I'm tired, I've been drinking since nine o'clock, my wife is vomiting, there's been a lot of screaming going on around here!

After Persepolis, decided to take in something a little lighter for Sunday afternoon. Saw a performance of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" at Durham's own Common Ground Theater.

Yes, it's animated, but it's not for children.

Discovered a neat way to spend a summer night. Movies, outside, at the North Carolina museum of art (provided it doesn't get rained out, which it almost did this night). $3. Bring a blanket and some bugspray.

The Set Up


The movie screened was Persepolis. It's an animated film, but it's not a kiddie flick. Far from that. It's about a girl growing up in Iran.

And I bought a blender.

And enjoy protein infused smoothies for breakfast, lunch, and dinner all weekend long.

Work, Work, Work.

Pizza Night, Take Six

Lilly's, located in Five Points area in Raleigh was the venue of choice for Pizza Night #6.

During the meal, Lilly's was definitely a contender for a top three ranking.

Lilly's was followed by a trip to Loafer's - the "Beach Club" where I swing dance every now and then.

My stomach started to rumble during the drive from Lilly's to Loafer's. And then when I got to Loafers, well, my stomach started to Swing Dance. The stomach and rumbling and dancing should have taken Lilly's off the list for repeat visit reconsideration. But, I'll go back.

Sadly, an upset stomach doesn't stop me. Like sheet cake or Red Robin. Every time I eat there I say "Ugh, I feel sick, I'm never going again" - but there I am again all too often, snarfing down a $9.00 burger.

I'm over Peter, but not over the show.

Ok, ok. When I first watched Weeds I developed a huge crush on Peter/Martin Donovan. Having a crush on a character in a TV show, yes, probably a low point. I'm over the crush, but not over the show.

I'm watching Season One for a second time and am seriously considering subscribing to Showtime.

"The guy above me is married and the guy below me is a stalker."

My place of work was visited by Dan Heath, co-author of a book called "Made to Stick." The book is about effective communication - ideas that stick.

My favorite example of a sticky idea was Dan's reference to the headlines that are used on Match.com.

You know, that one witty line that appears underneath your username above your picture that is designed to entice people to click and learn more?

C'mon, most of you probably know what I'm talking about.

This is the line that people use to attract a soul mate. High stakes.

And yet, here's what some online daters do with that real estate:

"Hey..."

But the guy who wrote this headline? He gets the girl.

"The guy above me is married and the guy below me is a stalker."

Now that's sticky. Point taken.

I paid $6.00 for a delicious protein infused smoothie today at Nosh. I decide that it's time to figure out how to try this at home. And so begins the hunt for a blender.

The question "Will it blend" becomes a constant one - until I find this website: "Will it blend?". I get a really great recipe for an iPhone, iPod, banana, strawberry smoothie.

Sleepy Shirley.

Was supposed to go to a concert in Chapel Hill with pals but due to rain ended up going to their house and playing games (TABOO! and Scene It) and playing with the dog so much that we actually tired her out.

Our host sent over the following picture with a note that said
"Shirley says come back soon."

I could write a novel called "Rained Out and Rained On" in the Triangle.

Outdoor show moved indoors.
Danced a little Charleston on the aisles.
All to the tune of the Hot Club of Cow Town.

Hog Day. Hillsborough.

Rode bike up to Hillsborough.
Had BBQ.
Had a frozen banana dipped in chocolate on a stick.
Went on a ride.
We actually got to ride the swing chairs for free.
As the operator put it "Don't tell no one. We'll ride you."

And here are some more pics:
TO POST

Checked out biking shoes on Friday night.
This is not your average shoe shopping.
For kicks (haha) I tried on a very expensive pair ($300) and then couldn't get them off my feet (it took two sales associates to figure it out). There was a shoe model called Quest. Not sure how I felt about that.

Dinner at 411.

Free 9:30 Comedy Show at DSI.

Had dinner with a pal from high school who now lives here.
Went to Six Plates - a new wine bar in Durham.
And then to Pilobolus.
I enjoyed most of it except the last dance. They used the screen but there was so much distortion it felt like I was watching a screensaver.

I found a very inexpensive dry cleaner.
Problem is, dry cleaner is kind of out of the way.
So, with gas prices being what they are, I'm spending the dry cleaning money I save on gas getting there. So, in comes the bike. I can get to the dry cleaner for drop off (those are my pants rolled up in my camelback) but probably still need the car to pick up dry cleaning.

Since there is no Pizza Night tomorrow ended up going to California Pizza Kitchen. It's a chain restaurant. Does that count?

Wheeeeeeee!

Aerials are dance moves. Practiced them on Tuesday night.

Brought Barb. She's never danced a Swing Out in her life, but she's a gymnast and everyone loved throwing her around.

"Too bad she's not a dancer," they remarked.

The landings on the video are the funny parts. Especially the second one. So very graceful.

Something tells me it's all happening at the Zoo.

Ventured to Asheboro, NC for a trip to the Zoo.

When I got there, I noticed that if I paid three extra dollars I could get "ride" tickets. I'm thinking camel ride (like at the Bronx Zoo) or tram ride or something.

Nope. I have a ticket to some random Sponge Bob Squarepants 4D thing. This has nothing to do with the zoo.

Polar Bear licking his plate clean

Elephants ended up being my favorite. Large creatures. Doesn't think look like a fake back drop? It's not. That is me and an elephant in the background.

Elephant can poop and pee at the same time. This was gracefully demonstrated at the Zoo.

It smells less like smoke today - hooray.

