Ok, so a fellow from NYC who I don't know commented on my blog... so I found out where his blog is and I gave it a quick look... I won't lie, I was quite entertained... although it does seem that he has a blog-superiority complex going on, even if all else he says touts of a severe inferiority complex. (Hey, I guess we all have to have one thing we're good at, don't we?) You kids can see for yourself and be entertained like me because he really is quite a talented prose writer... so be entertained by amusing phraseology and funny stories by following this fun little link!

Personally I think Dave would have a lot of fun hanging out with this character... they seem to have quite a bit in common. I also found his AIM screen name and chatted with him briefly this evening... I think he was trying to hit on me via the internet... he asked me what I was wearing... but I digress.

I must say that I do sincerely apologize to my few readers for the recent lack of alcohol-related hijinx... since I went home there was very little alcohol involved, thus not doing justice to the happy hour portion of the title here. But I'm back now, people missed me, and school is starting up again, so look for a return to the drunken fun and general debauchery that I've apparently become infamous for. What can I say? I love life. And I think it's amusing that I'm becomming notorious for my enjoyment! (Which only brings me further enjoyment.) But yeah... basically I'm looking forward to the return of "the adventures of quasi-alcoholic Lizzle, and her trusty sidekick Lana-mama-Spoolie-Stephansen" and you should too!

Oh, and in response to the NYC fellow's question and to explain the next couple of sentences, I wore a black tank top, a patterned black knee-length flouncy skirt, and a white mesh cardigan.
Based on this description, I looked decent today... I actually put forth a bit of effort. That said, I want to just say that I was cat-called, whistled at, hooted at, and generally ogled by dirty old men... I was cat-called a total of 9 times by my count, the most amusing was the Puerto Rican literally LEANED OUT THE WINDOW of his van WHILE DRIVING to holler "Aye Mamacita!" as well as some other spanish jibberish which I assume would have been offensive if I could have understood it. Do guys REALLY think this is an effective ploy to tempt women into speaking to them? Do they REALLY? I can't imagine what woman would ever find this tactic to be so effective as to strike up a conversation with the cat-caller, and I really don't see much of a strong relationship being based on any such meeting... But maybe that's just me. I should also note that I don't think that this cat-calling free-for-all was because I really looked all that great, I just think it's a reflection of the neighborhood in which I currently reside... I should also note that if I was still up in "The 26" (to be pronounced "the two six" referring to my old zip code, 60626) I have a feeling that the tally would have easily been double... because I'm moving up in the world. Similarly, if I lived in Lincoln Park, I'd have likely only heard one or two cat calls, most likely from homeless men sitting at the bus stops.

In the next couple days I will update the links, I promise. In the meantime, I think I'm gonna skedaddle.

QOTD for today is under yesterday's entry.

For ten straight evenings I've had my ass planted on the couch and my eyes glued to a perfect flat Trinitron. Not often does television make my heart race or my stomach churn, but as of late I feel cheated if I end a day having not paced in front of the television, screaming and pulling my hair out. The Olympics have taken over my life and I need help.

With that said I'd like to define the term "Diva" which has been used to describe one Svetlana Khorkina. Dave's definition is as follows

di-va n.
1.A bitch who, if not at the top of her game at present, was at one point extremely talented in one way or another.
2.An opera singer or something.

It should also be noted that a diva's area of expertise is always insignificant and useless. Yes i realize that music, the most common talent of the modern diva, is very important on a spiritual, cultural and individual level, but it must be noted that very little of the worlds most significant music was spawned of a modern diva. In fact I'd say none. Besides music is not the lone art. In short I'll bet my left nut that the woman who cures cancer(an accomplishment of true importance) will NOT be remembered as a diva. Got it?

