Monster was much more gentle-looking than I expected. A quiet, well-groomed, nocturnal creature.

Yesterday was car-maintenance day. Got an oil change (finally) and two new tires and a good hosing down. The Camry is much happier now.

Since September is Health Month, I have told myself to that I must make it to the gym today.

Going to meet monster tonight. I am intrigued.



You are The Cabin Boy

You, me lad, are an activist! You will not only change the world, you will make a dyed-in-the-wool Pirate dream of you in a sheep costume. You are the embodiment of the love that dare not hoist its sail! Ahoy thar! You could make a two-patch Pirate turn his head - but then he would lose sleep over it and what good would that do anyone? An innovator, you are WAY ahead of your time - and everyone else's. You are sensitive and artsy-fartsy. You say things like, "artsy-fartsy" but there is always a slight giggle in your voice when you say it - like Paul Lynde on Hollywood Squares delivering a staggering punch line. Speaking of "punching" the only "punching" you would do is punching up that outfit with some accessories - say, a little bandana and some glass beads. You're not the Pirate we want in a fight, but we want you there for the crying game that follows! You go, girl.

What's Yer Inner Pirate?
brought to you by The Official Talk Like A Pirate Web Site. Arrrrr!

Aaarr. Be readin' this.

September 19 is International Talk Like A Pirate Day.

It's been a fun weekend.

Saturday morning I met Harris and Kim ever so briefly at DragonCon before they went off to breakfast at Thumbs Up. I stayed at Dragoncon an hour or more walking around looking at the conventioners and booths before I had to eat and dose myself with caffeine. The artwork didn't impress me this year as much as in year's past but the other products were incredible. Lots of fun games, costumes and other accoutrements. The people there are always the very best part and they were fabulous, as usual.

Sunday was spent at Drive-Invasion with The Women and men. Chaz had the cami-top and astroturf on the pickup. Grrrcth & Kurt brought the grill and lawn chairs and tiki torch. The nice boy and I brought lots of ice (you can never have too much while baking in the parking lot all day) and snacky bits in his GTO. We watched and listened to performances by Gravy Bowl and The Woggles and Clouseaux. The Woggles now have Jeff from Hillbilly Frankenstein on guitar. Clouseaux has Alice, another former Hillbilly Frankenstein member. It was a groovy evening.

Kim started nodding off during Rock & Roll highschool and husband put her in the car to snooze, which was fine until fireworks shell fell through the sunroof (no harm done, but the shells were warm and stinky- enough to wake her up). Perhaps they should try harder to shoot over the woods? The rockets were shot off intentionally at certain points in the cartoon and movie - the largest display being at the end when the school is blown up.

My new hair color is really groovy. Not an overall color change like I expected, but a single process done in streaks and chunks in a brilliant deep candy red only a shade, if that much, lighter than my brown. Looks great.

Vanity
Getting my hair done tonight by The Artiste. Getting a new color, hightlights now that every bit of previous experimentation has grown out. Maybe I don't need to be spending so much, but it's usually a good morale boost to have a new 'do. If I wasn't going to get in before the pool party last week, I wanted to have the 2003 hair update in time for DragonCon and Drive Invasion this weekend.

Health
The post-viral cough is still here. I'm on my third day of prescription drugs to try to knock that last remnant of the cold I had out.

Romance
And I got to spend time with the Nice Boy last night. He drove into my part of town and we ate at Ru San's.

Bites

Pretty good for a Monday. Quiet at work. New girl being trained to work up front and handle the writing of orders, etc.

Yesterday I got a call from Nick on my cell phone while I was out to invite me over for fresh peach pastry he was making. Nick is trying his hand at baking now and had actually made puff pastry - from scratch.

We were preparing to take the dogs out walking when a fight broke out between the mongrel and the pit bull. Nick managed to get a pretty bad bite in his left hand - thankfully a puncture wound rather than a tear. Too many bitches vying for daddy's attention.

Insomnia

So, I'm wide awake. I have been since around nearly 4:00 a.m. I've given up the fight now and I'm just going to stay active until my body and mind are good and ready to shut down. It's sunday, the day of rest. The day I don't have stay up and will be able to nap whenever I feel like it or turn in early if I need to.

Should be a quiet, easy day. My plans are to do laundry and maybe, just maybe, go to the mall. I hear some neighbors just getting in downstairs from a big night of partying. Are they arguing or just drunk and talking loudly? I can't tell.

It's a day of rest ahead of me. Looking forward to it.

Dreaming
I had that same kind of frustrating dream again. The one where I'm at work and given a job that I can't complete because I don't have the instructions or description of the final piece.

Pool Party
Today was a fun gathering of the women and their guys at my parents' pool. The nice boy even made an appearance in his jag. My parents enjoyed having company at the house and had a great time telling family stories, both real and imagined. As usual, a lot of the events changed in the retelling or disappeared altogether or were replaced by entirely new events. It's always interesting to hear what the current version is. Sometimes things change in my favor.

Dive
The highlight of the day seemed to be when one person managed to embarrass his wife by taking of his swimsuit in front of my parents and jumping in the pool. His wife was mortified (not easy to do - she's pretty impervious to most things) and my mother (thankfully) was giggling. My father dubbed him "Little Egypt" for the stripper. We tried to assure him it wasn't a statement about his, ummm, manhood.

I learned a new term today:

Man-crush - A non-sexual infatuation one male might have for another.

Why does my tap water smell like burning hair this week?

Tweaking again. Hopefully the comments link will work better now.


Or maybe it won't work at all...

Scary Peter Kuper poster.

Last weekend was good for music.

Friday night I went with E to East Atlanta and spend the night jumping between the EARL and the Echo Lounge. Was glad to catch Hope For A Golden Summer and Twittering Machine at the EARL. Also saw Hubcap City (from belgium) and Blue Valentine at the Echo Lounge. Alex tells me that Hope For A Golden Summer will perform at the Echo on August 14. I highly recommend them to anyone who likes very arty very southern lovely music.


Twittering machine is great lounge music with proficient musicianship and a singer who seems to do so effortlessly.


Blue Valentine is a Tom Waits cover band with a sultry female singer who bears the same gravely voice as the beloved songwriter.

Saturday night I went with the nice boy to Atlantis Music Confence. Hung out at Vinyl and made a few photos of the APC recording artists in the line up. I was glad I'd brought a few lenses to choose from even though it's a very small room. The setting was far too intimate for me to feel comfortable using anything other than a telephoto so I didn't have to be noticed. A wide angle was necessary for the crowd and candid shots. A 50mm alone would have done me no good at all.