grrrr...

went to the airport this morning to pick up my brother, Steve. drive was pretty quick and no problems. a heck of a lot different than yesterday, when i was almost hit by a total asshat in a green, Ford wagon. jerkoff was turning (on a red light - don't think he even stopped) south on the street in which i was headed north. i totally had to swerve to keep from hitting the fool; i am so glad that there were no parked cars or other lanes. that woulda been a mess.

god, will you please make that idiot boy fall down and crack some teeth? i wouldn't mind if he walked straight into a door jamb either...as long as he sustains a shiner the size of...an eggplant or beefsteak tomato. then i won't want to kick his sorry ass so badly. thank you.

where tonight?

kitchen floors, hallway, and breakfast nook floors are being replaced this week, so we're pretty much eating out until saturday. last night, we went to get those awesome ribs at Bull & Bush. yum! for my sides, i got the coleslaw and black beans/rice. funny, the coleslaw was phenomenal last night and the rice wasn't so good...usually, it's the other way around.

ugh. maybe something ethnic or vegetarian tonight. a full rack of ribs sticks to yer own for a couple days...how do the strictly carnivore do it?

kinda right...

but not completely accurate: Which Of The Greek Gods Are You?


Poseidon


?? Which Of The Greek Gods Are You ??
brought to you by Quizilla

i'm not sure about the huge mood swings, but the rest is pretty much correct. so fuck off. no, i mean, PLEASE stay! isn't there a much better blogpile you can read ;)

not abandoned...

but sure as hell neglected. sorry about the lack of blogging...i just didn't get on the computer much the past few days.

went to catch 'Bend It Like Beckham' last friday at the cheapies. it was really good, although a bit long. i think it clocked in at less than two hours but the numerous quick happenings and plot twists made it seem long when everything finally came full circle. has anyone seen it? do you agree/disagree? i guess i would have tried to trim fifteen minutes from it, but the finished product might not have been as good...

anyway, Bend It... is about an Indian gal, named Jess (Jesminder), who longs to play soccer 24/7. she idolizes David Beckham, a star player on the Britain's national team as well as Manchester United, one of the top professional teams in the world. unfortunately, her parents would rather see their daughter go to university and give up soccer for a domestic life, hopefully settling down with a 'good' Indian boy and being able to whip out killer aloo gobi.

however, before she makes repeated attempts to keep her parents happy, she starts playing for a local amateur club team...which only whets her passion for the game; even looking to perhaps making a career of playing soccer.

i'll stop there and make everyone rent it, as it is being released tomorrow on DVD/video. it's very much in the vein of 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding,' but with a little less emphasis on the family and more on the protagonist's life and how she wants to make her parents happy...but also longs to follow her dreams.

hey Derbs, if you haven't seen it, you should definitely rent it for KK...but watch it once before you let her. there's one teeny weeny scene during the wedding celebration that you may not approve. other than that, it's safe for kids ;)

oh reaaally?

From What Kind of Thinker Are You?, which I conveniently 'stole' from Nelle's page...

You are a Logical-Mathematical Thinker
Logical-Mathematical thinkers:
Like to understand patterns and relationships between objects or actions
Try to understand the world in terms of causes and effects
Are good at thinking critically, and solving problems creatively

Like Logical-Mathematical thinkers, Leonardo based his theories on evidence rather than speculation. Other Logical-Mathematical Thinkers include
Isaac Newton, Archimedes, Albert Einstein

Careers which suit Logical-Mathematical thinkers include
Physicist, Chemist, Biologist, Lawyer, Computer programmer, Engineer, Inventor

not all is bleak though...

we went to the Mountain High Casino in Black Hawk last night, on the oldies station's (KOOL 105)dime. last month, i won a prize of free dinner (buffet) for two as well as $25 in cash. so we decided to redeem it before next week's expiration date.

food was okay; they need to put out less food on slower nights, some of it was looking kinda sketchy. service was pretty marginal. our server, a pretty, young Russian gal, seemed more interested in doing her sidework than tending our refills. honey, your sugar shuttles and salt/pepper shakers ain't the ones handing out tips... poor thing, maybe she'll figure it out soon.

