More KY

Back in glorious Lexington, KY -- overnighting it before the final jaunt to Chicago tomorrow. Plenty to blog about about the trip, but I'll do so later. The boys had a blast. I enjoyed the time away, although am looking forward to being home, despite the attendant issues I face there.

Mountain Man

I'm dropping a quick line from the mountains of North Carolina. Beautiful countryside, although it rained (hard) nearly all today. There are flying squirrels and such. The boys are having a blast, are really enjoying themselves. I'm chilling out.

There are lots of little things to report, but I'll do that later, since there are a ton of people around.

KY

Here I am in Lexington, KY -- a little more than half the way to the destination in NC. Love that the hotel has computers and Net access! There's not much in Lexington beyond distilleries, it would seem. Still, I'm amused! So far, so good -- great weather, cruised through the wasteland of Indiana and through Louisville to light here. Sunny, big, puffy clouds. The boys are having a blast. I'm going to take'em swimming later (we got some dinner earlier).

Tomorrow morning, the rest of the trek, then the World Cup final and seeing my fams!

And awayyyy I go...

I'm off! The boys and me, to North Carolina!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ2Da2ozCKc

Tiki Taka

Get ready for Spain to put the Tiki Taka hurt on Holland Sunday! And savor the grooooooove.

I'm getting up early tomorrow and leaving for my trip to North Carolina. If I've got any computer access where I'm headed, I'll blog and share my adventures. Otherwise, you'll just have to wait.

I'm bringing some Faulkner and Flannery O'C to read, have some notebooks to longhand a short story, and am otherwise gonna just chill out and enjoy the trip. I'm driving a bright red Chevy Impala. VRROOOOOOOM! Lotsa room, lotsa power (need the power for the mountains I'm gonna be driving over.

I love mountains. The Appalachians are some of the world's oldest mountains. I love that, too.

Mini-Mad Men Me

Mad Men had their avatar-creator/viral marketer out again, with new toys. So, here's an updated "Mad Men" me...

I don't really have a five o'clock shadow, but I do tend to get stubbly, so I'm being fairly true to life, there.

Road Trippin'

On the eve of leaving on a weeklong trip down South, so if I'm quiet, it may be because I don't have computer access down there (although I might; we'll see). Anyway, I'll be back on the 18th.

To prep for it, I bought some road trip funsies (from Target!) for the boys -- a couple of toy cars for B2, some Iron Man activity books (tee hee!), some crayons, a Rubik's Sphere thingie for B1 (imagine concentric transparent spheres you twirl about to solve -- he should enjoy it), a couple of lil' Energizer flashlightsabers I'll decant the first night we reach North Carolina (where we're headed, incidentally), and so on. They travel really well, so it should be alright. I'm traveling nearly 700 miles, broken up into two approximately 5-hour legs, although we'll see if it shakes out that way. I'm most concerned about getting to the destination on Sunday in time to catch the World Cup final! After seeing so many matches, I can't miss the final one!

One thing I got at Target was a 2GB memory card for my old digital camera. *DROOL* Now I've got a nearly 1400-image capacity on my camera, which is a far cry greater than the 187-image capacity from my old 256MB card I used to us. 1400 images? I'm fucking SET!

So, Exene went to the latest specialist, who didn't seem too off-put by whatever's going on with her -- he seemed to think that she had gotten some kind of infection, and her immune system went haywire in its effort to go after it (that's his theory, anyway), and much of what she was experiencing was simply the aftereffects of an immune system run amok. He put her on a different steroid to address that, to, in his view, get her immune system to chill out and find its baseline again. We'll see if he's right.

She apparently was much better yesterday than the day before, as she went out with some of her McFriends for most of the day, once she was done with the doctor visits; she made it out like she'd been doing the doctor stuff all day, but that appointment was at 10 a.m., and when I got home yesterday (around 4:30 p.m.) she was only just getting home, and let something slip about going to lunch with her "friends," who'd taken her out someplace to celebrate her getting a job. Yeah, yeah. Always on somebody else's nickel, that one is. Always.

I pick up the rental car after work today, although I don't leave until tomorrow morning. I just wanted to have all of that sorted out ahead of time. The cable people are supposed to fix the line today, so hopefully that'll be up and I won't be incommunicado again tonight, which sucks. Hate not having my Internets and Cable!

Staggering

Exene's going to the rheumo today; her ankles are more swollen than ever, and her hips were hurting her so badly yesterday that she could barely walk. It was excruciating to see that. I mean, we're going our separate ways, but I still don't want to see suffering like that. For somebody as active as she is, to be hobbled by this whatever-it-is (and, again, I suspect some kind of auto-immune reaction gone haywire, although nobody's giving clear answers), it has to be really frustrating for her. And painful, as she said it really hurt.

