… and it’s not even mine. drop everything. trust me. click on the spider pic below. read the entire post. that’s right. i’ll wait. the entire thread. read it all. go… i’ll still be here for you to return and leave a witty remark. it’s okay. won’t hurt one bit. i promise..

now… go.

… i totally got all of your attention with that title, eh? well, good, ‘cuz i’m about to go all doogie howser on yer asses and alert you to an often overlooked issue when people fight the common cold. yer very own 2 eyeballs can get sick too.

about 4-5 weeks ago, some of you might recall i had to spend a week in maryland on business. noh? well, okay… i did. that’s not the point. what IS, though, is that by the time i landed after the loooong trip home filled with coughing children & hacking and wheezing adults, i was terrified to get a cold. with my sh*tty immunity system, i always fortify on up before i travel, come well armed with Vitamins and whatnot, so as you can imagine, i was thrilled to come home and NOT exhibit any signs of a cold… even days after.

i did, however, have an odd pain in my left eyeball that faded in time, tho made itself even visably apparent with a nasty pile of veins that sprouted from my tear duct to the inner side of my iris. it too, went away tho, so i thought nothing of it. it “kinda” appeared/reappeared for about 2 weeks and thru a cold i got, but again, i attributed it to working hard, computer monitor eye fatigue and allergies.

then… as mentioned, i got sick. for the better part of 2 weeks i was miserable, weak, aching joints, small fever, fatigues and more. the cold symptoms even turned flu-like at one point, then settled into my lungs for some upper-respitory fun. seeming to have now conquered these rounds, i faced this new week with a glow, and alll kinds of positiveness… until monday night.

my left eye had turned back into the floating ball of nasty, swollen and irriated veins that screamed, “holy hell i’m your unborn conjointed twin brother and i’m going to birth finally through your socket!” it felt like there was a gynormous sand chunk in my eye everytime i blinked. tuesday i opted for a visit to a local eye doc who gleefully expressed after poking around in my eyeballs with light, tear-dying pigment and i think a golf club that i had a small iritis attack!! CUE THE BLOOD! PAIN! EYEBALL BADNESS AND ACK-ING!

basically, when tracing the looong story i jes’ wrote for you all above, i likely contracted some form of airborne viral infection during the trip or the flight home. iritis is the term loosely translated as eyeballs often getting the chance to host all kinds of baddies that we don’t even know about. often a normal immunity system kicks it’s ass, and you dont’ even know about it. (morning eyeball gunk is a sign of this often) but sometimes, your eye falls to the prey, and the results are much more dramatic than this pic that i found online. raised bulges often occur on or around the iris and can effect vision and even permanently hurt your sight if not treated. 

so yeaaaah, now i get to fwap in some eyedrops, 4X a day for 5 days to help my poor little eyeballs recover. amazing tho, how it’s allll connected. the virus started out trying to inhabit my beloved eyesockets, likely moved into my sinuses and/or dumped down my throat and developed into the cold, which, in turn, found a nice low-immunity body that loved developing flus and pnemonia-like upper respitory nastiness, only to FINALLY BE BEATEN BACK DOWN LIKE A COMMUNIAST BASTARD and return to my eyeballs to try again!

sooo.. take care of your eyes people! they are the windows not only to your soul, but also the infinite levels of SPARTA-LIKE wars that go on in your bodies! plus, you only have 2… so be nice.

oh, and yesh, for allll you ladies out there.. that pic does actually represent my eye color quite well. yup. my eyeballz are purdy….  

… who you are.

… how you voted.

… what your opinion’s were.

… where you stand.

… what color your skin is.

… what i do care about is that America stepped up, raised united voices, filled the air, filled the polls…

… and voted.

… i am so proud of us all.

… just over a year ago, i met someone. i didn’t expect to, for i was set up by and evil and sinister friend of mine who was moving and needed me to be a “lifter” during the day. she was set up too, for her best friend (my friend’s fiance) was also in need of a “lifter…” neither of us knowing that that moving day would change the rest of our lives.

