barber and ending up on the receiving end of a Beer Garden at sometime today before noon! She's a few hours ahead of us so we want to party at the same time she is!

Flo, Billy, Carlos, Steve, Freddy, Tuck and Roll all want to wish MS. MAC a happy, healthy and drunk Birthday!

Seriously...what did he think was going to happen?

A friend sent this to me, it is totally hilarious.....the best part is all of the laughter. Come on, you know if you were there you'd be laughing too!

Wax On.....Wax Off

This is freakin' hilarious, I had to share with all you girls out there:

Hey - Maybe Britney isn't such a bad Mommy after all!

Check out THIS

Perhaps Britney's baby dropping ain't so bad afterall?

Can you just imagine this woman doing a line and saying "Come on sugar let's go get the baby high?"

Tsk Tsk Tsk!

Wearing ladies underwear

You know I've always been a proponent of ladies underwear....well actually I've been a proponent of any undewear whether it be for boys or girls. I've always felt though that boys should wear boys underwear and girls should wear girls underwear.

Which makes me think...why is underwear for boys called briefs but for girls they're called panties? Why that distinction?

I mean I've said to a boy before "Geez, don't get your panties in a wad!" But really I should have said "Geez, don't get your briefs in a wad!" That just doesn't sound right though does it?

Well not that I'm advocating that men should wear women's underwear (I bet that's gonna get me a lot of google hits) but I just found this new product on the market.

Pantyhose embedded with caffeine.....apparently caffeine isn't all that bad, it keeps us awake and more importantly it makes our metabolism work faster, which means we burn more. You know I've looked all over my body for an organ named metabolism, but I can't find it, does anyone know where it is?

Here's a brief outtake from their website:

• The way the tights work is that body heat releases caffeine microcapsules into the leg, thus promoting the metabolism to kick in and start fat burning. According to the makers, results should be apparent in about 1-4 weeks, but they do say they may not work for everyone. Even so, I think most women will be keen to give the “Slim Fit 20” caffeine tights a go. Costs are around £27 for a pack of 3 “Slim Fit 20” caffeine tights in either black or skin colour.

If you're in the UK (you crazy Brits) you can get these from:

www.tightsplease.co.uk

So come on boys, let's start wearing pantyhose....or perhaps these are just stockings since they don't mention a "cotton liner" But really women, when you wear pantyhose, don't you wear them OVER panties?

I do have another question though.....they're available in black or "skin" colour....what exactly does that mean what is "skin" colour?

Oops she did it again - Poor Britney Spears, Motherhood is proving to be too much for her

Boy that skank Britney has really been up to her stunts again this week check out these pictures.

First she's driving along in her Mini Cooper Convertible (with the top down) and she is being a good mommy actually putting Sean Preston in a car seat in the back seat....but isn't he facing THE WRONG WAY?

Then look at this.....not only is she pregnant, but she's carrying a drink AND her baby at the same time....oops stumble and what does she keep her hands on? The drink, not the baby!


Thank goodness she has a bodyguard to follow her around everywhere she goes!

Isn't it funny?

Isn't it funny the people that God chooses to talk to?

The latest example is Pat Robertson who claims that God has told him about Tsunami's hitting the US (SEE HERE)

Apparently it only happens once a year though when Robertson is on his "personal prayer retreat."' ' I guess the rest of the time Robertson gets voicemail like the rest of us when we try to talk to God, so it's a good thing he got through to him in January.

Changing Things Up

Dining Room
Originally uploaded by Michael_L.

I've been doing a lot of traveling the last few weeks so this weekend I'm home.....and I'm gonna change things up a bit at the house.

I've lived in my apartment for 4 years now, and it looks almost exactly the same as when I moved in. I was not allowed to decorate my apartment at that time because unlike most gay boys, I did not get the "designer gene". My friends actually made me sign a rider on my lease that stated I would not attempt to decorate on my own.

I very rarely use my dining room so I've decided to change things up a little bit....keep posted as I'll show you the finished product (hopefully after the weekend).

Monday Goodness

After two weeks of traveling and about ready to fall asleep after my first full day of work...what do I find in my mailbox but a package from the XMarvelous Xmichra.

One of the great things we have in common (besides both having outstanding blogs) is our affinity for dancy techno music....we just can't figure out why the rest of the world isn't in love with it either.

Here's how excited I was about my package!

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day to all of you Mothers out there!

Eatin' in Vegas

Tradeshows can be a bit overwhelming, in fact for the 3 days that I was in Vegas, I only left the hotel ONCE. We were scheduled from 7:30 in the morning until late in the evening with dinners so there wasn't alot of free time : -(

But the one good thing about tradeshows is they feed the hell out of you. You might as well strap a feedbag on your head!

Tuesday night when I got there, I met my co-worker and we had a great dinner at RM Seafood in the hotel. We each had a glass of wine, a small salad and crab cakes (quite yummy) the bill was over $100!!!! OH MY GOODNESS!!!!

That's the problem with Vegas now, it's not cheap. Anywhere you go, it's expensive to eat, so you've just got to suck it up and do it.

On Tuesday Night we had dinner at Trattoria del Lupo (again in the hotel) but this was a dinner event so it was "on the house" here was our menu:

Insalata - chopped vegetable salad with provolone and mustard vinaigrette (it was just ok)
Pasta - rigatoni with tuscan meatball and oregano (there was also a dab of ricotta, quite yummy)
Seconod Piatto (choice of) - grilled prime rib eye steak "diavola" with mascarpone potatoe puree or Seared Atlantic Salmon with wild mushrooms and leeds (I had the ribeye, it was a little fatty)
Dolce - vanilla creme brulee (so good I wanted to steal my neighbors).

I stepped on the scale and it said I weighed less now than I did two weeks ago....suddenly I don't trust my scale!

Oh and check out this receipt I found in the ATM machine, check out that available balance:

I hope the baby had food at least!

All the cool kids are doing it

Go ahead, click it, you know you wanna


Look at where my Friends are!
MyGeoSpots Map

Oh my goodness

May12_006
Originally uploaded by Rosie O'Donnell.

If the National Enquirer gets a hold of this picture I'm sure the headline will be something like "Rosie is a Drunk and she beat up Star Jones"

Name this movie quote:

"Atta girl Roz, have another drink"

It's not from Vegas

Well I wanted to mail these packages from Vegas, figuring that a Vegas Postmark might bring you some good luck...but I arrived too late on the day I got there, and I couldn't find the post office on my return flight....

So I stopped by the post office to drop off TWO...count them TWO packages.

I wonder who they're going to?


Oh yeah, and if you're trying to cheat by clicking the pictures, all you're really gonna see is that I need a manicure REALLY BADLY!

Can't you tell that mail lady is really happy to be there. Funny thing, EVERYTIME I go to the post office I get her, everytime...now that's a little weird isn't it?

A Renewed Faith

Remember a few weeks ago when I lost my money clip at O'Hare Airport when I was traveling to Greenville? Well if you don't, you can read all about it HERE

I had figured that it was gone, vamooshed, never to be seen again. I just hoped that someone would have done something good with the money, like take their Baby's Momma out to a nice dinner at Red Lobster or Olive Garden.

