a rainy AM commute
just an AM commute | June 4, 2009 from pete kim on Vimeo.
just figured I’d record my morning commute into work using my Palm Centro.
just an AM commute | June 4, 2009 from pete kim on Vimeo.
just figured I’d record my morning commute into work using my Palm Centro.
Do you use search engines online? How many times a day (an hour?) do you type in a search on your toolbar or on a search site? Have you ever thought, “Gee, it sure would be nice if I could win a prize or be rewarded for all the searching I do”?
Well… me neither. But wouldn’t that be keen?
Enter BLINGO…
“the search engine with a twist. Each search on Blingo is also a chance to win prizes instantly. Enter your search in any Blingo search box and click the search button. Each search (up to 25 per day) is a chance to win great prizes instantly. To date Blingo has given away 93,512 prizes, and new prizes are announced on the site every day! If your search is a winner, you’ll see a new “congratulations” page instead of your search results. Just tell us where to send your prize, whether it’s a movie ticket or a new car! It’s that simple.”
Would you, could you, humor me? i’d like to try a little social experiment (keep reading) by inviting you to click THIS LINK and sign up to use BLINGO. C’mon… humor me…
I am skeptical, as I have just signed-up. BUT, supposedly, if I invite all my pals to join (that’s you), and one of you wins by searching on Blingo, I’ll win the same prize! So, the more of you that join increases my chances at “winning” something. So, let’s try this together and see if we can’t all increase our chances of a freebie or two or more!
There seems to be no catch. And it can’t hurt to use Blingo as your search engine (add Blingo to your toolbar), right? Actually, I would suspect that this is a competative ploy to get people using the Yahoo/Live Search/Ask engines… but it ain’t no big thang, right?
Are you in? Are you gonna Blingo with me?
(fyi: every link in this post is my referral link — except the add toolbar link — just so you’re not confused that I really do want you to play along and humor me… wink-wink, nudge-nudge)
^ shovelin' the driveway and playin' in the morning snow!
^ he doesn't quite know what to make of snow... he showed no excitement or curiosity -- none!
^ helping to heap onto the pile o' snow
^ on top of Mt. Susanna... elevation 5'6".
^ cuteness.
^ sliding down the side of the "mountain."
i went and got a haircut yesterday. it was long overdue… and the super-nice weather just compelled me to get a haircut.
i went and waited in line at my local barbershop. i don’t wait for any particular person to cut my hair, but i do secretly wish that two particular people NOT cut my hair. gratefully, i get to sit in the chair of the one i prefer! she’s an older vietnamese or laotian lady and she is super nice… what’s more, she cuts my hair well.
anywho. before she gets to clippin’ away, she recalls and verifies what kind of cut i want… and then i proceed to tell her that “one day i’m just gonna shave it all off.”
“what??!!?” she says.
“yeah. i wanna try the clean-shaven look,” i reply.
“don’t do that!” she remarks.
“why not?” i ask, thinking that she’s gonna have some professional hair cutting reason to not go clean.
“you’d look like buddha if you did that,” she tells me.
what do you think?
scary, eh? and i can’t help but wonder is she took a look at my gut and thought “hmm, he looks like he has a buddha belly.”
nah.
i still may try the clean-shave one day… one day…
if you’re anything like me, you want a bargain, right? you’re always lookin’ to see what can be done to get the biggest bang for your buck.
i think i got mine the other day!
i had received a gift card from my parents for Chrismas 2007 ago. it was a $100 gift card to Brooks Brother’s. and i hadn’t decided to cash-in on the card until the beginning of Nov. 2008. i’m not much for high-fashion and don’t usually go to shop in stores where the neckties are nearly $100 each… plus, the nearest shop was a good bit away out in Tysons Corner. i don’t know what prompted my parents to suggest that i get fashionified at Brooks Brother’s, but i figure i may as well go check it out and at the very least get a nice dress shirt for work before the Christmas rush.
