the DronesClub	the smackdown	Fierce Creatures	Little Blenheim	Barmy in Wonderland	the dernier cri

The unpleasant, acrid smell of burnt poetry.
Young Men in Spats, 1936

Looking for the Old Stuff? Visit the Archives here.
Jan 2010	Feb 2010	Mar 2010	Apr 2010	May 2010	Jun 2010
July 2010	Aug 2010	Sep 2010	Oct 2010	Nov 2010	Dec 2010

 

June 30, 2010

10:21 p.m. - Long day. I left work early and wound up dozing off - snoring myself awake, but sleeping for about 45 minutes when I got home. That'll mess up my delicate sleep cycle. Followed by a meeting at Scottish Rite with two Diet Cokes - strike two against a delicate sleep cycle. Followed by a late dinner with Jennifer at Julie's house across the street- marinated pork chops, potatoes, and a fantastic salad - strike three against a delicate sleep cycle. And of course, I have to be up and across town for a 7 am meeting tomorrow.

And to top it off, Jennifer is at Julie's house which means I can't go to bed or the dogs will bark for 20 minutes when she gets home waking me up again. Strike 4 against a delicate sleep cycle. I hope she comes home before 11, because I am still dead beat tired and I'd like to try to get some rest.

Meanwhile, I learned that a friend passed away unexpectedly the other day, which has me down among the wines and spirits. It was completely unexpected by everyone, and I am reminded that if someone in reasonably good health can die of a coronary, I really really need to take better care of myself. I am too stressed and don't eat healthy at all. Need to really get back on the wagon and get back to the gym in the mornings.

June 29, 2010

In the immortal words of E.T., "Ouch."

3:02 p.m. - The Dow Jones closed at 9,870.30, down 268.22 points. Yikes! What's going on with Wall Street today? Granted, we're up nearly 1,341 from a year ago, but down 1,025 from 3 months ago. My poor retirement plan feels like a yo-yo, and retirement feels no more secure now than it did in 1996. Maybe that hitherto unknown rich bachelor uncle will materialize in the coming months, and take a shine to Jennifer and myself.

Meanwhile, I had that slice of leftover pizza for lunch today, and my wee innards are miserable. I feel like there's a bowling ball in my gut, though one made of jagged metal, dipped in molten lead, and delivered to the solar plexus by a wrecking ball. As much as I like pizza, it is a dish that needs to be removed from my menu permanently for all the digestive nightmares it wreaks on me. I feel wretched right now.

7:11 a.m. - Jennifer picked up pizza last night, and we looked in on Mom who just returned from the Trip from Hell to Philadelphia, where everything that can go wrong with her flights did go wrong. We had a nice visit, and then came home to relax and go to bed.

So this morning, I was cutting up a slice or two of pizza to take to work for lunch when Percy did one of his Baryshnikov power leaps and snatched the pizza off the counter, and was half way to China with it in his mouth. I had to wrestle it away from him and throw it away - little swine! He's being a bad dog this morning- fighting with Gryffindor, barking at every noise. Sigh. . .

June 27, 2010

Que library research pan flute music, à la Field of Dreams.

3:53 p.m. - Another quiet weekend at the ol' Casa de Evans. Jennifer and I took a long weekend, beginning on Friday. Unfortunately, J was down among the wines and spirits and spent the day resting. It was so hot, there was not that much we could do, really. The Summer Arts Festival was going on downtown, but with the heat index in the 100s on Friday and Saturday, we really didn't want to much around among the same vendors selling the same things. While Jennifer rested on Friday, I looked in on the Public Library, and spent some time in the microfilm department researching my boy Clarence Walrath, who is now confirmed to not have been the first owner/resident of my house. Rather, I clearly confirm that he did not move to this house until 1902, and then he lived here until about 1912 or 1913. However, I did learn that he was at one point chairman of the Chamber of Commerce's Executive Committee. Interesting stuff!

In the evening, we looked in on Tim 'n' John's for a while for a fantastic dinner of Indian chicken. I think I had too many margaritas, and I was about to fall asleep. Fortunately, Jennifer took me home before I really did fall asleep in their home! Their baby is absolutely beautiful and I had a fun time playing with him.

At any rate. . . Saturday. Not that much to report. Jennifer was still resting, and I had no intention of braving a 108° heat index to go mucking around outside, other than to look in on my mother's dogs twice throughout the day. We ordered in Chinese food and called it a day on the early side.

Today, Jennifer went to work for a few hours while I visited Mom's dogs, tackled a bit of laundry, and watched a few episodes of Mad Men, Season 2 on cable-on-demand. Jennifer got home around noon, and we stopped by an estate sale - nothing of interest - followed by lunch at the Dundee Dell and ice cream. Jennifer is taking a nap now, and I am puttering around the house. My kind of quiet Sunday!

June 23, 2010

7:27 a.m. - Once again with the thunder and lightning all night long. J tried explaining some nonsense about hot air masses colliding with cool air masses. Well okay, Jennifer Nye, the Science Guy - er, Gal - but if you want to know what I think, I think God just like's playing head games with me and keeping me up all night long. I am moving so slowly today. Age is catching up with me.

