My Youtube Friend

Yesterday, I couldn't find anything interesting on the web, so I started reading through my old blog, which I'm sure is the only reason why you're here... boredom. I'll admit, I'm a little bummed with how it has trailed off so, and I even had the thought that maybe I should write something else. But I couldn't think of anything, until...

This morning I woke up and sleepy-headed and bad-breathed checked my email. I got four emails all from Youtube. I get emails from them every now and then, usually comments on my Coin Pusher video - now that was Good Clean Fun. Today though, not only did I get two comments for my Coin Pusher, I got my first (of many) subscriber and my first (and probably only) friend request. Here's his latest video:

Enterprising lad. He's hawking arcade coins... for $10 a pop. Now that's a true coin pusher.

Anyways, I thought I'd attach a video of myself as that last video wasn't about me at all. It was filmed in the last days of our old apartment, and it's officially the first in a series but so far it's one-of-a-kind. I guess this is like its pilot episode and I'm waiting to see if it will get picked up for a few more episodes.

I don't know about you but I think it's brilliant. (Thanks to Tiff the Editor by the way.)

House Inspection

I just spent way too long trying to figure out block quotes... and I still didn't get it right.

Anyways, today we had our home inspection for our new home. We got there a few minutes early so we took a couple of videos of the place.


This was the first time we had been in the house since we first saw and it looks like a bit more work than what we remembered but it still looks great. We must have had been a bit love-drunk the first time we saw it, especially after seeing all the other junk that's out there right now.

The inspection itself had a few minor hiccups... mainly that the water wasn't on and therefore we couldn't get the plumbing part checked out. It turns out that the plumbing wasn't on because the furnace wasn't working and the temperature today was a high of 20. One of the pipes it seems is full of rock solid ice too. Yay.

All in all it went pretty okay... here's an on the spot recap.

So with luck, we can move in as planned around Feb. 20th. Our current lease is up on Feb. 28th so the process needs to go through pretty smoothly or else there will be some extra decisions to be made.

As you may have guessed, we're pretty excited about our first home, so we've put on our full marketing blitz about it with Tiff writing something similar, along with posting more pictures at the Duffy Photos! site.

The Quote Tells the Story

As part of my job, we check the local papers for house fires. I ran
across this one.

Staff Published: January 14, 2009
Firefighters rescued a woman and a cat from a burning town house off Sudley Manor Drive near Manassas on Tuesday.

The fire erupted about 10 a.m. at 7570 Helmsdale Road.

Arturo Soriano, Jr., of Alexandria was on the scene and witnessed the cat’s
rescue.

“That was the biggest cat I’ve ever seen,” said Soriano who owns a fire
restoration company based in Alexandria and Burke.

The woman was taken to an area hospital. Officials at the scene said
the fire was contained to a single town house.

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.

Unfortunately, there were no pictures with it.

Oh what a year!

Good-bye 2008!

I'm going to miss this year. While the economy died and my job was and to a certain degree still is in jeopardy and it seems everything's going to hell in the world, things for me have never been better.

While yes the first half of the year I was stuck in a dead-end job with no light at the end of the tunnel... and not much light at all working nights and sleeping days. And while yes I waged an ugly war against pesky little hives that left me often in a miserable daze and kind of crazy most days.

But with the bad comes the good... I did get a new and better job. I did buy a new and better car. And today, the last day of the year, I learned that I will have a new and better place to live.

That's right, it's official, I'm buying a home. After months of searching and sifting through garbage and junk, we found a gem of a place and went for it... and we got it!

This leads us to our next big decision... what's the best way to remove wallpaper?
(Now would be a really good time to check out the all new Duffy's Photos link on the side.)

Hopefully, 2009 will be equally great, but without all the hives.

Christmas with Paul

Christmas is quickly over. It's crazy how fast it happens. I've actually been meaning to write this since Sunday - and probably could have written it Friday night - but it amazes me how long Christmas is built up as it's been extended through Thanksgiving and is quickly encroaching upon Halloween season. Then in one day, it's over. No more Christmas movies, no more Christmas music, no more Christmas spirit.

In fact, I'm guessing you don't want to hear any more about Christmas. So I'm going to use this time to mention some sort of new feature on Shutterfly that makes it easy to share pictures. So for all my stalkers, here's all the pictures of me that are fit to print. It's also over on my links list for easy access. You can also follow the Duffy House Hunt here as it - fingers-crossed - nears its end.

And because I've put on a few music in videos lately, here's another. It's an older song, but it's just great. Like today I had a downer of a morning, and at lunch I listened to this song and it changed my whole day around. I never would have guessed that I'm a McCartney fan, but...

Yeah, it's totally cheesy, but it's the right mix of singability and car dance-ability.

Cookie Christmas

Merry Christmas everybody!

I hope everyone had as great a Christmas as I did. I got lots of cool stuff, including an iPod!, and I had an awesome time all day long. One of the cooler gifts was from my parents. (Thanks Mom and Dad!) It was also the heaviest by a mile, so we opened it on Christmas Eve so that we didn't have to drive it out to Tiff's family just to open it and haul it back.

This is what we got:

A mixer!

Now I know what you're thinking... John bakes?... I would never have guessed. Well, sometimes I surprise myself. Usually not though, but this is a great present for me as Tiff makes the best cookies ever. So for Tiff, it's a great gift, but for me, it's the gift that keeps on giving all year round. Tiff made some chocolate chip cookies right away though.

Oh my god! they look so good. I swear that's the actual picture and I didn't just pull a picture off of Wikipedia or Flickr or somewhere. And added bonus, because the mixer works so fast, she went ahead and baked a few other kinds. That's a chocolate cookie with peanut butter chips... oh man, they're so good. And that one in the back is a soft, moist molasses cookie... it's the best of its kind I've ever had. If Tiff were to open up a cookie shop, first off it would be incredibly successful, secondly they could call these cookies Manassas Molasses cookies. They'd become world-famous and people would flock to her little Shoppe and riots would break-out everyday as people waited in line for hours each day before it opened. Lastly, I would gain like 400 pounds. Here's another picture of them alongside tasty almond, white chocolate cookies.

Oh man! Anyways, we took all these cookies to a big family Christmas party:

Where Tiff was trying to pawn them off to everybody, but there weren't many takers as there are a lot of cooks in Tiff's family. Then Tiff's Grandmother tried one and quickly announced that she take a bunch home and offer them instead of the ones that she baked. Next year, Tiff's in charge of all the cookies.

Christmas Carols

It's finally beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Unfortunately, it's been sounding a lot like Christmas for about two months now.

There's probably a radio station in every city that plays Christmas music 24 hours a day this time of year. Where I am, it's "97.1, WASH-FM"... that has to be sung. At night the DJ is "Delilah"... which also has to be sung. She takes requests from people who have awful stories about how that certain song reminds them about that special someone whose no longer in their life after they had an affair with their cousin... or some equally awful story.

WASH-FM also is the "Listen At Work Station" so I've been overhearing Christmas music at work from the neighboring cubicle since I believe Nov. 17. One particularly painful day was the 25th of July when WASH-FM celebrated Christmas in July.

Anyways, when I leave work, I know I can't escape it. As much as Tiff loves hair bands and guitars, I don't think they hold a candle to Christmas music. So, there's been Christmas music playing at home off and on for, no joke, about 9 months give or take. I've been looking in vain for a Christmas Album by Slash or AC/DC this year as I'm pretty sure that would be the ultimate gift.