(by the way, i didn’t know that ties at Brooks Brother’s were indeed $100 a pop.)
anywho… i walked into the store and felt out of place — like second-rate out of place. i perused the racks and then mosied over to the back where all the dress shirts and suits were. i asked a sales-person if she would take my measurements so i could buy the right size. 16 1/2″ neck and 34″ sleeve. i spied a shirt i liked… picked it up to check out the price…
$135?!?!?! geez…
i looked at another shirt… same price. hmmm… maybe this table is the “expensive” table… i’ll move on to a different table…
$80. hmmm. i guess this is better than $135. i poked around some more and realize that this is the “best” price i’m gonna find for button-down dress shirt. i find a shirt i like and walk out of there with $15 left of the gift card. what the heck else can i afford in this store for $15?!?!
I get home and try it on. ACH!! the neck was just a smidge too tight… besides, i prefer a little of breathing room under the collar.
because of a confluence of busy-ness, the fact that the shop was a bit of a hike to get to, and because of the impending Thanksgiving & Christmas holidays (b/c Tysons gets *stupid* busy at that time), we decided to hold off and go exchange the shirt after the New Year.
fast forward to the New Year… we take an afternoon to hit Tysons and exchange the shirt for a 17″ collar. of course, Brooks Brother’s is having a winter sale and the shirt that i had bought at $80 was now 50% off!!!!
instead of just exchanging the shirt, we returned the shirt and got the gift card “recharged” to the full $100 that we started with. then i proceeded to find THREE of the $80 shirts i could buy at 50%. we paid the extra $25 to cover the difference and i am a much happier and better dressed man!
maybe i’m just cheap, but i still think $40 is a wee bit on the pricy side. Kohl’s is more my speed — especially with their crazy sales and discounts… but that’s just me. ;-)
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FYI… did you know that Brooks Brother’s is the oldest surviving men’s clothier in the US — founded in 1818?
what deal or bargain have you recently found and have taken advantage of?
that’s what i yelled at my little boy when he decided to plant his face on my chest and bite down with his 4 teeth — OUCH!!!
i dunno how you women who breastfeed take it when your kids chomp down.
i’m just glad it wasn’t my nipple… i’m just sayin’….
New Year’s and resolutions. They always seem to go hand-in-hand, eh? Have you any? Do you feel like not makin’ any ’cause you *know* that you’ll probably fall short only a few week down the ’09? Have you given up on ‘em?
I know I have.
I didn’t set any resolutions last year. I did the year before and I didn’t quite get to celebrate the fulfillment of my so-called resolve.
I saw this post over at Kem‘s and thought I’d give making resolutions another shot:
This post from Chris Brogan is awesome.
Set Three Words as Goals for 2009
If you want to try the process, it works something like this: think of how you want to be successful in 2009. Then, try to think in even broader terms. Extrapolate on the broader terms, and find one word to hang the idea on.
Meaning, don’t think as much “I want to lose 50 pounds and get back into my high school pants.” Try thinking “Fitness means I’ll be able to cover more ground.” From there, you can say “ground” might be your word. And then, when you look at that as a word, you see how it can open you up to even more meanings. “Ground” can remind you to get fit so you can cover more ground. It can mean to be “grounded,” like someone who feels calm and at rest. Full post.
So, in honor of the tradition that embodies all of the “fresh-starts” and resolutions that the New Year brings, I thought I’d give you my three words as goals for 2009: Fitness… Simplify… Nurture…
Your turn. What are your 3 words?
i dunno about you, but when i was kid, i loved doing word searches, hidden pictures, and other puzzles of the like. my 5 year old kid likes them a lot too, and she decided that she was going to create a hidden pictures activity for mom and dad — and it’s pretty darn good!
can you find…
click image for answers
It’s not a big deal, but for a web-socialite like me, it’s always interesting to see what my “web-presence” is like — you can translate that into “how popular I am on the web.” My pal Carlos is always checkin’ in on the stats of his web-presence and I guess the rest of peek in from time-to-time too — well, I check on my stats fairly regularly too! (But it’s my 100′s — if that — compared to his 1000′s.)
So, his latest stat check was his rank as a Twitter Elite in the ATL. He sat at the top of the list and it is very likely deservedly so.
