naladahc | tripping along the golden path

The weather is beautiful...and I've sold a ton of shit...

My grandmother's 19" tv...my 20" 80lb old computer monitor...and... Suzanne's bike of evil!!!

Well...June 1 is just a memory now. And I broke even between what I made at the sale and what I spent on the cookout. So...I suppose all is good...

Yesterday started at 6am with Matt and I bringing up tables and furniture from the basement to sell.

This took several hours in which small bickering between us happened, which of course is normal.

Kelly arrived and started getting her stuff out on hangars. Pickett arrived a bit later, then they brought us coffee...thank god they did.

For you see, the people across the street decided to have an extremely loud party until 4am or so...which means Matt und I barely slept Friday night. I was in such need of the caffeine that I had a headache. (Sign #21 that you have an addiction.)

Aunt Ida and Babs Johnson guarded our various on the street wares.

There was also a security hoont on guard to protect the premises and various sundry items that we being sold.

Now I've mentioned before that Preston's ex left this evil bike years ago. Well...I wanted so badly to get rid of this thing. No one would take it...I couldn't pawn it off on anyone...and then finally...an older gentleman with teeth few and far between said he'd take it...

So goodbye evil bike. Have a nice home.

(NOTE: I am not responsible if this kindly gentleman's wife's ass gets larger and she starts wear black dresses on her big old booty due to the cosmic effects of the bike of evil.)

More and more stuff was sold. Including an old monitor of mine, my grandmother's old TV that she watched her stories on, and the ancient laserdiscs which everyone thought were vinyl albums.

All in all a great day that ended with me cooking out...the Fabulous Korney-Aherns stopping by, as well as many other people.

Back to work I am, huddled in front of my Mac and Dell in little room 2026B. Honestly, I can't remember any of the projects I planned to do this week so I'm just going to go ahead and create new ones.

Max is back from Canada. Perhaps I'll share with him how I successfully avoided for over 30 minutes having to say anything to Mr (period) at the Big Bear the other day. I do so love avoiding vermin.

It is kind of sad really...a regular fixture of Comfest...the Ben Jordan Jordanica booth won't be at Comfest this year...

From Ben Jordan...

I just wanted to pass on the news that I will not be setting up at Comfest this year. For some reason, I never received an application. By the time I realized this, I had missed the deadline to apply. I've been doing the show since 1989, so this is a little bit difficult. I'm trying to think on the positive side. It will be kind of nice to just go and enjoy the show for a change. Maybe I'll see some of you there.

Very very sad.

But...Central Ohio Writing and Mary Beth will be there. Mary Beth has lots of wares to hawk.

Ya know...it is about 85 degrees outside. According to weather.com it "feels like 91! No shit. (That's 33 Celsius to all you metric folk.)

Summer has definitely arrived here in Klumbiss, Ahiya. That balls sticky weather like only Ahiya can have... well... maybe Indiana too. I shan't go into the fact that we have a lot of concrete around old CAS as well...just sucking up and reflecting all that heat.

I think I am gonna leave and go get geekage... it being Wednesday and all.

So...after a horrible hot day...we get oh about 13 hours of rain. Lovely. Just lovely.

I was extremely happy to see Café Corner open up on Pennsylvania and Third two weeks ago. Many of you are fully aware of my penchant for finding coffee houses that I become extremely loyal to... hell... Brazilia still rules me in some ways... and Basso's closing last year really hit me hard.

So... I was filled with utter joy when I saw Café Corner open the other week and knew I found the kind of place I could hang out at for hours... read... geek on my Powerbook... and generally bullshit with people.

Pete, the 30 year old who opened Café Corner is a great guy trying to do something cool in an old run down gas station in the middle of our little hood. The place is perfect...tv ...decent seating ...classical, jazz, and electronic music playing ...utterly perfect for Nala.

So while I'm sitting there this morning reading James Robinson's "Starman: A Starry Knight" the City of Columbus inspector comes in... has a look around ...and basically tells Pete that he's going to have to remove all of the seating and turn it into a "carry-out" only. WHAT THE FUCK!!!

Supposedly, the place needs the bathroom totally reworked for ADA compliance and there are issues related to parking. WHAT THE FUCK!!!

This small coffee house can maybe seat 10-15 people. Pete has already had wheelchair customers who had no problem with the place at all. (Also note that the majority of his customers are local residents who walk there...so parking isn't a big deal.)

And now... the City of Columbus has issues with it. Fuck the city!

I swear...here's a 30 year old who found the money to take a total dump and remodel it and make it into a nice, small, local NON-FUCKING STARBUCKS coffee shop and the Man wants to fuck with it for the most minor of things.

Fuck that shit.

Yesterday, it being geek day and all, brought out a beautiful gem to the world... Neil Gaiman's Murder Mysteries illustrated by artist P. Craig Russel.

