Shopping with Blobby

Yet another installment in the drudgery that is everyday shopping. The camera-phone makes it a bit more fun - though I get looks whenever I take pics of products. Like I care what people think!

I'm a guy who is just fine with Tabasco when it comes to hot sauces. Ok, maybe some Red Hot, but we've all see the specialty hot sauces that exist. They have stores dedicated to this stuff - and this is a small display at Cleveland's West Side Market.

These two made me laugh.

12 of 12

So I'm doing my fifth 12 of 12. 12 pictures taken on the 12th of the month. Since I only post once per day, you get my images the following day.

Created by Chad Darnell (thanks Chad!) and picked up from, what I can tell, a number of random bloggers who then link back to him and vice versa. He intends 2010 to be his final year of doing this, but hopefully someone will pick it up from there. Time will tell.

06:00. No gym day yesterday, but any day that doesn't involve hotel stays, I use one of these doo-hickeys to scrub my skin and exfoliate myself. Just like I did yesterday.

06:20. What to wear? What to wear? This is my dress shirt and casual dress pants closet and about half my ties. My suits are in another closest.

06:55. My Oral B toothbrush and Sensodyne Gel toothpaste. Hey, sometimes I have sensitive teeth. And dental hygiene is important.

07:10. C'mon rain, c'mon!!! We needed the rain. It came, but not much and not for long.

The structure you see is just one of the Cleveland Clinic parking decks....and I'm not getting it all in the shot. Buildings at the Clinic are by letter or double letter (i.e. The A bldg or the AA bldg). The rationale is sound for people who work there, but when building this garage they planned on calling it the SS Garage. I actually complained to facilities about it - as did many others. It is now called the JJ Garage.

07:20. Parking garage at my current work. This caught my attention. Doesn't this guy/gal not know about the pine trees that hang from the rear view mirror? Or is his/her body odor that bad??

10:30. I should probably clean up all my wires, huh?

12:05. Shadow fences. Simple as that.

12:30. Euclid Arcade. It runs between Euclid and Superior Avenues. No one around at this time. Only two crappy places to eat and they are underneath and behind where I am standing. A few shoppes left in here. The upper levels are a Hyatt hotel.

14:30. I should probably do my expense report. But I didn't.

18:55. Fed-Ex stopped by, but I wasn't home. I guess I will not get my iPhone 4G until tomorrow. Blast!

19:10. If you look hard, or not so, you can see Tovah's reflection in her upstairs water bowl. Yes, she has an upstairs and downstairs water bowl.

19:30. Sophie. So intelligent she has two laptops.

20:45. My Baker's Dozen.
Late dinner. Leftover Chinese. A spring roll, some crab rangoon and shrimp lo-mien.

Sunday Morning

Yesterday we had another busy day. Whomever said weekends were for rest were insane. Always on the go it seems.

There was lots of running around, but oddly enough I didn't make it to the gym - the day was way too busy. I felt ok about it though with our 20mi bike ride the day before. No weights, but the cardio was taken care of.

Like yesterday, today will be a post of images. I'm that lazy.

My sister and her family were out of town, so once again I "got to" pick up Petey and Boomer from the kennel. They love being freed - and I'm the hero.

Funny story - we went to the house first to pick up their collars for the invisible fence. We put them on after we're back in the drive, but on the way out of the house, just the way Denton was carrying them gave him not one, but two shocks (he had both collars) as he passed through where the dogs are not allowed to pass. It was not a pleasant zap.

After we went to a brunch at Chef Bob's and Nurse Matt's house - one that was a fund-raiser for the LGBT Center of Greater Cleveland. This was their back yard before other people arrived. You had to snag a seat in the shade or get stuck in the blazing hot sun. I was not so lucky.

Matt and Bob doing some food prep. This was the strawberries, cherries and blueberries with balsamic vinegar drizzled over them. They also had poached eggs on muffins with pulled pork on them (very good and not a thing I would have considered), salad, some great roasted chicken, coffee cake, creme brulee french toast and other assorted goodies. The coffee cake had ground nuts in it, so I wasn't wild about that - but everything else was good.

