underutilized real estate

blogger is still one hungry monkey, eating my code at will. but I have finally been able to use the underutilized real estate to the left of my rants and raves. the blogger template tool is wiggy enough that I do all my coding in word and then cut and paste the whole friggin page into the template window. sound like a pain? it is. but it is the best, sure-fire approach I can figure out.

anyway, the left hand column is still pretty self-explanatory...enjoy.

real quick

ok, work is busy in a good way. so I do not have a ton of time to pontificate. we're planning a client event in October and the details behind any event are endless...much less an event with nearly 20 speakers presenting.

FAME: I am pleased as punch to report my niece has gotten into the local creative and performing arts high school. you audition into it just like in the movie Fame. Art, dance, music, acting and song I think are all areas that you try out in. My niece was accepted based on her artwork and her singing. I imagine those will become her focus areas then while she learns the 3R's and dabbles in the other areas.

Good Riddance: I'm equally pleased to note Ford is going to stop manufacturing the Expedition. This thing came with it's own zip code people.

I am not a Sierra Club member...we upgraded from a Honda CRV to a Honda Odyssey to accomodate all the baby crap we haul around now. And if I hit the lottery I'd probably plunk down for a zippy sports car or an overpriced luxury sedan.

But the SUV's have gotten out of control. Cadillac makes one for pete's sake. The Lincoln Navigator eclipses your view in traffic just like the Expedition...it's brutal. And I simply must remind everyone that SUV's stand for SPORT Utility Vehicle. I have to laugh when I see the stereotypical SUV driver: afraid to sweat too much and afraid to drive over a cigarette butt for fear it'll ding their precious baby. The thing was created to drive off-road. They should accelerate over train tracks and aim for potholes. When I cannot see past them and they slam on the brakes to avoid the piece of newspaper that flew into the road it just makes my day. It also makes me question why they really bought the car.

Thanks for that, I feel much better now. Back to work...hi ho, hi ho...

progress report

my Mom is back from Cali. caught up with her this morning by phone and she came over for dinner. it was a good time.

it was not the right time to get into my issues. but I still plan on doing so. I think calling her more-for no good reason-will also really impact things. but I am definitely still going to discuss with her how I feel.

my daughter, the non-stop energizer bunny, is sleeping as I prep for work tomorrow. it was a good weekend.

new tunz

took the daughter to Best Buy to exchange a birthday CD. wound up getting the new Red Hot Chili Peppers CD and a discount CD called Legendary Big Bands (featuring Miller, Basie, Armstrong and Goodman amongst others). an eclectic selection, eh? with the exchange the 2 cds only cost me about $10. and my daughter enjoyed the bank of tvs and the colorful, shiny linoleum.

hot, happy day

"it's not the heat, it's the humidity!" I'll spare you the details, but it's a hot one today in Cincinnati. That said, I'm in a good mood. Here are a couple of things I am happy about that have little to do with me:

- the 9 miners in Pennsylvania are safe after spending 72 hours trapped.
- my close friend gave birth to an 8lb, 10oz baby boy. mom and baby are healthy.
- an old, local movie theater was bought by a theatre group and they're making a difference.

today I will be productive around the house which sadly will make me happy. it's a direct reflection of the anal retentive side of me. too hot to play outdoors anyways!

wiped

Why am I here? It's late enough that it's arguably early. Got less sleep than usual this week and it's caught up with me.

Have been wrestling with a few issues. Some problems in my life have become clear to me thanks to 9 months of sobriety. It's allowed me to feel emotions and to think more clearly. This in turn has helped me to finally start to grow again spiritually and emotionally. So with this new view of reality comes the good and the bad. No more lying to myself.

I have never been as close to my Mom as I should have been (btw, my Dad passed away eight years ago). I never avoided her, but I never made an ongoing effort to call every week or visit regularly. She lives miles away from me people and I did little more than spend time with her according to a Hallmark calendar (holidays and special occasions). Well, it started to bother me awhile ago--I do want to be closer to her. Thanks to my wife, I have been making more of an effort over the past four years. One of the many things my wife has given me is the gift of family...on many levels.