This truly was the only gem and I have to recommend it to all.

I must admit... my interest in mainstream comics tends to run in 5-6 year intervals. I was out of comics from 1989-1997 or so. I picked up an issue every now and then... but alas... becoming and twenty-something adult and 5 years of university changed my tastes in storytelling.

Sure...a mainstream superhero named Jack Knight created by James Robinson brought me back into comics in the late 90's... but there are so few diamonds in the rough these days. Jack Knight is now gone... and honestly, most of the books I've picked up over the past few years haven't been worth their cover prices... which are really ungodly... thus kids sure as hell don't read comics anymore.

I realized recently that I've pretty much given up on the JSA... by one real love. What should have been a phenomenal storyline in the recent "Stealing Thunder" story arc has basically been nothing more than a bunch of fights in 2-3 rooms. You'd think that with a 5 part story that something would happen outside of the typical and clichéd standard of superheros...but nope...not to be.

I'll probably keep picking it up...or at least read it in the store.

Comics have just gone down the drain again.

Or... maybe Nala is just too old to be entertained my the majority of the writers and artists anymore.

Anyway... here's to Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, James Robinson, and Bill Willingham. C'mon guys. Keep plugging away and keep Nala entertained once a week.

If I was a character on South Park I would look like this...

On the lighter side of things...the Fabulous Deb Doran sends this pic of dachshund racing...

Kinda looks like the hoont in the back running. Somehow...Hensley just wouldn't be able to run in a controlled manner...he'd be all over the place.

Oh...and this is my 100th post using MoveableType...which I love by the way.

Welcome to the true era of the Bush I - Bush II New World Order.

If Dubya was even remotely more charismatic and had any ability to act...he could have just said last night... "Clueless Ladies and Gentleman of the State...I give you...Gestapo 2002!!!!!" There would be cheers and applause and "Heil Bush" salutes.

Well...of course I find out today that once again my family didn't bother to invite me to DJ and Jen's "diaper" party for the forthcoming baby.

I live 2 1/2 hours away. Nothing more that a quick, but boring, jaunt. I would have been up there in a heartbeat.

Of course, being the quintessential black sheep and more or less the plague infested leper of the family I am conveniently left out in the cold for such things.

I'm used to it. Such is the bane of my existence with those whose genes I was made to share.

Anway...no point thinking about it much more...

Matt and I went to TA's yearly cookout yesterday. That at least was enjoyable.

Ten days until San Francisco.

It is so fucking humid in this house I could scream.

That kind of humidity that makes your ball sac stick to your undies. That makes sitting on any furniture or laying in your bed a sweatfest.

Total major ack.

Here's to trying to sleep tonight.

Only in the wasteland that has become the United Disgrace of America can a girl not going to graduate because she failed a class threaten to sue the school and miraculously be allowed to graduate. link

Then again we have also have the appointed Lil' Fuhrer in office, so I am not surprised.

This country is collapsing. I didn't think it would happen for another 30 years or so...but the Lil' Fuhrer has hastened it in just under 2 years.

Of course, he's not totally to blame. He's pretty dim himself.

Yup. The best of the best for Americans.

And this is what my grandfather fought in Europe 60 years ago for?

If I wanted an oil man for president, I think I would have selected Jed Clampett.

Well doggie.

Well...6 minutes ago my father was given a spinal tap and is in the process of undergoing a complete knee joint replacement.

He's worried. Which of course makes me worried.

I wouldn't be if he hadn't called last night, explaining contingency plans should something happen during surgery.

It is quite something when your father tells you where you can find his "will" and other stuff on his computer.

So now...I am all beat up and sorta freak'n out over this.

I shouldn't be. Hundreds of people older than my father have this surgery.

After 3 hours of surgery, my father came out well with a brand new fully functioning right knee. They also did some work on his femure, apparently, to correct some of the damage from his major leg shattering car accident 20 years ago.

He now has almost 90 degrees of mobility, which is better than my knees.

Anyway, father is fine.

And the funniest thing is, it took my mother hours and hours to call. And...she and Gloria were pigging out on lobster at the crappy Red Lobster. (Some of you may remember Gloria and my mother's massive lobster massacre at the lobster buffet at the Rio hotel and casino in Las Vegas last year.)

I found that oh so amusing.

Anyway...big things happening this weekend. There's a goat to be roasted open fire pit style next door by Jen and Amy. Jay Kulpa will be staying with us on Friday and Sunday. And so many other fresh and exciting developments no doubt.

While I usually find most self-promotion items on 99.7 The Blitz crass, boring, sexist, and basically lacking in any type of true creativity... I can't help but secretly giggle at their Father's Day "Ta-Tas for Da-Das" promotion.

You'll win passes to take your dad to a strip club for Father's Day.

Now yes...it is sexist. But even though I've never cared for strip clubs... especially gay strip clubs... I always wanted to take my father to a tittie bar in Las Vegas.

