Looks like I'll be back in Boston in the not too distant future

We've had a zombie project that started back in '98.
The last time it "fell down" was right before Obamanoid's first election.
It has raised itself off the hot desert asphalt road in its quest for BRAINS again.

Between this blog and work, I've had the opportunity to meet several of my blog heroes that became blog buds.

I might be mistaken, but I think The Feral Irishman is up there in Taxechussettes somewhere.

Him I'd like to meet.  Also I'd like to see his shop.*







*I wanted to be an auto mechanic. From what I gather, Pissed's shop is not involve with cars, but it has Machines!
 I like turning wrenches and getting greasy.  My best day was working on my '68 VW Beetle. My arms were black from finger tips to arm pit.
Lava soap is your friend.  At 17, life was good.
My Mother was having none of that. So, I became an Architect.  Contractors are confused by me.
I know how to rebuild a transmission.  These days they take their truck to the stealorship for an oil change. I do my own.

Gay Marriage Ruling

Between this and the obummercare ruling, it's rather clear to me that Justice Roberts is either a mental case or "somebody" has some serious dirt on this guy.

Personally, I do not care if Gays want to get married.  I really want them to achieve the full rights and experience of Marriage.

Be careful what you wish for.

Where before if you broke up with your significant other, you packed up your shit and moved on, those legal papers issued by the STATE, are going to make that process a wee bit more complicated.*

I can guarantee you that scabbed knee divorce attorneys are clinking martini glasses with top shelf vodka in celebration of this Supreme Court Ruling.






* I've been through divorce twice, so has the Lovely Belle.  Marriage in the heterosexual community, statistically is a 50/50 proposition as to longevity on average.  I'm willing to bet that coin toss is going to far lower in the Gay Community.  Cheers!

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Pruning a Queen Anne Palm

Went down to the family house on the water this past weekend.
The first part of my "Father's Day" was spent addressing the "maintenance issues" I'd volunteered for.
Item 3, prune the Queen Anne Palm.
Hmmm, doesn't look so bad. Kinda high, but I think I can haul my 240 lb carcass up the extension ladder and cut those few dead fronds.  Easy Peasy.
K, done. Nope wait. There's another one. K, no wait, there's another one.
50 or 60 palm fronds later I was done.
This palm tree really likes where it is planted. Another few years and the 40 foot extension ladder isn't going to cut it.  I will volunteer to sacrifice a chain saw chain to cut it down, but I won't be going back up that ladder again.
Temp was not so bad, but the humidity was hovering around 150%.
I got down off the ladder at a svelte 230 just from water weight loss.

I am not complaining. My brother volunteered to replace the bait well pump in the boat which I replaced last year. snigger, snort, bwahahahhaha.
Actually, when I say, "I replaced" I mean the mighty Sonnage, with apple crushing grip strength*, replaced the pump with my astute tutelage.
The bait well pump is down in the bilge in a nearly inaccessible location.

Have fun Bro!

Doesn't look so bad in the pic, does it.  Cell phone pics are deceptive like that. If you only knew.





* I am not making this up. He is thin as a bean pole and he can crush an apple in his hand.
As fair warning, do not let him get ahold of you....especially your nether regions.

Busy-ish last week

In D.C. Sunday / Monday. Stayed in an awesome hotel.  Being my first stay there, and wishing to make a good impression, they put me in the room furthest second furthest from the elevators.

Where's my complimentary Segway?

Truly, the Mayflower Renaissance Hotel in DC is a great place to stay...as long as you are on an expense account.

The Grand Hall to the Banquet rooms

Which also goes all the effing way

 to the other end of the block.

Wednesday to Friday in Dallas to review

 a full scale curtain wall lighting mockup.

Got a bit of sun. Note to self bring some 

sunscreen or a hat next time dumbass.

Next week we are going to blast the curtain wall mockup 

with this, and a fire hose to see if it leaks!  Weeeee!

Finished the week off with a little Beth Hart at the House of Blues.

K, that's pretty much done

That little thunderstorm  TROPICAL STORM! streamed rain all the way across the country to Washington D.C.
Oklahoma's only comment is, "Damnit"

It almost feels like a vacation

Totally disconnected from work.
Totally.
As in, all my servers and network infrastructure down to the firewall are powered down.

We have a Tropical "Disturbance" rolling into the BAR environs tonight.

On the SHTF scale of things, this is more of a rowdy frat party than a domestic dispute.


