Sunday, June 28, 2009

On the road again.....

Scott spent the week at the Illinois Institute of Art — Schaumburg which is located in Suburban Chicago. His Mom took him down Monday night as he was on the chaperoned program where they put the students up at a local hotel and their time off campus is closely controlled but fun.

For example, one night they went to one of these large arcade places that features a multitude of games and activities, another night they had the Second City Comedy troupe come in and do an improve session with the kids. There is a very large mall close to the school and one night the kids were all let loose there where they had dinner and shopped. So, in addition to learning, there was lots of fun.

Scott, as those who read my blog know, is major artistically talented and he plans to use this talent in the real world. The Illinois Institute of Art is where he wants to go to school after he graduates high school next year, so, the fact that they were offering the program was a great chance for him to go down and experience the school first hand.

Yesterday was open house, where the parents were invited to attend a presentation at the school, and a showcasing of the kids works. They also wanted us to take our kids home afterward; imagine that!

So, the X and I headed down in our cars as she had business out of state the next day and was going to head that way after the function at the school.

I arose at 5:30 AM (On my Saturday off no less!), did my exercises with my dumbbells, got ready, and was out the door at 6:45. No sooner did I pass the City of Grand Rapids, did I see a familiar vehicle approaching from the rear. I saw this as it came up to pass:


Of course it was the X, or Racer X as I like to call her when she is driving. For those of you not familiar with "Speed Racer", Racer X was a character in the series.....so you can now see my clever turn of the phrase regarding the X! Below are some shots of the road I took while driving.




The X and I chatted on the cell phone for about20 minutes and I decided that the easiest thing to do would be to follow her even though I had a GPS and printed directions. We also chatted a couple of other times as well about Scott, Danielle, and other things. The hands free setup I have in the Mustang is very cool when you need to talk on the phone! If music is playing, either off the radio, or via the iPhone, which can stream music to the car stereo wirelessly, the music is stopped and the call comes over the car stereo speakers. There is a microphone I installed up in the headliner which picks up my voice. After the call, the music resumes.

So, since she knew the way thus began three hours of an exciting real time racing game! The speed limit in Michigan is about 70 and her speed was averaging about 77 while in state; reserved for her, but perhaps it was the vicarious presence of police cars. Her driving experience here paid off, at one point of the journey I had only seen one police car, she had seen three! Chasing her across three states as she weaved in an out of traffic at times was quite challenging!

Friends had advised that even on a weekend the portion of the trip through Chicago itself could be fraught with delays, but the X remarked later that was the first time she ever made it through that area so quickly. We barely took 3 hours and 15 minutes to make it to the school which is about 15 minutes past Chicago itself. We made a brief rest stop about 10 minutes from the school, and then because we had made such good time and were almost an hour early, the X texted Scott who was still at the hotel. We headed over to pick him up and sign him out, collecting his luggage from the room where they had consolidated all the students possessions. This would be a real time saver later when most of the visiting parents would have to go from the campus back to the hotel. I'll bet it was quite crowded and I was glad we did not have to do that.

After visiting and meeting some of his new friends, we left him there and headed over to the school as he wanted to ride the bus from the hotel with his classmates. Below is an exterior shot of the school, a display inside, and some student artwork.




We signed in at the the Illinois Institute of Art, and were ushered upstairs for the torture phase a few minutes after 10 AM. Torture because the room we were in was facing the sun and the AC was failing miserably at keeping the room, which was packed like sardines with the parents of students in the summer program, cool. It has to be at least 90 degrees. A chirpy, high energy admissions person was there and seemed, by the volume and copious amounts of verbage issuing forth from her in a never-ending stream, to be unaffected by the heat. She assured us later in the presentation that no way were the classrooms overcrowded like this for the students.

Finally the presentation started with an overview of the past week's program, which centered around an all girl band at the school. The kids all had to do things around this, such as photography, videos, conception drawings and posters, costume design, etc. Scott's group, and I am not sure how this related, designed levels for the popular Unreal game and also did video capture of the band. After this, we were given an overview of the schools degree programs and costs. The tuition was surprisingly affordable but housing costs were ridiculous! Four students share a two bedroom apartment for $800/month per student. We talked to one of the locals there who said his son and three friends rented a much nicer place for $1700/month, split 4 ways that's less than half the cost of the schools housing which does not include food or transportation to/from campus.

