Great, great news...I can stop getting an ulcer over this (maybe). Butch and I went upstairs to our female neighbor, who walks through the backyard. We wanted to let her know that it was not US leaving the dog crap in the yard. She was like, "Yeah, I know you guys clean it up." Anyway, she called the landlord last week to complain about it. But there's crap in the yard again. So we were like, well, maybe we'll call to complain now too. So Butch did, and the landlord was like, well, don't worry about it, because he has a week to get rid of the big dog or move out. Apparently, he told the landlord he had one small dog, and the landlord found out about the shepherd and gave him an ultimatum. So hopefully he'll be gone in a week. That will make me feel soooooo much better. In fact, this morning, when I was walking Kazak back to the house, dude's dogs were in the yard, UNSUPERVISED. Thankfully, they barked at us before I walked into the yard with Kazak, so we went in through the front door. I'll say this much: the next person that moves in will be given the "rules of the road" when they move in. :)

Saw the Starbux Princess while visiting her kingdom yesterday (not actually working) when me and Gina went to get some hot chocolate. Poor Princess was forced to stand around and wait for seating though--shouldn't you be able to kick people out, seeing as it's your kingdom? :)

I'm going to the circus tonight with Gina and a friend of hers. I've never been to the circus, and I bet it will be a good time... :) So now I should work so I can leave a little early to make it on time.

So I read back a couple days, and I never updated you guys on the wedding events. Specifically that I did get to polka with my mom after polka-ing with Gina. My mom and dad were out polka-ing to my favorite polka, "Too Fat Polka," and I was out there with Gina for that song too...then, "The Beer Barrel Polka" came on, and I told Gina, "Hey, I want to polka with my Mom for this one, OK?" She was fine with that, obviously.

So my Mom was walking off the dance floor and I said, "Wait a minute...you have to polka with me, because Grandma's not here." And she's like, "I'm going to have a heart attack if I dance anymore!" but she came out there and polka-ed...and that was nice. Whatever. I told her that I never got to polka with Grandma after she taught me and she was like, "OK." And that was that. Whatever. :)

In other events, I got a nice following for "Baby Got Back," as the legend has leaked to that group of friends. Actually, Gina seemed to be looking forward to seeing me make an ass of myself once again with it. :) But, there was none of that, as usual. :) Actually, one of my "uncles" (not related, but one of my dad's best friends growing up) stopped me and joked that I really knew my stuff out there. My parents were speechless when I walked over to them and said, "So, whaddya think?" and laughed...they know I love the "spotlight." Ha!

Folks also got a kick out of the fact that I can do the "Electric Slide" and how much I get into it, or whatever you want to call it. :) And I think folks got a kick out of me and Gina acting out "You're the One That I Want" from "Grease" on the dance floor--the only bad thing is it was the compilation version, where they play the parts of the three songs, not the whole song, which sucked--including me falling to my knees shaking my hands for the "It's electrifying!" line. :) I'm nuts, but I love it. :)

Back to your regularly scheduled programming...

New column today--one in which I really get on a pedastal. It's also longer than usual...but at least I feel strongly about something. The forum posts ought to be real good. :)

"24" SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!


Well, I'm crushed. Damned "24" writers basically killed off my favorite character, Tony Almeida. Stunned me, because they threw it at the end. Dude got shot in the freakin' neck, which is not automatically fatal, of course, but it basically takes him out of this season--he's done. You don't recover from a neck shot in 21 hours. And the worst thing is, I have no other real "allegiances" in this show as strong as I did with Tony. He was my favorite character, bar none. If the show were more popular, I'd have been him for Halloween. Alas, he's gone.

Went to Hawkeye's with Luis yesterday and updated him on my life--I've neglected him, and I apologized for it too. He said it was no big deal and that he's been busier too because of actually having a job and stuff. So he understood. And that's great.

He was happily telling me how much I've seemed to have changed in the past six months. How better my life seems to be than what it had been--that I'm not lazy about things like my appearance or anything else. That I look better and dress better than I ever had before. I think it's for a number of reasons, including change of scenery, new friends, and overall improved and proactive living conditions.

