I read this really great strip each week in a local entertainment rag. It's a real hoot..go head check it out..gogogo...now...ha.

I like insects and generally leave them alone and try not to step on them. However, the mosquito that was dancing on my front door had it's last tango as my newspaper squashed it like a, you know, bug. We'll have none of that West Nile activity in these parts! SQUITOS BEWARE you are currently insectus non gratus. Ha

i tend to speak in riddles, and getting a straight answer out of me is indeed a notable moment. while i may act a little crazy, i am actually quite lucid and tend to be the voice of reason. my sanity is in a good balance with my insanity.

I haven't posted one of these quizzy things for a while, but it's a cheap post, and pretty much on the mark...oh...Dale confided to me today that he's a connoisseur of all sugars and I witnessed someone wearing k-swiss sandals, what a horrible waste of a fine brand name!

Today my fellow adventures and I faced the Medusa and lived!!! That's all I'll say about that encounter, ask me about it next time you see me in person, luckily none of us turned to stone, but it was close. This past week sucked, everything gettin on my nerves, didn't feel like posting. However nice steak and potato grilling on friday night and saturday late night fun at Indian restaurant/nightclub for half off menu, will go back (dimmed lights, freaky people-us included, non-stop indian dance music, Bollywood videos, vindaloo chicken at #6 spicy, relentless water refills, indian ice cream etc,etc) what a great place...this week is going to suck too...so much to do....argh...

The rolling requiem site is up, detailing the project.

Bartender: "So, your new to Pittsburgh right?" "No, I'm not new at all, but I will take another Smirnoff Ice." I must look like I'm really out of my environment...haha...

Pitt vs Texas A&M at the new Heinz Field today with the relatives...first time there, very impressed. All around open and fresh look. Games at the old stadium were nothing like this...box seating, Sony jumbotron, giant tilting Heinz ketchup bottles when the home team is about to score, everything new and nice. Aggie fans everywhere...impressive performance by the Texas A&M marching band at half time, spit and polish, super dense formations, military step and hard flanks, while playing their "War Hymn" fight song..very cool..Pitt's band was also good but could recruit some more brass players. Oh yeah the game...Pitt tried hard but lost 12-14..they hard some bad calls with field goals, but the made it close. Younger nephew had fun with giant foam panther claw swatting all of us. Spent after game at the Clark Bar, elbowing with alot of really nice aggie fans, I don't know where the Pitt fans were, but they weren't there. I'd do this again.

Drinking "Thumbs Up" the Coca Cola of India in a very nice glass bottle and crunching on Laxmi Brand Coconut Chikki (brittle). The Chikki is very hard and if I'm not careful I'll break a tooth or two. Watching a relatively gentle looking large skinhead bob to and fro to the mambo music on the radio while perusing through the classic ec reprints of Vault of Horror......
End of week dinner at UG, place is bustling, young couple in front of me are showing their baby how to use a toy cell phone. I feel like grabing it (the toy cell phone of course) and throwing it across the room or stomping on it till it is no more...poor kid..I get the turkey burger well done with waffle fries, Heinz ketchup will be used mightily. A big lady setting in front of me is using her plastic straw as a toothpick and didn't finish her pierogis...two strikes. Decide to get the keylime pie instead of the deep dish apple....next time it could be the other way around...pretty stuffed...

Mozart's Requiem has been chosen by the Seattle Symphony Chorale, organizers of a unique 9/11 anniversary event. On Sept 11th starting in New Zealand at 8:46 a.m., the exact moment of the attack, choruses will begin the hour long requiem mass. The event will continue around the globe in different formats for a 24 hour period. So far 160 groups from 24 countries in twenty time zones have signed on. More information will be posted at www.rollingrequiem.org two or three days before Sept.11th.

Heard at work:
>Marshal: "Yeah yaknow, Rich has that bald head the ladies like, that's why I have this long hair, we're both different than short hair guys...it gets the chicks." "Thirtyeight years old two days ago and not one grey hair, probably from not working too much." "The chicks just run their hands through it sometimes." "Seeya...I'm getting over to Trudy's."
>Dale: "Everyone from China's cute"

Some points from today:
1) Given the chance my cat will start grooming my hair...does this mean I'm a member of the pack?
2) Some relatives of mine went bowfishing for carp today...next time I'm demanding to go...shooting fish with arrows sounds like fun
3) All you can eat pasta for dinner sometimes isn't a good idea...ugh..
4) If I see any more of these on the road I think I'll barf...hideous...
Blogger ate an afternoon laundry post I did, I hate when that happens....didn't labor as much as I wanted to today.....back at it tomorrow....

