More Memorial Day Weekend Update

Hello bloggers.

It’s Tuesday night and I still have some more of my Memorial Day Weekend Update. I don’t know why I left this out.

Going back to the Chuckay Dinner with the Girl Friend, the Big Guy said she was “nice.” Granted nice may not seem like much of a compliment but, coming from the Big Guy, nice is about as good as it gets. He thought she was a nice girl friend for me; he seemed to think I was happy and that worked for him. That and the fact she joined us at Morton’s helped her cause greatly.

We just can’t have any vegetarians around anymore.

When I was driving out to South Orange County on Monday morning to see Episode III, I was able to drive on cruise control on the 405, during the day or night in either Los Angeles or Orange Counties, for the first time ever.

That was just so unreal for me. You really have to be a Southern Californian to appreciate that comment.

I just got in my travel lane and cruised along at the speed limit and stayed there. Naturally, there has to be the jerk and Monday was no exception. This less than fully evolved life form came speeding up behind me and braked sharply. He then had the gall to flash his headlights at me for only driving at the speed limit. I would point out there were two open lanes of traffic to my right hand and it would have been easier for him to simply pass me. After a minute of my “slow driving,” jerk head pulled around me and roared off in a cloud of unburned gasoline fumes.

I managed to catch up to jerk head about five minutes later on.

Jerk head was parked on the side of the freeway having a pleasant holiday morning chit chat with two members of the California Highway Patrol.

That was so sweet.

You will recall my foolish excessively wonderful lunch of a Tommy’s Hamburgers Mega-Combo lunch from yesterday. It was sort of a mistake for me. I had too much caffeine in the Pepsi Cola and I had trouble getting to sleep last night. I can normally fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow. Last night, I went to bed around 10:00 PM and I was still flopping around at 1:30 AM. What dinner I had was light; I only had a sandwich and a banana for dinner.

The Big Guy gave me another samurai film for my birthday. This film is called Sword of Doom. It has a sort of “man with no name – fist full of dollars” feel to it. This is because it preceded those films and appears to have influenced their directors.

Sword of Doom is not your Kurosawa samurai film. It was more like how Brian di Palma would make a samurai film. I was reminded of Scarface for the almost mindless violence and self destruction and Taxi Driver for the relentless self destruction. It is a very violent film. I think the body count was way over a hundred or more; it was hard to tell in some scenes that were murky or fog shrouded in the ever present Japanese forest just before the foreseeable ambush.

I really enjoyed the film and will probably watch it again soon. It was that good.

The Sword of Doom liner notes commented about a samurai trilogy DVD set. I have seen the set before in my favorite DVD store, DVD Planet.com but had always passed it bye. Now, I think I will take a much closer look at the set the next time I am at DVD Planet.

On the subject of DVDs, there are two interesting DVD boxed sets on sale now. One is the Gary Cooper Collection and it is very promising. The other one is the Steve McQueen Collection. I expect I will be adding then to my DVD collection soon enough.

Going back to work today was not too hard. It is easy to go to work when you live alone and work provides ten hours of adult company everyday.

Most of the day seemed to be spent in discussing how the three day long weekend went with each of the office co-workers. As far as I can tell, everyone had a great time. Perhaps some had a greater time than others.

Vivian the Office Assistant returned from her trip to the People’s Republic of China. She went there on vacation in part and to go shopping for furniture in part. It was nice to have her back at work. She helps make the office a bit more lively and fun place to be.

I got more phone calls today than I did all of last week. I don’t get that many calls so six calls in a day is a lot for me. Since no one called to yell at me, they were all good calls.

I think I am going to pack it in now gentle readers. My lack of sleep from last night is catching up with me.

Be well and stay happy.

Memorial Day Weekend Update

Hello gentle readers.

It is time for the big Memorial Day Weekend Update. I hope you all had a good weekend.

On Saturday, I was nervous about the Girl Friend meeting the Big Guy. I have been with the Girl Friend for about a year and a half now. She and I went out previously but we had our troubles so we stopped seeing each other. Now , we are back together.

In the interests of full and fair disclosure, the Princess can not stand the Girl Friend and refuses to be anywhere near her.

I will obviously have to address this condition at some point. Fortunately, the Princess lives on the other side of the country so there are few opportunities for interaction. The Girl Friend accepts that idea of me going off with the kids when the Princess is home.

Anyway.

I got up early instead of sleeping in on Saturday. I was productive and did two loads of laundry. I feel cleaner now and I cleaned up my place. The “office space” where I write these blogs looks like it was hit with a Richter Scale 7.0 earthquake. Eventually, I will clean this space as well.

After I finished the cleaning and other stuff, I finished off a book I was reading. It was a book I bought for myself as a “from me, to me” birthday gift. The book is titled Mimi and Toutou’s Big Adventure. It’s not what you might think it is about. The book tells the story of a naval battle in East Africa between England and Germany during The Great War. The historical events were later made into the classic film, The African Queen.

It was a fascinating story and very interesting. I am not suggesting that you all go out and purchase a copy of the book or check it out of your local library because it is not likely to be there. I enjoyed it, in part, because I love naval history books. The Princess gave me two books on the Royal Navy’s influence on England’s empire for my birthday.

The end of Chuckay, the month long celebration of all things Chuck, concluded with the traditional dinner at Morton’s the Steakhouse. As the name implies, it is definitely not the place for vegetarians; it is for beef lovers. This is something the Big Guy and I have been doing since 1993 when we observed his birthday with a dinner at Morton’s.

Not surprisingly, we both had excellent beef. The Girl Friend opted for some jumbo shrimp. Everything about the meal was excellent.

The Big Guy observed that this was the first time in a very long time that our server was really hot. We had a subsequent discussion on Monday over lunch and concluded that she was probably a Latina. Excellent. This may also explain why the Girl Friend was on the cool side towards her.

Amy the server was shamelessly tip flirting with me. The Big Guy and I clearly recognized this behavior. She was extremely attentive towards me and brought me an extra scoop of ice cream during dessert.

I asked Amy if the restaurant was going to have another steak and lobster special this Summer. When she said they were, the Big Guy and I were clearly excited because we just love this special. I said we should have a “guy’s night out at Morton’s” with the Big Guy’s film friends.

Amy said that we should definitely ask for her when we make our reservations. She went out of her way to make the point perfectly clear that she wanted to be our server. I think she was already calculating the tip she might make off of a party of eight, hungry, happy young men and young thinking men [that would be me]. Then, The Big Guy told me that Morgan [one of the film friends was a girl]. I said that was fine; she was a student film maker and that made her eligible for the dinner.

This created an immediate problem for the Girl Friend because she was not going to be invited to join the group.

The Big Guy came to my rescue like the cavalry in a John Ford – John Wayne western. He told her how I had supported the guys and their efforts like showing up at 6:00 AM on a Saturday for morning for a couple of hours of shooting some scenes for Robin’s film as well as calling into the Super Chocolate Power Hour radio show that Robin, Coulter, and Derek. The Girl Friend was still not happy but at least she understood why I had made my decision to leave her home.

I think she had gotten over being excluded from the steak and lobster dinner by the time we drove back to my place. We continued to celebrate my birthday there for several more hours.