Out of curiosity, I went and checked on my rank yesterday on how I stacked-up in Northern VA (which is what I put as my location in my Twitter profile). I suppose Northern VA is not as specific a location as a particular city like Atlanta — Atlanta is Atlanta is Atlanta, right? It would be quite easy to muddy the mix and say my location was Northern Virginia or N. Virginia or NoVA or Washington DC or Loudoun or Chantilly or South Riding or any number of other viable location descriptors. And my town — South Riding — is hardly the hub of any significant metropolitan presence if at all.
All that to say I chose Northern VA as my location. I have no clue how many other Twitterers use Northern VA as their location descriptor… but of them, yesterday, I was ranked #4 in Northern VA.
Just for grins, I went back this morning to check (as if it were going to change over night), and my rank changed from #4 to #1!
Like I said, this isn’t any big deal. It’s more interesting and entertaining than anything else. And I recognize that the method of calculation at Twitter Grader is far from providing an accurate measure of my web-presence.
Still, it’s pretty cool consider that I might actually be able to have an influence in Northern VA! (That is a notion that I am gonna have to seriously noodle around!)
This is what my Thanksgiving plate looked like. I ate it all and then some!
The sucky thing about it all is that this was the FIRST time that I was so full that I couldn’t muster the stomach room for any dessert — how crazy is that?!?!? Now, my brother, Paul, who is 4 years younger than me, literally had twice as much food than I had on my plate, and he ate it all — it was scary!
And as usual, there are leftovers. If you could have ONE non-dessert leftover from Thanksgiving dinner, what would it be? I could go for more of the honey ham!
A family first — my family is gathering to have Thanksgiving dinner tonight — a day early. I guess I’ll get an early start to grubbin’ on some turkey and all it’s glorious fixins (and some Korean food like kimchi, too!). What does your Thanksgiving tradition look like?
While my family normally celebrates and gathers together on Thanksgiving Day, this year posed a last-minute changeup that had us revising the plan at 10:30p last night.
We were gonna all meet down at my parents’ house on Thursday — my brother who is in town from FL for only 2 days, my sister and her husband, the four of us, and my parents.
Well, my brother-in-law’s parents had called last minute to invite he and my sister, Mary, for Thanksgiving dinner up in MD. It could have easily been explained that plans had been made, but given that his family is dispersed and they don’t normally gather to celebrate together, we all agreed that it would be better if Mary & Joe went up to spend time with his parents, since they did extend an invite to them.
So… in order for OUR family to be able to spend time together, we’ve decided to advance Thanksgiving dinner to this evening, and have Thanksgiving Day free to do what we want. I suspect my brother will want to hang out some with his new nephew, Sam! ;-)
I’ll most likely be preoccupied and “ignore” you all tomorrow so, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!
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My blog pal, Brody, is initiating a “new tradition” he’s calling a Thanksgiving Eve Blog Celebration:
It’s a modest celebration and really I just made it up this morning, but it’s a celebration regardless. Basically what I would like to do is go around the blog world and express our thanks. You know, like you do at the Thanksgiving table? It’s simple, except I am attaching a number to it. I’d like us all to say three things we are thankful for. Three. That’s it. One. Two. Three.
Jump on over there and share with the rest of the blog community!
i logged on to take a peek at my blog’s stats (i know, i know… i’m a stat ho, ya know?). i saw some crazy numbers that made me do a double-take. after some poking around, i saw that most of the referrals to my site came from SlickDeals. WHAT?!?!?!
it’s funny how this interweb thingy works. almost anyone can make a connection to someone or something that someone says. on Monday, i posted about free Moe’s burritos today (Wed) and someone picks up on it and posts it on SlickDeals (thread here)… next thing I know, my stats for today go through the roof!
as of dinner time (6pm), i had 990 hits for today
my co-worker brought these back a couple weeks ago when he was visiting Ohio. i figure it’s a good a time as any given all of the politicking “poop” going on leading up to the presidential election.
we like poop here at the office (what a *crazy* statement, eh?). the chocolate-covered, candy-coated sunflower seeds are quite delicious! cardinal poop was what started it all, and since then we’ve had gator, flamingo, moose, and penguin poop! why not add elephant poop and donkey poop to the mix?
i couldn’t tell you which tastes better — red or blue…
and the gloating continues…
Somehow my fantasy football team managed to romp all over the competition this week, in spite of being one player down. After a slow, roller-coaster start, last week was the first time this season that I’ve felt like I had a chance at the league championship — we’re slowly pulling ahead!
