Apparently Gage is part golden retriever. My cousin's daughter Sydney was watching over Gage, Janessa, and Jillisa at a picnic we all went to. She would throw several different sized balls (volleyballs, softballs, etc.) and the three of them would chase them down and bring them back. This went on for at least a half-hour with no sign of letting up. Of course, the older folk sat around with their own form of entertainment. There was a teenager there who literally could have just stepped out of the fashion hey-day of the 80's. I got a picture that I'll have to post sometime later. And, of course, there was the mechanical failure of one of the fold-out chairs. By the time they were done discussing it, we were certain that my dad and uncle were going to have major power tools and an arc welder involved.

Well, we made it to Williamsport, saw Brian, Brian, Jessica, and Toby and met Nicky. Gage had a good time once he got used to the puppy jumping up. And, considering he spent between 6 and 7 hours in the car traveling today, he did fairly well adjusting. After we left Brian's house, we headed down to my Aunt and Uncle's place. And even though my parents didn't think they were coming til tomorrow, their car was in the driveway when we got here. So Gage got to see Grammy and Grampy. Tomorrow there are rumors of a picnic so that should be fun.

Well tomorrow we're off. First to Williamsport, then Lancaster, on to Camden, to New York City, back to Camden, and home again in time to find out how much stuff went kablooie at work. Note the technical term of kablooie. Hopefully you'll all have a good weekend and I will too.

So I went out to pick up Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain tonight and Gage was getting hungry so we stopped at a Burger King. I've been seeing those midget commercials for the BK Stackers. So, I thought I'd give them a try. Burger King has always fascinated me with the fact that they have pictures of how to construct their burgers on the wrappers. I mean, no intelligence needed. Anyway, the stackers come as a double, triple, or quad. And, since I had already eaten one dinner I just went for a double. The wrapper had a little qualifier for each level. A double - Meat Lover A triple - Meat Enthusiast A Quad - Meat-ivore !?! Um, isn't that what a carnivore is? Seriously, as a society, are we degrading that far that fast? Are the terms carnivore, omnivore, and herbivore that hard to tell apart?

I'm not sure what's worse. Getting ready to leave for a vacation at work or coming back from a vacation at work. I have so many meetings in the next two days my chair is going to rent itself out. It's amazing how many hours I spend at work and when I take stock of things around me, how little actually gets done. I got an email from a client who sends in stuff approximately once a year. We finished up her set of programs (each time shuffling them to the bottom of the priority list) and she copied the EVP of Sales on the email. The content...he's phenomenal, I'm so happy with service and quality, yap yap yap. Wow, congrats all around. Can you call some of the rest of my clients and get them off my back?

In a high school of less than 500 people, not only do you know everyone, but you know about everyone. When I was a freshman, I actually attempted to fly under the radar for the first couple weeks til I figured out where I fit in. Coming from the 3 years of middle school (junior high to those who had a real school), I was in the crowd of kids who ran most everything...did all the clubs, etc. In high school, I didn't expect to be in that crowd, at least not in the first year. However, small towns breed familiarity so I was already marked in several circles.
My second week of high school, I was still learning the ropes and moving pretty quick from class to class trying to be a conscientious student. Then I ran into Armand. Literally. Books everywhere. All mine, he didn't seem to be carrying any. Not a good impression to make on a senior. So for the next two weeks, he seemed to go out of his way to make my life miserable. Apparently I made him look bad. After I zigged when I should have zagged and his trip caught my shin sending me sprawling lenghwise in the air landing in a full body bounce on the hallway floor, a few seniors made it known to him that he should back off and again for whatever reason, he did. End of association except to pass in the hallway over the course of the next 7 months or so.
So, why tell that story now? I read this article in the paper. Different paths to say the least, but I have to say that the punishment isn't enough. Not for the loss of life. Not for the fact that he was a habitual repeat offender. 17 times he was caught. How many times did he get away with it? How many lives ruined from the ripple effect? And to what end? Why?

