nanovivid

Tonight I decided to actually stop being a total recluse and sign onto the Adium. Can you believe it? I barely can. It’s been… a while. I even videochatted with Ryan! As if that alone wasn’t enough sexy excitement, I also talked to Martha and Jeremiah!

It just dawned on me (how’s this for random) that I’ve never mentioned my love, nay, ado-fucking-ration of Arrested Development. And that, my friends, is a great tragedy, since it is easily the funniest show ever.

But wait! Maybe that wasn’t quite as random as I thought! See, this past weekend, Courtney and Jenni came to visit. Since Courtney always brings bad weather to Cleveland, we ended up spending most of the day Saturday watching the whole third season. Which, of course, is amazing.

Even when we weren’t watching Arrested Development, we had fun with Courtney and Jenni, between the shopping and the eating and … dirty girl scouts? They even brought me a bottle of wine with my name on it (though they sadly couldn’t find a Bryan wine to go with it).

So, yes. I am still alive and well, and will hopefully prove that fact slightly more frequently.

♫ The Beatles - Because (Shiloh's Just For Annie Remix)

Yesterday after dinner we went to Vintage Vinyl where Hyperbubble was playing. Their music is pretty fun, but they have this one song called Leon that is extra special. Go listen to it, then come back. Catchy, no? I especially like the meows that are interspersed throughout. Bryan decided that Leon needed to be the ringtone on my phone when he calls me, replacing his previous choice of Grillz.

I also (shockingly) picked up a few albums while we were there. After Hyperbubble was done, the store was playing The Eraser (the new Thom Yorke album) and I couldn’t resist buying it. SO GOOD. The Knife, The KLF, The Magnetic Fields, and Ralph Myerz and the Jack Herren Band were my other purchases. There seems to be a bit of a “the” trend happening witch my choices. Interesting.

Today we’re going to see Chihuly in the Garden, which is supposed to be excellent. There also may be some Geocaching. As long as we don’t get heatstroke, it should be a fun day.

♫ The Magnetic Fields - I Don't Believe You

Ups: getting the two things I set out to get — new running shoes and a new jacket (picture below).

Downs: the H&M only having women’s clothes. I’m still bitter about that. Boston was my first H&M experience and they had men’s and women’s there. Grrr. I mean, this is a store in a mall in the capitol of VA for crying out loud! Do they think that Virginians aren’t worthy of their men’s clothing? Oh well, just another reason to go back to Boston.

Here’s the pic of my new leather jacket from Express Men. It was 50% off! I think it’s pretty hot.

♫ OK Go - Get Over It

Since I’m sitting here bored and frustrated as I try to get the MacOS 9 (ugh) machine I’m working on to stop crashing constantly, I guess I’ll write something. Experiences like this one simply serve to solidify my loathing for the Classic MacOS. Though I totally <3 OS X, anything prior is just painful for me.

Time for a bit of a recap… Saturday was lots of fun. I played the ladies’ man as I went to Charlottesville with Jenni, Courtney, and Lynley. The main purpose of the trip was to get Jenni’s headboard from Under The Roof. We managed to totally not anticipate there being a UVA game that day, which made finding a parking spot a little challenging. Once we did (and right by the store), we got to check out some cool furniture. Then we had a delicious lunch at Cafe Europa. Of course, it’s impossible to go on a trip without some other shopping and between Old Navy, Banana Republic, and Gap, I managed to pick up some nice new clothes. Go me. (The current webcam shot is of one of the sweaters… me wearing the sweater that is).

Then yesterday I was teh productiveness. Not only did I mow the jungle that we were calling a yard, I also finally went food shopping. I’m not sure why I’m so proud of myself for this, but I am.

Oh, look, it’s 7:30 and I’m finally done with this lovely piece of Mac history. Except for the part where the Novell login screen takes forever to come up now. Ugh. Screw it, I’m going home.