“L, meet B…” and her friend disappeared with a giggle. “B, meet L,” and my friend disappeared with yet another giggle as he dashed down the hall.  we were left standing there in the hall, both holding a couch, and uncomfortably greeting each other and wondering what was going to happen next. 

in my noggin, i was attacked with the “omgoodness she’s so cute and wow i wonder if we’ll be able to talk and i wonder if she’d like to have some coffee and maybe even give me the time of day and see me sometime and holy crap this couch is heavy, etc., etc.”

… within days we were dating. we clicked. we connected. it was like a gawddamned freight train. it was wonderful. it’s been wonderfull. i love her.

it’s L’s birthday today. 30 years old. no longer in her twenties. beautiful. funneh. intelligent. an absolute joy to be around. a source of motivation and positive reinforcement in my life. i’m absolutely the luckiest son-of-a-biscuit around to have her in my life. every time i think to tell her this stuff, i always manage to blurt out that i don’t think i deserve someone as good as her in my world… she smiles (which makes me melt) bats those baby brown doe eyes and says, “yesh you do!”

i love you, L… happy birthday.

… i thought i was stronger than this. i thought i had free will. i really and truly believed that i wasn’t going to be pushed around this time. well, i was wrong. you see.. i’m not any of these things anymore. i’ve been shattered, torn apart, left to drift forever in a sea of… well, inna sea of purrrs.

that’s right peoplz. we adopted…. a…. kitteh.

omgoodness everyone meet, Kazi! she’s the most superiffic kitteh in da’ world i tell you. and last sunday, my special gal, L watched me turn from “stoic pet store shopper” to “pile of unintelligible goo” as my eyes locked with the cuuuuutest leetle 6 month old rescue kitteh from a Wenatchee Whiskee’s Rescue van parked in our local Petco’s parking lot.

i shoulda nevah’ gone inside.. but i’ll be damned if i’m not jes’ thrilled i did.  here’s some pics of Kazi’s first 5 days in our home. maddie and catch love her already, and have protected her from ruckus’s playful attacks. ruckus spoons her when they sleep in my home office, and they have played it up a lawt in the den as we’ve watched and laughed ourselves to tears. more later, ‘cuz you’ve jes’ GOTTA KNOW that kazi will be mentioned again.

needless to say tho, she’s a perfect fit, (note i didn’t write, ffffphpt!)  and we’re deliriously happeh.

(ps, yesh, kazi is named after her new father’s love of the kamikazi drink, plus… holy hell she’s fast!)

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… hello everyone! as most of you know, i enjoy posting occasional pictures of ‘what’s been goin’ on’ in my world. if you’re even an occasional reader of my blog, you’ll also be well aware that i’m a little weird. well… so are most of my friends, as illustrated in some of the following pics.

i love and adore all of my friends! those met through my wonderful lady, L, and ones i had already. it’s been soooo… much… fun to cut loose on weekends and hang wif’ them all! yesh, there tends to be some booze consumed, (i mean, i DO have a fully funtional bar in my den) some Rock Band on the PS3, American Idol singing (it’s a game, like RB, only vocals tho… and insults from Simon Cowell!) i also tend to BBQ burgers, steaks, chicken, whatever folks bring so there’s yumminess to be shared everywhere.  great spring, summer and the fun will likely carry on to an outstanding winter! woot woot!

HERE WE GO wif’ pics-n-updates:

i was excited about this, so deal with it. (tee hee) i finally got a bunch of late bloomer tomatoes for a fantastic batch of salsa. only 3 small plants, so i expected the harvest to be small. it was wondrous tho! (ohm nom nom) i also might have purchased the coolest limited edition battlestar galactica toaster evah’ (and yesh, that is a cylon seared into toasty-goodness-thank-you-for-asking)

and now, a sampling of Rock Band: no, not a video, but some pics showing the potential chaos when it sucks in your soul and forces you to play vocals, bass, lead guitar and drums. seriously, add some vodka in this mix and you have MAGICAL things happen. (note, some scenes below have commentary added for your viewing pleasure)

Shown above are two of my fav friends, D&L. read his shirt, and you’ll get the point of that particular pic. unfortunately, D met an unexpected altercation moments later when he was attacked and consumed by an odd, glowy, jowly creature with low tolerance for attack hugs.