Svetlana's performances on the vault, floor and beam were disappointing at best. I just wasn't impressed. She didn't sell any of her routines and lost major points for her lack of amplitude. Maybe I'm alone, but I think she was lucky to get silver. I did, however, shed an invisible tear for her, knowing that she would never have the individual gold. That tear soon found itself left behind and alone. My jaw dropped when "the diva" had the nerve to claim she was "robbed" of a gold medal because she's not American. I didn't mute the television when she stole the camera's from the true champion during a media conference after the event and I even smiled when she dramatically wrapped the Russian flag around herself before leaving it on the uneven bars. But to blame her second place finish on anything other than a lack luster performance is just too much. I hate her.

.....This was going to be a much better rant, but I was distracted men's high bar...... wow. I'll expand on my hatred of Svetlana later.

Ok, so I've been slacking, I've been back almost a whole day, and I've actually gotten very little done. I have not called Phil yet, I have not gotten my room all in order, I have not done any laundry, I am not unpacked, and I haven't gone to the grocery. I did however get cat-called by a skeezy Puerto Rican fellow... (something of the AYE MAMACITA persuasion)

Basically, I got home, I tried to get my room in some semblance of order... unsuccessfully. I went to dinner with Jen and Bret which was a virtual hotbed of quotes... and has firmly convinced me that Bret will be right there in hell with the rest of us. After dinner we worked on our computer problems for a bit, I put my new sheets on my bed (They are SPECTACULAR!) and we watched Euro-Trip before bedtime. So Jen went to bed, I talked to Alana for a bit and called it a night too. Here's the basic recap of my time at home:

I got home, I hung out with momma, the big bro, and the big bro's woman. Saw the little sis while she was in town to visit the big sis. Babysat the nephew for the big sis over the four week home stand. LAUGHED A LOT, because he is about 97% comedy, and visited with grandparents, and a few friends ... although not many, because I don't like most of the people I used to be tight with... Funny how that works... There was also a period of illness, a lot of spoiling at the hands of my mother, some olympic coverage viewing, momma's berfday-day, and a quick visit to see the poppage and company. It was a pretty good trip all around.

I'm not going to bore all of you with further details, but there were hilights and a few lows, but I had a good time, and I am glad to be back in Chicago... But if one more person asks me if I'm ready for school to start, I think I'm gonna snap... I've gotta go get some stuff done, so I'll post the quotes of the day that I'm behind on, and let that be the end of it.

QOTD
8.19.04 - "I've always taught my children to embrace the occurence of bodily functions... after all its natural, even if it's not always pleasant." ~My dad on speaking openly about "the slides"

8.20.04 - "Have you seen my baseball?" - My step-mom

8.21.04 - "Actually, I just wanna get it over with, I just wanna do it and be broken in." ~Alana

8.22.04 -
Jen: "Hey! Bret has 'Sex for Dummies' in his back seat!"
Liz: "Bret, are you a dummy when it comes to sex?"
Bret: "Wanna find out?"

8.23.04 - "Well, I wanted Jennie to come out with me to a movie, and she said she was going to do laundry, and since her grandma was living there, I told her to just make her grandma do it, I mean after all, what else does she have to do but wash Jennie's clothes and wait to die! And did Jennie come with me to see that movie, yes, I think she did!" ~Bret

8.24.04 -
Liz: "I think I'll take a shower and go to bed too..."
Jennie: "Dude, being clean is WAY over-rated."

8.25.05 - "Yeah, well, you'll be 4 months along with little Johnny." ~Leo on why I'll be getting married in a year

Hey kiddies, I'm at my dad's until Sunday evening... He has issues with anyone being on the computer for longer than 15 minutes or so, and I'm on about minute 25, so I will just post the quotes of the day when I get back to Chi-Town! You kids be good, and I"ll see you soon!

Be very proud of the Lizzle! Tuesday was VERY VERY productive!! I FINALLY finished the faith project, as well as my brother's painting... Now all I gotta do is sit and wait for the paint to dry. (And for the record that might take more time than I've got here!) So other than painting, I took care of some other business around here, went out to help Becky with Pampered Chef stuff, and helping out with the man... because doing both at the same time is quite a lot of work! I got home and announced to the neighborhood that today is my mommy's berfday-day! (HAPPY BERFDAY-DAY MOMMY!) And well, for me that's a pretty frickin productive day!