And now, a reality-check… this is only the second week that my team has come out on top, and the tides can turn rather quickly and trend the other way… *gulp*
I’m not a stat-ho. Don’t get me wrong, I do like checkin’ them from time to time to see how my little place on the blogosphere is faring. But this one was kind of exciting and fun to watch!
Kye tipped me via Twitter that he had commented at Tim Steven’s blog with a link back to mine:
The result? From late Fri. night to Sun. night, there were 105 (and climbing) different people that hopped over here from there — in addition to any “regular” traffic I get! I had a total of 158 hits on Saturday alone!
What’s cool is how this blogging medium can enable connection and accessibility.
Tim is one of those guys that thinks a lot about church stuff in ways that challenge the conventional church and seeks to foster connection is the areas of faith, culture, people and church. Tim has written a few books and his latest is “Pop Goes the Church” — which I’ve yet to read but have been meaning to (but I say that about a lot of books!). I feel like I “know” Tim to some degree because of his blog and Twitters and the connections he has with some of the other folks I too have connected with. And I’ve had the “privilege” of spying Tim across a crowded restaurant when a bunch of folks were in town for the Whiteboard Sessions earlier this year.
I hope that both our blog posts will a resource and of some help for others. Afterall, we are a community, right?
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UPDATE: 7:15pm
So, earlier in the day I posted what I thought was a big stat for my little blog…
Well, it turns out that today was even bigger with 201 total visits of which 90+ that came from Tim Steven’s post. So, over a 4 day period, my site received 476 hits — it would typically take about 12 or so days to get those kinds of numbers. Crazy, eh?
I think you can call me a Twitter-evangelist.
I like Twitter. I like talking about Twitter. I like Twittering. I like “recruiting” new Twitterers.
What I like about Twitter is that it has become, for me, a place to meet new people and connect. (I blogged about connecting the other day.) There are some cool and fun folks out there that I’ve been able to relate to and even meet in person (here, here and there)
A couple weeks back, my pal Carlos posted this: Give us new Tweets. His post generated a ton of comments that provided a plethora of people who Twitter. I haven’t gone through most of the list yet, but what amazed me is the realization that my community — at least in part — has become connected with an online community! I do have and need real people to hangout with. But it’s also quite amazing that I can have connection with people I’ve never met! (FYI: my online community is mostly made up of tech junkies, authors, design folks, church leaders, musicians and other creative types, as well as people I know close to home.)
Anywho… I’ll need to go through Carlos’ list at some point and connect with people I haven’t met yet. I’d like to add to his list, but I thought I’d give you some Tweets that aren’t individuals that do a whole lot of bantering (check out the list of Tweets for that). Instead, I’d like to offer a small list of Twitterers that provide content — be it news, entertainment, humor, or other thought-worthy information.
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If you haven’t heard of Twitter yet, or aren’t using Twitter, why aren’t you?
I know, I know… you don’t have time, or you don’t want another “thing” to keep up with, or you’re thinking “why would anyone care about every little detail of my day?”
Those are fair and legitimate reasons. But I’d be willing to bet that you’d be interested to know (at least a little) what some of your pals are doing/thinking — and if that’s true, then I’m sure some of them would like to know what you’re up to! So, why not give it a shot? Why not try it for a month? Signup, get some of your pals to signup (’cause you’ve gotta have some friends to banter with), and let the fun begin!
So… what is Twitter exactly?
Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length. (Wikipedia)
Basically, it boils down to this question, “What are you doing?”