I decided that what the heck, I knew where I lost it, when I lost it and how I lost it, so I figured I would call the TSA Lost & Found at O'Hare Airport.

Do you want to know something.....THEY HAD IT! And it still had the $46 in it, can you believe that!? Someone actually did a nice thing and instead of pocketing it, did the right thing and turned it in....I called the folks on Monday when I was getting ready to travel and got a return phone call on Tuesday that yes in fact they did have it. So after my hell trip yesterday (which I'll post about later) I went back out to the airport to retrieve it.

All I can say is that I now have a renewed faith that people can be good and nice......that lasted for about 20 minutes until I got back in my car and some bitch cut me off in the parking lot and almost creamed the side of my car!

So it's true, there are still some nice people out there (of course all of you who read this are not included because I know that you're wonderful already).

All is not lost

We had a great dinner last night of Filet Mignon, Grilled Halibut, ok Mashed Potatoes, Broccoli Rabe and grilled Onions/Peppers/Tomatos. Well lets just say after 5 glasses of wine with dinner (Hey, it was free) I was a little buzzed.

On the way back to my room, which of course makes you walk through the casino, I stopped and played the penny slots again...I know, I'm such a high roller....I can't understand why the hotel didn't comp me a nights stay in the Presidential Suite with the hundreds of pennies that I spent, I mean come on folks.....

Well I put $2.00 in and played for a bit and then ended up putting in another $5.00 I seemed to go through the $5.00 faster than I did the $2.00 what's up with that?!? I guess that's how they get you don't they...you think you're gonna hit it big and you end up losing your money for breakfast instead.....

So the bastards took $7.00 from me and forced me to eat saltines and tap water for breakfast....goodness knows I was not going to open that $5.00 bottle of water they "conveniently" placed in my room for me!

Have you ever been to Vegas? We were there in September to celebrate a big 4-0 Birthday but didn't stay in one of the fancy hotels like I did this time.....You know they design these hotels so that you can never find your way around easily and that you ALWAYS have to go through the casino, no matter where you're going. Going for dinner....on the other side of the casino....going to the pool.....through the casino......to a meeting for work....through the casino! But then that's how they make their money don't they.....by making you go through the casino and losing 700 pennies in the slot machines......those bastards!

I'm no sitting in the airport waiting for my flight, which we just found out is going to be delayed 2 hours becuase of weather in Chicago....at least there's free wireless!

You really shouldn't....

gamble when you're drunk!

End of the first business day

Well we're officially done with the "workshop" part of the day...and now it goes onto dinner and drinking...ugh! Fortunately my liver hasn't fully recovered from last week so I think I'm good to go.

I've been up since 5:30 am PST (7:30 am CST) but actually was up past midnight last night watching Medium....well it was 10:00pm here but it was really midnight for me....

Within the last 10 days I have been in 3 of the 4 US Time Zone. I flew over the Mountain Time Zone but we didn't bother to stop.....I'm bushed.

We're staying at the Mandalay Bay Hotel....it's FREAKIN' huge. To get from the convention center to my room it takes 15 minutes of walking at "mall speed" that's a lot when you've got to use the bathroom!

On the way back to my room, before going to dinner, I stopped at the Penny Slots and decided to try my luck. I put in $2.00 and played for about 10 minutes, towards the end I was winning a bit so I decided I should keep playing...I had a $5 or a $20 bill.....so I put the $5.00 bill in the machine. This kept me going for about 10 more minutes and when I was getting down to under $5 I decided to "up the ante" and bet 10 per line (which equaled a dollar per spin)....I won $100!!!!

Baby I cashed out and ran to my room.

Whoo hoo....I'm up $75!!! And that's the way it's staying!

I'll post pictures when I get home!

Topless Beach

Oh my goodness.....the hotel we're staying at in Vegas allows"european bathing" at a section of their pool.....$40 for guys and $10 for girls....do you think I could get in for $10 since I don't care about the girls?

Naked Pool Part at Midnight!

FUCK

Oh come on, you've said it before. You most definitely have thought it....and perhaps you even said it today if you're lucky!

Click on the link for a cute flash animation about the word "fuck". Please be careful if there are children around and most definitely don't click it if you're at work.

You've been warned.

FUCK

On the road again

I feel like Willy Nelson I tell you! I just got back from Greenville, SC on Thursday and while checking my work email found out that I had an opportunity to go to Vegas....all expenses paid. The only drawback is they're expecting me to do some work while I'm there.

So Monday afternoon I'll be back on a jet plane, but this time heading West instead of East. I can't believe that within a span of a week I'm going to have been in 3 of the 4 time zones (not as much fun as it sounds, believe me).

I feel so disconnected because I've not been able to read everyone's blog, so I apologize in advance because it will probably be next week before I can catch up....make sure you leave good detailed posts so I don't miss anything!

I've been contemplating taking Billy & Carlos to Vegas....Flo is definitely going because she loves going to her hometown....I just hope that Steve Wynn doesn't try to persuade her to come back to work!

Don't worry this time I'm packing a toothbrush and panties in my carryon becuase I have to change planes in Phoenix!

Commercials

Has anyone else noticed that when you go channel surfing during commercials the only thing you can find are commercials?!?

Since the networks are trying to run "longer segments" they're all timing out together so that when one is on commercial break they ALL are.

I just did some channel surfing during American Inventor and NBC, CBS, UPN and FOX were all running commericals as well....and now that my program is back on, so are the others....this sucks!!!

Infomericals!

I don’t have cable at my house…..I know it’s hard to believe isn’t it? When I moved 4 years ago the plan was to get Cable/Internet/Phone all from one place but at that time Cable Companies offering telephone service was a new thing and one of the stipulations was that you had to have an already established phone line which the cable company simply “took over” from the phone company…..well since I didn’t have a phone line already I would have had to pay SBC $60 to install the phone and then pay the cable company more money to transfer the line…..it pissed me off so much I decided to just get the phone line, not have cable tv or modem and instead survive with TV off the air and dial-up service.

One of the nice things I like about traveling (and visiting The Boyfriend) is Cable TV and one of my favorite things on Cable TV are infomercials. I know what you’re saying…..Infomercials? It’s because they’re so cheesy, outlandish and “in your face” two that I saw recently were:

- The Grease Bullet
- RoboMaid

Apparently with The Grease Bullet you get two times the quantity for half the price PLUS you get the silver cleaner which removes tarnish from all of precious silver pieces right in front of your eyes. According to the Grease Bullet website each table gives you the power to clean all of your greasy items, and looking at their commercials whoever cooks at their house is the nastiest, grossest cook I have ever seen in my life. In all the days of my cooking life, I don’t think that I have ever produced a pan as dirty and disgusting as the ones they show on the commercial (and that includes the time when I worked as a dishwasher in a restaurant) but no fear because the Grease Bullet will solve all your problems and not harm your hands. And that bonus for cleaning your silver, you can do the same thing at home with a pan of hot water, a ball of aluminum foil and some baking soda (it works wonders and it’s free)

In addition, according to the commercial for The RoboMaid this product is sweeping Europe…..have any of you Europeans even heard of this product? It’s basically a round swiffer that has a ball in the middle that “robotically” cleans your house (uhm to me it looks as though it just willy-nilly runs across your floor until it hits something and then turns and goes in a different direction.) But the big they’re saying is that it’s sweeping Europe and those silly Europeans are paying as much as $60 for this cheap piece of plastic but we smart consumer American’s can get it for only $1 (plus the cost of shipping and handling, anyone want to ponder how much S/H costs?)