Don't ask me why. I don't know.

There's some kinda of father-son-tittie-bar-attending-in-vegas mystique that I'm missing.

Well...to hear it from my mother...he's do'n alright.

To hear it from him...he's in the most horrible pain.

Dad got a 104 degree fever last night. They managed to get it down to 99.

He can't sleep and is in incredibly horrible pain. The initial pain killers didn't work so they hooked him up to morphine. They knocked him out for a few hours so that he could get some rest.

He says his entire leg is utterly aflame in the worst possible way.

*sigh*

So. I hung up and let him get some rest.

So last night Max Power came over to eat some grilled "OSU" hot dogs (supposedly the ones sold in the shoe).

Since he just saw Episode II the other night, we ended up geeking horribly on how poor it was... deconstructing it at a fairly deep level.

We then got on to comics and such, which of course I can get out of hand a bit with. Somehow I got onto good storytelling using the most insane and mundane content...and that lead me of course to Alan Moore and such wonderful things as Miracleman (Marvelman) and inevitably one of my faves, Top 10.

I let him borrow the first volume of Top 10. Methinks he could get hooked on Alan Moore's stuff.

He's do'n better today. Much better. I can hear it in his voice.

He's still in a lot of pain and all but they did have him up and walking around today.

That's a good sign.

Well at 8:30am this morning the official Goat Fest '02 on Wilber has begun.

Pics later of all of the goat-roast'n excitement.

UPDATE: The gallery of the Goat Massacre is up. Don't know when I'll get the video up though.

Well, my father is spending Father's Day in a hospital bed. However, he did say he's already walked around with a cane and all, which is good I suppose. He thinks he may get discharged tonight.

The Goat Massacre was fantastic yesterday. It rained a bit towards the evening...but all in all was great. Curried goat leg rawks!!!

T-Minus 3 days and counting before San Francisco. And thank god only one of those days involves actually ACS work. Wrap up some profile configurations, clean my office, install some software, and that's it until June 25.

Well. My clothes are all laundered and/or new. My turd brown locks have been shorn by Patrick. Dave. B. will be tak'n us to the airport in the morning.

Now I just have to pack and finish up some minor stuff.

And then the part that is hardest for me to do...

Take the hoont to the vet to be boarded for a week. He's going to hate me.

Sir Hoonts-a-lot is now in his temporary residence at the boarding place. (He was not amused.).

So... a hoont-less house is an empty house in my book. I mean, there's the meow and all... but when it comes down to it... it's all about the hoont!

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Just got e-mail from Scott. He's planning a garden party this Saturday. Yay!!! So this makes Christine's party on Friday night. Scotty's party on Saturday. I mean... there is never ever this so much excitement in Cowtown. Ever.

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Readers of this here website will be dissappointed to know that I am not taking the PowerBook. So...while I may update the blog sharing with you all the juicy details of the Secrets of Deb Doran, I probably won't have any photos up until I return.

Nala is packed and ret-to-go! I packed a little heavy...trying to balance warmer clothes for the evening and cooler stuff for the day.

Alas, that is the climate of San Francisco.

While I am extremely excited, I do so miss the Hoont.

I've returned to the living hell that is Ohio. I cannot honestly say that I've missed it.

Sorry that I didn't update the blog on the trip. Christine's laptop keyboard was messed up and we didn't have the proper screwdriver to try and fix it. It kinda kept being pushed to the back of my thoughts...but we shoulda bought a proper tool and just took care of it.

As always, it was a good trip and I got to see all of the people that I miss. Christine has a fantastic new apartment and her new flatmates are great.

I'll get the gallery go beer-swilling-ass-eating girl pics up sometime soon.

Ok kids...here's a down and dirty gallery of all of the pics I took whilst in the city on the bay. In retrospect, I took a lot of pictures of Deb Doran's big mouth, Christine's breasts, the cats, and pointless skyline pictures. (I'll get around to do'n an Annalisa-style totally titz gallery someday soon).

San Francisco June 2002 Pictures

A surprising email in my inbox today. One of my friends from bygone high school days, Dave Misko, got my address from Brett.

Dave and I hung around a lot during our junior and senior years. He's a great guy who I haven't spoken to in just about 14 years now. (I remember fondly this 6th period study hall junior year...)

Wow. I am old.

Today's geek day!!!! And I almost forgot!!!!

Comics...come to me...feed my mundane entertainment needs.

Looks like we got some Legion (probably won't ship), some Wonder Woman, and some Green Arrow action coming out. Oh...and Promethea too!!!! Yay!!!

Tomorrow is the start of Comfest the neighborhood's rather quite large community festival.

While I won't spend a whole lot of time there, several of my friends' bands are playing, and others I know will be hawking their trendy vintage wares...well...except for Ben who somehow got shafted this year.