aside from the mediocre food and service though, we fared better with the nickel slots! of the $25 in cash, we had spent about $15 of it when we started to hit teeny jackpots. all in all, we came out $50 ahead. not bad considering this trip to Black Hawk cost us just gas and a tip for the lame buffet server...

hmph...

well, lois and i were thinking of getting tix to the Simon & Garfunkel concert, scheduled for the Pepsi Center in late October. prices, although a bit steep - $54-$204, are not that bad considering this is probably the last time the public may see them perform together. guess they wanted to jump on the cash cow like the Stones or KISS (which is on its 3rd or 4th farewell tour). hey, people are nostalgic and what better way to give 'em what they want at inflated prices?

anyway, as i said, we were thinking of getting tix. unfortunately, i checked on the nosebleed seats the day after they went on sale...sold out. so, maybe the $85 seats. bleh. the 'best' ones left are behind the stage...WTF! we are NOT gonna pay that kind of money to see the backs of their heads! going to the symphony and getting the $10 seats are one thing (at least you get to see the conductor and a different view of the musicians), but $170?!? i could think of better uses...

what ever happened to 'affordable' concerts? i wanna see 'so-and-so', but i gotta sell a kidney first. they told me that a liver and cornea will get me fifth row seats...and first row center if i turn down anesthesia. sheesh. oh, you've got some cheap seats left? in what sections? ah...nosebleed, black eye, and teeth kicking. what are these...pro wrestling seats?

nice...

although it is the first day of fall, the outside temp. is 86 degrees. yeah, i love fall and the cooler temps, but i could easily live in a place that had 70-85 degree highs for eight months of the year; only then could i handle two months of rain and two more of snow.

we are lucky though. sure, Colorado gets its share of weird weather - sometimes even opposite of the norm - but it doesn't stay around long. could you imagine living in some of the more extreme climatological zones?

remember my posting on Dallol, Ethiopia? the place that averaged 94 degrees for SIX years? hell no! or make that HELL yes because that's what it must have been...

or what about you rain lovers? do you think you could handle the annual rainfall of Lloro, Colombia? in one 29-year stretch, it averaged 524 inches of rain...every year. i wonder if people invest in submarines there... heck, we cry about averaging 60 inches of snow and a total of 15.4 total inches of precipitation in Denver (when we're not in the middle of a drought). Monte Vista and the valley gets half that...

'course, we know nothing about droughts either. sure, much of Colorado is on a semi-desert plain. and we Coloradans cry about not being able to maintain a 'pretty' lawn due to water restrictions. well, to put it in Denny-ese, 'wahwah...boohoo...cry me a freakin' river.' ever hear of Arica? it's the northernmost city in Chile...and it averages three-hundreths of an inch in precipitation yearly! the Peruvian town that i worked in, Bella Union, gets a tenth of an inch. there are even some places in the Atacama Desert that haven't seen rain in 400 years! Phoenix, Albuquerque, Reno, and Alamosa do NOT know the meaning of arid...

really though, i'm thankful to live here...with our occasionally wild temp. fluctuations. i know that i got it good. Lois spent a year of college in Bogotá, Colombia, where (at an altitude of 8400') the temps are between 40-70 degrees year-round and it always seems humid and cold. did i mention that the house she lived in, only had cold showers? sheeyit. that's one thing i cannot stand. no way. i'd be out there choppin' trees down just to have firewood for boiling a couple cups o' water... tepid showers even make me shudder...argh.

so our freaky weather gives us small talk opportunities and the dry air keeps the lotion industry intact. it also supplies me with lame blog material...heh. go figure...or go read a worthwhile blog ;) scram!

spell vb \'spel\

friday night, we went out to catch a movie downtown, at the Starz Film Center. we saw a phenomenal movie, Spellbound. it's not the 1945 Hitchcock thriller though. this Spellbound is about eight participants of the 1999 National Spelling Bee. it is such a great documentary! the kids that they chronicled come from all different areas: CA...NJ...CT...FL...MO...DC...TX...and PA. some of them come from well-to-do backgrounds, while others hail from more marginal, blue-collar origins.

