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Continue reading “Unrequired Reading: July 24, 2009”
Night, Sleep, Death and the Stars
Time Lapse Round One from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.
Hat tip: Caroline Flyn at The Browser. (She posts a lot of wonderful links, but I don’t think she has a blog of her own at this point.)
Unrequired Reading: June 19, 2009
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Unrequired Reading: May 29, 2009
As promised: a Rufus-free link-fest! Just click “more”!
Continue reading “Unrequired Reading: May 29, 2009”
What It Is: 5/25/09
What I’m reading: Plutarch’s Lives
What I’m listening to: Good News for People Who Like Bad News
What I’m watching: Burn After Reading, Doc Hollywood, Helvetica, and Local Hero (which really should get remastered/reissued on DVD). We moved my 24″ iMac downstairs (along with our guest bed), so it’s just been selective DVD viewing down in our rec room / library.
What I’m drinking: River Horse lager, picked up on a whim at Whole Foods.
What Rufus is up to: Recovering from surgery to repair the damage inflicted by a neighbor’s Akita, which took 2 chunks out of Ru’s right rear leg. He’s spending most of his days & nights in his crate. It’s a good thing he spent the first 2 years or so of his life crated, otherwise he might really object to being there. As is, he gets antsy if he doesn’t have access to it (when we get back inside after a bathroom break and I have to change the dressing over his wounds).
Where I’m going: Nowhere. I had to cancel my participation in an overnight PR junket in NYC this week, because of my poor boy’s condition.
What I’m happy about: Barring complications (read: infection), Rufus has a good chance of being “back to normal” in about 6 weeks. Oh, and my pals Ian & Jess are visiting next weekend! And the day before Rufus was attacked, I had a great visit with my grad school pals Joy & Miguel and their kids, who live about 15 minutes away from the hotel I was staying in in downtown Atlanta. Also, I’m happy that I went out with some client-pals on Wednesday to a Braves game. They knew all about my troubles/stresses with Rufus and were hoping to take my mind off things. Go look at some pictures.
What I’m sad about: All the anxiety and stress about Ru, as well as my assumption that “none of this would have happened if I’d been here.” I got over that self-centered guilt soon after getting home from BIO on Thursday night, faced with the immediacy of Ru’s situation (and not mine). And I’m sad that I missed the fancy dinner I was going to have in Atlanta, because I got the news about Rufus about 2 hours earlier. My coworkers and work-pals enjoyed themselves, so that’s good.
What I’m worried about: That the Animal Control dept. will fail to do its duty regarding the offending Akita, which attacked another dog 3 weeks earlier.
What I’m pondering: How to TASE a dog without risking “back-zap.” Just in case.
What It Is: 5/18/09
What I’m reading: Arcadia
What I’m listening to: The soundtrack to the Life Aquatic
What I’m watching: Bottle Shock, some Yankees games, and some game 7s in the NBA semis.
What I’m drinking: An awesome Prosecco on Saturday night, to go with Bottle Shock.
What Rufus is up to: Well, he’s a little disappointed that we didn’t get out to the semi-annual greyhound picnic on Sunday, but the weather was just blech. We’ll make it up to him next weekend with some weekend guests who will lavish extra affection on him. Also: this.
Where I’m going: Atlanta today for the BIO conference! (with a dinner at Bacchanalia (not as decadent as it sounds) and a Braves game thrown in, along with a visit to my pals Joy & Miguel in Decatur)
What I’m happy about: It’s my last business flight till November! (unless I go to the show in Madrid in October)
What I’m sad about: Being away from my wife & doggie.
What I’m worried about: That I’ve landed on a planet where the political comments of a beauty pageant contestant (remember: they’re ditzy till proven smart) are grounds for a new culture war.
What I’m pondering: Whether I’ve seen enough good movies to post a Top 10 Movies of the decade list at the end of this year.
Notes from Vegas: At the Copa
(Or just go to the slide show.)
I was not in a good frame of mind for my trip to Las Vegas last month. I’m not the sort to hang out in a bar alone, I don’t like gambling (except maybe for betting on football or midseason basketball), most of my work-related pals weren’t attending the conference I was in town for, and Tom Jones was out of town. So I was pretty much on my own, but I didn’t have anything to do and wasn’t up for “going out.”