As for everything else, I'll bring you kids up to speed on the travel plans so that you're aware, because I know a few of you care about this sort of thing. So I'll be here for my mommy's berfday-day, and then Thursday morning I'm heading out to Louisville to see my dad, step-mom and little sister for a bit, and help Becky out with the man while we're there, and then I'll catch my flight to Chicago on Sunday. So for all those of you who have so desperately missed me, give me a call or a message on Sunday after 5 or so, and I should be in your neck of the woods to respond! And Monday I get to go in to work at the gym... oh how I've missed all the joys of the cage... actually, I've just missed the people, not so much on everything else. And next weekend (I think) Tarreck should be coming up to finance a fun time in the windy city for the Lizzle. After that, it's back to school time... BLECH! (Mentally insert the Mr. Yuck face here) I must say that after all the spoiling that my mom has done during my month at home, heading back to actual classes is gonna be a REALLY big reality check... One I'm NOT AT ALL looking forward to.

In other news, I still haven't seen my grandma, although I plan on doing that today. I still haven't talked to Dave, although he was supposed to call me. And I still don't really wanna see Lauren, although she's not very good at taking the BIG hints I'm droppin! (It's gotten so bad that she might actually stalk me all the way to Louisville just to hang out... Kinda weird if you ask me.)

QOTD (In honor of momma's berfday-day!)
8.18.04 - "It's not my birthday... I'm not having a birthay... Actually, you missed it... you were at Becky's so long that it's over"

Tonight's tot-wrangling session went remarkably well! Tyler was remarkably well-behaved, so that pretty much made today an all around awesome day all around. Momma continued her excessive spoiling today. We started off by doing lunch with the grandparents, then going for a pedicure. Then it was haircut time, just a little trim. We ran a couple errands, and then came home for a brief period of relaxation, and some Olympic viewing fun. Then it was off to tot-wrangle so that Becky and Ronnie could enjoy a pleasant child-less evening. This was fortunately not a problem, because like I said before, Tyler was incredibly well behaved. After I left, I gave Phil a call because I hadn't heard from him yet this week. I am pleased to report that he is doing MUCH better on the phone, and I think he's looking forward to my return. Possibly almost as much as momma is dreading my absence... Although I doubt anybody is looking forward to having me around as much as I know momma is gonna miss me! So I came home and watched some more olympic coverage with momma, and painted for a bit before composing this delightful entry and heading for bed! Nighty night!

QOTD
8.16.04 - "How INCREDIBLY misleading! It's just a single tiny nugget! I was expecting an EXPLOSION!" ~ Becky talking about Tyler's "nugget" which had been deceptively foul-smelling for the better part of a half an hour.

8.17.04 - "Yeah, he's funny like that, any time you fart, he'll reach up and touch your butt and ask 'Did you poop?' In fact, just the other night when I was rocking him to sleep, I farted and he just smelled it and he looked up at me, said, 'Mommy, did you poop?' and tried to reach around." ~ Becky on Tyler's fart detection prowess.

A special super-shout out to my momma!


Ok, so I'll admit it, I was WRONG! The other day when I talked about the terrible twos... I had no idea what I was talking about. The other day was a walk in the park. Tonight was the REAL definition of the TERRIBLE twos. Before was just your garden variety irritating kid stuff. Tonight was different. Every ten seconds there was something else, some new problem, something else that couldn't be solved without tears and screaming and ten minutes of whining. We were physically incapable of having mommy out of our sights, we dumped popcorn on the floor, and then cried when the dog started to come sniff and munch on it. I'll put it to you like this, I'm REALLY REALLY REALLY glad that I'm not a mommy yet, because if I were, I would also be a convicted felon who pulled a Susan Smith and drowned her children. I'm thrilled that at the end of the day I can pass him off to his mother and be done with it. GOD BLESS ALL THE GOOD MOTHERS OUT THERE! SERIOUSLY!

