Some people say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one

My stomach hurts. I ate dinenr too fast. I had yummy mexican food at a place near by the house However, there was a very odd fellow sitting next o me, and he kept conversing. Which is fine, but the more he conversed the weirder the topics came, I did however find out what Abraham Lincoln said to Grant, What both his grandfathers said, what Clint Eastwood said, what John Wayne said, and numerous other people who I have blocked out.

Oh well, the burrito was good.

I had thought of writing a long blog last night. Ive had issues sleeping at night of late, mainly due to my work schedule. So I thought I would pass time writing something, but all that came t mind as a rant about the current political races or about the person who relieves me on my Friday (and how moronic she is). I figured I woudl spare everyone such. I'm really ready for th election to be done, and maybe we can move on and fix some issues. Regardless who wins, I'm optimistic.

This is the part where I mention Ryan so he will feel like people care about him.

Now lets move on, I got a new toy today. I am proud owner of a nifty iPhone. Not a new 3G one, which is fine since T-Mobile doesn't have a very broad 3G network. But still I'm happy with it so far (as happy as once can be in a 3 hour span of using a new cell phone). But the coup is it works on T-mobiles network, and didn't require a change in carriers, or a higher phone bill. That makes me happy. And, i have an iPod in it too, so one less piece of electronics to carry. Plus i like the typing features way more than the old phone. And I can hear on it.

Thats about it, I hope everyone has a good Halloween. It's a little weird without a party to go to this year, but we're just gonna have to have fun next week. Later

The falling leaves pass by my window, the autumn leaves of red and gold

So, I've been busy. After the foray to Washington, DC, I returned home to a week of toil and trials, which is to say I actually had to go to work. It's decided to become fall rather suddenly, and I've actually turned on the furnace. We all know how fantastic that first furnace use of the year is, with the burning smell that comes with it. The coldness of the house didn't help with my desire to leave my warm bed at a decent hour.

After work, I was whisked off to new England on Tuesday, to hang out with Grace and JoHnathon at Adri's house. This is my second trip to Adri's and my first to New England during leaf color season. I have to tell you, its a very nice part of the country. I could see myself living there in some 200 year old farm house. Of course, keep in mind it would only be a spring and fall home, as winters would surely be too cold for me.

Well, the "weekend" started with a pick up at the airport, followed by a quick trip to the mall. We found a lovely dinner spot and had some yummy italian food, followed by cocktails in a tunnel. Yes, we were guided by Adri to The Tunnel Bar, which is in an actual tunnel and not just a clever name. (Though since Northampton is supposed to have a high population of Lesbians it would make a very dirty and clever name).

We retired to Adri's place and made fun of JoHnathon for a little while before bed. JoHnathon being rather good natured, or to tired to complain, took the punishment like a man.

The next morning arrived, and we had Starbucks in downtown Amherst. Its a very picturesque town. Being the home of UMass, there's lots of eateries and general collegic type establishments. We grabbed Adri and we went to lunch (or breakfast for those of us who got up at 11 AM) as an establishment Adri recommended. I had the "farmer's daughter" for breakfast, and deliciousness abounded.

We returned Adri to work, then I returned Grace and JoHnathon to the airport. Later that evening, Adri and I dined on the UMass campus at a dinner put on by some hospitality students as part of their classwork. It was cheap, and yummy. And were at a table that was "Reserved for Sin". Seriously, I have the card in my bag. Apparently that's the last name of the person who reserved our seats. Adri's has great pals.

After dinner, we met with Lusya and found the Amherst Brewing Company. The drinks fowed like water, and I proved my poor geometry skills at a few games of pool. We conversed, we did a few shots, and we were amused. Good times, Grace and JoHnathon, should have called in dead for work and stayed.

Afterwards, I had a grreat conversation with Susan. I'm sure it was most amusing for her. Some one really should take away my phone when i'm drunk.

Thursday, I had lunch again with Adri (sucked she had to work) and then I went up to the top of Mt Sugarloaf, did some hiking around, and enjoyed the lovely views. Afterwards, I journeyed to Mt Holyoke and had a look around. I tried to capture the views in some of the pictures, but I don't think I did the area justice. I did some other driving around, picked up Adri, and then I was off to fly back home.

I had a great time and thanx to Adri and Mo for putting me up for a couple nights. I'll have to plane a return trip when the warmth comes back.