I’ve only got a day and a half left of flipping the channels and hoping to find a new infomercial to watch before I leave….but it seems as though these are the only “hot products” they’re selling in Greenville these days! Oh well.

Thank goodness for women's underwear

Because I was really concerned that I was going to have to ask my traveling companion if I could borrow a pair of hers.....fortunately my baggage arrived at the airport around 7:45 pm EST last night, but didn't make it to the hotel until sometime after 10:30 when I last called to see if it had been delivered.

When I woke up at 7:00 I called downstairs and lo and behold it was here, so needless to say I was very happy to "unpack" my clothes and my toothbrush.

Let's just say that if you're traveling (as I will be doing in the future) always take somethings in your carryon, even if it's just a small toiletrie bag, I went to the "Gift Shop" yesterday to get a few things and guess how much it cost me? Go ahead, get your abacus or calculator out because you'll need it.

I bought three things, three things that I felt were essential....a toothbrush....some toothpaste....and deodorant. Conveniently the "gift shop" had these items....and they just happened to be in the mini-travel size, what a convenience. Well yes I thought it was a convenience until the girl started keying numbers into the register (Thirty-two Oh Nine,Thirty-two Oh Nine,Thirty-two Oh Nine,Thirty-two Oh Nine - If you can name that movie you're my new best friend) and she rung up $2.99, $3.99 and $3.99 at first I thought she was going to look at me and say "April Fools" but instead she said "That'll be $11.52 please" and she did it in that nice southern accent so how could I be mad at her. Now remember, these are travel size items (except for the toothbrush) if I had bought these things at Target or even the Walgreen's it wouldn't have cost me more than $4.00......$12 for 3 items but what was I supposed to do?! I had no idea when I was going to get my baggage. I took a picture of them (next to a soda can for reference and I'll post when I upload my pictures.)

So a lesson learned that's for sure....oh yeah and I did one other stupid thing yesterday. I lost my only piece of Coach Leather....The Boyfriend had bought me a magnetic leather money clip, and when I went through security yesterday I forgot to pick it back up.....along with the $46 that was inside of it. I called TSA "lost and found" but I have a feeling it's been lost for good....shhhhh don't tell The Boyfriend he'll be really mad at me that I lost a piece of Coach!

I'm in Greenville....

But unfortunately my bag is not. I didn't connect on any flight and I was at the gate almost 2 hours before my flight....so I don't know where it is.

I knew I should have packed a clean pair of underwear in my carry on!

It's found a home

A Package?
Originally uploaded by Michael_L.

Check HERE to see where it ended up!

A Grand Unveiling

Well a friend of a friend of mine is having a grand unveiling this evening. For years and years this guy has worn a hair piece.....now it's not one of those really tacky ones that you can tell is a hairpiece but still it's a hair piece. I guess he felt a bit insecure without it, since I have all of my hair I don't know he feels but I'm sure it could make you feel pretty bad.

Well......after years and years of this, and everyone basically knowing that he was wearing a toupee he decided to go hair free. This past weekend he went to a stylist had the piece removed and shaved his head.

So tonight is the great "unveiling" and I'm excited to see him...he was a good looking man with the piece so I'm sure he's a good looking man without it.

At least he won't have to worry about this anymore:

And why is it that for a woman it's called a wig but for men it's called a toupee?!? It's the same thing right?

Lo Cal?! Energy Drink??

Has anyone seen this new "energy" drink from Tab?

They're touting this as a "low calorie" energy drink.

Perhaps I'm not remembering my science class, but aren't calories the things that our body use to make energy? Aren't calories the things that our bodies burn up so that we can make it to work every day or go shopping or play tennis?

So if something is an energy drink how can it also be low calorie?

According to the website this product is sold in a "convenient" 4-pack (convenient for who the buyer or the seller?) and has only 5 calories per can.....5 calories?!?

(SIDE NOTE--I was at Sam's Club the other day and bought Pepsi for The Boyfriend and the case now contains 36 cans instead of 24....emblazoned on the side of the box was this "Now with 50% more than a 24 Pack" uhm yeah and you're still charging me more)

It contains the following ingredients (don't click on the links unless you really want to read about this, sometimes ignorance is bliss:
Carbonated water, citric acid, taurine, natural and artifical flavors, sodium citrate, sodium benzoate (to protect the taste of course), ginseng extract, caffeine (ah that's where the energy comes from31 milligrams of caffeine to be exact, were you aware that caffeine has an MSDS ((that's a Material Safety Data Sheet)), vegetable juice (for color it says but, ewh in a carbonated beverage), acesulfame potassium, sucralose, carnitine fumarate, niacinamide (Vitamine B3, Guarana Extract, Cyanocobalamin (Vitamin B12).

Well since it's got Niacin in it, that means CHG can't drink it, I'm sure she's happy to hear that.

So the next time you're looking for a little bit of energy but no calories grab a Tab Energy.

And oh yeah before I forget Billy-Sue-Jack, grab yo mamma a Tab and a pack of Pall-Malls from the trailer.

Bird Flu Hits Florida

Bird Flu Hits Florida
Originally uploaded by Michael_L.

Lighters, Anniversaries and Greenville

Next week I'm going to Greenville, SC for a week-long conference...anyone in that area want to meet up and take me out and show me the sights...oh wait, I was there last year and I saw all of them. It's a really pretty downtown area and I'm looking forward to going on some little "walks" on the main drag.

So I'm leaving Sunday morning and The Boyfriend is leaving Friday night to go to Madison, WI for a drum corps camp (later this year we're going to a Nationals or Finals or something for Drum Corp up in Madison and they've gotten a group of "seniors" together and they're doing a special performance so he's going up to practice this weekend.)

But what this all leads up to is.....this weekend is our Two Year Anniversary....and neither one of us are going to be in town.....that sort of sucks doesn't it?

Well to make up for it, we went to our most fav restaurant Francesca's on Bryn Mawr (Andi & George have been there, they can vouch for it) for a nice little dinner. I got The Boyfriend a nice cigarette case and a fancy little lighter to celebrate the moment.....and he got me a trip to NYC. I swear, he's always trying to outdo me....but that's ok, I guess that's the reason I love him so.

We're going to NYC in November which should be perfect time, as long as it's not cold and rainy, and since we're going to be there for 4 days I figured I'd better start catching up on my Broadway so I can carry on an intelligent conversation with people when we get there.

So I checked out Playbill Online to see what's "hot" on Broadway (considering I was very teary eyed when I found out Chitty Chitty Bang Bang closed the end of February), and what did I find but THIS can you believe that they made a musical out of that?