it is such a cool movie. the first half of the movie familiarizes you with the participants and their families, while the rest is focused on the competition itself...which is really nerve-wracking. some of the words with difficult pronunciations had downright flabbergasting spellings! it brought me back to the 1981 citywide spelling bee (sponsored by the Rocky Mountain News) that i participated in as a fifth grader. the nervousness...the audience...the quizzical looks when they want you to spell a word you have never EVEN heard (of)...the crestfallen looks of those when they hear the bell (*ding*), signifying an incorrect spelling.

the movie captured all of the emotions that are brought out by the pressure put upon these young scholars. some of the looks on the kids' faces were priceless! if you do see it someday, just wait until they show the girl who has to spell 'chateaubriand,' her horrified look will make you howl!

you know, preparation is not the only factor that makes a national spelling bee champion though. it takes level-headedness...a little relaxation...luck...and patience. as for myself, i lacked all of those components (especially the last one) ;) my downfall was the word, 'carburetor.' i knew how to spell it, i just rushed and started...c-r...and knew i was finished; you can't go back and change the spelling midway through a word. ah well, it was better that i was just a big-eared, bowl-haircut, ten year-old who closed his eyes, sighed, and trudged off the stage because had i done that ten years later (or even now), the judges would have heard a very audible 'FUU-UUCK' too :P

Hopelessly Trivial Fact of the Day: Of the past seventy-six national spelling bee champions, seven of them were from Colorado.

kee-rap...

i wonder if i'm developing an allergy to milk now... i just finished a big ol' glass o milk and it has me coughing a bit and stuffed up, just like when i eat white bread. sigh. i think i could get used to avoiding white bread, but i would die if i couldn't drink milk or eat cheese/yogurt. sure, i could do the soy/almond alternatives, but it's just not the same...kee-rap!

the human condition...

lately, i've been wondering about the types of posts that could fill my blog. i know that i always want to put down a signature pièce de résistance, but it certainly isn't possible. i also realize that people may not want to read about all my daily happenings. really, how much more interesting is my taking a crap than someone else's?

as my 10th grade English teacher, Barbara Arkin, would say, "Substance, people. I want substance in your essays." Or was it my European History teacher? anyway, regardless of the quoter...the gist of this small rant is just to give my blogpile some 'oomph.'

I think that I may try to have a theme three times a week in my blog. Perhaps I'll talk about an incidence in my travels, or a quirky person whom I have encountered in my life, or even a hopelessly trivial fact.

the title of this post is called "The Human Condition" because that is one aspect of anthropology that interests me greatly. my formative years were spent meeting some truly neat (weird, sad, you fill in the adjective) individuals who frequented my parents' restaurant. you meet all these people, talk about the weather, TV, Broncos, etc., tell them to come again or that you'll see them soon...and yet, you never really get to know a person; you end up lacking the pertinent facts of their lives. they're just going to come in and order egg rolls, sweet and sour pork, broccoli beef...and they're out the door again.

the person i'm going to talk about today ordered vegetable fried rice for a good eight to ten years at my parents' restaurant. his name was Edwin Golik-Golikov, we called him EGG.

rumor has it that EGG was once a Dartmouth art professor who just lost it one day, left New Hampshire, and made his way to Denver. he used to come in with his large gray sweatshirt, tattered leather bag, and an occasional beige, straw cowboy hat. EGG was a large man. i'm guessing that he was about 6'1" and near 300 lbs. he was in his 50's and had long salt and pepper hair, accompanied by a mustache and beard. he had a smile that could really brighten your day...but he also had an unstable side that could wreck it too.

when i was eleven years old, i started hanging out with EGG whenever he came in. he declared that, in a space of eight months, he had lost 50 lbs. by coming in every day and eating our vegetable fried rice. this was fifteen years before that obnoxious Jared did the Subway diet and the subsequent commercials.

for the next two years, EGG and i would spend a couple hours a day at his table, just shooting the breeze or doodling on pieces of paper. the doodles were usually rapid-fire pieces that we'd hash out by drawing a bit and passing it back and forth, adding to it each time.