My updates are displayed on the my profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to “follow” what I’m up to or thinking. I can restrict delivery of my updates to those in my “circle of friends” or followers (where delivery to everyone is the default). And I can send and receive updates via the Twitter website, SMS, RSS, email or through cool applications like:
You can even post Twitter updates with photos via Twitpic and videos via 12seconds or Twiddeo!
I kinda-sorta live in Twitter-world these days. It’s just easier and enables me to connect with people more so than my blog. I’ve been Twittering for little over a year now, and it’s been a lot of fun (I like it better than Facebook)! So… if you’re willing to give it a shot, sign up for your Twitter account and you can “follow” me @ http://twitter.com/transitionpete.
I’m as skeptical about this as you might be… but it looks cool! I’d gladly accept this as a gift! ;-)
From the FAQ…
How does the Fitbit Tracker work and what does it track?
The Fitbit Tracker contains a motion sensor like the ones found in the Nintendo Wii. The Tracker senses your motion in three dimensions and converts this into useful information about your daily activities. The Tracker measures the intensity and duration of your physical activities, calories burned, steps taken, distance traveled, how long it took you to fall asleep, the number of times you woke up throughout the night and how long you were actually asleep vs just lying in bed. You can wear the Tracker loosely in your pocket or clipped to your clothing, even bras.When you get into bed, you slide the Fitbit Tracker onto a wristband that is provided with the Tracker. As you fall in and out of REM sleep, your wrist experiences tiny tremors. The Tracker detects and records these tremors and can tell you how long it took you to fall asleep, how many times you woke up throughout the night and the actual time you were asleep vs the time you were in bed.
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How accurate is the Fitbit Tracker?
It’s important that you get a good night’s sleep. Recent studies have shown that sleep quality is linked to overall wellness. Have you ever wondered why you still feel tired even though you think you’ve gotten a full 8 hours of sleep? The Fitbit Tracker will allow to “see” what your body is actually doing at night.Calorie data from the Tracker is very similar to those from energy expenditure measurement devices used in clinical research. The Tracker will give you a good sense of how your activity levels change from day to day.
The Tracker is also one of the most accurate pedometers. We’ve tuned the accuracy of the Fitbit step counting functionality over hundreds of tests with multiple different body types. For most wearers, the Fitbit should be roughly 95-97% accurate for step counting. We spent a lot of time ensuring that this accuracy is achieved even when you wear the Fitbit loosely in your pocket.
Sleep data from the Tracker correlates very strongly with results from polysomnograms found in sleep labs.
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How does the sleep tracking work and what will I learn?
It’s important that you get a good night’s sleep. Recent studies have shown that sleep quality is linked to overall wellness. Have you ever wondered why you still feel tired even though you think you’ve gotten a full 8 hours of sleep? The Fitbit Tracker will allow to “see” what your body is actually doing at night.When you get into bed, you slide the Fitbit Tracker onto a wristband that is provided with the Tracker. As you fall in and out of REM sleep, your wrist experiences tiny tremors. The Tracker detects and records these tremors and can tell you how long it took you to fall asleep, how many times you woke up throughout the night and the actual time you were asleep vs the time you were in bed.
I have decided to grow grass in my cubicle.
I found an “ornamental grass kit” (actually my wife did) cleaning at home and I figured I ought to get it set up at my cube. I *just* recently moved cubes to a window seat so I could indeed have some plants to tend to and put a bit o’ life in my space.
I already have a small pot that contains a few pine trees (at least I think they’re pine trees) — there are 4 of them. Anyone know what these are?
So, now I’m gonna try and grow a little patch of grass. Growing grass is a no-brainer (except when you’re trying to green up your lawn!)… so, I hope this little project will not fail and prove me right by not dying on me!
I’ll be back tomorrow to plant the grass seeds…
I rode my bike into work this morning… 8 miles in 40 minutes. Are any of you making any efforts to minimize your car commute (and carbon footprint) by walking or cycling to work?