In the old days the musicals used to come out on the stage FIRST and then they made the movie of it, but now it seems as though the movie comes out first and it "inspires" a musical (Hairspray, Billy Elliot, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Producers, Spamalot) I guess Broadway is running out of ideas....oh well, they'll just start reviving the old stuff like Cat's, Les Mis and Miss Saigon.

Anywhoo.....I'm tres excited about going to NY again, the last time I was there was 4 years ago for a short weekend, but when I was just a wee sprout of a teenager I used to go all the time.....Plus The Boyfriend used to live there, so we're going to be dangerous and go up to Brooklyn, can you imagine?!

Finally Foie Gras Free

Chicago, in it's infinite wisdom has solved all of it's crime issues, who has declared itself "nuclear free" since 1986 has finally decided that enough foie gras is enough foie gras.

Yes, the City of Chicago banned the sale of Foie Gras within it's boundry. YEAH Chicago, I always got so tired of going to Denny's and being upset that they had foie gras next to my Grand Slam breakfast.

Come on people! Obviously we don't have enough crime or drug issues to be solved in the city that the city council is voting on banning a food item that is only available at gourmet food outlets and a handful of restaurants in the entire city........I agree that they "manufacture" of foie gras may be a bit barbaric, but don't we have bigger things to focus on?

Here's a link to the story so you can see I'm not making this up.

Where have I been?

I'm sorry I've not posted anything of substance lately but it's been busy at work and busy at home. Work has really kicked up a notch and I've been working on some video projects so that's taking up a lot of my time...as well as I'm trying to enjoy Spring as much as possible because I have a feeling it's going to be a Hot Hot Summer in The City!

So I was checking my site meter and it's down...but that's my own fault isn' t it? If I can't post anything of value how can I expect folks to come back, right? Alright, I'm over the pity party, I hope you had fun along with me.

The one thing I like about site meters is some of them have the capability to tell you what a person searched on to find your site, here are some of my current searches:

1. Impeach Bush - I agree
2. God, how do I turn my life around, I only want to be happy - oh my goodness, God is directing his traffic to my site, I'd better punch it up a notch then shouldn't I? To the person that found me via this link, I hope that things get better for you, I know they will.
3. Scam money orders - Uh oh, I knew they'd find me.
4. How you do if your boyfriend didn't believe you - I don't know I'm still trying to figure that out myself, let me know if you get an answer to your question.
5. Annoying Habits & Annoying Habits at Work - two of my favorites!
6. Thank god I've met the president of the united states george w bush when I was a little boy - someone actually typed all of that into a search engine?!?
7. Shannon doherty - did I spell her name wrong?!? Oh it linked to a comment left by someone else...whew!
8. How do you know if your boyfriend really loved you? - He'll tell you.

What keywords have brought people to your site lately?

A Package?

A Package?
Originally uploaded by Michael_L.

I wonder where this package will end up? Perhaps it's to you?

Impeach Bush

Impeach Bush
Originally uploaded by mebspiff.

The Amazing Andi refered me to this!

My hats go off to you!

Having a Chat Show

Yesterday was all about Chat Shows.

No, not the chat shows you see on TV ala Tyra "I'm Terrified" Banks or Tony "My career is over" Danza, the kind of chat shows you have with your girlfriends!

Yesterday I had a Walk & Chat Show with my friend Arlene, we used to work together and everyday we would have a little chat about current events, theater, music, etc. We haven't seen each other in a while so I met her after Jazzercise and we went for a nice leisurely walk and ended up having coffee and talking about everything and nothing. We're both big theater buffs so we critique (in our own unprofessional manner) how the shows have been, what movies are out and what books she and Dave are both reading right now. (btw I need to tell you about the Time Traveler's Wife and Geisha). We had a nice long coffee (I had iced tea) and a Chat Show. Then we walked BACK to where we met originally (about a 3 mile round trip).

Then as though I weren't a glutton enough for punishment I decided I need to walk some more. So I came home rested up and then called my friend Art (who, you might want to know, has has received two entries by Andi and now has one from me, and doesn't even have a blog, that Bitch. Art get's more hits per day than I get in a week!) and asked if he wanted to go for cake at Sweet Occasions (I knew he did that's his kryptonite). When I called, his Boyfriend answered the phone, since I knew he was on a diet I quickly asked to talk to Art so I wouldn't have to explain why I was calling. If Art wanted sweets he was going to have to get out of the house on his own. So I walked over to meet him in Andersonville (about a 2 mile round trip). He got a Triple Layer Chocolate Cake with ganache icing and I had a slice of Coconut Cake we gorged ourselves on cake and gossip.

I came home after that, ordered some Thai food and passed out. I think I fell asleep about 8:30, yes that's 8:30 on a Saturday Night. Please don't tell anyone, otherwise I'll have to return my gay card and toaster oven).

But hey, I did walk about 5 miles yesterday with lots of talk, shopping and cake in between!

I wish you lived closer, imagine the chat shows we could have!

Office Supply Whore

I can't explain it, but I love office supplies! I've been doing very well lately, keeping my acquisitions in check, but a few weeks ago I got a $10 off coupon from Office Max I only had to spend $20 and they'd give me $10 back, so I figured if I did it right, I could get a 50% discount on something I've been coveting.

So what did I decide on? A long reach stapler....a long reach stapler, what's that you ask? It's a stapler that lets you staple up to 12" from the edge of a page or a better way to look at it is, I can now print a "booklet" on 11"x17" paper and staple the middle of the pages like a real book!

I know I'm a dork!

Oh yeah, and I also got a "retractable" hi-lighter, but the only problem is, I can't think of the last time I actually used a hi-lighter...but hey it was cool and there's no cap to lose!

Happy Birthday You Queen!

From one Queen to another Happy 80th Birthday to you.

You're such a Queen!

Go Go Bikers Go!

There's a misconception that bikers are a bad lot, well of course in any subset of human life there are the good and the bad. These bikers are GOOD!

Remember my post earlier this week about the hate mongering reverend phelps (he doesn't deserve capital letters) and how he and his church (which are only his family members) are protesting at Military funerals because they support America which in turn supports homosexuality.

Well recently a 24 year old Marine from the Chicago area was killed in Iraq. His funeral was yesterday and the phelps' were there protesting, with their stupid little "thank god for dead soldiers" protest signs and shouting vulgarities...but you know what, the family didn't even see them because 25,653 members of the Patriot Guard Riders shielded the family from those pathetic protestors.

Here's the LINK

I guess my biggest question is that whenever you make up your own religion you can justify anything can't you? I'm not a "religious" person by any nature, but I don't understand how someone who claims to be a reverend can shout vulgarities at a passing funeral, that is beyond reprehensible. But hey I guess they don't have any problems sleeping at night do they?

I wonder if the US Gov't recognizes their church as a legitimate church? Interesting.

CSI: NY

Uhm, wasn't this episode JUST on like a week or two ago? Unless I'm having TV Deja vu I could swear that I just saw this exact show a short time ago.....what's up CBS?

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee - The Review

Drury Lane Theater at Water Tower
Originally uploaded by Michael_L.