This is Bob and Matt's doggie, Sophie. Not to be confused with our cat Sophie, or Birdie's dog, also named Sophie. Sophie found a ball and we played and played and played. It was a gross slobbery thing, but I can't say 'no' to such a cute pup.

Unfortunately, Dad Matt could - and he took the ball away from us, saying we weren't allowed to play. Awwwwwwwww. We were both heart-broken.

Here is the party in full swing. We knew most of the guests, but not all. It was a nice time. We didn't overstay our welcome and we ended up leaving so we could go home, cut the lawn, do some edging and try to rid ourselves of this horribly encroaching grape vine that is literally wrapping itself around our trees and plants and strangling them to death. Very pervasive.

Then we went to my parent's house for dinner, as we do most Sunday afternoons. My dad isn't feeling very well (he's almost 90) and my oldest niece brought her first boyfriend over for dinner. He's staying with my sister's family all week. He seems nice and I didn't grill him on anything - it had to be intimidating being with us. Poor guy.

I'm worn out. Not enough to want to go back to work, but that's the way it has got to be!



Song by: Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs

Wooden Ships

I totally stole the header image from my friend, Tom G's FB page. He's the only one I know who got a shot of one of the Tall Ships sailing into Cleveburgh. I'm hoping he won't mind and will one day forgive me.

We've had the Tall Ships festival (?) I don't know how often or for how long. I do know that we have never been. So we took the bikes and rode downtown.

On the way, I made Denton pedal and stop by the Cleveland Cancer Survivors Plaza. I figured we've been here almost 16 years and I'm now like 18 years cancer free. So I got a few pics in front of it. This is the only one that captures the obelisk like structure.


Not unlike the one in Columbus, this survivor's plaza is just not all that attractive.

Yes, I don't know why we hadn't done the Tall Ships before, but I'm thinking now I know why - or at least the reason(s) - we never need to go back.

Let's start with the $14 admission - each. Yes, I am cheap as they come, and yes we paid it, but there wasn't really anything to do except stand in line for up two hours to get on maybe one of the boats. The rest of the stuff there is typical festival crap: booths for basement waterproofing, food, bad food, worse food and lemonade stands.

As with Tom G's picture and this one, it is a scaled down replica of the HMS Bounty, which as you know did not go all that swimmingly.

I bet it would have been much much better had they had a crew that looked like this - especially the guy on the right. I'm just sayin'...........

Buffalo and Boobies

....and buns.

...and one last one of your smiling blogger amongst the masts and masses. Clearly my sunglasses protect my anonymity from my tens of fans.

Song by: Jefferson Airplane

La Copa de la Vida

Yes, I know. TWO posts in one day. Unheard of, but this one is a more timely thing, I suppose.

Soccer is scary. Those frickin' vuvuzelas. The weird countries. The fans! I really don't get what it's all about.

I saw some review on Birdie's site that had a dead-on wrap-up of Twilight, or whatever that vampire movie is:

"Twilight's like soccer: they run around for two hours, nobody scores, and its billion fans insist you just don't understand."

Just interchange 'soccer' for 'twilight' in World Cup scenario and it is still dead-on. Of course, the Simpson's hit it out of the park, from about 10 years ago, with this clip. I love Kent Brockman's take and the Hispanic Kent Brockman-like's take (at about the 1:55 mark):


But as World Cup crap goes - you can count me in with the majority on the matter of watching it (or not!).
Aren't there more important things to discuss sports-wise.......like LeBron??? No...no....I kid. We're done talking about him.



Song by: Ricky Martin

No Fair at All

Yes, I'm getting a late start this morning. My weekend seems to be thrown off. I don't see getting to Spin in the next 20 minutes when I just rolled my hairy butt out of bed. ....and I had nothing drafted for a blog post - so it's all about priorities, people.

Last night was our umpteenth year in going to the Cain Parks Arts Festival (no, it is not a Fair, but I had no songs with the word 'art' or 'festival'). It was also our third or fourth after-festival dinner with a group of art-liking homos.

