5/29/2005, Cars, cars cars! (12:49 PM)

VROOM! Can you feel the need for speed? This is one great day for race fans in the area here. You start your day with the CSC Clarendon Invitational Bike race (OK, they're bikes, not cars, but hey, it's early!). Next, a few minutes from now, the running of the Danica Patrick 500 in Indianapolis (she maybe IndyCar's savior if she can win). When that ends, NASCAR fires up the Coca-Cola 600 from Charlotte. After that, I'll be getting into my car (see below) and drive up to Adams Morgan for Avalanche. Can you feel the wind?

You might be asking yourself why does Jim seem so up when he is supposed to be recuperating from wisdom teeth being removed? Because the idiot front office at Dr. Kenneth Byrne DDS cancelled my appointment! 4 weeks of getting psyched into the event and I got stymied with less than 18 hours to go. I was told that Dr. Byrne had an 'emergency' that was going to take exactly two weeks. Now mind you, my appointment was made for the Friday before the long weekend. Do you smell a forgotten start to a vacation 'emergency'? I sure do!!! Beyond that, my original appointment was for noon, while they forced me to take a 11 AM appointment on June 17th. When I got home that afternoon, I had a phone message from their office now telling me I had to take a 10 AM appointment. I was pissed. Now, two hours early might not strike some of you as a big deal, but you need to realize that this guy's office is down in Woodbridge near Potomac Mills, about 30 miles south of me. I don't relish driving in Rush Hour traffic in the morning, something I will have to do with a 10 AM appointment. So I left a rather stern message with them Friday (they weren't answering the phone, thus more confirmation of my theory) telling them I was not going to accept their bait and switch scheduling. More on that as it develops.

BTW, I would like to welcome another friend to Blogger.com. Be sure to check out DJ Lil'E 's blog sometime (I think she is planning to post setlists there). Welcome!

There can be only one (in VA at least!) 

The aft end of the car 

05/22/2005: Sunday evening Funkytown! (in my head, that is), 8:27 PM

Ever want to to take a strange trip? Keep reading my blog, then! My head has been in a funk this weekend, leading me to staying in most of this beautiful weekend, watching TV and DVD's and playing games, until my X-box decided to stop working on me. Now I am watching a Korean horror film while waiting to watch the season finale of Desperate Housewives, and contemplating having to get to the office by 7 AM tomorrow morning, due to having to wait on other contractors to show up so that I can get to my servers. Of course, the woman I met online last month took the quick out after two dates with the usual "I think you are a nice person but I didn't really feel a connection. Best of luck in the in the crazy world of dating." Gee, like the infamous pot to the kettle, did not her action manifest the insanity of it all (or just how my head calculates it, at least)?

Meanwhile, Rantboy is in John Denver territory this weekend with his sugar momma GF.

In better news, C-Towner came through like a champ last week, scoring tickets to the Daytona 500 2006! Looks like I will have my first taste of Speed Week in D-Town in '06!

BTW, of the last installment of Star Wars, may I say: "Never has so much been spent, to bore me so much, for so many minutes, in a feature film."

05/04/05: Pink Eye, Erasure postpones, laptop, etc.

Argh. Pink Eye, aka conjunctivitis, sucks. Last Thursday night, overnight actually, I developed a major case of it in my left eye. I went to work Friday anyway, as it really wasn't painful or itchy, with the only burden being the funky mucus (clinically called 'discharge') I had to wipe away every other hour or so. Of course, I looked like something from Dawn of the Dead. This bothered some of the people in the office who coerced me into going to an urgent care center in FC. I was proscribed some antibiotic eye drops to use every six hours for the next three days. That told me I had an infectious form of the illness, so I stayed in the whole weekend, missing the first meet and greet our Kickball group had Friday night at Tom Tom, plus the club night my friends over at Medusa Promotions put on at the nearby Zucchabar. I stayed in Saturday, Sunday, and took Monday off as well. I went back to the UC as per their request on the third day, and a new physician there decided I wasn't where I should be medicinally, so I was proscribed another set of drops, to cover possible allergic symptoms, and a gel I get to squeeze into my pulled out lower eye lids just before I turn in. Big fun.

Anyway, I did return to work yesterday, mainly because I didn't look all that scary when I got up. I was to have been looking forward to the Erasure show I was raving about in a post I made previously, only to have that hope postponed like the two DC shows were until next month.
Oh well, I suppose it was for the best, to not hit the 9:30 Club while still recovering from an infectious condition.

So, how did I keep myself from going stir crazy over the weekend? My brand new Dell Inspirion 6000 laptop! It's faster than my desktop, with faster RAM, widescreen display, built in WiFi (g)that sniffs the wireless router I have in the apartment with no problem, even customizable chassis kits to give it a different look. Rock on! The built in USB ports are now going to be my route for uploading to the iPod now that I am sure the USB card in my desktop is DOA. Soon, one of these blog posts will be coming from me in my bed on my cushy Serta ;-P

Movies: I went to a preview of the new Hitchhicker's Guide film last week. While not the end all of future geek standards, it was an enjoyable film that works like a cigar: you enjoy it while it is burning, but once it goes out, well, you don't give it a lot of thought afterwards. Kinda like Zaphod without his other head.

Yes, damnit: I still need to upload some pics of the car. I will this weekend, weather permitting.