I eventually took her home and I crawled into my bed around 1:30 AM Sunday morning.

I did not do too much on Sunday. I did sleep in and that was good. After I got up, I had breakfast and then went to the market for my weekly shopping. I like to shop on either Saturday or Sunday morning because the store is fairly empty and I get around quickly.

I picked up some steaks and chicken to bar-be-que on the grill. I now have enough meals for almost two weeks packed away in the refrigerator and freezer. I ate some grilled chicken with baked beans and potato salad for dinner on Sunday.

It tasted soooooo good to me.

Had I not gone to lunch [more about this later on] with the Big Guy today after seeing Episode III with digital projection, I would have had chicken tonight for my dinner.

The rest of Sunday was spent in catching up with my email and reading the accumulated magazines.

As I mentioned, I saw Episode III today. The Big Guy was not that happy with the film but this was an expected outcome since he is now a Film Studies major and he never was a big fan of the series.

Standing in line to buy my tickets was a dreadful experience for me today. I was behind some loud, obnoxious, fat, albino, blob from the Midwest who was out in California visiting family I guess. He was complaining about everything; it was too hot in California, there were too many people here, he hated standing line, and he was complaining about the screening of Episode III not being digital when it was shown on an IMAX screen. He should have stayed home.

I think he was with his brother who had a really bad dye job on his hair, you could see about a half inch of grey hair under a dark brown dye. Fortunately for me and the Force must have been with me, he and his family of ungratefuls did not end up in my screening.

I will agree with the Big Guy that the film could have benefited from some serious, major script doctoring and probably some better direction. I think the film could have been cut by 15 to 20 minutes and still not lost anything. I mean, how long can you look at light sword fights? There was only one, really big sword fight in The Adventures of Robin Hood. I think Hayden Christensen [Skywalker – Vader] needs acting lessons because he still looked like a stiff on the screen. Of course, that could have been the way Lucas wanted him to play the part.

In the end, I told the Big Guy that I was satisfied with the result. I will probably buy Episode III when it comes out on DVD in time for the Holidays. I don’t see myself buying a complete boxed set of all six episodes; that would be a waste of money in my mind.

After the film was over, I drove over to Preppie’s [the ex-wife] house to pick up the Big Guy so we could go do lunch. We ended up at Tommy’s Hamburgers and that was an excellent choice on the part of the Big Guy.

The Big Guy ordered a Mega-Combo meal. I was swept up in the food rush and ordered the same. I should have made another selection. The Mega-Combo is three slices of beef, three slices of cheese, two slices of tomatoes, onions, lettuce, and chili; a portion of chili cheese fries and a 44 ounce / 1.3 liters soda drink. The chili is on the spicy side. I needed all of the soda drink.

Burp, burp, burp.

It was a wonderful but excessive meal. I will have a light dinner tonight, if I get hungry for more food.

On the way back to his house, we stopped at South Coast Plaza. He wanted to go hit the Paul Frank store for new tee-shirts but nothing caught his fancy.

I hit the Davidoff cigar store and picked up two $21.00 cigars. I have never bought a cigar that cost more than $4.00 before. I wanted to try one or two.

I had one when I came home from South Orange County. I was an excellent cigar but I don’t see myself as buying them on a regular basis; maybe once every Chuckay is often enough for me.

And so, gentle readers, that was my holiday weekend. I enjoyed myself and am looking forward to the next long weekend which will be the 4th of July, our Independence Day celebration.

Be well and stay happy.

Justice was served today

Hello gentle readers.

Today was one of those really great days that makes you feel proud to be a law abiding American.

In Kalifornia or California, we have a program that allows cars with two or more passengers priority to get on a freeway. The rest of us with just a driver in the car have to wait our turns at the metered on-ramp. I was sitting there, waiting in line, when this clown, all alone in his car, ignores the car pool only lane law and drove onto the slow moving freeway without going through the meter process.

Right in front of the California Highway Patrol black and white cruiser that was parked, waiting for someone like him to drive by. The cruiser popped on its lights and nailed the driver before he even got into a traffic lane. By the time I got on the freeway, a few minutes later, the officer was in the exchange of information and "please sign your $271 ticket" phase.

That was so EPIC!

It made going to work pleasurable to know that there is Justice in this world of ours.

I learned, in an e-mail exchange with the Princess, that Southerners do observe our Memorial Day and remember their men who died in support of "the cause." I suppose the red neck stores do a brisk business in Confederate battle flags about now.

I scored the Bloc Party tickets for the Big Guy this morning with no trouble at all. He was nervous that all of the L.A. hipster wanna be's would suck up all of the tickets and he would be left out in the cold.

He was very relieved when I told him that he had his tickets. He put up a modified posting in his blog saying it was OK to buy tickets to see Bloc Party because "I gots mine."

There is only one minor detail that he has yet to work out; what to do with the fourth ticket I ordered for him. If you will recall from last night, I suggested he invite Annie the Ghost Blog Writer to join him there; not as a date, but like two friends meeting somewhere. I will have to ask him what he will do with the ticket when I see him on Monday.

I have been working on two loans at work. Both of the loans would fall into a brand new credit program at the Bank. If I did well, I would be happy. One of the loans fell apart because of conditions with the borrower. I was sort of glad the deal blew up because it was a marginal, stretch deal.

The other loan is really solid and strong. It will be an easy loan to get approved because it is almost bullet proof. It is far easier to get a straight forward, simple, first time deal approved than it is to jump through a gazillion hoops trying to make a deal work out.

The weekend is shaping up nicely for me. I should get out of work early tomorrow. That is nice except I have to drive home on the crowded freeway. Still, leaving work early is leaving work early.

Saturday is the big Chuckay Dinner Celebration event with the Big Guy and the Girl Friend. I plan to kick back and do some work around the house during the day to build an appetite for the big steak dinner at Morton's the Steakhouse.

Sunday is sleep in-day. I will blob around and not do much of anything except maybe a little reading and I may smoke a cigar on the balcony. If the weather is fairly decent, I will bar-be-que some chicken or beef or both on the barbie Sunday afternoon or evening. The idea of cold bar-be-qued chicken with potato salad and baked beans does sound very tasty to me. I was thinking about this on the way home tonight and it sounded just plain yummy to me.

Monday is Star Wars - Episode III: Revenge of the Sith day. I will see the movie on a big screen with a digital projection in the morning and then catch up with the Big Guy for some lunch. Lunch will either be at Albertacos, Fatburger, or Tommy's hamburgers.

I asked the Big Guy what his thoughts were on the food venue when I told him about his tickets. He was noncommittal about where we would go to eat. Any one of the three is fine with me.

I hope you all have a great weekend. If you live in the United States and enjoy your freedoms, remember to thank a veteran for what you enjoy.

Be well and stay happy.

FA Cup and other errata

Hello blogistas.

Hopefully, tonight's blog will get uploaded in a timely manner. Last night, I got caught in the blogspot.com fancy fandango dance of the whirling servers that blocked me and a bunch of other people including the Big Guy.

I was surprised to see that Arsenal and Manchester U played to a nil - nil [0-0] tie in the FA Cup championship match that Arsenal won on penalty shots. I would have thought one of the teams would have scored a goal during the regulation play period.