"Art" is a relative term. Eye and beholder come to mind. And let's just say we were a little underwhelmed last night. Normally we stop in a few booths, but this year I can count on one finger - yes finger - how many we stepped foot in. For you mathematically challenged folks, that would be: one!

More fartsy, less artsy, to paraphrase Homer Simpson. More jewelry and pottery than you can shake a kiln at. And what is with making it look like broken pottery at that? This isn't some ancient ruin where you've uncovered secrets from a Mayan civilization. This is supposed to be your craft and possibly your livelihood. Maybe I don't understand art at all.

....clearly I don't, or someone wouldn't have to explain this to me:

Yeah - I want that in my house. {sarcasm}

Denton mentioned (and I hope he's (not Denton) reading/listening here) that David should be showing his work here. I readily agreed, though he doesn't seem like a throw-a-tent-up-and-sit-there-all-day-and-listen-to-people-yak-about-good-and-bad-art kind of guy. Prove me wrong Mr. J. ...prove me wrong.

Seriously though, his work is leaps and bounds better than what was shown. I really love his photographs.

Dinner with the homos was at the same place - an ok Indian restaurant. One of the few places that can probably handle 20-30 "guys". This year was mostly the usual suspects with a few new thrown in as always. Maybe they'll become usual, perhaps not.

Most of the guys didn't actually attend the festival, but just came to dinner. One friend, Gregg, asked if we had bought anything. I said 'nein'. He reminded me that I didn't buy a piece of art I really wanted last year, due to price. He asked if I still think about it - and I do. He chided me for passing it by and that money will come and go, but you'll always have the art. Maybe he was right.

The company was better than the food and the art. It'd be nice to do it more than once per year and switch up the place we do it at, but truth be told, I'm not willing to take over the planning for it - so I will shut my pie hole and go along for the ride on this one.


Song by: the Association

99

It's funnier that Barbara Feldon is the image instead of a lame one of a thermometer breaking due to heat, right? Yeah, that's what I thought too. It's double bonus points that Morty will now be singing this song alllllllllday long. ...in his head, of course. Trust me, I will be doing the same (though it is currently competing with the National's "Lemonworld").

Yesterday in DC was hot, but not as hot as the days before. Still it was toasty.

The weather looks a bit cooler today, but I'll be gone. As soon as I hit 'publish', I'm headed to Union Station to go to BWI and then fly home. Yayyy!

But I got done with client stuff around 4p and headed to the hotel pool, which may have been marginally cooler than the day before. The wind was stronger, so I could just douse myself and stand in the breeze and cool down that way - at least for a few minutes.

I am ready to come home. No big weekend plans other than a dinner tonight and a brunch on Sunday. Oh wait, those aren't such nothing plans. Scratch that.

Ok, I do have to motor - but I'll leave you with yet another image of me. Me Me Me Me! You can click to enlarge it and see all the beads of sweat on my chrome-ish dome.



Song by: Toto

If Love Was a Train

Train travel should be better than it is. It's great in theory - but so is cold fusion.

While the company would clearly pay for my flight from Philadelphia to DC, it seems silly when the train ride is only 90 minutes. Way shorter than getting to the airport, through security, sitting, taxiing.....etc etc etc.

And way cheaper. And I can work - and make calls. Especially when I upgrade to Business Class. No reason I should sit with the riff-raff.

The reality, trains move more than I think they should. It's fine when you're just sitting there, but when you have a laptop open and trying to do a PowerPoint, not so easy. And if you ever have to use the restroom....yikes. When the train originates in Boston and now it's four hours later - let's say the bathrooms at Union Station smell better than this thing. Hot. Stale. Piss. (sorry gals - it's just the way it is.)

But a few pics for you all. Since I was clearly bored.

Amtrak #85 as it pulls into the 30th St. Station in Philly. I got to the terminal at 16:22 for a train that left at 16:30 - oh, and I had not purchased my ticket yet. I get there and the sign said "all aboard". They weren't, I mean, since I wasn't.

This is somewhere past BWI, two stops from my final destination (not the horror movie). Another train passed us and it wasn't even an Acela. WTF??