EGG always had either a black, fine-tipped, felt pen or a medium point, black rollerball pen. he was a phenomenal artist. he could whip something out that would just blow yer mind. i smile when i think of the exquisite details he could add to my simple, amateurish drawings.

that was 1981 to 1983. from 1984 to 1990 (when my parents closed the restaurant), EGG came around a little less often. we still chatted, but the doodling dwindled considerably. in fact, i don't think we drew anything the last four years.

EGG seemed to be battling a bit of mental illness. sometimes, he'd be 'normal' and other days, he'd be moody and talk about strange things (i.e., conspiracy theory-type). in fact, when the weird stuff popped up, EGG would disappear for a couple months at a time and resurface, back to his old, jolly self. we always wondered if he went through periods of institutionalization.

even after the closing of the restaurant, i did see EGG on occasion. he'd call me and we'd spend some time at the Krameria Cafe. unfortunately, the last time i saw him (1992?), he was a bit belligerent and contrary.

just this past year, i got on a kick about searching for people through US Search or the Nat'l Database of Obituaries. well, i found out that EGG had died in August 2001. i had hoped to see him one last time. i'm sorry that i didn't try harder to keep in touch.

after doing a search online, i also found out that EGG was a well known advocate of mail art and rubber stamp art. i always wondered what circles he traveled, other than Chinese kids who hung out at their parents' restaurants.

a couple weeks ago, i came across a postcard of Jesse Hall, which is the main administrative building at the Univ. of Missouri - Columbia. i had addressed it to EGG, but never finished it. i think i'll make a tribute to him and tag-team doodle on it with someone...R.I.P., my friend.

nothing like a clearance...

i admit it. i am a slut for a clearance sale - anywhere. worse than a blue-light special bimbo, i lurk the aisles of department stores...seeking out the best deals on products that no one wants.

ooh. fish oil capsules...$0.70. what health benefits do they possess? hell if i know, but $0.70 is way cheaper than a sugar bomb soft drink at the drive thru.

lately, i've been scouring the clearances at Target. September is a good time to find shorts and t-shirts for up to 75% off on their racks. got three pairs of shorts and a meadow green t-shirt for $11.50. yeah, i know that thrift stores are cheaper, but sometimes it's nice to know that you're getting a new product. i still have yet to figure out how ARC and Goodwill even have the nerve to sell used undergarments. HELL NO! even more baffling...people who actually buy them. yikes.

i think i did miss one good sale though. i've been looking for a new pair of water socks to replace my super worn out pair that lasted me two seasons of outdoor v-ball. didn't use these until the drought hit the parks last year. i always played barefoot, but could no longer due to the harsh ground conditions. hopefully, things will be better next year and i can go back to shoeless spencer. meanwhile, i'll be on the lookout for some water socks - somewhere.

beepbeep

yep. the sounds of Donna Summer's Greatest Hits. i'm typing to the beat of Bad Girls...toot toot yeah beep beep. we all have some scary CDs that linger in our collections, eh? some even too embarrassing to divulge...

what else is in this stack of CDs...

a couple Swing Out Sister releases
Supergrass
Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66
Beatles
Supertramp
Mamas and Papas
Afro-Cuban All Stars
Mighty Mighty Bosstones
Duran Duran
Wes Montgomery
W.A.S.P.
Ella Fitzgerald

nothing too embarrassing. of course, i did get rid of about five dozen CDs that were just gathering dust last year. really, why have some music if you're only going to play it once a year (aside from those who buy xmas music)...or when you find yourself saying, "Why in Hell do i still have this piece o' shit? I cannot believe that I used to listen to that!"

hmmm...

looks like both Nelle and Dy are both cleaning bloghouse, dropping links and whatnot. i don't know how all of you in the blogsphere have so many reads and links...guess i'm just too distracted. reading seven or eight other blogs every day is plenty for me :) we simpletons can only hash so much info...

alrighty...

i've been trying to think of worthwhile blog topics, but i just keep coming up with those daily mundane happenings. so here goes...

recently went to Discount Tires to get rotated and rebalanced, just the tires though; i already had my own rotation/rebalance episode at Lakeside last weekend. my sister and i have been pretty loyal to Discount since we actually take advantage of the extras that you pay for initially. free flat repair? yep. free rotation and rebalance? check.

