… where everyone should stop, take a moment and admire their work. i don’t just mean at your job, but at home, survey everything around you. remember what’s important to you. your friends, your family, your loved ones… TELL them how you feel. share with them the impact they’ve had on your life. let them know that even tho it’s easy to take things for granted, that their contributions to your life and others doesn’t go unnoticed. tell them thank you.

so, to everyone and anyone who knows me in ANY fashion: imagine i am standing in front of you and jes’ told you those words… happy holidays

now, i can’t let this entry go on anymore with suuuuch seriousness! my dearest friend L, posted these pics of how she’s been handling the snow in her neighborhood. (i adore her and her hubbers to pieces, so i had to share. OMGCANYOUSAYFISHERMAN&DUCKEEZ!?) i swear to you all that L is magical… take care all.

… in our hearts and minds, she did. hello all… it’s with sadness in my leetle heart that i share the following news:

Majel Barret joined his husband Gene Roddenberry yesterday.  do you recognize her picture!? if not, you have heard her voice many times: she was the voice of the Enterprise’s computer for every single show and big screen adaptation of the series. She passed away yesterday, sadly  age 76.

“The First Lady of Star Trek,” as she was known, married the famous creator of star trek in japan in august 1969. she also worked in other television shows like bonanza, the untouchables, and the lucy show. Her last work was two weeks ago, reprising her role as the voice of the mighty Federation ship for the new Star Trek movie by J.J. Abrams. i think this is totally cool that she got to do this one last homage of sorts for the upcoming star trek reboot. for those of you who don’t know, it’s coming out next year, and will focus on a young kirk and his budding crew as they face off with some nasties. i’ll save you the spoilers, but it really does look like it’ll be a hoot. (apple.com/trailers has a preview of it!)

most of you who know ME, know that i’m a huge star wars fan… but that doesn’t mean i won’t give a proper nod to a series and one of it’s best characters the proper respect once they warp into ‘whatever’s next’ once our time on this big blue planet is over. science fiction and fantasy was a huge part of my life as a kiddo, and frankly still is. it’s fun, it’s fantastic and it’s full of dreams and adventures. some of you experienced star trek during  it’s original run. i was born in ‘72, so while i prolly saw some of them at that point, i was too busy crapping myself to get the full appreciation. i STILL see them to this day and think, WOW.. visionaries made this stuff! i remember her most fondly in her role as the overbearing and telepathic mother of deanna troy in the star trek, next generation series where she often made EVERY MAN uncomfortable by blurting out sexual innuendos that she claimed all men (included capt picard and the klingon, warf) were “thinking about her.” it was a riot!

so… dearest Majel, rest in peace… and may your next adventure be as exciting as your last.

… WE CAN!! AWWW YEAH BOYEEE! two of our bestest friends, D&L sent me this awe-inspiring video the other day. ”L” took our heads off (not as gross as it sounds) and planted them on the figures in the video. funnier… then.. hell… and all kindsa-full of Holiday Cheer! if it’s slow to LOAD, that’s the internet’s fault, not mine. TRUST ME, WAIT FOR IT… it’s worth it jes’ for my expression alone. Lisa’s got the glasses on.. you all know me… and the others are D & L… PRICELESS!

… but i laughed so hard, i had coffee shoot outta my nose. i actually believe that youtube is made from parts of the devil, since it can suck away half a day before you know it. it was SENT to me tho.. i swear… and i’ve officially told this person that she’s evil and needs to not do this to me at the office. tee hee. have an awesome weekend, everyone!

… gawd i love that devilish smile. my leetle monkey seems to have found herself a new hat! (can’t take credit for the pic, her best friend Breanne took the shot) omg this is possibly my favorite pic of her evah. TOTALLY encapsulates her personality.