The joke is, we ended up stopping about 500 ft from Union Station, as there was a back-up of trains due to an earlier power outage. We sat for a good 40 minutes. I could have walked it 10 times over. The bigger joke? Train after train passed us because we couldn't pull into the station. Fuckers.

These are the tracks (some of them) at Union Station. The guy to the left made me laugh - not in a good way. He wore a cigarette behind his ear most of the train ride. Really? Do people still do that - and better yet, WHY?

Here I am at the Union Station Metro stop. Awaiting the Red line to Shady Grove, though I wasn't going to Shady Grove. Just a three station ride to Metro Center, where I changed to an Orange line to McPherson Square - then a few block walk to the hotel.

While I stay here at Washington Plaza a lot, I really try to stay here during summer - since it is one of the few hotels with a pool, outdoors at that. Yeah, the water was about 87 degrees, but if you get out of the bath water, you can let the air cool you down. And no, I'm not smiling. I'm sure if this were a Brettcajun pic, he'd say he was just looking butch - so I'm going with what I think he might say. Yeah - that's it.

I also swear my chest is way more defined, but it ain't showing up in this pic. I blame the photographer.



Song by: Michelle Shocked

Lose Control

So a few years back when I got Mr. iPhone (3G), I relegated my Nano to the kitchen where it kept us in music while making dinner or cleaning up. Or it was good to have in there for parties when folks filtered in and out of that room.

Now and again, with new music purchases, I'd have to add songs and then re-synch so we'd have a change-up in our liberry.

Now, I have 10,000 plus songs in my overall liberry but the Nano only holds about 800 songs, so I had to choose carefully which made the cut for this little device. I mean, I'd have to listen to these selections during food prep time.

So imagine my surprise on the last go-round when I put too many songs on the playlist and they all wouldn't fit.

Then I got a message which I had never seen before - asking if I wanted iTunes to select which songs go on the iPod. I made the incorrect assumption that they meant for the 12-15 I was attempting to put on. WRONG. Not knowing that though - I agreed.

It wiped out my entire Nano and loaded 800 songs of its choosing. My oh my.

If you know me, you know I'm pretty picky about m music, so to be this out of my element was a bit disconcerting. I guess I could have wiped it out again and re-loaded what I needed and wanted. But for the last few weeks, I've been letting it ride and just taking it as it comes.

I know it's not a big thing for most, but it is a huge change for me to give up this kind of control. So far it's working and I'm not too much out of sorts. And I actually have not been going up to it and hitting 'next'.

This might be my ability to change, but who knows? Oh wait - that'd be me. I know.

Song by: Color Me Gone

Down by the Water

We ended up our holiday weekend up near Lake Erie. As you can see, it was a beautiful day. Seemingly clear over the lake, though very hazy downtown. It was in the 90s. Very warm for those of us who do not have central air.



We were up in Mentor, which is east of Cleveburgh. The water has been nice and untainted since we haven't had much rain - which means no sewer run-off into the lake - which means no bacteria warnings in the water.

Not to say there wasn't pollution........as you can see.......

Not to say the youth (I'm assuming) of Mentor have a problem with dyslexia when drawing their swastikas, but I think they are pretty clear in their hate.

It was still a nice day, albeit hot hot hot. And now I'm off to Philadelphia for a day of meetings and then taking the train to DC for a few days of work. It was only 97 there yesterday - so yayy!!!

Song by: Cry Cry Cry

Freedom

Yesterday's festivities were a hot one.

We had our neighborhood "parade" - which really starts at a Blood Mary stand and most of the neighbors walk around the streets drinking them, while their kids ride bikes.

A woman, whom I know in name only, asked me if I worked out at a certain gym (which I do) and take Spin class (which you know I do). But what killed me is that she says she recognized me by the back of my legs!!!!! LOLLLLL.

Yes, I do bike in the front row and have little need to know who is behind me. But I found it funny that this is how I got noticed. Of course I had to ask, "is it because they look good?" Whether she was lying through her teeth or not, she confirmed this to be the case.