But today also had it's good points... in fact, it was a really awesome day up until babysitting time which was only from 4-8:30 PM. Why was it so awesome you ask? I got to sleep in, and my momma woke me up to tell me that we were "going on a quest"... I had no idea what the quest entailed, I was told to just blindly follow. So we got to the mall, and I got a pair of charcoal-grey pants, chocolate-brown pants, makeup, and we moved on. We grabbed some lunch at Shyler's and then went shoe shopping. I got some new running shoes for the impending school year, and momma was going to take me to the art supply store, but we figured that we would save that for tomorrow. She also informed me that tomorrow I would get my pedicure! YAAAAY! When we got home she then told me to go ahead and order myself some new undergarments! WOO HOO! Mommy is trying to spoil me rotten before I go back to school.... And I'm not complaining at all! I like being spoiled. My mommy is the best mommy ever... even when she's not spoiling me she's the best! (It's just THAT much better when she does get the chance to spoil me!) I love you mommy, thanks for not drowning me during my terrible twos!

Happy Olympic day!


Well those 4 and a half HORRID hours of tot-wrangling have worn this girl out. I'm going to bed... here's the quote of the day

Chi-town countdown: 7 days.



QOTD
8.15.04 -
Logan (The kid next door to Becky) : "Hey, I like your shirt!"
[Logan walks away]
Becky: "I don't know that he likes your shirt so much as what you've got IN your shirt."

Well. today was uneventful and unproductive... so here's the quote of the day for today and tomorrow.

QOTD-

8.13.04 ~ "Honestly, the thing I'm most worried about is that they'll get pissed that i'm kissing everyone and then no one will want to kiss me." ~Heather (That's a girl with her priorities in order!)

8.14.04 ~ "Well, he'll come home from work and ask me what I did all day, like I'm just sitting on my ass... but I've got it made while I'm pregnant, because he'll say, 'Jeez, Becky, what the hell did you do today?' and I'll just look at him and say, 'Gee honey, I grew ears today, what did you do?' and the fact is there just ain't a damn thing he can say to that." ~Becky on stumping her husband with her pregnancy productivity.

Tot wrangling started at 5:20 in the morning. That kid is an amazingly early riser. Exhausted doesn't really do justice to the feeling that has racked my body at this point.

I will say that I am very glad to see the new-found dialogue in the comment section! These little things amuse and please me so much!


QOTD
8.12.04 -
Ronnie: "What the hell are you watching?"
Liz: "Lord of the Rings... because there's nothing else on.
Ronnie: "Nothing? We get like 200 channels!"
Liz: "Nothing else, unless you want to watch the E! True Hollywood Story of Tonya Harding"
Ronnie: "Oh fuck that! I never thought I'd say this, but Lord of the Rings it is.... God bless daytime television."

Countdown to Chi-town: 10 days!

Well, today I was called in, as the babysitter-on-call has a tendency of doing. So I went to get the man at daycare, brought him home, fed him, played with him, watched a movie with him, played some more, bathed him, and got him to bed... All without inflicting serious bodily harm. Be impressed, because for the second half of that line-up, I remembered why they call it the TERRIBLE TWO'S. But more often than not he's a good boy, and to be quite honest, he's just too darn cute to beat senseless. I'll just say this, I'm glad I'm only an aunt, and that at the end of the day I can give him back, because I don't know how in the hell my sister does it. Or any mother for that matter. Mad props to all the mammas out there who didn't go loco on their kids... Because I guarantee that every mother out there has had a day or two when they totally understood why some wild animals eat their own young. I'm pulling the night shift here, so I've got a REALLY early wake up call in the morning. (Today he got up at 4:30) With that said, I'm taking my ass to bed!

QOTD
8.11.04 - "My mom is driving me nuts!" ~Murda (Kids, when she said this, she had been home LESS THAN 5 HOURS!)

Chi-town countdown~ 11 days.

I wanna give a quick shoutout to my soccer girls... Namely Alana, because I know that Hell-camp has come and I pity you all, and Alana, I am sorry that they won't let me come along and play with you kids... Actually, I guess I feel sorry for all you fall sports kids who are getting into the thick of training time! You know I love you, and I'll be in the cage when you get back to keep you all smelling fresh and looking good! (Lurk, the countdown has begun! I'll be back on Monday the 23rd, so run through the rules in your head, and get ready to lose your dignity!)