I complain, but I do secretly enjoy the music. The great part about Christmas music is that there's a set amount of songs, and you know all the songs. So while Otis Redding may sing it different than Frank Sinatra, you can still sing along. It seems like it's how music should be. Plus, when else can you here Elvis sing and then immediately after hear some good ole fashion choir music.

The best song for me is this one byRay Charles... he's the best.

I tried to find it without the cheesy holiday montage, but I think it might add to the spirit of Christmas.

The Need for Speed

So for my first post: My new car is full of a lot of really cool features. Who new how much I would love the CD player! - My car also has an MP3 player hook-up, but I'm not that advanced yet.

The spedometer is digital which I love because it tells me exactly how fast I'm going. I also love the cruise control. I use it all the time... literally, all the time. I could be going just 100 yards to the next stop light and I'll get it up to like 30 mph and turn it on. Well, to be honest I'd like to use it more than I actually do. You see, it doesn't work under 25 mph, so I've got to use the pedal in my apartment complex. It sucks.

The best feature though is the Need-For-Speed button. So I'm not a fast driver - I'll go about 60 on my way to work. My favorite speed is 63 miles per hour. It's the perfect blend between 5 miles and 10 miles over the speed limit on my way to work. Plus, if I don't feel like that's fast enough, with the touch of a button, I'm suddenly cruising at 100.

Mph, Km/h... what's the difference?

Getting Started... Again

That's a scary title. It forces me to do a bunch of posts in the near future, which is a big commitment for me. We'll see if I hold up to it or not.

I've missed out on some very important times with the election and the economy, and the world changing and all, but that stuff has always been for another blog. For me though, I've started the house hunt, my hives are slowly going away and I had an anniversary, all of which would make good fotter for my thoughts. Plus, my new job includes driving time which for me is good thinking time. My job however involves a lot to do and I can't spend a considerable amount of time at work writing out my posts like I use to do, so my actual postings have all but stopped.

Let's see if we can't turn that around.

Ray LaMontagne

New Ray LaMontagne album comes out Oct 14th!

I love this guy. The last time I bought an album the first day it was out was about two years ago with his last CD. With this album, he has a high potential of replacing Josh Rouse as my favorite band. He's incredibly incredible.

It's almost as exciting as the release of Smallville Season 7 this Tuesday. Tiff and I haven't seen any of it yet. It should be good. We have ten days to watch it all so that we can finally watch them on TV for its eighth and final season. That's sad to think about... hopefully Ray Lamontagne won't stop making music anytime soon.

Fruit Flies Gone Mad

So when we went out of town, we left three older bananas on the counter. Three days later, they were everywhere.

Just to note: fly swatters with holes in them are not very effective at getting fruit flies. Magazines are the way to go.

The King of Burgers

We just got back from a weekend in North Carolina. It took us about six hours, which was a pretty fun drive in my new car. It was also long enough to stop for food. As we left, Tiff grabbed some Burger King coupons, the kind that come in the mail every week or so. Anyways, about halfway down we started to look for a Burger King. Surprise, surprise, it wasn't very hard to find.


Now, I haven't eaten at a Burger King in a long time - a couple years at least - and the best reason I can come up with is this guy:The Burger King. I don't understand the Burger King. Why does it have to be a mascot? It's scary looking! It seems like it would frighten more people away than draw them in. I'm pretty sure the Burger King's smile is just hiding some deep repressed secret.

And then there's the most recent ads for their new chicken sandwich:

It's disturbing on so many levels. The cow, the motel, the chicken sandwich, the guy... it is just wrong.

So as we turned towards Burger King with a similar conversation going on, the Hardee's next door became more and more appealing, even without coupons. It was my first time at a Hardee's, home of the 1410 calorie, 107 grams of fat Monster ThickBurger, and it was really good. I had a regular cheeseburger, by the way. I think maybe that deep dark secret of the Burger King might be "I love a nice juicy Hardee's hamburger. Mmmm." (For some reason, the silent Burger King has a Bill Clinton accent in my head.)

The Coke-Diet Coke

Recently I discovered a whole new drink that has quickly become my drink of choice. It spawns from two very different worlds. I took the crazy notions of any child that mixing your favorite sodas together creates the ultimate in refreshing taste combined with the crazy notions of any adult that diet soda is healthy. So, with no further ado, I am proud to present the yet-to-be-named half Coca-Cola, half Diet Coke.

This, to me, is the greatest thing to happen to the soda industry since the introduction of Crystal Pepsi, of which I had exactly one. By combining the overly sweet taste of Coke with the overly watered down (or is it fake sweet) taste of Diet Coke it is the perfect mix of sweet and water down (or is it fake sweet). Mmmmm... of course, at this point this is limited to the self-serve places, as I haven't worked up the nerve to ask the waiter, "Can you mix the two for me? Please?"

Anyways, I'd also like to mention that I've given up straws. I don't need a disposable plastic tube to help me drink. It's not much to save the world, but hey, it's a start. Maybe, I'll start back up my sacrifices soon and try again to green my life. Until then, I'll be enjoying my new favorite drink. I'll have to work on the name.

Fun and Prizes

Tiff and I recently went to the County Fair. It was surprisingly fun and gave me a lot to say, so I broke it up and this is the second part of the story. Here’s the first part of the story, or just scroll down to Good Clean Fun.

The main attraction at the fair was probably the carnival. Tiff’s sister got Wii Carnival recently for the Wii, which we had played a little bit of, and by golly if every single game that the mighty Wii people could think of weren’t at this carnival, and then some! It was great fun. We didn’t play any of them though. We chose instead to shell out the big bucks for the chance to win bigger bucks ...At the coin pusher. Here’s how we did…

We actually played another 5 bucks after that too. It was worth every penny.
We went on wandering through the carnival until it started to rain, when we just happened to be next to the Bingo tent. Bingo doesn’t get enough credit. It is some fun stuff. Fifty cents for three boards of bingo and if you tied you got five free games. If you won you got to choose any of several fine prizes, from an electric knife to a doll of Bill Clinton playing the saxophone. It was awesome.

Of course I didn’t win at all, but Tiff won or tied almost every time. In fact, I think for the two of us we only paid maybe three dollars and played throughout the rainfall and walked away with a couple of prizes. Yep, that’s a lumberjack gnome coaster set! And what’s that there, yep, that’s an As-Seen-On-French-TV three part frying pan!

Good clean fun, man… nothing beats good clean fun.

Good Clean Fun

Let me first begin by saying that my dreams of controlling a mighty blog empire isn’t looking too good. My way-cool new job takes precedence over this insanely uninteresting website. However, (every now and then) I try to keep it alive.

So last week, I found some good clean fun at the 59th Annual Prince William County Fair. We’ve been living a couple of miles from it ever since it was just the 55th Annual Prince William County Fair and have never bothered to go. This year we went and had a blast. We made it just in time to see the pet contest, where they gave prizes out for the biggest dog or longest tail… that sort of thing. We were disappointed that they weren’t doing tricks, so we moved along to the hogs and goats, which was actually really cool, despite my face.

We wandered through the cow barn, where all the cows were roped up head in, so we got a nice view of their tails. They were actually so close we kind of had to zig-zag between cattle. We really had to steer our way through. Then we went on to the bird barn. A whole bunch of caged animals that, if you look at them the right way, still look like dinosaurs. I had flashbacks of the Reptile House from when I was a kid. To its credit, the bird barn did have nice wide aisles though.

After we visited the carnival where all the real fun was had, we went through another part that judged all sorts of stuff, from the best tomatoes to the best flowers to the best photography. A sunflower won best in show… big surprise there. They also judged paintings. Maybe I should enter next year… It might not be the best but it surely is better than a lousy sunflower.