♫ Jeremy Dawson - En Capture

I am no longer toothpasteless (and there was much rejoicing). During my shopping spree today I also bought new handles for the drawers under my bed (see picture below). They look so much nicer than the old <insert adjective pertaining to horribleness> ones (one of which you can see sitting on the floor). Yay for new hardware!

As a disclaimer, the carpet is not really that color. It’s much more of a grey-blue. I was just too lazy to correct it.

There have been a couple recent site redesigns worth mentioning… Toby has a new minimal look for his site that is quite nice (and, amazingly, has less pink ;-). Then just today Matthew launched his new design and it’s quality. Go check it out.

Also, thanks to Matthew’s reminding me of its existence, the worldview gallery has been given a fresh new look (aka updated to the look of the rest of the site). Also, comments work on the worldview pieces once again. Either nobody had tried commenting or nobody bothered to tell me they were broken. Anyway, just wanted to remind you that gallery of art still exists so feel free to browse and leave comments. I wonder if I’ll ever get back into doing that art stuff. Hm…

I was counting today and I have seven lights in my room, not counting the overhead light that I almost never use and the christmas lights under my bedframe. What can I say… I like good lighting. :-)

♫ Dryve - Thrifty Mr. Kickstar

The IKEA trip was hella fun. I got a couple things — a new chair and lamp for my room. The chair is so comfy… I love it.

I finally got Elephant by The White Stripes today. They effing rock.

This week is going to be hectic at work, but at least we’re only open normal hours at the helpdesk. That means I can finally get back into running and working out. Yay for that… I’ve definitely missed it. Happy Monday all.

♫ The White Stripes - Ball And Biscuit

Today has been mostly unproductive, just the way I like my Saturdays. I did get some laundry done (yay for clean clothes) but other than that it was mostly a lazy day. My parents came up and I had lunch with them at The Little Grill, and that of course was good. Then later I got an IM from Steve telling me I should come over because John was there. So I did just that. It was great to hang out with those guys again after much too long. Tomorrow is IKEA day. Mmmmm… furniture.

♫ dj404 - Mix Session - January 10, 2003

I’ve now seen Pirates of the Caribbean twice, and it was definitely enjoyable both times. Of course, my enjoyment of the second time might have been helped along by the appletini from Cheddar’s… nah, it’s just a dang good movie. Dave was right in saying that Johnny Depp makes the movie. Jack Sp… i mean Captain Jack Sparrow is just the right blend of suavity and ridiculousness.

As of Friday night, I am no longer a Cheddar’s virgin, and I’m very happy about that. We did have to wait almost an hour for our table, but the food was worth the wait. I had catfish with Cajun spices on seasoned rice, cole slaw, and carrots. Oh, and the oh-so-yummy appletini. (We also went for lunch on Saturday… we just can’t get enough).

Saturday we went to "the place where the stores live" (also known as the mall) and did the shopping thing. I got two cds: Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head and The Polyphonic Spree - The Beginning Stages of…. I’m very much enjoying both so far. If you haven’t heard of The Polyphonic Spree, well, go check them out. They describe themselves as "a choral symphonic pop band," which is pretty accurate. It’s good stuff.

I also got a shirt from Express Men and a pair of jeans from Old Navy. We did a lot of other shopping too… almost too much (note I only said almost).

That night we went out on the pier because the moon was out. Wow. Such beauty. The night was solemn, with a quieting effect on all four of us. After a while, each person silently got up and walked back to the house. The feeling was similar to the end of a church service, only much more beautiful.

Afterwards, it was out to Starbuck’s for hanging out with Michael. He is definitely one of the most fun people I know. It’s too bad he lives all the way out of state (or so he seems to think — yes Michael, you can drive three hours and still be in Virginia).

Despite the lack of beaching, it still was a good trip. We’ve got some beachness lined up for September, so all is not lost in that department.

So there’s a hefty helping of random anecdotes from my recent life. This week, it’s back to work, with no days off. How ever will I survive after last week’s mere two days of work?