Now that we have a daughter, we see even more of my Mom, but things still are not where they need to be, where I want them to be. It's something I will discuss with her within the next few days.

Two years ago, my wife and I went to Italy and invited my Mom, brother and sister-in-law to join us. They did. Recently they all decided to head out to California to visit my brother and his family. They did not invite us. This is not a huge deal per se...we would not have gone if they had invited us. But lately it seems my extra efforts to get back into a relationship with my immediate family are not reciprocated.

I noticed this awhile ago and just assumed it would be up to me to make this happen. My distant behavior was a choice I made. My family is in the habit of not engaging me as I never showed interest in the past or made the same effort myself. Fair enough. But I hoped that my Mom would have recognized the extra effort by now and realized that I have changed.

It's a touchy subject but I have to bring it up...if only to let her know how much she means to me and how I want to spend more time with her. I'm actually optimistic about it. It feels good to acknowlege this issue, define it and act on it in a positive manner.

But first, sleep.

runRUNrun

someone once asked me if I was running FROM something or running TO something when I ran. this person was one of the many that--understandably--can not identify with the sport of running.

running is probably the only physical activity I have gotten into. and I have the hardest time trying to tell people why I do it.

sure, it makes me feel good, keeps weight off and gives me a sense of accomplishment. but I cannot encapsulate the rest of the benefits I get from it...not easily anyway. luckily this is a blog and I'm in a writin' mood. so I'll give it a shot.

running helps me think clearly. my body settles into a routine after a mile and a half and the brain can relax a bit. running helps me beat the stress out of my body. had a bad day? run 3 or more miles and you'll be less pissed off then before you started. running also lets me wrestle with the strongest organ in my body (wait for it) the brain. typically, my biggest challenge with every run is my mental game. my body stops bitching after the mile and a half warm up. my brain bitches pretty much until the last half mile or so.

so my answer to that person's question today would be: c) all of the above. I run from stress and anxiety, thinking more clearly on how to effectively deal with these emotions. I run to feel better about myself and to keep off the 50 pounds I dropped in the last year.

if you're one of the many, you might note that running wreaks havoc on your knees and body.

bite me. I will run until the doctor tells me its time to stop or when my body sends me that same message.

(segue as lost one steps onto soapbox)

I am *soooo very tired* of adopting a healthy habit like running or eating healthy food like granola and one episode of Dateline has everyone reminding me how bad granola is for me. to them I say, um, it's two shakes and a SENSIBLE meal...that biggie size combo meal ain't exactly what the folks at slimfast had in mind.

seriously though. let's look at eggs. they were incredible and edible...then they were deadly cholesterol bombs waiting to clog your heart. and now they've come full circle and are good for ya again. a report from the American Medical Association stated eggs aren't as deadly for you as everyone thought.

fuck it. when my legs go, I'm switching to an all bacon diet. it could kill me, or it could ensure I live forever...

mhmmwah-hah-hah-hah (evil laugh as lost one steps off soapbox, clicks post and publish)

train-of-thought technology

Sitting here at work, I am fried...again. I have bursts of productivity where I am ON with a laser focus-kicking ass and taking names. Or, to quote Elvis, "a little less conversation, a little more action." The end result, however, are down periods like this one. I am spent and cannot focus. My mind wanders to non-9 to 5 stuff. Stuff I want to focus on rather than the work I need to focus on.

This most recent burst was to put some distance between me and the $2K mistake my CEO feels we made. There is a lot of time-sensitive work to do on my account right now too. So even without the so-called mistake, this burst was warranted.

Anyway, I read another blog article recently. I actually liked this one. Most of these articles have been lame and sensational...assuming the reader is barely internet friendly...much less blog friendly. Not suprisingly, the piece ran in Information Week. Typically this pub is far too techie for me. I still get it from the dotcom fever days when I pitched high tech clients.