So while I'm trying to get stuff finished up for tomorrow, the movie playing in the background is The 40 Year Old Virgin. Not really the funny movie everyone made it out to be. Or perhaps I'm just not amused by Steve Carell. On the whole a "cute" movie, but not something I'll revisit. It was interesting to see Dagmara's little sister have a minor role and I do like Catherine Keener, but it's two hours I could get back if that deal was on the table.
So, one of the things that I've noticed in my new role is that I've become quite the spin doctor. Clients know what I tell them and my version of the truth is just that. I also find that it makes me much more candid in dealing with day to day people since most of my editing energy is used up during the day. So, if I seem a little harsher than usual, you'll know why.

So, we were discussing bad movies at work and I've found I have an odd compulsion. When two of my coworkers were in agreement that this movie was among the worst they had ever seen. After clicking around, we even found out it had a sequel. So, now I'm interested in seeing both of them even though I never played the game. I have no background on the story. My coworkers say that doesn't matter. They say that the only thing that matters is discovering how much uncut heroin it took to convince Jeremy Irons to actually take the role.
I found I have the same compulsion to discover things for myself with all forms of media. That's what drove me to read Wuthering Heights after Susie gave it a poor recommendation.
Oh well, eventually I'll run across these two movies and chances are...I'll hate 'em. And then you'll have to read about it. Vicious cycle.

What was supposed to be a good day to have Gage play on the porch while I attempted to hack out the stairwell again turned into a rain delay. When I'm home it rains, when I'm not it's sunny. Perhaps I should just give up. I need to take my microeconomics final, dig myself out of my buried work in order to get ready for next weekend. Of course, then everything will just heap back up and I'll be right back where I started. Makes me feel as though I'm on some higher being's treadmill.

Ok, I'm done with the heat. I'm pretty sure I mentioned that yesterday, but it bears repeating. June was a very light month which makes me think this heat is going to continue well into September like last year. Which of course means that I'm going to have no motivation to do yardwork and considering I'm already packing a machete to get in and out of the house, I may get planted in. Hopefully the people I know in town will come and cut us out of the house.

So I bought a Darth Vader voice changing mask tonight since it was on sale for $7. So, of course, when I got it home I had to take it out of the box and try it out. I must say, enclosed black plastic in the humidity, not a good combination. However, I walked upstairs and Terri thought it was going to scare Gage so I cautiously entered his room. He thought it was funny and when I took the mask off to breathe, he said, "Do it again." He made me keep the mask on for like 5 minutes. The next house has air conditioning, that's a deal breaker.

Radioland Murders is on the sleuth network this evening. I never understood why this movie wasn't a smash hit. And then I realized...it's a thinking movie. There's a plot, smart funny dialogue, and things you have to pay attention to. I mean on paper you have, George Lucas, Mel Smith, Mary Stuart Masterson, Jeffrey Tambor, Ned Beatty, and George Burns, Christopher Lloyd and Rosemary Clooney in cameo roles. If you haven't seen it (and I'm guessing out of the regular readers only Tom has), I recommend that you queue it up on netflix, head out to blockbuster, or hit deep discount dvd and discover a buried gem.
That's my shilling public service announcement for today.

So I pay very little attention to newspapers and weather. I used to be a religious reader of the paper and news was must see TV. Then I realized that 99% of the stuff was just a made up slant on what may or may not be an actual story. And I stopped caring about the weather the day that there wasn't a cloud in sight and no rain predicted for the entire week and on Monday and Tuesday I got caught in a torrential downpour on the way to work. So, I just live my life skipping the noon, 5, 6, 6:30, 10, and 11 o'clock news. For the most part, the only part of the Post-Gazette I read are the articles that people send me. And, asking me what the weather is going to be like only elicits the response, "Got a window?"
So, why is it that I constantly have to listen to the retards in my office yell out their weatherbug readings every 5 minutes? I don't care that it spent most of the day in the upper 90's. And, most importantly, there was not a damn thing I could do about it. It's pretty much the same attitude I had when they were all announcing that it was single digits in mid-January.

Well we made it home in one piece. And Gage is on his 3rd consecutive night without a pacifier so we'll see how that goes. Although the entire house feels like it's standing in as God's oven and we're slow broiling some nice steaks.
It's funny. Gage got real excited about going on a "car trip." The problem with that is that he has no concept of what a "car trip" actually is. He did pretty well though. I'll be interested in seeing how he does toward the end of the month, that'll be a long time in the car between all the stops and total time.

