last night, i was driving home from porter ranch.

heading west on rinaldi, i noticed the "don't walk" hand sign had stopped flashing at the intersection with mason, so i sped up a bit to make it through, not realizing the street was closed after a curve and a few blocks.

as i entered the intersection at 7:20 pm, a huge object zoomed through the air on a collision course with my car.

it bounced. it pounced. it was a tumbleweed.

scared the bananas out of me.

after making a u-turn and then a right onto south-bound mason, i caught up with the offending piece of errant foliage. winds of 20+ mph could not keep me from bidding the dude adios.

krista and i played monopoly for much of sunday afternoon.

i got thrashed. :)

thinking i would do better at a variant, we tried the "short" game. we set a half-hour time limit. i got clobbered once again, even though sweetie had to field an important call during part of the game. she's awesome.

wish i could multitask like that.

SOB, SOB!

about fifteen minutes into my saturday shift in a long time, i saw a familiar patron sitting at the computer i'm typing at right now (#16). i don't know who he is, but today he had his left elbow resting on the table, forearm straight up. on his hand, his middle finger was extended, but the person to the left of his paid no attention. it was wrapped up in a bandage and whatnot.

i thought that only happened in the movies.

yesterday, i shelved a relatively new novel called "at risk." it's by the former head of mi5 (you know, the same british intelligence agency for which james bond worked).

her name is stella remington and she was appointed to the post in 1992.

pierce brosnan was cast as james bond in 1995 ("goldeneye"), after gaining and losing the role to timothy dalton (1987's "the living daylights") because of his committment to an nbc television series.

the show (and his character) was called remington steele.

"goldeneye" was the first bond film to feature a woman as head of mi5, just a few years behind reality.

is all this coincidence? yes.

things i learned this week:

motorcyclists can hang pieces of cardboard off the back of their seats to make up for the lack of bumpers for stickers (monday). "no wuckin' furries!"

people named raymond wells can get you psyched up about time travel (tuesday). "can you recommend some dvds?"

canada geese sometimes fly alone (wednesday). "caw!"

peter mayhew (chewbacca) is taking his u.s. citizenship oath this coming monday. neat.

on 2k5oct05, at roughly 5 pm, blogspot was doing "scheduled maintenace" when i was going to update. funnily enough, they let me log in and type up my post before giving me the boot. here is the exciting narrative i hoped to bring you then:



yesterday, i read “the yellow star: the legend of king christian x of denmark” (written by carmen agra deedy, illustrated by henri Sorensen) and “the vicar of nibbleswicke” (roald dahl’s final book, illustrated by the usual quentin blake). Both were fun-times but nothing to write home about, which is why I’m writing about ’em here.

today, i read “smile if you’re human” by neal layton. it was cute.

today and yesterday, it is/was very windy. now i don’t have to roll down my car windows to get a perm.

he/it was good, bad, and ugly.

he/it was: kinsey. selectively recommended for all ages, genders, and orientations.

here's an appropriate aside: jim, the academy's fifth best picture nominee this year was "sideways." as i watched "kinsey," i thought it was it, but i just looked it up and it's not. sob, sob.

after that, i watched "the phantom of the opera" (directed by joel "holy codpiece, batman!" schumacher). half an hour later, i wondered when the movie would start. two hours and 21 minutes later, i knew i should have popped in half a dozen episodes of "just shoot me."

for those of you who care, i just drove 50 miles on the 405 freeway, was cut off by an insane person in a maguar on nordhoff, and saw former sundial advertising manager-director-executive-with-great-accent judith-anne g. yelling and cursing up a storm into her cell phone.

i hope the pictures came out ok.

forgot to mention this important fact last week: i cracked (as in bent/folded) a (right, middle) fingernail. the fractured bit fell off later in the day. i think it was wednesday. that's never happened to me before.

yeah, my nails were kinda long by then.

last week was the weirdest one in history. actually, i just can't think of a cooler set of circumstances in my lifetime, so there you go.

i touched a tegu.
i trespassed.
i got lost on the freeway.
i went to san diego comic con with krista.
we got our picture taken with dean haglund.

photos will get posted soon.

whoa. sandra day o'connor retired from the supreme court this morning. i think president bush should nominate krista. i would.

here's my health crap for the day:
10:05 am - 30 push-ups
heart rate 95 immediately afterward
heart rate 48 two minutes later

10:45 am - 11:03 am - ran 2 miles, same route as monday
11:04:22 am - 11:05:22 am - heart rate = 122
11:07:22 am - 11:08:22 am - heart rate = 59

9:40 pm - resting heart rate = 66

---

me happy.

me love krista.

all is good.

i was rolling around on a chair yesterday afternoon. since i was behind a strange desk, i promptly hit my knee, practically dead center on the cap. if the rate of a hummingbird's wings measured pain, i'd be hovering above my desk right now. last night, i thought it was gone. sad!

there's a u.s. nuclear device called the special atomic demolition munition that i just read about at straightdope.com. that's abbreviated sadm for you dammit-stop-making-everything-an-acronym! people.

earlier today, i was about to take a shower, when a phone ring i had been expecting finally rang. a few minutes ago, i wanted to go running (i know, i was supposed to earlier; tomorrow morning will work beautifully). then the phone rang again, much later than the "fifteen minutes" later you promised, mr. t. :-P

simon callow is on an episode of "nova" as galileo! sweet!

monday morning (jun27), i ran two miles. the duration was from 10:54 am to 11:12 am, from home to strathern to shoup to saticoy to home. i still have it, though it's been weeks since i went on a good run. bad! i was considerably out of breath and whatnot, so i feel this must resume as a thrice-weekly fun-times activity. gotta keep me cardiovascular health as near optimal as possible.