Thanks to its technical focus, it skips most of the pablum. There is still the obligatory "weblog, or "blog" for short" reference in the piece. This journalist actually takes the time to visit some blogs and sprinkles the piece with specific, relevant quotes to make his points. I like how he refers to blogs as complimentary information channels and train-of-thought technology. He also mentions that if you keep a blog at work, on work...a blog that is completely work related, it is a great way to take your good ideas with you to your next job. You wind up recording your intellectual capital, thoughts, observations, and contributions. "Blogging is a way to protect the most important brand of all: yourself."

And we can all use a little extra protection these days, can't we?

right and wrong

shoulda seen today coming a mile away. perhaps it is because I have seemingly had my mind focused on everything BUT work lately. perhaps it's because I had acquired some level of self-esteem. well, for whatever reason, today has been one giant ass-kicking for yours truly. and let me be clear: I am the ass-kickee and not the kicker.

nope, that job is reserved for the company ceo. he's pissed about a specific element of a project I am working on. I'll spare you the details...not to mention I do not want to get too specific. anyway, my account leader (who's ultimately responsible for this project) and I have spent all morning explaining why we did not do something to our ceo. ceo is making us get something reprinted, a cost the agency will absorb...nearly $2K. ceo is playing disappointed parent. this routine is somethimes worse than just getting chewed out. at least an ass chewing gets it all out on the table and you move on. now EVERYTHING I do on this project and possibly this account will be colored by this "infraction."

the good news here is my account leader has moved on and is not freaked by this. I should move on too since he technically took it on the chin here. but, since I have a perfectly rational explanation as to why we did not do what our ceo wanted us to do, I am pissed.

why? instead of agreeing to disagree, we are spending money unnecessarily to merely make things the way he wants them. the change we are making will not make the project any more successful. so this leads me to the headline payoff: who's right, who's wrong? I hate dealing with political bullsiht. work is hard enough as it is without having to have an internal political maze to deal with on top of the usual client politics you deal with in a marketing communications agency.

I do good work. Fuck you.

And I have waaaay too much baggage when it comes to our CEO. Thanks for letting me vent (as if you had a choice).

save martha?

martha stewart has a "grassroots effort" out there trying to help rally support for her.

ok, kids. first of all: FUCK MARTHA STEWART. if a star breaks the law, the star should be treated like any other law breaker out there. she's innocent right now as no charges have been brought against her officially. that said, there is no secret agenda with people out to get her. she is NOT a victim. maybe if she was not such a well-known bitch behind the camera, more people would be openly supportive of her right now.

second of all, I'll bet martha is behind the grass roots site. after her infamous debacle on CBS This Morning where she noted she would rather focus on her salad than answer questions about IMClone, she called in the troops. Public relations/crisis communications experts (sadly, I know this as I am in public relations). This web site smacks of professional design/backing and part of a larger strategy to sway attention towards Martha's GOOD THING image. Whomever she hired is good. Noting how there are bigger criminals out there and we should not persecute Martha is a good strategy, but she should simply NOT get special treatment. Let the courts settle this one.

ritual de lo adicto

cannot say enough for the addicted blogger's community that Brad created. Brad describes it as "a collaborative journaling project for addicts and alcoholics seeking recovery from the chains of addiction." It just went up and, as one of the four contributors, I am blown away by it. Stay tuned for more shameless promotion of this project as "it's a good thing."

blogger's one hungry monkey

I assume that's why it's eating my code and some of my archives.

she's gonna blow!

if you know of a comments site accepting users, let me know. enetations means well, but it is slowing down my site and it is not always working. you get what you pay for, right? and I am not paying a dime for this blog. so I'll stop my bitching now. but lemme know if you know of other options. between the tag board, site meter and enetations, I have this thing rigged up like a cheap christmas tree.