First, the Boston Red Sox win the World Series in American baseball; now, Arsenal wins the FA Cup. It has been a crazy year in sports. I wonder what else will happen in sports.

On the subject of Manchester U, now that an American owns the team or 76% of the team, does this mean the Big Red Machine will have cheerleader girls on the sidelines for next season? Mrs. Beckham is probably available and knows something about performing in public. Fascinating to think about; at least from my point of view.

Holy hypocrisy Batman!

The National Football League "may have concerns" about Glazer's [owner of the NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneers] purchase of Manchester U because a casino is going to be built next to the U stadium.

Hey, NFLers, people bet on sports. Betting on sports has been legal in the United Kingdom for years and as far as I can recall there have been no point shaving scandals like we have in the States periodically.

The NFL has more important problems to resolve. First of which is not bringing a lamo team of has beens and never wases to Los Angeles. I won't pay an arm and league to go see a crummy team play. I like being able to vegge out on Sunday and watch three of the four free television games.

The baseless sounding Prelude rolled over at 320,000 miles tonight on the way home from the office. It was cool to see all of those zeros roll over together. I figure by the time I reach 400,000 miles I will be ready to buy a new car. Then, I will have three cars to drive.

My Search for Extra Terrestial Intelligence search routine has done 780 search analysis. I have not found any intelligent life out there but maybe some body will some day.

The Big Guy called me with his ticket order for the Blocparty event. He just needs three tickets. I thought he should have invited his blog ghost writer Annie since she seems to like the same kind of music. As often happens, my suggestion was accepted and then discarded as being unworkable or impracticable.

Life goes on and I am getting myself ready for the big Chuckay Dinner on Saturday. I have been eating salads, soup, and turkey lately so I will be primed and ready for the slab o' steak on Saturday.

Why is it that the spell check program from blogspot does not recognize "blog"? Why doesn't the spell check program from blogspot learn words when you click on the "Learn" button? Inquiring minds want to know.

Editorial note: Weekend Update that normally appears on Sunday will appear on Monday because of the long Memorial Day weekend.

For those of you who are in the United States, Memorial Day celebrates the sacrifices that were made during our Civil War. Over 500,000 Americans died in a conflict that often pitted brother against brother. What started out as a war to preserve the Union ended up with the abolition of slavery.

The Big Guy said I should watch the season end episode of Lost tonight. I haven't seen an episode all year long so how will I be able to follow the season ender? Probably not very well. I could watch it and then ask him to explain it on Monday when I see him for lunch. I guess I ought to get myself organized if I am going to watch the program.

Be well and stay happy.

Big Shout Out

I need to give a big shout out to the readers from the Big Guy's blog, skeetonmischa, that came over and visited the Dad's blog on Monday. It's always nice to see new readers.

I don't think these new readers will stay around since I do not write about modern music or college life. I don't even know who or what group I would write about.

The Big Guy just called Dad and asked if he could order some tickets to see Blocparty when they play here in June. He wasn't sure of how many tickets he needed or what day for that matter. I did point out that those data points were semi-critical since I had no desire to buy out the house on both nights. He did promise to get back to me after he hears from his friend. I think his friend has to check with his girl friend first.

Oh yeah, one other big point. He said his blog was MIA [missing in action and not M.I.A., some rock group/band/singer] right now [7:30 PM PDT] because blogspot.com was moving some sites around on the servers today. It looks like his was one of those that temporarily unavailable.
One of the groups that I like is the Rolling Stones, the world's greatest rock and roll band. I am actually toying with the idea of scoring a couple of tickets to their November [dress warmly] outdoor evening concert here in Los Angeles. The real question is who do I take with me to the concert?

Moving along.

I finished up my PowerPoint presentation that I started yesterday. I added another 5 pages so it is now 76 slides long. It has no slick animation or colorful graphics or sounds. Just a whole bunch of meaningful text.

The Big Guy was not pleased with his viewing of Episode III yesterday; you really need to read his description at http://skeetonmischa.blogspot.com to really appreciate the trials he went through. If I were Oliver Stone, I would looking under every seat in the theater for conspirators. I can't imagine how ugly that must have been. The twenty minutes of advertisements is dull and boring.

I put a call into my old friend's office very early this morning to let her know about the near perfect job. So far, it is almost 12 hours later and she has not returned my call so I guess she is either out of town or not very interested. Anyway, I have done my Boy Scout's good deed for the day by telling her about the job.

Bye the bye, did I ever mention that I was in the Boy Scouts and that I am an Eagle Scout? Yes, that's all true. My brother and I received our Eagle awards together. It was the first time in the town's history that had happened.

Full and fair disclosure: we lived in a small town but there must have been a couple of hundred boys involved in Scouting in the town when we were active but that was a long time ago.

The Big Guy went to see another film today. It was an English film called Layer Cake. It was not a great viewing experience for him. He has gone to see two films this week and both were disappointments.

Not a good sign.

Maybe the film gods were angry and he needs to make an offering to the film gods by burning a really bad script on a pile of celluloid film.

I need to go pay some bills tonight so I can kept the lights on and my Internet connection alive.

I guess blogspot is having some greater troubles tonight. I am unable to toss this blog up so maybe you will read Tuesday blog on Wednesday or later. I will try to post this after I struggle with the bills.

Be well and stay happy.

Helping the Big Guy Pick Wine

Good evening gentle readers.

Or whatever is the proper time based greeting for you when you read today's effort in writing.

The Big Guy tossed up one of his massive blogs today. Let's just say he and I have a different style of writing. I use spell check and I do try to proof read what I post so that it makes sense.

Sometimes reading one of his blogs is like playing the role of Dr. Daniel Jackson on Stargate SG-1 when he is trying to figure out what some ancient set of symbols mean. Do the symbols mean "Don't touch this knob whatever you do or you will blow up this planet?" or does it mean "base volume control?"

Anyway, the Big Guy was thinking about going to the Hollywood Bowl, an open air concert venue in Los Angeles. One of the benefits for battling with the flying insects is that you can bring in your own food and liquor without being hassled by the gate guards. You do have to look over 21 if they see you carrying in a bottle but beyond that you are OK just so long as you don't get out of control.

He was thinking that he would need some wine if he took Ms 2005, a hot O.C. female to be named later. He posted that he would have to ask Dad for some help. I tossed up two choices for him, a Pinot Noir and a Sauvignon Blanc, both from the Central California Coast. Then, the Big Guy would be just like Jack and Miles.

I think the first choice for Ms 2005 might be Rachel Bilson although I would opt for Devon Aoki, if I were his age.

Surprisingly, work went by fairly well today. My office phone did not ring once today so I got a lot accomplished before noon. I finished off a 70 slide PowerPoint presentation this morning that I have to give in early June. My handouts will be something like 200 pages, maybe a little less, when you add in the PowerPoint, the learning material, stuff to take back to the office, and exercises.

Tomorrow, I need to finish off the learning material so I can be ready to distribute the material in advance of the training session. I don't feel like make copies of the material except for my bosses. The attendees have photocopy machines in their offices; they can make their own copies. Besides, I don't want to use half of case of paper making copies for everyone else. I need to protect my cost center and avoid the expenses.

The only call I had today was from the Big Guy. He was killing time before he went into see Star Wars Episode III this afternoon.

