An open letter

Dear Girl in Short, Snug White Shorts and a Thong Stretching at LA Fitness Tonight:

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Matt

A note to all

Ok, I stole this, but it is good advice for everyone. I might just go and see a movie this weekend, now that I think about it. A little Batman Begins sounds good.

Nothing else for today. Except I had a great sandwich - German bologna and provolone on an onion roll. Oh my it was tasty. And, to stay healthy, carrots, grapes, couscous, and some water. Good thing the sandwich was tasty. :P

Maybe I need a Twinkie . . .

I like to twist the fun handle

Ok, 99% of you need to get your minds out of the gutter. That's a motorcycle reference.

It was a pretty good weekend. About 15F warmer than I'd have liked. Left work a little early on Friday, loaded the bike and hit the highway. 162.5 miles and 3hrs 15min from my door to DC. Temp ranged from 92-100F. Saw 2 accidents, 3 complete stops/stop-and-go and one instance of a young man standing by his car with his hands up while 4 cops point guns at him. And that was on 476, not in DC. Everyone in their cars behind the cops were on their cell phones :p

Friday night went for paella (yum!) and sangria. Great food, great company. Saturday morning took the train into DC, walked a little, saw the Freer and Sackler museums (mostly Asian art) and had a red/white/blue ice pop (they were bomb pops when I was a kid. Now an All American Freedom pop or something.)

Stopped by The Asylum Motorcycle Bar and Lounge (http://cityguide.aol.com/washington/bars/venue.adp?sbid=102200553) for a couple (ok, 3) Woodchuck ciders and some of the best fries with cheese and chili ever eaten by man or beast. Yum. Decided to nap as the show started late.

Went to an organic Italian restaurant for dinner. Again, yum. Salad, multi-mushroom pizza, and a rush to the CVS for Benedryl. My poor dinner companion had an allergic reaction to something in the food. Damned all natural food!

Finally, to the Velvet Lounge (http://www.velvetloungedc.com/) for the show. Met the band (The Blackout - http://www.theblackoutdc.com), gave leftover pizza to Patrick (vocals, guitar, etc.) and had a couple of Raz&Tonics. Also met Kim - biker, photographer, tough chick, cool chick. Liked her and the band immediately.

Hello Tokyo (http://www.hellotokyomusic.com) was the first act. They were really good, the best I might expect from a little venue like this. Their drummer is also a pro rollerblader, so she (yes, *she*) was absent, but they had their drum parts on a laptop. The wonders of technology. Check them out online and go see them if you have the chance.

The Blackout took the stage next, the crowd become larger (and more packed in - I'm too old for a late-night, all standing show), and the music started. Oh, my gosh. They were great. I could not believe how well they played (especially impressed by Patrick on guitar and the drummer) and how good the songs were. These are real musicians. Check them out, too, and see what I mean.

We cut out early as, well, I'm old and someone had taken an antihistamine %^) Argued with the 3rd taxi driver of the weekend (are they all idiots?) and got to sleep at . . don't know when. But sleep was had. Then wake. Off to a fab brunch complete with mimosa and whole grain waffles. Packed the bike and headed north.

The return trip was about 3 miles longer, only one traffic slow down, 3F cooler (on average) and just under 3 hours. And I had a blast dodging in and out of traffic, twisting the fun handle.

Thursday - quick update

Well, no trip report yet. Been busy busy busy with work and trying to get caught up on regular stuff at home. I did get a new water heater and sump pump installed along with new water valves that don't drip on the basement floor. The landlord is doing some catching up on past-due maintenance. And a lease should be coming soon.

Trying to get through my paper writing (I actually enjoy it, it's just been hard to concentrate. Everytime I think I can work on it in the office, some of the current project pops up and I can't (the paper is on a past project). C'est la arbeiten.

Heading to DC tomorrow night for the weekend. Got the new Sargent seat for the VFR. Won't have time to put the new fairing on, but that's ok. The duct tape's been good enough for a year :) I kind of like it, actually. I don't care about the aesthetics, it's the "don't work right" that bothers me.

To think I used to have nights with nothing to do. I may have to drop Netflix again as the economics aren't there anymore. No, that's not a complaint - I'm loving my social schedule :)

I need the What-If Machine

Well "need" is correct. Just would be interesting to run this scenario through it.
The CTO asked me today if I'd be interested in moving to Gilbert (Phoenix suburb). Would things have been different if that offer had been there a year ago? Mebbe, mebbe not.

And, I'd also need the Thinglonger for pushing the what-if button. (I hope you are all up on your Futurama references. If you aren't, you won't laugh when I mention that they renamed Uranus.)

London trip report - in process

Well, it's not even in process really. I started a note on the PDA on day 1. Then I couldn't get WiFi access and found writing on the PDA for a whole trip sucks, so I just started taking notes. Along with the 410 or so photos I took, it'll be a hell of a report.

Cheryl gets a big thanks for showing me around London. It is a beautiful, wonderful city and I'm very glad I went. It's easy to get around and there is so much to see. The people are very kind and helpful. The only downside is that it's expensive. The way I got along was to ignore the exchange rate and pretend that pounds were dollars. That pint that cost a fiver didn't seen so expensive then (note: exchange rate is about $1.77 to 1 pound - that beer was $9).

