A Breather

For the first time in a few weeks I got to visit with my friends. Jean got off work early, so I even got to show up before 7pm. Tom hosted at his place, and Bo and Lisa, James, Alan and Dan were all there for the duration of the night. I had a great time, laughed myself hoarse (still am somewhat, the next day).

My only regret is that I didn't exercise better judgement when we went out to Red Robin for a late dinner. I got the fish fry (greasy breaded fish, yum!) and had a Dr. Pepper with the meal. Between the heavy food and the excess caffeine, I was up a good chunk of the night. As Jean said, "you could have gotten away with that when you were 20..."

Tom is trying to talk Alan into going to a Saturday matinee of Wicked in September. I envy them. I love the musicals, and I'm tickled with this revisionist story of the Wicked Witch of the West. But Jean works Saturdays, so I'll have to be content with a trip report.

Geek Cred

The Nintendo DS Lite came out on Sunday, I went to work on Sunday, work is a two minute drive from Fry's Electronics... Can you see where I'm heading here?

I thought about waiting until there were more color choices than frost white, but I don't really care, it goes with my ratty old iPod. I already had Resident Evil: Deadly Silence. I bought The Age of Empires: Age of Kings and Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time to round things out.

In time I plan to buy a few more offbeat choices, like Electroplankton, Trauma Center: Under the Knife, and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (already a collector's item, it seems).

But first I have to get out from under the huge wodge of tasks piled on me at work. Then I can play...

Mr. Freeze

After multiple visits from AAA Heating and Cooling, each to engage in a slightly more aggressive treatment of our central air conditioning, it finally became clear that it would cost more to fix the poor beast than to replace it. So tomorrow, Mr. Freeze comes to visit. The unit weighs a ton or so, so it will take a couple days to install. Of course, it's pretty cool right now, but I've spent a few rather uncomfortable muggy nights waiting for this day...

I Think That I Shall Never See

A tree as pretty as Jean! And yet, she pines for this tree, boughing before it's majesty. Anyway, she wants to plant one in our yard.

Musical Acquisitions

It's been awhile since I bought a new album or song. About a week ago I bought one that's been getting mostly positive feedback on the weblogs I make the rounds of, and I'm pretty happy with it:

Saint Elsewhere by Gnarls Barkley

I also bought a single song by another group I've never listened to before, Architecture in Helsinki. The song was Do the Whirlwind. Very pop, kicky kinda tune.

Senate Restaurant Bean Soup

I should just rename this the Bean Soup Weblog. I got around, at Jean's request, to making the famous Senate Restaurant Bean Soup, made with small naval beans and ham shanks instead of hamhocks. It tastes quite good, but I still prefer the Black Bean Soup we prepared earlier. Not that this soup is not good. It's great. The black bean soup is just so much better!

School Musical

This time the banner image is from a few weeks ago. Renee's school put on their annual parent trap, er, musical performance, and I attended with camera. As always, my lenses were not really bright enough to stop the action, but I got a few that will give you the idea. Starting with Renee en regalia, marching toward the stage.

As I get around to it, I'll post the handful of salvageable images to my Flickr account. Keep watching the skies!