burst of energy

rather than retiring for the night, a burst of energy helped me decide to stay up a bit longer while my wife joins my daughter in peaceful slumber. we have three bedrooms: master bedroom, daughter's room and a guest room/office. I'm in the office and "my women" are in their rooms. and if you had to assign ownership of each room to each family member, it would break out this way. I spend a ton of time in here on the computer.

the coolest thing is when, late at night or early in the morning, I check in on my daughter. In the book "The World According To Garp," Garp was really into checking in on his kids as they slept. Irving wrote how fresh and clean they smelled, so innocent and new to the world. Some just call it baby smell. When I peek in to see my daughter sleeping, I am greeted by this scent.

it reminds me to enjoy her infancy. she grows while I am at work...I swear. so we take too many pictures of her...enough to create a flipbook showing a time lapse of her first 15 months. and we have all four kinds of fun playing with her.

if sober time moved as quickly as time with my daughter, I'd be celebrating 9 years of sobriety soon and not just 9 months. as time's passing is measured, sober time and daughter time are at two extreme opposites of the spectrum.

passing time can become a problem for alcoholics, perhaps all addicts. I spent a lot of time either drinking, or planning to drink. so when you are not drinking at all, you notice long stretches of time. luckily raising a daughter has helped take up my time along with "leisurely pursuits." speaking of which, I will shortly try and post some halfway interesting architecture links...stuff anyone can appreciate. so consider this either fair warning or let the suspense begin.

second wind

lately I've been questioning the accuracy of my traffic reports. they seemed high and I figured it was counting my own visits, despite the fact that I set my preferences to filter out my ISP address.

however, it would seem site meter is, indeed, accurate.

my search engine registration has paid off. a few recovering addicts have found the site and touched base with me-either through the site or via email. these comments have been great, giving me a second wind. dealing with my latest low is much easier now. thank you.

one person specifically noted they were 8 days into the wacky fun of full-blown sobriety. to this person I send my full support and encouragement. remember that by taking it one day at a time...EVERY day you are sober is a victory.

in my offline journal, I have written about how some friends feared that booze is/was my muse. by this I mean, staying sober means I will somehow be less: less fun, less humorous, less creative-less of a person. I call this the Fun Bobby Theory™. "Fun Bobby" was a character on an episode of the TV show, Friends. Everyone liked him. They realized he was drinking too much and encouraged him to stop. Once he was sober, the friends realized he was boring, no fun at all. Hijinks ensue as they wind up blowing off Fun Bobby. Those crazy kids.

Don't worry, I am not going to protest Friends. But I do think it jumped the shark awhile ago.

So, how does one react to the Fun Bobby Theory? Well, initially I was shocked, angry and offended at how many people considered beer to be my secret ingredient...some kind of glue holding me together. but then I realized I was so inextricably linked to beer that no one could picture me without it. that's how bad I had gotten towards the end of my life as an active alcoholic.

so I took the high road and realized that my sobriety involves a lot more work than I thought. I thought my work would be limited to work on ME: dealing with my emotions, my cravings, how my habits impacted my friends and my family. But it also involves work with others: helping other people learn what is involved in sobriety, what sobriety means to a recovering alcoholic, repairing relationships you damaged while you were drinking and much, MUCH more. It forces you to focus on more than just you and your emotions and that is healthy-- good medicine for memyselfandi.

it does not take people very long to realize I am not Fun Bobby. I still have my sense of humor and all the other fun things connected to it. in fact, they quickly realize being sober has made me even better.

"a series of down notes"

for some reason, my emotional spectrum knows only high highs and low lows. it's always been this way. one coworker argues I am bipolar, another thinks its all coffee-related. all I know is these highs and lows are even more extreme now that I am not dousing them with beer on a regular basis.

take this morning. it all starts lying in bed, waiting for the alarm to go off. I start thinking about everything at once: from ALL the things I must accomplish at work by "end of business," to life at home and our interrelated plans to move and have a second child. in the shower I try organizing these thoughts...prioritizing them so I do not explode. perhaps put the family thoughts on hold while I form some kind of action plan and deal with the work timebombs. by the time I get to work, I am better prepared to dive in...but by now I am stressed (a combination of anger and worry). everything swims in front of me and I do not get to breathe or be in any kind of a good mood for a few hours. however I survive. what needs to get done, gets done.