There is a concert at American Tobacco Campus. David Wilcox. I catch a few songs right after work and enjoy sitting on the grass amidst all the people. A little alarming how familiar faces I see. I've said it before. Small Town.

I end up moving to a McKinney balcony to watch the show. This is as close as it gets to a sky box.

Tonight I also stop by a goodbye party. I end up parking in front of the house of Wendy and Cliff (who moved) to walk to the house of Nicole (who is going to be out of town a lot and will likely ultimately move). Sad for me.

And then I see the Hulk. Makes me feisty and fighty.

And that's Friday the 13th for me.

Pizza Night Week Four: Homemade. Sort of. Dough for crust from Cinelli's.
This was by far the most delicious.
Next week Pizza night canceled - I'm going to an ADF (American Dance Federation) performance and will be dining at some hip durham wine bar. Week after that pizza night is in Raleigh - Lily's?

The green is pesto.

Carolina on Fire. Code Red.

Woke up this morning and smelled smoke. Smells like burnt microwave popcorn. But I don't have a microwave. And, it doesn't take much to trip the building fire alarm (It seems to go off with annoying frequency at annoying hours for no apparent reason).

Wildfires from the West. And the wind has changed. And now it smells like smoke. Just like the tobacco days, I guess.

In college, it used to smell like Malt-o-Meal (there was a factory) or the turkey farm.

Dance classes start up again.
Taking a Charleston class.
Some of my McKinney co-workers are taking the 101 class.
It makes me happy to see them there.

Next time we do Swing Out Inside Out Thursday it will be McKinney folks performing.

Major action in the "Foehl Kitchen" tonight.

We are talking quadruple burner action.

Danced this morning.
Video-ed it.
The things you can see when you step back.
Nice.

Barb came over to my place after the memorial service.
We were going to a party on Saturday night and it didn't make sense for her to drive all the way to Raleigh and back.
She slept for two hours. Nice long nap. The hot and the emotional drain of the memorial service made me tired too.
Then, we watched gymnastics on TV for a few hours. Barb used to do gymnastics and enjoyed the rare TV coverage.
Then we sat by the pool. And read. And then swam.
Now, that's a summer Saturday afternoon.

He will not read this post.
But it's for him.


Some very sad news this Tuesday.
One of my co-workers was killed in a bike accident on his morning ride.
Hit by a car.

His story is here.

My story, about him:

Clive was a flash programmer at McKinney. He was also very active on the interactive community e-mail group. In fact, I knew him by e-mail more than I knew him by person, at first. A few months ago, he sent out an e-mail asking if any employees had blogs. I sent him here.

And Clive started to read my blog.

I ran into him in the pantry one day and he asked me a little bit more about a bike ride I had taken that weekend.

It took me a moment to realize how he knew I had gone on a bike ride in the first place.

After that I talked about riding with him – his passion for it was inspiring.

I didn’t post about riding for a while – probably some combination of me blogging and riding less.

Clive noticed.

And he told me to get out there. It was somewhere between a suggestion and an order.

As a bike rider, I was especially chilled by the news.
But I’m going to get right back out there.

For Clive.

His memorial service was today.
A celebration of his life.
Intriguing.
Sad.
Sobering.

At the end of last summer, I wrote a post about how "summery" it had felt. Last night, I got that "summery" feeling again and even though we're in triple digit heat (not kidding) I am happy summer is here.

Paddled under the stars on Jordan Lake. The guide was an astronomy whiz. She had a green laser pointer that reached to the stars (and planes can see it too, apparently).

At 10:22 and 38 seconds we saw the space station mission in the sky. Poor guys with the broken toilet.

If the outfitter group had reminded us to bring bug spray, I might just call this a perfect summer night.

The last three Thursdays have been Pizza Night and I think (hope) all Thursday's moving ahead will be Pizza Night. Different pizza parlor each week.

First Thursday was Sal's. Yummy.

Second Thursday was Pizza Roma - didn't like it so much.

Tonight was Randy's Pizza. Which is a solid second place. Points lost on ambience. TV too loud and not playing a good show at that (A POLICE show about speeding. That's just not very interesting).

Next week, I my idea is that dough will be purchased from Cinelli's and it will be Cinelli's and homemade pizza night. Rankings to be updated.

Hey, you've gotta eat. Why not be considered about it?

Presentation goes well.
Hooray!
I like my remote control for clicking through the presentation.
I like the slides I have been working on larger than life behind me.

Word From the Presentation Cave
I have abandoned my desk for a workroom.

Despite my best efforts, my PPT skills are still not so great. And we have a new ppt template. My skills do improve dramatically over the next few days. I surprise myself.

There are lots of surprises as I work through this project.

Clive. Gone. Devastating.

My boss scheduled at 10:00 PM call with me today to brief me on an assignment.
Need to prepare a presentation for Thursday. This Thursday?
I am a wee bit stressed, but enthused.

I've resolved to be a little more careful about what I'm eating.
I have a feeling I am doing some unconscious snacking.
Every Monday at work we have bagels.
On Monday morning I resolve not to have carbalicious bagels.
Walking to work thinking "walk past the bagels."
Only to find that it's donuts this morning (every now and then we get donuts).
That makes this harder.
But I do it.
Go me.
Resisted my inner Homer.

Went roller-blading in Raleigh today with Barb. There's a fairly extensive trails system back in here. I got the rollerblades I wear today in eighth grade. I sort of pride myself on that. Like my 13 year old ski boots (I did finally replace those). I started to feel like I was going to get a blister, but didn't. Luckily.