All of us got home safely, me, Court, and Shell. With all our bags (and gifts) intact to boot. Speaking of Boot(s), he was very happy to see us when we got here, and has been very good with Shell and all.

It's New Year's Eve tonight...our expected company is NOT coming over (due to family medical reasons) so it is just us three. And out of those, only I will be awake at midnight. Shell turned in a few hours ago, and Court is going to bed now. There are people blowing off fireworks outside tonight, so we'll see if they can stay asleep.

To all my readers, Happy New Year!


ps---Wireless mouse and ATI 9800 Pro installed and working fine. :D

Merry (belated) Christmas!

Had a great Christmas Eve/Christmas. Spent the first over at the hotel with my family (as always) and the second at Court's Grandma's. Taken together, I got EVERYTHING on my list. X-men 2, Bruce Almighty, Pirates of the Caribbean, Alien Quadrilogy, Terminator 3, Knights of the Old Republic PC game, Jedi Academy game, and a bunch of other cool stuff. Also ordered League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, SWAT, and XIII (PC game) from amazon. Hopefully they'll arrive by the time we get home.

Hope everybody reading this had a GREAT holiday!

Just checking in. We landed in Chicago on Friday all good and everything. Having a good time so far. Hope you readers are having a good holiday, and have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Back in FL on the 31st.

We leave this afternoon for home. I had to dust off my IL-weather clothes, which still make up about 85% of my wardrobe. This means I'll be wearing pants on back-to-back days for the first time since I got down here. I'm looking forward to seeing everybody.

I've been checking espn.com for A-Rod news all day. Keeping my eye out for some nutso deal where he goes to the Cubs. :)

I'm just hoping Clemens does NOT come out of retirement and go to Houston.

Weatherbug tells me it's 28 degrees here. (F) Doesn't feel that cold, to me at least. After I went to the gym I stopped at the local library to ask if they took book donations and the librarian asked me where my coat and long pants were. (it was around 53F at that time) I told her I was from Chicago. :)

There's a ton of weather advisories down here because of the 'cold'. Big whip.

The Onion | Non-Widescreen Version Of DVD Received As Hanukkah Gift

To be fair, I'd be upset if I got 'The Matrix Reloaded' in either widescreen or pan & scan...though pan & scan is UNACCEPTABLE to me in ANY film!

Was watching last night's 'American Chopper' over lunch (after I watched 'Monster House')...and everytime I see Big Paul yell at Paulie and Vinnie about their slacking and the time constraints and blaa blaa blaa, I think 'have they EVER been late on a bike'?

I remember the internet before pop-ups.

Isn't that something?

Say what you want about slim-fast...I was starving a minute ago, and now I'm not.

Some people don't like the taste. Personally, I cannot stand the vanilla. I can down it but I won't be very happy about it. The Chocolate tastes like a thicker chocolate milk to me.

I'm up maybe around 10 pounds since I got married. Going to the gym should help that out a bit. I do feel stronger, so that's cool.

CNN.com - U.S.: 'We got him' - Dec. 14, 2003

Saddam Hussein was captured today. I should sleep late every day. :)

Somebody across the way keeps running an electric saw that keeps buzzing.

How bad a person would I be if I called the cops and had them check their permits? :)

Why do people rush to get flu shots? It seems like half the time they get the flu anyways. I've never gotten one and never had the flu.

My three favorite Christmas movies (not in order):

1. Christmas Vacation


2. Scrooged


3. Christmas Story

Every once in a while I stumble upon a disney website and they post these people's 'trip reports' and whatnot, and they get all excited that they did this and this and that and that...and it's weird to me, because if I wanted I could be there in 15 minutes.

I miss 'Jumpin Jack' Doritos. That is all.

We saw this last night with Amy and Chris (from FL). It was pretty neat what they did with the ice. Everybody was telling me I was going to be freezing...the security people there actually laughed at me because I only had shorts, a shirt, and my pullover on. They said it was SO COLD and my legs would turns blue and all that crap. I guess it was only 5 degrees F in there.

I wasn't that cold at all. There was NO wind chill, and as anybody with a brain knows THAT's what makes the cold COLD. It was SO no big deal. The others had parkas on, which they hand out at the entrance. I just carried mine the whole time.

It was nice to feel the cold again. I've missed it.

My amazon wishlist...not so you can buy me something, just so you can see what I'm into.

Just finished watching the new Battlestar Galactica mini-series. I never watched the original show. Couldn't really tell you much about it...I was a Buck Rogers fans instead. bee-dee bee-dee bee-dee

Anyways, I enjoyed this remake. Part II is tomorrow night.