I talked to him after the show. He said the film had its moments but it could not sustain his interest over the course of the film. The Big Guy said it was better than Episode I or II but I am not sure that is much of a compliment.

I am more of a die hard Star Wars fan and so I will probably be fine with the film when I see it this coming weekend, when the crowds are all watching something else. I have no idea what they may be watching since most of last week's film fell apart in the box office.

I was reading one of my trade newspapers this evening. I saw a job ad that would be perfect for an old friend. It is perfect because it is only a ten minute drive from her house. Any commute in Los Angeles that is under 30 minutes is near perfect. I phoned her and left her a message about the job opening.

I hope you all had a fun weekend like I did gentle readers.

Be well and stay happy as I buzz off to read and wait for the old friend to call me.

Weekend Update

Hello gentle readers.

It is Sunday evening here in Southern California and time for the Weekend Update. First, the weather, it was sunny and warm all weekend long [75F/24C] with a steady breeze. Perfect weather for smoking a cigar and reading on the balcony.

I wore one of my new shirts to work on Friday. The company has a business casual dress policy on Fridays. Most of the female staffers thought I looked fine. I felt that I made a great choice with the design selection.

It was time for service on the Honda Prelude. The car has about 320,000 miles/515,000 kilometers on the gauge. I was pleased that there was nothing out of order that needed fixing beyond the usual and planned repairs. I did have to replace the disk brake pads but they wear out so it was better to replace them when I was at the dealership than to have to make a second trip just for that.

I waited for the Prelude to be repaired since I had no one to pick me up and then bring me back when the car was finished. I used my time productively and read. I read the local newspaper, two magazines, and around 100 pages in a book. I did a lot of reading for three hours.

I did call The Princess since it had been a while since I spoke with her. She was fine when I caught up with her. We talked about some plans I had thought about for when she is California in July on vacation. She thought my idea was a good one.

Of course, she could have been humoring dear old Dad and trying to make him feel good.

Speaking of feeling good, I was feeling good when I was reading a newspaper article on a big car race. It seems that more of the cars in the Indianapolis 500 Race will be powered by Honda than any other manufacturer. In fact, there are only three engine manufacturers; the other two are Toyota and Chevrolet. It looks it will be a Japanese engine manufacturer again this year in the winner's circle.

Honda did a wonderful job building the engine for my Prelude and that is one reason why I enjoy driving the car so much. It is fun to drive and it gets great gas mileage.

Saturday, I took the Girl Friend to the theater and she took me out to dinner for my birthday. Her choice of restaurants was not well thought out. It has a very well deserved reputation for being slow. We were seated early for our reservation and yet we barely finished our dinner in two hours. Our server was working with an evil attitude and being pleasant was a major struggle for her.

Then, the Girl Friend almost got us lost on our way to the theater. Fortunately, I had a better sense of direction and was able to make a nifty mid-course correction and arrive at the theater in plenty of time.

The Big Guy doesn't call me The Navigator for nothing.

The play was "My Fair Lady" and I thought the cast did a very good job. The Girl Friend thought the actress who played Eliza Doolittle was not the most attractive one of the stage. I thought that was an out of place comment since the Girl Friend never played the lead in any play she was in as far as I know. The Girl Friend compared this actress to Audrey Hepburn. Hepburn was probably more attractive in her prime but then this actress sung all of the songs herself and that counts with me.

Anyway, the play is over and that is that.

I was going to see Episode III today at my local multi-plex with its 22 screens and 6 showing Episode III. None of the 6 screens were digital and that was a major disappointment for me. The Big Guy said digital was the only way to see the film and, since he is a Film Studies major at university, I tend to agree with him.

I will go see the film over the upcoming Memorial Holiday weekend. There is a digital screen near his home and then we can go grab some tasty comfort food afterwards.

And so, gentle readers, that was my weekend. I do hope you also had a pleasant and warm weekend wherever you are.

Be well and stay happy.

I feel like a teacher tonight

Hola Blogistas.

Well, it is Thursday night and that is very good.

Tomorrow is Cannes Donut Friday. Normally, I only celebrate Donut Friday on the first Friday of the month and tomorrow is obviously not the first Friday of the month. Since half of the office is away, those of us that are still there need some sugar to keep going on.

Well, it does sound nice and sort of noble.

I feel like a teacher because I spent the day doing a lesson plan. I have to conduct a one day training session on business lending sometime between now and the middle of June. I do know where the session will be held and that I am the main attraction or presenter if you will.

So far, I have my main points outlined and the time schedule placed alongside of the topical subject matter. Assuming everyone is fully prepared before the session starts like the participants will be told to do, I should be finished in the scheduled time.

But, I know from prior experience that one or more of the attendees will show up unprepared. At least one will ask questions simply for the joy of hearing their voice and contributing nothing except to prove they may be depriving a village of its idiot.

Tomorrow, I will work on the PowerPoint Presentation and then I will finish up my lecture notes over the weekend.

One of the other film finance lenders and I went to make a call on one of their major customers today. It was what I call a "Rodney Dangerfield" business call. Their other bank was showing them no respect. We came up with a solution to their service complaint or disappointment in less than a week; actually, it took me only a day and a half to complete the solution. The guys from the client were very pleased with the simple effectiveness of my solution. Now, the major players need to negotiate all of the details before anything can go forward.

I have to take my Prelude in for major service and that is four hours out of my Saturday morning. The dealership usually has some crummy program playing on the waiting room television. I can do my lecture notes instead and be creative.

I will miss the FA Cup match from England on Saturday morning. I had entertained thoughts about getting up early and watching the match from an English ex-patriot community pub. The thought of bangers and mash with warm beer at 6:00 AM just struck me as being oh so wrong. Now, I won't feel guilty about missing the Cup match. I do hope Arsenal prevails over Manchester United.

This weekend is likely to avoid the near train wreck I experienced just a few days ago. For one, the Girl Friend and I are not going shopping. I have theater tickets for Saturday and she is taking us out to dinner at what she thinks is a very fine restaurant. I will wait and see.

We will see either My Fair Lady or Smoky Joe's Cafe. I have see both musicals before so there are no surprises here. I could go look up what is playing I will wait until I show.

Sunday is Episode III day.

All of which means my Weekend Update on Sunday will likely be on the thin side. I suppose many of you will be out watching Episode III this weekend as well.

Be well and stay happy and "May the Force be with you."

Nothing much to say tonight

Hello gentle readers.

It's Wednesday night and that means the week is half over. Excellent.

Since I am here, plodding away at a blog, then I am not in line to go see Episode III at midnight. I drove past a multi-plex on my way home tonight. It was only around 6:30 PM and already there was a line. Some of those in line were wearing Star Wars costumes.

I think it is just fine for a small child under the age of 12 to dress up in a costume from time to time, like at Halloween for example. Adults who do this are not normal and should be closely watched.

I spoke to the Big Guy today. I received his car license renewal paperwork and wondered how to get it to him. He is cruising into his finals week but only has to take two finals so he is not struggling now. I was going to suggest I drive out and give him the car tags and then go grab some lunch at either Fatburger or Albertaco.

The Big Guy suggested that I wait until we get for the end of the Chuckay Celebration Dinner on the 28th. That works for me.