I had some nice conversations with neighbors, some new, some not. One who was new, I have known from a previous life. I says to him, I says......"Javier, you don't live here!", but he tells me that this was not the case and that he and his wife moved in a few weeks ago. Who knew??

Oh, the parade ends at an old folks home where people sing patriotic anthems - the old ones, not the Lee Greenwood or Toby Keith ones.

Our very right next door gave a reading of The Declaration of Independence. I kid you not. Actually, he did a really nice job with it.

This is the retirement/old folks home. It's where I hope to be spending my remaining days - if I can snag a room. This is where some songs were sung..........kind of. "The Star Spangled Banner" was skewered, or so you thought, until you heard half of a verse of "My Country Tis of Thee" - which petered out so quickly it was kind of embarrassing. No one knew the words - myself included, not that I was going to be singing anyways.

After the parade was a pic-a-nic (say like Yogi). Hot dogs were the only thing cooked. Neighbors brought everything else. I won't list the items. I made a dip with avocado, goat cheese, cream cheese, garlic, lime and cumin. It went over well - since it was all gone before 40 minutes was up. The only bummer, the cupcake I snagged got knocked off my plate and went face down in the dirt. Bummer!

The rest of the day was at my sister's house. More food, but I got to use their neighborhood pool - which was necessary due to the heat and the possibility that I might not have showered since Friday morning.

Hey! I told you I was single this weekend!!!!



Song by: the Housemartins

Metal Firecracker

The headline image is a radiology shot of someone who did not let go of the firework soon enough.

BUMMER!

Eons ago, that should could have been me. I was a juvenile problem - which might not shock some of you. Those poor folks in Lake Lucerne (no, not Switzerland) never had a 4th of July that didn't have at least one of their mailboxes blown to smithereens each year. Thank you Mr. M-80!

What's a bored teen (or was it pre-teen) to do back in those days? I wasn't old enough to steal golf carts or boats.........yet. Oh, I was a suspect many a-time, but they never really pinned anything more than larceny on me - and even then, only once!

I'm somehow off track. Actually, I'm not sure when I started this I had much of a point to begin with. It was just going to wish you all a happy holiday and be done with it, but clearly I've branched out a bit.

Anyways - if you must destroy federal property like a mailbox, make sure you do something with the fuse to make it burn slower so you can get out of harm's way.....or and the law or any potential witnesses.

....and isn't that the real reason we left King George to gain our independence?

Oh and - yeah, enjoy the holiday!



Song by: Lucinda Williams

Single Girl

I'm single again!!!!

Nah - not for the long term, just for two days. But g-d, I revert to single me so quickly when I'm alone, it's really quite frightening.

The Cleveburgh nightlife is at my disposal; the world at my feet. And what do I do? I sit at home too uninterested to do a frickin' thing. The old single me would have been way drunk and possibly missed an opportunity to post on a blog due to extracurricular activities.

The now me, is a drafting this the night before it is to be published while trying not be too pathetic by going to bed before 22:00. Sad but true.

However, keeping with the old single me, when I'm alone - I eat (and ate), like crap. I'm too embarrassed to tell you what I had for "dinner", but I can tell you I didn't have the left over pizza or the grilled chicken, which still reside in the refrig. Suffice to say, I will be at the gym at opening atone for my sins.

I rarely ate a balanced meal when I was single and living alone. Egg Roll King was my mainstay. Ahhhh South Campus, how I loved you. Seriously, two egg rolls each and every day for lunch. ...and I still cannot figure out why my acne never cleared up. Hmmmm.

Here's the joke - I'm single 50% of the time with work travel. I normally have balanced meals on the road. I don't really do nightlife much when I travel - as I just go to the hotel and work. Hell, I rarely turn on the TV. I think I mentioned, it was two days before I knew Haiti had an earthquake!

But when I'm single at home, I'm just a schlub. I sit here, still in my work clothes - that is how lazy I am.

Oh, I'm single because Denton went home to see his parents - leaving me to be the sole participant at our neighbors 4th of July cookout on Sunday. And the only one of us to do our little neighborhood parade - which is just adults following the kids around while we carry liquor - and drink it.

