Sadly, no-one wanted to coanchor the show with me, even after all the time I spent getting all those logos in all those TVs!

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One thing I realized today is that I never just write about my day on this here website. It’s always something quick like a video, or some long diatribe about this and that, or a map with lines on it.

Well, the missus and I had a nice day and you’re going to read about it.

One thing we did yesterday was to do a thorough cleaning of the bedroom, because we got a new comforter set and wanted everything nice and tidy. This involved a lot of work that I wasn’t quite up for, having worked Saturday morning and been generally overworked. Still, it got done and we both got a good night’s sleep for our efforts.

Also, the missus made cake.

This morning, after having a nice piece of cake for breakfast, it was time to mow the lawn. Well, the day before was the original time to mow it, but given the whole lack of sleep thing it didn’t seem wise to operate anything with a blade.

Apparently sleep didn’t matter, because in the middle of mowing the lawn I nearly walked right in front of our Subaru…which would have been fine were it not for the fact that it was moving. The missus had headed on down to the community library to get some books, and was pulling into the driveway when I decided to walk (backwards, no less) right in the way. She did an excellent job of not hitting me, thanks to quick reflexes and good brakes - then pulled in the driveway, went in the house and started working on re-mulching some flower beds.

I never saw any of this. From my point-of-view, the car just appeared in the garage magically. Clearly, a good night’s sleep did me some good.

So I mowed, and she finished mulching before moving on to a thorough cleaning of the back porch. I had apparently done a rather casual cleaning the day before and it needed just a touch more work.

Ok, I did a crap job cleaning it, and it needed some real attention. I am a man after all, and have a genetic disorder that keeps my definition of ‘clean’ from matching up with my wife’s. At least, that’s my excuse.

Anyhow, while she finished up with that project - I launched a ‘bug bomb’ in the garage (it’s a garage, it gets bugs) and hopped into the shower.

The missus soon followed, and we settled down on the couch with some nice corned beef sandwiches. We watched two episodes of ‘Night Court’ (the ones where Brent Spiner first appeared playing a hillbilly) while eating more of the cake from the night before.

At some point, the missus remarked that we’d eaten half the cake. My response was that if she’d make some bad tasting food once in a while, we wouldn’t eat it. Once again, my infallible logic won the day.

During Saturday’s cleaning, some odd black spots had appeared on the floor in our ‘office’ - which seemed resolute in their resistance to ‘Resolve’ - so we headed out of the house to the nearest Lowes to get ‘Folex’ - something that was a bit stronger. The spots looked like some kind of oil, and the only culprit we could think of is our aging elliptical trainer, which has expelled some odd substances before.

While we were out, we swung by Radio Shack hoping to pick up a DTV set-top converter box with our government-issued coupon. It turns out the Radio Shack closest to us is closed on Sundays. Wal-Mart, your one-stop store for everything, only stocks one brand of converter and it wasn’t a very good one. See, you need one that has an antenna pass-through so that you can still use the existing tuner in your TV for analog broadcasts - at least through February of next year (WMDT reception notwithstanding.) Radio Shack sells a good brand that does just that, so why waste free money from the feds on anything else?

Pointing the car southward, we then stopped by a Subaru dealership to look at the new model of the Outback Sport. It seems that Subaru is taking some design cues from Saab, and the latest edition of our existing car is quite nice (and still the same price as when we bought it in 2003!)

The next stop was a flea market/antique shop. The missus was looking for a gift for her sister, who is in town this week and absolutely loves going through these kinds of stores. While we didn’t find anything at this particular one, we did see a nice old jukebox - the kind loaded up with old 45s. We also came across lots of other oddities, like a rather large collection of movies on Laserdisc and on Beta. There was even a portable 8-Track player lying around somewhere.

Undaunted, we headed even further south to another similar store. There, she found a nice present at a booth ran by a rather nice gentleman who went out of his way to be helpful.

Instead of heading straight home, I passed by the turn off and headed down to Chincoteague. It’s only about 15 minutes from home, yet we don’t visit often enough. So, we drove aimlessly around the island before stopping at the ‘Oyster Museum’ for a quick wander.

While there, and looking at a copy of ‘The Salisbury Times’ (now ‘The Daily Times’) from the 60’s - the though occurred - when did this area get the name ‘Delmarva’ and who named it?

According to Wikipedia - “The earliest uses of the term appear to have been commercial – for example, the Delmarva Heat, Light, and Refrigerating Corp. of Chincoteague, Virginia was in existence by 1913, but general use of the term did not occur until the 1920s.”

Hooray for the internet.

Leaving Chincoteague, we headed on home (to a very happy doggie) and settled down on the newly-cleaned back porch for some dinner.