those guys were fast! i went to lunch at Kokoro's, expecting it to be about an hour...thinking i would have time to resume reading a book that i had neglected of late. well, for some odd reason, i could not concentrate on reading...so i finished my lunch and strolled back. about two or three minutes after i sat down in the waiting area, the kid drive my car out of the garage bay. wow! it wasn't more than twenty-five minutes! nothing like some good timing...

although i was thrilled with the timeliness of the whole thing, my car was not doing well after the rotation. it was pulling to the right side and making a tiny squeaking noise. it had me worried because i had stopped at a gas station later and noticed that the wheel part (behind the hubcap/rim) was really hot.

needless to say, i went back to Discount the next day and told them of the problems. turns out that one of the belts had broken on the tire and was the cause of the pulling. i was credited and received two new tires to replace the defective one(s). sure, i shelled out the extra $44 to cover the warranty stuff, but it saved me about $140 in tire cost alone...whew!

ick...

some weird worm just dropped from the basement drapes. i think it's only a couple of inches long, but it sure made a loud sound. at first, i thought it was a centipede, which is a pretty rare occurence in this house...thank god.

speaking of ick, i think i have to give up riding amusement park rides that go round-and-round. friday night, lois and i decided to go to Lakeside to get in the last train ride for the season. of course, that also meant eating evil food like ice cream, popcorn, pizza, and cotton candy...and then getting on a few more rides.

one of Lois' mandatory rides is the Tilt-a-Whirl; she can handle all the round-and-round while i prefer the up and down. well, this time we got spun REAL hard on the Tilt, and i was NOT feeling very good. i sat on a bench while she took a fling on the Scrambler. and about ten minutes later, i found a nice, dark, secluded spot to puke my brains out (which doesn't take long, but sure makes a mess).

thought i'd be okay in another ten minutes...i wasn't...so we ended up leaving, but not before spraying the vegetation (twice) on the side of the parking lot with the Sprite and water that i couldn't keep down.

undeterred, we stopped by the King Soopers on 38th and Sheridan to get some Trident, in hopes of eradicating the evil acrid leftover taste from the volcanic spewing :P the flavor helped for another twenty minutes, when i had to get rid of it because the smell was just adding to my nausea. by then, i was losing my mind anyway, clinging to the seat belt like it was the reins of a bucking horse. it was so bad that i had lost feeling in both hands when i got home. in my delirium, i was begging for a pillow and blanket so i could sleep on the floor of the bathroom, just so i could be near the can.

luckily, that was the last of the terror. yeah, i did sleep in the bathroom for about three hours, but made it to bed and slumbered for another five. that was twenty-four hours ago...i'm feeling about 90% better now.

i'm just wondering if i am now relegated to the slow, easy rides for all eternity. until yesterday, i hadn't gotten sick from an amusement park ride since i was a kid (regardless of what or how much i had eaten). i hate to say it, but i think my bout with Labyrinthitis in 1996 has left me more sensitive to equilibrium related things; i must have some swelling that never abated.

so look for me on the Merry-Go-Round. i'll be the guy passed out on the flying pig, with the empty box of Dramamine...

enough

i won't dwell on the last post. however, i'm desperate for another posting, so i'll do Nelle's meme...

How big would your dream home be?
I guess I wouldn't need that much space. After all, the bigger it is, the more cleaning and maintenance it requires. Something between 1800-2500 sq. ft. would be plenty.

Big dogs or little dogs?
I like all dogs, but I would prefer to own little dogs since they cost less to feed and smaller poop to pick up rather than shovel. I don't know what it is, but I have an aversion towards cleaning up dog poop...something must've happened to me when I was young and I don't remember it (or have chosen to block it out). Anyway, I'd consider some terriers (e.g., Yorkies, Silkies, Westies, Bostons) or French Bulldogs. Even a Pug or a Pom...

Would you rather have bigger breasts? Or a bigger bank account?
Um. Should this be altered (or augmented, HA) to bigger penis? Tell me, ever hear of a well endowed Asian porn star? Hell, are there any Asian males that are in the industry? I could be Long Dong Wong... Nah. I'd take the money for sure!