Last evening The Boyfriend and I went to see The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, it was our first show of the Broadway Series that The Boyfriend got us for Christmas, you can read all about it HERE.

I met him downtown and we had a nice dinner at Food Life at Water Tower Place (it had been a while since we were both there, and it didn't seem to be as good as it was the last time, but it was still a nice meal before the show.) Actually this theater is right around the corner from Water Tower so it was an easy walk and the funny thing was when we were waiting for the show to start we saw a lot of people at the show that we had seen earlier at dinner....I guess we all had the same idea huh?

Well the theater is small, very intimate, very new. The seats were very comfortable and it was beautiful stadium seating with nicely offset rows. It was nice to not have to constantly look "around" someone's head, and at the same time not have to worry about blocking someone elses' view.

You're probably wondering about the show aren't you? Well it's exactly what the title says, it's an Annual Spelling Bee in Putnam County, so there's a whole bunch of kids (played by Adults of course) all from different schools who are competing to bee the county champion. One girl's mother is on an Ashram in India and her Father is somewhere, we don't know. One girl has ponytails, a pronounced lisp and gay-inter-racial fathers (Dan Dad and Carl Dad) her BM (Birth Mother) sends her cards occasionally. There's the Cub Scout who was last years champion, the homeschool kid who only made it because the winner was having her bat mitzvah and the first runner up was going. Then there was the asian girl from the catholic school who was "all business" and the nerdy kid, named William Barfy (pronounced Bar-fay) who writes the words out with his "magic foot"

Before the show, people had an opportunity to sign up to be part of the Bee and as the show started they called up 4 people from the audience.

The show was funny, campy and irreverent. It was a little bit racist and played into stereotypes (sort of like Avenue Q but nowhere near that level) but was very cute. The show was short, only about 90 minutes without an intermission but the time went by very quickly.

There were lots of "laughs out loud" from the audience, which is always a good thing when going to see a comedy. Lots of funny lines, great use of the stage/set/backdrops, the "dance" numbers were sassy and the cast was very talented.

It's great that it's in a small theater because I imagine that on a stage like the Cadillac, it would be totally lost.

It's not as good as: Avenue Q

But it's better than: Rent

Recommendation: Go see it if you're able, it's a cute show.

How to tell you live in Chicago

George Ryan, former Governor of Illinois was idicted yesterday on 19 Federal Charges LINK ranging from lying to Federal Officers to tax fraud to steering contracts to his cronies.

The trial has been going on for 6 months and it's been controversial the entire time, ranging from gag orders by the Judge because Ryan's wife decided to give an "interview" to one of the TV stations to replacing Juror's on the jury because of past affiliations that weren't brought out during jury questioning.

But the way you can really tell you live in Chicago.....the first thing the former Gov said was "I'm disappointed in the verdict, but we're working on an appeal." Well hello, of course you're disappointed in the verdict because that means you're going to go to jail.....but an appeal.

Why is it that if you're not happy with the verdict there's got to be an appeal. Why go through the whole farce of a Jury Trial if at the end, if you're not happy with the verdict you appeal it. I guess I don't understand our entire judicial system, I thought that a trial by a jury of your peers was supposed to be the fair, was supposed to be the right way to go....but if you're not happy with it, let's just appeal it.

I'm afraid that Mr. Ryan is concerned he's going to be meeting some of his former co-horts in jail....of 79 people who have been included in this Federal Probe, 76 have been indicted...why did Mr. Ryan think he was going to be different?

He's corrupt and he knows it. And I don't need an appeal to change my mind.

This saddens me

LINK

This is the saddest thing I've seen in quite sometime. The reverend (if you even want to call him that) phelps hates homosexuals. That's his "right" I guess, anyone can hate anyone in the world they want to.

The way that he and his "church" get their word out about their hatred is by protesting at funerals for soliders who were killed in war. They're "idea" is that America supports homosexuality and therefore any solider that dies in the name of America supports homosexuality and therefore it's a reason for them to picket.

This is the diritiest, most disgusting thing that I've come across.

What I find interesting is that the "church" and the "reverend" is basically phelps and his family, only about 75 members...what's more interesting is why does the media report on these types of things other than to give them more ammunition...what if everyone just ignored the phelpses...wouldn't it be nice if they would then just wither up and die.

Billy & Carlos - The Postcards

Billy & Carlos - Basel Switzerland
Originally uploaded by Michael_L.

I know you've all been waiting and I apologize for the delay...but the boys had their first official photoshoot today.

It was a beautiful 75 degrees in downtown Chicago so the boys threw on their leather and said "let's head downtown and make some magic"

Click on the picture to go to the Boys Blog

Keep the cards coming the boys love doing their photoshoots and I know that everyone else was as intrigued as well.

I know for a fact that several people took my picture as I was taking the Boys pictures....I'm sure I'll show up on someone's blog as "OMG I can't believe I saw this guy taking pictures of dolls, Chicago is so cool!"

TV Commercials

Check Into Cash TV Commercials

We have these scam businesses here that do “payday advances” basically you write them a post dated check for $125, they give you $100 now and then in two weeks they deposit the check.  So basically for a 25% premium you get your money now instead of having to wait.

Well there’s one of those companies that advertise on TV, especially during the Judge programs, and their commercial has strangers walking up to each other and saying things like “I don’t have enough money to pay the mechanic, what should I do?”  The mechanic turns around and says “You should “Check Into Cash”” they then go onto to explain the process to this poor hapless person who has never heard of such an exciting program.

My favorite is the one in the grocery store, an older white woman between motherhood and grandmotherhood who walks up to a complete stranger in the grocery store, who happens to be black and holding a child, and says “I don’t have enough money to get the things I need.” At which point the polite black lady says “You should “Check into Cash””  What I find so funny about this is a) when was the last time you walked up to a complete stranger and said “I don’t have enough money to buy my groceries what should I do?”  and b) when was the last time you saw a white woman approach a black woman and say “I don’t have enough money to buy my groceries, what should I do?”

Rent - Now And Forever

Oh wait that was Cats, not Rent.

Well, we went to see Rent the other evening. It wasn't part of the Broadway Series but The Boyfriend really wanted me to see it.

Rent has never impressed me....I don't know why? Perhaps by the time it came out (1995) I was past my "broadway crush" phase. My Broadway Crush was Phantom of the Opera (I loved that show). I never ever felt the same way about Rent or Miss Saigon, don't ask me, I guess the material just didn't hit me.

I think also that the time it came out I was long way from Broadway and knew I wouldn't be back for quite sometime so it just didn't interest me. Well for whatever reason, I never saw it and I never really listened to the soundtrack, the only song I knew was "Seasons of Love" which I'm sorry to say is one of the most annoying songs ever...I know yell at me, scream at me...I just don't get it.

Regardless, we did see the movie this past December, I enjoyed it, but again I didn't love it. I guess I never "connected" with the characters. Now don't get me wrong I enjoyed the show, I always find it interesting to see how things are "staged" plus you do get a lot more out of the show when you see the acting/staging/coreography all works together.