June 22, 2010

7:23 a.m. - Jennifer wrote online that she'd never have survived the heat in Victorian times. I always figured if we lived in Victorian times, we'd summer in the Indian Himalayas, with the rest of the British Raj.

Percy and Arabella jealously guard their rawhides -  Percy gnawed his butcher bone down to a nub in a single day!

Last week: took this shot with the camera's built in timer. I always look like a pompous git, but it's only because I can't judge where the camera is aimed.

7:14 a.m. - Once again the thunder and lightning kept me up. Oh, for a full night's sleep! Meanwhile, Percy is sitting on his little mat with a rawhide in his mouth, and the second one (meant for Arabella) at his side for the moment the first one is done.

June 21, 2010

9:05 p.m. - Too damn hot this evening. I went to Scottish Rite, but I was thoroughly wilted by the time I got there. I sat through the education program and had a great chat with Bill Dean, the past General Secretary and got a promise to talk history with him at a future date! I was so hot after dinner, I had to call it an evening and skipped the business meeting. Ran the garbage out when I got home, which practically over heated me. Running cat litter out to the trash is just horrible - horrible! - in this weather. Jennifer is still at work, and I'm finally cooling down, watching TV with the dogs.

4:55 p.m. - Last night, the thunder and lightning were so fierce it woke me up around 3:45 or so, and I could not get back to sleep. Crookshanks was none too thrilled about the weather, and needed some attention. He somehow managed to slip into the bedroom during one of my wee hour perambulations and I decided to let him sleep in bed. That was a major failure on my part. He wanted to get right in my face, which would have been fine, except that he felt the urge to bat at my face with his disgusting litter-stained paws. First strike merited him a shove. He failed to take the hint. After dancing his plump way across my body, he went for strike two and got right back in my face with his nasty little paws. No strike three, and the only sound to be heard at 3:50 a.m. was the sound of a fat cat sailing out of the bedroom a bare millisecond ahead of my right foot. I am hurting for sleep right now, and - no thanks to a couple of barking dogs - I have a raging head ache. And we're at about 99% humidity, so I am soaked from the inside out. Not happy!

Jennifer is working late, and I am heading to the Scottish Rite for the monthly business meeting. Gryffindor is fast asleep under the computer desk, Percy in the black chair, and Arabella (wisely) by the A/C vent. Sometimes I envy a dog's life!

June 20, 2010

9:36 p.m. - We find our hero on yet another Sunday night, trying to update the ol' webpageroo, racking his brains to remember what, if anything, of note has happened since the last time. On Thursday, I met the parentals and we went to a neighbor's funeral. His family lived next door to ours as long as I can remember, and thirty years before that, so they have been on 38th Street from time immemorial. My oldest childhood friend came in from Utah and we hobnobbed with his family, caught up, and paid our respects to a good man, who passed away far too young. Unfortunately, I am at the stage in Life where catching up with old friends only seems to be done at weddings and funerals, and I need to readjust my priorities so that Jennifer and I are travelling, visiting friends, and making memories.

Toy Story III: We haven't seen the first two, but the third was a fun movie!

J and Self took Friday off, and enjoyed a fairly low key weekend. We went to see Toy Story III, which was quite good and was a happy conclusion for Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and the toys. Compare this to Shrek, which has been running the franchise for nearly as long, ringing as much money out of the tired story for 3 too many movies. Or rather, the second one was amusing, but the third one was just awful, and the fourth one - as I hear - simply rehashes the better jokes from the first movies again. At any rate, the movie was in 3D, which was merely a way to extract an additional $10 or so from the movie-going public, and there was nothing that really needed to be in three dimensions about it, but Toy Story III was a great deal of fun and thoroughly enjoyable.

I honestly have no recollection what I did yesterday. Damned if I can remember a single thing we did, though I am sure we had a nice day. Today, we looked in at Louis M's for breakfast. I departed from my usual routine of guacamole bacon cheeseburger for a chicken fried steak with sausage gravy, a bit of hashbrown, an egg, and toast, and I was well rewarded for my bit of culinary derring-do. Afterward, we looked in on the antique store out on I-80 past Sapp Brothers - and I made every wrong turn in the book getting there, which I blame squarely on the blinding rain. After that, we stopped by Mom's briefly to say howdy, and then came home to putter about. We both had a late lunch. Jennifer took a nap, and around 5:30, I grilled a couple of steaks, corn on the cob, and green beans for a fantastic dinner. Jennifer played on the computer in the evening, and I watched a bit of TV. All in all, a quiet Sunday evening.

Oh yeah, Mike looked in with his 4-year old Sam on Saturday on their way back to the airport, and we visited for a bit. Afterward, I looked in on the grocery store. I knew it would come back to me.

