I believe I've mentioned a couple of times already how unbalanced and off the women's hockey league is this season. We're sort of in the middle. There are two teams that can completely demolish us every time, one that is sort of even, and two more teams that WE can demolish every time. So, not so much fun. A game with a big score differential is not usually a fun one. We're in 4th place of 6. Last night, we played the team that is in first place with 5 wins, no losses. Somehow, we kept the game close. In fact, at one point, there was a 3-1 lead in our favor, but then they scored 3 unanswered goals to go up 4-3 in the 3rd. We tied it with 3 minutes left in regulation and went into a 5 minute sudden death overtime. If no one scores at the end of the 5 minutes, the game is ended in a tie with each team earning 1 point. Well, it's never happened to me before, but I scored the game winning goal with :14 left in OT. Also, I had 4 goals, a personal best. For the first time this season, it was a really good game. And not just because we won or because I scored so many goals, but because it was competitive. Also, congratulations to our rookie, TC, who in her 3rd game EVER IN HER LIFE scored her first goal last night.

Since the game didn't start until 11:15 last night, I slept late, then had a make up work day today. I got a ton of stuff done, then ran some errands in the evening. I'm finally home after 11, and it's time to watch Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals from earlier in the night (TiVo). I've been avoiding any mention of the game all day. La la la la la! Time to go watch and see how the Penguins did.

It has been a busy, busy work day. I actually worked longer than the requisite 8 hours just because I was in the middle of something and wanted to finish it. Then I thought, ugh...time to blog and nothing to write about. That was before I did a quick scan of the headlines and came across this story.

If you don't know the name Natascha Kampusch, she is an Austrian woman who had been held captive for 8 years until she escaped to freedom in 2006. Kampush is now 20 years old, which means she spent much of her formative years in complete isolation. I can only imagine what sort of social butterfly she is - you probably can't shut her up. Her friends are probably always saying, "Man, if I had a dime for every time I had to tell Natascha to just shut up..." The reason I mention this is that Natascha's television talk show debut's this Sunday. That's right - she'll be the show's host and she'll be interviewing people on television...in front of other people...and not in a garage while being held captive. While I admire her ability to find work of this sort at such a young age, I have to wonder if there maybe could have been a more suitable...er, socialable...choice for television host. Although, it HAS been two whole years, so I'm sure she's completely better and more centered now and able to handle things like the press and paparazzi. I only hope her show is more interesting to watch than The Chevy Chase Show was.

Wally was much happier last night when the Penguins beat the Red Wings at home 3-2. The series now stands at 2-1 Red Wings. I love the Penguins, but man...Detroit looks strong. I hope that whatever happens, it goes to 7 games so I can get all the hockey I can before the season is officially over.

Today was a BUSY day. I pretty much worked 8 hours straight, then had to drive into work right at rush hour. I took Wally with me and he was happy to see everyone in the office. Of course, EVERYONE is always happy to see him. He's so funny...as soon as we come through the front door, he runs right to my old edit bay and plunges right through the front door. Thankfully, the woman working in there now seems to be a dog lover and doesn't mind the surprise molestation that happens every time we come and visit. Seriously, Wally misses the social interaction WAY more than I do. I've never taken him to the dog park much, but maybe I should start doing that.

I just watched the Men in Trees episode from last night and am waiting for the Lost season finale to come on. In the meantime, I have an indie on DVD to watch - Music Within. If it's any good, I'll let you know about it tomorrow.

On a sad note for the day, I read that today is the tenth anniversary of the death of Phil Hartman. RIP Phil. You were a funny, funny man and have been dearly missed.

Happy Wally Wednesday everyone! This is how sad the little guy looked when Sid the Kid and his Penguins let him down the other night. If they don't fare any better tonight, I'm afraid there might be sweep by Detroit.

Bonus dog (and cat) for the day...neighbor Stryder the bulldog with new baby sister Suki.

I wish I had something as entertaining as discussing messy human remain particulates but I don't. I had one of those days that should have been easy, but pretty much went wrong from the start. By the time the end of the day rolled around, I was more than ready for it. As far as I knew, I wouldn't have to go into the office until Friday to pick up my paycheck and some extra footage. I just now (at 9:15 pm) discovered I have to go in TOMORROW. Again. I thought this whole working from home thing was supposed to mean I hardly had to go into the office, but lately it's been like every other day. I'm so annoyed. I can't even take the scooter because it would take me like 2 hours to get there and back on surface streets. Grr. Better day tomorrow, hopefully.