… okay, i’m really not. what i am, tho, is actually nervous to post anything “gawd forbid” politically geared since so many people are so sensitive about what’s going on out there! i’ve already seen people stop talking to each other and even threaten to end friendships over each other’s political views! gaaagh! that’s jus’ sad and narrow-minded in my opinion.

i’m not a particularly strong fan of choosing sides. right, left, onna fence… none of those labels really fit me. i openly admit to being a late-chooser overall, but what i DO try and accomplish is a general knowledge of what each candidate stands for: their views on everything i can read from border patrol, abortion, gay rights, the deficit, education, general civil rights, international relations, the environment and as much more as i can view/read and discuss with others. i do the SAME with their veep nominations. why? well… dur… in case #1 gets whacked… we’re stuck with #2.

so, at the risk of alienating some of my ‘across the country’ readers, who i hope have an open mind and accept this man’s opinion and not hasten to judge my character because of it… i give you this:

i’m not here to judge people, but like Hank says on KING OF THE HILL, “That boy ain’t right…” (and don’t get me started on a certain gal in the pic above… and i don’t mean the cartoon character, Peggy)

… ugh. the day is inching by, and we’re not even @ hump-day yet. no fair! i don’t feel well, there’s nothing overwhelmingly positive on the news, i’m terrified to get my back adjusted tomorrow at a chiropractor for the first time since a nasty experience almost 15 years ago, (but i’ve seen the scans now of my spine…scary. think f**ked-up jenga puzzle tower) and the most pressing tidbit of news a friend of mine claims for today is “which version of ‘batman, the dark knight’” should i consider pre-ordering off amazon.com? cuz, you know, whether i have heath ledger on the cover or christian bale is sooo important.  My cover choice?

obvious…. bat-pug reigns supreme.

… am i the only one out there rolling my eyes over yet one more attempt to reinvigorate america’s currency? we’ve got more monopoly money peoplz!  while the rest of the world is slowly moving toward a unified source of monetary exchange, (’cuz clams are too heavy to lunk around) our country is commemorating the 200th anniversary of good ol’ abraham lincoln’s birth, by shacking up with the US Mint to redesign the penny with not one, but four new designs. someone shoot me now. seriously. now plz.

“The designs show milestones in the life of the 16th president: the Kentucky log cabin of his birth, his youth working as an Indiana rail splitter, his service at the State Capitol in Illinois, and his effort to preserve the union during the Civil War as depicted by a half-finished image of the U.S. Capitol dome.

The first of the coins debuts Feb. 12, with the others following in three-month intervals. The release date, besides being Lincoln’s birthday, comes a century after the production of the original Lincoln cent in 1909.”

wow… all i can say is that i believe this is stoopid. our government will now spend countless millions of dollars - to produce pennies! there are people FLOATING AWAY IN AREAS IN TEXAS, there are countless homeless (who possibly are some of the only ones who pick UP pennies, btw) that need help, and we’re spending effort and money on reproducing a worthless piece of currency.

to make things worse, i think the designs are completely retarded. perhaps it’s jes’ cuz’ this has been a royally crappy day, but this news really irritates the hell outta me. anyone else? DOWN WITH MONOPOLY MONEY! have you seen our $5.00 bills recently! aaargh!

… yesh, i am once again fishing for hits! i’m horrible, but i can live with myself. that’s what’s important, eh?

so, round two with the apple iTunes application recommendations! there are already more that i’d like to blog about, so please let me know what you like, don’t like and of course highly recommend if you have an opinion!

game #1 - Crash Bandicoot, Nitro Kart 3D - Costs $9.99 to buy and install onto your iTouch or iPhone. For anyone who’s ever played any of the Crash series on Nintendo, Playstation, etc; Crash offers fun racing, power-ups, challenging levels and fantastic graphics. When the app store opened almost 2 months back, this game was by far the leader. things are slowly changing now that games are being released almost daily with competitive offerings and graphics, but overall, this is still one of the best. it has excellent replay value and rightfully so with a durned-near $10 buck pricetag. my only wish would be some updates online. ’nuff said. A+

game #2 - Monkey Ball - Costs $9.99 to buy and install onto your iTouch or iPhone. how can anyone not love a bunch of racing monkeys stuck in orb-like balls? well, maybe some of you. it’s one of the most accelerator-sensitive games out there (which roughly translates to: your f**king monkey falls into oblivion a LAWT a lawt) but it’s still one of the most creative racing/timed games around. look for the youTube video demo first if you’re not big on balancing skills. app store doesn’t do refunds. A

