less soreness

i bought the jvc air cushion in-ear phones for just under $30, by far the most expensive pair i have ever purchased.  the sound quality is by far the best i experienced, maybe even better than my full size noise canceling headphones.  they feel alright, not popping out or causing sharp pain, but still like there is something large in there.

upside:

• no unbearable pain
• great sound
• they lay flush against my head, so i can wear them while laying on my side (bedtime listening is very important)
• blocks out a lot of ambient noise
• lower price point

downside:

• i can hear everything in my head, like chewing, swallowing, breathing, my jaw clicking (just turn that shit up louder!)
• if my cat chews the wire i will be $30 pissed, instead of my usual $9.99 pissed

• pushes the cartilage at the front of my ear outward, but not as badly as everything else i have tried

fun times

last month we were visiting friends that i love to play scrabble with, but apparently i am the only one of the four of us who doesn’t get tired of scrabble.  our friends pulled out rummikub.  i had never played before, but liz and i have been trying to learn new games (because she is tired of loosing scrabble, i’m sure) and played rummy with a deck of cards, so we were up for it.

rummikub was very easy to learn, with the same basic principal of setting matches and runs as the card game.  we had a ball, and a few weeks later bought the game.  when my family came over for the holiday we all played for a few hours, and everybody had fun with it.  my sister immediately bought a set and made my parents play with her for the rest of their visit.  my mother said that she was going to buy it when they get home, and my father moaned and groaned a bit, but he liked it too.

i was hopping that i could get liz to play rummikub with me more often because she seems to think it is easier than scrabble, and therefore less stressful, but so foar not so much luck.

and to think that when we got our scrabble set liz practically had to beg me in the store to agree to play with her.  i am so, so, so very bad at spelling that i thought i could never play well enough to have fun . . . but that ended up not being entirely as important as forming smaller, easier to spell words.  my scrabble game is not great, but good enough to hold my own with a game played with four.  i never would have guess scrabble would be my favorite game.

a great big bottle

i drink a lot of water.  i like it.  i’m thirsty.

i purchase spring water in 3 liter bottles, usually 6 at a time, one for every workday of the week plus one for good measure, like i said . . . i’m thirsty.  i drink straight from the bottle.

when i am not working i carry a liter aluminum bottle of water, plus i have a few spear 3 liter bottles in my car “just in case” i feel the need to drink while driving, which i tend to do.

in the morning as soon as i wake up i go to the bathroom to empty my batter and i begin filling it right away with a few big gulps from the tap.  i then drink a full 8oz. glass with my morning pills.  i shower and start to get ready for work with either a cup of coffee or another glass of water.  i tend to drink another glass before i walk out the door.  i will drink a few swigs from a 3 liter bottle while i am driving to work.  at work i have 1-2 cups of coffee and 1-2 cups of green or black tea a day along with all but the very last of a 3 liter bottle.  i will then take that bottle with me into the car and drink more on my way home.  when i get home i will have a snack with either water or an adult beverage.  if the weather is cold i will have 2-3 large cups of herbal tea.  before bed i will have a glass or 2 with my nighttime pills.  sometimes i will take a glass with me to bed and drink most of it if i wake up, otherwise i will get out of bed and head for the kitchen for some cold water, especially after a salty dinner.

people at work make fun of me because of my high consumption rate.  and they seem to find it comical that i drink directly from the 3 liter bottle, which is just about as large as a gallon.  sometimes i feel self-conscious and i will pour it into my mug, but i really don’t see the need for this.  one of the women at work is diabetic, and she had decided that only a diabetic would feel like drinking so much water, so she guilts me into letting her test my blood-sugar, but it is always normal.

really, i think i am just thirsty.  some of the ladies at work drink a crap-load of soda and don’t think twice, why is it amusing to them that i like water??

the kitty diaries

“little girl” (pictured in post below) is now living in a big blue cat carrier covered with old towels and a plastic bag, and filled with more old towels and an old wool sweater.

on wednesday i drove around town and posted some “found cat” fliers, but we have not gotten any word.  everyone we talk to seems to  have the opinion that the little girl was abandoned or just dropped by the side of the road.  i also got her a little collar, and put her rabies vaccination tag on it so that she won’t get re-lost.  she is so freakin’ cute with that little kitty body and the great big red gaudy tag shaped like a heart around her tiny neck.