Have you ever had one of those conversations with someone that is completely inappropriate, but still completely funny, at least to you and the person having it? I had one of those today with my friend Dean. I had mentioned how I read a book recently where a girl's boyfriend had disappeared for a week, driven out to a motel in the desert and shot himself in the head. I guess he didn't want to be around anyone who might stop him. But for me, it brought to mind the question, if you go somewhere like a hotel or a time share, and you DO off yourself in some messy way, is there an additional cleaning charge included? I would love to have someone ask those questions on their way checking IN, but they'd probably get taken seriously and the guys with white coats would show up. At any rate, because Dean and I were IM-ing when we had the conversation, I have the word for word transcript which I thought I'd share with you here. (If you happen to be someone who actually DID have to clean up a horrible mess created by suicide, don't read this - it will upset you, because Dean and I are both very, very sick).

ME: You know there are companies specifically designed to do that sort of cleanup. I hear those Mr. Clean erasers work well, though.

DEAN: Doesn't surprise me. I know there's companies that specialize in cleaning after flooding and fires. There's probably specialists for just about anything.

ME: You really gotta know your shit to know how to get brain particulate out of a shag carpet, you know what I'm saying?

DEAN: Yeah, grey matter's not the sort of job for a simple Dust Buster.

ME: Not to mention all the bone shards. And what do you DO with it? I don't think you can just go throw it in the dumpster or put it down the garbage disposal.

DEAN: Probably the same place they dispose of surgical goo and stuff.

ME: Right - dumpsters, right next to the fetuses.

DEAN: Like a bunch of recycling bins next to each other for different body parts. Neat.

ME: "Glass" "Paper" "Plastic" "Discarded Human Remains" "Used needles"

DEAN: Each one a different color so after awhile you don't even have to look any more when discarding.

ME: rofl

DEAN: Neighbors still stealing them though.

ME: Yuk. Or using them when their own are full.

DEAN: Homeless people carting them around...........

ME: This is starting to sound like one of Stephen King's short stories

At this point, the conversation just degenerated (if that's possible) into a more boring conversation about how unattractive Stephen King is. Again, we don't mean to offend. We're just two sick people who find certain things funny.

It's been a lazy Sunday, not what I expected for Labor Day weekend. The weather is overcast, glum and cool. I did get out for a couple of hours on my mountain bike which was an arduous 1 hour climb up and about a 10 minute ride down. Followed that with a hot bath to relax the legs back out, then watched "Life As A House" on DVD. One of my favorite movies with one of my favorite actors (Kevin Kline), but it always makes me cry in the last half hour. Nothing says entertainment like watching someone die on the screen.

I'm not sure what else to do with my day. No more NHL hockey for the day...I think the next day is tomorrow. I suppose I should do some laundry and play with the dog. Maybe it will be sunnier tomorrow.

Also, I thought this was funny:

I believe I've mentioned before that the women's league this season is pretty horrific. Aside from the extremely late game slots, a new team was created and people got moved around. The league claimed they were trying to create "parity" in a division that was pretty evenly matched already. The result is two teams that are absolutely horrible, two teams that fall in the middle and can kick the ass of the horrible teams, and two teams that are very good, who can pretty much kick any teams ass. We might lose to a better team 1-6 one week, only to turn around and beat a lesser team 9-0 the next (as happened this week). I would have rathered it happened against a better opponent, but I did finally obtain my first hat trick, coming up with three goals and three assists in the game. It would have been much more enjoyable if the other team had been the least bit competitive.

I've done virtually nothing today. I had some work to make up, then went to a yoga class with a neighbor. I came home intending to do the dishes, the laundry, and go grocery shopping (I've been out of food for a week). All I did was watch some old movies on TV, a rental DVD that was mediocre (Martian Child with John Cusack) and watch Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals. I really hope the Penguins bring a little more to the table next game.

The last two days have been thundery and wet, though not as bad as today. It has been dark enough out to match my mood. Poor Wally has been basically sequestered inside because I don't feel like drying him off every time he feels like looking outside. We did just have a big game of after dinner fetch, though.