Anyways, it was a whole lot of fun and makes you appreciate good clean fun. And we didn’t even stay for the Demolition Derby or the Tractor Pull! I can't wait till next year!

My New Car

I got a new car!!

If anyone is curious why I got a new car, it's because my old car broke down. It all started about Labor Day of 2006. The car just stopped working. I've been driving my wife's car since then, which works out for the most part because we were on different schedules, but now that I'm starting a new job, I'm going to need my own car.

It's a used 2008 Honda Civic. It had all of 221 miles on it when I bought it, so while it's "new to me" as the saying goes, I'm also the first owner, besides the dealership. I'm not sure I got the best deal in town, but it drives like a dream and is guaranteed for 100,000 miles. New cars, oddly, only have a 60,000 mile guarantee. At least, that's what the salesman kept repeating.

I test drove the Toyota Corolla as well, and my only comment to the sales lady was, "It's so roomy." The Civic, I believe is a bit cozier and a bit more comfortable. Anyways, I love it, and yes, it drives like a dream.

Here are some more pictures of my new car...

This new car owner is wearing his new favorite shirt here.

Dispensing News

Now that I'm sleeping at night, I'm waking up first thing in the morning. This surprises me. I thought I would be sleeping non-stop trying to catch-up for years of missed sleep, instead I'm waking up first thing regardless of what time I go to bed. Last night, I went to bed around 12:30 and I had to force myself to stay in bed until 7.

All this is just to say that now I'm getting to eat one of my favorite foods every single day, cereal. My cereal of choice I stole from my Mom, Cranberry Almond Crunch. It's a pricey one though, which when I was working overnights was okay, because I was sleeping through cereal time most days. To eat it everyday could put a hurting on my trust fund. Plus, it's not a cereal sold in bulk at Costco, so I have to buy a bunch of small boxes at Wal-Mart.

So why am I talking about cereal? Because of something else I got from Wal-Mart, the Cereal Dispenser. I got the idea from a movie, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, where a very naked man proclaims his love for the cereal dispenser. While I'm not naked at the moment, I would like to tell the world that the cereal dispenser is one of the greatest innovations in my lifetime.

Ah, fresh as the day I unpackaged it. Cereal Dispenser, I love you. You make waking up at ungodly hours of the morning manageable.

Converter Box

We bought a converter box yesterday. The national government is requiring a switch to digital TV, which I think means that if you use bunny ears, you have to use a converter box to watch anything. Then they tried to help poor folks like me out by issuing a $40 coupon over the internet to offset the cost.

We have cable right now that costs us $20 a month. It's actually been climbing recently. In the fall, we downgraded to basic cable which reduced our cost from $45 to $19. Every month now it seems to be going up 30 cents or so, and our last bill topped $22. Anyways, the idea that we could watch most of the same channels for a one-time $10 cost sounds pretty good to me. At least it did.

First off, getting it was an adventure. We walked to Wal-Mart and had to search the store for it, and then the cashier, with limited English, didn't understand what to do with our coupon, that admittedly looks and feels like a credit card. In the end though, we walked out only spending the 10 dollars.

So then we hooked it up. I should say that I bypassed the instructions, figuring you attach all the cables to where they look like they belong, but I'm pretty sure that I did it all correctly. I turned it on and went through the set-up menu choosing autoscan, and waited ten minutes as it searched for channels.

The moment of truth came next, and I eagerly pressed the channel up button and was greeted by a digitally broken image of the weather channel. That was okay, it was just the weather channel... I've got the internet, no need for the weather channel. I pressed channel up again, and... a digitally broken infomercial on ABC.

Hmmm... I tried again, and success! We got, in crystal-clear technicolor, MHZnet2, which was currently showing what looked like India's equivalent to the Gospel hour on your community channel. Hey, I thought, at least it was something. I tried again, MHZnet3 came next showing -
I think - a Japanese documentary on Japanese maids. You know the kind all dolled up and taking tiny steps as they serve you tea with their heads down.

This was not looking good. I tried again, MHZnet6 was next. I believe their programming at the time was on global finance. It was being broadcast in Russian. MHZglobe, or something like that, was in english, and it had an elephant documentary. I might actually watch this normally, but I was hoping to find something a little more... tv-like, so I continued on.

The only other two channels we got were the kids' programming channel Qubo and a channel called Worship that had about twenty four-year-olds jumping up and down on a floor mat. No words, just kids jumping up and down in a dark room. I watched it for a minute waiting for something to happen. I couldn't tell what they worshipping, but it clearly demanded a lot of jumping. Perhaps it was symbolic.

Perhaps it was symbolic of what I expected from my converter box - free TV - and what I actually got - free exercise... well, $10 worth of exercise.

I'll have to try again at some point now that I know what to expect, frustration. But until then, twenty dollars for twelve channels doesn't sound so bad.

(Now that I'm getting back to blogging, I'll try to start taking pictures again.)

Patriotic Flag Burning

I wish I had pictures for this.

Yesterday, on July 4th, I participated in a flag-burning. Before you get all up in arms let me explain. My flag-burning experience was a ceremony, not a demonstration. It turns out that the proper way to retire a flag is either through burning or burial, so we were doing nothing wrong. We were simply following the directions according to the official Flag Code.

Tiff's family did it all up with on official script; I first explained what was happening, then I called out the thirteen colonies in the order that they, I guess, signed the Declaration of Independence as we tossed each stripe into the flames individually. We even had a veteran approve the flags for retirement. It was a very moving ceremony.

It was also amazing how fast a flag goes up in flames, in the rain none-the-less. It's like it wanted to burn. Anyways, that's all the fireworks we saw yesterday, the rain kept us inside most of the day. Oh well, guess I'll just have to wait until next year's Kentucky Derby.

Oh, we got a video of it. It's twenty minutes long. If we ever figure out how to break it up, I'll post it on YouTube.

Freedom!

Happy Fourth of July everybody!

I'm celebrating mine with my first day of independence not working at my old job. While it has a touch of sadness, I'm so excited to never have to work all night again that I think I'll get over it. It was harder to leave than I had thought though. I mean, I didn't have to throw any tea overboard, or declare war or anything, but in the past week or so I've realized how much I've grown working at the Shelter.

Anyways, now, like any newly independent nation, on to the role of the taxman.

Baltimore: Part Two

Not to be disappointed with our luck at the National Ballroom Dancing event, we walked over to Camden Yards to watch the Baltimore Orioles play. There weren't too many folks there so $15 dollars a ticket afforded us some pretty good seats, right down the 3rd base line about even with the left fielder.

Here's a video from the night:

I hadn't been to a baseball game in a number of years, and while I didn't really care who won, Baltimore or Seattle, it was still a lot of fun. One of the best parts about it was that Tiff had never been to a baseball game. Her reaction as we were getting tickets - after the game had already begun - to the swell of the crowd reacting to a play was classic, just like any 5 year old's with bulging eyes and true sense of awe.

It was with that same sense of awe that Tiff repeatedly asked what to do if the ball was hit directly at us. While I'm sure my early responses were something along the lines of both "Catch it" and "Get out of the way," they quickly turned to "If you get hit, we're sure to get on TV." It's not that I want to see my new wife beamed by a foul ball, it's that she seemed so worried about it for soooo long that I ran out of things to say.

That was Dave and Kim that we're with. They're way-cool. For some reason, here's another video just one out after the first one:

And here's the last video we took, one more out later - I do say a bad word here:

Yes, holy shit, I caught a foul ball.