The sales pitch over we did a quick walking tour of the school which also featured the adventure of the elevator that would not work. After again wanting to emulate a tin of sardines with us overheated parents they crammed us into this one elevator that would not work. In fact, it dropped a few inches much to the screaming delight of the passengers! Now they wanted us to march up the stairs to the fifth floor. Fortunately by the time we would have to have headed up another elevator arrived in a different shaft that got us upstairs. I was glad not having to walk up multiple flights of stairs in that heat!

We took a look at some of the other projects and at Scott's work. Some shots of the Unreal levels he worked on are shown below:




Scott began saying goodbye to his friends, exchanging hugs with all of them. Scott explained to me later he had been adopted like 'the little brother' of the summer program, and the girls thought he was cute the way he got flustered when they paid him any attention. This is not a bad thing I explained to him! I have never had that problem in my life, nor could I see it as a problem!!

We started back home. I had him ride with his mom since she would be out of state for several days and we stopped at the same rest place she and I had hit earlier. Scott knew there was a Panda Express there and was coveting noodly Chinese food goodness! I fueled up the car and met them inside, and Scott had to settle for KFC as there were no noodle dishes that day at Panda Express. I bought him and his mom, pictured below, lunch and watched them eat.


It was not until this second visit that I realized that the food court and facilities were actually perched across the highway so it could be accessed from wither the East or West bound highway. This view out the food court window showed me this clever arrangement:


On the way out Scott announced he was still hungry so I got him some Cinnamon sugar coated pretzel sticks from Auntie Anne's. The X, Scott, and I said our goodbyes and headed back home. A Taste of Chicago was going on in the city and I missed the express lanes going back through Chicago so I got stuck in some minor traffic but nothing too terrible. The trip back though did take just over three and a half hours. Scott napped most of the way, though we talked a bit. He did like the school and the programs and does want to go there in 2010.

The X, who had zoomed past us at one point, phoned a couple of times with traffic reports and help hints on how to make sure to avoid them and get home which I thought was nice of her. I was happy it was a nice day for driving and bad weather did not impact the journey! The Mustang and I do enjoy a nice cruise, and other than the area going through Chicago it was a nice drive for most of the distance.

One thing that really freaked me about about the trip home was I discovered an interesting fact in Indiana about 25 minutes from the Michigan border. There were a number of pulled over cars (speeders I guess as the speed limit in Indiana and Illinois was 55). At first I thought the police had been on the attack of those owners of Mustang GT cars until I realized they were unmarked police cars! How clever! How evil! How sneaky! Who would suspect a nice looking Mustang GT to be an unmarked police car!!!

We arrived home around 4:30. I unloaded the car, turned on the AC as Danielle had left 5 hours earlier with her grandparents and left the 50" plasma display and receiver on. In a closed room they produce a goodly amount of heat! After about 30 minutes I climbed onto the exercise bike. In the first few minutes I was certain I would never be able to finish my 75 minute work out, but I did and in fact went on to do 90 minutes and 2.5 miles extra! Today, I am also dreading my exercise session which will commence shortly. (A footnote here, I did an bit of an extra workout, but only an extra mile or so.)

Danielle's grandparents dropped her off in the middle of my exercise session, I explained I could not talk too much while exercising as I set a pretty strenuous pace after the first few minutes of warm up. Mom expressed some concern over the extent of my exercising (A session on the exercise bike literally soaks my entire shirt with sweat) and I assured her so long as I stayed in my target heart rate range, I was OK.

Danielle was heading over to a sleep over so I barely got to see her. I ordered Scott a sandwich from Jimmy John's. Just like the last time I ordered they lost the order and claimed a problem with their on-line system. I mentioned to the driver this was the second order in a row this happened to; was this going to be the norm. He stated he could not help me as he was just a driver, so, I went online and wrote a complaint to the home office of Jimmy John's. We'll see if anything comes of that.

Scott's friend Greg came over a bit after 8 so I amused myself largely with TV until I retired around midnight. In spite of my early rising and extra exercise when I got back home, I did not sleep well for some reason. I did get a nice nap though between 6 AM and 9 AM.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Happy Father's Day Dad - Part II



Here's a couple of pictures of my Dad from WWII. What a handsome devil he was! Still missing him but doing better than I was earlier. learned a good lesson too; never cry your eyes out before riding the exercise bike; makes for a tough workout!

All three of my kids will be here around 2 PM (wish I could have had them all day for Father's day but what can you do it's the X's week), at least I will get to see them.

