From my friend Sean’s blog: A Really Wrong Number. He got a few interesting voice mails on his eFax number of all things. Misdials aren’t quite as much fun as drunk dials, but I hope Steve found someone with a truck & winch.

It’s a busy weekend already, met up with friends this morning for brunch in Bethesda at La Madeleine, great place! And after an ill-thought-out walk through the zoo I’m back home to clean up and head back out to meet up with a friend for birthday greetings and drinks in Dupont. I will be quite glad for some couch time this evening.

Since a lot of what I watch is on Discovery and Science Channels, I have been completely unable to avoid their new promotion and jingle/song. Just reading today’s xkcd gave me an earworm for about an hour.

But lucky me, I can actually download it from their website to help get it out of my head anytime I like. They also have the video of the commercial, wallpapers and ringtones, but it’s via a crappy flash interface. I can’t help but chuckle every time I see Adam light Jamie’s arm on fire.

Looks to be a fairly quiet weekend, trying to head to the Mall/Folklife Festival after work today to see the sights and hear some good music. Meeting up with the 2 B’s for brunch tomorrow in Bethesda to see one B’s new baby girl, and maybe back to the festival on Sunday to get a better look at all of the cultures. Gonna be a hot one though so perhaps some drinking breaks, in air-conditioned comfort, are in order from time to time.

Living in Alexandria, my mornings usually consisted of making coffee, having a little something to eat, cleaning up the apartment and listening to shows on NPR. My NPR addiction was mostly caused by having a car and a long commute even to the metro station every day. When I moved back into the city, radio reception was spotty and I didn’t drive anymore and the NPR online broadcasts used RealPlayer which I hate, so I just stopped. More recently I have been trying to listen to NPR in the morning before heading out to work, but my at-home time is such a short duration that there’s no point.

I’ve been moving stuff around and actually having less computer equipment in the bedroom which I’ve found has the benefit of a much better night’s sleep. Windows computers are high-maintenance! Even when you put them to sleep at night, they’ll suddenly decide it’s time to switch themselves back on and perform updates and then stay on all night. Many a time I’ve been woken up at 3am because Windows Update deemed it would be a great time to start upgrading the machine. So I first moved the cable modem and router out of the room, reducing the blinking lights and more of my entertainment/network stuff is in the living room anyway. This past week I made the decision to move the computer out as well. It’s always been a Home Theater PC (HTPC) and I’ve never really made much use of that. I don’t need the DVR functions of it, but having access to all of my music and videos without having to convert them across the network was great.

It made me start exploring the Windows Media Center application a lot more. A developer created a Netflix application that plugs into it and will let me mess with my queue and view the Watch Instantly movies. Plenty of other companies have added subscription apps to it, and I can finally have my NPR in the mornings again. It’ll still just be weekend mornings, but I have access to the previous week’s worth of shows. NPR on Demand? Oh, we like!

So far the only drawback to this is that gaming is going to be difficult until I get a good integrated mouse/keyboard. As it is I’m only playing City of Heroes lately, though Lord of the Rings Online has offered me a $10 client, $10/month “come back” special. It might not be finding the right hardware as it is the right platform. The coffee table is too low and tv trays are too high, but I’ll sort it all out.

Weren’t we supposed to get some rain this weekend?

I was getting my cereal and milk this morning and the cashier says, “Have a blessed day!” to which I respond, “Happy Friday the 13th!” I’ve discussed with Christopher that one never really knows what to say in response to “blessed day.” I always feel it a bit rude. When I was in Elementary school there was a girl who, when someone sneezed, would say “God bless you,” even if someone had already said “bless you.” And she’d especially emphasize the God part. This morning’s cashier looked a little taken aback but she didn’t say anything.

I still feel cooked. I know it’s cooler outside, but it’s still hot! I do plan to find some friends to watch/attend the Pride events this weekend, but I’ll be steamin’ in my own juices I’m sure. Tonight, however, I could go for a happy hour and may start sending out e-mail pesterings before I finish lunch. I’m sure anyplace we might go will be packed, but that’s part of the fun, isn’t it? When you know that queers from nearby areas are traveling to your town for Pride, it’s your gay-given right to be able to enjoy them as eye candy.

So if anyone local will be out and about, feel free to keep in touch so we can cross paths if possible. Happy Friday and Happy Pride, everyone.

This is why socialized nerds and geeks have an off-switch. I don’t follow many printed comic strips regularly, only seeing the ones in Express, but today’s Pooch Cafe made me LOL, if you will, on the train. Not that I recall The Avengers fighting Godzilla, but it’s the kind of reference I’d pull out. One that is completely appropriate to the situation, but one that is also completely lost on the present audience.

Last night was a fun evening, the gang met up and were treated to quite the spread by Paul. The food star of the evening was his wings which were absolutely amazing, but he also made a custom cocktail and had plenty of nibbles. The plan was to watch “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” but the tone of the evening was rather fun and high-spirited that we watched “Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World” instead. Since I don’t watch much of anything that appears on LOGO, I’d never seen any episode beyond the first one. They’re very cute and funny, but they still rely on that whole “we’re not being offensive, we’re being so offensive that it’s not offensive!” reason for really pushing it.

I have no plans for the weekend. Part of my brain still doesn’t recognize that it is a holiday weekend. Without the constant reinforcement of people asking me what I’m doing, I might well have gotten up on Monday morning and tried to come into work. Hopefully the weather will hold up so I can take some fresh air breaks in between cleaning house. They reopened the storage area, but made a new rule that we can’t store anything in cardboard boxes. I’m hoping that doesn’t refer to the storage of cardboard boxes because I’m not trying to buy a bunch when I next move. A quick trip or two to Target should get me some proper sized tubs to throw my junk in.

I know the city will be packed due to Black Gay Pride, but I don’t know if DC is being seen as a popular destination this year what with the crazy weather we’ve been having. I might be better off staying close to home and avoiding popular parts of town the weekend or finding some last minute plans to get out of here altogether. In any case, the office is empty, the day should be slow and I’m counting the minutes ’til I can scurry along home.