June 14, 2010

7:20 a.m. - All very quiet along the front, as they say. Little to report over the past week other than staying busy with the usual things. I helped out at the Scotch tasting on Friday evening at the Scottish Rite, which was a bit of fun for all involved. I behaved myself considerably, and confined myself to the merest whiff of a fine Balvenie's. Afterward, we sat out on the veranda or courtyard, or whatever they call it, and I puffed contentedly on my pipe while the other fellows smoked cigars. They were going strong at 10:30, and I called it an evening.

On Saturday, we had a KSA meeting back at the Scottish Rite. It was one of the longest we've had, and when I got home Jennifer left for work, which can only mean one thing: nap time. I had a nice 30 or 45 minute snooze to catch up from the night before, and then spent the afternoon puttering around the house cleaning and picking up things. In the evening, we went to a restaurant out at Rockbrook Village called Pasta Amore. I had way too much, but it was a nice way to celebrate our neighbor's birthday.

On Sunday, Jennifer and I went to Louis M's for lunch (or rather, I had lunch and Jennifer had a late breakfast), and then we came home and lazed for an hour until it was time for Jennifer to head to work. I alternated between bouts of extraordinary industry - cleaning, laundry, etc - and extraordinary laziness - TV and movies. All things being equal, a quiet and peaceful weekend, and I wouldn't have changed a thing (with the exception of J working most of it).

June 8, 2010

Arabella - the Maltese rider

5:29 p.m. - Enjoyable weekend. Jennifer and I went to see Get Him to the Greek on Sunday, which had moments of extraordinary mirth. Otherwise, quiet.

Last night, we had a thunder storm. The dogs slept fitfully through the thunder and lightning, but I was up at about 2 a.m., and didn't sleep well after that. I almost fell asleep at my desk today. I'd say that isn't fair, but frankly it beats having them up barking all night with me taking them out at 2 a.m. to pee, amidst the downpour.

Is my garbage really this collectable? Help yourself, pal.

Got home after a long day and took a nice ride around the neighborhood on the Buddy Scooter. Awesome! I love riding it! I want to get one for Jennifer so we can ride around Midtown on 'em. I signed up for a motorcycle class. Unfortunately, my procrastination cost me the class I wanted this month, so I'm taking the class in July. It will still be fun. Scary, but fun. I'm looking forward to it. I put Arabella on the scooter for her photo shoot, and she took it like a little champion.

Apparently the garbage crew missed our recycle bin during the weekly garbage pick up. They managed to cover everyone else on the block, but ours must have been invisible. Oh well. At any rate, when I came in from my ride, some guy was picking through my trash to take the soda cans. I don't begrudge anyone my trash. If he can pocket 50¢ from the cans, then go for it! But this guy was as middle class as I am. Does he really need 10 or 20 soda cans that much? Is salvaging a dollar's worth of disgusting, wet, sticky soda cans worth the dollar he'll make from recycling them somewhere? You'd think he could leave it for an indigent person who really needs the dollar. But, knock yourself out, pal. Take the cans - in fact, please take everything since the garbage man didn't.

June 3, 2010

9:09 p.m. - Another quiet evening at Casa de Evans. I got home late, after a meeting with the financial advisor. and threw a couple of steaks on the grill, potatoes in the microwave, and asparagus on the stove. It was just finished when Jennifer got home. Excellent dinner, and the steaks were perfect, if I do say so myself. As always.

Jennifer is watching TV in bed, and I'm watching another episode of Season 1 Mad Men on cable. The dogs are quiet. Just right.

7:07 a.m. - Morning routine of reconciling my checkbook. 7¢ error found - and corrected.

Last night was the NC Board meeting - small turnout, but great discussion with some truly intelligent people. I love serving with them. Picked up Jimmy John's on the way home.

Meanwhile, apparently the jug of windshield washer fluid in my trunk leaked fluid all over my trunk, and even the short exposure to the chemicals had me coughing all day. I hope it evaporates shortly. Not looking forward to that 1.5 mile drive to work if my car smells like window cleaner.

June 1, 2010

Ominous clouds overhead this evening, but fortunately, nothing worse.

8:40 p.m. - So I got home after a meeting, around 5:00 and let the dogs out. No sooner than they came back in the house than the clouds gathered did it begin to thunder and lightning and pour! The rain was really coming down, and the weather-wallahs were talking about tornado action south and west of us. Fortunately, nothing serious came directly our way, but it was nasty for a while.

Jennifer got home around 7:00 or so from the Tempo! concert at the Gardens, and is relaxing at home. She'll take tomorrow off to relax, though my recommendation is Wednesday through next Tuesday. She's in bed watching TV, and I'm designing some material for Scottish Rite on Publisher and watching the very first episode of Mad Men on cable.

8:15 a.m. - June. Already. Who'd've thunk it? Before I know it, we'll be looking back at the year half over. After a restful five days off over Memorial Day weekend, I'm back at the daily, slugging through about a million e-mails (most all of them junk mail) and playing catch up while getting ready for the Ride next Saturday.

Meanwhile, Jennifer worked, worked, worked all weekend long and I'm looking forward to her having Wednesday off, and doing absolutely nothing all day but catching up on rest and relaxation.