… a LAWT a lawt, that’s fer sure. i returned almost 2 weeks ago now from my maryland business trip and have still barely caught up with all the work i missed, much less all the new work that’s under my wing now. also, for those of you who saw it and benefited from it in one way or another, i will post another “apple cool application run down” likely next week (this time, the horizontal screen recommendations! woot woot!)

kind of a cool note, not to say that my own blog is boring or anything, but for anyone who’s not used TAGS in their posts to create keyword search result interest in their own site… DO IT. my apple post generate 231 hits since it’s creation. hell, while i love you all and appreciate your visits… that ONE post generated more traffic than prolly the last years worth of posts! WHEW! cooh, eh?

anyhoo.. here’s some funneh pics from a camping trip we did with my entire family last month. ruckus got chilly bigtime and snuck into my gal’s sleeping bag, and the few others jes’ show some fun.

our dear friend Travis, returned for about 10 days from his “Qatar” contractor job where he runs a recreational center. while obviously the rest of that darned area is a warzone, Qatar is actually designated as a GREEN ZONE, so that means it’s relatively safe. no helmets 24/7 or flak jets. he’s quite happy there overall, makes decent pay, and takes damned good care of our country’s boys and girls over there. he’ll be there for another 6 months or so, then back again. it was outstanding seeing him, (he stayed with us in our guest room) and it was SAD TO SEE HIM GO! we all went out to his favorite karaoke bar and sang, drank and watched him get mauled by his groupies. good times and a proper send off to our friend.

be safe travis.

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… okay okay, maybe i was fishing (phishing?) for a hit or two on my site there with the title, but can you blame me? you should see my tag list! heh heh. anyway, hello everyone. i thought maybe that some of you might be getting tired of seeing dog pictures, house pictures, shots of me and my special gal and whatnot…. eh?

soooo, i figured i’d take a moment and review some of the recent apple iTunes applications that are available for people who either own the Apple iPhone Gen1 or newer 3G phone, or if you’re like me, you’re a proud owner (bestest gadget ev-ah) of the Apple iTouch! the application store opened online @ apple’s iTunes site/application about 2 months ago now, and boy has it been a hit worldwide. apparently drumming up over 10 million individual sales of misc. apps since then, it’s still going strong.

i’d like to have some fun and simpy share some of the games this week that i’ve really enjoyed since i bought and/or downloaded them as freebies. interested? read on:

game #1 - MetaSquares. Costs $2.99 to buy and install onto your iTouch or iPhone. I’ll state the obvious to anyone who’s played it, or is questioning the purchase. OMGIT’SPURECRACKANDSOOPERADDICTIVE! that is a good review, in case some of you aren’t used to my writing style. superior graphix, ability to change board designs and colors of marbles, and intense fun making squares in multiple angles to reach 150 points before the ‘computer’ does. brilliant game.. simple as that. A++

game #2 - Aurora Feint. FREE to download and install onto your iTouch or iPhone. a very very creative match-3-or-more gameplay concept with the added bonus of being able to slide pieces around freely from left to right. ADDED bonus of being able to take advantage of Apple’s “Accelerometer” technology which allows you to flip the screen from horizontal to vertical (even flip 180 degrees!) and essentially the cubes will tumble and match up or allow more freedom of pairing! There’s mining, crafting bonus skills, and other strange “power-ups” you can gain by using your mined materials as money in the Blacksmith area. another brilliant game… trumped only recently by my new metasquares addiction.  A+

game #3 - Bejeweled 2. Costs $10.00 to buy and install onto your iTouch or iPhone. most of you, unless you’ve lived under a rock for the last 5 years or so, know this game. it has one of the most gorgeous, multi-layer playing field’s around. from the game frame, to it’s background ’scenery,’ to it’s explosions and rocking effects when you connect 3-or-more gems in a row. the rainbow slipstream effect when you level up ALONE makes the game worth it’s pricetag in my book.  A+