Whose butt is bigger, you or your moms?
Lessee here. My mom weighs about a buck o five...eighty pounds less than me. whaddayathink?

What's the biggest chore you've accomplished this week?
Nothing really major. Went through a stack of papers that I had saved for some unknown reason. Tidied up the cupboards, which were looking pretty disheveled.

Name the biggest thing on the desk you're using right now, besides your monitor and computer.
There are four things of almost equal size: a small lamp...two old Mexico guides that I should probably throw out ;)...and Robert Sharer's, "The Ancient Maya, Fifth Edition" (considered to be one of the best primers on Maya civilization). I think the lamp wins because it's in use - unlike the books, which are just gathering dust.

they say it happens in threes...

was just checking my yahoo page and found out that two entertainers, John Ritter and Johnny Cash, died within hours of each other.

i don't mean to be a ghoul, but if the 'phenomena' of show biz stars dying in threes rings true, i wonder who the third will be...

beware...

went to Hemingway's last night (well, Monday) to play trivia and gorge on their All-You-Can-Eat Fish and Chips. coupla plates and beers...we were good for the night. and if we hadn't have choked by betting 20 pts. on the last question, we would've finished third and won a $15 gift certificate for the next visit. ah well, sometimes ya gotta bite the bullet... twas funny tho'. i went with my brother, Sandy, and a good friend for whom i used to play (v-ball), Barb. Sandy is in his early 50's and has a bum knee that needs some operatin'...Barb is in her mid-40's and has had Achilles problems lately...and you know all about my bad knees and shoulders. anyway, we named our team the 'Triple Cripples.' ya think that would be a good strength for topical muscle rubs? you can buy regular, extra strength, or triple cripple...i gotsta market it...LOL

oh yeah, i put beware for my blog title because i should discourage anyone from eating five fried fish filets (similar to a 6" hand), coleslaw, fries, onion rings, and three pints o' Blue Moon Belgian White...you will get some FUH-REEAKY dreams. in my dream, i was walking w/ Wanda (went to grad school with Lois) in the late afternoon...past numerous turn-of-the-century houses, most of which were having garage sales. we strolled up to a tall, white, narrow Victorian and peeked inside. it was well-lit and had a lot of rattan furniture. in fact, on one of the loveseats was Lois and an unknown female...chatting...laughing. we walked through to the back and ended up talking to Lois' two male roommates(?!?) for a bit when Wanda says to me, "Ya know, I'm in the mood for some homemade cotton candy." I agreed...grabbed a skillet (wotdafuk)...and proceeded to make some strange concoction that resembled a cross between freshly picked cotton and a runny omelet. I can still hear myself saying, "Good. We can burn off the first layer and have a clean batch." It was if I was seasoning a pan with oil...

the last time i had a dream that strange was when Lois and I were in Bolivia. we were taking Lariam, which is the most prescribed anti-malarial medicine for areas with chloroquine-immune mosquitoes. the majority of travelers who go to Africa, South American Amazonia, and SE Asia, will be on this prophylaxis.

while it is so widely prescribed, Lariam also has a list of side effects; the most common one is 'the tendency to have quite lucid dreams.' there are others, such as: feelings of worry or anxiety, depression, feelings of persecution, crying, aggression, restlessness, forgetfulness, agitation, confusion, panic and hallucinations. in fact, the most extreme cases even led to suicide, but i think the numbers were like 1 in 1.5 million. still, i think there have been about a dozen (documented) Lariam-related suicides in the last four or five years...

truly, the worst things I experienced were really odd dreams of people that i hadn't even seen in two or three years. i did have one night of lightheadedness and confusion though. still, I was the lucky one. Lois recalls having horrific dreams that traumatized her enough to dread falling asleep for three nights at a time. she told me about a gruesome nightmare that was so lucid and convincing. it involved a lynching scene that metamorphed into a wild party with strippers who weren't just taking their clothes off, but peeling their faces off as well...revealing maggot-eaten flesh underneath...ugh.

if you want to read a bit more on this, here's an interesting page with personal accounts of Lariam side effects. i posted our experiences on page 32 of the guestbook...