The Big Guy also heard my telephone call in the Super Chocolate Power Hour radio show from Chapman University last night. He thought I did well with my call.

And, I can go see Episode III on Sunday. Hopefully, without too many small children present but I doubt that I will be that lucky.

It was almost like a tomb at work today. Half of the office was either out of the country on a business trip, in a class, or on vacation. The place were I have my office finances films so a bunch of the staffers are at the Cannes Film Festival. That would be nice to do some day I think.

I need to check out a nifty concept the Big Guy started this week. He has a ghost blogger, Annie, writing some of his blogs. That sounds cool. Maybe I could find someone who could do links and photos so my blog would be even better. That might even attract a wider group of readers. I think Annie adds a new perspective to his blog. She spells her words correctly and I think she proof reads her posts. The Big Guy just tosses it up and lets it all drain through.

Oh well, life goes on and so do I. Time for me to go read some more of my birthday books the Princess sent me.

Be well and stay happy.

hello all

Hello everyone.

Actually, it's more like "hello you gentle band of bloggers."

My trip yesterday to the company headquarters was successful, except for the crummy three plus hours I spent on the road. Driving in traffic is never any fun. Plus, it was hot for most of the drive and then it got cloudy and humid when I got to San Diego.

The company likes what I have done and it going to go to the Board of Directors for approval next month. I think the approval is a formality since most have been asking where is the work and when will it be ready.

The bad consequence of the program acceptance is the company wants to have all of the training completed in a month or less. This means creating and developing training materials and holding the classes. One of the major challenges will be getting some of the trainees to read the materials in advance of the sessions and then to pay attention to the presentation that will last all day.

I will be the one who does the presentation. Just like being back in the classroom except I get paid more than a teacher does.

I took a couple of meetings yesterday and finished up around 5:00 PM. I walked a block to my hotel and changed clothes into something casual after a nice long hot shower. I could have gone for a swim in the ocean if I had brought my swim trunks along with me. That would have been nice except for the sand and stuff on the beach.

I had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was a very slow night; only a handful of the tables were in use and the service still was slow. Waiting ten minutes for a simple glass of ice tea was a bit much. My bacon cheeseburger was good and the fries were hot so that was a plus. It could have had a thicker slice of fresh onion; a full slice would have been an improvement.

I had to cancel a meeting that was scheduled for today because of the trip to San Diego. It is now rescheduled for Thursday. It should be no more 45 minutes long unless I can't explain how the customer can benefit from a simple program.

Tonight is the last night of the Super Chocolate Power Hour on Chapman Radio. As I mentioned before, the on-air cast are all great friends of the Big Guy. I think I am the parental voice of near reason from time to time. I made my last call in tonight; I got in a head of the Big Guy.

Speaking of the Big Guy, I need to give him a big shout out for his epic blog post on Monday [yesterday] at http://skeetonmischa.blogspot.com. I really need to learn how to put in links and photos the way he does. The Big Guy had a great butt shot of Eva Longoria that was taken at Cannes in the Monday blog post. The photo is worth the visit to the blog.

I phoned the Girl Friend to see how she was doing and talk with her about this upcoming weekend. Mostly, the conversation was a monologue from her about things she doesn't like. My name never ever came up except to say she can hardly wait to see me again.

I understand what her troubles are and how to fix them easily. I don't think she wants to take the practical and easy solution. She would not be happy with a simple and highly workable solution so I will be the smart Boy Friend and say nothing unless asked for advice.

If I say nothing, I can't get in trouble now.

I did not sleep all that well last night in San Diego. The bed was firm like I like beds to be but the air conditioner was noisy. I am going to go to bed early tonight because I have a lot to do at work and not very much time to do it in.

Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Update

Hello blogistas

Here is your long awaited for Weekend Update. Actually, it was a slow weekend compared to last week.

All weekend start on Fridays. It being Friday the 13th, you just knew something bad was going to happen.

My bad events happened on my way to work. I was nearly hit twice on the drive to work as two less than attentive drivers tried to change lanes without looking for other traffic. I will admit traffic was light but not that light.

I was lucky and the traffic gods were with me. Maybe it was the Force.

Anyway, moving on to other items.

Vivian the Administrative Assistant Princess [not to be confused with The Princess] was at work when I arrived at 6:35 AM. This was way, way early for her; she was in because of the Cannes Film Festival activity.

She asked to walk with me to get coffee. How could I say no? Any man would be very happy to be seen next to Vivian. She is tall and Asian and looked stunning in a close fitting sweater and low rider jeans. There is nothing a very attractive woman to make a man feel good. Besides, Vivian had made my lunch reservation.

The meeting and lunch went very well I think. We covered a lot of ground in the meeting and we continued it over into lunch. For the record, I ate healthy until dessert. I had a cup of cool tomato soup with celery and parsley. It tasted excellent. Then, I had what the restaurant called a California Cobb salad; it is a very large bowl of lettuce with chunks of chicken, tomato, bacon, avocado, and crumbled blue cheese.

For dessert, I ordered a chocolate raspberry tart with chambord sorbet. Those of you who are regular readers know of my love for chocolate. Instead, I was served a banana custard tart with carmelized bananas on the edge. It was good so I polished it off. One of the group suggested that I send it back to the kitchen. But, since I was more than half way through it, that seemed unreasonable to me.

The Big Guy called me with a research question for one of his papers. He also told that three of his instructors said he did not have to turn in the big project and that he was receiving an "A" in their classes. I told I would do an online search through my college library and see what I could find. I was able to find over 350 articles in a five second search. I emailed him six articles that would allow him to finish off the paper easily. When we talked later, he was really happy because he could easily finish off the paper without having to stretch anywhere.

The Big Guy and two of his friends are going to a concert tonight, lcd soudsystem. Whoever they are, courtesy of Dad's American Express frequent spender points.

My tailor from Hong Kong was in town to pick up orders. I have been buying from him personally since 1972 and from his company since 1968. I have never been disappointed with any order. I met one of my co-workers, who I had introduced to the tailor earlier this year, at the hotel.

It was such a nice way to order a suit. I told him what sort of material I was looking for and what colors. He handed me three books of clothing swatches to select from. I was finished in about twenty minutes with two suits and three casual dress slacks. I passed on ordering shirts, my co-worker ordered five shirts.

I went shopping with the Girl Friend on Saturday. She wanted to buy me some causal shirts and stuff but wasn't sure about sizing, colors, or patterns. It was a near emotional train wreck for me. Like many men, I am particular with what I wear. I was taking my time and considering things carefully. She was continually urging me to consider colors that I would never ever wear. Finally, she decided to go look at shoes while I picked out my shirts. I made three nice selections in about ten minutes.

When she returned, she was very happy with my choices. She should have stopped there but she dragged to the fragrances in an effort to get me to buy something. I don't like that sort of stuff; I rarely wear it. I don't want to smell like a pimp.

Then, we went back to my house for dinner. I cooked fresh halibut in lemon and lime juice [preventing me from catching scurvy] and a spinach pasta with a four cheese alfredo sauce [bottle].I sauteed some asparagus with olive oil and served that with an olive oil, vinegar, Dijon mustard sauce with capers and a diced had boiled egg.

The Girl Friend loved my cooking. She did leave the design on the plates and that was thoughtful of her.