The Boyfriend and I met up with his Best Friend and his Boyfriend for an early dinner before the show (I felt so cosmopolitan telling the waitress "oh we're going to the show" this evening, yeah the restaurant is literally attached to the theater so I'm sure it's the first time she heard that one, LOL!) But we had a really nice Italian dinner with the boys and prepped ourselves for the show.

The Boyfriend got these tickets from work so the seats were pretty good....not great....but pretty good and at a good price.

Well, this production of Rent seemed like a High School production where the director told the actors, "now sing out loud boys and girls because you've got to hit the back of the auditorium" and then forgets to tell the kids they're going to be mic'ed as well...so they end up screaming into their microphones. Many times during the show I was totally lost because I couldn't tell what they were singing, it felt as though they were competing with the orchestra (which was on stage with them, not in the pit out front).

The actors were ok, the show is mostly signing so there's very little acting involved they just sing everything to each other. Plus I felt it was difficult to understand the plot because you never quite knew exactly what was going on.

The one thing it did make me want to do was go out and buy the movie...I wasn't planning on buying it, but seeing this poor version made me want to see the good version again.

That wasn't the best part of the evening though, if you can believe that.

After the show we walked to the car and The Best Friend's Boyfriend pulled the parking ticket out of his wallet and 'stuck' it in the dashboard, a place where he's stuck tickets like this for quite sometime. After we get all buckled up and on our way he looks down and says "Where did the ticket go?" Well come to find out that the ticket slide into the dashboard under the radio, oh fuck!

20 minutes go buy where several people end up with their arms stuck up inside the center console of the front dash searching for the ticket.

Finally the Boyfriend saved the day and was able to wedge the ticket from it's hiding place and into his hand. Not only is he goregous, he's "handy"

And that was our adventure going to see Rent.

Holiday Fun

Let's have a little fun with Jesus today. Check out this LINK

What should you be?

I stole this from Canadian Swiss who stole it from Xmichra who stole it from TNChick who seems to have been the only original one and found it all on her own. I guess I'm the least original since it made it all the way to me : -)

You scored as Mathematics. You should be a Math major! Like Pythagoras, you are analytical, rational, and when are always ready to tackle the problem head-on! Mathematics 83% Engineering 75% Sociology 67% Anthropology 67% English 58% Philosophy 58% Art 42% Psychology 42% Biology 33% Journalism 33% Chemistry 33% Theater 33% Dance 25% Linguistics 17% What is your Perfect Major? (PLEASE RATE ME!!<3) created with QuizFarm.com

** S I G H **

Ok, let's give out a collective sigh....doesn't that feel better?

So here was my Monday morning:

I work in a four story building with an elevator, when we get here in the morning I take the elevator because I don't feel like climbing 4 flights of stairs first thing in the morning, that's just way too much exercise first thing in the morning. So picture this, we're waiting for the slowest elevator in the world to come, we all pile in and when the door is 3-quarters of the way shut and arm comes jutting through the remaining opening to cause the door to spring back. In walks a woman clumsily juggling a single cup of coffee and nothing else, and proceeds to push the button for Floor #2, yes this perfectly capable woman couldn't walk up one flight of stairs. In fact we have a lot of people like that here...ugh!

Get to my desk and listen to two hard of hearing women having a discussion. One of the women is telling the other how she should go to the Salvation Army to get money to pay her gas bill, because that's what she did.....ugh! Then she tells her that she should go to this other charity to get assistance paying her mortgage....even more ugh! Oh, and these are not young women with a bunch of children.

Almost Famous

Wow it's been a blockbuster week for me on Flickr.

Last week I got an email from some lady at SCHMAP saying that they had used not one but two of my pictures from Las Vegas on their site.....yeah! They make some kind of "interactive map" so you have to download a program, but hey two of my pictures are there.

Then today I got another email from Open Source , a public radio show based in Boston and distributed around the country on Public Radio International and XM satellite radio.

They used one of my pictures for an upcoming show!

Back in February I was also published on another online Newsletter

I'm so excited, so I'll just keep snapping and taking pictures and maybe one day I'll be famous....well I'm sure it's not that easy but a girl can dream can't she?

Happy Easter

It's my annual rite of spring and the time I confirm that I'm going to hell.

Q: Why can't Jesus enjoy the pastel colored M&M's that they have especially for Easter?
A: Because they fall through the holes in his hands.

What did you do this weekend?

Chi-Town Squares
Originally uploaded by Michael_L.

A friend of ours celebrated a birthday this weekend. He is part of the Chi-Town Squares Square Dancing Troupe, which was having it's Friends & Family event so he invited all of his friends to come to the event instead of having a party.

The Boyfriend and I had no idea what to expect, we didn't know what to wear, I just got rid of all my cowboy shirts so I went Dickie's Butch and The Boyfriend went Cowboy Butch!

Well we had a blast, we danced for two hours, and we even broke a sweat. And considering that I'm "dance challenged" that means a lot!

They had a member team up with a non-member and they taught us how to dance.

We do-see-doed and did an alamand right and did a grand left something or other, we also did a swing and a four ladies in the center with a courtesy turn.

The great thing about going to a Gay Square Dancing event is you can either be the boy or the girl.....considering we had no idea what we were doing, we ended up both being "girls" because they follow.

The last time I square danced professionally was in the 5th Grade when we did a May Day performance. It brought back a lot of memories and we had a blast, we laughed and laughed.

The "set" was basically a teaching set where we went through all the motions first and learned each one and then the caller sang a song and we did the movements along with it....

It was a pretty fun Saturday night! (Better than hanging out in the bars, that's for sure)

So what did you do this weekend?

Why are people so rude

Why are people so rude? Really what has happened to our manners? Have we all become such selfish ingorant introverts that we can no longer interact properly with society?

Two things just happened to me in rather quick succession. Typically this type of shit doesn't bother me, I mean hell I live in a big city of 9 million people, there's bound to be some stuff going on every now and again.

Incident Number One

As I've posted before, I don't do my own laundry. You should read HERE to find out why. So I was running low on underwear and knew it was time to gather up the masses and take them down to Marilyn. Now this may sound all simple, having someone else do you laundry but you've still got to get the laundry there and back, so it's not all without some effort, plus I live on the third floor.

So, I'm all bundled up and walking down the street with my laundry on my shoulder all butch like and stuff, hey I can do it when I have to, and I'm approaching the laundry.

Well coming towards me, about equidistance from the door is a gentleman, walking on my side of the street (which is one of my major pet peeves) and not looking like he was going to move, so I start thinking, ok is he going to the laundry is he not? What is this guy going to do so I can decide, well I'm getting closer to the door and he's still on the same landing trajectory, so I think he's going to walk in and hold the door for me (not that I was expecting it) but instead he walks between me and the door and stops so that I have to walk AROUND him. So picture this, me with 40 pounds of laundry slung over my shoulder and this guy who just stops in front of the door and stands there.

Now, not that I expected him to open the door for me, that's really going out on a limb, but you know what....I would have done that.

I always try to be polite, especially in this day and age. I will hold a door for a woman, I will give my seat up on the bus or the train, I will let all women exit the elevator before I do because no one else seems to care any longer.

