good times in tampa

This is me and my beautiful little sister. Warhol style. It was her birthday this past weekend and we scheduled our Florida trip to coincide with it. I framed this image for a present. I also commissioned the endlessly talented Queen Bodacious (aka, "Dr. Ding") to whip up a little jewelry for her. Sister-the-Youngest loved it all. Reluctant birthday girl that she was, she had a great time.

We had so much fun. And got to watch her lovely daughter play softball and hang out with her sweet son. My mom and dad came down for the festivities. There was merriment. There were outdoor festivals. There was chocolate mousse cake.

I don't have a family member that lives less than a thousand miles away from me. I miss them greatly but it does make the visits pretty sweet.

On Friday night, Sister-the-Youngest and her best friend, who I affectionately call (Mr. Fabulous) "Anonymous," St. Barbara and I went out to the local gay bar for karaoke night. For the price of a $12 wristband, well drinks were free. I found the rum & coke fountain and made that $12 stretch like the fishes and loaves.

Ave Maria, did I get schnockered, plastered, lit, fucked-up, shit-faced, loaded, drunk off my ass.

What a great time. I danced. In public. I sang along with some bad karaoke. (I did NOT however, perform any karaoke...there isn't enough alcohol in the free world.)

When we got back to the house, the festivities continued. Well, that was the plan anyway. I walked into the master bathroom to use the toilet and passed the bed. The beginning of the end. However, when I lay my drunken self on the bed, it transformed into a Tilt-A-Wheel. Amazing. I slid off onto the floor, where the ride mercifully ended.

The next morning I woke up more hungover than I've been in 15 years. I stumbled to the bathroom and must have peed 30 proof urine. Swear. We had to sober up and get to the softball field. Where there were millions of people. Sonic boom level noises and blinding sunlight.

No regrets. Had a GREAT time.

grammatical tagging [happy sigh]

from the rut. via Dave

This may, in fact, be the best cartoon representation of my kind of social disobedience. As ever, Dave, you and your betrothed sparkle with well-mannered bad behavior. I am not barely so worthy (false modesty is just annoying).

wifi weekend update

This past weekend was WiFi weekend at the B&E Show. That's right. I got my nerd groove on. More or less. Without making the low-tech among you succumb to the vapors from geek-speak, I will quickly sum up Saturday's activities:

• partition new external back up drive [stay with me, stay with me], check
• back up hard drives [for the first, oh-the-shame, time], check
• update operating system, scary check
• make sure numerous and expensive software programs still function, big check
• install wireless card correctly, proud check
• hook up wifi base station so as to share the DSL love with the family, oh shit. half-check!

Enter my good and dear friend SuperDave, renamed Tireless Wireless Techno Wizard, accompanied by his redefining-the-word-snazzilicious FI-ance, Dr. Ding.

Having used our friendship to lure them over to do my bidding offer tech support, I felt that the least I could do to thank them was to make real Dave's recent weird food/fantasy post: bacon cups*. For brunch. Filled with homemade fried potatoes 'n onions and scrambled eggs.

Ooo baby, ooo baby. That was a seriously unhealthy, exercise-cancelling, pig-juice-soaked breakfast. And if I do say so myself, it was damn fine. I'd have to walk to this Austin museum to compensate.

Tech service was more than worth the bacon braiding. (Truth be told, bacon braiding is its own reward, dear readers.) We have green lights and secure connections. Praise Dave and Local Area Network technology.

Oh, and every time Dave and I referred to modems, base stations, ip addresses , etc. both Barbara and Her Dingness began bushman-dialect-like clicking to demonstrate the foreign quality to our dialog. A great way to spend a Sunday, any way you look at it.

And now some footnote groveling:
*I should have written bacon cups by Megan at notmartha via Dave at abovetheaether. Poor documentation on my part, no offense intended to Megan and her culinary brilliance.