After dinner, we watched my Korean historical serial show. She is even to the point of recognizing some of the characters and the plot lines.

The Girl Friend told me how much she had missed me [it was only a weekend] after the Korean serial was over.

Sunday was a slow day for me. I slept in until almost 9:00 AM but then I was out until just after 1:30 AM so I guess it all balances out.

After I read the Sunday newspaper, I took my Prelude in for a car wash and polish. It is almost 17 years old and it still look good. Besides, it gets great gas mileage and it is paid for now.

Then, I came home and had my lunch and then read on the balcony while I smoked a cigar.

It is getting close to my dinner so I will end here. For the record, I am having leftovers from last night.

Tasty.

I am not certain if I will have a chance to post a blog tomorrow night. I have to go out of town to the bank's head office on Monday and Tuesday and I don't know about the hotel's Internet connection.

Be well and stay happy.
be well and

Is it too soon for a "best of blog" posting?

Hello gentle readers.

I was having one of those mental slows because I had trouble coming up with a title for tonight's effort at writing.

In theory, a "best of blog" posting makes sense. In my case, I am just not sure I have anything that could be called a "best of." I have tried to be fresh and breezy with my ramblings. I don't try for jokes because I know that some of you out there are not from Southern California and might miss out on the inside jokes.

For examples, maybe I should write where I live as Southern Kallifornia, the way our Governator Arnold pronounces the state name.

I played the good dad tonight. The Big Guy wanted to go see a concert put on by "Rilo Kiley." Please don't embarrass me by asking who or what that is or are. I have no idea. I burned some of my American Express frequent spender points to pay for the tickets. The Big Guy calls them "free tickets." I like to think in terms of pre-spent money tickets. Anyway, he is happy and I'm guessing so are two of his friends.

About a third of the office left to go to the Cannes Film Festival so it was very quiet this afternoon. When your business is financing movies, being at a major film festival makes real good business sense except that I did not get an invite to go. That's probably because I don't work in film finance.

I was talking to the Big Guy this afternoon about the Saturday screening of the Robin Brown film, Johnny Benson's Adventure on the Blogosphere. The Big Guy said I should probably wait until the guys put together a combination Bento Production screening of all four films that were made by the members of the group. The Big Guy said some of the student films were screaming train wrecks and not worth watching. Since he is a film studies major with good grades, he should know.

The Big Guy suggested I spend more time with the Girl Friend this weekend instead.

When I told the Girl Friend we would not be going to see my big performance, she giggled and said, "Yummy, more Chuck time for me." If I don't have a great weekend, it won't be for lacking of willing accomplice or the Girl Friend's fault.

Tomorrow will be a good day for me. I have a late morning meeting that includes lunch on the company. The Administrative Assistant Princess made reservations for us at a very nice restaurant in Beverly Hills. Maybe I will see someone famous there.

As the week of blogs draws to a close, the weekend is shaping up very nicely. I get to see my tailor from Hong Kong, spend time with the Girl Friend, smoke in the sun on the balcony on Sunday and generally enjoy myself.

So until the Sunday Weekend Update gentle readers, be well and stay happy.

It's Wednesday and I'm tired

Hello blogistas and gentle readers.

I didn't get to create a blog posting for the faithful last night. Life happens and we move on.

I think I told you that I was going to a charity reception last night where I would see my old Co-Worker. Her company was sponsoring a VIP part of the reception. The general reception was built around the common "taste of ..." concept.

Probably would have had good grub too.

I didn't show up there last night. I missed the good grub and the Co-Worker but avoided the really killer drives on the freeways after work.

I got invited to attend a meeting with one of the bank's biggest customers; actually, it was with the finance guys and those are the ones a banker like me wants to talk with. The meeting was at our office and was scheduled to start at 5:00 PM and last about an hour. At 6:00 PM; leaving my office in Century City to drive to Pasadena would have taken 90 minutes or so, making it 7:30 by the time I would have arrived. The reception ended at 8:00 so all of the good food would be gone by the time I got there. Then, I would have had to drive back home without really eating.

I called the Co-Worker to say business plans came up and I would miss her and the reception. All I got was her voice mail. She does have a sexy voice mail message to listen to.

She called me after she got home from the event and told me how nice it was. She said she would have been able to get me into her company's VIP reception easily. Oh well.

Tuesday, we celebrated my birthday in the office with a chocolate cake that almost vanished before my eyes. Now, you may ask why celebrate on Tuesday when my birthday was Saturday. We couldn't celebrate on Friday because it was Donut Friday and that would have created an ugly sugar high for a bunch of the staffers. Tuesday is when our intern is at the office and we wanted to include her. So Tuesday, it was.

The office staffers will never get any recording contracts based on yesterday's performances.

For those of you who read the Big Guy's blog, http://skeetonmischa.blogspot.com, I should warn you that he had a ghost writer for the next few weeks while he goes through finals.

The Big Guy told me one of his professors told him he didn't have to turn in a term paper and that he was going to receive an "A"for the class. Dad was really proud of the son and told him so. The Big Guy is really enjoying school now that he has a better crop of professors.

I went to the market on my way home tonight because I was running out of food to eat. I really look out of place when I go to market dressed like this. I was the only man in a suit and tie in the market.

Tonight was hit on Chuck night at the market. One short and slim Asian woman with a horde of kids asked me if I could reach the top shelf for her. I said sure because I could see she wasn't going to be able to reach it. She thanked me the stretch and then tried to start up a conversation with me by asking me if I went to that market often. I ditched the conversation since I don't need to get involved with a woman with small children [in elementary or middle schools].

Full and fair disclosure on kids. I like kids; I have two of my own that are grown now. I just don't want to have any more small kids around unless they are called grandchildren and can be quickly returned to their parents when they leak or get hungry.

When I went to check out, the woman in front of me wanted to borrow my market club card because she had forgotten her card in her car. She also tried to start up a conversation but I ruled her out on the grounds of forgetting your house/car keys and leaving them in the car is not too smart. She shared too much information with me.

I have been staying up too late over the last few nights so I am going to wrap this blog up now and get into bed early for a change.

Be well and stay happy.

Gratitude...not for me

Hello gentle readers.

Some of you may remember in my Weekend Update post from yesterday, I mentioned how I had found a near perfect job for an old Co-Worker. There are no perfect jobs except being a baby because all you do is eat, sleep, poop, and pee. Life doesn't get much better than that.

When I spoke to the old Co-Worker this morning, I was figuring that she would be heavy with the thank yous. Boy, was I ever wrong. All she had to say was the department at the company doesn't do a very good job [then think of the transformation you can create] and the turn over rate is high [turnover happens, usually people leave for a better position].

Oh well, I'm over that now.

I got lucky today with my drive into work and back home again. The rain came while I was in the office and I could watch it from my window. It rained hard for about forty minutes or so and then it was over for the day and the rest of the week. By the drive home, it was sunny and life was good.

Tomorrow, I am going to a charity event after work and it will take me close to an hour or more to drive there and then back home. There is nothing special about the event; it is a thank you for prior donations. There will be some grazing type of food[small buffets] but nothing substantial.

So why, you ask , am I going to drive all over town? The Co-Worker will be there. Her company is the main sponsor of the event and she has to show up. She gets to do the "grip and grins" with the donors [meeting and greeting them].