And to all the rest of you Dad's out there Happy Father's Day! To those children that still have their Dad, remember.....they won't be around forever. Time wasted is time lost..........

Happy Father's Day Dad - I Really Miss You!

Enrico Micheal Falco and his sons - December 1999

This is such a tough day so far. I've been up just about an hour and been crying while sitting here thinking of my dad. So hard to believe next month will be a year he's been gone......seems like just yesterday I got that call from New Jersey tell me.

I'm sure my brother Rick, pictured above with my Dad in 1999 is having similar thoughts. Anyway, Dad, I miss you, I love you, you were one hell of a father, you were there for us, you taught me the difference of right and wrong, and shared your wisdom and life experience!

You worked two jobs near the end of each year when we were younger so there could be Christmas Presents under the tree, and that's just one of the memories of you I cherish.

Happy Father's Day Dad!!! I'd give anything to have you with me today.

I'm off to exercise Pop; today makes 10 weeks I've been on a diet and exercise, or lifestyle modification. I know how you worried about my weight, and I know you'd be proud of me.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

A Busy Saturday

Tomorrow is Father's Day - We will be having it here, so in addition to the work I am doing on my rear sliding doors there are other things to be done today in preparation for tomorrow.

It has stopped raining and the sun is out. It is a Saturday and no work! So, today will be good just tiring. Yesterday I spent over two hours re-screening one of the rear sliding doors. I have never re-screened a large sliding door and it was an adventure! I was more soaked with sweat when done than two days worth of exercise bike riding and after one of those session my shirt is soaked with sweat. The spline tool that came with the screen kit was cheap, so I ended up having to use a screwdriver after the tool to insure the spline was all the way down in the channel on the door.

It was a lot of work, but, it looks great, and the materials cost a fraction of what having someone coming to the house would have charged. And there is that feeling of accomplishment after doing a job one has never done, and doing it well.

The door I did yesterday was the slider for the Living Room and it is always sticking and popping out of the track. This morning I spent the better part of an hour cleaning out the bottom tracks for the Living Room and Kitchen sliding doors. They had all kinds of dirt and debris in them. Once the tracks are dry I will WD40 them. I also readjusted the four rollers on the Living Room slider. I think I finally have it well adjusted (unlike me!). Between the clean tracks and the WD40 perhaps it will stop sticking and jumping out of the track.

After all the bending yesterday working on the first door coupled with the bending this AM to clean out the tracks for both doors my back is not pleased with me but I told it suck it up as I must exercise in about half an hour and cool down. Then I must run out and pick up a better spline tool for kitchen slider awaits me on the dinning room table (I have a big table!). That one was way fun getting out of the frame, it has totally different rollers and tracks but I finally figured it out.

Once the kitchen slider is done I must go shopping for tomorrow and then the meat has to be cut up and marinated today - sigh! It's Father's Day, a day of rest for dads I would think, but because of my diet I must do the cooking . The kids, the X, and her folks will be here. It will be good to have everyone over, plus I can make sure Dad has a great meal for Father's Day. I don't really mind the grilling portion but the prep work is a pain. I have to make two different marinates. For my son Chris and I (and possibly Danielle) the marinate will be very spicy with chipotles in adobo sauce, Sambal Oelek, and fresh habanero, and a milder sauce for those who cannot handle the heat of what I am going to call Falco's Fire Sauce if it comes together as I plan. Both marinates will also feature other spices.

The house also needs some cleaning; yesterday was the end of my week with the kids and they've gone back to their mom's. If you have kids you know how messy the house can get. If you don't, and you are a slob, well, then you know too and you probably only clean when the board of health comes knocking on your door!

Back to dinner tomorrow I figure I will make the grilled chicken, corn on the cob, salad, and if someone wants to bring dessert for the normal eating folks that's fine. Perhaps I will get strawberries and blueberries for me - we shall see. There will also be apple sauce for Dad and perhaps I'll make some baked beans too for everyone else.

The day's tasks would not appear so daunting if I was not so tired. It rained here until around 3 AM so I did not get to sleep until after that and only got four hours of broken sleep.

