Seven 50's

These gorgeous women are some of my very best friends in the world.


A most amazing thing about these seven women is that each year for the next seven years one of us will turn 50.

We have spent many an evening... over cocktails and snacks... dreaming about what each of us may want on our special day. There are trips to Paris and Italy... my adventurous wife wants to safari, the sky is the limit.

This woman - this adorable, funny, incredibly creative (and single ...yes gals, she's available) beautiful woman - is jumping the half century mark today.


We kicked off our seven year adventure in style.


You'll notice the birthday girl is not in that picture.
That's because she had NO idea.
Until we went to pick her up.


We have Veuve.. of course.






The limo whisked us to Broadway for a matinee.

And as if that wasn't enough - once we got back home there was a colossal surprise party waiting. I have no pictures of that ...because please... people - we started drinking Veuve at 11.

Luckily all the excitement didn't kill the ole broad.


Happy Birthday Sue!!

Friday

tip-o-day

Welp, its close to 70° here in CT today. So of course my mind is wandering to....
yup - you guessed it Spring Cleaning! (ok ok... I will admit to some wandering lustful day dreaming to bikinied, taut women on sun bathed Provincetown beaches, playing in the water or running gracefully.... oops )

Right...then...anyway.. yes.
Spring Cleaning.

Don't feel overwhelmed by the thoughts of spring cleaning. Remember not to think of it as a meaningless chore. It's about clearing the stuffy, stagnant winter energy out of your home and making room for freshly smelling, good energy.
Granted it can be a big task - so instead of trying to block out an entire weekend to get it done - try doing one or two rooms a week. You will feel a grand sense of accomplishment without spending an entire day with the vacuum and mop.

So select your room and give a good top to bottom. Remember to dust the picture frames (and clean the glass), dust all the moldings, including around the baseboards, move each peice of furniture and clean underneath - and don't forget to give the walls a quick wipe down.

One thing I don't advise is doing the windows yet... so save some energy for your favorite cocktail and enjoy a tourney game.

It's in the driveway

I originally planned to make you all read my long and drawn out requirements process and it's eventual conclusion before revealing my final selection.

But I am feeling generous today.


I went with the Civic.

This car handily met my requirements by having the highest MPG (save the hybrid genre... but we'll get to that later), being affordable, easily holding the best resale value, with winning reliability.
As a bonus I also have an Ipod connection in my center console and a handy cup holder.
I did forgo the heated seats and remote start. This was in the best interest of meeting my second most important requirement, affordability.
I am ok with this because I know my svelte wife's seat will be toasty, as she is going to start driving the Cabrio. Heated seats are oh so important when taking the top down a little too early in the season.



Several of you suggested Hybrids.
Thank you.
But no.
The increased cost of a hybrid amortized out over several years still well exceeds any savings seen by using less gas.
Not to mention - you may have missed the subtleties of my first point which implied much highway driving. This means that a hybrid would be running mostly on gas anyway. The other problem I have with them is all those batteries overflowing landfills in 5 years. So as far as an environmentally sound mode of transportation - I am going to hold out until they think of something better.

I also notice that many models suggested well exceeded the price of the Civic. I could have gotten the Nav/Bluetooth system as well as leather for less than some of the cars suggested.

Plus... its cute. At least on my cuteness scale. Which of course the only scale I go by.

My ride into work this morning was sublime.

The Requirements

Since you all have advice on my new car selection - perhaps reviewing this list of requirements will help you make a choice.

• great mileage
  this is a top priority as my work commute has increased from 8 miles one way to 48.


• affordable
  this is definetly the second most important as we are still financing the education of our second and final child


• great resale value
  why throw money away


• nimble driving experience
  (see the first bullet)


• medium to dark interior color
  FREE dog is black - need I say more


• sedan
  yes, I want 4 doors


• and it must be cute
  this is of course my cuteness scale - which may differ from yours

Other nice-to-haves:

• MP3 connectivity


• interior seating designed to fit shorter, ever-so-slightly round people


• easy care exterior color


• well placed drivers side cup holder

aw hell ...while I am at it:

• heated seats (I have them now and love them)


• remote start

Time to shop.

It's that time again

I bought my last car on my lunch hour... this was not a normal weese-like behaviour. I am pretty sure it was some sort of mid-life crisis. Actually, now that I think of it - buying a 'used' car as a mid-life crisis is rather weese-y. It's all that crazyness tempered by a resonable price point.

This time however, I am considering a 'more recently assembled' car. And so it's taking longer. When I say longer I sorta mean l.o..n...g....e.....r.
I am not one to make spur of the moment decisions, I generally leave that to my spontaneous wife. At times, it seems, I am not one to be able to decide anything at all. I wonder if this has to do with sticker price... sounds like I may need to do some further research on my personal price breaking point. That dollar limit where I everything becomes fuzzy and I can't think.

And so I have been researching and driving and researching and downloading spreadsheets and making up my mind and changing my mind and then driving more cars often more than once and then coming home exhausted and downloading more spreadsheets.

Frankly, even I am getting sick of myself (this is where I mention again what a saint my patient wife is... and where she implores me to get someone to prescribe me some paxil).

I feel a decision coming on people...
Beware.

Friday

tip-o-day

Safety first. Even before blogging.

Ok... so I just ran out of available outlets in my new 'home office'. It seems I have way too much equipment stuffed into this little space - and all of it requiring power.
So I am going to spend some time rewiring things before I burn the house down.

But while you are plugging stuff in... remember to plug sensitive equipment into surge protected power strips. I recently picked up one of those power squids.



What I like about the squid is they don't expose open outlets to dust accumulation or other items falling into them -- which can be the case when you have a flat power strip tucked behind a desk.





In cases where I do use the flat power strips I try to mount them vertically on a wall or side of a desk.
or even...

techy-ness

So... now that I no longer work for a software company - here I am in a hotel room surfin' with my highly secure 'snow' controlled laptop hooked up to the world wide web wirelessly... with a little help from our international 24 hour internal helpdesk whom I called with my bluetooth headset beaming to my Black ber ry Curve.
(and yes... I am watching the Uconn/Lousville game too)

Ain't technology grand.

That finale

We watched the LWord finale last night with friends.
We had wine and chocolate... it was sublime.
But I am sure going to miss all the hot lesbian sex.

My chocolate-loving wife made her infamous flourless chocolate cake.
She wrote the names of most of the cast (the hot ones anyway) on the cake.
That way we could pick who we wanted to eat.
(run with it Syd)

It was the 80's

I went to college in the 80's. The early 80's.
Sometime last winter my college roommate got in touch with me when she was going to be driving through the area. She suggested we meet for a drink on her way by.

I met her and her college age daughter and a restaurant just off the highway and we fell into familiar conversations as if we left our dorm rooms only recently.

She came armed with a photo album. I had no idea there were pictures...

She sent me a couple recently.

This is me and my roommate. I am guessing this is Spring Weekend -since we are drinking out of plastic cups. They rolled in trucks of beer with spigots on the side so you could basically refill all day long.
And yes, I am smoking. I was never without a Marlboro (and a Michelob... and a bag of weed).



Here I am with my favorite pals. Notice the black concert T. Key wardrobe essential for young lesbians.

I hear there is even a picture of the goldfish I bathed in the bathroom sink after he 'accidentally' fell into a bong.
Hmm, I wonder if there are pictures of our elevator keg party?