Cutting the cord

Our cable was cut yesterday -- I meant literally cut. Everything was dead and I went to look into it and saw that the actual cable line was cut. Some psycho had done it to our unit, and two others. No idea why -- crazy is as crazy does, right? But after seeing that there was no Net or cable television last night, what I thought was a possible network outage turned out to be some nutball actually severed three cable lines. I can't imagine it being an incompetent and/or cross-eyed cable guy doing it, as they don't need to physically sever the lines to halt service. And I'm all paid up, so it's not that. Anyway, what the fuck? So, they're supposed to get that up and running Friday.

Viva Espania!

Wow! Spain did it! They beat Germany 1 - 0. And not even by out-powering the young German powerhouse, but simply by outplaying them -- they denied Germany the ball, used possession and masterful midfield passing play to pull Germany's fangs.

Spain is heading to the World Cup final against Holland! Yay! The young German team will play for third place Saturday against Uruguay, and will surely be a threat in the next World Cup. They're amazingly good.

But Spain is advancing! I'm so happy for them!

Heat Wave

I can't understand why the tenants at the condo building next door don't use the pool they have. There's this nice pool that's cordoned off from the rest of the world (I can only see it because our building overlooks it across the way), and almost nobody ever swims in the pool. Plenty of sunbathers, but almost nobody swimming in it. Especially on these super-hot summer days! If I lived in that condo, was paying all the assessments for everything, I'd be in that pool every day it was open, just to get my money's worth. You got it, use it.

So, the doctors still aren't sure what's the deal with Exene -- several symptoms she thought were tied to the antibiotic she was on were ruled out by the ENT, who said nobody had ever shown those symptoms (in this case, a rash and/or extreme sun-sensitivity -- looks like a pox! Also, swollen joints. She's also had thrush the past week or so -- that could be tied to the antibiotic). Anyway, the doctor said Exene's "a puzzle" -- she wasn't sure what was going on, and recommended that Exene see another specialist, so she's got another appointment on Thursday, this time with a rheumatologist. I'm still thinking it's some kind of auto-immune disorder like lupus, or else, I dunno, cutaneous lymphoma? We'll see what the latest specialist says. But it definitely bugged Exene for the doctor to characterize her ailment as a "puzzle" -- she really wanted some kind of definitive say about what's wrong, and that wasn't forthcoming.

I stayed home sick today, still rebounding from the stomach flu. I'm way better now than I was this morning (or yesterday or the day before). Kinda glad to have gotten it out of the way before the big trip this weekend, when I take the boys to North Carolina to visit my family. Although B2 hasn't seemed to catch it, yet (and I hope he doesn't), at least I know B1 and I already had it. I'll bring stuff for the trip, just in case!

Uruguay put up a tough fight in the semifinal with Holland (2 - 3). I was surprised how fiercely they'd competed. It was a good match, although it should pale before the match tomorrow, between Germany and Spain. That should rock -- two competing styles: Germany's  calculated saber cuts versus Spain's rapier-like perfection. We'll see how it goes.

The one weakness I see for Spain is an excessive reliance on David Villa, their superstar striker (and he is amazingly good). They tend to pivot their offense on him, which is a lot to demand of one man against that German team (who manage a multi-pronged assault that is dazzlingly dynamic). Hopefully Spain will kick it into high gear and stop the German machine, but they have their work cut out for them, because this German team KILLS! It should be a fantastic match, and I'm looking forward to it.

This-and-that

Still somewhat sick from the stomach flu; B1 soldiered right through it straightaway; I'm getting there. Lost two pounds in about 12 hours. Hah!

Today is the Uruguay v. Holland World Cup match. Holland should smoke Uruguay. We'll see. I'm thinking tomorrow's Spain v. Germany will be the real highlight of the World Cup, although whoever wins that playing Holland should be great, too.

In today's NYT... Need a Job? Ask the NY Philharmonic.

Next season the New York Philharmonic will have a rare 12 openings, or roughly 12 percent of its instrumental work force, thanks to a confluence of retirements, departures for better jobs and long-unfilled positions. The Boston Symphony Orchestra has 10 vacancies, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra 9, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic 7.

Elsewhere the Cleveland Orchestra has four full-time job openings and one part-time. The Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, San Francisco Symphony and Dallas Symphony each have three openings.

“We haven’t had this many for quite a while, not for 20 years,” said Carl R. Schiebler, the New York Philharmonic’s personnel director and its maestro of musician management. “A lot is six or seven.” 

I have the misfortune of working in a profession where people don't realize the value of the work that I do -- as I've said in the past (maybe not here), but editors, if they do their work well, are largely invisible. Only bad editing really stands out; if an editor does their job well, you don't even realize they're there. That's making the job search rather challenging, and even if/when I find something, the odds of it paying incredibly well will be remote. Not like it's my main objective, mind you, but it's still something I have to consider. It's why I'm looking into Technical Writing as a way of moving into something that uses my editing experience in a way that's actually valued.

Muddied

Notice anything amiss on this "Zombieland" DVD case?

I'll tell you: there's mud on Love Interest's(tm) chainsaw. Mud? Not blood?? WTF? You're in a supposed zombie apocalypse, your chainsaw should be bloody, not muddy. One of many complaints I have about that movie -- like its faux edge and romantic comedy core. Weak. Lame. MUD.