… hello to all of our friends, family, casual passerby’s, background lurkers and anyone else who may be reading this blog. i am very happeh’ and pleased to announce the engagement of Brian & Lisa. I’ve spent the last couple of weeks deciding on what to do about this, not knowing what has been stopping me from just doing it, doubting my own happiness and basically doing stoopid mindgames and all, when i finally realized that i’m an idiot. i’ve found love again. i am happeh. i feel good. Lisa makes me feel good. i want a life with her that’s better than even what we already have.

so… i did it… and here’s how:

most of you who know me, also know that i’ve been around this block before. yup, i’m one of the 68% of Americans that have been divorced. my ex and i are actually friends again. she’s still a wonderful woman and i’m happy that we’re able to remain friends. soooo, with that being said, you’d think i’d be able to pull from my memories of how things work and get all of this to go smoothly? right? WRONG.

when you buy a ring, it doesn’t magically come SET with the diamond. while i had picked the diamond already, i had put 20% down the previous week and whistled off into the wilderness simply thinking I’d come back the following week, pick it up and VOILA! yeah… NO. I paid it off on Monday and was promptly told that it would be ready within 6-8 business days. the lady actually HEARD my heart “fwunk” on the floor… i told her that this wasn’t going to be possible, since i was planning on proposing to Lisa this Saturday. She agreed with me immediately that this wasn’t possible, and that i should plan on changing that date.

after some negotiating, open weeping and i think a bribe or two, i was instructed to come back to the store on Friday night by 5:30 for the completed ring. no biggie.. right? well, NO. Lisa had friday off from her work, and i had no way to get her out of the house so i could sneak over to the jeweler and get the ring. i had to get her best friend to call and beg her to come over and help her with some fabric/sewing pattern issues to secure my “window of opportunity” to get the ring. just prior to Lisa leaving and my sneaking, the migraine hit. oh.. gawd… shoot… me now.

got the ring, drama was over! Lisa wasn’t aware of any plotting or deviousness on my part. Sunday we traveled to the Deception Pass State Park in the Port Orchard area. (or Mt Vernon, or Whidbey Island, or Anacortes, depending on which damned map you look at) There’s a sprawling bridge that spans the land masses that’s quite the site to see. I had planned on asking her ON the bridge. did that work? NO. while the weather behaved and gave us sun and scattered clouds, it’s also winter and we were hit with incredible winds that were bitter cold. (i imagined the ring being sucked out of my hand and flying over the bridge into the water, 300+ feet down) so, under the guise of a photoshoot for us, we happily snapped photos everywhere and walked across the bridge. on the other side, as she focused through her lens at yet another pic, i knelt to one knee and kinda “pulled on her sleeve.”

she looked down at me,  not seeing the tiny box and asked, “oh sweetie.. too cold? are you huddling?”

god i love her. once she realized what was happening, BRING ON THE TEARS! We both did, it was wonderful, the wind forever burned the tears into our faces and created too shiny red faces you see below. and her answer?, you wonder?

YES.

So, excuse the length of this entry. now please enjoy some video of our day. 3 parts, (one with my idiot self covering the mic and half the lens for a quarter of it, tho still cute…) and then a picture of my bride to be. OMGYEAH!!!!!

… some routines are not a bad thing at all. one of L’s and my favorite things is watching our new kitteh, kazi, play with our 2 year old boxer, ruckus. they absolutely adore each other, and while i feel the need to apologize for the shotty camera handling, (poor lighting, cloverfield-like tracking) the result is an absolute whooping of the dog.  but wait, i’ve said too much. watch and laugh and adore as we do.

yeah… life is good. it’s like our own wrestling pay-per-view… only fuzzier.  ;)

… i’m sure to the casual 4-legged passerby, this sign means something really really important. not only did it get my special gal and me laughing fiendishly, it’s an important lesson.

simple words, big meanings.

so, to all of you, friends, family, casual aquaintences.. heck, even strangers, i say: gobble gobble gobble!(loosely translated to: love ya’ all, happy turkey day)

… and it’s not even mine. drop everything. trust me. click on the spider pic below. read the entire post. that’s right. i’ll wait. the entire thread. read it all. go… i’ll still be here for you to return and leave a witty remark. it’s okay. won’t hurt one bit. i promise..

now… go.