The old adage, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure"  applies here.
Two weekends in a row we've had spontaneous power outages at the office.   Thankyouverymuch Center Point!
This is a most ungraceful shut down for my servers.
I might be taking a day off if I can't get to the office in the morning.

I'm thinking of upgrading the Scion Rollerskate to one of these.

As I type, the storm has been upgraded to a NAMED TROPICAL STORM!

The weather channel people are wetting their pants with joy.  There have been so few named storms to report for years now, they have resorted to naming winter storms.

Pathetic.

As the first NAMED storm of the hurricane season, I Shall Call You, "Bill".

"Tim" was already taken by John Cleese in the "Holy Grail".

Update:

The truly IMPORTANT news of the storm event!

Note the headline banner......

Into Mordor

Mid last week I was informed we'd "won" a project and the client wanted me on site Monday to survey a building we'd be tearing down.

Washington D.C.

DC is a really great city*.

I've been there before.

In my college days as an aspiring architect I toured the cat walks in a Smithsonian Museum dome.  You lesser plebes have only seen this from the floor. I have actually been in between the inner and exterior domes of the building stumbling up and down turn of the last century metal stairs and planks. Weeee!

Of particular interest, the acoustics in this interstitial space between the domes produce quite an exquisite echo, particularly when an unnamed 20 year old retard yells out lyrics such as "whip it good" by DEVO. **

Fast Forward.

The unfortunate thing about this trip was I had the foreboding feeling that I was headed into enemy territory.  I have never felt this way about any city in which I've had a project.  Difference of political opinion?  Sure.
Religion and politics are two things I don't discuss with strangers.  Oh, also Global Worming Climate Change.  Wait, sorry, that was redundant.

On the way out, headed to Reagan to catch a plane, I caught a glimpse of the Washington Monument.  The "repair job" after the earthquake may have made it structurally sound, but it does not look good at all.  I wish I had a pic to share.  It is an image in stone of the state of this country.

It actually looked sad.




*  Over Saturday, and Sunday when I arrived, there were ten shootings, four of which reached ambient air temperature.  Aside from that it is an awesome city to visit because #History! No srsly.

**  I have never claimed to have not been moronic in my teens and twenties. It did however elicit a heartfelt laugh from my fellow morons.

I never thought I would be traumatized by dinner.... until tonight.

I am visiting a friend of mine in New Haven, CT and deep in the heart of their 'Little Italy' is a very nice, little restaurant.  Appetizers were great,  Atmosphere fantastic, nice wine...

The waiter, was pretty much fresh off the boat from Italy.  His English was pretty good but very accented and when explaining the off menu specials of the evening the lobster with pasta and a spicy tomato sauce sounded fantastic and while we were deciding my friend (who is full blooded Italian) explained to me what it was.  So that's what I ordered.

Apparently, even my friend who grew up in New Haven's "Little Italy" had no idea of the horror that awaited me.

The waiter brings out a bowl, spoon, small fork and cracker to crack claws.  I looked at the waiter and asked if I was going to be served a whole lobster with pasta on the side or something.. he gave me the quizzical dog look and walked away.   My friend thought that maybe it was just the claws or something... so not to worry all is going to be fine.

So a little while later....   this arrives in front of me....

Okay I wasn't expecting this at all!  so i pick through it a bit and see the green guts or whatever it is that is inside the lobster (my friend called it the tomalley pronounced tomale) and I thought I would hurl (had to be because it was green and apparently it's just fat not guts.. but it's.... green).   I did eat some of the meat but really it was just too freaky for me to stomach.

The Antenna are what killed my appetite. Even my friend was taken back by it and was pretty grossed out and considering some of the stuff she grew up seeing cooked.... that's saying something.

So the waiter asked if everything was okay....  I told him that I wasn't expecting that and it was  a bit troublesome for me to eat...    he said in his heavy Italian accent.... "If I had said 'lobster meat with sauce" the lobster would have been in the sauce..."  (I guess since he said lobster with pasta and sauce he meant the pasta and sauce is in the lobster.)

So lesson learned....    do not order off menu specials if you can't understand what the waiter is really saying....     or....    ask a lot of questions first.

I find this troubling because some day I will go to Italy.....    oye....   I better start learning some Italian.

If I get through the night without nightmares of lobsters chasing after me or jumping off my plate to sing the blues to me.... I will be amazed.

This has been a blogpost from Belle, live from New Haven CT.

Tomorrow I will be going to New York City for the first time....    I can't wait!!   Hoping to see my nephew tomorrow who lives in Brooklyn.

Belle.