Perhaps I will feel better once I have exercised! Time to quaff down my morning nutrition shake and then after 30 minutes or so.....we ride! I exercise while watching shows from the Food Network! Yes! I am a glutton for punishment. I consider this my penance for letting myself get to the point I was at. it serves as a reminder of how I got there, and gives me something to look forward to; the occasional meal that goes above my daily caloric limits. It also gives me ideas for cooking, such as using chipotles in adobo sauce. After hearing Bobby Flay talk about it many times on shows like Iron Chef America, Grill It, and Throwdown, I finally bought some last weekend. This will be the second time I use it. It is awesome stuff.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Mr. Chris and the Very Crappy iPhone 3.0 OS Upgrade

Yesterday, for those living in a cave, was the long anticipated day that the new version 3.0 of the iPhone OS (Operating System) was released. I worked a half day, as II have been doing this week since the kids are on summer vacation, and headed home.

After a lovely 75 minutes of exercising I got cleaned up and sat down to upgrade my iPhone. Last year because the Apple download servers were so overloaded it took a long time to download the upgrade file.

So, my upgrade experience spanned from a few minutes after 1 PM when I started the download until around 9 PM last night! The download took less than five minutes, and I was very excited, figuring things were going to be much quicker than last year. This is what undoubtedly summoned Murphy and sent him swooping down upon me!

For whatever reason after the upgrade the phone was stuck in the 'connect me to iTunes so I could authorize state. However I tried this, iTunes would not see the phone, or would see it as an unknown device without a name. When connected like this running iTunes diagnostics showed all was well in the realm of being able to talk over the internet to the Apple servers and communicate via USB to the iPhone. It showed also that the firmware had indeed been upgraded to 3.0. Rebooting the unit multiple times (and the PC a couple of times changed nothing. I tried to restore my old config but of course by the the apply authentication servers were swamped so it could not talk to them and get an OK back. The kids and I went shopping, I dropped Danielle at the mall, all while carrying around my expensive Apple paperweight and my old ugly work cell phone.

So, I got home, printed out Scott directions for where he was going with his girlfriend,and then did a restore on the iPhone. While the name of the iPhone did not come back in iTunes all functionality did except Bluetooth which either showed up in settings as unavailable or off. When off, turning it on caused it to go back off within a second! The thing was running twice as slow as it should. It was painful, though I could use it as a phone...apps were very very slow. I was quite annoyed and ticked off and dreaming of a Palm Pre at this point in time.

So, after fetching my daughter from the mall and having some hot dogs for dinner I tried again....same results. I took a TV break and finally later in the evening I was able to restore the backup taken after the iPhone had been upgraded and lo and behold it authorized, it's name came back and Bluetooth was working and the speed was better than it was under the 2.2 firmware. My icons, except one which was pushed off the home page because of the new voice recorder application remained the same and all I tested was working.

It seems part of the problem was the authentication servers at Apple used to verify and then activate an iPhone, were heavily indeed overloaded. Add this to the fact that the upgrade would pause during an iPhone reboot because I have an unlock code on the device probably complicated matters. At one point I actually removed the code though this may or may not have helped.

However, my reward was soon to be at hand. This morning I got in the Mustang, the iPhone connected via Bluetooth to the Clarion stereo as I have seen it do many times before, and glorious stereo music began playing from the iPhone through the car stereo! It was awesome! This is a new feature that was added. While I could make hands free phone calls on the stereo in the Mustang, I could not listen to music from it without a cable connection going from the phone to the stereo.

Many were the times I wanted this capability for my ride to/from work. It's a pain to have to dig out the iPod cable, plug it into the iPhone, plug that into the USB cable from the Clarion, and position the iPhone in it's travel holder. Considering my ride home can be as short as five minutes, it's just not worth the effort.

With the new OS though, when power is not an issue, and it never is for my around town and to/from work driving, the iPhone remains in my pocket and plays through the radio via Bluetooth. This is VERY sweet and I have been dreaming of this for months! I have some nice Motorola Bluetooth stereo headphones that I will pair with the iPhone later today for stereo music when working around the house!

So, thus ended my iPhone 2.2 OS to 3.0 upgrade. A rocky road full of corruption, greed, violence, sex, drugs, and.....oh wait that was high school! The upgrade was full of disappointment, heartache, and frustration......hmm that could apply to high school as well........

In closing let me say that the pain was worth it. I've often heard what does not kill you makes you stronger....well....the iPhone may have been dead for awhile yesterday, but is is better than It was before....stronger....faster..... Oscar Goldman would have been proud!

Picture Of The Day 06/18/09

Tails relaxing on my dresser. She'll spend hours there looking out the window behind her and will often nap there or on my bed.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Picture Of The Day 06/14/09

The Mustang this morning in the parking lot at Meijer.

As you can see both the car and the day are glorious!