Just to clarify, I didn't actually catch it. I saw it coming and admittedly, "Catch it" was never a thought so I ducked out of the way. Tiff, with literally no time to spare, did the same and the ball crashed into the seat next to hers. It literally would have knocked her out had she not moved at the last second. The ball bounced up a couple of empty rows, Dave throws his beer behind him and lunges over several rows, sprawled out across the seats, only to have a swarm of people do the same hing, but land on him instead of the seats. The ball, meanwhile, slowly rolled towards me and I picked it up.

With that in mind, perhaps my level of jubilation was a little bit extreme, but it's not going to stop from me saying that I caught a foul ball. It will stop me from talking though, as I woke up the next day unable to make any sound whatsoever.

Baltimore: Part One

This weekend I found myself in Baltimore. My way-cool friend, Dave, and his way-cool girlfriend, Kim, had a way-cool hotel room right at the Inner Harbor. Tiff and I went up for a night.

The hotel that we were staying in was hosting a National Ballroom Dancing competition. While Dave dismissed the event off-hand, the rest of us, myself included, were eager to see the dance-off. We waded through countless men with numbers on their back and women decked out in some funny looking dresses that connect to the wrist and enough make-up to make me want to become an Avon lady, to learn that it's by invite only.

While many of them were surprisingly young, as young as 12 or 13 maybe, it was clear that there were several big names in dancing. In fact, in a cramped elevator, a short Asian man with apparently limited English skills, turned to one of the passengers and asked, "Are you, John, Johnny, Jonathon? You dance this weekend?"

John, Johnny, Jonathon smiled with his slicked back hair and coolly said, "No, not this weekend. I'm just a spectator this weekend," just like I'm sure any big name celebrity would do. He then led his lady friend by the arm off the elevator, taking long graceful strides, all the while pointing his toe.

Baseball

I mentioned recently that I was "prepared to give up baseball." I said this as I was annoyed by basketball and all the hubbub around March Madness. Plus, while the steroids issue should probably put a dark cloud over all sports, right now it's just hovering over baseball. And on top of that, those guys get paid too much. They really do.

Anyways, with the start of the baseball season under way, I find myself checking the scores and reading all the stats in my late-night boredom every night, just as I have for the past few years... and I still get excited about it. A seven run 8th inning, wow!

I am frustrated though with the media coverage of the sports world. On Sunday, for instance, I watched the local news hoping to see a few clips of the soccer game from the night before, DC's season opener, a 2-0 loss. They spent nearly the whole newscast - not just the sports - talking about the baseball season opener. Now, Ben Olsen, one of the few guys whose name I know, has to have ankle surgery and I don't know what happened or how long he's out, or anything. The news won't tell me. Yahoo sports won't tell me. Wikipedia won't tell me. DC United's website won't even tell me!

I guess soccer's time hasn't quite come yet. While I will watch the soccer that I can, I'll be hoping for a few more seven run 8th innings too.

My Cat

Because I don't want to shortchange our cat...

We started having her sit in response to a clip of Vanna White trying to make her cat sit for treats.

Oh... and next on my list of things to do: get a haircut.

Skin Test

I'm allergic to cockroaches.

I'm still battling hives, and after a week of scratching as I haven't been able to take any medication for my hives, I finally had a skin test done. The way they do a skin test is to write a grid all across your back and stick you with a bunch of different needles - by my count it was about 342 dozen painful pricks or so. The pricks up near the shoulders are relatively pain free. They are nice enough to start you out up there, but as the endless pricking continues, the lower ones hurt a lot and a number of them sent chills all throughout my body.

When your back is completely covered in small nicks of blood, then you have to wait twenty minutes and not scratch, even though almost immediately that is the only thing you want to do. This is when my long battle with hives has come in handy. I've gotten to the point where I usually don't think about scratching when I itch, which is a little messed up. My experience with the skin test yesteday is that the nurse is nice enough to check back in every so often with friendly reminders that you itch all over. "Oh, it looks like you have a few spots that really itch! No scratching! Fifteen more minutes!" I think she enjoys the torture.

My allergies include ragweed, dust mites, some sort of mold, and yes, cockroaches. I've never had seasonal allergies so ragweed was surprising. The dust mites, the doctor's free brochure tells me, are ugly little things that accumulate in my mattress. I first learn this during my brief time selling vacuums and quickly recall that dust mites excrete ten times their own body weight each and every day! Mold and cockroaches I'm sure that I'm around, but I almost never see them.

Anyways, the good doctor concludes that my hives are not an allergic reaction. What this means is that my body is causing the hives and I just have to live with it, for up to fifteen years, at which point it will be 2023 and I'll be comforted by my flying car and robotic housekeeper.

I also have a minor allergy to my cat, which still has no name, but isn't going anywhere.
Or at least that's what my wife says.

More on My Greatness

Building on that last post, I love England. I've tried to write about this before but I don't think I ever did so successfully, so if this is a repeated idea, I apologize.

I love England for it's greatness. And by England, I mean Great Britain. Don't get me wrong, I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free. But I think if I were English I'd also be free, and I'd have a good chance of being great. I don't know any statistics, but just think about all the British people. The Beatles, Harry Potter, James Bond, the Rolling Stones, The Lord of the Rings guy, Clive Owen, umm... Sir Francis Drake... that's not too mention the English language and the English system of government and maybe some other stuff. I mean the English are great!

I think England's greatness stems from its size. The entire country is about twice the size of my state, or commonwealth, Virginia, albeit it much more populated. If you're English, you're English, whereas if you live in Virginia, you're American. I feel like there is a responsibility to be great if you're English; you have to represent, whereas for me, if I'm not great, I'm sure one of the other 300,000,000 will be. I know they're out there, I watch American Idol.

Furthermore, I just read that Raphael, the artist not the mutant turtle, was born in this tiny town called Urbino, which Wikipedia says is "small but artistically significant." For some reason it makes me want to be an Urbino-eer, Urbino-ite, Urbinese. I want to be from somewhere important and loved. I want to be important and loved.

I'm from Roswell, GA, which was a great place to grow up, but I don't really have a sense of pride about it. I have a hard time imagining what my future biopic would say about the place I grew up in. Maybe I'm saying I want to be surrounded by greatness, that I want greatness to be expected and applauded in all forms wherever it comes from. Maybe I'm just saying that as I realize my own limitations I look to whatever I can to cast my blame.

I am great. But I'm not English great.

My Greatness

As I've mentioned I do have an under-used notebook that is, for the most part, filled with a bunch of gibberish. I'm not sure if it's a journal or a diary as I write in it so little, but the over-riding sentiment throughout it is that of my greatness.

USA Today recently had an article about how the current generation of twenty-somethings is a drifting generation that has yet to settle on a lifetime goal or aspiration. The article I believe focused on how upsetting this is to parents, who just want their kids to be happy, but that part wasn't very interesting. As a member of that generation, and with a destiny of greatness, I feel like I should have something to say about this... let's see if I do.

...hmmm... well, when I was a kid I told my folks I wanted to be King of North Carolina. My parents encouraged this.

I guess I should say first that I am newly married and have started saving with the intention of buying a home, one day. However, my lifetime goals? I still have it in my head that one day I'll be a United States Senator, that I'll write the Great American Novel, that one day I'll be a beekeeper or at least own bees, that I will commission a giant skyscraper to be named The Tower of Duffy, that I will further popularize mass transit and be viewed as a savior for my efforts, that I will start my own business of selling bonsais, that I'll be a household name, not unlike Lance Armstrong or Jesse Jackson, that I will buy an entire street of run-down houses and turn them all into prize-winning homes with prize-winning rose gardens, that I'll win a prize, maybe the X-Prize for my extensive work on the human genome, that I will own a major sports team, that I will travel the world, learning seven languages in the process and finding beauty wherever beauty is to be found, AND that I will do all of this before I turn thirty... better make that thirty-five.