I do this...think about everythingallatonce. it does not help my exterme moods. it is silly and defies logic. and it is me. so I write this entry to try and leave it here in this post and move on to a better mood and another day.

the title is from a line in the movie "Clerks." When dante and randal are discussing which of the first three star wars movies is the best, dante picks empire strikes back. why? amongst other things, it ends on a down note. and life is like that, a series of down notes. it describes my mood.

on nearing nine months

this goes against living one day at a time, but I cannot help but note that in ten days it will have been nine months since I last took a drink of alcohol. for the past nine months I have been a recovering alcoholic. still a totally helpless slave to alcohol...it's just now my whole focus is on NOT drinking rather than being completely focused ON drinking.

well, every drunk is different. so I should not be speaking as if I speak on behalf of all alcoholics. an addict (not alcohol) found me oddly enough on a search engine and gave me some of her thoughts about the situation:

Addiction is avoidance.  Altering reality , tweaking it , if you will, like a musician at a sound board, until we can come up with a mix that will allow a modicum of sanity.

to that I will add that is usually your goal...but things just get really fucked up enroute. one day you finally realize that avoiding reality is killing you. Alcoholics Anonymous calls this a moment of clarity. For me, admitting to myself that I had a problem with alcohol was a relief. In reality I knew all along and was just in denial.

Nearly nine months into this I still do not know how it'll all turn out. But I am glad I quit and I am glad it is not always the hardest thing I have done each day.

"bad" tv

TV Guide came out with its list of the 50 Worst Television Shows of all time. Most choices are obvious. Many are a direct result of programming execs trying to make money by creating spinoffs from successful shows...and failing miserably. How else do you explain the Ropers, HeeHaw Honeys and After MASH?

My main problem with this list is that TV Guide puts Hogan's Heros at #5. Per CNN, the Guide deems it politically incorrect. Maybe this is because it arguably trivializes the Holocaust by being a comedy set in Nazi Germany? If that is the case, there are certainly some more sitcoms that have been just as politically incorrect. I think the Guide should switch Hogan's Heros out with Mayberry RFD and just create a second list of politically incorrect TV Shows. Sure, Springer would still be at the top of the list, but TV Guide would be a little less full of shit than usual.

How's this for a meaty debate over current events?! Am I ready for Meet the Press or what? Maybe next I'll try and tackle the weighty issue of Batman vs. Superman.

A-B-C-D-H-I-V...

wow. sesame street is introducing an HIV-positive character into its south african programming where one in nine have the virus. As a new Dad, I do not know how I feel about this. The program is aimed at 3 to 7 years olds. They say there will be "no explicit mentions of sex" as a result of this character, but doesn't it push the issue?

This creates several questions for me: what age should I cover the birds and the bees with my daughter (need to research this. I do not plan on being an ostrich and ignoring it like my folks did)? has sesame street had a character on before with any disease? if not, they should probably have one that has cancer. by this I mean I like that Sesame Street is trying to address this, but in explaining the disease I have to wonder how they'll ignore the concept of how you get the disease. but then again, how in the hell do you get cancer?!

I remember when one of the human characters passed away - the store owner guy - they used it as an opportunity to cover the topic of death with their viewers. this makes sense to me. being realistic and covering disease makes sense to me as well. but are they being realistic if they broach the topic of HIV, how you can interact with people that have it and completely ignore the sex topic?

