Times of sorrow

I tried to go to a free concert alone tonight at the Seattle Center, but was plagued with sadness, and had to leave. Sad because there were three kinds of people there: 1) people with their friends , 2) people with their romantic partner, and 3) people with their romantic partner and babies/small children. All of these people make me sad, because I am alone, 1) without friends, 2) without my wife, and 3) without any of the babies Bridget and I will have in the near future. So I left. Let it be known that I tried!

After considering remaining at the concert and being sad, or coming home and eating ice cream and watching a movie, I decided to opt for the latter.

So, now I am home telling you this, and preparing to sit down and watch Shrieker with a bowl of Dreyer's Caramel Swirl ice cream.

Until happier days arrive, here is something to ponder:

Almost deaded

One day, I will be killed in a horrible bicycling accident because of some jackass driver. Last night I was flying down Fremont hill on my bike - I say flying because this is a HILL: I get going 30 mph! - when a parked car to my right starts to pull out and into traffic.! I hit the brakes, discovering that at that speed when you apply the brakes it makes your bike wiggle around like crazy and you almost fall over, still going pretty freakin' fast. Goddamit! Dear readers, when you pull into traffic, look in your mirrors! People are sometimes in them that you don't want to kill. (and maybe I won't go so fast past parked cars again...)

Anyway, after that I made it to dragonboating, where my friend Karen joined me for the night! It was another Huli night, and this time someone took pictures:






















































Definitely nice to be out on and in the water yesterday - Seattle broke a record of 102 (maybe 103?) degrees. Damn hot!

Today fighter jets are flying around campus, for some air show this weekend. This is what it sounds like when you're city is being bombed, except then there are the massive explosions too.

Into the sound

Ahoy! I have returned from a short blogging hiatus. This past weekend was the awesomest of awesomes yet, because BRIDGET came to visit! We had an excellent time together. We walked around Fremont, had a barbecue with Emily and Karen (jerk catfish!), and went jogging around Green Lake. Happy times :) Best of all for her, she finally got to see Koshka and Maddy, after not seeing them for 5 whole weeks! They were very happy indeed. Koshka kept running up to the bed in the middle of the night and purring like a maniac. Maddy was, well, Maddy - you know how it is.

Last night I paid my yearly dues and became an official member of the Seattle Flying Dragons Boat Club. I am a flying dragon! (rawr). Last night was a "huli" (sp?) night - where we purposely tip the boat to practice what to do if the boat really tips by accident. So, yes, we went into Puget sound and got completely soaked. This was actually nice though - because there is a crazy-ass heat wave in Seattle over the next few days. So twas a nice cool-down. We are going to do it again on Wednesday, when it will be 100 degrees!!! This time I will bring a change of clothes though, for my bike ride home. The only bad thing about it is that it kinda stinks - the smell of the sound ain't that great :|

Another dragonboating fact for the Straubites: there is a guy on the team named David, who looks VERY SIMILAR to George Helbling. Then, when I talked to him, he also acted quite similar to George Helbling (talked my ear off about boating competitions). I'm going to have to ask him if he is a Helbling. Doesn't George have a twin? Did I hear that or make it up? Why would I make that up?! Maybe I did.

In other news, I am working hard on revising a manuscript for publication, which has been slow to get going, but is at least going. I'm picking up a bit of steam.

CHOO-CHOO!!!

Imminence

Tonight is the night - Bridget is finally coming to visit me! Oh joy of joys!!!

A summary:

Robot Holocaust

Yes, I watched it. Definitely the worst movie I have seen in a long time, in a very amusing way. This movie so SO BAD. Terrible acting, terrible effects, and a plot that doesn't make any sense. And WHERE were the robots?! There were only like 4 robots in the whole movie, and they did not look or act anything like robots. The big bad guy at the end turns out to be some alien pod thing, so maybe it should have been called Alien Pod With Help From 4 Crappy Robots Holocaust.

Favourite scenes include:

- The title sequence. The narrator explains the current situation: 99% of the population killed by the robots and the rest enslaved by the robots. Toward the end of the sequence he says
"Nearly all of humanity was wiped out in the - [really awkward pause] - Robot Holocaust (synced with the title popping up, as below). Absolute genius!