Anyways, while I'll admit that I have my work cut out for me, I'd hardly label myself a drifter. I'm more of a dreamer. I dream of my own greatness. I want to be great but am well aware of the reality and I would be happier unknown in a quiet place than in the spotlight. As I wrote once in my notebook, it's not that I have delusions of grandeur, it's that I have delusions of delusions. And who knows, maybe my parent's should be worried about that.

I'm an NCAA Loser

Just a quick update: after the first two rounds of March Madness, my bracket is completely busted and I don't stand a chance. With so many upsets this year, I would be surprised if anyone will win the $5 million prize from Yahoo to someone who gets them all right.

Oh well, bring on the baseball season... and soccer.

NCAA Bracket

Okay, so Tiff is gearing up for the big dance and started a Tournament Pick 'Em group if anybody wants to sign up. I think you might need a yahoo email account, but otherwise it's free. And, if you get the picks all right you have the chance to win 5 million dollars. It's a small chance, but it's cheaper than playing the lottery. While I haven't paid any attention this year to who's who, I'll be rooting for Clemson, who lost in the one game I did watch this year, the ACC Championship.

The Madness of Sports

It's March and I am not happy. Believe it or not it has been March for awhile now, but the Madness that comes with March is just about to arrive. That's right the NCAA Tournament is gearing up and looks to be as exciting as always.

I'm not happy because I have unofficially sworn off basketball and this time of year it is hard not to follow along with the festivities. I am prepared to give up baseball as well. For baseball, the departure of Andruw Jones from the Atlanta Braves sealed its fate in my eyes, but I am also determined to get into soccer this year and I didn't want conflicting sports. I also believe soccer to be the next great sport in the US.

My home team is DC United. They are undoubtedly one of the best in MLS, and with a little luck, hopefully they can prove it this year. They've started out right, advancing yesterday to the semis of a pre-season tournament.

It is admittedly hard to get into soccer though, mainly because of the lack of media coverage. One game a week on ESPN2 is about all you get. For this reason too, it's hard to avoid baseball and basketball without giving up on all sports. Baseball's season hasn't even begun and already they've captured many of the headlines. The games aren't even that exciting, and last season I followed along mainly by reading about the games, and if there were any great plays mentioned I'd look to see if they made it onto YouTube. Basketball is a little easier to avoid for me for whatever reason, but this March Madness thing is everywhere.

Basketball has it's advantages though as it's the only sport that Tiffany will sit and watch with me for an extended amount of time. And without any questions too! What I'm getting at here is that they are exciting to watch. Most sports are. That's why most people watch them. That's why there are entire channels devoted to them. So why not enjoy them. Why not join the madness that is March Madness and root for the underdog.

Bees!

Bees are dying off. It's a fact. There aren't nearly as many bees around today as there was just a few years ago. It seems like everyone is so caught up with the fate of polar bears, that this whole bee issue has gotten a bum deal. "Everyone" being anyone who cares about that sort of save the world stuff, of which I proudly stand.

Don't get me wrong, the polar bear thing raises huge concerns and we, as a society, should be worried about the big furry beasts. However, I believe the decline of the tiny buzzing beasts is much more concerning. Plus, with polar bears, we know what's happening. For whatever reason, the ice caps are melting, which is problematic for these bears. With bees though, there's no reason for the die-off. There isn't even a good guess, or at least not a frontrunner. My guess is it has to do something with the all the meds in the water... or MTV.

While bees can be seen as a frightening nuisance - a dead one has rested in peace in the back of my car for over a year now in part because I don't want to get stung by it - they are an important part of agriculture. They help flowers bloom, apples grow, and let's not forget their sweet, sweet pee... I mean, honey. When you get right down to it, they are pretty miraculous little animals, bees are.

Anyways, all this bee-talk is to lead up to a news story about a flatbed truck that flipped over in California. It was carrying some 30,000 bees, which if I'm doing the math right, translates into a whole bunch of bee stings during the clean-up. Luckily, "several beekeepers driving by the accident stopped to assist in the bee wrangling." It's good to hear that the beekeeper population hasn't taken a hit. I mean if several beekeepers are just passing by this turned over truck and stop to help out, I have to wonder just how many beekeepers are there in California?

Also in severe decline in recent years is the bat population, which are just ugly animals all around, so they're not quite as important.

Sanbai Kaeshi

Happy White Day, everybody. Is it wrong that I feel politically incorrect saying that?

White Day is a Japanese holiday celebrated one month after Valentine's Day where women generally give candy to men. The idea behind it is that you give back thrice the value of what you got. In Japanese this is called sanbai kaeshi, or "thrice the return", which like all Japanese terms, I have fun saying. This year, according to sanbai kaeshi and thanks to the savings challenge, I won't expect too much.

For some reason though, women are suppose to be wearing white today, two months before Memorial Day... the horror! On a side note, white is also the color adorned by those who have completed the Shikoku pilgrimage, which admittedly I want to do in part because I want to be able to use the word Shikoku in normal conversation.

In America, while white is not part of the deal, I have heard of a similar celebration of sorts with a much cruder name. If the creators of this holiday weren't quite so blunt with their name giving, it might have actually caught on.

By the way, it seems strange to me that Japan celebrates St. Valentine's Day. I guess Japan falls victim to crazy marketers just as much as the US does... I'm expecting to see Mother's Day decorations at Wal-Mart any day now.

Captivate and Inspire

Along the same lines as the previous post: (this is old news by now)

I love seeing movies in the movie theater; nothing beats a great movie theater experience. Recently, Tiff and I saw Juno, which was great, and the movie we saw before that was Transformers. It's been kind of a slow year for movies. Nothing really looks good to me anymore.

Anyways, the Oscars happened. Juno won one. Another movie I like a lot - I didn't hear about it until it was pretty much out of the theaters - is Once, which also won one, for best original song. It's a good category for it to win as it's about singer-songwriters and stars singer-songwriters. Here's the song, one of several great ones from the movie:

The old news is the story of Marketa Irglova, one of the two winners for Once, who was brought back on stage to give her speech. Turned out to be a pretty good one as acceptance speeches go:

"Hi everyone. I just want to thank you so much. This is such a big deal, not only for us, but for all other independent musicians and artists that spend most of their time struggling, and this, the fact that we're standing here tonight, the fact that we're able to hold this, it's just to prove no matter how far out your dreams are, it's possible. And, you know, fair play to those who dare to dream and don't give up. And this song was written from a perspective of hope, and hope at the end of the day connects us all, no matter how different we are. And so thank you so much, who helped us along way. Thank you."

How the story relates to the previous post is that I, however, really, really like the closing words of the other winner, Glen Hansard, who spoke before the music ushered them off prematurely.

"This is amazing. Make art. Make art. Thanks."

Make art. Captivate and inspire.

Art Museum

Last weekend, waiting for the U2 movie showtime, I went to the Hirshhorn sculpture museum. A great part about DC is that most of the museums are free and therefore, it makes sense to visit them this way, almost as a time filler.

I've been to the Hirshhorn museum a few times. It's permanent exhibits aren't all too exciting, but the section that changes every few months is definitely cool. Right now, they have a collection about dreams all done with film. It's pretty crazy, as most of it is not too exciting, but two or three pieces were incredibly interesting.