… i totally got all of your attention with that title, eh? well, good, ‘cuz i’m about to go all doogie howser on yer asses and alert you to an often overlooked issue when people fight the common cold. yer very own 2 eyeballs can get sick too.

about 4-5 weeks ago, some of you might recall i had to spend a week in maryland on business. noh? well, okay… i did. that’s not the point. what IS, though, is that by the time i landed after the loooong trip home filled with coughing children & hacking and wheezing adults, i was terrified to get a cold. with my sh*tty immunity system, i always fortify on up before i travel, come well armed with Vitamins and whatnot, so as you can imagine, i was thrilled to come home and NOT exhibit any signs of a cold… even days after.

i did, however, have an odd pain in my left eyeball that faded in time, tho made itself even visably apparent with a nasty pile of veins that sprouted from my tear duct to the inner side of my iris. it too, went away tho, so i thought nothing of it. it “kinda” appeared/reappeared for about 2 weeks and thru a cold i got, but again, i attributed it to working hard, computer monitor eye fatigue and allergies.

then… as mentioned, i got sick. for the better part of 2 weeks i was miserable, weak, aching joints, small fever, fatigues and more. the cold symptoms even turned flu-like at one point, then settled into my lungs for some upper-respitory fun. seeming to have now conquered these rounds, i faced this new week with a glow, and alll kinds of positiveness… until monday night.

my left eye had turned back into the floating ball of nasty, swollen and irriated veins that screamed, “holy hell i’m your unborn conjointed twin brother and i’m going to birth finally through your socket!” it felt like there was a gynormous sand chunk in my eye everytime i blinked. tuesday i opted for a visit to a local eye doc who gleefully expressed after poking around in my eyeballs with light, tear-dying pigment and i think a golf club that i had a small iritis attack!! CUE THE BLOOD! PAIN! EYEBALL BADNESS AND ACK-ING!

basically, when tracing the looong story i jes’ wrote for you all above, i likely contracted some form of airborne viral infection during the trip or the flight home. iritis is the term loosely translated as eyeballs often getting the chance to host all kinds of baddies that we don’t even know about. often a normal immunity system kicks it’s ass, and you dont’ even know about it. (morning eyeball gunk is a sign of this often) but sometimes, your eye falls to the prey, and the results are much more dramatic than this pic that i found online. raised bulges often occur on or around the iris and can effect vision and even permanently hurt your sight if not treated. 

so yeaaaah, now i get to fwap in some eyedrops, 4X a day for 5 days to help my poor little eyeballs recover. amazing tho, how it’s allll connected. the virus started out trying to inhabit my beloved eyesockets, likely moved into my sinuses and/or dumped down my throat and developed into the cold, which, in turn, found a nice low-immunity body that loved developing flus and pnemonia-like upper respitory nastiness, only to FINALLY BE BEATEN BACK DOWN LIKE A COMMUNIAST BASTARD and return to my eyeballs to try again!

sooo.. take care of your eyes people! they are the windows not only to your soul, but also the infinite levels of SPARTA-LIKE wars that go on in your bodies! plus, you only have 2… so be nice.

oh, and yesh, for allll you ladies out there.. that pic does actually represent my eye color quite well. yup. my eyeballz are purdy….  

… who you are.

… how you voted.

… what your opinion’s were.

… where you stand.

… what color your skin is.

… what i do care about is that America stepped up, raised united voices, filled the air, filled the polls…

… and voted.

… i am so proud of us all.

… just over a year ago, i met someone. i didn’t expect to, for i was set up by and evil and sinister friend of mine who was moving and needed me to be a “lifter” during the day. she was set up too, for her best friend (my friend’s fiance) was also in need of a “lifter…” neither of us knowing that that moving day would change the rest of our lives.

“L, meet B…” and her friend disappeared with a giggle. “B, meet L,” and my friend disappeared with yet another giggle as he dashed down the hall.  we were left standing there in the hall, both holding a couch, and uncomfortably greeting each other and wondering what was going to happen next. 

in my noggin, i was attacked with the “omgoodness she’s so cute and wow i wonder if we’ll be able to talk and i wonder if she’d like to have some coffee and maybe even give me the time of day and see me sometime and holy crap this couch is heavy, etc., etc.”

… within days we were dating. we clicked. we connected. it was like a gawddamned freight train. it was wonderful. it’s been wonderfull. i love her.

it’s L’s birthday today. 30 years old. no longer in her twenties. beautiful. funneh. intelligent. an absolute joy to be around. a source of motivation and positive reinforcement in my life. i’m absolutely the luckiest son-of-a-biscuit around to have her in my life. every time i think to tell her this stuff, i always manage to blurt out that i don’t think i deserve someone as good as her in my world… she smiles (which makes me melt) bats those baby brown doe eyes and says, “yesh you do!”

i love you, L… happy birthday.