Denton also gets to be the hero. The iMac his parents owned died a few weeks ago - one he bought for them. Well, technically we did, since it came from the joint account, but I'll assume I received no credit. I will also assume I get none for the iPad he picked up on the way out of town to bring to them.

I really do not care about getting any credit, I'm thrilled they are getting this. Though I've barely played with the iPad, I think they'll love it - eventually. They'll say it was too much. They'll say they don't know how to operate it, but in short order, I predict they will love it. Of course, Denton probably will too - so I half-suspect there might be one in his near-future too.

So yes. I'm single. For now. Maybe tomorrow will be more adventurous, but do not bet on it.



Song by: Pat Carroll (yes, that Pat Carroll!)

Death or Glory

It's Friday going into a long holiday weekend and I'm not much up for thinking of something clever to say/write.

What's that, you say? I don't ever have anything clever to say or write? Touché. You've won this round.

So you get a video for the post. No, not a Blobby video (though I should do a new one of those, huh?), but a trailer for a little known movie that is yet to be released. It needs all the promo it can get.

Actually, I am anxiously awaiting the opening of the Deathly Hallows. Actually, I'm anxiously awaiting to re-read the book before the first installment comes out in November.

And I am anxiously awaiting to take my nephew to see it. We've seen all of the Harry Potter movies together and I'm hoping at the age of 17 (and 18, when the second installment is released) he'll still want to do this with his aging uncle. I think he was eight (!!!!) when we saw the first one!

The timing of the last movie couldn't come at a better time. Matt will headed to college shortly after it is released. If he were in college, I'm sure we would not finish this adventure together. I'm hoping he has somewhat fond memories of these opportunities we have taken. I like my uncles, but we never ever ever had any kind of real relationship with them. Come to think of it, I never ever ever did anything with them. Ever.

As you might suspect, each of the Harry Potter movies get darker and darker - and the trailer is pretty good and no exception to the tone of the book (and it's long, for a trailer), but I suggest viewing it at full screen. It shows pretty well on my 13" MacBook Pro.

Just for a few of the fans (Jon.....Becca....and....umm......ummmmm....maybe that's it), I leave you with this image that might make you smile.


Song by: the Clash

Old Friends - Bookends

Yesterday, while in Central Ohio for work, I had lunch with an old college friend - Lori S.

Lori and I go way way way back and I was quite fond of her and our friendship while I was figuring out how to come out and all. Not that I ever confided that with her. I wasn't that comfortable with me to release that info.

But Lori hung out at my fraternity house as she was friends with a number of the guys I hung with. It was deemed funny because we had similar horn-rimmed glasses and the same LL Bean Norwegian sweater. (I'm totally going to have to scan and post some of those pics.)

We picked up kind of right were we left off twenty odd years ago. She has kept in touch with more of my fraternity brothers than I had/have. Hell, she's been to some of their weddings. More than I have ever done.

So we reconnected via FB - I mean, that seems to be the norm for me lately. She said when our mutual friend Dee Dee told her I was on, she looked me up and they actually talked about my hair - or lack thereof.

Lori said she was devastated because I 'had the most awesome head of hair' she'd ever seen. I couldn't stop laughing. I think she was serious. She did a nice cover job saying she liked the way I could pull off my non-hair now. But she did say I looked a pretty much like I did back then - but I'm not sure about that. I think she did though. The years have been kind to her.

Naturally, we talked about mutual acquaintances - some amusing stories, though I got her to physically cringe when I brought up a fraternity brother/roommate I had for a few years. People never said it to my face, but I suspected people didn't like Jim that much. Lori pretty much confirmed that yesterday - right in Panera - with just a look.

For a number of Lori's sorority events, I was her date.

But for much of the conversation it was about the presents and not all on the past, as those things can so easily stay on because that's what you know. It was a short 90 minute lunch, but I really enjoyed it.

Sometimes FB isn't a total waste of time and energy.



Song by: Simon & Garfunkel