Because of evening obligations most days of the week, cycling into work on a regular basis is not an option for me. But when I can do it, I love that I can get exercise and save on gas! Still, it seems that it just might not be worth it. Here’s the deal (and you tell me if you think it’s worth it or not)…
By car it’s 17 miles and 45 minutes (give or take 20 depending on traffic) to get to my work place. If I travel by bike, I either risk life and limb to ride in highly trafficked and congested areas, or I have drive to meet the nearest trail… and the nearest trail is not so near. So, I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I have to drive by car to meet up with a trail from which I can cycle into work.
The most efficient/economical place for me to drive to is about 9 miles up Rte 606 (light blue line on image) to the free Dulles North park-and-ride (red dot on image). From there, I can meander a couple of back roads and cross a major road (6 lanes?) for about 2.5 miles (red line) and then pick up the W&OD trail for a little over 7.5 miles (purple line). The trail conveniently runs right by my office in Reston.
Today, I woke up late, so I chose to forgo the park-and-ride and meet up with the trail right off of Rte 28 (dark blue)… which pushes me 4 miles more in the car. I hate the fact that I had to drive 13 miles to be able to ride only 7.5 miles.
The W&OD trail is a fantastic trail… the unfortunate thing is that it is a very inconvenient trail for me to get to from where I live…
The most economical choice seems to be OPTION 3 (barely), but the drive is laden with far more traffic lights than the other routes (and getting to 7100 can be a bit hairy). OPTION 2 is the most appealing — and if I could muster the courage to ride my bike up 606, which is a single lane road most of the way, then it’s definitely a winner. OPTION 1 is probably no good as a commuting option.
So, do you think it’s worth it? Do any of you that live near here know of any better routes?
Commonwealth of Virginia… if you happen to read this… you can help alleviate the ridiculous “sprawl-and-crawl” of our region by advocating for bicyclists — create bike lanes and implement more trails along-side major roads (a la Rte 7100). I know it costs money, but how much more could it cost to add a sliver of asphalt or gravel? Maybe I’m naive about it all, but it seems that trails that run with some of the major roads would make it easier for folks to choose to ride to work, thereby reducing the sprawl-and-crawl.
i find that i go through phases when it comes to music. i like music — i listen to almost anything.
but sometimes, i’ll go weeks before i listen to any music on the radio or ipod. instead, i’ll listen to talk radio — mostly sports, but sometimes news/commentary stuff. that’s where i’ve been for awhile now…
like i said, i go through phases and i’m all over the place when it comes to genres (although i trend toward most anything with an acoustic bent). the times i get to listen to music are when i’m commuting, out running or cycling, or when i’m cuttin’ the grass. so, my radio or ipod will run the gamut — sometimes i’ll do podcasts or classical music for a time… sometimes, i’ll do the mix stations or a bit of hip-hop… or do the christian tunes or hard/classic rock… or do the country or oldies thing… or drive/ride in silence.
now that i’m thinking about it… i just might be able to do all 80s tunes for a long time.
i think i’m moving into the “listening to music” phase. it’s probably because i’m about to take 180 mile bike ride this weekend — i’m trying to sort out what tunes will accompany me over the 3-day trek.
soooooo… i’d like to ask you all to inspire my riding playlist by sharing what tunes you all are listing to these days. what’s your bent and what bands/artists are you bobbin’ your head to… what music lifts you up and inspires you to press on… what grooves keep you movin’ and shakin’?
Apparently, toilet-themed restaurants have been around in Taiwan since 2004!
Check out some pics here and a video here and here!
Themed restaurants are everywhere these days.
There are Rock n’ Roll themed ones, restaurants where you can eat while sitting on beds, and even bars made completely of ice. But Taiwan has taken novelty restaurants to a whole new level. Welcome to Marton, the world’s first toilet themed restaurant! Marton means toilet in Chinese and in this restaurant you literally sit on toilet seats and eat out of miniature toilet shaped bowls (both the Asian squat-style and the traditional Western variety toilets).
