manicdote

Happy Saturday, folks. I feel compelled to write a quick post because I haven’t posted very much this week. See, they found a small tumor in my mouth and it was removed on Thursday morning. I’ve been pretty much completely stressing out about it since I found out and I won’t have the results of the biopsy back until Monday, June 16th. So, everyone please keep me in your thoughts/prayers. Right now I’m pretty high on pain pills and I’ve got a ragged hole in the roof of my mouth…it was “cauterized” closed, so no stitches to remove later, which is nice. However Terry tells me he can see the roots of some of my teeth on the inside…kinda freaky, huh? No, I will spare you those pictures. My mouth was even charred black in a few places where they’d burned it (on purpose). Most of the char is gone now, which, the surgery nurses assured me is normal.

Right now Terry is nursing me back to health with soup, cream of wheat, and lots of ice cream.

I’ve never smoked a day in my life so the chances of it being malignant are pretty slim, but obviously I’m frightened. Also, we’ve got a two week trip to Disneyworld (planned & paid for) in less than a month, so I really hope this gaping hole in my mouth is healed up.

Hugs to all. Will try and post more tomorrow…definatly some cute pug pictures to come. Please pray for me and keep me in your thoughts.

Picture this. Hot Saturday afternoon, driving home from the vet’s office. We had taken Ruki in for her latest set of shots and to get her heartworm pills. She got a perfect bill of health and was announced to be in perfect health with a glossy black coat and a sunny disposition. The vet just fell in love with her. She is adorable and only 9 lbs at six months old. She probally won’t get too much bigger.

Well, we were driving home from this appointment, and little Ruki was sitting in Terry’s lap as my car currently doesn’t have air conditioning and we thought it would be cooler for her up in the front seat than in the back of my Honda Element in her crate.

Aparently they do this thing out here in Alabama where they randomly block off roads and check to make sure everyone has a current license/registration/insurance. And my insurance card is currently expired. (Long story, I won’t go into it. I have insurance, I just haven’t put the new card in my glove box). Well I could tell the cop was getting ready to write us up for a ticket when he caught sight of Rukia sitting in Terry’s lap.

He was instantly charmed, reached over to scratch her and then told us to just to remember to put the current one in the car, and let us go with a verbal warning. Hooray!

So we didn’t flirt our way out of a ticket…we pugged our way out of a ticket. Thusly, I have dubbed her my good luck charm.

In this day and age everything is about cross promotion in the gaming world. Sometimes that means ads, other times it means combining two properties. You see it all the time. Star Wars Transformers, Lego Indiana Jones, and of course all the different versions of Monopoly (Simpson’s, Marvel,  & etc.). Since music and rhythm games are all the rage these days I present to you the next gaming hit:

* Combine your love of Rockband and your love of Star Wars all in one game.

* Take on the Galaxy Tour as your favorite rocked out Star Wars Character! Including: Hard Rockin’ Han, Luke Drumbanger, ElectroniLeia, Darth Axegrinder, Vocalizing Vader, R&B2D2, C3PrOdigy, Chewrocka, and many more!

* Play though Carrear Mode as you choose…take the Light Side path by pleasing the fans or the Dark Side path to quick success by pleasing the suits. The choice is yours!

* Expericence the greatest track list in the galaxy, Star Wars Style, including:

I Kissed A Wookiee (Katy Perry)                     Love in this Cantina (Usher)          

Island in the Cloud (Weezer)                         Smack My Bith Up (Prodigy)

The Real Slim Solo (Eminem)                         Like a Floating Stone (Rolling Stones) 

Drops of Tatooine (Train)                             Werewolves of Dagobah (Warren Zevon)  

Womp Rat Scratch Fever (Ted Nugent)          Touch My Tauntaun (Mariah Carey)

Wookiee Wrench (Foo Fighters)                     Fight For Your Right to Jedi (Beastie Boys)

Shock the Ewok (Peter Gabriel)                     Dewbacks in the Cradle (Harry Chapin)

Blitzkrieg Bantha (The Ramons)                    Rockin The Outer Rim (Ben Folds)

Tom Solo (Rush)                                           Everything I Do, I Do It For Yoda (Bryan Adams)

Back In The Falcon Again (Aerosmith)          Born in the Old Republic (Bruce Springsteen)

Video Killed the Nerf Hearder (Buggles)       She Blinded Me With Carbonite (Thomas Dolby)

Pour Some Spice On Me (Def Leppard)         No Sleep Till Dantooine (Beastie Boys)

Don’t Fear The Rancor (Blue Oyster Cult)     Dancing in the Darkside (Bruce Springsteen)