I am not sure about this one Children's Television Workshop is really blazing a new trail, eh? no word on whether or not this character will appear on US-based Sesame Street. but talks are underway.

bells and whistles

just as soon as I fix the tagboard, I find a comment board site taking new users. hmmm. well, as I'm in marketing...let's just say you have more options than ever to communicate via this blog now. maybe someday soon the tagboard will go away? oh the suspense!

tag, yer it!

tag board works now. she is fixed! so scroll all the way down to the bottom and lemme know what's what in the lost'n'found.

top spots, random thoughts

traffic on this site is tracked through site meter. a very cool, very free and very easy way to see if anyone is visiting your blog. there are a few posts in this blog I think are representative of what I consider "quality material." I should probably link to them in the way my good friend does on her blog.

to do that, I need to figure out a ton of html stuff so I can make some changes around here. in addition to adding links in a yet to be coded column (either create a right one or enhance the existing left one) I need to fix the tag board and move it up within reach of the average visitor.

anyway, the point I am getting to is that your top post is pretty much the *only one* a first time visitor will check out in deciding how much time they'll spend at your blog and--more importantly--if they'll return. and as I create this post, I can feel sitemeter's tracking job getting easier and easier!

milestones

my wife and I celebrate our 4th anniversary today. there will be no fanfare or special celebrations. we're broke from vacation and our child is sick. does not sound romantic, but we're happy as hell with it. and that's all that matters.

it was also my 32nd birthday recently and I got some cool stuff for it, including new running shoes and a new set of balls...bocce balls!

This probably makes it easier for me to skip any anniversary to do. But as we are saving for a new house so we can have another child (knock wood) we're trying to hold back across the board.

copy cats

please people...cloning ted williams? what's the point? he'd strike anyway. and arguably we could not afford him at today's rates. ya know he'd figure in his former genetic self's record into his contract.

if ya ask me, THIS is they guy we should have already cloned by now.

starting to miss it

typically when I get pangs of longing for beer, or some other alcoholic beverage, I quickly realize it is a reaction to an emotional situation. now I simply have to ride it out and deal with the emotions.

today, I realized a new pang: amplifying positive emotions.

I am a firm believer that in the business world, logic wins over emotion every single time. that said, I am a person ruled by emotions. this is an achillies heel I constantly work on from 9 to 5.

but when I was drinking, I did not have to worry about holding back my emotions--especially the good ones! happy was ecstatic. funny was hilarious. love was crazy love. bottom line is I miss that. sure, I was using alcohol to not feel bad, to numb me and to avoid negative situations. but it is not like my life is one big blue period either.

there are babies to welcome into the world, birthdays, weddings and more where one common thing to do is to celebrate with a toast. it has taken me awhile to find something of value that I lost due to my decision to stop drinking alcohol. and while I should look at the upshot and realize that not drinking is the best thing that has ever happened to me...it just really pisses me off right now.

here's to 8+ months of sobriety. cheers.

souvenir

my daughter brought home an ear infection and a virus that evidently manifests itself as sores on the tongue and mouth as well as a sore throat. yuck. poor kid is 14 months old and has no clue what's up. to top it all off, she is constipated!

we were afraid all our vacation travel might be tough on her, but we had no clue. poor kid is such a trooper that none of this came to our attention until we got back from the second leg of our vacation.

I should have none we got off way too easy with the vacation. she was great and really enjoyed herself. we got plenty of really good pics to prove it.

so after a visit to the doctor, we hit two different stores to stock up on all the meds we'll need to make her feel comfortable and ensure she gets some much needed rest.

it's bad enough to be sick, but imagine if you did not know how to tell someone what is wrong with you? mom and dad are worry warts when it comes to her being sick. no rest for us tonight.

booze clues

my friend Ignatius Reilly reminded me that my vacation over the fourth of July will be taking me back to a dangerous place...one where drinking was the primary activity.

years ago when I went down to Dale Hollow Lake, I planned ahead. it's a dry county so we stocked up on beer before heading south. GOD FORBID you run out of beer while you were there.