I was afraid that the doll hanging on the wall with some maniacal guy's face projected onto it would give me bad dreams - it didn't - and I wish I could revisit the lights in the cloudy room. The one that I keep thinking about, however, was a movie of a typewriter in the snow. There was no sound, no real action, just a typewriter slowly getting covered in snow. I have no idea what it means, but I like it.

(This is the cloudy room with the light. In writing a post about art I feel I needed pictures. This is the only picture I could find on the internet from the exhibit.)

I'll admit that I don't really understand art. I don't know what separates good art from bad art or if there even is bad art. It has something to do with emotions and beauty and meaning, but in the end, it seems it just needs to captivate and inspire, something U2 did easily.

After the Hirshhorn, we went to the Natural History Museum where we saw a nature photography exhibit. Pretty amazing pictures, each and every one of them. My favorite, the one that captivated and inspired me, was of a rowboat in the fog. It was taken by a thirteen year-old.

(Again, I couldn't find the one I'm talking about. I must not be a very good blogger. I like this one though. It's somehow patriotic. Here are some others.)

Starbucks

I own stock in Starbucks, a little more than 1.9 shares. I bought it a while ago, after seeing, the Starbucks produced, Akeelah and the Bee on opening night and joining in on the only standing ovation I've ever seen at a movie theater. Different cultures are so cool.

Then I started thinking about what I already knew about Starbucks. They have high-priced coffee that is good enough to turn me on to coffee, which I never thought possible. Their everywhere and always have people in them at all hours of the day. And they originated in Seattle, which I've wanted to go to ever since the Real World Seattle, about ten years ago, because it looks cool in a rainy day kinda way and, for no apparent reason, reminds me of this great song, "White Daisies Passing" by this guy from Seattle named Rocky Votolato.
So, when I found out soon there after that they treat their employees decently and the high prices in part allow them to offer benefits to their employees, I decided "what the hay, why not?" and put $64 into the company. My "investment" is now worth about $37. You win some, you lose some.

Anyways, all that is just so I can mention the interesting move the company is making today. They are closing the doors to all their stores today for three and a half hours, 5:30 to 9 this evening, in order to train their baristas how to make the perfect espresso. While the - umm - muted guerrilla in me wishes they were doing it for some grand cause, like closing their doors to raise awareness for - I don't know - freeing Tibet or something, I have to applaud them on this. It's always important to make sure you are doing something right, even if it takes a little longer, or costs a small fortune in sales.

U2 in 3D

I went into DC to see U23D last night at the Natural History Museum. It was amazing. Absolutely amazing. While I enjoy the music of U2, I would not say that I'm a huge fan. This show is insanely good though, and I would highly recommend anyone and everyone to go see it. Plus, it's in 3D! How cool is that!

Tiff's been to a real-life U2 concert, which she says was the greatest show she's ever been to. For someone with my limited concert-going experience to say that would be meaningless, but Tiff has seen them all... The Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Cinderella and Poison, and I have to include Slash. Anyways, she also says the movie experience, while nowhere near the same, is still nothing short of genius.

After the show, we were debating if any other band could pull it off. I don't think any other band is good enough to have an entire movie of their concert for the movie going experience, except of course, Hannah Montana. Maybe I'm just a bit U2 intoxicated right now, but every song they have is so meaningful to so many people and so powerful in every way, shape, and form that their concert is unrivaled. The crowd can carry the lyrics throughout the entire show, not just one or two songs and without sounding all garbled together, but then Bono sings and you just feel it. It's hard to explain. Go see the movie.

Another great part is that it's in 3D. This is the first time since I was a wee little lad that I got to wear 3D glasses for something. While at first it was a little strange, it made for a completely different experience, and I definitely will be checking out some more 3D shows in the future. It's a couple extra bucks plus the cost of getting into the city, but it makes for more of an experience and is worth every penny.

Idolizing Nobodies

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I would not be watching American Idol this year. Well, I have a confession to make. I've watched it the past two weeks. It's a sad, sad truth, but they got me when I heard that the contestants could play instruments. Plus, it was the Hollywood week which might be my favorite part of the show.

I do have a lot of least favorite parts of the show. I hate the backstories of the people. I hate the banter between the judges and between Ryan Seacrest and the judges. More than that banter I hate the banter between the contestants and the judges, and I wish they had rule that the contestants couldn't talk when they're being judged. I hate half the contestants and of the half I do like, I actually secretly hate half of them. I hate the songs they make them sing and I wish they could sing whatever they wanted. At this point, all the songs that they sing have been sung already. I hate how they torment the contestants and draw out the show for no apparent reason. I basically hate the show.

Yet... I still watch it. I'm a sad, sad man. I should make a list of good things about the show. Hollywood week, which is where the final audition takes place, but that's already done. There's usually one, maybe two, songs every show that are good, really good. Let's see... I like singing in the shower afterwards. That's about it. Oh, I, unfortunately, usually like the ensemble things they do, even though they're usually the worst performances of all; I just like hearing the different voices all together.

Last year's group sucked, so I had said no more this year. Plus, Tiff and I were watching Biggest Loser, which comes on at the same time, and I was getting into it, but then they changed the rules on that so I got mad and cut it out of my list of shows.

Anyways, I do have my favorites. But once they're out, I'm giving up on American Idol, maybe even before then. The thing is though, what else is on? Another CSI? I really need a television sacrifice. Oh! Dexter's on CBS now... it's the first season, everyone should watch it. At least, everyone older than 18 with a sound mind and twisted sense of humor.

More Local News

I live in Manassas, VA. Manassas is building a giant parking garage right off of main street. It's a much needed addition to the city, as it has an underused commuter train station and an overused highway exit. The crazy part is though that it's five stories tall. All the buildings in Old Town Manassas are three stories by my count. Maybe I'm just adding them up wrong. Let's hope it goes underground.

I drive past this parking structure construction everyday, so it kinda tickled my noggin and I went looking to learn more about it. So I read the local paper, which was a little interesting, and found a local blog, which is interesting for all the wrong reasons.

The blog is written by a City Councilman, and while it's not a daily read, it's pretty impressive how well he keeps up with it, writing about both political stuff and city stuff. The strange part is, especially coming from an elected official, nowhere on the thing does it say who he is. There is no name. There is no title. I had to read through quite a few posts just to learn he is, in fact, a City Councilman and no, he is not running for Mayor.

Anyways, I'm adding this mystery man's blog to my exclusive list of links, replacing, the much loved but under-appreciated, Mustaches of the Nineteenth Century. If you keep up with it, maybe you can see the completed Manassas Skyline come June of 2008, in all it's parking garage splendor.

Middle School Banking

Going against my usual grain here... This year marks my 10 year high school graduation. I could say I'm getting old, but to be honest, the further away I get from some of those memories the better. Now, next year being ten years since I started college... that's a depressing thought.

I bring it up just to say that it's been awhile since I was in school, let alone middle school, and while I'm sure there have been a lot of necessary and beneficial changes to the schooling environment, I was surprised when I found this in my local paper under the "winners" section:

"Synergy One Federal Credit Union and Gainesville Middle School, which will jointly sponsor a new banking branch at the school with the official opening at 1 p.m. on Tuesday. This is the second middle school branch Synergy One has opened in the last two years and the first in the Gainesville area."