Dave, I'm still waiting on that phone call you promised me! (I'd hate to bother you at work, or interrupt your "special time" with your new lady-friend. Does she know you used to be a woman? You might want to bring her up to speed on that whole situation...

As for me, I'm feeling SO MUCH better... Still not 100%, but I'd say I'm at about 80% which is a vast improvement. Fortunately I have a wonderful momma who is willing to do anything within her means to make me feel better! She rocks! And I thank those of you who have sent get-well-wishes, because I appreciate them quite a lot. It means a lot to know that people care about my health!

I've been meaning to update the links on the blog... Some of them are pretty tired by now, I know, and I apologize for that! The thing is, if you kids want some new stuff up here, I'm gonna need a few contributions from y'all... Some suggestions for new funny stuff.

Oh, and speaking of funny stuff, tonight while I was at Walgreen's, I got the most ingenious toy ever created for less than 5 bucks! I'm not kidding... It's brilliant.

Well, I'm beat. Here's your quote of the day!

QOTD
8.10.04 -
Mike: "I think we need to address the fact that we never dated."
Liz: "I disagree."
Mike: "You disagree that we never dated? When did we date? Where was I? More importantly, was I any good?"



Countdown to Chicago: 12 days!

Drove down to N.C. this weekend for a Fisher Family Function (GF's grandmother's centennial birthday) and had a great time. Aaryn's clan is German and many flew into the states for the celebration and with them they brought beer. Cold. German. Beer. Mmmm. I took the opportunity to learn as much german as possible, but it was all lost to intoxication. No matter though, if i've learned anything in the past few years it's that EVERYONE, no matter their nation of origin, sounds the same after 14-17 drinks. Hooray beer!

North Carolina, on the other hand, sucked. Atleast the Burlington area near which we stayed did. Always ashamed to let a Saturday night go by without getting sloshed I drug Aaryn out to find the local watering hole. Applebees (however its spelled) was the only establishment we could find that sold alcohol in any form or fashion. This wasn't an option however, being that I won't drink at a restraunt bar (unless waiting for a table), hotel bar (unless waiting for a room) or an airport bar (unless... you've got the idea) because i've found the patrons to be pretty shady, depressing and very much the scum of the earth. The only cool thing I found in Burlington was a drive through liquor store. I've heard you guys have em in your part of the country, but there isn't a one in maryland. Dammit! It's genius! I bought two six packs and pack of smokes, not because i wanted to, but because i could. it was magic.

The best part of the trip was the drive. The new car runs great, handles like a dream and accelerates very well for a sedan. The leather seats, 12 disc changer, sun roof and tinted windows made it a very comfy ride. On the way back to baltimore I was tooling around with this turbo charged Neon for about 3 hours up route 85. We eventually hit real traffic and I thought I had lost him as he got boxed in pretty early, but to my surprise he showed up again 2 hours later at a McDonalds! Aaryn and I had pulled over for food and this guy walked right up to us and sat down. He intoduced himself as silver SRT Neon and asked if i drove a silver Grand Prix GTP. We talked about cars and such for about an hour while his gf and mine rolled their eyes. Had a great time. I got the car up to 120 mph on i95 before Aaryn started screaming. Girls are wierd.

I'm still a sick face. My throat hurts, my sinuses are killing me, my head is pounding, I can't breathe, and I've been exhausted for like 4 straight days... I'm putting up the quote of the day and calling it a night.

QOTD
8.9.04 - "Hey punkin, is there anything you want to do? Any place you want to go tonight?" ~Momma

(For those of you who don't get it, when she said it, it was about 7 PM Sunday night, in EVANSVILLE, IN... there is nothing to do, and no place to go after 5 on a Sunday in Evansville, IN.)

Lizzle has been a sick face lately. Friday night I was prepared for death... Saturday I felt a bit better, but still on the poopy end of the spectrum. Basically I'll say what I gotta say, and git-r-done.

