A few small things that made me smile...

First off, you know those girls you see in cars that are either really small and really expensive or really big and really expensive? They are usually wearing white framed sunglasses, look a little bored to be in the car, and are just way too attractive for their own good? You know those girls. They're everywhere. I saw one yesterday while waiting to cross the street, and she was digging out the biggest booger ever. Just swirlin' away up in there. She even checked her nose in the mirror, decided it wasn't booger free enough, and went back at it. I guess some people don't realize that glass is clear. I guess one could take small comfort in the fact that she made it to her destination with nasal passages free of obstruction.

Second, we may have found a house to buy yesterday. I don't want to get my hopes up because the other two times we went through the house buying process, we didn't get the first one we put an offer in on, and why should this time be any different? Still, the house is nice and the price is right, so I can't help but be a little excited. I missed out on the Smallville* premiere and ER to go look at that house and I am not one bit sorry for that.

Does anybody else think Jessica Alba has an odd skin tone? It isn't quite olive like most people of Latino descent, and it isn't quite white-girl-with-a-tan either. Not that it makes her any less attractive, mind you. Which, as the Nerd I am, I only realized once she started doing comic book movies.

The week of new shows has been pretty okay, I guess. Heroes was awesome as usual, though I don't think they can push it too far past two seasons. Twin Peaks taught us that the public can only take so much weirdness without a pay-off (I'm lookin' at YOU, Lost).Bionic Woman kind of sucked. The villain was way better than the heroine, and Miguel Ferrer needs to stop accepting the same role over and over again(He plays the same guy he played in Point of No Return and RoboCop, and a dozen other shows and movies). And it another in a new crop of shows that have British actors playing Americans, ala House. Bionic Woman, Life, Journeyman... All Brits. WTF, Mate? Reaper was awesome and funny and poorly edited and I hope it lasts past this season. We get the gift of Ray Wise, another RoboCop/Twin Peaks alumni, like Ferrer, ad the Devil, and he's fantastic. I missed a few I wanted to see that I'll have to catch in re-runs. Medium is back in January. I am very sad to see The Dresden Files wasn't picked up for a second season, and that Veronica Mars went bye-bye too. At least we get Kristen Bell on Heroes this season. She picked Heroes over Lost (suckers!).

Um... Now that I'm done geeking out. Jackson decided that 4:00 am was the time to get up and start playing today. So the wife and I had to get up too. He, however, got to konk out on the drive to school, where as I, did not. So I stopped for a massive coffee, or rather what I thought was going to be a massive coffee, and ended up being only a 16 oz coffee and they still charged me five bucks for it. Why do they call it a Latte? Because it costs a Latte, that's why. After working in the coffee industry all those years, I really hate paying for coffee now. I just feel somewhere in the back of my head that I shouldn't have to, I guess.



*Please don't tell me what happened, I am... aquiring it as we speak,.. um... write? whatever.

Forever in Flares

So tonight we had to go to the Sprint store for some service that the people on the phone told us we had to go into the store for, but the people at the store told us we had to call on. This dispute did not get resolved. Go fig.
We were hungry on our way there so we decided to hit the chick-fil-a, because they have a play area for toddlers. And we have a toddler who likes to play. In areas. Little did we know...(dramatic pause)... that they were having a "Fabulous 50's Night" to celebrate their 40Th anniversary. All the staff was dressed in what their parents, who were born in the late '60s, early '70s, told them people in the '50s dressed in. The Guys just put on paper hats and white aprons. They weren't trying too hard. People dressed as cows (the mascot of the place that serves chicken) greeted us from the corner and at the door wearing over-large Elvis style sunglasses. As was the Elvis impersonator.
There were a few things amiss about their party that Jen and I noticed right off the bat. 1) 40 years ago was 1967. 2) The Elvis impersonator they hired was dressed as the 70's Elvis, with a white jumpsuit(which was adorned with beads on both the tassels and the sash. But awkwardly. like Indian beads. only crappy). 3) Said Elvis impersonator was singing Neil Diamond songs.
He knocked them out of the park, though. Best Neil Diamond I've ever heard from an Elvis in a fast-food joint. The meal was yummy as always, and we got free brownies and root-beer floats.
Jack played happily in the play area. The slide was way more interesting than some dumb-ol' Elvis.