Winner! If I try really hard I could see some reasoning behind putting a bank in a middle school... help teach the kids about the importance of savings or something, but it seems like a pretty big stretch to me. Plus, from the bank's perspective's, who's it attracting? Middle schoolers? New teachers? I'm guessing old teachers already have a bank, as well as parents of middle schoolers. It just doesn't seem to make any sense.

But hey, I don't know much about schools these days, maybe it's all the rage. Maybe it's hip. Maybe it's happening.

My Valentine's Feast

Last year, Tiffany unleashed the greatest Valentine's of all time. This year the onus was on me to, as Bon Jovi says, make a memory. While I stepped up to the plate, ready for the challenge, my home run swing at making the best Valentine's ever fell far short. I could write a thousand li-i-i-i-ines, about what went wrong, but the bottom line is cooking easy is easy, cooking hard is not easy.

With the savings challenge in mind, I vowed to cook something myself for my beautiful wife, who cooks for me almost all the time. Normally, we would be heading to a fancier restaurant than normal and maybe order a bottle of wine. Not going out to eat has been a successful part of our sacrifice, with some new and strange meals. Wednesday night Tiff threw all these odds and ends into the crockpot, the main ingredient being lentils. Both of us looked at it with sour faces as we were dishing it out, but by golly, it was good. It was really good.

So I knew we weren't going anywhere, so I had to make something nice. Tiff likes shrimp and shrimp sounds nice and expensive to me, so I set out to cook shrimp for Tiffany on Valentine's. I think this was my first mistake as I've never cooked shrimp, or any other type of seafood before and has no idea how to go about it. I searched the internet where I found a recipe that looked a little complicated but interesting enough to try.

The morning of I went to the store for ingredients. I bought shrimp, mozzarella cheese, roasted red peppers, pasta, sauce, ice cream, strawberries, and flowers. The recipe also called for prosciutto and pano bread crumbs. In my head, honey baked ham and a loaf of bread would make suitable substitutes. Hindsight is 20/20.

Tiff was determined to snoop when I got home and I ended up ruining, freely and willingly, the surprise of what was for dinner. She questioned it and had a good chuckle at my expense before I ever got started cooking. This kind of irritated me as I was both excited and mainly nervous about my attempts at cooking something new.

Long story short, once I started cooking I new I was in over my head and immediately scrapped my Shrimp Nicholas recipe of wrapped butterflied shrimp, choosing instead to make a mish-mash of flavors to cook the shrimp in. Then I just threw it romanticly over basic pasta, with essentially a jar of red pasta sauce. Mmmm.

Tiff, always the good sport, said she liked it, but she pushed the second half to the side in favor of a salad, and now, hours after the fact, all I can taste is garlic. At least, the flowers look good, but I think I still have a few years of Valentine's Days to catch up with her.

And tonight, I think both of us are very much looking forward to some leftover lentil soup. Happy Valentine's Day.

Another Steroids Story

I'm down to two pills of steroids a day, which means I only have four and a half more weeks to go! At the allergist that awful day, Tiff and I were in the waiting room waiting to make sure my meds were working. The receptionist started up a small conversation with Tiff.

Receptionist: They put me on a long course of steroids once.
Tiffany: Oh yeah?
R: Yeah, it really gives you quite the appetite.
T: Oh?
R: Yeah, I remember being in the store and seeing packaged liver and thinking I had to eat it, right there. I've never liked liver before, but I wanted to eat it raw, right off the shelf.
T: Eww.
R: Yeah, watch out. He'll be hungry... and extremely irritable.
T: Well then, I better shut up and start cooking.

I love my wife. While I have yet to come across liver or any inkling of a liver craving, I have been eating like a madman. It's strange too. I'll eat until my belly is full - I'll be very aware that my belly is full - and still, I'm searching the kitchen for more food. I'm full but very hungry at the same time. Part of me just thinks this is all in my head and I eat constantly because I've finally been given a free pass to do so.

My liver story is actually much less disturbing. Bananas are a food that I don't ever remember enjoying. When Tiff put four pounds of them in the cart last week at CostCo, I only accepted it after learning the four pounds cost $1.29. A couple days later, I was looking through the dusty parts of our cupboards in search of food, when like a beacon from across the room all those beautiful bananas caught my eye. I struggled a bit getting the first one open as it was still a bit green, but good god was it good.

Tiff has since then cut me back to one banana at a time. There are three left... make that two.

The Medicinal Moon

My list of places I would like to go has slowed it's growth considerably recently. It was easy for a long time to find new and interesting places to go. I would either stumble upon a cool picture or hear of something interesting and hope that Wikipedia has a picture of it.

Everything changed when, just before Christmas, I heard of the Interstellar Light Collector. It captures the power of lunar light and focuses it at you in some sort of weird therapeutic procedure. It was the first place on my list that was less "wouldn't it be cool if..." and more "I need to do this before I die." And well, since then nowhere seems as cool.

Before you label me a freak, I freely admit that I'm open to some of the eccentrics of alternative medicine. Perhaps it's a holistic approach, but that sounds too Birkenstock. I would, however, love to try acupuncture and maybe a hot stone massage to unblock my chi, or whatever. Just last month, I bought a jar of lavender scent with sticks sticking fashionably out of it, because I heard it might help me sleep. It's right next to my bed.My sister, hi, Becky!, gave me the idea. She heard about it from the Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook game. The verdict is still out as to how effective it is.

But this giant moonlight mirror is so different than anything I thought reasonable that it has captured my imagination and six weeks after learning of it, I'm still thinking about it. Check out the testimonials. Just about everyone says something along the lines of feeling relaxed, energized and all-over good, but then there are these lines, "toothache gone within hours," "my appendix scar faded as well as some other old scars" by morning, "arthritis and tinnitus are greatly reduced," and - hold the phone - "after a 3rd moonlight experience, my asthma seems to be gone." Moonlight it seems works miracles. If only moonlighting worked the same way, as I work overnights.

If anything, I think it's definitely worth seeing what happens under the intense moonlight. I predict that it will prevent the brain tumor that will surely kill me in my old age, thus I will live forever. Then maybe I'll get to actually visit the other places on my list of places that I want to go.

Upgrades

Something strange has been happening to me lately. I have been trying to improve things, recently, things I'm not suppose to improve. I can't seem to stop myself.

Let me back up and make clear that I have not taken any proactive steps to improve anything... well, maybe myself, but that's another blog entirely. I'm more of an idea guy. What happens is, I'll be doing something, going about life like it ain't no thing, when right in the middle of the most common, mundane thing I'll have a thought that I can't help but share with the world.

For example, "They should put the parking lot under the Wal-Mart!" I had this thought walking across the Wal-Mart parking lot from my car. I realize that it would never happen, that Wal-Mart has it's own savings challenge, and it would never fork out the extra money to build it's store over the parking lot, but I do think it would make a great improvement... for all stores. It would be like a suburban Big Dig Revolution! There would be so much more space, and I wouldn't have to see an empty parking lot of street lights glowing in my window at night.

Most of the time, my improvements aren't quite so profound. TV commercials are like cannon-fodder to my always-upgrading mind. "What the should have done is ended with the dancing dog." The sad underbelly here is that I'm actually paying close enough attention to critique.

But critique is a harsh word, and I don't think I'm complaining about any of these things that I'm improving. It's more that I'm genuinely hoping to improve them. It's not the flaw that I see, it's the improvement. And aren't we suppose to be trying to improve the world, or at least the world around us. Maybe one of my ideas will catch on and I'll leave my footprint on mankind!