As an example of the ongoing wisdom of those who run the hockey department at TSC, the women's league has games scheduled this evening, despite the long weekend. At last check, it looked like we might have exactly enough players to compete without forfeiting (5 skaters + 1 goalie). I think we're also on the Olympic ice (it's bigger). I hope they have the defibrillator handy.

I have not much on the schedule for this weekend. Light make up day tomorrow for work, no co-ed hockey on Sunday, which leaves a lot of time to myself. Wonderful. That's always good post-breakup.

It seems like only yesterday that I picked Wally up from his mom and brought him to Los Angeles. He was 12 weeks old and already 25 lbs. I'd never seen such a cute puppy. It's hard to believe he's already eight years old, but he's still as cute as ever. Here are some photos from his birthday party this afternoon.


Wally got plenty of cake, even hand fed!


Friends Mobay and Stryder shared in the cake eating festivities...


And I think Wally thought the rain was delivered just for him!


Speaking of rain, man did it come down all of a sudden this afternoon! Total summer storm. The thunder and lightening were so loud and bright, it reminded me of when I used to live in Olympia, WA near McChord Air Force Base where they practiced live bombing. The clap of the thunder and the cracking flash of the lightening reminded me of the scene in Poltergeist where the kid is terrified alone in his room, counting the seconds between the thunder and the lightening. And then the terrifying life-like tree reaches through his window and yanks him through the glass. It occurred to me that I might want to move away from my window. If I had turned around to find a clown sitting on my futon behind me, I would have lost it.

Welcome to Wally Wednesday! Today we're celebrating the first day of kiddie pool season. All the kids were out playing.

Even baby Wesley...though he wasn't exactly participating, per se.


Wally and Stryder had the most fun.


Tomorrow's celebration will be Wally's 8th Birthday!!

Bound to cheer anyone up, a kitten. Say hello to Suki, Bulldog Stryder's new 8 week old sister:


Does anyone watch Desperate Housewives? I'm confounded by the season finale this year. Will next season start 5 years in the future, or what the hell?

So much for that one month relationship.

It is HOOOOOTTT today. I was bored, so I slathered on a ton of sun screen and headed out to explore on my scooter. Since I can't take it on the freeway, I wanted to see where I could go on surface streets besides Pasadena. I headed down Colorado thinking I'd go into Glendale or maybe even Burbank when I saw Figueroa come up. I thought, "Is that THE Fig?" so I followed it, hoping to make it all the way into downtown. It eventually ran out, but did take me close enough to figure out how to get there, and before long, I was tooling around Chinatown in the heat. Since I can get into downtown, that opens up Hollywood and pretty much everything else to me - it just means it would take hours to get there. But today, I had nothing but time so it was fun to explore. I went through Highland Park and part of South Pasadena and had basically shadowed the route the Gold Line takes into downtown and back.

I wish I had something exciting to write, but it's been a pretty boring and uneventful day. It's been super hot outside so Wally and I have spent most of our time at home with the air conditioning on.

I see Prince Caspian is out in the theaters now so maybe I'll go see it before the weekend is over. I absolutely loved the Chronicles of Narnia and have read them in their entirety probably 7 or 8 times. I was really happy with the way they did The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and as long as they continue making movies from this series of books, I'll continue to see them. Ironman looks really good, too, and I've always been a fan of Robert Downey Jr. And...ooh...I can't wait for the new Indiana Jones, even if Harrison Ford IS getting old.

Has anyone seen anything good, or are you looking forward to seeing anything this summer?

I guess I got my wish for warmer weather. It's well into the 90s here today, and when I went into Burbank earlier, the thermometer on my car read 102. My neighbor is already blaming me for the heat, since I asked for it.

Wally's eye seemed to look a little better today and it made me wonder if the antibiotics the vet gave him on Wednesday are kicking in on something and helping with whatever infection that is. I decided to hold off on his appointment with the specialist and give it a few more days to see if, indeed, it's healing. Other than the eye, he's totally fine and has tons of energy so I'm not too worried about him for the time being. We'll see in a couple of days.