Working Han (Rush)                                     Orange County Gammorean (Gwen Steafani)

Come On Feel The Force (Quiet Riot)           Naboo Dreaming (The Mamas and the Papas)

Death Stick Blues (Johnny Cash)                  Pretty Fly, For A Jedi (The Offspring) 

Sweet Home Alderaan (Lynard Skynard)       The Boys Are Back In Bespin (Thin Lizzy)

Paranoid Protocol Droid (Radiohead)           Hold On My Throat (Phil Collins, Darth Vader)

Hello land dwelling miscreants. I am Prince Namor of Atlantis. NO! Not Atlanta you moron! That would be Ted Turner and I shall not begin about his assbaggery here. I am also known to you as Namor the First, the Avenging Son, Imperius Rex, the Sub-Mariner. What I shall say to you shall be short and sweet. I want to be your president. I am the Atlantian for the job. I have ruled my undersea kingdom for years and I can do the same for your pitiful masses. I could go on but my accomplishments speak for themselves.

- World War II Veteran

-Attacked America numerous times

-Son of a highly respected Sea Captain Leonard McKenzie

-Most likely not a skrull…maybe.

-The First Mutant…and the last!

-Pro Green Hulk / Anti Red Hulk

-Vulnerable to oxygen imbalance in my blood that trigger manic-depressive mood swings which make me an unpredictable leader and thus leave our enemies in constant confusion.

-I can fly.

-Nailed Sue Richards like a hammer…if you know what I mean.

-STILL knows that Spider-Man is Peter Parker.

-I have personally been to the DC Universe, kicked Aquaman’s ass, and slapped the one they call “Super”man like he was an unloved child.

-Member of the secret Illuminati. I know I should probably not tell you that but you see I am far more intelligent than you so you probably don’t even know what that means.

-Pinball Wizard.

-Personal friend AND enemy of Doctor Victor Von Doom!

 -Plus I already have the perfect running mate. . .

I recently decided to take the plunge and get a PS3. I held out for a long time, not because of any grand idea of loyalty to Xbox 360 but due to issues over price, game library, and the format war between Blu-Ray and HD DVD. The trifecta of issues prevented me from being able to justify the purchase but now they are no longer an issue.

 The format war ended recently when Toshiba announced they were no longer going to be in the HD DVD market. To those of you who are not into that sort of thing imagine how they had VHS vs. BETA back in the VCR heyday. At any rate the Blu-Ray format won the war and PS3’s actually are the most affordable Blu-Ray player available. I also have a really nice HDTV now so I figured it was time to accentuate it.

The cost of the PS3 has come down quite a bit since it was launched. When it first came out the system ran for upwards of about $600. Now you can get one for $400, which is quite a big deal to me. Granted, now you get a smaller hard drive (storage space) but that can be upgraded and I doubt I will use up 40 gigs anytime soon.

The last issue baring me from getting a PS3 was the redundancy of the games. Most games come out on both PS3 and Xbox 360. This is because there are mainly three types of game developers, First Party, Second Party, and Third Party. First Party Developers are owned by the respective console company.  An example of this would be Bungie being owned by Microsoft up until recently. Next, there are Second party developers which are separate from any console company but, either via contract or partial ownership, only make games for one console. Insomniac Games, who choose to make games only for Playstation, are an example of Second Party Developers. Finally there are Third Party developers. Third Party Deveopers are their own entity and can and do make games for multiple systems. Capcom, Konami, and Electronic Arts being the most well known. They frequently release the same game on both PS3 and Xbox 360.

The problem I had was that it took quite a bit of time for the PS3 to build a library of titles that are unique to it that I actually wanted to play. The big deal maker in the end though was Metal Gear Soild 4: Guns of the Patiriots. I have long been a huge Metal Gear fan. It, combined with great games like Uncharted: Drakes’ Fortune, Resistance: Fall of Man and its upcoming sequal, and Rachet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, made me feel ok about getting it.

      

All in all I am really happy with it. I love the way that internet connectivity is wireless out of the box, though at this time the online options are not as integrated as Xbox 360 though they are working on it. My only real compaint is that the Playstation store just does not have enough cool stuff to get. That and I would love to see a Next-Gen version of the Sly Cooper series.

Well, over the weekend (May 25th) - I had my birthday. And the few days preeceding it were spent in a frenzy of cleaning up the house for my father’s arrival…and I’m not sure if they were even here 24 hours and certainly only spent maybe 10 minutes at the house. *sigh* Isn’t that always the way it goes?

Nevertheless, I had an awesome, wonderful time on my birthday. And I got tons of birthday loot. First of all, my Mom sent me those gorgeous flours and balloons that were delivered on Saturday. (Pictures posted on that day from my cell phone). Cool! Flowers always make you feel special, don’t you?