Now doesn't that sound like lots of fun? You get to stand around in the cool of the evening [55F/13C] on the hard pavement and smile at a bunch of people that you do not even know and are never likely to meet ever again. Not my idea of fun; I would prefer a root canal from kindly Dr. Drill N Fill [my dentist] instead.

I was going to write more tonight but I forgot what I was going to say. I must be getting older.

I did get my hair trimmed tonight on the way home. It was nice to see Michelle the Stylist although she was in a crummy mood. No hug as usual; no running her fingers through my hair. I was disappointed but not shattered by her cold shoulder. It was nothing to get excited about but it did give me reason to consider a new stylist either at the same place or go somewhere else.

Tomorrow, we will celebrate my birthday in the office with a cake that I picked out. As some of you may know, I love chocolate so we are having a chocolate cake. I am prepared in case some of the women complain about the chocolate cake. I think I will suggest that they can avoid any troubles by not eating the cake.

I'm not sure if I will be posting tomorrow night. I may not get home until late and, if that happens, I will be too tired to post. Life happens gentle readers. Anyway, I need to get on to other things now.

Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Update

Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday Dear Chuck,
Happy birthday to me.

I had a nifty birthday and, at my age, having any sort of the birthday is excellent. For the record, I turned the ancient 60 on Saturday.

This was a weekend of rest for me. I slept late on both days, staying in bed until 7:30 AM. You have to remember that I get up around 5:00 AM during the work week so 7:30 is late for me. I put my razor away.

My Brother and the Princess phoned me to wish me a Happy Birthday. The Brother was on the road with the Nephew. They were coming home from the Nephew's first year in college. I think the Princess was sort of lazed out in Atlanta.

I started off my weekend by doing good things. I phoned an old Co-Worker to tell her about a job that would be perfect for her. In addition to being a perfect job, it was only about 10 minutes from her home.

What more could a woman ask for?

Lemme see; maybe a caring man who can listen and cook and who can pick up after himself and one that leaves the seat down without being reminded to do that.

Enough about her searches and more about me.

I did some buzzing around a bit on Saturday and Sunday; just going here and there to pick up stuff and so on. I went to the post office and mailed off a bag of Los Angeles Times Sports Sections to the Brother. The Brother lives in San Francisco and he claims the local papers provide little, if any, effective coverage on sports teams outside of the Bay area so I sent him my old copies, once a month. He should have a bundle by Wednesday to read.

My oldest Internet friend sent me a e-card for my birthday. She lives in Johannesburg, South Africa so dropping in for a brew was out of the question. I posted off a box to her that contained a bunch of our Sunday newspaper comics sections. She really enjoys them and doesn't have something like that at home.

She and her brother run a video rental outlet there. I included two sections of the newspaper's Annual Summer Film Preview sections. I ran out of filler to keep the stuff from rolling about while in transit so I tossed in some individual packs of Starbucks Coffee; she loves that as well.

The Big Guy and I went to Albertacos for my birthday lunch. We had our usual lunch: two Number 8s with medium drinks. A Number 8 is two carne asada[chunks of beef, tomatoes, spices, and onions] soft tacos with refried beans and Spanish style rice.

Burp. It truly fills you up.

The Big Guy got me four new DVDs for my birthday. The Princess picked out two, really excellent books on the history of the Royal Navy. When I got home from lunch, I went out on the balcony with one of them and read while I smoked a cigar. I smoked a cigar and read again on Sunday.

The Girl Friend sent me a card and so did another old friend. The other old friend always just puts my last name on the envelops. In this way, I can tell the card is from her always.

The only other useful thing I did this weekend was to put my DVDs in an alphabetical list. The list fills five pages but that is only one title to a line. I should probably count how many DVDs I have now. Judging from how full my storage racks are, I guess that I may have close to 300.

My ultimate goal is to have several thousand by the time I stop working. Then, I will be able to watch a couple of films each day and have a long time before I have to repeat my films.

It looks like I ought to head off to bed now, morning comes early and I may have a drive to the office in rain tomorrow. That would no fun at all.

Be well and stay happy.

05-05-05

I'm back gentle readers. Did you miss me?

Today is May 5th and, unless you are of Mexican descent or live in the Southwest, this is just the day between May 4th and May 6th. Mexican Americans seem to celebrate this date but the reason escapes me.

The Mexican army, such as it was, defeated a larger French army in a poorly generaled battle at Puebla in 1862. So they defeated the French, it took a threat of armed intervention by the United States in 1866 to cause the French to get out of town. President Johnson was prepared to send Philip Sheridan and 25,000 combat veteran regulars across the border to help drive the French from Mexico. The Navy was prepared to blockade the entire Mexican Gulf coast. Of course, a war with France would have meant the United States would have seized the French possessions in the Western Hemisphere and probably elsewhere in the world as well.

Then, someone in Paris realized just how bad things were. If the Americans declared war, their friends the British might do the same and snap up more French territory. Not good, not good at all.

Anyway, I think Cinco de Mayo is a made up holiday created by beer company and restaurants to sell their products. It's a nice way to start the Summer if you are young or at least think that way.

For the record as a full and fair disclosure, I did not watch American Idol, Dr. Phil interview Pat O'Brien, or the American Idol expose on ABC last night.

I was paying bills. More importantly, I still have some money left.

On Tuesday, after I blogged, I tuned into the Super Chocolate Power Hour from Chapman University. The show is put on by three of the Big Guy's friends. You can listen to the remaining few shows by dialing in http://www.chapmanradio.com on Tuesday nights between 8:00 and 9:00 PM Pacific Daylight Time. The show will go off the air at the end of the semester.

I called into the show when they were talking about lobster. I think it was Coulter or Derek who was complaining about lobster not getting good tasting. I pointed out that it is really great when properly prepared as the Big Guy would tell them if he was calling in.

The first question they asked me was if I was calling in for the Big Guy because the show had been on for half an hour and he is a regular caller. I said he was probably late getting home from school and I expected he would be on later. He came on after I left to go study.

This afternoon on my way home, I was thinking a lot about having lobster for my end of Chuckay Celebration Dinner at Morton's in Santa Ana. The more and more I thought about the idea of lobster, the better the idea of having a whole lobster and a small steak for my dinner tasted in my imaginary mouth.

It was very good.

This Saturday is the true Chuckay Day. I will celebrate my birthday with my son at lunch at Albertacos, our favorite Mexican food dive of a restaurant in South O.C. I will stop off at DVD Planet.com to pick up some more DVDs. If I am not too tired by running around, I may give the Girl Friend a call and see if she wants to play around and celebrate. I think she probably will jump at the idea of playing around and celebrating.

Are you one of those people that participate in Internet surveys?

I am.

I started out with Harris Online maybe four years ago and I did one survey every couple of weeks. Now, I am getting two and three surveys a day from one other company. This is almost like spam now. I only participate in one survey every other day now. It is too much of a time drag for me now.

Yesterday, I got a notice from my Hong Kong tailor Andy that he is going to be in town next weekend. I have been buying suits from him since 1972 and he has never ever disappointed me. Last year, I picked up five suits from Andy so I am sort of tapped out for any more new suits. I had thought about replacing a double breasted blazer simply because I was tired of if.