The restaurant is the first of its kind and only exists in Taiwan. The creator of the restaurant used to be a street vendor. He sold ice-cream in a special plastic toilet cup holder which he designed himself. He decided to take this idea one step further and so the toilet restaurant was born. The restaurants use ceramic toilet bowls/dishes to serve a range of meals. Apparently he was inspired by a comic book character who would put crap on crackers. No joke! This comic is popular with the young kids in Taiwan!
The creator has now patented the idea and opened up several more branches around Taiwan. So if you ever thought the world was going down the toilet, now you have proof! The restaurants attract a range of customers but it is especially popular with young people and families with kids. Apparently it’s not all just about novelty value and the restaurant gets many repeat guests. As a result it has introduced a loyalty program so you can collect credit on multiple visits and then receive a big toilet shaped bowl. These are also sold separately so you can take home a ceramic toilet bowl with you!
Food is either served in a flat bowl that resembles a male urinal; larger main meals are served in a toilet bowl. Noodles or rice are served in a bathtub shaped bowl. Some of the most popular meals are curry noodles or rice because of their resemblance to….well….you know! Chocolate ice-cream is popular for the same reason.
[text from: The Great Outdoors]
i can’t believe this!!! my buddy, eric, just emailed the gang to let us know that our past has made it on youtube after he converted it from vhs to dvd to youtube…
the following video was created waaaaaaayyyyyyy WAY WAAAAYYY back when i was just about graduated from george mason university (circa 1994 or 1995). eric, was in a film class at gmu and needed to create a video (music video?). anywho, a bunch of the fellas hung out often at his townhouse on a regular basis, and he recruited us to help him make this video.
eric is filming… ian, rob, and paul do the acting… and i guess i make a cameo…
ian and i wrote and sang the “ATM” song ON THE SPOT… and i can’t believe how dorky i look — my wife even said so!
enjoy!
adoption.
all of our paperwork is in.
waiting for a referral.
we’re just waiting.
and waiting.
we’ve been waiting for about a month now.
they tell us that we can expect to wait about 3 months or longer.
we have forked-over $8000 toward adoption thus far.
more expenditures are sure to come.
waiting.
Tags: adoption
***gotcha*** but WHAT THE HECK???!?!?
I saw this Craigslist listing this morning…
ht: shlog
As you may know, my company will, on occasion, purchase a block of tickets for its employees to attend local events — sports and theater. They’ll reserve something like 50 tix and divvy them out on a first-come basis — and I got my confirmation today! This time go ’round is a trip to see The Lion King at The Kennedy Center in downtown DC — July 22. The seats will probably be nosebleed — just like when they took us to see Phantom of the Opera. Still, free tix are free tix — ya know?
First Time in D.C.!
Experience the phenomenon of Disney’s The Lion King! Marvel at the breathtaking spectacle of animals brought to life by award-winning director Julie Taymor, whose visual images for this show you’ll remember forever. Thrill to the pulsating rhythms of the African Pridelands with choreography by Garth Fagan and an unforgettable score including Elton John and Tim Rice’s Oscar-winning song "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" and "Circle of Life." Let your imagination run wild at this Tony Award–winning Broadway sensation, which leaps onto the Opera House stage in summer 2008!
"A major Broadway event… one of the most memorable, moving, and original theatrical extravaganzas in years"
–The New York Times
yesterday, we had my in-laws over for a father’s day dinner.
while i’ve grilled steaks before, this was the FIRST time i’ve actually grilled a nice hunk of beef and cared that i did a good job. we grabbed some steaks from costco in the afternoon — 1″ thick cuts of new york strip steak.
i seasoned with coarse seasalt, course ground pepper, some lemon pepper, and lea&perrines worscestershistershire sauce.
i fired up the grill to 500* and seared one side for about 2 minutes… flipped ‘em over and grilled for about 6… turned down the grill to around 300*… added some veggies with soy sauce… flipped steaks again for about 8… and DONE.
if i do say so myself… the steaks turned out AWESOME!!! They were in the medium to medium-well range, suited everyone (i’d have preferred it more medium, oh well). and we didn’t need any more seasoning — no extra salt or pepper, no steak sauce, no nuthin’ — just tender, juicy, yummy steak!