And that day Terry gave me two early birthday gifts…some cookbooks that he’d got for me because he knows how much I love to cook and how much I love reading cookbooks. I got a really cool cookbook from Top Chef, and then I got Jamie Oliver’s new coobook called, COOK with Jamie. It’s really, really great. While a lot of what he cooks isn’t exactly to my liking, I really love a lot of what he talks about. A lot of what he’s saying makes sense and I love his sensibility of cooking. It’s really a gorgeous book and I love reading it and drooling over the photos.

I also got a wonderful gift certificate from Amazon.com from my Mom. I’m still trying to figure out how I want to spend it. I know I’m DEFINATLY getting a gorillapod. Those are wicked cool! And maybe one of Rachel Ray’s garbage bowls? I’ve been really wanting one of those. Or possibly a cutting board? The possibilities are endless! Endless, I say!

And without further ado, here are a few pictures taken this weekend with my brand NEW camera. That was my ACTUAL gift from Terry. Given to me with breakfast over coffee on my birthday morning. Is there any better way to wake up than freshly ground coffee, electronics and your man in boxers? (Mom/Dad, cover your eyes at that point!)

Poley, my first subject:

Ruki, who sat oddly patient while I fiddled with the settings. The photo is a little bright…but look at that CLARITY! I’m so impressed with this camera!

The pugs being impatient and wanting out of their crate. Immediately after this photo was snapped they were ordered “off” (to get down off the crate walls) and to “sit”. They’re not allowed up on the sides like that (even though the LOVE to do it). We’re trying to break them of the habit, but I thought I’d include a photo of what we usually see all the time instead of a beautified version of reality. And ignore the poop in the background of the shot in the litterbox. Reality is beautiful, damnit!

I love, love, LOVE this shot. Ruki is constantly doing this. When not asleep, she is usually walking around on her hind legs. Seriously. I need to get her on Letterman. She’s pretty talented! (Eek! Isn’t it adorable, too?!)

After my family showed up on Sunday, May 25th, we went off to dinner at Mikata (Japanese Steakhouse) which was a lot of fun. There were 6 of us (always fun with a party) and a lot of people had never been to a place like that so that’s always cool…I hate going out with jaded cynics! And I’m such a goof! I totally forgot to take photos while we were there. Ugh! Anyways, later that night we had a great time hanging out at their hotel drinking beer/wine (and rootbeer for me). We also had a red velvet cake with all 31 candels and after nearly burning the place down we enjoyed a few slices. It was a great night.

The next morning we met up at a local Cracker Barrel restaurant for breakfast. We had a leisurely breakfast then afterwards we sat out on the front porch and chatted while rocking on the rocking chairs that they have for sale outfront. It was fun! Here are a few pictures from that time.

Me, my awesome father (recovered from his surgery! Thank-you for your prayers!) and Terry:

Here’s my cool Uncle Syd, my Dad and Terry. The men in my life. Well, except Poley, but I guess he doens’t count…?

Here’s a little bit of T & A for your day. Contain yourself.

I also finally got back to scrapbooking…created this last night. Fun!

If you can’t tell by the title that I loved the new Indy movie then there is no help for you. Go on! Get now! Go read some article about pink sissy socks or something because we have offical man bussiness to talk about. This movie was like becoming twelve years old all over again and anyone who says it sucks is falt out stupid, wrong, and probably a douche.

Communists being devoured by ants             ü

Nuclear Explosions                                       ü

Swordfights on moving jeeps                        ü

Indy using a rocket launcher                         ü

Indy and Marion bickering like dogs               ü

Secret Warehouse                                        ü

Jock vs. Greaser action                                 ü

Indy crying like a girl because of snakes         ü

Indy vs. Skull staring contest                         ü

Shia vs. Cate Blachet WWE Style                    ü

Monkeys!!!                                                   ü

FBI AGENT: Janitor (Scrubs)                          ü

Ark of the Covenant                                      ü

Brain Melting                                                ü

There you go, proof positive that this will be THE movie of the summer now and forever. The man with the hat is back!

Normally there isn’t much traffic at all when I come home - but today there was some sort of accident/gas spill and it completely clogged up our highway. This part here of my commute normally takes me 20 minutes - instead it took 2 hours. Crazy, huh? I thought I’d left traffic like this behind when I moved out to Alabama from Los Angeles.

It’s my birthday today! I’m 31 years gorgeous. Wish me a happy birthday! I’ll post pictures of my birthday loot with my new camera (shh…a little birdie told me I’ll be getting a new Sony!).