Archive for July, 2011

The Twenty Ninth of July, Two Thousand and Eleven (part 1, not sure why the pics are so small)

Posted in Daily Pictures on July 29, 2011 by Verge

I went out to do some shopping for our vacation that starts on Sunday on my lunch break today. Found this. While I don't need this at all, because I already have a healthy supply of Solo cups and ping-pong balls, I challenge you to guess where this was an appropriate item...

wrong! Sports Authority. I went there to get binoculars, and was stunned to suddenly realize that apparently every Saturday night for the last 20 years or so, while drinking myself into a blackout, I've actually been a real, live athlete!! Olympic gold here I come.

my backup sport...Washers! that's right, it now officially qualifies as a sport, you know, because it's sold in a sports store.

and in case I'm bored in Olympic Village, I can start an international scandal by shooting these ridiculously real looking guns at the Canadians for fun.

seriously, though, if they really cared about making pellet guns truly safe, wouldn't they make the ENTIRE THING out of bright orange plastic instead of just the tip?

And this is the reason that Borders is going out of business. To fuck with crying that the Kindle and Amazon and audio books killed them. They're on blowout mode, right? So I go to get the new Death Cab For Cutie album, and I know it's gonna be expensive, but I figure it'll be on sale. Well, my entire life, I've never, ever, ever paid $18.99 for a CD. But good news, after tax and the huge 30% discount, my cost is only a mere 15 bucks, a price I have also never paid for a regular CD!

Well, maybe it's not all that bad. I mean, there's gotta be a few deals, so I looked for other albums I want, but don't need immediately, like this Owl City CD, hilariously overpriced and still ridiculous.

"yeah," I said to myself, "but they're still relatively new. What about something I want that's a few months old?" Guess what...same shit. But then, I'm thinking..."yeah, but surely they MUST have a older gems on these racks for dirt cheap..."

DEAD WRONG! One of my favorite albums of all time, ...And Justice For All, the last truly respectable Metallica album is still WAY overpriced at a ghastly $18.99. This album came out in 1989!! You've gotta' be kidding me, Borders.

but it wasn't all bad. I found a pretty good deal on this new game called "Dungeons and Dragons." Seems to be some sort of so-called "role-playing" game. With the whole Harry Potter thing going on, it has a chance of really catching on. Maybe one day it'll be as big as "Magic: The Gathering."

And I found this gem for only a mere $1.99. "Chicken Soup for the American Idol Soul." Becuase who doesn't want life lessons from Paula Abdul, Ruben Studdard and....Clay Aiken?

and for a mere $5.99, you too can have your name added to an FBI list of suspected criminals!! What a bargain...thanks Borders!!

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The Twenty Eighth of July, Two Thousand and Eleven

Posted in Daily Pictures on July 28, 2011 by Verge

the commissioner makes a speech at my place of dough

a fancy and very noir shot of a refrigerator

and also a random camera I found in my in-law's basement

and the artsy shot...

I wanted to include a shot of Schmoo’s new haircut, which is way cooler that all of these pics, but Monika’s phone would not cooperate, and she was asleep.

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The Twenty Seventh of July, Two Thousand and Eleven

Posted in Daily Pictures on July 27, 2011 by Verge

Monika and I are going on vacation next week, and we plan to do some geocaching with my droid alone. I actually bought the real app today, and gave it a try at lunchtime. It actually worked the best of all of them I've tried. This is where I found my first of three successful caches at lunch.

The NFL CBA was finally signed, all the employees are being reimbursed for their lost wages, and in celebration, our HR director ordered Mrs. Softee to stop by and give everyone in the company free ice cream. Normally I wouldn't eat ice cream because it lacks nutrition, it's not vegan, and not all that delicious to tell you the truth. But, free is free, and we all had reason to celebrate.

the other night, I aimlessly chomped down on my 15 year old tongue ring and chipped my tooth, which was fine, but a bit sensitive to the cold beer that I'll be consuming in massive quantities over the next week. Shockingly enough, this shot is an actual record of all the fillings in my mouth, which apparently is made of limestone and not enamel at all.

on the way home, I had to stop by the warehouse store, but took the long road through the new Voorhees hospital. The place is amazingly huge, and this is just one angle.

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Manchester Bridge Rock Climb

Posted in Daily Pictures, Good Times with tags , , , , on July 26, 2011 by Verge

Saturday night, my band, the Dirty Robots, played a show at the Indian Chief Tavern in Medford.  It was remarkably unspectacular, and I was actually planning on sleeping in until noon when I finally got home at nearly 3 am.

Nevertheless, and bursting with ambition, and after only 3 or so hours of sleep a piece, Monika woke me up at 6:30, demanded I get dressed in the clothes she had already picked out for me, get in the car and go to our friend Cory and Erica’s place.  In a completely un-prepared manner, and in a spontaneous moment, we were headed to Richmond, Virginia to hang out here.

This is the main wall of an old train trellis bridge.

the entire bridge is basically in ruins and has fallen into the river and along the banks.

but, someone got permission to put climbing hooks all over the walls and old standards so people could climb here.

this is looking in the other direction. Richmond is on the other bank. I'm standing under the newer car bridge, and you can see the old, abandoned one over on the left.

there, that's a better shot.

the main wall again, from the entrance to the climbing area. There is a lookout at the top of the wall that looks out over the valley. probably about 40 feet tall or so.

later, we went to try and climb one of the standards, which has slanted walls, but is still pretty difficult to climb. That girl on top was the lead climber, and she was awesome. There wasn't anything she couldn't do.

did I mention how hot it was. All of us were drenched in sweat, even those of us who didn't climb at all. Just standing made you sweat. The top of this standard, I was told, burned your hands and radiate like an oven. I wouldn't know, though.

it was pretty dry and I guess there was a drought. the river bed was exposed and you could walk all the way across the river if you were careful and found a good path.

this is about a third of the way across. we didn't go all the way, but it was damn cool anyway. we wanted to cool off in the water but it looked and smelled kinda nasty.

We had a hell of a road trip with Cory and Erica, and met some really cool people.

Afterwards, even though we were tired, and I was completely soaked, we headed to the local brewpub, a place called Legends!  I had a golden IPA, of course, but it wasn’t hoppy enough for me, but tasty nonetheless.  Then I found their Belgian Quad, which of course was the highest alcohol content on their menu.  That was indeed very tasty.

Since we left in hast that morning, my phone was not charged, and by this point, was dead.  I would have liked to grab a few more pictures, but alas, you’ll have to trust me that it was a beautiful view across the river of downtown Richmond from the back deck of Legends.

I’m not a very experienced climber at all, but a day like this one makes me want to try.  We may start going to the local climbing gym that is in these pictures to strengthen up and get more practice.

Nevertheless, we had a great day and met some very good people and dined with our new friends, got some great exercise and saw some always fascinating, Mayan-like ruins, and didn’t waste our Sunday mowing the lawn and doing laundry.  Not too bad at all.

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My facebook page, if you like that kind of a thing

Posted in New Links on July 26, 2011 by Verge

Click Here to head over to my Facebook Page

Run The Bridge 10K Donation Page

Posted in New Links with tags , on July 6, 2011 by Verge

HELP ME AND MONIKA RAISE MONEY FOR THE LARC SCHOOL IN CAMDEN BY SUPPORTING US IN 2011 RUN THE BRIDGE 10K CHALLENGE BY DONATING HERE.

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