okay...

sorry about the lack of blogging; i truly don't know where the last six days went. i do know (though) that i need to make a more concerted effort to blog. after all, i try to keep up on everyone else's blog on an almost daily basis. and, of course, i am happy to see new posts...gives me sumpin' to read and ponder. i bet there are some quiet 'grrrrs' when you get to my blog and find out that i've been a lazy bum.

i guess i'll start with a quick recap of some days:

Thursday: not much happened. i did (though) talk to an old friend whom i hadn't seen in awhile. he (Chris) and i were best of friends in middle and high school. things sort of dropped off after our sophomore years in college; he dropped out and i graduated. we remain friends though, mainly because of our penchant for certain movies (e.g., HK action flicks, Hitchcock, comedy, wacky horror). the conversation was a bit winded though - two hours. i'm kinda like Nelle in not liking to talk on the phone much...i have preferred e-mail for the last 8-10 years. i can guarantee that i'll get back to you faster via e-mail than cell phone.

Friday: went to lunch with Chris. had a coupon for $5.49 lunches at Sweet Tomatoes. i think i doubled up on most things - soup, full plates of salad, pizza slices, pasta boats, and dessert (jello and a dish of soft serve).

kind of an awkward lunch because he was in one of his contrary moods. i think one of the main reasons why we're not best of friends anymore is because i get irked with his occasional contrary attitude towards many things i have to say. i don't mind lively debates depending on the subject, but i hate it when a person decides to be obnoxious by constantly stating the opposite - so childish.

ah well, some people are better in small and infrequent doses...

friday night was a better. went over (w/ mom, dad, sister and niece) to the Burnsley Hotel to hang out with my brother, Steve, and his wife, Lydia. if you don't recall, this is the brother who is the professional soccer player turned Jungian psychologist. anyway, he retained his Denver office after moving to Albuquerque a couple years ago and comes back once a month for a week to see his clients. on occasion, he'll stay at the Burnsley because it's less than two blocks from his office.

while we were there, we gorged on some food that our mom made and either settled down in front of the TV or played some Mah Jongg. i played for a couple hours, watched the tube, and went back to gang up on our father, who is an awesome player. he's such a character... about ten years ago, he and mom were visiting some friends when they came upon a weekly gathering of old ladies who played for small change. dad was watching intently when one of them asked him if he wanted to play. he politely declined and claimed he didn't know how to play...HA! sheyiit, he's the best player in the house! anyway, the old ladies 'taught' him how to play and he joined in. little did they know they invited a hungry shark to the table because dad proceeded to wipe them out and went home $90 richer.

more stuff soon...I PROMISE

a quickie blog...

don't rush for a cigarette afterwards though. i have yet to reach the Kama Sutra levels of blogging...

i just wanna see how much i can blog in about ten or fifteen minutes. say, isn't that how long it takes most guys for certain things? you know what i mean...

a recap of the last two days:

didn't make the time to go to Taste on monday. went to Home Depot and got some paint stuff (lois has a huge 1926 boiler in her basement that's easier and cheaper to keep than risk asbestos removal), a really pretty dark purple mum, no waste wild bird food, and some other assorted goods that would just have your eyes rolling or drooping.

nothing really exciting though. that night, we made some burgers and veggies. lois was really craving the veggies because the trip to texas was pretty much devoid of the veggie variety that we ingest here. i know i feel clogged sometimes on texas trips ;)

yesterday was good and bad... for the good, i got to hang out with my friend, Cindy (the one with the Tom Hanks story). she showed up in her new Toyota Corolla and let me drive it while we went for lunch, visited a mutual friend, and went grocery shopping.

lunch was at Heidi's Brooklyn Deli, which just opened a fourth location about a half mile from Lolis' house. really high quality deli meat! i had the Ressler's Reuben, which has pastrami instead of the typical corned beef. mmmm. there's nothing like a good pastrami sandwich. well, rare roast beef is a fave of mine too... one small note though, skip the coleslaw and potato salad...not very good...get chips with yer sandwich.