-JP

Two books that made me very nostalgic

So I have read two books in the last couple weeks. Both of which got me thinkin' about about my misfit high school days, though I would never in a million years want to return to those days (except maybe armed with my current brain).
The first was The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Gothgirl,* about a nerdy comic book obsessed freshman who hates his step-dad, is prone to migraines, stays up all night making comics because he is an insomniac, and is slowly falling in love with a Goth girl. I could have easily described myself that way when I was a freshman in high school. Anybody could have described me that way in high school. The main difference being that I had more than one friend and listened to better music. I could have easily turned into this kid were it not for an older brother and the fact that I met Joey randomly in the hall about a month into my freshman year, forging a life-long friendship, but more on that in a future post.
The Second was The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and I have to say that this is one of the best books I have ever read, and I have to give a huge shout-out to Ann for telling me about it. I read it in three 2-hour sittings. It has a very Catcher in the Rye feel to it, and that book is mentioned several time throughout the story. Told in a series of letters to an anonymous reader, the main character Charlie is going through his freshman year in the early 90's, and seems to be some sort of super-genius who can't deal with social situations very well. Kind of like the scientist who's assistant has to follow him around with a sandwich because he forgets to eat. That kind of guy. He befriends two of his classmates and goes down an interesting road filled with new experiences and a welling up of passion that Charlie just can't seem to give into. What made this book so special to me that the characters described were the same people I hung out with during the early '90s while I was in high school. I new these people and I had similar experiences and listened to the same music and I really identified with this poor kid who couldn't quite make himself do some of the things he really wanted to do.
Good books, both. They are quick reads as well, so check 'em out!

In other news:
I want to thank Jeffrey Rowland for this. PostSecret is pretty cool, but there is definitely a Degrassi Jr. High drama quality to it, and I think people just make shit up so they can see their silly postcard on the web. Don't they realize how flippin' easy it is to be on the web? You're reading this right? That's how easy it is.



JP: Out.


*If you like either of these, you can also check out The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl , about a girl who works in a coffeeshop and draws comics and gets to save the world for real from an otherworldly gun-slinger. Fun.

A Quick One...

Not much happening right now for no good reason. No bugs, no moving, and the big project I have been working on tirelessly for the last few weeks or so has been implemented, and most of the known bugs worked out of it. I finished the last thing on my massive work list yesterday, and crossed it off. I then looked around restlessly and realized that I didn't have anything to do, which was a new one on me since arriving to my new vocation. Weird feeling.
In Other news:
Somebody who walks the same path I do from the company's parking lot to downtown likes bananas(a word I never know when to stop typing). I know this because this person leaves the peals on the ground. Most mornings, there is a fresh one lying there as i walk along. There are also many many other peals scattered about that this person has left during their earlier travels. The oldest ones tend to shrivel up and blow away into the train yard after a while, so I don't really know how many or for what duration of time this has been going on. For some reason this really bugs the crap out of me. Why can't you just throw them away, mystery person? Or even wait to eat it until you get to work? I know that they are biodegradable, and that sometimes the pigeons eat them, but seriously, pick up after yourself.

That is all.

And we sit and wait...

Well, things have settled down a bit. We moved, my Dad came for a visit, then my Mom came for a visit, then we moved again, then had the other set of grand kids here for a visit. This weekend was more calm until our car broke. Not really broke, but they can't put the put the plug for the oil pan back in, so they can't put any oil in it, so there it sits until Monday. Other than that, things are good. Having live-in baby sitters is awesome. We can just run off to the store if we want to.
But we still live with the parents, so there is an inherent lack of privacy. I got walked in on whilst taking a dump the other day. I can usually hear Norm's office TV louder than the one in the living room even though he has the doors shut. Things like that.
Jack is talking up a storm. We were eating dinner the other night, and I had a bit of red beans and rice on my face, and hey said: Hey daddy, wipe your face. About as snidely as I would have.
He's also a little mimic, so watch your language.

So a lot of people have been asking me for more of Norm's recipes. I have bad news for you all. He has no more. He eats only those things and variations of those things. Jen bought herself a pint of Butterfinger crunch for her preggers self the other night on her way home from work. We had to run some errands, and when we got back it was gone. Let me just tell you that when a pregnant lady is expecting there to be some ice cream to be in the freezer and it isn't, you'd better replace it pretty quick. He also has a tendency to eat large spoonfuls of whatever we're cooking right out of the pot while he walks by. Then he puts the spoon back in. That's pretty annoying.

And it is 9/11, or as some have called it, patriot day. Whoopty-do. Put a flag on your car. It is literally the least you can do. And the up shot is that it benefits nobody but sticker manufacturers. Send a care package why doncha.

In other news:
The new Iron Man trailer is bloody kick-ass. It will be the able to challenge the awesome comic-to-film awesomeness of Hellboy, Spider-man, and 300. At least until Watchman comes out. Speaking of, there some booty-rockin' pics from The Dark Knight surfacing through the inter-ether. Heath doesn't look too bad.

Oh and all the stuff you heard is true. Britney sucked. She looked like a slutty weeble wobble.



-JP