In other news, I was thinking about taking a quick trip to Stockholm next week. Instead, I think I'll stay stateside. I decided this morning (by morning i mean afternoon when i woke up) to send a large chunk of this months pay to the evil people at Bank Of America. And then I did some research ..phones an a new plan. I'm not upset with T-Mobiles service, just their selection of phones available. They just put out a new one that had a lot of potential to be an equal to the iPhone. I played with Adri's new iPhone over the weekend and loved it. My current phone has left me nonplussed. Normally when I buy a new phone I put a lot of searching and find something I usually really like. This last phone though, it was an emergency purchase and a compromise on price.

Well, while researching a new plan, canceling my current contract, I found it was cost prohibitive at this moment. I'm ok with buying a new iPhone from AT&T. I'm ok with the buyout of my contract at T-Mobile (i just signed a 2 year contract when i bought the new phone to get the discount). But the idea of my monthly charge almost doubling to get the same level of service at AT&T was a deal breaker. I'm hoping i have found a solution and it will be delivered next week.

That's about all thats going on. I'm looking forward to my birthday weekend, though Tanya is threatening to make Joe sing to me. And Susan seems to want me to stand on a table to throw cat toys at me... everyone has their particular fetishes and I don't like to judge. I miss her and I can't wait to see her.

It's bedtime now, I hope this posts the first time.

Fly,fly away

Current mood:eccentric

I'm le tired, and i can't be bothered to sit upright. SO expect lots of typos.

It's been a random week. I've decided, with some encouragement from Susan, that it would be good to get out and do some form of physical activity. So I've taken to walking more about the neighborhood. Wednesday I walked down a few blocks to Heine Brothers coffee for a shot of caffeine and to get out in a little sun. By the way, it is pronounced Hi-Knee. I digress. So I grabbed the new issue of The Velocity (for you ATL types, its the Lull-vull version of Creative Loafing. and kind of whats going paper with fringy articles) and my white chocolate mocha. I had noticed lots of people standing around and some reflective screens but though nothing of it. Then I noticed the two camera men and the guy with boom mic. Yes I know, nothing gets past me.

Long story short, i watched as the filmed these two girls talking about some kind of business they were looking to start. I asked one of the rew what wa sup, turns out they're filming a new reality show for a major network, but had a nondisclosure agreement. What struck me most is how obviously unreal the reality shows are. There were takes, there was some rehearsing, there was some direction. My innocence shattered, I left between takes (s not to be on camera, there are some legal organizations that don't need to know where I'm hanging my hat.

Later that evening I found some dinner and started watching the presidential debate in the bar. I thought maybe if I drank enough Jack Daniels they would make sense and shine out as honorable and enlightened men we would want to be president. Well, luckily I was walking home and it was a short walk, because Jack Daniels wasn't strong enough to create my delusion. I actually think i may vote for Jack.

So, I meandered home and did some video conferencing with Susan. I really do dig this technology. Not only does it relieve me from annoynce of a sweaty ear, but it lets me see her faces and expressions. Not to mention I get to watch her play with her new "children".

I then fell asleep, at night. Go me. Unfortunately I woke up wa earlier then I wanted to. With a whole day ahead of me, not much luck in going back to sleep, and a grey rainy day just beginning; I resolved to get the hell out of Dodge. After some quick internet research, I headed to the airport to catch a flight to Washington, DC For a year or so now I've been wanting to check out the new Smithsonian Air and Space Museum center out by Dulles airport, but kept putting it off. Today, I said what the hell. And maybe I could meet up with Jen-nay while I was there. When I got to DC, I had a message from Ms Mills. She couldn't meet me for lunch (too busy being a Marine), but she was free after 4 or so. Well, after a quick wardrobe change in a DCA bathroom, i hit the metro for IAD.

You may be asking why I didn't just fly to IAD directly, well theres not a pax flight from here to there. It was nice to be in a city with good mass transit. It's such a great advantage to the public and makes life a little easier. IMHO.

So after the subway and bus journey, I finally made it to the museum. The only downside I found to the place was you couldn't touch the planes. I suppose thats understandable, you don't want peoples oily hands all over carefully restored airplanes. And you need to keep freeks like me from rubbing up on the SR-71. I would have like to put my hands on the Enola Gay or climb into the Concorde cockpit. But i still enjoyed my day there. the admission price to the museum is great (free) and I think its a worthwhile endeavor to venture out there. Check out the pictures, and I have no idea why some are so blurry.