'Scrubs' is about the funniest show I watch on TV. I just started watching it a little while ago. It's almost as funny as PTI.

Last week JD saw the Janitor in the 'Fugitive' when he was watching it on TV. (the same actor had a bit part in the movie) This led to a storyline about the Janitor having a whole secret life as an actor and a bunch of other stuff. It was funny as hell when JD saw him in the movie and just said 'Janitor!'.

ESPN.com - Page2 - Winter of our Sox content

Take out the Schilling acquisition, and switch 'Sox' for 'Cubs' and he describes exactly how I felt post-Bartman.

Ok...how is it that since I needed to hit the mall real fast after having lunch with Court today, the mall is JAM PACKED.

Isn't today a Monday? it was the middle of the damn day. What the heck.

On the way back, I heard a pocket rocker classic...'I just died in your arms tonight' by Cutting Crew. If I'd heard 'Walk like an Egyptian' it would have been freaky.

It's this time of year when I'm glad I don't give a crap about college football.

I saw 'Timeline' and 'Matrix Revolutions' on Saturday. Court had to work until 10pm and didn't want to see either so I caught them at back-to-back matinees. 'Timeline' was good...strayed from the book in a few areas (for seemingly no reason) and I thought it was enjoyable.

'Matrix Revolutions' was stupid. I didn't really care about the characters since 'Reloaded' and so it was hard to be into it too much. Also, Smith and Neo fight for what seemed to be around a half hour to 45 minutes. That's too long to see two guys (who can't seem to be hurt by ANYTHING) fighting. It'd be like see Superman fighting Superman, and one is chucking cars at the other, getting thrown down through the street and under ground, getting tossed through buildings, and they just shrug it off and keep fighting. I mean...how is that interesting? How can anybody win? Anyways, it was a waste. I'm glad I only have the first film on DVD.

How long until Opening Day again?

This is killing me.

Boy, I'm glad they don't charge for water at the gym. I am so sore it's not even funny.

The Cat

My blog is titled 'The cat is under the bed' for a very good reason. I was trying to come up with something obscure.

It came from the fact that when I moved down here and worked upstairs at home during the day Boots would pretty much hide under our bed in our bedroom all day long until Court got home. I don't know if he was scared of me, or if he normally did that while Court was gone, or what. But he'd be under there all day.

Now, that might not seem as such a bad thing. Thing is, he'd also run under the bed after doing something that pissed me off. And even though I could still get at him by moving the bed it was still a huge pain in the ass. I finally decided that in order to have him get used to having me around the house and home all during the day that I'd close the bedroom doors after I got up so he couldn't get under the bed.

Every morning when I wake up he's laying in the director's chair we have in the living room. It's pretty much his chair since nobody ever sits in it. One thing I've discovered about cats is that they like to be as high as they can so they can look down on what's happening. (kind of appropriate since that's their attitude) He really likes to be perched on the over-hang on our second level that looks down on our first-floor living room.

Anyway, we've had our ups and downs. It sounds funny to say it like that, but it's true. For a while I would instantly react whenever he did something that bothered me, like when he'd hiss or swat. Sometimes he do it if he thought I was following him (when we were walking in the same direction) or if I came around a corner too fast. Then I'd chase him around the house yelling at him or squirting him with water or compressed air. He doesn't like that very much.

That may make me seem like a bad person, but I really do love pets and I'd only do it when he did something bad or tried to attack me. In any case, I eventually learned to just let him do whatever because it was really no big deal. After time went by he wouldn't run away from me anymore. He's actually gotten pretty docile. He actually comes upstairs and walks around when I'm up here and Court isn't home. He'd never do that in the past.

He'll do his nuzzle passes around my legs when I shake the cat treat container and he doesn't mind if I pick him up and just put him on his chair or in the florida room in the back. I'm not a cat person, probably will never be one, but it's not bad. I still say a cat is more work than a dog though.

I've got a few things I want to write about tomorrow and in the next few days...a Boots update, 80's cartoons (and their revivals), maybe some JFK conspiracy thoughts...also, general FL things like what I like best about being here and what I don't like...that kind of thing. Maybe I'll even start posting some pics to liven it up a little.

I only have a few people I buy Christmas gifts for. Let's say a dozen. Court has probably twice as many. Makes me wonder who the real money-spender-person is around here.

She has a list of people she sends Christmas cards to. (second sentence ended in a preposition--->who cares)

Anyway. She asked me if I had a list of people I send Christmas cards to...as if I had ever done such a thing. It made me think...'did she just not remember never getting a card from me, or did she think I sent ones to other people and not her?'...or 'does she even think *I* would write out Christmas cards'? I mean...not that I'm against it, but I'm not really a 'card' type of guy. I have to press myself to remember thank-you cards to people, and that's like the bare minimum of card-sending, isn't it?