Hooray for Greg Maddux! Way to go on the big 300!

Huzzah to my buddy Water-head! (Water-head knows who he/she is and why he/she is deserving of a huzzah!) You deserve it and you know it! You win!

And here it is, your quote of the day!

QOTD
8.8.04 -
Liz: "Well, I walked from Wrigley Field to my apartment..."
Lisa: "How far is that?"
Liz: "Oh I'd say about 3 miles or so."
Mom: "Well that's not so bad."
Liz: "IN HEELS!"
Mom & Lisa: (In unison) "OOOOH!"
Scoot: "I can't believe what I just heard! If I were to say there are starving babies in Afghanistan, I'd get no reaction... I hear 'I walked 3 miles in heels' and I hear 'OOOOOOH!!' from every other person in the room... I just can't believe it!"

Well whaddya know... I had to take a couple of days off from the blog, and a couple of my members took up the slack... That's the kind of thing I like to see! So here's a special shoutout to Jen and Dave for taking a little time for the entertainment of the masses!

But since I took a couple days off, I'll bring you kids up to speed. Basically. I had another one of my personal epiphanies, this time it's about societal perception of love and sex... I won't bore all of you with the minute details, but I'll just say that I think it's a good thing that I had this kind of moment of clarity now. The timing on these things is just incredible!

Outside of all that, I'd say that while my homecoming has a bit lack-luster in most regards, but the time spent with the family, and the babysitting job have both been awesome! Basically my sister Becky pays me to play with my nephew, and to keep her company! I love this job! Also I have gotten to spend some time with my mom and my brother. We've had some quality margarita nights, and some video game amusement. Becky and I have had good lunches, and "Sex and the City" mini-marathons... GOOD TIMES!

The other day Tyler accidentally gave me a kick to the jaw, but that's one of the hazards of the job... I'll live!

OH! And before I finish this off, I've got 2 things to say...
1) Jen, my AC better be in my room when I get back!
2) Just when everybody thought the Jesus bed couldn't get any better, IT HAS! I made a luxury-item purchase... 350 thread count Jacqard Sateen sheets.... I'M NEVER GETTING OUT OF BED TO GO TO CLASS... EVER!

Here are the quotes of the day that I owe you!

QOTD
8.3.04 - "Sex is like cuddling... Only damper" ~Quote from Becky Adams' AIM profile.

8.4.04 - "Well... Peter Pan is hot!" ~Alana talking about Peter Pan... I don't know why.

8.5.04 -
Liz: "Karla can lick my big toe!"
Alana: "Nothin' like a good toe lickin'!"
(I was saying that Karla would just have to wait, and Alana was enthusiastically agreeing!)

8.6.04 -
James: "Well, I'll give you a choice, I can either talk bad about your mom or your baseball team"
Liz: "You don't want to do either one, because either way you're lying... I mean you talk about my mom, and you're going to hell, and I'll have to kick your ass, and if you talk about my Cubs, I'll talk back, and you'll look bad because your baseball knowledge will be shown up by a girl.
James: "Damn, either way you've got my manhood and I lose..."
Liz: "Admit it, you like it when I have your manhood."
James: "Well, I've offered my manhood, but you don't want that... You just take my dignity."

8.7.04 - (We were playing a video game where he had to save little Chinese people from a burning building)
Mom: "Oh! Catch him! Save that one!"
Bill: "Yeah, let's save all those little yellow babies!"
Liz: "You know you're going to hell for saying that, right?"
Bill: "Yeah, I pretty well figured as much a long time ago."

I got a new-to-me car yesterday and I'm lovin it! Check it out. She needs a name though. Any ideas?

So my pumpkin is sad that no one writes. I understand, yet I've even abbandoned my own blog life. It's hard cause no matter how hard i try i can't be nearly as cool as Liz and remember all the little daily details and bloggable info.

