Clarence Carter - Strokin'

This is very inside joke stuff between me and friends I used to know and fun times on the reservation...  Enjoy it anyway, it has nsfw lyrics.


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Self Indulgent Recap

Hello.  I hope you had a nice holiday weekend.  I did, mostly.  I haven't updated in a bit, so here's a short recap:

Over a week ago my sister finally came to visit. She brought her boyfriend, Dave.  It was my first time meeting him, but they have been seeing each other for quite some time now.  He was actually a real nice guy, and he'd better be - he's dating my sister!  Of course my sister's kids, James and Lindsey, came as well.  They will be 8 soon, I think.  Being the devious uncle that I am, (and knowing that it was gonna be real hot and I had already introduced them to squirtgun fights) I went with the water balloons!  We had a lot of fun!  Boy, they can tire me out, though.  I wish I had that energy sometimes.

The latter half of last week I was dealing with some back issues.  Nothing to be worried about, just one of the usual problems just popping up again.  I didn't even call the doctor.  If it would have lasted longer or been more severe, then some muscle relaxers would have helped, though.  Still would, actually...

Friday night Jerome and Lisa came over for a while to sit out by the fire.  We kind of intended to invite quite a few more, but my wife pointed out how she never gets a chance to talk to Lisa.  I agreed, they are nice, fun, relatively new friends that we enjoy lots.

Last Saturday was the first outing on our friend Terry's boat!  We went to the usual spot, and did the usual things.  It was a real nice day for it, the sun was shining and it got really hot.  I made myself go hatless mostly, so I wouldn't get the white forehead that I had last year!

Sunday we shopped. We got new hardware for the kitchen cabinets and a new light fixture for above the sink. We also bought a grill, a real, full-size, nice, gas grill. (I still want Mangrates, though!) We spent some time installing all the new kitchen hardware after we got home.  My wife thinks they look much more modern and I tend to agree.

Monday, Memorial Day, was spent mostly relaxing.  I went grocery shopping in the morning and we put together our new grill in the afternoon.  I went to bed about 7:30 and slept wonderfully until my alarm went off this morning.

There, caught up.  (Yes, I know, TMI for some, but this is for me.)  Some of these subjects deserve a more thorough look, but sometimes I just don't feel like writing.  Also, I've noticed, the longer it has been since I've posted, the harder it is to write.  Best done quickly before my memory fades...

Oil Spill Deja Vu

This is an interesting look by MSNBC at the eerie similiarities between the oil spill in the gulf now and one that happened 31 years ago.  I saw this over at Bits & Pieces a couple of days ago and have been thinking of it since.  I was young and this was a million miles away to me, but I do seem to remember this happening.  I'm not going to go off on a ticked off rant, I'll just bite my tongue and state the obvious:  Those who do not learn from their mistakes are doomed to repeat them.

Libby's Libby's Libby's on the Label Label Labels

I came home early from work today so I (finally) went through all my labels since the beginning of this blog.  I was trying to make things easier to look up and group like items, etc.  It took about 3 hours, goddammit!!  The main distinctions I wanted to make were for pictures and music.  I wanted a clearer distinction between which pictures (and videos) were mine and which I reposted.   As for music, I wanted the music videos to stand out from regular videos that I embed now and again.

Hopefully it is a little clearer now.  I have 34 labels for about 272 posts now so hopefully I have most everything covered and won't need to add many -if any- more labels.  I've never looked too closely at other blog's labelling systems, I just made it up as I went along.  No wonder some editing was needed, eh?  Well, if you see something that doesn't make sense just leave me word in the comments and I'll see what I can do.  In the right column, I changed it from the label cloud back to just a list, as well.

I did notice some videos on some older posts have disappeared, the ones that I uploaded directly to Blogger.  I also noticed that I can no longer upload a video directly to Blogger so I will have to learn how to upload to my Youtube account then embed my videos here.  Therefore those old videos will only be reposted if I feel the need.  Y'know, Google owns it all - my gmail accounts, Blogger, Youtube, and half the known universe by now...

Flowerbeds and Blooms

We got some yard and garden work done yesterday, so of course I had the camera!  Flower beds are here, but since the garden has it's own page you can read about that on my garden blog.

The Peonies are starting to open!

The majority of the Iris' are these yellow ones, but if you look close there are a couple pink ones and soon at least one purple one.  Many seem not to be flowering this year, so hopefully there will be more pink and purple next year.  The purple puffballs things on the right are pretty much done.  When they go to seed later I will sprinkle them around that same area to fill it out more next year.

This area around the tree is mostly hostas, the one Bleeding Heart bush, and lots of old mulch and weeds.  The long term plan here is to rake out all the crap and put down some fabric and fresh mulch.  I kept it weeded pretty well last year but it seems like quite the daunting task this year.