This year's reunion movie ended up being Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's Chest. Interesting movie. Kind of a similar situation to the Empire Strikes Back. Middle movie, darker plotlines, heroes in peril at the end and situations up in the air.
I need to go back and try and piece together a list of all the movies we've seen during family reunions. They stretch back quite a ways. We can distinctly remember seeing Young Guns II and that was 1990. So, that would mean if that was the first (which no one is quite sure of) there are at least 16 other movies up to and including this year. We remember some, but it will take some recreation to figure out the whole list. Some have been really good movies and some have been awful. We're limited by appealing to the group as well as bound by whatever the theater happens to be showing. Bradford has one theater and it has two screens. Olean (considerably farther) has 8 screens so art house and independent flicks are usually out of the question. In fact when we got to the Bradford theater this evening, they had a sign on the front door boasting that they have the best Dolby Surround Sound System for 65 miles. It's actually quite possible that they have the only Dolby Surround System for 65 miles.

Bob Dylan is touring this summer. Guess where he's coming near me. Could it be the Post-Gazette Pavilion? No, not Dylan's style. PNC Park then? Nope, more Springsteen than Dylan. Mellon Arena? Wrong. He's going to play the Chevy/IC Light Ampitheatre? Wrong again. Oh, ok, he's going to play an intimate show at Heinz Hall. Um, no. The Benedum? Not even close. So he's going to hit West Virginia? Getting warmer. Bob Dylan is going to play Falconi Field in that rock and roll haven of Washington, Pa. Apparently a lifetime of drug abuse does eventually take its toll.

So, we're getting together with some people from work tomorrow night and I had to go out and pick up the gift for the person leaving. We decided to get a nice bottle of bourbon (Bookers). So, while I was down in that area, I stopped by the Half-Price book store. I'm looking around and all of a sudden I hear "Not to put to fine a point on it, say I'm the only..." and then it cut off. It turns out that yes, there was an ubergeek walking around the store that had "Birdhouse in your Soul" by They Might Be Giants as a ringtone. Now, finally that might almost persuade me. Not quite, but close.
So we're off to the family reunion this weekend. I think there's internet access at the hotel, but it is the middle of nowhere so we'll see.

Okay, yeah it's been a while. The holiday kind of threw me off and then Gage spent most of the past weekend with my parents so Terri and I were trying to do all the things that are difficult to do with him around. We moved furniture around, did the shopping for the month, saw a movie and a show and slept in late.
So, there were 8 main characters (give or take) on the Dukes of Hazzard. Luke Duke (Tom Wopat), Bo Duke (John Schneider), Daisy Duke (Catherine Bach), Uncle Jesse (Denver Pyle), Boss Hogg (Sorrell Booke), Roscoe P. Coltrane (James Best), Enos Strait (Sonny Shroyer) and Cooter Davenport (Ben Jones). Denver Pyle and Sorrell Booke have passed on. That leaves 6. I met Ben Jones at a NASCAR race in Bristol Tennessee a couple years ago and got his autograph. Saturday, Terri and I met Tom Wopat after his performance in 42nd Street and got his autograph. So, I only have 4 more left to complete the series. I should probably target James Best since he turns 80 at the end of the month.

Wow, my 500th post. You'd think I'd have something momentous to say, but no...pretty much the same old crap. I know that medical personnel work incredibly hard to keep all their patients alive, but I'll bet they tried extra hard to revive Kenneth Lay. There are a lot of people that think he got off easy with his sudden death from a heart attack. Although there are some people who are already positing that he didn't really die. He simply had his death faked, took his laundered millions and is living abroad in France. I know that I would certainly want to see the body in person if I had been one of the countless that he screwed out of their life savings.

Today we had dinner at my in-laws house. It's amazing how a child can be on a nice structured schedule and in the span of 7 hours it can all be destroyed and you're left with a little raving maniac running around yelling no.
Even though limits are set, I still don't think eating one hot-dog and then being pumped full of cookies, cakes, ice-cream, and candy is the best ratio on food consumption for the day. It's funny, I don't remember my grandparents being like that and I certainly don't remember my parents taking those liberties with me. It's very puzzling how they'll let my son get away with stuff that I couldn't.