game #4 - Cube Runner. FREE to download and install onto your iTouch or iPhone. it was one of the first free apps to be on the iTunes site when all this madness began. soooo simple to play, yet brilliant in that simplicity. exciting graphics? no. think TRON on your iPod, without jeff bridges yelling at you to TURN LEFT! TURN RIGHT! that’s all you do too… your forward motion is automatic, and you simply use the accelerometer (think gyroscopic!) left /right motion of your iPod to steer the little arrow through a maze of ever-increasing-in-density blocks as they speed by. simple. fun. addictive if yer killing time in an airport. B+

I’m off to Baltimore next week, so i’ll likely not be able to post much or see your comments for a bit. The following week, i’ll review the horizontal-held games that have taken over my world! it’s almost ALL good stuff people! have fun out there with the apps and wackiness if yer an iPod Touch or iPhone owner!!!!

… not for this weekend, ‘cuz we’ll be gone camping, but these shots were taken the day of the big BBQ blast last month. they’re jus’ some fun shots of the entertainment room which consists of her Xbox, my Playstation3, our Wii, Rock Band (which is in a classification all it’s own) a dartboard, the hottub on the back deck and of course, my beloved wetbar… (collective ‘ahhhhhh’)

the animalz love the area too, since it’s where we do spend a fair amount of our evenings together. plus the long hallway down to my home office has the best wainscoting siding down it’s length (made of solid awesome) that deflects all toy scratches as they bounce down the hall again… and again… and again…

so yah, a few of you have inquired as to what the area looks like. here ya go! now, i’m gonna go mix meh’a'drink!

i had some fun editing these extremely washed out photos with some filters, a threshold adjustment or two, and a color overlay to get some fun effects…. so… enjoy!

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what can i say people, i’m a star wars fan. i love the movies… some better than others, mind you, but overall you could call me a diehard through and through. until now. with a cough, a choke, and a leetle’ *hhyurrrk* sound, i spat up a piece of my soul sunday night after watching the george lucas “i don’t know what else to make” film, “STAR WARS, THE CLONE WARS”

as my chunk of soul lay fwipping & writhing around on the floor, i was swamped with a mixed bag of emotions over what was once a really important and enlightening part of my childhood that had now been stripped to ribbons and left to…well… fwip and writhe around on the floor. i kinda want to punch george lucas in the face and scream, “why oh gads whyyyy?” star wars used to stand for imagination, fun, innocence, a real battle between good and evil and created some of the most iconic figures that are known worldwide! while they’re fun flicks in their own right, the much debated release of the 3 past films, (showing anakin/darth vader’s backstory and downfall) & forever bumping/branding the original trilogy as films 4, 5, 6… lucas has now taken his once fantastical franchise and flushed it down the drain officially with a voilent FWUSH with this weekend’s premiere of his animated crap fest.

i know it was billed as a kids film. i know it was supposed to tell the story between Attack of the Clones and the Revenge of the Sith film (movies 2&3 for any of you who care) i know that there was supposed to be the introduction of some new characters for people to fall in love with. but how can we when everyone knows what’s going to happen? (anakin goes all sithy & darthy, all jedi and padawan get creamed, ben kenobi exiles himself, count dooku loses his head in the 3rd movie, etc. etc. etc.) so why do people care? it created an empty feeling of distance and resounding ‘meh’ during the action sequences and jes’ made me pray for a swift end… let me just skip over the plot gaps and questions this one creates too, eh?

the dialogue? horrid. even offensive to me if you consider the supposed ‘respect’ a young jedi should have toward his/her master as the newly created “ashoka” character began to verbally spar and act ’spunky throughout’ the movie. don’t get me started on the snarky skywalker “skyguy” reference and artoo-deetoo (R2D2) being renamed “artooey” by this malevolent twit further making my skin crawl…

time to backstep now and discuss the animation: cool as shit. i have to say, that i didn’t mind this type of animation for the movie. while statuesque and even even rigid at times, the characters were fun to watch and the movement was still somehow fluid. close-ups of the clone soldiers helmets, fabrics on the jedi, count dookus face and beard and many other things were brilliant fun to see almost “canvas-painted” results that i believe worked in bringing anything star wars to an animated form.