So you know what, I just blew that whole incident over, just added it up to more shit in the city.

Incident Number Two

Then I walk over to the Walgreen's to get some cash. The great thing with debit cards nowadays is that you can get cash back, without having to pay any bank fees, so when I need cash I go buy a soda or something and then get cash back, yippee!

I needed cash so I go grab a soda (I was actually looking for the new Blak from Coke, but I can't find it yet, has anyone tried it? I'm standing in line, behind 4 other people with one lane open being run by W an older gentleman who is really slow. I know my fate, it's Sunday afternoon, the store is busy and W is working alone, I'm hunkered down for the long haul here.

By this time 2 more people come up behind me, so now there are 6 people in line. Typically the person running register will do a store announce IC3, IC3 meaning get up front I need help.

Before that can be done, this woman comes barreling up between all the people in line and pulls up to the empty register. She starts unloading her cart: gauze, two of the biggest bottles of peroxide I've ever seen, and a few other things. I'm standing there looking at this woman thinking, "What are you doing, that's not open?" After she unloads her stuff she screams over the crowd, "can you get someone to open this register." That fucking BITCH!! So now I'm staring at the back of her head burning holes! I can't believe that she just did that.

Then I see she's got a cigarette in her hand, it's not lit but it's had a puff taken off of it. I can't believe this is happening.

I must admit she knew the system, but the way that she did it was totally obscene.

What I learned today

I'm a big proponet of learning something new each day. You can learn something new by reading a newspaper or learning how to do a new task in Excel, but you should try to learn something new everyday.

Here's what I learned today:

- If you have grey hair, you should not wear low-rise jeans
- If you have grey hair, you should not wear low-rise jeans without underwear
- If you have grey hair, you should not wear low-rise jeans without underwear if you're a man.

I've learned enough today, I'm going to bed!

Weird Burger King Stuff

In my quest to find pictures of the new BK Spokesperson I found some weird stuff, like
As well as this

But the kicker of all kickers is THIS link and believe it or not, Burger King runs that site.

Is that not the creepiest of the creepy?

Blech!

A little taste of Fantasy versus Reality

When was the last time you went to Burger King (Ms. Mac) and got a Big Mac Whopper that looked just like the Big Mac they show on TV or even on the menu board? It doesn't happen.

Well take a look at this comparison from Quizno's

Makes ya hungry doesn't it!

In case you're wondering where I learned to spell the title of this post, it was on the closed captioning of a Simpson's episode.

Random Isn't Really Random

I currently have 9043 songs on my iPod. I have many more on iTunes but because this machine can't handle them all I've now been forced to "choose" which music I want to listen to.

As I've posted before I listen to my iPod at work, typically I put it on Random until I hear something I really enjoy and then I'll listen to the album. This is much better than the way I used to listen to music.

So why is that when I select "Shuffle Songs" I hear, within a matter of an hour, three songs from the same album? I've got 9000 songs to choose from and you play from the same album? I don't get that. Plus I hear the same song every now and again, I know that iTunes knows when I last listened to a song, but apparenlty my iPod doesn't.

What else is weird is if I am at home and listening to iTunes and do Shuffle, the same thing happens, but what's even more weird is sometimes I'll hear the SAME SONG that I heard on my iPod?! What's up with that....

It got me to thinking that their shuffle must have some kind of algorithim instead of just being random....how would you like that job as a programmer "I need you to write me a piece of software that creates random-like music but isn't really random."

Has anyone else noticed this when they set their iPod to shuffle?

Organized Religion

Did anyone else see this

Apparently Judas didn't betray Jesus but followed his orders.

I wonder what the Pope thinks of that?

Something to Share

I stole this from Neal who is living at the South Pole.

Check this out

L O S T

Well I'm glad to see that many of you feel the same way that I do about Lost. It has really pissed me off this year with all of the repeats and the huge breaks between shows. I mean 6 weeks between new shows, come on folks.

We watched some of the first season last year, but it was late in the season and we were really lost so we didn't really watch it, but as you may remember last year I bought the DVD when it came out and had a Marathon.

This season I've sort of been turned off, I watched the opener and all that, but when they started doing the repeat thing so early in the season it pissed me off. In fact last night was the first full episode I watched in like 3 weeks.

It got to the point where every Wednesday I would tune in, it was a REPEAT, and then it got to the point where I forgot that it was on Wednesday night......I would come in the office on Thursday and my co-worker would say "Didya watch it?" and then she would give me the whole rundown!

Last nights episode was terrific, I really like Hurley and the twist and turns of his story were really interesting. The reason he ended up in the mental institute was quite a twist I wasn't expecting. They almost had me sucked into the story...I was questioning whether the whole thing is just made up. The story from Locke/Henry Gale, the story from Hurley.

I must admit that I have pretty much given up on Lost for the season because I'm tired of keeping track of when a new episode is going to be on. I've resigned myself to doing another Marathon when the season comes out on DVD, so I don't watch it as "closely" as I should.

So did anyone watch it last week and see the Map? Entertainment Weekly has a really good explanation of it HERE

1789

On this date in 1789 George Washington was elected the First President of the United States of America, he was the only President to be unanimously elected.

I wish that George and Ben were alive today, as well as a few other founding Fathers, I'd like to ask them a few questions about what they "really meant" when they wrote the Constitution, I bet the way we interpret it now is not the way they ever anticipated.

L O S T

Has anyone else been following LOST?

The New Victoria's Secret Catalog Cover

You should wake the kids for this

This is better than New Year's Eve, so get those kids out of bed and gather round the TV/VCR combo!

On Wednesday of this week, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06.

You may now return to your life.

It's Official

Yep it's official folks.....the company I work for has us "locked down" on the internet.

At work they use a proxy server with a filter so that we can't look at porn (which I totally understand) and games (which I can understand) and a few weeks ago they told us that we were not going to be able to access hotmail/gmail/yahoo any longer.

Then yesterday I come into work and they've also filtered Flickr and Youtube!!!!

Fortunately I can still get to blogger to post and I can read blogs but I'm afraid it's only going to be a matter of time before the only page we can get to is our homepage on the internet.

It truly is a sad day : -(

My House Smells Like 7-Up, Part III

Wow a Three-Poster, I never thought that I’d be able to do it. To catch up with the story you should check out the first post where you find out I’m an incense enjoyer then follow up with the second post where we try to figure out why Head Shops are called such and the really cool gadget I found while I was there.

After I put the Lighter Leash into my grubby little hand I headed over to the Incense Booth to try and find some new flavors. Typically when I go looking for incense I like those clean burning scents, like Yankee Candles. My favorite scent from them was one they had a few years ago called Grass, I can’t find it any longer but oh my god it smelled like fresh cut grass when it burned it was the most intoxicating scent ever. It ranks right up there with Melon & Cucumber…I know I’m so gay!

But I like those crisp scents (and if you’re thinking about buying me presents I wear my cologne the same way – I love Candies – for Boys, Clinique – Chemistry and Crave by Calvin) so instead of trying to “smell” those in the incense store I just looked for the names.