… i thought i was stronger than this. i thought i had free will. i really and truly believed that i wasn’t going to be pushed around this time. well, i was wrong. you see.. i’m not any of these things anymore. i’ve been shattered, torn apart, left to drift forever in a sea of… well, inna sea of purrrs.

that’s right peoplz. we adopted…. a…. kitteh.

omgoodness everyone meet, Kazi! she’s the most superiffic kitteh in da’ world i tell you. and last sunday, my special gal, L watched me turn from “stoic pet store shopper” to “pile of unintelligible goo” as my eyes locked with the cuuuuutest leetle 6 month old rescue kitteh from a Wenatchee Whiskee’s Rescue van parked in our local Petco’s parking lot.

i shoulda nevah’ gone inside.. but i’ll be damned if i’m not jes’ thrilled i did.  here’s some pics of Kazi’s first 5 days in our home. maddie and catch love her already, and have protected her from ruckus’s playful attacks. ruckus spoons her when they sleep in my home office, and they have played it up a lawt in the den as we’ve watched and laughed ourselves to tears. more later, ‘cuz you’ve jes’ GOTTA KNOW that kazi will be mentioned again.

needless to say tho, she’s a perfect fit, (note i didn’t write, ffffphpt!)  and we’re deliriously happeh.

(ps, yesh, kazi is named after her new father’s love of the kamikazi drink, plus… holy hell she’s fast!)

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… hello everyone! as most of you know, i enjoy posting occasional pictures of ‘what’s been goin’ on’ in my world. if you’re even an occasional reader of my blog, you’ll also be well aware that i’m a little weird. well… so are most of my friends, as illustrated in some of the following pics.

i love and adore all of my friends! those met through my wonderful lady, L, and ones i had already. it’s been soooo… much… fun to cut loose on weekends and hang wif’ them all! yesh, there tends to be some booze consumed, (i mean, i DO have a fully funtional bar in my den) some Rock Band on the PS3, American Idol singing (it’s a game, like RB, only vocals tho… and insults from Simon Cowell!) i also tend to BBQ burgers, steaks, chicken, whatever folks bring so there’s yumminess to be shared everywhere.  great spring, summer and the fun will likely carry on to an outstanding winter! woot woot!

HERE WE GO wif’ pics-n-updates:

i was excited about this, so deal with it. (tee hee) i finally got a bunch of late bloomer tomatoes for a fantastic batch of salsa. only 3 small plants, so i expected the harvest to be small. it was wondrous tho! (ohm nom nom) i also might have purchased the coolest limited edition battlestar galactica toaster evah’ (and yesh, that is a cylon seared into toasty-goodness-thank-you-for-asking)

and now, a sampling of Rock Band: no, not a video, but some pics showing the potential chaos when it sucks in your soul and forces you to play vocals, bass, lead guitar and drums. seriously, add some vodka in this mix and you have MAGICAL things happen. (note, some scenes below have commentary added for your viewing pleasure)

Shown above are two of my fav friends, D&L. read his shirt, and you’ll get the point of that particular pic. unfortunately, D met an unexpected altercation moments later when he was attacked and consumed by an odd, glowy, jowly creature with low tolerance for attack hugs.

… okay, i’m really not. what i am, tho, is actually nervous to post anything “gawd forbid” politically geared since so many people are so sensitive about what’s going on out there! i’ve already seen people stop talking to each other and even threaten to end friendships over each other’s political views! gaaagh! that’s jus’ sad and narrow-minded in my opinion.

i’m not a particularly strong fan of choosing sides. right, left, onna fence… none of those labels really fit me. i openly admit to being a late-chooser overall, but what i DO try and accomplish is a general knowledge of what each candidate stands for: their views on everything i can read from border patrol, abortion, gay rights, the deficit, education, general civil rights, international relations, the environment and as much more as i can view/read and discuss with others. i do the SAME with their veep nominations. why? well… dur… in case #1 gets whacked… we’re stuck with #2.