I happened to wear that coat to work today. I checked the label and it was made in 1991. Fourteen years old and it still fits just fine. I decided to keep the blazer since it fits. I think I will probably buy no more than two suits.

Once I bought my first Hong Kong suit, I was spoiled for ever. I could never go back to buying off of the rack. Your suit always fits and never needs any alterations. The style you want is always available. The suit always comes in the right fabric, color, and pattern.

What more could a guy ask for?

The weather was crummy today. It was overcast and cool all day long. I even had some light rain on the drive home and that made everything nasty out there. It should be better for the weekend.

I think I will go do something useful and productive now. I will be off blogging until the Sunday Weekend Update.

Be well and stay happy.

No Blog Tonight

Hello and good bye gentle readers.

I will not be tossing up a blog tonight. I have some other things to do and I need the time to finish these tasks. I will be back tomorrow night with a bigger and better end of the week blog posting.

And, no, I am not going to watch Dr. Phil interview Pat O'Brien. If I wanted to see yelling and people tossing softballs around, I would to a Little League baseball game instead.

Be well and stay happy.

My Close Up

Hello gentle readers.

The Big Guy called me today. He was between classes. I think he was bored and wanted to talk to someone. Dad is always an excellent stand-by when no one else is around.

He had seen the rough cut of the Robin Brown film, Johnny Benson's Adventure in the Blogosphere. If you will recall gentle readers, this was the student film that I had an extra's role of an older American mall walker. The Big Guy said my part did not get left on the cutting room floor.

That was so way cool for me.

The Big Guy went on to say that Robin was sort of planning a showing of the film on May 14th out at his university. The screening will be on a Saturday and so I will be able to go see it. I do need to know the time so I can be there before the curtain goes up.

The Big Guy said there was talk of making the screening a Bento Production and screen all of the Bento films. This would include Coulter's and Derek's films. The Big Guy crewed on all three films.

I particularly want to see Coulter's Zombie film. It's dialogue is all in Russian and it has English subtitles. The Big Guy said it looked really great while it was being shot.

Full and fair disclosure: Robin is the Big Guy's best friend and Coulter and Derek are very close friends of the Big Guy as well.

Robin is also a regular when the Big Guy and I go to Morton's Santa Anafor our periodic steak feasts. I won't gross you out with the details of the 48 ounce / 1.4 kilogram steak eating contest they had one time.

The screening may end up upsetting the Girl Friend. She has plans to take me shopping for my birthday. She wants to buy me some new casual clothes. I figure this is her attempt at remaking me.

At my stage in life, I am so set in my ways that I make the Grand Canyon look like a simple line in the sand. I have no intention of changing anything about myself. I like me exactly the way I am now. Still, it would be an excellent opportunity to score some new Polo or Tommy Bahama threads.

Women should know they can never truly change men. Just look at how hard it is for us to leave the seat down. Changing our dress style is even less likely to happen.

On the plus side, I never nag the Girl Friend when she leaves the seat down.

Anyway, I need to go get organized and listen to the Super Chocolate Power Hour radio broadcast by Robin, Coulter, and Derek. The Big Guy said last week's broadcast was the best one ever. For the record, I was here with you, gentle readers, pounding out my blog posting.

Be well and stay happy.

Cellphones

I have three cellphones.

Strange when you think about that.

I mean, I can only talk on one phone at a time. Oh sure, I could have one phone at each ear and try to carry on two separate conversations at the same time.

That idea is a non-starter.

I only use one cellphone for maybe 95% or more of my calls. So then Chuck, why don't you get rid of the other two?

Fascinating question.

I have had one phone number since 1989 and I have grown attached to it. It used to be the number for the cellphone in my car. I got it back when cellphones were all analog and cost upwards of $700. I kept it because of sentimental values mostly.

My carrier, Verizon, had been working on me to upgrade to a digital phone for several years. I finally took their offer when they gave me a free phone and allowed me to retain the old number. My contract with Verizon expires on Friday and I plan to switch it over to Cingular.

As luck would have it, I got a promotion from Cingular in the mail today. I could get a color screen phone from them for $29 and a two year contract. I can do that and play switch the SIMM cars. I would put the primary SIMM car in the new phone and then put the Verizon SIMM card in the old primary phone.

The other reason to keep the old phone is that it is in the shrinking 213 Area Code. 213 numbers are harder to obtain nowadays.

The only reason to keep the other number is that it has a lot of "8s" in it. Eight is a lucky number in many Asian cultures. If I start seeing an Asian woman, I will use this number to call her. Maybe it will bring me good luck.

Slick.

If I was a rational person, I would only carry one cellphone and not worry about the consequences except for saving money. If I dropped the two unused phone numbers, I think I could save around $250 a year; just enough to cover the Big Guy's next meal at Morton's.

Oh well, it is not that much in the grand scheme of things. Monthly, it is enough the Big Guy and me to go to Tommy's, Fatburger, or Albertacos for a meal. Still, I really should think about saving money.

Be well and stay happy gentle readers.

Weekend Update

Good evening gentle readers.

Or maybe I should say, good morning or good afternoon gentle readers since not all of you live in Southern California. So, wherever you are, I hope you had a good weekend.

May is my birthday month and today, being May 1st, is the start of Chuckay, a month long celebration of all things Chuck.

This is a project that got started with the Big Guy a couple of years ago. Most of our friends, the Big Guy's and mine, do not fully understand what or why we do this sort of thing. They sort of shrug and say that's Chuck and the Big Guy.

For the record, we have already observed the Big Guy's and the Princess' celebrations.

This was a laid back and slowed down weekend for me.

I had toyed with the idea of getting my car washed today. It has several months of grim and dust on it. Then, I checked the weather forecast for my part of the world and we may get rain by this coming weekend.

Cancel the car wash until next weekend.

The Girl Friend and I went to the movies and saw The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. This is a film from the book and BBC radio program of the same name. Some of the humor probably went over our heads. That was fine with us. I liked the CGI animation; I thought it was particularly well done but then I am not an expert on CGI animation.

I will have to wait to find out if I was right after the Big Guy sees the film. Since he is the film studies major at the university, I will wait for his opinion.

We went to an early showing of the film. This allowed us time for an early dinner at one of her favorite places to eat. The food was good and prepared as we asked for. Nice touches.

Because we had an early dinner, we were able to go back to my place and watch my favorite Korean historical drama. The Girl Friend is beginning to get into the series now and recognizes some of the recurring characters.

The Japanese had a chance to demonstrate their ruthless, bloodthirsty, lust for war in Saturday's episode. For no reason at all, the Japanese executed a bunch of unarmed, captive, civilian Korean prisoners. I can almost see some modern day, ultra-nationalist, Korean group sponsoring the series development since it reminds the Koreans how evil the Japanese were or may still be today.

Sunday was a semi-day of rest. I did some laundry because I had to do that. That was about my only work. I did do some reading out on the balcony this afternoon and I smoked a cigar. I had to wear long pants and a sweatshirt because it was cool and breezy.

I think I can put away the long pants in another week or so for the rest of Spring and Summer.

And so, gentle readers, it is time for me to head off to bed because Monday morning is always very early.

Be well and stay happy.