This made me weird and depressed. It wasn’t any sort of midlife frustration; it was just this sense of being totally in the wrong place. I missed my wife & my dog terribly (her more than him).
Fortunately, no matter how uprooted I felt, I was still able to appreciate some quintessentially Vegas aspects of Vegas. When I checked into my hotel, for example, I discovered that its headline act at the wonderful Las Vegas Hilton was none other than Barry Manilow! And he had his own gift shop!
During the conference, I talked with one of my less-close work-pals (a guy who works at a company that advertises in my mag, but with whom I haven’t had too many conversations with) about my sense of “eh, so I’m in Vegas, eh.”
He was staying up at the venue where the conference was, about 20 minutes from the Strip, and didn’t have exciting plans for his stay, either. He said to me, “Don’t worry about it. What do you like doing?”
“Hmm. I like reading, watching hoops, and not dealing with people.”
“Sounds good! Is there a game on tonight?”
There was. I spent that night with the awesome game 2 of Bulls-Celtics, followed by some Plutarch and some In-N-Out burger & fries (not animal-style, alas).
At the conference the next day, I told him that I’d had a pretty good night, all things considered, and that I had even better plans for tonight! During the drive up to the resort where the conference was being held, I’d seen a billboard for the Las Vegas AAA minor league baseball team. Turned out the Area 51s had a home game that very night!
Rather than subject myself to more woe-is-me-itude in my hotel room, I drove a few miles over to Cashman field (through the wedding district (!?)), bought a $14 seat about 15-20 feet behind home plate, picked up a beer, hot dog and pretzel (and some souvenirs), and watched a ball game with some locals and out-of-towners. I had a great time, relatively inexpensively, and got a whole new perspective on the pitcher-batter duel.
I didn’t have the stereotypical exciting/bleary/regretful/drunk Vegas trip, but I did have fun in my own peculiar way. And I brought back pictures with commentary!
Oh, Canada! You scamp!
Hey! It’s a little photoset from our Toronto trip last weekend! (Amy has a bunch more great pix, but hasn’t processed & posted ’em yet.)
Okay. I’m sorry that I picked that one instead of one of my awesome cityscapes, but isn’t that the best name for a store? Of any kind? Ever?
Anyway, I posted some more pix to that set from the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, so you should go back and check ’em all out! Repeatedly!
What It Is: 5/12/09
What I’m reading: I read Chuck Klosterman’s Killing Yourself To Live
What I’m listening to: The Shepherd’s Dog
What I’m watching: The eh conclusion of Dollhouse, which had a couple of neat twists and turns but was never going to be able to match the impossibly well-crafted heel twist in the previous episode.
What I’m drinking: The lesser gins that they have at Lai Wah Heen, where Amy & I managed to eat 3 times in 3 days (Friday dinner, Saturday dim sum lunch, Sunday dinner after our evening plans fell through). We also had a nice wine (and fantastic meal) at Lee on Saturday night.
What Rufus is up to: Not getting into any trouble during his weekend with fellow grey, Tut! And spending lots of time at girls’ sporting events, since the family that was taking care of him has 3 daughters between 10 and 17.
Where I’m going: Atlanta next Monday for the BIO conference. My 3 nights will consist of a visit with friends in Decatur, a dinner at the awesome restaurant Bacchanalia with a client (and pal), and then the Rockies-Braves game, with more client-pals. The day before the trip, we’ll head down to Bridgewater (weather permitting) for the semi-annual greyhound picnic! In other words, don’t expect a ton of posts next week, either.
What I’m happy about: Having a nice getaway weekend with my wife. It was good to be in a city that we’d already visited and photographed; it made this visit much more about just relaxing and having some nice meals, instead of feeling like we had to get out and see the sights. Oh, and we were happy to see my cousin Andrew & his family!
What I’m sad about: That I had to tell numerous cartoonists that I either don’t know who they are or don’t know what they’ve published in the last few years. Still, most everyone seemed happy that I was willing to take their pictures for digital posterity!
What I’m worried about: Nothing I can think of, so yay!
What I’m pondering: Our next mini-vacation. We’re thinking of making the drive up to Montreal for a long weekend sometime this summer.
Stop and smell the Timmy’s!
I’m on vacation in Toronto, eh? That means no new posts till Tuesday! Meanwhile, have a happy mother’s day, get some Tim Hortons, and chill out, just like Dave Collier here:
