For kimberlee: My front door (to my house) 

For Dana: The Computer Area (where the magic happens) and the view from the Dining Room windows (I'm in the process of painting) 

For DeAnn: the view from the Kitchen from Hell 

Swap this caption for the last one. The backyard was for Rockchild 

For Jo: the inside of the minivan's glovebox. A veritable roller coaster of adventure. 

For Nicole: this is the front of my home, or as I like to refer to it in terms of maintenance: Castle Carfax 

Quick Note

Thanks to those who have stopped by so far and made their wishes known. I will be running around straight away and photographing like a madman.

There was that one thing about Stacy and Wes summed it up best...

I am proud to say I watched Joey. The show gelled for me this week. I was really pleased with the Super and Gina. Much more likeable and Michael aside from Joey is the best. I love how they did closure with Friend's when Joey started 'another when I left New York' story and they jumped all over him. Priceless, like the wrist ribbons and action figures (not toys!), true Joey.
The Apprentice. What is there to say. I still haven't recapped the last two. The show is falling off my radar faster than Christmas songs on the radio December 26th.
All of Thursday night is taped for me, so it has become a ritual at about one in the morning after I get home to throw on the sweats, allow either beer or wine to join me and watch Thursday night TV, sans commercials. Honestly, I've been up until 3 and 4AM dutifully plowing through this seasons Apprentice so that I'm not surprised when the loser shows up on the Today Show. But I'm sorry they're gonna have to work hard to get me back, because this week I watched until the actual task got underway, then it was FF, baby! I stopped a time or two and saw when Andy lost the phone (which I agree was a BFD, but not to the extent that they did). I didn't think Wes was going to be a good leader (ultimately proved to be true, and he is a weasel). I had to laugh out loud in the beginning when teams were chosen and they were doing one of those sidebar segments and Wes said, "Stacy can't shut up! This is incredible. I thought I talk alot! I've never known anybody like her. She won't f(sound drops out)kin' shut up!"
I watched the Boardroom, and again, when Trump was doing his final analysis of the three, it was like an edited voice over narration. I was glad to see Stacy R. go, but I don't know. It should be interesting to see Andy as Project Manager next week.

My very own class project

What started out as innocent fun has turned bummer because the blogger (Brit Blogger, that is) that I got this from originally has decided to take the off ramp from the information highway and garage her blog for good. She being Alive & Blogging.

The task is:

Think of three pictures you would like to see.
Leave whatever you'd like to see in the comments.
My house, things around my house, or whatever strikes your fancy...something that I can easily take a picture of.
Once I have enough requests, I'll start posting them.
If I can't (or won't!)take a picture of something you desperately wanted to see, I'll tell you.

OK, GO!

Check your local listings

This is so vain on my part, and I never promote myself, but unlike most actors, I love to watch me on tv, and a movie I was in (teeny weeny bit part) is on tonight on ENCORE at like 3AM. When I was stationed (Air Force) in the Philippines the stateside movie companies would cast real military personnel for the war movies (Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, etc.) as extras and small talking bit parts. I was lucky enough to get to do that a few times. I always get a hoot out of watching the ones I was in that show up on TV, because it's always like, 3AM or Sports Rainout Theater, and especially the one tonight, Opposing Force, because I had the chance to meet Tom Skerritt, (brief credits: Top Gun, Picket Fences, too many here to mention) who let me tell ya people, is a very cool guy. I've also seen the movie on the spanish channel (I never knew I knew Spanish! and I spoke it so well!).

Tonight, tonight, I'll see my love tonight...

Scrubs, YES! (well, it will be taped for me anyway).

I saw the commercials for this weeks show and I knew it was back to normal (which is still great, but still, just wacky hijinks).

Yes, it's a list (just a short one that won't kill ya)

I found this over at Nicole’s site. Give it a try.

Name THREE of your......

1. Pet Peeves: Kitchen cabinet doors left open, assholes who, while walking their dog, let said dog crap, and then leave it for someone else to clean up, empty paper towel roll (embarrassingly enough, that one frosts me the most.

2. Favorite Sounds: Rain, laughter, and, of course, laughter in the rain

3. Favorite Flavors of Candy: Reeses, coffee, sour apple

4. Biggest Fears: public speaking, stairs, shark attack

5. Biggest Challenges: Weight, being punctual, and not acting like a mouth-breathing idiot

6. Favorite Department Stores: Walmart, LL Bean’s, Bob’s

7. Most Used Words: amazing, heinous, and wicky-wicky-skrum

8. Favorite Pizza Toppings: Basil, Garlic, Tomato (on a white pizza, awesome!)

9. Favorite Cartoon Characters: The Tick (can make me cry), Simpsons (can also make me cry), Bugs Bunny (has never made me cry, but I marvel as a grownup how grownup the cartoon was, and I was truly sad when Mel Blanc died)

10. Movies Recently Watched: Working Girl, Lonesome Dove, and Soldier

11. Favorite Fruits: Bananas, oranges, grapes

12. Favorite Vegetables: Corn, Peas, Potatoes

The State of Maine

Portions of this Connecticut Yankee entry are brought to you by:

Magnolia White Port, a product of DiGrazia Vineyards

...and readers like you.

Chapter One

Did you know Maine is dark at night? I know. I know. Everywhere is dark at night, but not like this. Maine is like secret chamber in an Egyptian Pharaoh’s tomb dark, or ‘wicked daak’ as they like to say up there. I admit I’m a city kid with yearnings of living in the country, but man, Maine at night is Stephen King scary dark.
I have been to Maine a few times. As a kid my family even vacationed there once on Messalonskee Lake, which is somewhere near the middle of the deceptively large state. Maine for me conjures up the memory of hearing the loons (a medium-large bird that has a call that sounds like crazy person laughter) which was cool. I kinda remember it also as ‘woodsy’, but not to the extent it was of late.
I had a conference there a couple of weeks ago and the location of the conference was ‘about 10 miles from town’. Well sir, they weren’t kiddin’. I like to think it was a place I had never been to before that others call ‘the sticks’. I still have trouble dealing with the concept of, well, if you want anything, you have to drive ten miles, no exceptions. I know 10 miles in the big picture is no big deal (Alaska comes to mind) but it was a real surprise for cityboy. I’m not sure why this had become so problematic because I’ve lived in places with no telephones (Philippines) but it was a shocker. Maybe it has been to long since I was doing that kind of living. Cell phones did not work there. Did have a great time, though. Good partying. Discovered this port wine that I know not the name of but have devoted the rest of my life to trying to find again, however long it takes. I do regret not having packed a fishing pole, because whatever they were, trout, whatever, they were just jumpin’ out of the water.

Chapter Two

Let me preface this chapter by saying I’m not a church guy but my kids are in a couple of major church choirs so by default I show up to hear them sing but that is as far as it goes. I don’t discuss my religious beliefs because they’re well, my beliefs and I don’t impose them, I just let you go on believing whatever your heart desires and that’s fine by me. Anyway, my son is also an acolyte (I have no idea what that is but he does it with religious fervor) and this past weekend there was (of all things)an acolyte conference/gathering at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC and I agreed to chaperone so that mine and some other kids could go to the gathering.
Ha! Fools with the best laid plans of mice and men rush in...
So Friday afternoon rolls around (The church business end of this thing is to take place on Saturday morning at 10) and we figure about a 4-5 hour drive to DC and to leave about five pm to avoid rush hour traffic in New York. Armed with the minivan (full tank and fresh oil change) myself, me wife, me daughter, and three young teenagers (two girls and a boy I had never met before) load up and we’re off to the nation’s capital.
Heavy traffic right off the bat. About an hour into the journey and we have just hit New York (the next state)the young ladies begin inquiries about restrooms. I thought they were kidding. Picture three lanes of bumper to bumper traffic (your three lanes over to the left) and you’re hearing, “Can we get off at the next exit?” The ‘next exit’ being 6 miles at a rate of 13 miles per hour. The math here means you’ve got about half an hour before you can even begin to negotiate any kind of bladder recognition time. Don’t get me wrong I had just downed a 2 liter bottle of diet pepsi twist so I know from where they come but the timing was so poor. We were also heading onto one of the major bridges in New York (Tappan Zee) so it wasn’t even like in an emergency pull over and run to the side of the road. Until we made it to the Home Depot in the generic mall located west of the bridge in New York it would be ugly.
Because of the aforementioned traffic, the five hour trip turned into the ‘wow that took hours longer than we expected’ trip.
Along the way we heard the Kerry/Bush debate, which tickled the kids to no end and during our time on the Garden State Parkway (New Jersey), one of the kids and I saw a meteor come down. Not just a faint streak across the sky either. Not a man made flying machine gone amok. An honest to goodness, “holy shit, did you see that!” meteor came flaming out of the sky and it the earth off in the distance. I thought in fact we would have heard something about it because it seemed newsworthy. But we didn’t
We finally, after many rest stops, made it and during the course of our visit saw the National Cathedral, which was awesome, and sightseeingwise we took in the WWII and Viet Nam Memorials. Foodwise we wound up at this Mexican restaurant which had decent food, including a local brew called Foggy Bottom Ale. It was quite tasty and I was saddened to learn it was not available where I am available. A very cool thing also happened during dinner. The next table over from ours had six college kids partying with pitchers of drinks and eating, which in and of itself is not remarkable. What was different about it was that they were all deaf. Gallaudet University (for deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing students) is located in Washington, and as you would expect these college kids were out partying. I had someone that worked for me who was deaf and my workplace sponsored classes in sign language (which is very cool to learn). This situation was kind of like going to the country you learned the language of, and now you can see it in real life.
One other thing about this was an oddity of nature, if you will. Out and about in Washington, and I know from searching the net it is kinda rare, but, there were black squirrels. Not super dark grey, but in fact, jet black. Again, in the big picture, no big whoop, but it was just so odd.

Chapter Three

Zoot. If you, gentle reader, are a first timer here, then if you do nothing else in your life, click on the link to Zoot and be charmed. If you are already familiar with her then you know that there is no way that I can say enough. She is just so cool. I was going away and asked her to guest script for me and she endured hardship (Blogger sometimes really sucks) and stepped up to the plate and made entry’s in my absence, which I am not here to question (I did note having to pick up some girlie items left behind on the floor of the blog) as I am grateful. She is the best blogger ever and sporting a new ‘do even as we speak.

Chapter Four

Have been living a lie, sort of, of late. I haven’t been running at all. Which makes me feel so bad as I closely follow Pam’s amazing progress. She is a true inspiration and I write here right now that I am hitting the road in the AM to get back on track.

Chapter Five

Scrubs. There are shows that blend comedy and drama (dramadies) and included in that would be shows that have a penchant for many ‘inside’ jokes. St. Elswhere was famous for that. Northern Exposure was another one, and Picket Fences. They tend to have during there times powerful episodes that put them over the top and create a kind of feeling of amazement about how you were entertained or for lack of a better, less overused word, touched deep down.
I know that when Emmy time swings ‘round again, the John Ritter dedication episode should win multiple categories. I wish I had the critical expertise to dissect this episode as it should be, but I can only go with what I saw, and I’ve watched it a few times now.
The show used to be a deftly written comedy, not a dramedy until this episode. It sounds stupid to me to say it this way, but the entire cast acted just like real people do when somebody dies. JD never smiled until the end. Cox and Dan were assholes until the end, but it was obvious they were trying to be helpful, held back by there own tragic flaws. Janitor didn’t break JD’s balls. Elliot, tongue-tied (I ma the same way about death). What draws us in is Turk’s Type-II diabetes. Which as a topic is comedy death and what makes this turn the corner to become a dramedy. Because it is a real condition, and not really funny. Although Turk and JD joke about how each of their situations would steal the thunder of the other’s. The funny part being how the illness make the fictitious death more real and a way to make John Ritter come back to life at the end since it was all about him.

Chapter Six

I was gonna write recaps about the Apprentice and some other stuff but the Scrubs thing wiped me out. I’ll do something about the other things later.

Prepping for a Huge Ass Entry

Note to self about what to include in huge ass entry:

1. Trip to Maine
2. Trip to Washington, DC
3. Appreciative words about Zoot.
4. Ton of other crap I just can't remember, part of which is (not drinking, which would be excusable)my job...which is not going to be a bitchfest - I've just been busy.
5. Mention posting pictures enough times so that I actually will post pictures.
6. etcetera.

A Dose of Estrogen

Okay. It's Zoot again. I have tried to publish this entry ninety billion times today. Blogger hates me and Mr. Conneticut Yankee himself has obviously set up BOOBIEtraps to keep me from talking about girly stuff. This makes me all the more determined.

As I've said a dozen times today, I wanted to bring a little estrogen to this here blog. So? Here are the girly thoughts I've had today.

I love minted scented foot lotion. Especially the type called "soothing soles" which made my aching feet smile last night.

Watching The Mexican yesterday reminded me why Brad Pitt is the quintessential Hollywood Hotty.

It's really hard to be in a bad mood when you have purple chrome toenail polish on.

I miss hair bows. Can a grown woman wear a hair bow and still look professional? I didnt think so. *sigh*

What is with the pointy high-heel thing? I tried on several pairs this weekend to see if I could find any that looked right on me. They don't. I don't think they look right on many people, so why is everyone wearing them? Damn celebrities and their weird footwear.

Okay. Cross your manicured fingers and see if this works. I'm going to make this a girly entry if it KILLS me. See how hard I work for you Rick?

Party Time!

He's finally gone! Time to break out the dance floor and the Boone's Farm, we're having ourselves a Par-TAY!

I'm such a loser.

Oh yeah, I'm Zoot. I'll be taking over the ship for awhile while Rick is off fighting the aliens that seem to have kidnapped Pam. Hopefully we'll have them both back soon, but until then? I'll be holding down the fort at both places. All you need to know about me is I'm obsessed with Krispy Kreme donuts and Diet Vanilla Coke. The rest is all insignificant.

I watched Man on Fire with Denzel Washington today. I really didnt like it at all. Everyone else I know loved it, so I feel a little embarassed that I was actually bored by it. And I wasnt a big fan of the artistic use of subtitles either...weird.

My husband is downstairs right now yelling curse words at his football team on the television. I'm assuming that's why all 5 animals in the house are following me from room to room, they're scared of MrZ and his mean voice.

I'm kinda scared of it too, now that I think about it.

So - that's what's going on in my neck of the woods (Wait! I just heard a "Yes! Yes! Yes!" come from downstairs, something good must have happened!). How is your Saturday going?

What'd She Say?...

I've got a good feeling about Joey. He still delivers. I don't know if the lawyer/super is gonna make it, but she showed promise. The nephew is excellent. Some laugh out loud stuff there.

On a more personal note, I'm heading to the great state of Maine for a conference (coincidentally, Peak leaf color change time) and Zoot has graciously agreed to blogsit the log cabin whilst I'm away.

Many thanks Zoot!