hanging out with cindy was great fun, as usual. unfortunately, the day was shitty too. i had spaced the fact that the street sweeper comes by the first tuesday of every month between April and November. and on lolis' street, you get ticketed if you're parked on the west side on street sweepin' day. so, guess who decided to throw $20 out the window...yep. that's me, the guy banging his head against his steering wheel... it just sucks because on my street, there's no penalty if you're parked when the street sweeper comes by. argh.

well, my ten minutes are up. did you hafta turn the music up really loud? must NOT fall ASLEEP reading this blogpile...

yay!

lolis made it back from Texas last night. i wasn't expecting her until tonight or even tomorrow because she was talking about hanging out a bit longer. the dogs, of course, are thrilled and are causing trouble now. funny, they're so good when she's gone. i guess they're worried that she'll never come back and believe that only by minding their P's and Q's will she reappear ;) anyway, she's pretty exhausted. she left at 5AM and got here around 7PM. ick. i've never liked driving more than 4-500 miles alone. ya gotta have another driver to keep you sane on those long stretches...

after reading Nelle's multiple blogs today, it got me craving food booth hopping at the Taste! i admit that it's a yearly ritual for me as well. although i haven't gone on consecutive days in many years, it's always fun to see what things people are selling...catch a free concert...and grub big time! i'm just wondering how people are sneaking in dogs if they were checking bags last year for contraband water bottles. have they loosened some of the security?

hopefully, we'll be able to go early and see my brother, Sandy. he'll be working at the Mustard's Last Stand food booth. for the past four years, he's been managing the Denver store (near University and Evans). usually, he gets stuck working the whole weekend at the Taste booth and never gets to wander around or catch a music performance. i saw him last wednesday though and he said he lucked out, only having to work monday at Taste.

the festival sure has grown though. i do remember seeing the likes of Three Dog Night, America, and Grand Funk in concert over the past 16 or 17 years i've been attending. i even worked a booth in 1990, when i worked for the Harvest. back then, only about 300,000 people attended over the holiday weekend (now it's like 500K). anyway, i will never forget all those Turkey Cashew Crunch sandwiches, Swiss Granolas, cookies, and Apple Crumb Cakes that we sold...and frying in that hot sun (our booth faced west and some of the trees were much shorter than today).

both the People's Fair and Taste of Colorado are definitely two of the most fun summer gatherings. you can find so many different and cool things all in one place! then again, going to Mile High Flea Market is just about the same ;) i was reading an article on the history of Taste and (apparently) the festival didn't turn a profit the first year. i think it was around $20,000 in the red... still, that's a lot better than the Cherry Creek Arts Festival, which has lost money five years running. one sign of the tapering (no, plummeting) attendance for CCAF is that you didn't have to fight for a parking space in front of Lois' house (which is four blocks away).

ya know, i wonder if Denny and Lowa have considered showing at the People's Fair. a few years ago, one of my friends, Phillip Ginn, rented a booth with his wife and made some good money. he told me that the booth rental for the People's was WAY cheaper than Taste... something to ponder, D&L (is that like S&M?)!

and if there's time tomorrow, maybe we'll head on over to Lakeside to ride the train. yeah, i know that Six Flags is way better, but i'm a nostalgic type-o-guy. my parents used to take us to Lakeside when we were little...to ride the train...feed the catfish...skin our knees in the Fun House (which is gone)...cause brain damage by crashing the shit out of the bumper cars...etc. besides, now that i'm older (and wimpier), $6.95 unlimited ride passes (or $.10 ride tix) on Labor Day weekend are about my speed...once a year for some cheap entertainment and time to admire some of the original architecture. the archaeologist in me appreciates the 'old school' side of the park, which is now 95 years old. today, we only appreciate an amusement park if the rides are downright traumatizing and bladder bursting. you want scary? 60-70 mph roller coasters ain't nuthin'! try riding a ferris wheel in Mexico that runs on a tractor engine...spews sparks and fumes...groans with every pass...turns about 4x faster than the typical american f-wheel...and the freakin' ride lasts 10 minutes (not 3-4). i was scared shitless thinking that the sparks would set the wheel afire the exact same time it would break free and we'd roll down the plaza, stopped only by the massive church wall. puh-leeze! russian roulette is safer!