Someone e-mailed me the link for this video the other day. I'm not going to go into a tirade of all I think is wrong with it - those who know me even remotely probably already know that. I just thought I'd share and see what everyone else thinks. (This video is for use in the classroom, by the way. Fish - would you guys EVER use anything like this?)

First off...ow. My quads are sore from running the other day and now I have some nice shin splints. That'll teach me for trying to get back into shape!

I've finally been able to watch some playoff hockey. I assume it's because the finals are drawing closer and the games are becoming easier to find. Both the Eastern and Western conference finals looked like they'd be sweeps. However, last night the Dallas Stars came back to win one against Detroit, and tonight the Philadelphia Flyers came out with 3 goals in the first period and defeated Pittsburgh 4-2. Both losses force a game five in both series. I want the Penguins to win, but at this point, I'm just happy to be watching hockey. The more games the better. Oh...and am I the only one who thinks Sidney Crosby is suddenly hot with his post season facial hair?

Meanwhile, in the IIFH (International Ice Hockey Federation) quarter-finals yesterday, Swiss defensemen Rafael Diaz and Phillipe Furer both put pucks into their own net scoring two own goals in the first 7 minutes of their game against Russia. Russia ended up taking the game 6-0. Yes, I told Madeline she should consider moving to Switzerland. If you're unfamiliar with the IIFH and think it might be junior or amateur hockey, think again - players for Russia include NHLers Ilya Kovalchuk, Sergei Federov and Alexander Ovechkin.

This morning I saw this headline: "Family Lived With Decaying 90 Year Old Corpse for Months." The headline might be a little misleading - the corpse of 90-year-old Magdeline Avila Middlesworth was found 2 months after the woman had died. Authorities had responded to a call from Middlesworth's sister who had not heard from her in awhile and asked them to check up on her. Middlesworth was from Monroe, Washington, a suburb of Seattle. Friends say she was lured from Washington to Wisconsin by what they referred to as a "cult." When the authorities showed up to the home she had been staying at in Wisconsin, they discovered the remains of Middlesworth piled up on top of the only toilet in the house. One of the three people who lived there admitted she had died two months previous, but that someone higher up in their "organization" had told them if they prayed hard enough, Middlesworth would come back to life. I'm not sure if I'm more put off by the family (which included children) to have left a corpse in their home for two months, or the fact that it was on the ONLY TOILET IN THE HOUSE.

Wally went to his regular vet again today, who determined that they really had no idea what was causing his eye problem. They suggested several things they thought it might be, but then told me why they didn't think that was the problem, based on his thorough examination. I walked away with a prescription for antibiotics in case it is an abscess in one of his teeth that they couldn't find during examination, that might be causing irritation of that eye. That was $130. I think the weekly Wally total is about $296. The vet said he should see an eye specialist, which I actually already had an appointment scheduled with. The cost for a consultation? $220. Wally is turning into a very expensive boy! He's lucky he's so damn cute, as evidenced by this photo of him throwing a fit in my office because I wasn't paying attention to him.

Poor Wally's eye doesn't seem to be getting better. I thought it was at least not getting worse, but now it looks pretty bad. He has another appointment tomorrow to see the same vet, and if they don't have a better idea of what's wrong with him, I'm going to take him to see an eye specialist. That's right...an eye specialist for my dog.

The weather has finally turned nice again and it's hard to believe that just Sunday I lit a fire in my fireplace. It's supposed to hit 95 again by Friday, then cool off to the low 70s by this time next week. What the hell? At least the nice weather today motivated me to run for the first time in forever. It was warm, but not hot with a nice breeze blowing. I didn't bother to time how long it took me to run 3 miles, but I think I'm lagging around a 12 minute mile. I'd like to start running regularly again, as I had goals for this year of running more 5ks and at least one 10k and I haven't done any of that so far. Well...a little over half a year left to go.

Well, we still don't have a cure for cancer or AIDS, but at least we have a robot that can conduct a symphony orchestra. ASIMO, designed by Honda Motor Company, conducted the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in a performance of "The Impossible Dream" from "Man of La Mancha." In the process, the 4 foot 3 inch tall white robot "perfectly mimicked the actions of a conductor, nodding its head at various sections and gesturing with one or both hands." I can only hope a robot like this can someday replace relics like my old music teacher who was so temperamental he often yelled at students and threw music stands and coffee mugs against the walls.