a woman at work told me that we are going to keep her.  we have no real intention of doing such a thing, but it is starting to get chilly at night, and we have begun entertaining the idea of trying to introduce her to our two (pictured above) so that we can let her in.  we really want to find her a good home, three might be a crowd around here.

another place, another time

i have started a photoblog to get myself back into photography.  you can see it here.

the fan has been hit

any inkling of respect that i held for my direct supervisor has been violently ripped out of me and tossed aside.

my handy side

i spent the better part of the day running a drill and assembling a workstation.  tomorrow i put together the second one.  wow, i feel functional.

#1 neglected blog

that’s right.  i win.

so much has been going on, and on top of all that it’s summer.  there is grilling, swimming and sitting outside to do.i have been into music a lot, and reading (books . . . on paper).  work has been insanity, as usual (starbucks triple venti lattes have been my fuel of late, and at about $25 a gallon that makes gas look like a steal).  liz was off from work the last two weeks, so there was lots of quality time to spend together in the evenings.

our tomato plants have 12 tomatoes on them, almost ripe.  the parsley is about 4 feet tall, so is the basil.  the mint has practically taken over the back yard, it should be labeled as a ground-cover.  the dill never made it more than a half-inch out of the dirt, and has since disappeared altogether.   the rosemary, thyme and sage are doing well too.

we haven’t seen our neighbor tony since the 911 incident, but we have seen lots of wine bottles in his recycle.

our cats are as cute as ever.

i’ll try to catch up here with a good post later on this week.

marvel at my tech craft and despair

audio cable: $9

ipod nano box: $0 (well $150, but at least an ipod came with it.)

glue gun, scissors, screwdriver: $0 (i had them laying around.)

too much time on my hands: $0

resulting ipod nano dock for my stereo system: priceless

uhm, there might be a problem here.

tonight i purchased my 9th pair of birkenstocks.  the 13th pair i have owned in my lifetime, it all started with mocha bostons (i wore them with white sweat socks in high school, very un-trend-setting).  i also had a pair of green pvc birk clogs waaaayyyy before the crocks (also turned heads in high school, not always in the best way).

oh, and just a little plug here, this is my favorite business to purchase birkenstocks from:

http://www.simplybirkenstock.com

the stores and site are run by a great couple, and they are based in new hampshire, so any sale is tax-free.

birthday

my mother’s birthday was this past weekend, so guess what that means?

that’s right!  funny story!

so i call my mother and this a how the conversation goes:

me: hi, happy big 6-0.

her: no, 5-9.

me: oh come on, just embrace it.

her: no, i am 59. (she says in an annoyed tone)

me: no 60.

her: 59.

me: you know, usually one would want to stop at 39, not 59.

her:  i was born in 1949.  i am 59.

me: um . . . oh.  what?

the conversation continues.  yes, in fact my mother is 59 and not 60.  and now she is a pissed 59 year-old.

there’s more . . . my sister called me at work today to tell me that my mother called her last night.  here is how that conversation went:

her:  how old am i?

sis: 58.

her: no, i am not 58!

sis: how old are you then?

her: 59!!  your sister said i was 60!!!

all i have to say about that is at least my sister got it wrong too.

broke down, yo.

yep.  i did it.  in a moment of great weakness i put my head on liz’s lap and uttered the word “nano.”  within hours we were firing-up the computer and downloading itunes.

in 2005 we purchased mp3 players, a couple of samsungs at about $90 each, i had convinced liz that the ipod was overpriced and most any other mp3 player could provide us with years of happiness.  they did, but lately i have felt like the samsung has been greatly lacking (as liz has been pointing out for the past three years).  and i have wanted more because i have been listening to music so much lately (due to my current bout of depression).

