what walks in my subconscious?

Last night I had a dream. I dreamed in anime’. It began innocent enough – walking through an unfamiliar street with friends from my days as a younger man. Matt was there. Jay. Chris. Steve.  We laughed. Joked. Poked fun. Found ourselves in a bar; this is where things got weird. Naked, and painted to look like the wall behind him, stepped a man resembling Ron Meuck’s ‘Big Man.’ The Big Man stepped towards us, then burst through to an open terrace and ran.

Being the ever vigilant enforcer that I am (if only in my dreams) I took chase, and stepped out onto the platform. Running through the rain, in the way one can only run through the rain in an anime cartoon, was the Big Man below me on platforms surrounding a drab & cavernous pool. I dove into the pool, and found myself in an underwater series of caves. I swam. I swam in towards the big man, coming up for air in a small outcropping, where immediately I was shoved back down, the outcropping smashed by boulders above. Panic. Searching for air pockets, I see myself in third person sucking at bubbles at the top of the cave.

I awoke. Holding my breath.

Something’s gotta give soon. Let’s hope it’s not my sanity.

Back to School

I just signed up for a Kaplan guided course on the GMAT. Any suggestions out there for a future MBA program?

Weekend Antics

This past weekend I went out not one, but both nights in rare form. It was a blast.

Friday night was the opening ceremony for the Olympics (to which I reply: YAWN) I couldn’t really care less.  Yay America, and I’m happy for those athletes that have won, but really, at the end of the day, I’ll forget all about each and every one of them until they grace the cover of a magazine again.

Any way.

We went out in Dupont and hit up Buffalo Billiards for a few. It was a nice night out so we sat outside and enjoyed a few drinks. We then opted to hop in a cab and head out to another place across town. On our way to the cabs we came across a brass band putting on a free show. Drunk kids rejoice – free concert!

I wanted to stay and watch, but alas, had already hailed a cab who was impatiently waiting. Ah well.

Afterward we went to this tiny dance club and watched people shake it.

One fella was pretty happy to be out, and stood there with his hands behind his head grinding the air, or random women as they passed by.

Attempting to fit in, SteveDave and Sancho rock their best “I’m a Douchebag” poses:

Towards the end of the night we decided to head back to VA. We saw a great Steam-Roller along the way and Sancho thought “Photo Op”

Thus ended Friday Night.

Saturday morning came early and I trekked up to the Aquarium in Baltimore for some kid-friendly fun with my sister.

There were all sorts of fish and sea life around. I passed the camera over to baby sister and let her snap a few shots. Here’s one:

After a few hours of Aquarium fun, we headed back to DC and I dropped off my sis with my mom then quickly got ready to go to the Bills/Redskins pre-season game.

Sancho scored some awesome Club Level seats and got us into the barbecue pre-party for free. 2 plates of Barbecue, a game of Madden on the 360 console, and some people-watching ensued before we took our seats.

Having had a few beers and a lot of fatty food, the evening game was rough to get through awake. We left early and I got home in time to head out again in Georgetown with Lois Lane.

A fun time was had by all and followed by a nice lazy Sunday.

Great weekend.

Nautical Weekend

A few weekends back I decided to do a few things in the District that I’ve been meaning to do for a while. Namely paddle boating in the Tidal basin and Kayaking the Potomac.

I went out on Saturday with my sister and a coworker and his family. In the interest of my buddy, I won’t put any pictures up of him, but some are pretty good. PM me if you want to see them. (or use your internet savvy to find ’em yourself)

Notice that I’m bringing the beard back. I am a mountain-man stuck in a city that loves starbucks and banana republic. Quite the conundrum.

Baby sister is getting pretty good with the camera. She took this one without any kind of framing whatsoever by me:

The Jefferson Memorial

Note line six:

I love that they have to tell you that “Fast pedaling can cause rapid tiring of legs.”

Afterwords I encouraged her to climb trees. She gets caught being thoughtful.

After paddle boating, we walked up to the metro and headed back over the bridge to Virginia. It’s great to have a little kid around sometimes.

Sunday morning, Lois Lane and I awoke early to trek out on the Potomac and try our hand at kayaking.

At 8 bucks an hour per boat, I was pretty happy to be out there for a few hours.

The Dock:

Quite the paddling group:

I got some pretty sweet tan lines from the personal floatation device.

My Feet + Georgetown = Art.

I love the key-bridge from within the river:

Loved it.

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Wedding Season

The muse to write has escaped me of late. Let’s see what I can come up with today though as I wait for maintenance on my servers to finish.

It’s apparently wedding season across the many states of the US. In the last month and a half, I’ve been to a wedding in Alaska, Buffalo, Massachusetts, and even went international with a bachelor party in Niagara Falls this past weekend. It’s been a heck of a ride.

Here’s a few shots of the weddings & random fun

Notes on Cars

I park (legally) in a neighborhood close to my office on a curve by a few big apartment buildings. It’s not too far from my office and I find the 1/2 mile walk to be a good decompression from work to home and vice verse. Lately, parking on ‘the hill’ has become a bit difficult as people have found this little niche of free parking and begun to exploit it. No worries there as I tend to get in early.

For the most part, people park well in the unmarked spots and are cognizant of one another’s space. The past few weeks, however, have been a different story. There is a single silver Honda that parks about ten feet in front of the ‘no parking’ sign, essentially taking up two spaces as ten feet is not enough space to park in, and the resulting space taken up throws off parking for the rest of the curve. This has wrought havoc on the parking situation on the curve, allowing for only four cars to park where once there fit six.

Two weeks of seeing the same silver honda parked taking up two spots, and having to park farther away as a result, prompted me to take action. Today, when parking far away from my usual spot on the curve, I thought to write a note. My first impression was to write ‘stop parking like an asshole’ in key on the hood.

This struck me as excessive.

I opted instead to write a note on yellow loose leaf stating ‘please stop taking up 2 parking spots’ and sliding it under the windshield wiper.

I’ll let you know how things turn out.

If they keep parking like that, the next note will be stuck to the windshield with fecal matter.

[EDIT] Success! They parked like a good citizen today.

Self Proclaimed Computer Illiterate for POTUS?

From Politico to John McCain:

Q: Do you use a Blackberry or e-mail?

Mr. McCain: No.

Are we seriously considering a candidate who hasn’t yet hopped on the Technology bandwagon? My 79 year old Grandfather uses e-mail. I signed up for my first online email account when I was fourteen, and was using computers well before that. Corporate America — Capitol Hill for that matter — would crumble should blackberrys and email suddenly disappear. (Why do you think the e-mail delivery giant wasn’t crushed by congress?)

Argh. My frustration has reached new levels. I realize that this is a petty issue when considering candidates for the ‘Leader of The Free World’ but it’s the implications more than the act that really irk me.

Random thoughts from ‘The Alaskan’

I’ve started a new quest. Much like my quest for 185, I’m on a quest to drop a few more lbs for summer. I started this week off at a hefty 189 lbs and have set my 3 month goal at 175 lbs. I have until September 4th to drop the weight and I’m pretty confident that I can do so without vastly changing much aside from adding in a few workouts and eating a little healthier. I dropped down to 184 after my run this evening and a late lunch, so that’s already 5 lbs. Granted, most of that weight was water and pizza, but a gain is a gain (or would it be a loss is a gain?) and I’m happy about it.

Politics / Observation

So I’ve become a big fan of this Barack Obama character. I started following his rise about a year ago and have liked just about everything I’ve seen or read about him since. I listened to his audio book on a drive to Buffalo this past summer, voted for him in the primaries, and have donated a small chunk of my hard earned cash to his campaign.