so… will i watch another animated film in the theatres? no way in hell. are there supposedly 2 more coming? yesh. (shoot me now) what remains of the star wars galaxy that george lucas can further destroy? a lot.

so do i recommend this film? while it hurts my soul to put down a star wars film… dear gawd no.

i do, however recommend doing whatever you have to locate and buy these shirts, ‘cuz they’re still MADE OF THREADS CONCEIVED FROM PURE AWESOME. 

… hello to you all. thanks to you all who read and/or made a best wishes note on my last post. those were read on the road during the one and only time i could find a wireless connection at a truckstop somewhere around north dakota or so.

what did i jes’ come back from you ask? well… here’s the nut of the whole past week’s experience. (with a bunch of nuts, i might add) my special gal and me packed up our stuff and drove NON-STOP to michigan for her yearly family reunion. when i wasn’t driving, she was. when one of us wasn’t driving, we were sleeping in the back of the SUV. how’d we manage that? well i’ll tell ya!

i purchased a full-size, 4″ thick tempur-pedic bed insert and lined the back of the vehicle with it. with all seats down, including the passenger side seat laid flat/forward, even a 6′3″ guy like me can lay comfortably! all of our luggage and whatnot was packed/lined along the driver’s side of the car and secured, so it was quite nice! (and needed) the trip was about 44 hours straight due to a unfortunate TomTom GPS error detour in WI, and the trip home was routed better and completed in around 36 hours.  

sooo, i’ll spare you all the details of the week’s madness except a few things. we were able to spend sunday and monday with my gal’s mom and dad in De Tour, MI, then we traveled to Kalkaska to her grandparents home for the reunion of her mother’s family’s side. (did that all make sense?) AMAZING people. warm, friendly, hilarious and genuinely good to be around. they welcomed me back with open arms and it was fantastic.  sad to have to go on friday AM to start the long trek home. is it good to be back and finished with vacation? hell no. good to have memories and all tho? helllll yesh.

i took very few pics this time around. my gal took about 98% of them. i have fallen into an editing role, which i’m quite fond of; tho admittedly, her work needs very little ‘tweaking.’ enjoy some of the artistic nature of HER eye. personally, i think she’s amazing. (her photos aren’t bad either)

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… i wanted to letchoo all know that i’m gonna fall silent for about a week or so due to a road trip planned with my gal. we’re off to her family reunion back in michigan. yesh, we’re driving and it should be fun. the plan is to get there in about 30-36 hours or so of straight driving. and yesh, i said driving. thankfully, we’ll not be driving behind this ‘disaster waiting to happen!’ insert your appropriate puns now. (sh*t happens, tippy-kai-ewwww, ‘there’s the honey shot,” etc.)

for the record, my friend Dan, of RECTIFY fame and fortune took the pic of his yuppie iPhone. needless to say we quickly passed this smelly disaster on our search for lunch!

why drive the miles?? simple. costs nowadays are amazing. it would’ve cost me over 1600 bucks to fly us, and as you prolly know, you can’t take a rental car 2-3+ states over and have it “covered” insurance-wise, so that leaves my leetle hybrid SUV which actually gets about 600+ mpg on highways. those straight and narrows are primo conditions for those badass batteries to kick in. yeaaahhh boyeeeee, the Saturn VUE’s 14 gallon tank will be jus’ fine!

so… expect pictures upon my return, both from my gal and yours truly. maybe some stories, adventures, and hopefully no mishaps. we’ll be in the U.P. (hip talk in Michigan for “upper penninsula”) and then off to Kalkaska for the actual reunion.

lurve to you all, have a great upcoming week, and i’ll be in touch! wish us luck!