- The pleasure machine. Described as a way of rewarding loyal subjects of the Dark One, this is clearly supposed to be some kind of sexual pleasuring device. But the movie confuses this point. Angleika (below) goes into this glass chamber, topless, touches an electrical ball with two other topless people (one man and one woman), then the two naked people dance all crazy, fog rolls in and strobe lights flash about, the woman in the chamber slowly turns around in stiff quarter circles, and nobody seems to be having a good time. ?!??!

Angelika Jager made the film quite memorable. She is the worst actress ever. Clearly only hired for her looks, she can barely read her lines through a very thick accent and makes the movie quite laughable. The poor girl - this was her first and only movie role.

The crab turns 31

Today is my sister Allison's 31st birthday! Allison, I hope you have a rockin' supafly day!!!!

It is hard being away from my family on days like today :( But last night I rented Robot Holocaust from Scarecrow video, so watching that may help a bit.

BTW, I recently edited my blog so that anyone can comment. I did not realize that it had been set so that only registered users could comment - what an error! So now you may comment away! I like reading comments, and it helps me know that people read this garbage :)

Love & Goats

This weekend I went to the wedding of my friend Alison (my old office mate) to her beloved Dominic, in Union WA. The wedding was fantastically fun, with lots of dancing! I learned that two of my old U of O professors - Lou Moses and Marjorie Taylor - really know how to get down on the dance floor (Lou outlasted all of us "young'ns" in the partying). The scenery was gorgeous, and love was in the air. This, of course, just made me miss Bridget, though...



Being so close to the Olympic National Forest, the next day I decided to go for a hike up a mountain. And boy, was it a mountain! I climbed 2500 feet in 1.6 miles - for those of you who don't know, that is very steep! Unfortunately the clouds moved in as I arrived at the summit, so I couldn't see much (this seems to happen to me, just ask Brandon). BUT, the hike was well worth it because of the MOUNTAIN GOATS! There was lots and lots of mountain goats. The first one I met tried to block my path - everytime I got near it it moved onto the path and stared at me. Here is aphoto of the event:


Eventually I got past it with the help of some brazen teenagers. Then, at the summit, there were little baby goats (kids)! They are SO ADORABLE. They are almost like little chihuahuas, but with little bumps on their head. They make very cute little "Yeaa" sounds.


There were more goats than this! If you want to see more pictures, they are posted on Facebook.


Conclusion: Love will make you a fool, and goats are super cool.

Squirrel thief

Today, after lunch, I left my office to head over to the Psych building (to fill out more forms, yay!). As is typical, I left my computer on and logged in with programs running. When I came back to my office, my computer was logged out of my account, and there were a few letters typed into the password section! This shocked me. I logged in, and noticed that a new email that had been sent to me while I was away was open (from Emily). I was even more shocked! Who came into my office and was looking on my computer?! Then I looked at my window sill, where I have all of my dinos/monster figurines, and I noticed that a bunch of them had been knocked down.

It was then that I clued in: a squirrel had invaded my office! I leave the windows open pretty much all day (no AC in here). For the last few days I have noticed a squirrel come fairly close to the window while I am having lunch - I have so far shooed it away and then gotten back to eating. But, today, it crossed the line! After realizing this I checked the garbage bin, and the apple core from my lunch was MISSING! That little bugger came in an stole it - I looked just outside the window and saw it sitting there, half devoured.

So, basically, a squirrel came in, knocked over my stuff, stole and apple core, read my email, and logged me out of my computer!

So, new rule: no leaving the windows open while I am out.

I feel violated. And by a squirrel, no less!

Dragonzzz

I went dragonboating! It was a lot of hard work! But I will do it again, because it is also FUN!

Here is a picture someone took of the event!

Sunny San Diego!

Dearest peeps,

I FINALLY got to visit Bridget in San Diego this past weekend. We had such an awesome time! The carpet in her bedroom was replaced on Friday, hours before I arrived, and so we did not have to sleep in a room filled with pee. We had a lovely time at the beach, and also explored the Museum of Man in Balboa park (Neanderthals are creepy when you think about it). It was sad to have to leave her, again, but we will have to start getting used to that. She is coming to see me in 9 days, though, so WOOT!


Things I learned:

1) San Diego has glorious architecture.



2) Cacti can be very, very large.



3) A hat is a requirement when there is that much sun.



4) My wife is even more beautiful at the beach.

I has an office

Behold, my glorious new office!
