I assumed I could/would drink as much as a case a day at one point. we would start drinking as soon as we got on the boat...sometime around 10am. we would stay out until 4pm before heading in to clean up, eat dinner and start drinking again. so before you know it...a case is gone.

once I got so loaded that I blacked out and woke up on the washer and dryer. I was in the laundryroom, door shut in the middle of the night. So I had no idea where I was and initially thought I had passed out on the boat. I then realized whatever hard surface I was resting on was not rocking. Luckily that was my worst and most memorable episode down there. It is a funny story. But thankfully no one ever got hurt...we were somehow protected by the assumed immortality college-age kids typically have. I guess.

it's been many moons since I have been back to this lake house. lots of things have changed...not just my drinking habits. most of us have married and many have had kids. this trip will be three couples...all with kids. so while I am not too worried I will stray, it should be interesting to see if there are any pangs for beer while we are enjoying ourselves down on the lake.

it's at times like this I revisit the mantra "one day at a time." why worry about staying sober tomorrow? staying sober today can be hard enough. focus on staying sober now. it sounds trite to those of you lucky enough to not have a drinking problem--but it fucking works.

here's to today. arguably the 8 months under my belt means nothing. it's one of the ways time screws with your head when you are a recovering alcoholic. Ignatius also notes that booze is an elevator. It is always waiting for you to take you right back to being a full-bore, practicing alcoholic. Whether you've been sober 8 minutes or 8 years...it's ready to take you right back to that same spot. This sounds negative, but it really helps me out. I do not try and get obsessed with putting distance between me and my drinking days. It helps me focus merely on the day I'm in. Like I said, time really screws with you once you're not passing the time by drinking.

real live spam

came back to an email account bursting with spam junk mail. here are some of the subject lines for your amazement and amusement:

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uncle splendrific returns

many thanks to ignatius reilly for guest blogging in my absence. i.r.'s pen name was not published with the posts, but the lack of headline could have told you they were not from the likes of me.

vacation kicked ass. our catch phrase was FULL BORE. and, yes, it was in jest-aren't ALL catch phrases? we simply had a great time. this is an amazing feat considering it was 3 couples with 7 children--all under the age of 9. We stayed here. We had a pool and the beach was an easy 2 minute walk...perfect for fickle children with short attention spans. We even made it into historic Charleston for some site seeing. Bottom line is I relaxed and we had a blast with our daughter. She loved the ocean and the beach.

There were a few times I wanted a drink of beer, but it was due to the other kids getting annoying. Luckily they were not annoying for long and the pangs for booze dissipated. I even managed to run twice while I was on vacation. For me, this is a good thing. In fact, I just logged my 1000th mile today and have finally hit this milestone since starting waaay back in 1994. About 4 of those years I barely ran at all, so it has taken me awhile.

So I am rested and relaxed. I face a very short 4th of July week. It's even shorter for me now. I originally took Monday off to ease my reentry into work. With the 4th off, that leaves 3 days. WRONG! At the last minute, friends invited us to come down to Dale Hollow Lake (on the Kentucky/Tennessee border) over the 4th of July weekend. So I am taking Friday off as well. Listen to this setup: lake house, pontoon boat, speed boat and two jet skis. Not bad, eh? So the family will jump back into the minivan and head south again. We'll celebrate the 4th and my 32nd birthday on the lake.

Speaking of minivans...any issues I had with my cool rating taking a beating over minivan ownership went out the window on vacation. The 10-hour ride was no problem in that thing. Comfortable as all get out. I'm hooked.

A shout out to all the new moms and pending new moms. this summer is baby-mania (perhaps a bit of 9/11 whiplash, but doubtful as most of these parents and parents-to-be wanted kids prior to the event). Half Mad Spinster's sister finally gave birth to Henry - a 10 pounder!?. And a good friend and ex-coworker just gave birth to William - an 8 pounder. Big boys, eh? Two friends are due soon and two coworkers are due in August. Lotsa pink and blue shit to buy.

And as I return from a memorable family vacation with three rolls of film being developed, I am excited about all that awaits these new parents and parents-to-be.

Much more to come...but it's good to be back!