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Picture Of The Day 06/10/09

The view out my driver's window this morning. I call this series "Mother Nature's Canvas" as there are multiple shots.

Dreams within Dreams

So I had a pretty mundane dream last night. It was in the evening, and in the dream I knew the kids were at their mom's so I was closing the house for the evening and making sure the doors and such were locked. Note in the dream this house was not my current house or any house I was familiar with though of course in the dream, it was my house.

Now, quite awhile ago, many months or longer I would say, I had a dream I had bought a new house. Note that like the dream I had last night this house was not my current house or any house I was familiar with though of course in this older dream, it was my house.

Note also that the two houses were in no way similar.

Now, in the older dream this house was immense on the inside. Room after room, and floor after floor. At one point I had opened the trap door to the attic and started exploring. It was cavernous! Stairs and ladders leading everywhere, rooms and room all over. Pipes, wiring conduits. While I had not thought of this dream in ages I remember it vividly now because it was one of those very clear dreams and quite detailed.

What really was out of the ordinary in my experience though was in the dream I had last night I had just locked up the house and was contemplating going to bed. Then I thought of the attic and how I had not really had a chance to fully explore it. So, I began looking for a flashlight before going up and opening the trap door. I then awoke without ever going into the attic.

What is not mundane here is my memory in the dream last night of the attic was identical to the attic of the older dream. This really was something new to me as I have never accessed a dream memory from an older dream inside a newer one.

I have been pondering this on and off today. The memory of the attic in last nights dream was exactly what I remember from the older one even though I never opened the door to the attic.

Monday, June 08, 2009

Picture Of The Day 06/08/09

This picture, while taken with my iPhone on the drive into work this AM in very story weather, was sent full sized from my phone to my e-mail and then posted here. The large version should be twice the resolution as other pictures of the day shots. Still have not figured out a way to post to the blog directly wit the full sized images.

I liked this shot though so I wanted to use the higher resolution than what gets posted if I mail directly to the blog.

Sunday, June 07, 2009

Picture Of The Day

This Is Who I Am by Scott Falco

Today's Picture Of The Day was not sent via the iPhone. This is artwork done by my son Scott showcasing his major artistic talents. I sent this picture off to a poster maker and had two 18x24" posters made of this epic achievement. The night they arrived Scott and I went out to Target to acquire frames. One hangs in his room, and I plan to hang one in the living room of my house for all visitors to see.

I think it is just amazing the artistic talent he has! Click on the picture below to enjoy a much more glorious larger version in a new browser window.


What's that you say? You're awed by his talent? Well, that does not surprise me in the least! I have been in awe of his ability for years now.

Danielle and the Demonic Furry Feline

Danielle and the Demonic Furry Feline

Note that the picture above is NOT edited in any way (other than a crop for size), and you can click on the picture for a much larger version in a new window. Oh, for all those know-it-alls thinking "This is a fake, I know how he did that!" it was full light out and the camera flash was off.

The explanation is simple really; evidently Tails did not see Danielle's mom taking this picture as she was too busy trying to ensnare Danielle to do her evil bidding with her Demonic Evil Eyes!

Bad Tails Kitty! Bad!! No! NO!!! Run Danielle, RUN!!!!

Saturday, June 06, 2009

Mr. Chris and The Fast Internet Connection

If you did not read this morning's post prior to this one, you need to stop reading this post and scroll down and read it! Yes, now, do it now!!

So, Bob the tech from AT&T arrived right on time around noon which was yet another surprise with AT&T service. The first thing he did was replace the Residential Gateway which means all wireless devices in the house have to be reconnected and I had to add my WEP key to it.....a minor pain and one I would not mind if it fixed the problem. It did not, speed was still terrible.

He went about his work for well over an hour and having tested the line was seeing a lot of noise and cross talk on it but could see no reason why. Finally, after installation of a noise filter did nothing to help the situation he called it into his boss and they had to pass it on to the next team.

Oh great, I thought to myself, I may have gotten lucky thus far today, but there is NO WAY the the AT&T SWAT team, the creme de la creme of mobile support, is going to be able to make it here today!!!

YES WAY! I was informed they should be here later today. So, I was able to spend 75 minutes on the exercise bike, do some minor cleaning, and just as I was getting ready to head to the store the bell rang. It was Tim from AT&T. He was going to be testing the line and this would take all my services down.