After the museum, I ventured back to downtown DC and met up with Jennie and had a yummy dinner at a Belgium restaurant. While i did have some steamed Brussels sprouts, I declined to have the mussels from brussels (no, the menu didn't have that on there, its my corniness). I had a yummy steak thing with Belgium (not French) fries, complete with mayo. After dinner, we went back to Jennies condo so I could meet Winston, her very large and very slobbery bloodhound. A very playful puppy, which is roughly my height. But alas, it was time to head back out to Dulles so I could catch an UPS flight home. Jennie kindly drove me out.

ALl day, most of my travels had either been underground or out in the suburban areas, hich is indistinct form any other suburban area. But on the drive home, I could see the buildings and monuments, and had a brief " Ahhhh" moment, seeing the Capitol, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, and the Pentagon. Cool stuff

And now I'm back home. I did a brief kroger stop and bought food I probably shouldn't have (I was hungry). And now, sleepy time. I'm looking forward to the next few weeks. Lots of potential, and I can't wait to see lots of people.

Annoyances

It's about 7 AM and I feel like pontifiating. Ready the randomness:

I read a news story about a 90 year old woman who shot herself because her home of 38 years was going to be foreclosed. I do not want to make light of the injury of the woman (she did not die from her wounds), but theres lots of things in the story that really got to me. First, she lived in the house for 38 years... and now they foreclose? Oh wait, she took out a mortgage a few years back for something like $43,000, while at the time her house only appraised from $32,000 or so. (The numbers aren't exact, but roughly the numbers are in ratio). OK, so shame on her for taking out a loan well above her home value. And shame on the lender for giving it to her. And as if that's not enough to make one scratch their head, it was a 30-year mortgage. What kind of lender givers an 85 year old person a 30 year mortgage?? WOnder how we got in a home loan fix?

Next, I'm kind of annoyed at the person who took over from me at work tonight. SHe is some one who probably needs to retire. But after she accepted all the flights (and I logged off) she started asking about a NOTAM. I'll admit i didn't give much thought to that particular NOTAM (NOtice To Airmen, little blurbs that tell you whats not working or whats closed down at an airport, or region of sky) because it didn't matter much to the operation of the flight. O, so i pointed out there's no reason to worry about becue of a couple reason, but no she was singularly fascinated. While I admit I'm infallible, but don't cop attitude when you're not using all the resources.

OK, I'm over it. I dare her to write me up.

In other news, I bought new shoes and a battery for my car. Well, shoes were for me.

Now I think I need an omelette. Later

just a little blurb

Current mood:awake

SO I'm sitting here looking round online at where i could fly off to for the day tomorrow out of SDF. I've got nothing much ele going on and though I'd head over to DC and the new wing or the Air and Space museum. I bust onto the Delta travel net (thanx Grace) and type in DCA-SDF for tomorrow afternoon. No shit, one of the routes that came out... DCA-CVG-CMH-CVG-SDF. Since I don't accrue frequent flyer miles, and neither do any nonrevs I know of, this is jut dumb. Unless of course you just want to explore the CMH airport for two hours.

I'll skip that.

I'm sort of annoyed that the browntail coming back from IAD tomorrow is full. Don't they know who I am? And everything else seems to be full enough out of IAD and DCA to make the idea of the trip just too annoying. Sure I could fly into DCA, take a metro to the far end of the line, then a bus to the Museum, and to get back take the bus back to the metro station, ride that to Union Station. Followed by an Amtrak ride to BWI station, then figure out a way to get from there to the Brown building, which would probably involve a taxi. All this to peruse some airplanes for a couple hours.

Oh well, I don't suppose the museum is going anywhere.

It's been a while since I've pontificated here. Nothing to earth shaking has happened to me personally. Working, sleeping, Susan's house, etc... Though I'm waiting or the world to collapse around me from the economic disaster. I'm actually hoping the banks that are responisible for my credit cards fail, and they forget I owe them money. Unfortunately I seem to have picked reputable lending organizations, and they are buying other banks. SO much for my hope. Maybe the government will bail me out next.

Theres also a fury of presidential stuff happening, and I watched a debate last night. Interesting stuff. I still don't like either of them really. Oh well, I suppose once again it will be voting the lesser of two evils.

Otherwise, i got thing son the horizon that look like there could be some interesting times. I may be coming to a town near you. I also heard some good news from an old friend. Not my place to announce it, but it's kind of exciting and making me feel old at the same time.

Until next time, later!