I have an office on the second floor of my new workplace, ILABS (the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences). For those of you who are still packed tightly into the tiny Straub Hall, you will note the SPACIOUSNESS of this SINGLE-PERSON office.
















I display my heritage avec Bigfoot et un drapeau Canadien. The blank spot to the left of Bigfoot will display my degrees, once I get the PhD.

I have an awesome view of the waters of Seattle from my windows. The boats, they pass by.

The video tapes and the many boxes on the desk belong to the previous tenant - he will be picking them up sometime soon I hear...

For your viewing pleasure, life recreating art:

Stay Hungry

I finally watched it: Arnold Schwarzenegger's major motion picture debut, "Stay Hungry" What a god-awful film! So bad that it is worth a watch, for those people out there who enjoy that sort of thing (like me). It hardly makes any sense, and it actually really messed up. The cover of the movie (at least the one I had) bills it as a romantic comedy of sorts... not the case! This movie is definitely disturbing. Emily and Karen watched it with me, and they are very sorry to have done so.

Jeremy, if you're reading this, I need to remind you that this is all YOUR FAULT. You gave me this movie, with every intention of making me watch it! I did. Now look at me. With Bridget in San Diego, she is now being governed by Arnie. Now I am afraid for her life!

Also, I set up my new office today - will be taking pictures and showing you all soon.

Scent change

Some people say that miracles can come in tiny packages - but I say that they can also come in the form of a giant roll of brand-new, piss-free carpet.

Life is good.

Wood in its many forms

Yesterday morning the carpet guys came and removed all of the carpet from my apartment, save the bedroom. Lo and behold, what did we find beneath the carpet? Urine-soaked press-board! That damn cat peed here so much that it soaked through the carpet, the foam, and the wood. So, a large section of the wood paneling beneath the carpet needed to be replaced before they could put the new carpet on. But, the carpet guys couldn't do that, so they went home to enjoy their 4th of July. They won't be coming back to put the carpet on until Monday morning at 7:30. Yesterday afternoon the wood was replaced by my landlord's brother.

The result of all this? I am living in a non-functional apartment where all of my stuff is packed into the bedroom and kitchen and the floor is covered in rusty nails and staples. Horrible. The cats are not very happy either. But, hopefully sometime on Monday it will all be fixed and we can all be a lot happier.

But, wood comes in many forms, and so after the carpet guys left my place in disarray I headed down to the wooden boat show at the bottom of Lake Union, with Emily and Karen and Emily's Dad. As you probably figured I'm not really a fan of boats (Emily's Dad is), but it was nice to be out and enjoying the water. AND, I chatted with the Dragon boat team, and I might give DRAGON BOATING a try. I will keep you posted.

After a lovely dinner and a fantastic game of National Geographic's Go Dino (go fish) and Dino Search (concentration), we ended our evening by watching approximately 39% of a fantastic Seattle fireworks show (tough to see from where we were situated). Twas a nice way to celebrate Canada Day (observed in the U.S. on July 4th).

Today I am getting my bike fixed (another long story) and will tackle some crosswords. What a weekend!

Oh, and I never ended up watching Shrieker the other night - it remains on my "to watch" list.

Blog-blog-blog blog-blogerrane

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I now have a blog. It seemed like the thing to do. I hope the world won't hate me for this (I don't).

Tonight is a lonely night. There is a ZOMBIE FLASH MOB in my new neighborhood! I really wanted to go and be a Michael Jackson zombie (complete with the old MJ jacket), but I didn't have anyone to go with. Why did I feel like I could not go alone? I mean really, why do you need to know anyone to be a zombie, when zombies can't talk? But that's the way it is - I don't make the rules. Anyhow, I did at least go and see it - good times. Two zombies jumped into a woman's convertible car (roof open) and feigned tearing apart her neck. Wild? You decide. The aim of tonight's event was to exceed 5,000 zombies and enter the Guinness Book of World records for largest zombie mob. By the sights of it I'm pretty sure they succeeded.

Tomorrow the carpet in my new apartment is getting replaced! You see, the carpet is permanently soaked with 4 years of male cat pee. This is a MAJOR hassle, as I already unpacked and set up all of my stuff, and now I have to take it apart and move it out. But, that is the cost of a urine free apartment, I suppose.

I miss my wife a lot, but I guess I have two cats. Equivalence? No.

As for now, I think I'm going to go watch Shrieker (care of Mr. Scott Perrie, a number of years ago).