At this corner of the garage there were some lily of the valley that were not doing so well because of too much sun.  My wife replanted those further up along the garage and planted this lavender plant at that corner.  The plant was a gift from Zubin at our anniversary party.  Thanks Z!

Yes, all is right in my world today...

Bill Nye on the Oil Spill

I used to love catching his "Bill Nye the Science Guy" show.  (Also "Beakmans World,"  -as an adult, yet!)   Here he is with a few thoughts on the oil leaking into the gulf.  I'm off to look for an extended version.  Enjoy.

Google TV

This sounds interesting.  We still just have the 'old' kind of television sets, so perhaps a good thing to have waited to upgrade?  I'm not sure if it is really that innovative or not, I don't know the details.  And again, I don't really watch a lot of movies or tv shows to care too much, yet. 

Zodiac Mindwarp & The Love Reaction

They'rreee baack!  CD due out in September...

ZODIAC MINDWARP & THE LOVE REACTION's story starts in the year 1985: In a musical world of hairspray and spandex, two long-haired, leather-clad rockers were introduced to each other by their "exotic dancer" girlfriends. One, a graphic artist and poet, the other, a budding philosopher. They immediately dropped everything, joined forces and created the dirtiest, wildest band of all time. One year later, they signed to Polygram, released, the groundbreaking "High Priest of Love" EP, and subsequently the "Tattooed Beat Messiah" album, containing the well received single "Prime Mover".


You know I love the live stuff, hopefully with a new album they'll practice a bit more than they did a few years ago.  Case in point, below:
 

Super Sexy CPR

This has been hot lately, so to speak... Enjoy!

Super Sexy CPR from Super Sexy CPR on Vimeo.
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Anniversary Party

Saturday the 15th was one year to the day that we signed the papers and closed on the house.  Tomorrow, the 18th, is our 9th wedding anniversary.  This all added up to a Spring Anniversary Party at our house on Saturday!  I didn't share those plans here on the blog, maybe for my paranoid delusions of still wanting to keep a semblance of internet anonymity?  Oh well..

Hosting a party like this is quite a bit of work - a whole lot actually.  Last year I tried to get word out by word of mouth through the neighbors and just a few showed up.  So this year I stepped it up, a few weeks ago I walked up and down the block dropping off invites.  I did talk to some and just left a flyer at other houses.  We invited our small circle of friends, of course, and I actually invited my whole department at work.  Probably over 80 invitations in all, 50ish just from my work - I thought it could be fun.

Early on the plans seemed to grow beyond the party we threw last year.  We just couldn't have that kind of traffic in our little place so food tables were moved to the garage.  This year was definitely an 'outside' party.  We grilled up over 50 bratwurst and my wife spent about 6 hours prepping some great sides.  A fruit salad, bread salad that you have to try, broccoli slaw that everyone loves, and of course the incredible baked beans with apple.  Some people actually assumed we bought the sides or had them catered, I was so proud!

Hosting a party is nothing like just going to a party.  This took alot of planning and even during the party I felt the need to hop around and make sure everyone was having fun, not cornered in conversation or bored.  I'm a worrier, I guess, but I think everyone had fun.  A few neighbors stopped by early to check it out and many came back later.  Things started to liven up after about 2:00 in the afternoon and went past 11:00 pm.  If I had to guess, we enjoyed between 40 to 50 different people at different times when all was said and done.

I work with alot of nice people that have accepted me in the last 2 years, some grudgingly I'm sure.  My life has only gotten better the last few years and my co-workers may have even seen a change in me, or not, I'm pretty stubborn!  I don't put up with 'injustice', for lack of a better term right now, and have been taken to be a kind of watchdog in my own way for our rights as employees and union members.  I'm not trying to lead, I don't want credit or limelight at work, I just want what is right!  I invited my whole department and while very disappointed with the turnout from this group I'm sadly not too surprised.  I was very happy to see the co-workers that did show up though, it meant a whole lot to me.

When we had a party last summer almost every neighbor expressed how they always thought something like this should happen.  Something like a block party for everyone to meet.  And while Saturday was not really a 'block party,' many neighbors did express the same sentiment.  We met some very nice people that live on our street.  Every single one I hope to see soon again.   Although it was less than half of the neighbors on the street that came over, hopefully we can meet them all eventually.  There's already a circle of dead grass in the backyard now from the fire pit, despite the grill mat, so we may as well do this again!

I just tried to get across many feelings as concisely as possible, I hope it was understandable.  I didn't pay enough attention to get pics of all who attended, but I did remember the camera every now and again long enough to snap a few.  Click 'Read more' below to see the rest of the pics.