My new niece was born yesterday evening… I don’t have many details, but I know she’s doing well (as is my sister) and I think her name is Alexandra.  🙂

Happy Birthday Allie!

It’s hot now.  And humid.  And I know it was just very recently that I was complaining that it was cold here, and so dry.  But that’s the way things go in St. Louis.  I think we had our ~2 weeks of nice spring weather, but it’s hard to notice them when they are interspersed with weird cold rainy days.  I enjoyed a few "Seattle" type days in the past couple of weeks, but now we’ve entered summer with a vengance and it’s time to start moaning about the heat and the humidity.

Supposed to be 90F today.  50% humidity all day, then it increases to ~75% overnight.  And there are T-storms predicted.  Which means that any local TV shows that I have recording tonight will be interrupted by the weather woman telling eveyone that it’s raining – with some thunder even – and they probably shouldn’t venture outside lest they get wet, or scared, or hit by lightning.  They do this every time there’s a thunderstorm and I don’t see what difference it makes.  Tornadoes, sure.  Hurricanes, sure.  I can see how warning and things might help.  But c’mon people, it’s a thunderstorm.  And I want to watch American Idol or Alias or House or whatever in peace.

As I have discussed before (I think), Jill2 and I had the crazy idea of watching all the Buffy episodes (seasons 1-7) in order.  Well, that stroke of genius occurred back in the early days of 2003… and here we are in Aril 2005 and we’re done.  Just like that, no big hoopla or shebang… just another Buffy night that happened to be the last.  It was fun while it lasted.

Of course, we have no intention of abandoning our weekly get togethers, and we’re lanning to move on to Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes. 🙂  We definitely won’t have time to get through all of them before graduation, but whatever we do get through will be fun!  And since "Star Trek The Next Generation Nights" is just way too long to say regularly, we’ll still be calling out little soirees "Buffy Nights".

So I admit that with the evolution of the PVR (personal video recorder) I have gone a little – or totally – hog wild on my TV watching.  The PVR just makes it so easy to search for and record anything that might strike my fancy.  I started with just recording my "must-see" shows… but now I’ve gone down the path of recording so much more.  Here is a sample week for my trusty PVR:

So – I think that’s about it for a week. 🙂  I must say it is nice to be able to skip commercials and to always have something to watch when I want to veg out for a few minutes or before I fall asleep at night.  There were even some other shows that I wanted to watch this season – but (believe it or not) even with 2 PVRs I still get some conflicting time slots – which all in all is not really a bad thing.  I really don’t need MORE television in my life.

Here I am holding a Koala!

Sci-Fi is cool.  The Sci-Fi channel on TV is probably my favorite channel ever – Star Trek, Sliders, Battlestar Galactica, Stargate, Roswell – these are great shows and the Sci-Fi channel has them all.  I love that I love sci-fi and that AJ loves sci-fi too.  Because that could really be a deal-breaker for some people.  You know, things are going along fine and then she finds out that you’re a trekkie… or you’ve had a nice couple of dates and then he notices your extensive collection of Buffy the Vampire Slayer DVDs.  Those kinds of things could send people running for the hills.

I remember when Jill2 and I realized we had a love of Buffy in common.  Since it is not something I often bring up as small talk, Jill2 didn’t know anything about my DVDs or my traditional "Buffy Nights" back in Seattle.  But when she (and some other friends) came over one night for dinner and a movie, she saw my DVDs.  From there it was only a "Do you like Buffy?" "Yeah, do you?" "Yeah" before we had decided to watch all of the episodes (all 7 seasons of them) in order.  That was almost 2 years ago and we have about 10 episodes left until the series finale.  🙂  Then we’ve decided to start with Star Trek: The Next Generation.  There is no way we’ll get anywhere close to done with all of those shows, but it’ll be fun to see how far we can get.

So I visited the new nearby Starbucks for the second time this past weekend and had an entertaining exchange with the barista.  It went a little something like this:

Him: What can I get started for you today?
Me: I’d like a grande hot chocolate, no whip, and a…
Him: (interrupting) No whip?
Me: No whip.
Him: You mean, like, no whipped cream?
Me: Right, no whipped cream.
Him: Okay, so a grande hot chocolate, no whipped cream.  That’ll be…
Me: (interrupting) I’d also like a grande vanilla steamer, free pour.
Him: Vanilla steamer?
Me: Yes, a vanilla steamed milk.
Him: You mean like a latte?
Me: No, a steamed milk with vanilla in it.
Him: That’s a latte, that’s how we make lattes.
Me: But I don’t want any coffee in it!  Just  steamed milk with vanilla flavoring.  Free pour please.
Him: Free pour?
(enter the manager lady who seems to better understand the intricacies of drink making)
Her: (to him) Free pour.  It means… nevermind. (to me) So you want extra foam, then?
Me: Yes, please.
Her: Okay, so a grande hot chocolate, no whip and a grande vanilla steamer, free pour.
Me: (with relief) Yes, thanks.

Click here to see my Bungy Jump Video

Here I am bowling at the Moolah Lanes!  AJ, Jill2, and I wanted to check out this new little bowling alley in the neighborhood.  This is the place that also has the new movie theatre upstairs – the one with leather seating covering most of the floor.  It’s a nice little place and we had a great time bowling, then gabbing about nothing in particular.

So this is a story all about how my life got flip turned upside-down, and I’d like to take a minute, just sit right there, to tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel-Air.

In west Philadelphia born and raised, on the playground is where I spent most of my days.  Chillin’ out, maxin’, relaxin’ all cool and all shootin’ some b-ball outside of the school, when a couple of guys that were up to no good started makin’ trouble in my neighborhood.  I got in one little fight and my mom got scared, she said "You’re movin’ with your auntie and uncle in Bel-Air."

I whistled for a cab and when it came near the license plate said "Fresh" and it had dice in the mirror.  If anything I could say this cab was rare, but I thought "Man forget it. Yo home to Bel-Air!"

I pulled up to a house about seven or eight and I yelled to the cabby "Yo holmes, smell you later!"  I looked at my kingdom, I was finally there, to sit on my throne as the Prince of Bel-Air.

That’s for you Heather.. 🙂  Do you still remember the words?