Clean Rain, Summer Day, Patchouli (ICK), Anise and then I saw it. It stood out from the rest of the incense because unlike those plain undecorated sticks that just burn down to nothing this one was covered in blue glitter. Yes can you believe it, a blue glitter stick of incense! I was instantly drawn to it…..well because it was shiny, you know how it is…..and the label on it said “Fizzy Pop”

Fizzy Pop, I said to myself, now that’s got to be an interesting scent so I grabbed 4 or 5 sticks and took a big wiff, it was intoxicating! Totally intoxicating, it smelled like a tick of incense injected with carbon dioxide, I could almost hear the bubbles popping when I took a smell.

So I got about 5 or so sticks and put it in the bag with the rest of my incense, but it stood out because of its blue glitter stick!

I couldn’t wait to get home to light one up, the anticipation was killing me. As the train was approaching my stop I anticipated the doors opening and slammed my nose right into the glass, ouch!

I ran with a quick two step the few blocks home, I crossed the street and almost broke into a “mall jog” when I opened the gate. I had to pace myself, I still had to get the key into the downstairs door then climb three flights of stairs and open another door, so much could happen between now and then so I just kept telling myself "slow down."

I opened the bottom door and took a calm breath and started up the stairs, as I passed each step I started walking faster and faster until I was sprinting up the stairs. With my key out in its ready position, I reached the top stair and made a quick turn to the left, put the key in it's receptacle and turned. Oh it was so exciting, it’s like when you’re in the car and you have to suddenly pee and you know you’re going to be home soon, but will it be soon enough, and then your body just goes into that anticipation mode when you cross your legs and each step is excruciating because your body just wants to let loose but you still have to take your coat off, unbutton your pants and get to the bathroom, I mean you could trip on the stairs, step on a shoelace or even worse, get your zipper stuck!

Well it wasn’t quite like that, but I couldn’t wait to get home so I could light up a stick of it.

So now, my house smells like 7-Up because when you burn this stuff it fills the house with it’s sweet heady aroma. It smells just like 7-Up including the bubbles, really, and you know I wouldn’t make that up.

But if you’re looking for some incense, check out Fizzy Pop at your local Head Shop, it’s got the Blue Glitter Stick you won’t be able to miss it.

Did I take too long to get to the point? I'm sorry I promise I won't make huge posts in the future.

Ice Age 2: The Meltdown

Yesterday we went to see Ice Age 2: The Meltdown.

The Man (aka The Boyfriends Son) is 6 years old and he loves going to the movies, so The Boyfriend always takes him to go see the latest big hit. If it's something I'm interested in I'll join them, otherwise I'll politely decline. Since I'm a child at heart I may take unfair advatage of the situation and "go for the sake of The Man" but really want to go myself!

Ice Age is very child appropriate, even going so far as to remove most of the adult humor disguised as something a child might find funny. Ray Romano is sort of cloying in this movie, I'm not a fan of his voice but I love his comedy and I love Everybody Loves Raymond, but I think it's because it's ensemble thing instead of just him. His voice sort of gets to me after a while, and this is coming from someone who has an annoying voice himself!

The story is sort of lame but really what do you expect. You know everything that's going to happen but it's still funny and you still laugh.

The little "Squirrel" guy from the first movie totally steals the seond one as well.

Final Review:
Would I watch it again? YES
Why? It's one of those movies you can watch without having to pay attention to it.

Would I recommend it to a friend? YES, but only if they had children.

So, now that that nice stuff is out of the way. What the fuck is up with parents and movie theaters in this day and age? Now granted, going to see a children's movie on opening weekend at the second show of the day is usually not the most conducive time to "absorbing" a movie. But again I say, "what the fuck is up with parents and movie theaters in this day and age?"

The behavior in the theater was atrocious, parents on their cell phones during the movie, toddlers who are barely out of a car seat propped up on someones lap screaming throughout most of the movie, the children running in the aisle because they're bored, the kid with the led's in his shoes that are constantly going off because he's banging the seat in front of him, the tweens behind me who repeated almost every line they thought was funny (I think they were stoned because it wasn't that funny). The most atrocious behavior came from the parents who just sat by and did nothing, nothing at all to discipline or discourage their childs behavior, just sit there with total disregard for the entire rest of the theater.

Why are people so selfish like that, I guess they think they're the only one in this world.

King Kong - Miniseries, Part Three

Well, I finally finished King Kong. I know that you've been anxiously (LOL) waiting for the final part of my review. I think that turning inot a miniseries was a good thing to do. I guess the main reason is because it is an action movie overall but it's also an adventure movie so I like that.

The third installment of the movie was actually the most "action packed" of the movie. There was a whole lot of Skull Island in this version, compared to the original, I guess because they wanted to show off their mastery of computer animation, and they sure showed off.

Honestly it got to be a little much after about the third "dinosaur" misadventure and I ended up fast forwarding through a lot of it. I mean come on I know how the movie is going to end and who all is going to be there, so there's no anticipation that one of the main characters is going to get killed off.

It's just like Star Trek, whenever you see a "new" character on an away mission, you know they're the one that's gonna get killed.

The last third of the movie was a little less exciting than the first 2/3rds which was a little bit of a let down, but it was the final act afterall, you've got to wind down sometime dontcha?

I was sort of disappointed that they caught Kong and then suddenly you were somewhere in the future for the unveiling, no transition other than a quick fade. I figured that with all the backstory they developed leading up to this point they might have some kind of "incident" on the boat when Kong wakes up or in a warehouse when he's being showed off to "investors." It just sort of took all that for granted....perhaps Mr. Jackson is waiting to release a Director's Cut of the movie and then release the 10th Anniversary Directors Cut after that where they fill in the WHOLE story.

I'm not going to spoil anything by saying that we all know what happens at the end of the movie, I mean it's not the Crying Game for god's sake! But come on the "ending" scene went on and on, I literally fast forwarded until just the point when he falls off the building.

I didn't realize that Kong was supposed to be KoKo, I find it hard to believe that he understood the "sign language" that Ann supposedly taught him.....

I think that Jack Black did an amazing job on this movie....I think that he really went above and beyond his prior acting for this role. Honestly I have only seen him on TV when he was a really stupid acting comedian and the previews for his prior movies, he was never one to "impress" me much, but he did an outstanding job in this movie.

Adrien Brody - not so good looking, wouldn't be the one I would have Ann fall for.

Naomi Watts - I had no idea who she was, I just looked her up on IMDB, she was in the Ring...now that makes sense.

Thomas Kretschmann - I don't know what it was about this guy, but he was very sexy. In case you're wondering who he was, he was the Captain of the Venture, woof Daddy! Also just looked him up, he is going to be Wil in the movie version of the Celestine Prophecy, a whole movie with him...I'm there (plus I love TCP I read it when it first came out and it's one of the few books I've ever read more than once).

Final Review:

Would I watch it again? No
Why? It was too long and once you've seen it, you've seen it. Plus it's 3-hours long.

Would I recommend it to a friend? YES
Why? If you liked the original version you'll love this because it just adds so much more "meat" to the story. It really makes the store come alive. The special effects are amazing, just like you would expect.