And Ray, Big Ben was gentle.

More later this week.

PDA POSTING

Oh, this is going to be slick. Splurging on the wireless capability was the way to go.

Expect updates from London!

Long weekend - tree chopping, riding, German food

Well, I forgot the photos from Friday night's German food fest. I'll try to put them up tomorrow in order to show everyone what a huge meal of sauerbraten, blaukraut, knoedel, and spaezle looks like. Also the special spaezlinguini (where the spaezle end up very long, but still tasty).

Horst, Josephine, Sylvia and I had a good time, though we ate enough for 10 people.

Saturday was 6 hours of chopping, draggin, and chipping trees in the Poconos. Glad we could help (I think 10 or 12 of us got about half the stuff done) and also glad for the exercise. Renting a large chipper was a very smart idea.

Sunday was moto riding day. First, out to Marsh Creek, then French Creek, then Lancaster, Intercourse, Paradise, and finally the long haul up to Kutztown for the last day of the German Festival. The Pennsylvania German dialect was strange to us (even the German girl), but the food was tasty. Again, too much riding time in the hot sun made for a long day. We saw 101F at one point blitzing down the NE extension. Yuck! From now one - night riding.

Now, 4 days to get some work done and get ready for the London trip. My new PDA is wireless capable, so I hope to be able to update the blog from the UK. If not, you'll just have to wait for the photos :)

Your weekend look-ahead

Don't know if I'll have time to post over the weekend, so I'll wish my good friend, Scot, a Happy Birthday now. Damn, to think I've known you for almost 19 years. Yikes! I think you are my longest non-relative relationship. That's so sad. :)

Tonight Horst, Sylvia, and Josephine are coming over for dinner. I'll have to remember to take some photos of another fabulous meal (we decided to splurge and get TWO large pizzas). Since the Twister game went to Trevor and Erin, we'll have to make do with a movie. Sylvia does such a good Tommy Chong impression, I rented "Up in Smoke".

Tomorrow is tree cutting at Jim's cabin in the Poconos, tomorrow night could be fun/party/who knows what, but may also be me-so-tired-must-shower-and-sleep. We will see.

Sunday, yes, yet again I will say housecleaning and working on this paper (which I can't seem to make a lot of progress on).

Too much noise

How am I supposed to get my blog done with all these people talking so loudly at work? Sheesh!

Not much today. Wednesday, more thunderstorms, woke up late (thought the 8hrs of sleep still felt good). Didn't get much done on my paper last night and 1st draft is due Friday. Yikes! I guess I know what I'm doing tonight and tomorrow night.

Happy birthday to Ann today. I'm sure she won't see this, but send happy vibes her way.

Everyone got all his fingers?

It's been years since I played with fireworks. Been awhile since I even bothered to go somewhere and see them. Spent last night in someone's backyard seeing the little twinkles over the other houses. Good enough for me. I ask for little.

I concentrated on rest and sleep this weekend and I think it's paying off. Feeling much better. Maybe I can even start exercising soon. Would be nice as my appetite is back and I have purchased new, smaller clothes.

I dropped my idea for a 2nd motorcycle. Decided it's more responsible to save up some money, especially as I may need to refinance the car (the ol' pickup is on its last legs and Becky needs to replace it soon). I guess there'll be divorce costs coming up, too. (First time I thought about that. Good kickoff for the week.)

I think I'll finally replace the tweaked VFR parts (fairing hasn't fit right since Becky put it in the ditch in GA last summer). Then I won't have to duct tape the windshield down anymore. I don't mind the scratches and such, but I can't have parts falling off while I ride.

Enjoy the short work week. I have the feeling I have too much planned for this week and I'm going to have to cut some out. Weekends are filling up, weeknights are filling up, I'm falling farther behind on things I need to do at home and in my professional life. Time to reorganize, reprioritize, and get some stuff done.

A Day of Relaxation

The NyQuil knocked me out last night (NyQuil - I love that zoned out feeling, like really good jet lag or a relaxed wine buzz). Thought I'd get up early, load the VFR, hit the road for destination unknown.

Woke at 6:30, fed Lily, says to myself, "Self, ain't no reason to get up. Go back to bed." Got up at 9:30. Much better.

Did some dishes, laundry, mowed/trimmed the lawn. New pants, shorts & belt (can no longer pull the belts tight enough to hold up my too-big pants). Many socks, pepper grinder, etc.

Watched some bad "remember the 80s" stuff, took a nap, now thinking about a movie.

It was a good day over all. Nice and relaxing. Only a little sore throat left and this stupid sinus headache which should be fading. Thinking about a 10pm movie. We shall see. It's all good any way it goes.

Finally Friday

For a three-day week, it sure seemed like it was a long one. Now for a three-day weekend.

Won't be too much fun and adventure as I'm still sick; recovering nicely, though.

Well enough, in fact, to be thinking of a long motorcycle weekend, just me and the GPS heading who-knows-which direction. Also well enough to search the web for a second bike :) Had been thinking R6 or 600R, but now going back to an earlier idea of something small. Current hot thought - Aprilia RS50. Unlike the RS250, the 50 is street legal and registers as a scooter. Mmmm, fun commuting and on the race track.

Everyone have a fun holiday weekend, 'k?