Wally's eye looks marginally better today but I'm still not happy with it. I had to keep him coned all day while I worked because he can't be trusted not to scratch at his eye or rub it up against something. When my maid showed up this afternoon, I heard her laughing at him because he gets so happy to see her he goes a little crazy, and he was banging the cone all over the place. As my friend says, it may not be a funny situation, but it's hard not to laugh at a dog in a cone.

Right now I'm in the middle of watching a movie called The Savages on DVD. It stars Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman as siblings trying to deal with their estranged elderly father who now suffers from dementia. Yeah, as you can guess, it's really light and funny. I love Philip Seymour Hoffman, though, so I'm compelled to keep watching. I actually really like this type of dark drama, though it's rather sad and makes me think I should have had kids so I'd have someone to take care of me when I am elderly and demented. I guess I'll have to keep bribing my nephews.

Speaking of nephews, my sister reminded me today that one of the twins is graduating next month. Unfortunately, his graduation happens the week my other sister and my mom will be here visiting me, so we're all going to miss it. To be honest, his graduation sort of snuck up on me. All of a sudden, my little nephew is all grown up and ready to graduate from high school. I know it sounds really cliché to say this, but it really does seem like only yesterday that the twins were born and now they're turning into men. Congratulations, Zac, on your upcoming commencement!

Today was relaxation day. I felt like I ran all over the place yesterday, between the vet and the other errands I had to get done. This morning, I caught up on my DVR (Lost and ER from last week), then watched Walk Hard on Blu-Ray. I will say the movie had its funny moments, but for the most part, not so much. For those of you who have seen it, I think my favorite part was where Dewey Cox and his band went to visit the Maharishi in India at the same time the Beatles were there. Oddly, Jack Black was cast as Paul McCartney, and Paul Rudd does a very funny John Lennon.

Let's see...then I had a nap. Then I went grocery shopping. Wally had some fetch, and his eye is looking marginally better. You should see him with the cone on trying to play fetch. A couple of times, he lost the tennis ball in his cone and it was rolling around and around his head.

Tomorrow, back to work and another mundane week.

I took Wally to the vet today and I must admit, the vet was pretty much baffled about his eye. She couldn't figure out what would cause his inner eye lid to swell up like this. Other than the eye, he seemed fine. His appetite was fine (he weighed in at 97 lbs by the way), he wasn't lethargic, and he was happy to play fetch. She thoroughly examined the eye itself and determined it was healthy - no glaucoma, cataracts or the like. She then used a dye and a black light to examine it to see if there were any scratches - there were none. Finally, she put eye drops in to numb the eye ball and used one of those big, medical q-tips to prod the eye and pull the swollen lid back from the eye ball to see if there was anything lodged in there or to try to locate an ulcer. Nothing. She thinks it might be an allergic reaction to something. She gave him a steroid shot and sent us home with some antibiotic/anti-inflammatory eyedrops and we're supposed to go back later this week.

As I was standing at the counter trying to check out, Wally kept pulling himself up to the counter to say hello to everyone and see if there were any spare treats laying around. Who has the worst trained/cutest dog in the world? Me!


I also went to Best Buy today and finally caved in and bought a Blu-Ray DVD player. John and I rented The Golden Compass to watch. He tuned out about 15 minutes in, but I enjoyed watching it, if only for all the cool CGI in hi-def. Was this supposed to be a movie for kids? With magic, talking, armored Polar Bears fighting to the death? Even still - how cool would it be to have a talking, armored Polar Bear at your disposal?

Today I got to take advantage of working from home a little bit. I really needed to get my haircut and my hair stylist is in Venice, all the way across town. I almost never ever go to Venice. But I was able to get up early, get a few hours of work in, then drive over there for a couple of hours and come back to finish up my day, putting in the rest of my hours.