I've had so many of these random improvement thoughts, matched by my obvious delusions of grandeur, that I thought about extending my blog empire with John Duffy's Upgrades, but after some thought, I was afraid it would sound too whiny and ultimately decided that it would not be an improvement to anybody's life... namely mine.

...but, who's counting?

I think it's time to draw everyone's attention to the semi-new Scrabble Counter to the right --> See, over there on the sidebar? John and I are now involved in an intense war of daily scrabbling. It's time to draw your attention to it because I am winning right now (also because I think that a slew of brutal losses -before we started keeping a talley- was the underlying cause of John's recent onset of unexplainable hives).

We lead highly exciting lives... Keep an eye on it as we battle it out.

In other exciting news:
Our cat has now learned to sit for treats. John doesn't find this blog-worthy.

Hives are for the Bees

I'm not a fan of long posts, so I apologize in advance.

As I've mentioned, I was on steroids for hives a couple of weeks ago. And as I mentioned, they did a lot for me, but didn't get rid of the hives. I wish that that was the end of the story, but there's more. So last Tuesday, when I stopped taking the steroids, I still had pretty bad hives. Bad enough that I was still taking claritins as much as possible just to stop itching.

Wednesday morning at work, just before I got off, I felt hives coming on pretty strong and without any meds from home, I took what was available at work... two benadryl. I found relief, but I was woozy driving home before I drifted off to sleep in bed. I did not sleep very well, and around four when I woke up, I didn't feel very good. I thought it was just the Benadryl making me feel funny, but then Tiff saw me and said something to the effect of, "Oh my god!" Apparently, my eyes were more or less swollen shut. It didn't surprise me, and I just said my throat feels funny.

We rushed to the hospital as my doctor's office was closed for the day. I was reluctant to go because I wasn't sure it constituted an emergency, but as is becoming the norm, my new wife won out. The ER folks were very nice. They set me up with stronger steroids, stronger anti-histamine's and heartburn medication, which they said acts both to counteract the steroids' side-effects and is an anti-histamine for a different kind of histamine.

I sat there a long time, and as my eye swelling went down and my throat went back to normal, I thought about posting about how boring the ER is compared to what you see on TV. We were there for a few hours, and there were no multiple gunshot victims or seven car pile-ups, no hatchets lodged behind eyes - there wasn't even any one who came in with something minor but it turned out to be an inoperable brain tumor. Just a lot of kids and a lady with a toothache. I would say that my situation definitely was an emergency comparatively. So they declared me healthy and sent me home stocked with more meds, all the while, with me still scratching. - There's so much more though that all that thought just gets a mention.

The next day, Thursday, I called my doctor up for a referral to an allergist. Concerned, she called for me and set up an appointment for that afternoon. Then she sent me to be tested for strept throat. As I'm waiting for the lady with the long Q-Tip - they have their own waiting room for lab work - my throat starts to feel funny. In the brilliance that is me, I wait for my test, then leave the doctor's. As I started wheezing in the car, I had the thought that I should turn back towards the doctor's, or maybe even the hospital, but boldly I continued home.

I told myself that I just needed something to clear it up... Claritin, Benadryl, it didn't matter. But as I got closer, and my wheezing became more audible, I began to worry. It would make sense to worry here but I was worried about the allergist's appointment that afternoon and whether or not it was okay to take anything before the doctor sees me. I make it home, climb the stairs and call the allergist. By this point, I need to take something. My wheezing is audible and uncontrollable and big breaths don't feel like enough. The receptionist notices this and asks if I'm okay. Then she tells me to get there immediately if I can get there. Otherwise, go to the hospital.
Tiff drives me there, twenty minutes in a new direction, which for her is a big deal in and of itself, but when about halfway there, I say through big breaths "Okay, if my throat closes up completely..." and then give the little bit of advice I know from my three hour First Aid class as I'm holding onto expired Benadryl FastMelts.

We make it there, only to get lost in the office park. When we finally walk in, I'm admittedly feeling better. It was like walking onto a movie set though, and I was the big name star. Everybody stopped what they were doing. "Oh you made it!" "Are you okay?" "Come right back, we'll do the paperwork later." Oh man, it was great! Although the first thing they did was take my blood pressure... something that's been happening all too often with all my recent trips to the doctor. That morning it was somewhere around 125 over 80, which was slightly higher than it normally is for me; right then, my blood pressure was 175 over 100. "Are you scared?" asked the nurse.

So in the end, I lived. After about eight hours of my skin feeling like it's crawling or shedding or something very painful, a nice talk with the doctor, a trip to the phlebotomist, back to the allergist for a painful shot in the butt, and back to the pharmacist for the second time in two days, I returned home and took a bath with oatmeal in it - it's supposed to help. I'm on much stronger steroids now for a much longer period, as well as some other meds. And I have to carry around an EpiPen to give myself shots when my life depends on it.

Here are some pictures from that night, after all the meds and after all the swelling went down. My legs are the worse of it but by "legs," I mean where I wear underwear, my thighs mostly, and nobody wants to see that much of me.
Later that night, I finally admitted to Tiff, "Yes, I was scared." I was very, very scared.

Making Money

Just wanted to boast and brag, I made a sale on Zazzle. Only ten months after I announced that my seemingly insanely over-priced t-shirt business was open for business, I made my first sale. And I am now $1.36 richer. At this rate, I'll have amassed a small fortune by the time my great-great-grandkids enter retirement.

I don't know who my customer was, or what they bought as they edited the product, but if you're out there, I thank you. And keep buying.

New Red Rug

Tiff and I got an area rug the other day from Wal-Mart. We've been talking about getting one recently because after three years our apartment carpet isn't holding up too well. We saw a nice red one at a good price and new it was perfect. Plus, at 5'x8', it's just the right size for where we need it.

Luckily, the ACTUAL size of where we need it is only 4'6"x7'4".

The Best Blog

I think I've mentioned in the past that I like Yahoo! I use Yahoo! I check Yahoo! for Yahoo!news and Yahoo! sports and Yahoo! weather. I have Yahoo! email, and I love My Yahoo!, which I checked today and it made me say, "yahoo."

Recently, My Yahoo! was upgraded and I could link it to feeds from blogs, so I linked mine to one blog, that of Leo Babauta, which I'm sure you're now patiently thinking, "yeah, who?" I chose it from a list of options for it's name Zen Habits. I figured maybe it could teach me how to live even more in peace with my body and mind than I am now, if that's possible. The blog is usually just lists and tips of how to unclutter your world and stuff, which generally is kind of boring.

He has apparently found an audience though as his blog was recently named Best Blog of the Year. A few days later he posted "Happy 1st Birthday Zen Habits." I started nearly three years ago... Best Blog... ya-friggin-hoo!

Anyways, he started this other site about writing, so I read his thoughts about blogwriting and I realized how much I am not a blog writer. He stresses how close the writer and the reader are with blogs, "Read that last sentence again, because it’s key: speak to the readers. Write as if you’re talking to them." I think where I'm going wrong is that I'm just talking to myself half the time. (Hey, sexy.)

Maybe if I did "read that last sentence again" I could relate to this: "You’re writing for an audience who will comment on the post mere minutes after you press “publish”. They will argue with you, praise you, become your friends. They will write their own posts, commenting on and analyzing your writing." As it is though, I'm excited when my wife comments... analyzing my writing.

Anyways, I doubt that my blog empire is on its way to any Blog of Fame, I still have fun doing it. And while this post sucks, at least its better than me listing reasons why its important to clean your desk off, even if it is... and you learn something from it... and you read it in spite of how lame you know it to be... probably because you know it's just a list and you don't have to read through some long post with no pictures.