so, at the risk of alienating some of my ‘across the country’ readers, who i hope have an open mind and accept this man’s opinion and not hasten to judge my character because of it… i give you this:

i’m not here to judge people, but like Hank says on KING OF THE HILL, “That boy ain’t right…” (and don’t get me started on a certain gal in the pic above… and i don’t mean the cartoon character, Peggy)

… ugh. the day is inching by, and we’re not even @ hump-day yet. no fair! i don’t feel well, there’s nothing overwhelmingly positive on the news, i’m terrified to get my back adjusted tomorrow at a chiropractor for the first time since a nasty experience almost 15 years ago, (but i’ve seen the scans now of my spine…scary. think f**ked-up jenga puzzle tower) and the most pressing tidbit of news a friend of mine claims for today is “which version of ‘batman, the dark knight’” should i consider pre-ordering off amazon.com? cuz, you know, whether i have heath ledger on the cover or christian bale is sooo important.  My cover choice?

obvious…. bat-pug reigns supreme.

… am i the only one out there rolling my eyes over yet one more attempt to reinvigorate america’s currency? we’ve got more monopoly money peoplz!  while the rest of the world is slowly moving toward a unified source of monetary exchange, (’cuz clams are too heavy to lunk around) our country is commemorating the 200th anniversary of good ol’ abraham lincoln’s birth, by shacking up with the US Mint to redesign the penny with not one, but four new designs. someone shoot me now. seriously. now plz.

“The designs show milestones in the life of the 16th president: the Kentucky log cabin of his birth, his youth working as an Indiana rail splitter, his service at the State Capitol in Illinois, and his effort to preserve the union during the Civil War as depicted by a half-finished image of the U.S. Capitol dome.

The first of the coins debuts Feb. 12, with the others following in three-month intervals. The release date, besides being Lincoln’s birthday, comes a century after the production of the original Lincoln cent in 1909.”

wow… all i can say is that i believe this is stoopid. our government will now spend countless millions of dollars - to produce pennies! there are people FLOATING AWAY IN AREAS IN TEXAS, there are countless homeless (who possibly are some of the only ones who pick UP pennies, btw) that need help, and we’re spending effort and money on reproducing a worthless piece of currency.

to make things worse, i think the designs are completely retarded. perhaps it’s jes’ cuz’ this has been a royally crappy day, but this news really irritates the hell outta me. anyone else? DOWN WITH MONOPOLY MONEY! have you seen our $5.00 bills recently! aaargh!

… yesh, i am once again fishing for hits! i’m horrible, but i can live with myself. that’s what’s important, eh?

so, round two with the apple iTunes application recommendations! there are already more that i’d like to blog about, so please let me know what you like, don’t like and of course highly recommend if you have an opinion!

game #1 - Crash Bandicoot, Nitro Kart 3D - Costs $9.99 to buy and install onto your iTouch or iPhone. For anyone who’s ever played any of the Crash series on Nintendo, Playstation, etc; Crash offers fun racing, power-ups, challenging levels and fantastic graphics. When the app store opened almost 2 months back, this game was by far the leader. things are slowly changing now that games are being released almost daily with competitive offerings and graphics, but overall, this is still one of the best. it has excellent replay value and rightfully so with a durned-near $10 buck pricetag. my only wish would be some updates online. ’nuff said. A+

game #2 - Monkey Ball - Costs $9.99 to buy and install onto your iTouch or iPhone. how can anyone not love a bunch of racing monkeys stuck in orb-like balls? well, maybe some of you. it’s one of the most accelerator-sensitive games out there (which roughly translates to: your f**king monkey falls into oblivion a LAWT a lawt) but it’s still one of the most creative racing/timed games around. look for the youTube video demo first if you’re not big on balancing skills. app store doesn’t do refunds. A

… a LAWT a lawt, that’s fer sure. i returned almost 2 weeks ago now from my maryland business trip and have still barely caught up with all the work i missed, much less all the new work that’s under my wing now. also, for those of you who saw it and benefited from it in one way or another, i will post another “apple cool application run down” likely next week (this time, the horizontal screen recommendations! woot woot!)

kind of a cool note, not to say that my own blog is boring or anything, but for anyone who’s not used TAGS in their posts to create keyword search result interest in their own site… DO IT. my apple post generate 231 hits since it’s creation. hell, while i love you all and appreciate your visits… that ONE post generated more traffic than prolly the last years worth of posts! WHEW! cooh, eh?