When I came home, I noticed Wally was scratching at his right eye like crazy - he wouldn't leave it alone. Upon closer inspection I discovered his second eye lid (the interior one) is all swollen and red. I'm sure it has something to do with allergy season. He probably was itching his eyes and scratched it and it's bothering him. I gave him a Benadryl and put the cone of silence on him (or in his case, the cone of great satellite reception). At any rate, because I was gone for a good deal of the day already, I couldn't just take off and take him to the vet. Also an inconvenience is the fact that his vet is still in Manhattan Beach, right next to the studio I used to work at. Thankfully, they have Saturday appointments. Unfortunately, their only appointment available was 8:15 am. Yeah...Saturday morning pain in the ass to cross town that early, but also, I have an 11 pm hockey game tonight (about 2 minutes from Manhattan Beach, coincidentally). Sigh. I foresaw a very long, tiring Saturday. I did ask the vet's office to call me if they had a cancellation later in the day, which they did, so now we get to go in at 11:45 am. Much better!

Needless to say, Wally is not a happy boy right now. He's drowsy and he's itchy, and whenever he gets enough energy, he tries to pull his cone off. I hope he doesn't do something stupid with himself while I'm out playing hockey tonight.

Last night, Madeline and I went out to grab a bite to eat here in Pasadena. We walked out of the restaurant into the giant parking lot shared by a whole street of businesses. We headed right to my car, I clicked the alarm remote, and crawled into the driver's seat. As I was waiting for Madeline to get in, I glanced down into my foot well and mused to myself what odd things sometimes stick to your shoe and get tracked into your car. For instance, I had just now noticed some sort of small paper cartoon bunny rabbit cutout. I reached down to grab it and throw it in the trash as Madeline said, "Hey...when did you come out and put this in the seat? I looked over to see her gesture to a hardback book sitting in the passenger's seat...a hardback book I had never seen before. I then glanced into the back seat where I saw a baby seat. Madeline and I's eyes met. and we both exclaimed, "Ohmygod!" hopped out of the car and quickly walked away to MY car which was in the next aisle.

Thinking maybe my alarm remote had somehow unlocked the identical one we had mistakenly gotten into, I clicked the alarm again when I got out but it wouldn't relock the car. I assume the owner simply didn't lock the door. As we crawled into my own car, embarrassed, I noticed a guy near another restaurant watching us curiously. Sure enough, he went over to the other Volvo, got in, and drove away. He was probably bewildered seeing people get in his car until he saw us walk to the look alike nearby and figured it out on his own. (For you KROQ listeners, do I remind you of a certain someone now?) I felt like I accidentally violated the other guy's space. I guess the lesson here is lock your car. And don't be a douche bag and get into someone else's.

Two of the benefits of working from home:



Happy Wally Wednesday, everyone!

Who the hell turned off the heat in Southern California? It was only about 10 days ago that the temperatures neared 100, and today it was really chilly. Chilly enough that I had to wear pants, and I'm very anti-pants now that I work from home. I'm sure when it's the middle of summer and temperatures out here in the San Gabriel Valley are topping 100 on a regular basis, I'll regret what I'm about to say, but I want some warm weather. If I can't have snow to snowboard on, then let it be hot!

It occurred to me today how boring my blog has gotten. I used to have lots of interesting stories from the set of BL. Now, I work from home by myself with my dog. The most exciting thing I did today was go to the vet and pick up Wally's special diet food and some Advantage to get rid of the fleas that are already showing up for the season. I'll try to think of ways to make my life more exciting. In the meantime, try not to be too bored with the blog content.

Somehow, even though I had an early hockey game last night (we won, 7-3), I still managed to get to sleep late and had a hard time getting out of bed this morning. And then I remembered that I work at home on my own schedule (pretty much) so I turned the alarm off and just went back to sleep. I started work around 10 but started to have problems with my computer and an hour later, had to drive it into the office to get looked at because it would no longer boot. It took them the rest of the day to reinstall everything on it so the day was basically a wash. Because I had some unexpected time, I did manage to finally clean up around the house and start to get my office in order.

Today I also signed paperwork that makes me full-time staff where I work, which means that for now, I'm giving up on the big union jobs and the big union hours that come along with them. Working 8 hours a day with no commute is pretty hard to beat, and honestly, it works out to more per hour than when I was making union scale. I might change my mind in the future, it's certainly likely, but for now, I'm enjoying having time to spend with friends and my dog.