… dizzingly happeh. (and yesh, dissingly is officially a word, thanks to me… right now)

Tusken Raiders at the Office

Don t Make Fun of Boba Fett
 

… as a continuing piblic service that i’m well aware this blog often stands for. i’d like to alert you all of the dangers of shopping at World Market’s “Cost Plus.” if you’ve never been in one of these stores, or perhaps yer town/city isn’t blessed to have one of these import meccas in it… well, play along anyway.

as you shop through the store, you’re bound to find some funny things. toys, foods from all over, imported drinks, seltzers, coffees, and much much more. furniture? they’ve got that too? artwork? sure. so much more awaits your hungry eyes as you delve deep into the importy world of what’s on the shelves. allow yourself at least an hour to peruse, play and be amazed at what they have to offer!

now, with all this glory-goodness said, one CAN find, if looking for it, some translation issues that will occasionally adorn a possibly innocent food item or whatnot.

i give you exhibit A and exhibit B

wow. um… sooo many bad places i could go here with this picture. (not to mention her silly grin) don’t ask me what either of the products are, ‘cuz basically my Gal and i broke into devilish laughter and tears after this pic was taken. in fact, i feared we’d be asked to leave the store, given how loud we actually were. i’ll leave the translations up to you folks, but.. well, there’s nothing quite liking filling your push cart with some “HORLICKS” & “SPOTTED DICK.”

*snerx*giggle*guffaw* omgawd i’m twelve years old and loving it.

… okay okay okay, this will be a slightly chaotic post, so bear with me. omgoodness we did so much! I’ll highlight a couple of cool things that my gal and i did with friends, then you can review some fun pix of all the madness! K? k… here we go.

FIRST FEW PIX IN GALLERY: i have to first say that if you haven’t already seen the new Batman film, “The Dark Knight,” then… well, yer missing out on a really amazing film.  11 friends got together on Sat AM for a noontime showing of the movie at the Seattle IMAX theatre. it was my first experience viewing the 6 story screen. (80 feet wide! gulp!) and i must say that Batman was the film to “break me in” to the beauty of the IMAX experience. think crispy clear, hi resolution and SO clear that you can see the individual pores of the Joker’s face during the movie…

amazing. i will not ruin anything about the movie, but i will say that heath ledger’s amazing in his final performance, aaron eckhart is also incredible, christian bale rocks again as the caped crusader, and michael caine again plays the dutiful butler/conscience and medic beautifully. 

we all met around 9am for a tailgate breakfast out of the back of my SUV and a truck that had a real 110v plugin for Pancakes (batcakes!), waffles, egg sammiches, fruit, bacon & sausage and juices! omgawd it was alllll so good! Highlighted in the pix are some early arrivers helping prep, some “batcake” attempts, hilarious (and actually good) SPRAY ON pancake batter, and a heath ledger/joker smiley batcake that tasted soooo good.

MOTH PIX IN GALLERY: last week i also found a “batman of my own” in the form of a HUGE moth that was outside my office. cool pix below show it by my hand for comparison, then onna’ leaf to show some of it’s utter coolness! where did it come from? certainly not a washington state native. (i’m thinking it got caught in a trade wind from down south and got carried up to us!)

GRILL PIX IN GALLERY: my birthday this month earned me a new BBQ from my gal. (she is the bestest evah) charbroil ‘RED’ is the brand and model. we experienced the bestest steaks evah sunday night due to infrared cooking and searing-goodness. my mouth is watering even now recalling how juicy and perfectly cooked they were.

MYSTERY FOILAGE IN GALLERY: i have behbeh romas! i have tomatoes! omgoodness i’ve finally successfully grown tomatoes on my back porch. i’m obviously easily amused, but damn they’re gonna be good when they’re ready. we sure are (ta’ eat ‘em!)

soooo, what did all of you do this weekend??

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… honest. it really does. at least in ‘catch’s’ case it does. he’s the funniest dawg. most of the time he runs when a camera comes out, but my gal has this way of getting him to come out of his shell. god knows i don’t wanna only post about dogs and yardwork, but damnit, life is good and catch makes me laugh so hard at times i almost throw up.

watch him cleverly try to ’suade my gal from continuing to film. he’s a total attention-whore i tell ya. (mainly i love how my gal talks to him in this clip. she does it to me too, results are about the same)