test post*

tonight: Caffeine coworker gives other a right-hook to the buttocks-pow-then spouts, "violence is fun." I grab coffee # 758 of the year and sit and wait for the bus...red headed girl keeps looking at me from behind her notebook which she is reading like a newspaper...yak with staff outside about citations, websites and preferred burial procedures. Bus shows up, I shake to it before I miss it like so many times before....set next to three giant goth chicks, each of whom could eat me up and spit me out, I behave myself and stare out into the street...get off on the s.side...walk past guitar player and two other guys who yell at me to sing with them "Lord I was born a rambling man..." song I laugh and walk past, they keep yelling for me to join them for a least half a block.
Walk into the coffee/bar place I've been hanging out the past few Saturdays...sit at bar and fire up the gin and tonics. I really don't know why I'm doing this, I don't really drink. Place is real busy and upbeat compared to previous nights, I'm not really sure if I'm into this scene right now..I ask if the tv could be put on..I'm denied..I'm a little pissed, all I wanted was the History channel on mute...I could follow the subtitles of "Modern Marvels, the Hoover Dam"...I slam down four gnt's and leave..the guys next to me are holding each other's hands like they were the last couple on earth...I not gettin the vibe tonight..ha..tip, bathroom, leave. On the way back to the bus I pass a long line of folks waiting to get Cambodian food from an outdoor vender..pass diner, see plate of hot roast beef sandwich with gravey/potatoes close to window, think about stopping in, naugh...I don't need that this time of night. "Buddy can you spare a cigarette?", "sorry can't help you I don't smoke"...wait at least 30 minutes for bus, watch the nightlife crowd walk by...bus comes and takes me close enough, stop and visit boyz who started superhero rpg before I left...they are still at it having a good time, I chew on a few of their cold pieces of pizza, leave them a few bucks and go home to sleep (after I write this of course..ha..)

"So when do we start the game?" Richard: "You mean the game between you and me, it's been going on for some time now."...Richard's so funny..haha..more later..ha.

The old man was wearing a yellow theme, beads and a yellow whistle around his neck. His tie was the best, yellow (of course) with brown and black diamonds...I should have told him he had a nice tie, but I didn't. I think the old man was crazy, but that's ok.

Dinner: venison steak, huluski (cabbage and noodles), home grown tomatoes. Life doesn't get better.

Walk by and glance at outdoor rack in front of street used book store scores a copy of I am Legend by Richard Matheson. This is the 1971 Berkley paperback that sports a painted The Omega Man movie cover. This movie was the adaptation of the book and starred Charton Heston as Dr. Robert Neville, the last man alive after an apocalyptic war waged with biological weapons. The movie is good seventies scifi with Heston shooting up alot of vampire/ghouls...looking forward to reading the book, as I have heard much about it.

While checking out a copy of Bulfinch's Mythology and yet another book about WW1, I joke with the venerable campus book store owner who then out of the blue asked me how many times I feel in love this summer...for a brief second I felt like I was asked "what was my favorite color" from Holy Grail..I sputtered, hesitated, then said..."twice"...I wasn't tossed in the air so it must have been the right answer...pause...we both laugh..I walk out..

Walking back from the gym I notice a worn ace of clubs card lying on the sidewalk. I walk by it, then turn around and pick it up and put it in my pocket. The ace of clubs isn't the ace of hearts or diamonds but I can use all the aces I can get in my hand.

I think I have had about seven gin and tonics in me so this should be good (I usually don't drink like this..lol!)....spent the evening on the historic south side, walked around a bit, started with coffee and lemon scone at tuscany, decided a burger would be good now, pass diner, walk in, it looks too slow so I walk out. Spy early seventies look Burger King, totally my scene, decide the time is right for a whopper w/cheese. BK register person can't wait for her shift to end, her machine sounds like a ticking bomb ready to explode....I get my whopper...posse of punk kids are cussing up a storm, I laugh and run the gaunlet through them...whopper actually put together well, does the trick...done...on the way out one of the punk kids asks me for a quarter, then calls me an asshole, hahalol...I decide to go back to tuscany for bar action...I begin the run of gin and tonics...really good looking guy with black hair and glasses two seats down from me is besieged an architect who won't shut up. All he does is talk about this project and these connections and those other pompous friends he has...he literally won't shut up...good looking guy never says anything...this goes on for almost two hours...I felt like doing something drastic to shut him up...good looking guy was really sharp, with a nice olive top over a good build with a particular awesome back that was facing me through this agony...I tried to get achieve some level of GLG's attention but I was too inept and the architect way too mouthy...blahblahblah...it wouldn't stop..I decided to leave.. I think GLG escaped without the architect...good for him...he deserved much better that that one sided conversational horror....