So with Tim working outside I went and did my shopping, came home, made a batch of my spicy ranch flavored salad dressing (about 25 calories a bottle), and put some chicken in to marinate for tomorrow's grilling. I also put some shredded potato and sliced onion in the oven to bake. Once they were done I made an omelet with them and some eggbeaters, seasoning only with black pepper and smoked Paprika. I then melted some Kraft fat free cheese on top once it was done. It was quite delicious.

I was nearly done with my dinner when Tim reported the line going from the house to the street had been in bad shape and he replaced it. This visit took about two hours, and, I asked him to wait so I could check all was well. I booted up and was pleased to find my 6 mbps service restored to full speed, and I envision the problems I had been having with my HD TV service, such as freezes and drop outs, would surely be fixed as well. As he put it, the signal is now screaming wall to wall into your house.

What an amazing day at the hands of AT&T U-Verse tech support! All positive and not at all like previous encounters I have had with them. Maybe, just maybe mind you, they are actually starting to listen to feedback.

Or maybe the earth is in line with Venus or something today, who knows? Maybe it is all just a dream like the very weird ones I had last night........

Mr. Chris and The Slow Internet Connection

Thursday the Internet connection here, which is AT&T U-Verse fiber optic 6 mbps Pro service was extremely slow. Scott was getting bumped from xbox live, web surfing was painfully slow, and downloads were close to unbearable!

I did a soft reboot of the Residential Gateway, a unit pictured below that centralizes IP TV, IP Phone, and Internet into one unit that also connects to your existing home phone wiring so no new phones are needed for IP Telephony, and this seemed to somewhat mitigate things. Wow! Am I the master of run-on sentences or what?

Yesterday I noticed it was slow again, but there were other things going on so nothing further was done. This AM, particularly since the kids were at their Mom's for her week, I had plenty of time to kill after a bad nights sleep that was filled with very strange dreams. As I mentioned I have 6 mbps service and multiple speed tests to different locations and through different companies were showing download speeds as slow as 1.2 mbps!

So, I got on a tech support chat with a woman named Geraldine at AT&T and I told her what was going on. I was very impressed with her, because instead of following the usual reading from a script of things to do, and ignoring any of my inputs, she actually listened to what I had to say! Also note that this was not going to b the only surprise AT&T had in store for me this day!

She asked permission to login to my Residential Gateway and I gave it, and soon I could hear her scurrying about intermixed with the other ones and zeros on my network. She worked her magic, and did a reboot, and then, second surprise, even though she was sure this would rectify the issue, she called me on the phone to follow up 10 minutes later when she saw activity on the Internet connection.

We soon discovered while my speed had improved it was still barely half of what it should be. She put me on hold and transferred me to a gentleman named Tim who listed to me as well, and did some testing and discovered noise on the line from the street leading to my house. He mentioned a technician would have to pay a visit. Sigh; what were my chances of having this before sometime next week I figured!

Here's where AT&T delivered the coup de grace and told me a technician could be on site in less than an hour if that was agreeable to me!

So, here I sit, exercise bike riding temporarily postponed until after AT&T comes and looks at my line. Note while I was spell checking this, Bob from AT&T called to inform me he would be here within 20 minutes or so!

Oh, as to the strange dreams I had? You did not really think I was going to let that slide did you? I went to bed around 1:30 AM. Last time I looked at the clock it was 3 AM before finally fell asleep even though I was dog tired.

I had dreams of trying to cook Taylor Ham on a grill in the bedroom closet so no one would know I was eating it, crawling through the infrastructure of a huge housing project looking for my kid who turned out to be a kid I had never seen before, fighting little 2 inch tall people (like the ones in the Night of the Museum movies) that were trying to take over the world, and eating at a restaurant with the X, her parents, and our kids where the mac cheese came in portable electric warmers made of gold and the snooty waiters and maitre d’ made us move the heavy tables around before they would seat us! After being seated I noticed little people coming in through a crack in the wall, evidently a carryover from the earlier dream!

Interesting because in these dreams I see my desire to still be in a normal family relationship, my longing for foods I can't have, and the elements from a recent movie I saw.

Friday, June 05, 2009

Picture Of The Day 06/05/09

The overgrown little used path to my yard on the side of the garage. By next month the growth will be up to the windows. Not a problem though as all access to the yard is done via the back doors.

Thursday, June 04, 2009

Picture Of The Day

Tails and I over the weekend. Even if I do not have the keyboard in my lap, she often insists on sitting on my chest. Perhaps she was trying to tell me something, though I have no idea what!