♫ Coldplay - One I Love

So I’m here in the Circuit City using Toshiba’s 17" laptop… and it sucks. Hard. It’s forever thick, and it looks like it’s been painstakingly engineered thrown together. Some parts are silver, some are white, some are matte blck, and some are shiny black. And the outside is blue. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

We’ve had fun so far on the trip. No beach today because of the less than perfect weather. BUT we’ve done a buttload of shopping and of course I’ve bought stuff because I have an inability to not buy things while shopping.

There have been other adventures as well that I’ll write about later once I get back online with my good 17" laptop. :-) Man, this laptop is horrible. I guess the screen is nice, but that’s about it.

Well, it’s time to head off for more fun times in Tide Vegas.

♫ two different songs playing at the same time in different parts of the store

I’m going to apologize in advance for the length of this entry. I just haven’t found time up until now to write. This has been quite the weekend.

It all began Friday after work when, after packing, I headed to the interstate to drive to my parents’. Unfortunately, my car had other ideas of what to do. I had gotten brake work done on Monday/Tuesday (the master cylinder needed to be replaced as well as one of the brake lines). Afterwards, I had noticed that my car was running a little off sometimes, but didn’t think much of it until I got on the interstate and it started to shimmy like crazy. So I drove to the shop and thankfully there was still someone around who looked at it and agreed that the brakes were not releasing all the way. He loosened the brake lines and that released the pressure. Thus, I was able to get where I needed to go, but the brakes are still tightening up sometimes. I’m gonna see how it feels tomorrow and then maybe take it back in. ::sigh::

Friday night, after I got to Jeremiah’s apartment, the weekend started for real. Ryan and Rianna were there also, and I arrived about halfway through the watching of E.T.. The part I saw, I enjoyed, having not seen the movie since it scared me when I was little. Then after the movie, Jeremiah, Ryan and I geeked out with our computers and video chatted with Bryan (the latter lasted for well over an hour). That was all great fun with great people.

After getting back to my parents’ waaay late, I pretty much went straight to bed. Saturday morning I headed out with my family to go shopping and have other adventures. We ate lunch at this amazing Indian restaurant. After that, it was off to the mall for shopping. I bought two shirts and two pairs of shorts at Hecht’s… for a total of $20! I couldn’t pass that up. We also went to B&N, where I was unable to resist purchasing Fischerspooner’s #1. I haven’t quite listened to it enough to make a definite judgment about the album as a whole (I already knew I liked three songs at least), but I think I like it.

That afternoon I was talking to Jeremiah online and found out that he and Ryan were going to see Bruce Almighty that evening, so I joined them. I really enjoyed the movie. It was quite funny and also made me think some. So go check it out — it’s worth seeing. After standing in the parking lot after the theater forever because Jeremiah kept seeing people he knew, we went (again) to B&N for coffee but once we got there, Ryan saw his ex’s car in the parking lot and didn’t want to go in. We tried to go to another place but it was closed. Then Ryan decided it was his bedtime, so Jeremiah and I went back to his place to hang out. That was by far the best part of the evening. We talked about a bit of everything and watched Trading Spaces and it was just great. It’s almost scary how much alike our tastes in decorating are. He had some catalogs and magazines and one that I really liked was West Elm. Their catalog is beautifully designed and the furniture and accessories are awesome too. He also introduced me to Naked Juice, which is delicious. I need to get me some of that. After TS was over, I hung out a little longer and finally at 2:30 headed back to my parents’.

Today, not that much happened, which is ok, because the rest of the weekend was awesome. I’ll hook my iSight up tomorrow and get some more pics of the new haircut (the one from Sat is still on the webcam).

We’re having a staff retreat tomorrow, so I get off work at 2:30. I should probably work for a couple hours to make up for some of the other time I’ve missed, but we’ll see. :-)

♫ Fischerspooner - Sweetness