I also think that people "think" I've improved because I look different--new hairstyle(s) and clean-shaven. And I'm probably smiling a lot more. :) And when they come to my apartment, they see all the "stuff" that I have--dining room set, kitchen utensils and cookware and such--and they're surprised that I have that stuff. But I've had it since living in Missouri. I just never used it in The Brook. That's because, even though I stayed there three years, I always viewed it as a temporary stop--so I never fully unpacked. I view this new place differently, and I have enough room for all this "stuff" that I have.

But I told Luis, I've not changed. I'm no different a person than I was before. No one is making me do these things or teaching me how to be a better person. At least not without my permission. That person always was inside me, I just never needed to let it out before. I may not be the most stylish person in the world, but I CAN be. I may not have been the cleanest person in the world in Bolingbrook, but I am now, now that I have to keep things clean and in order because i have a roommate and we have visitors more often than I ever did in The Brook. I've always desired "decorations" on my walls and in my living space, and I never, ever said I couldn't appreciate ANY art...I just never had an outlet to display those things. Now I do.

Luis understood what I was saying, for once...and he agreed. I also said, that doesn't mean that I don't need advice picking out clothes and things, or decorations or whatever...I'm not that wise to that stuff. I'll go shopping with people and have them point out stuff they like, and I might buy it. I'll take fashion advice from folks, or entertaining advice from folks (such as, you need a bowl, or this kind of glassware or whatever) any time. I'm not well-versed on that stuff, per se, but I do know a few things and my tastes, though people do tease me about it sometimes, are not as faulty as some think. :) As one dear friend told another about me, I'm "rough around the edges." ;) But I am willing to learn, always. And that's the key. Finding people who enjoy helping me with that stuff and do have some sort of good taste. :)

Oh yeah, ACB, I used your housewarming gift to buy a coat hook rack for the wall, to hang our coats on that has a little shelf above it too, so we can "decorate" or whatever. And I also bought a frame for a piece of "art" featuring Chicago's tallest buildings, in order, that PolishBasia bought for me a while ago but I'd never framed. Now I can proudly display it, because it's a very nice piece. So now, I have to hang these things up somewhere sometime. :) I also need to buy a clothes hamper soon...I'm looking at the ones with three compartments. That would be nice...because right now my closet floor is stacked with dirty clothes, and that's not good. At least the hamper will "organize" my dirty clothes.

You're probably wondering where I've been all this time. Well, let's play the feud!

Saturday was the wedding, and it went quite well. Everyone had fun and everyone liked everyone. Gina and I left around 1am and hung out at my place until 6am, talking about really important things and really not important things. It was great. Except for the fact that I had to get up at 9am to get some pre-work work done before going to work at 11.

I nearly fell asleep on several occasions at work on Sunday, even though I'd bought a Starbucks caramel macchiatto, a 2-liter of Mountain Dew and two bottles of Sobe Power (which gives me limitless energy). I struggled through work and got home at 4am on Monday morning.

I slept until about noon, and didn't do much the rest of the day, really. I ordered a pizza for dinner and picked it up at my favorite "Chicago-style" pizza joint, Giordano's. So I have a small deep dish pizza in the fridge for leftovers. Yeehaw! :) I went to the Bulls game at 7:30 with Jim, Jim's bro Dave and Crissy and Todd, who are in town from Hawai'i...it was good to see them all again and the game was cool. Though I've really come to not like basketball as much as I used to. I don't know why. I was pissed at the game, because there are these floodlights in the ceiling that randomly flash--it was like watching a game in a lightning storm. And I could figure out why they were flashing, because they weren't timed with the music or with, say, a shot or a play or a pass or anything like that. It was odd, and it was quite distracting, honestly.

After the game, I walked from the United Center down to Ashland and Taylor to meet Billy and Butch at Hawkeye's. Gina met us there after that. We hung out, chatted, ate some wings (well, I ate some wings) and left. Gina stopped at my place and we watched "South Side Andy and the Baha'i Temple." She laughed at parts of it, which is good. :)

Now, I'm at work...yippee, as usual. :) I still have no TV at home, which sucks because "24" is on tonight...I'll have to have Luis tape it or something, I guess. But we shall see what happens...