I went to Whole Foods today to pick up a couple of things and at the checkout, as usual, I got caught behind the slowest transaction in the store. The guy checking out was a total hippie (big shocker at Whole Foods), and it took me awhile to figure out that the reason the transaction was taking so long was that the guy was paying for his $110 worth of gourmet groceries with food stamps. My first thought was that the $110 could have gone much further somewhere like Vons, and I assume that if someone is on food stamps, they might want to try to get as much as they can for it. I saw he had a hand truck with him which I didn't understand because he only had two bags of groceries. Then, when I was leaving, I noticed him loading up cases of something onto the truck. I assumed it was bottled water (again...maybe a bit of a luxury if you're on food stamps, but who am I to say) but then noticed it was Italian sparkling water - two cases of it.

Since I'm a lifelong Democrat, of course I don't have a problem with social services like unemployment insurance and food stamps. But I thought the whole point of things like food stamps was so that you could get help so your family didn't go hungry...not so they could drink Italian sparkling water made by a company that doesn't employ child workers or whatever. I'm not saying people on public assistance shouldn't be allowed some small luxuries in life, but jeez...come on.

I visited the J. Paul Getty Museum today for the very first time. I've lived in Los Angeles for 14 years now and have never seemed to make it up here. It was a beautiful day and I had a great time, but I have to be honest...I discovered I'm not that interested in old paintings and such which makes up a good portion of the Getty collection. I much prefer photographs, and I saw David Hockney's Pear Blossom Highway for the first time there and was amazed.

It's hard to see from this image, but the piece is huge (78 X 111 inches) and is a collage of individual photographs. I think I'd like to try and find some museums or galleries around town that feature photographs over painted works.

One thing I really enjoyed at the Getty is the amazing architecture and the gardens. Here are some photos:


There were cool fountains everywhere. Wally would have loved it!


The view is also spectacular up there.


Oh, and this is John, who took me to the Getty. He and I are a month old tomorrow. And despite the misleading angle of the photo, he is not only 5 feet tall.

I woke up this morning with the same headache I went to sleep with last night. Yay, me! I wish I was one of those people who could just get a little headache that would go away after two Advil and some water, but it just doesn't happen. Finally, it seems to have been abated so at least I can play hockey tonight without my head pounding every time I stand up.

I tried to sleep in this morning because I have such a late game tonight but my body wouldn't have any of it. (Maybe it was the headache). At any rate, I had finished my show and needed to go in to work to pick up a new drive before I could get started. I got in around 11, got my drive and my paycheck and went out to grab a bite with some co-workers I've been missing. The result is that I didn't get to sit down and start to work until 1pm, which made for a long day.

I just got finished watching the latest Lost and am about to get ready to head out for another interesting game of hockey with my new team in the women's league. Hopefully, I will not be writing again tomorrow about Madeline shooting on the wrong goalie.

I had an extremely light day today and actually had the time to run around and do some office errands and try to iron out some technical problems at home. (They're still not ironed out, by the way, but I won't bore you with the details). Unfortunately, I started to get a headache around 3 pm that still hasn't gone away.

After work, I sat down to watch Into The Wild from Netflix. I read the book a few months ago when I was on a Jon Krakauer tear. I have enjoyed everything I've read by him, though I have to admit, this book was not my favorite of his. The book follows, as best Krakauer can, the journey made by 23-year-old Emory graduate Christopher McCandless as he sheds society and materialsm. We see McCandless abandon his car, burn money, and hitchhike around the American west, including a kayak trip into Mexico. His end goal is to make his way to Alaska and live off nature in the wild. He ultimately succeeds, only to find his untimely end alone and starving in the wilderness. The story was a much more interesting read. The movie ran incredibly slow. I did, however, enjoy the original soundtrack by Eddie Vedder. If you want a light, happy date movie to watch, this is not it. But if you'd like to follow a young man on a soul searching trek that ends in death, maybe this movie is for you.

My review of telecommuting, after more than a week working from home is a big thumbs up! I finished my first show today and drive into the office tomorrow to pick up my next one. I'm enjoying it so much, in fact, that I am now rethinking my old dilemma about what to do with myself professionally. I even looked into health insurance and such today. I think I have some big decisions ahead of me.

Before I forget -

My father's birthday is on May 6 - Happy Birthday, Dad!
Mother's Day is next Sunday - Happy Mother's Day, Mom!
Robert's birthday is on May 10 - Happy Birthday, Rob! (Ha ha ha - you're 37 now, too!)

(Now if only I could remember to send cards and stuff...)