Following said dinner, I headed to the computer to write this post…and thankfully, the missus brought me a piece of cake.

Cake, as you can tell, is the thread the bound this weekend together. You can’t do that with just any old cake. As the sun starts to set, only 1/10 of the cake is left…and that may not live to see tomorrow.

…but if it does - yum! Breakfast!

P.S. - The picture in this post is from our back yard, looking past some marigolds. It has been Photoshopped to a degree…the yard, while freshly mown, is not watercolored.

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So, did anyone miss me?

(feel free to imagine the sound of chirping crickets)

I didn’t think so. Still, I feel much better after dropping off the online radar for about a week. I reactivated my Facebook account, and I just brought this place back up. Still, I think I’ll keep off MySpace from now on. For someone as anti-social as I am, being on two “social networking” sites was more than enough.

It’s been a tough few months, and it’ll be an even tougher few weeks to come. Why? Well, just mosey on over to this link and you’ll see why. I can say that I’ve never been involved in a project of this scale ever before in my entire life…and quite possibly never will again.

That’s probably a good thing. One more of these might just kill me.

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Here - because I hate all of humanity, enjoy over 7 minutes of David Caruso, The Who and “the sunglasses of justice.”

You are most welcome.

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Once upon a time in 1965, a young session musician named Glen Campbell filled in for Brian Wilson with the touring Beach Boys. As thanks, Brian wrote and produced this song for him, “Guess I’m Dumb” and here he is “performing” it on a typically 60’s music show.

The song didn’t go anywhere, but I think that Campbell guy wound up doing ok. I feel like it was just one more Brian Wilson song that was well ahead of it’s time.

Flash forward to 1996, and the Wondermints crank out a cover on their “Wonderful World of Wondermints” album. Not long after, they became Brian Wilson’s backing band. Not bad, huh?

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It’s way too late at night, and for some reason I’m awake and poking around Facebook, MySpace and the SU Alumni pages. Considering that I got up at 3am this morning, this is a stupid, stupid thing to do. I originally came to the computer to check the status of a download, and here I am now several hours later randomly looking up the people I can dredge from my often fuzzy memory.

On the occasion that I do come across someone, I never quite know what to say. Granted, it’s a little easier with high school classmates, as we did share many years in the good ol’ Laurel School District. It’s when I come across people who I knew in college that I really get into trouble.

See, I didn’t really go to college. I attended classes and I worked in the TV studio - but that’s about it. I never really socialized with classmates. I never felt that I had anything in common with them outside the classroom and to this day I am still one of the most awkward party goers you will ever see. Once removed from the element that I originally made the acquaintances under, I freeze up.

So, when coming across an old college classmate - I have no idea what to say. By this point, most are married with children…and while I am married, I have no children. While some automatic bond exists amongst parents, there is no such thing for people who are just married. Once people get past the usual questions like “Where did you meet?” and “So, how long has it been?” the conversation tends to taper off. I could talk for hours about the missus, but I don’t think anyone would listen for that long.

What does that leave, then? Classwork? I look back on my college years, and the cynic in me tends to think I was surrounded by people who just wanted fancy effects in their TV projects. The optimist in me hopes that at least a few of them honestly thought I was a somewhat interesting person, but the glass mostly stays half-empty for me. My talents lie in pressing the right buttons at the right time with relative ease, and that was something a lot of folks were eager to use.

I almost put “take advantage of” at the end of that last sentence - but it wouldn’t have been accurate. At the time, I was happy to oblige - because, quite frankly, my life was quite shitty heading into college. The fact that anyone was willing to be around me was enough to make me happy for the time.

Could I have tried harder to bond with these people? Could I have pushed past my complete (and still present) social incompetence? It’s one of those things that I’ll never know, and it leaves me with an incomplete picture of those years…and so, the filter I tend to look back on them with is one of cynicism. Perhaps it’s so I don’t feel like I’ve drifted apart from what could have been great friends.

Therefore, I tend not to even try to contact anyone from that time. It’s another part of my past that is just tucked away and only revisited late at night when I should really be asleep. The cynic - once again - says that there is nothing to gain and only disappointment to be had.

I will need to borrow a line from Scott Adams, creator of “Dilbert” to close this thought out. It’s simply BOCTAE - “But, of course, there are exceptions.” I am not speaking of everyone I ever encountered in those years, but there are more than a handful…certainly enough to write ten or so paragraphs about.

Also, those kind of thoughts arise with people that have come and gone from work, but I feel like I have a much better handle on those who genuinely enjoyed my company and those who just tolerated me for being good at my job.

Does anyone else even wonder about this kind of stuff? Should I just go to bed now? I think I will.

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