I forgot to add...one thing that sucks about living here is I have no clue where anything is beyond a few choice places. Turns out For Eyes is about 45 minutes away from the house near downtown Orlando. That pretty much sucks. I'm used to having one 5 minutes away...not that I went there very often. Eye doc was a nice enough guy...commented on my Smallville High shirt at least. He didn't have the sing-songy timbre of Dr. Carlson though.

Cubs have been picking up some good players for the past few days...so that's all good.

Made a trek (no pun intended) to For Eyes (pun intended) because my glasses kind of fell apart spontaneously last week. The right lens just kind of popped out. I was going to pop it back in until I saw that it popped out because the frames had broken on that side. Oh well. I *think* those are only the second pair of glasses I've ever had since the infamous 'Atlanta' incident.

In case you don't know the story, I'll tell you now. There was a while where money was tight in our family, so when my glasses frames broke one day I just bought a cheap-o pair of wireframe sunglasses and swapped the lenses with my glasses lenses. This worked for a while...until one day while I was working at Ace a lens popped out and cracked in two on the ground. I was able to fit both pieces together back into the frames and I was fine. A few days later I left for Atlanta for Thanksgiving with Uncle Bruce, Aunt Angie, and Beth.

Early in the trip the 2 pieces broke into 3. At Stone Mountain the broken lens popped out and cracked into like 5-6 pieces. I was done with them. We got a good laugh out of my cobbled together glasses and I think there's video of it somewhere.

So, these latest to break are either the ones I got when I returned from Atlanta (unlikely, since that would mean they're almost 10 years old now) or the ones I got to replace that pair (more likely). At any rate, they're at least 5 years old. I got a different frame style than I've ever had before. Should be interesting. I kept telling the woman that I only use my glasses to read and she thought I meant I only needed vision help to read and she corrected me...I finally explained that when I'm going to read before bed, I put my glasses on.

I don't really read (for pleasure at night) with my contacts in. Having glasses on to do that is just a little more comfortable for some reason. Boy, this is sure interesting, isn't it? :)

I hope it snows when we go up for Christmas. Not just flurries...blizzard with a capital B.

(not during the flight up/down though, Court would freak)

By my eyes, we've gotten 2 new neighbors...both across the way. Haven't seen anything of them beyond the moving trucks in the one place and a bunch of contractors (that have been there for weeks) in the other.

Not that we'll ever get to know them, but they're there.

I have an eye appointment today at 3pm. My glasses broke last week...the part of the frame holding the right lens just kind of disintegrated at one point and the lens just popped out. It's being held in by tape now because I just couldn't get by without them even though I have contacts. It's just one of those things.

Dang, Court just scared the crap out of me. I'm upstairs and she must have got up and noticed I wasn't there. She walked into the living room and said 'Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiich...' in some zombified half-asleep tone. She sounded like a damn ghost woman or something.

Uh...time for me to go to bed I think.

Some notes from today:

-worked out for the first time at the new gym. Very nice. Did treadmill on an 8% incline for about a mile and a half, then some chest and back. One thing that stinks...no towel service. I'll have to bring my own.

-watched the wedding video. A few things from this, actually...I'm glad I didn't dance beyond what I was really required to, I think my face looks fat from some angles, and I apparently have a dimple on one side of my face. I suppose I've always had it, but I've never noticed it before.

Been watching a lot of JFK-conspiracy stuff due to the 40th anniversary last week. I'll post some thoughts on the morrow.

Heard today...



On the radio: "It's a chilly day today, 63 degrees here in Orlando."

And these people wonder why I will NEVER respect them.

Prisoners' last meals satisfy appetite for curious facts

My last meal would be...

• Pork Chops (shake and bake)


• Mashed Potatoes (from Chef Mickey's)


• Corn (green giant frozen is fine)


• biscuits (gran's flaky layers ? )

That narrowly beats out hibachi steak and chicken (with garlic cooked up) from the Japanese Steakhouse.

The wedding video came today. 2 DVDs and a bunch of videos. I'd like to watch it but I told Court that I'd wait until she got home. I did put it in the player to make sure it worked, as the disc is one from a DVD burner and one of those we'd gotten from a prospective videographer did not work in my player.

After work I'm going to work out then head to the mall for some Old Navy fleece pants for Court (she's been wearing mine as it's colder here now) then to BB and Target then home.