My liz has been gone for over a week now. It is sad. Sometimes I just open her door and stare at her bed and take her life size body pillow that no one knows what she really does with it in that bed and hold it soo close. Ewww...that sounds freaky. Nope but i do miss myself some liz roomie fun and look forward to the return date of my roomie. Until then I stole the AC unit out of her room two nights ago when it was 90 out and thought i might die if i had to stand in the kitchen for 4 minutes waiting for the microwave. he he. I am a WIMP. I melt. I know this so its ok.

Ok...I'm rambling, but ramble or no ramble i BLOGGED just for you!

Hugs and love,
Your Mouse

Tyler is a living, breathing, walking, talking ball of comedy. Here are a couple of examples:
I was giving him a bath tonight, and he was sitting there and just out of the blue he farted.... he turned and looked at me with this big grin on his face and goes, "What was that?" and with a straight face I tried to say, "I don't know... what was that?" and he goes "It was me! I pooted." There is something to be said for TOTAL honesty...

And the other night we had put him to bed, and like an hour later he stealthily crept down to the living room and I didn't even see or hear him until he was 2 feet from the couch, and he turned and looked at me with the biggest grin on his face... like he knew he wasn't supposed to be there and he turned to Becky and looked her dead in the eye, and said "Hi, mommy! Can we watch Hairy Monsters?" Which just goes to show you, even an hour after he was supposedly asleep, we still needed to expect the unexpected.


I've got some quotes of the day to post, but I'll do that later, because I gotta go to bed NOW, due to the fact that I've gotta tot-wrangle EARLY tomorrow.

So theLizzle wants more participation. Fair enough.

OMG I need a break from life! It's been soooo busy. This weekend was spent with Aaryn and much like last weekend there was not much sleep had, but fun aplenty. Friday night my group went to a small bar on the westside of Baltimore called Ottobar (or autobar or ottoSPACEbar... there may be an umlaut in there somewhere) . I've never seen so much black lipstick in all my life. Ottobar is where Goth kids from high school go to die. It was all very sad, but I've never been one to chalk up an evening, so i took the chance to learn more about the goth/punk persuasion. I was all like Jane Goodall or Dian Fossey and shit. I found the easiest way to earn the acceptance of the pack was to first gain the respect of the alpha males (the ones wearing the most black, with the most tattoos and the most piercing). This was harder than anticipated and I quickly learned that a single tattoo does not carry much street cred and that Modest Mouse isn't as underground as they used to be. What did work? Girly drinks. It seems that outsiders are most often given away by the cheap american beer in his or her hand. This was corrected with a rum'n'coke. Secondly I had to do something about my appearance. I looked far too respectable and stood out like a clean thumb. This was addressed by unfolding my collar, rolling up my sleeves as far as possible and dishevelling my hair. After that all I had to do was stand atop the bar and scream "Coldplay sucks! Long live The Pixies!" and I soon found myself invited into "the inner circle" which i found to be more of a triangle (me and two guys = triangle != circle). The only thing I brought home from the whole experience was a hangover and the word "Emo" which I've no idea the definition. Emo must be of an asian dialect because no one can tell me what it means exactly, only kindas and sortas. Some ass told me it stood for emotion or emotional, but thats too retarded to be true.

Saturday I went to a farm fair in north-eastern maryland which was more fun than I expected it to be. Aaryn was defiantly out of her element but was quite the trooper. Today i tore down the outboard from my boat for scrap. I had decided to get rid of it (where “get rid of” = "hide it in dad's shed") but a friend of mine said he would buy the powerhead from me and I desperately need the cash. So after removing the salvageable I went at the drive shaft and lower unit with a sledge hammer and blow torch. This was much fun.

In short I was "doing something" constantly this weekend, as i have the past few. I'm getting tired of "doing stuff" and need some "me time" or "lounging around" very badly. Unfortunately I don't see any of that in my near future. Next friday i'm off work to spend the day in delaware with my family (yay :(… Delaware is not the magical land you imagine it to be) then leaving for North Carolina that evening to spend the weekend with Aaryn's family. Sheesh.

Lastly... Michael Moore is an ass.

<>Love,
DJ Pan Blanco

Uhh, yeah, so we got Nomar.


Good times.