“gay like my dad”

(this post has been a long time coming)

in college i started to realize that i was not the only person in my immediate family with homosexual tendencies, it began to dawn on me that maybe this was a trait passed down to me by my father. the big “ah-ha” moment took place as i was sorting through the mail at my parent’s house, and my fancy (if you will) was caught by a catalog, international male, addressed to my father.

the models in the catalog were young, very fit, attractive men with no body hair to speak of and sporting very vibrant clothing. as i was scanning the pages, reading the descriptions of items called “fancy sunglasses,” “swashbuckler shirt” and “the bodyshaper underwear,” i began to question my father’s sexuality.

i would rifle through my fathers pile of catalogs and “periodicals” (men’s health, wine enthusisit) and take international male to school with me. i would show the catalogs to my friends, and we would roll around laughing at the photos and descriptions like:

Gauze Caftan
Think of all the occasions you have to wear such a comfortable piece of clothing: the beach, the pool, Sunday mornings at home, late at night. Oh the comfort. Made from a lightweight and airy cotton gauze. Loose, full sleeves. Deep cut neck. Side slits. Machine wash. Relaxed Fit. USA.
An International Male exclusive.

and:

Tinello Faux Chinchilla Hooded Jacket
Incredibly soft, warm and stylish with realistic chinchilla markings. Zip-front closing. Acrylic faux fur with polyester lining. Dry clean. Imported.

my friend kathleen and i would have entire conversations about how funny the descriptions are, almost ten years later we still joke about it. paul t. and i started to regularly speculate that my father was really a gay man, and after he would come-out i would have enough material to write a book . . . at some point we decided that this book would have a children’s counterpart i would call “gay like my dad,” focused on helping children deal with the repercussions of living with a closeted gay man.

my father owns plenty of clothing from international male, and trust me, you would be able to spot an “international male exclusive” from across the dance-floor of your friendly neighborhood gay bar.

my father’s penchant toward silk and spandex led to childhood trauma. the variegated-florescent-leopard-print speedo my mother forced my father to stop wearing when the fabric started to look worn in the early ’90’s, the biking shorts, the button down silk shirt printed with martini glasses he wore at my high school graduation, the list could go on and on . . . the jewelry he wears is a post in itself.

my father is not really gay, although you wouldn’t guess that if you saw him with his soul-patch, i later learned the term “metrosexual,” this is a better explanation.

“gay like my dad”

(this post has been a long time coming)

in college i started to realize that i was not the only person in my immediate family with homosexual tendencies, it began to dawn on me that maybe this was a trait passed down to me by my father. the big “ah-ha” moment took place as i was sorting through the mail at my parent’s house, and my fancy (if you will) was caught by a catalog, international male, addressed to my father.

the models in the catalog were young, very fit, attractive men with no body hair to speak of and sporting very vibrant clothing. as i was scanning the pages, reading the descriptions of items called “fancy sunglasses,” “swashbuckler shirt” and “the bodyshaper underwear,” i began to question my father’s sexuality.

i would rifle through my fathers pile of catalogs and “periodicals” (men’s health, wine enthusisit) and take international male to school with me. i would show the catalogs to my friends, and we would roll around laughing at the photos and descriptions like:

Gauze Caftan
Think of all the occasions you have to wear such a comfortable piece of clothing: the beach, the pool, Sunday mornings at home, late at night. Oh the comfort. Made from a lightweight and airy cotton gauze. Loose, full sleeves. Deep cut neck. Side slits. Machine wash. Relaxed Fit. USA.
An International Male exclusive.

and:

Tinello Faux Chinchilla Hooded Jacket
Incredibly soft, warm and stylish with realistic chinchilla markings. Zip-front closing. Acrylic faux fur with polyester lining. Dry clean. Imported.

my friend kathleen and i would have entire conversations about how funny the descriptions are, almost ten years later we still joke about it. paul t. and i started to regularly speculate that my father was really a gay man, and after he would come-out i would have enough material to write a book . . . at some point we decided that this book would have a children’s counterpart i would call “gay like my dad,” focused on helping children deal with the repercussions of living with a closeted gay man.

my father owns plenty of clothing from international male, and trust me, you would be able to spot an “international male exclusive” from across the dance-floor of your friendly neighborhood gay bar.

my father’s penchant toward silk and spandex led to childhood trauma. the variegated-florescent-leopard-print speedo my mother forced my father to stop wearing when the fabric started to look worn in the early ’90’s, the biking shorts, the button down silk shirt printed with martini glasses he wore at my high school graduation, the list could go on and on . . . the jewelry he wears is a post in itself.

my father is not really gay, although you wouldn’t guess that if you saw him with his soul-patch, i later learned the term “metrosexual,” this is a better explanation.