anyhoo.. here’s some funneh pics from a camping trip we did with my entire family last month. ruckus got chilly bigtime and snuck into my gal’s sleeping bag, and the few others jes’ show some fun.

our dear friend Travis, returned for about 10 days from his “Qatar” contractor job where he runs a recreational center. while obviously the rest of that darned area is a warzone, Qatar is actually designated as a GREEN ZONE, so that means it’s relatively safe. no helmets 24/7 or flak jets. he’s quite happy there overall, makes decent pay, and takes damned good care of our country’s boys and girls over there. he’ll be there for another 6 months or so, then back again. it was outstanding seeing him, (he stayed with us in our guest room) and it was SAD TO SEE HIM GO! we all went out to his favorite karaoke bar and sang, drank and watched him get mauled by his groupies. good times and a proper send off to our friend.

be safe travis.

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… okay okay, maybe i was fishing (phishing?) for a hit or two on my site there with the title, but can you blame me? you should see my tag list! heh heh. anyway, hello everyone. i thought maybe that some of you might be getting tired of seeing dog pictures, house pictures, shots of me and my special gal and whatnot…. eh?

soooo, i figured i’d take a moment and review some of the recent apple iTunes applications that are available for people who either own the Apple iPhone Gen1 or newer 3G phone, or if you’re like me, you’re a proud owner (bestest gadget ev-ah) of the Apple iTouch! the application store opened online @ apple’s iTunes site/application about 2 months ago now, and boy has it been a hit worldwide. apparently drumming up over 10 million individual sales of misc. apps since then, it’s still going strong.

i’d like to have some fun and simpy share some of the games this week that i’ve really enjoyed since i bought and/or downloaded them as freebies. interested? read on:

game #1 - MetaSquares. Costs $2.99 to buy and install onto your iTouch or iPhone. I’ll state the obvious to anyone who’s played it, or is questioning the purchase. OMGIT’SPURECRACKANDSOOPERADDICTIVE! that is a good review, in case some of you aren’t used to my writing style. superior graphix, ability to change board designs and colors of marbles, and intense fun making squares in multiple angles to reach 150 points before the ‘computer’ does. brilliant game.. simple as that. A++

game #2 - Aurora Feint. FREE to download and install onto your iTouch or iPhone. a very very creative match-3-or-more gameplay concept with the added bonus of being able to slide pieces around freely from left to right. ADDED bonus of being able to take advantage of Apple’s “Accelerometer” technology which allows you to flip the screen from horizontal to vertical (even flip 180 degrees!) and essentially the cubes will tumble and match up or allow more freedom of pairing! There’s mining, crafting bonus skills, and other strange “power-ups” you can gain by using your mined materials as money in the Blacksmith area. another brilliant game… trumped only recently by my new metasquares addiction.  A+

game #3 - Bejeweled 2. Costs $10.00 to buy and install onto your iTouch or iPhone. most of you, unless you’ve lived under a rock for the last 5 years or so, know this game. it has one of the most gorgeous, multi-layer playing field’s around. from the game frame, to it’s background ’scenery,’ to it’s explosions and rocking effects when you connect 3-or-more gems in a row. the rainbow slipstream effect when you level up ALONE makes the game worth it’s pricetag in my book.  A+

game #4 - Cube Runner. FREE to download and install onto your iTouch or iPhone. it was one of the first free apps to be on the iTunes site when all this madness began. soooo simple to play, yet brilliant in that simplicity. exciting graphics? no. think TRON on your iPod, without jeff bridges yelling at you to TURN LEFT! TURN RIGHT! that’s all you do too… your forward motion is automatic, and you simply use the accelerometer (think gyroscopic!) left /right motion of your iPod to steer the little arrow through a maze of ever-increasing-in-density blocks as they speed by. simple. fun. addictive if yer killing time in an airport. B+

I’m off to Baltimore next week, so i’ll likely not be able to post much or see your comments for a bit. The following week, i’ll review the horizontal-held games that have taken over my world! it’s almost ALL good stuff people! have fun out there with the apps and wackiness if yer an iPod Touch or iPhone owner!!!!