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Thinking about getting in shape?

Strange things are afoot at the Circle K.

dude... you're gettin' a Dell!

Another appointment tonight in the Woodlands. I feel much better after the adjustment. The doc doesn't use any cracking, pulling, twisting, or popping to realign vertebrae. The exact point pressure needs to be applied is determined and then a tool call an activator is used to apply the correct amount of force to the point so rapidly that your body doesn't have time to resist. It's safe and efficient. Work has started to suck again as there are lots of folks with unrealistic deadlines around here. I wish I could write more these days. Time is a valuable commodity.

No golf for a week. I didn't get that prescription for sleep that I wanted. Sam pointed out that they are making a new truck in Texas to scare all the little Hummers off the road. The American legacy of excess continues. Speaking of Texas and tradition... guns and liquor!

Sean, put on some headphones and check this out. I'll leave it up until tonight.

There's nothing like coming up for air when you've been down too long. I have been completely buried in work. With several people on vacation and a short-handed staff anyway, I find myself with too little time to make it all come together. With phone calls in the wee morning hours and business units that can't support required evolutions until close to midnight, there leaves little time for home life and sleep. I worked late last night (from home) migrating a gigabit ethernet circuit in a essential ecommerce DMZ and troubleshooting some performance issues with applications deemed critical. When I finally made it to bed around 1:00, Henry woke up and sleepily swaggered over to the door wanting to go pee. I let him out and figured he would be done in a few minutes. Much to my dismay, he found a toad and started making noise. He wasn't sure whether to eat it or not... but he was sure that play time started. He wouldn't come in as long as the toad was in the yard. He wouldn't come to me because he knew I'd take him in... smart little fucker. When I finally grabbed him and brought him back inside, he was revved up and looking for trouble. I think I managed to drift off around 3:00, but the alarm was set for quarter 'til five or so because I had two disaster recovery tests to support and a bunch of other shit to do before the real work day started. My eyes are on fire. I finally have an appointment for my back tonight. Funny... *ring ring* *ring ring*... "Hello? Yes.... oh, you're in terrible pain? I see. We can take you Tuesday after next. Good luck with your discomfort." Everyone was booked up. I have to admit that a large part of my discombobulation stems from back to back travel, out of town projects, more photo work to develop than I have time, and a multi-billion dollar deal at work on a critical path with not enough people to work in a humane manor. I was all kinds of disappointed to see I missed out on floor tickets to the upcoming Pixies concert in Houston. I hope to EvilBay some, but I don't have the energy to fight for them, so I hope no one gets snipey. I have another LAN coming up in November, so that should be some de-stress. I also lined up a trip to Dallas to this private wild cat ranch where there are like 6 tigers and a lion to photograph. It's no substitute for a safari, but it'll have to do for now. One of the Siberians is 600 pounds! Meow! Let's see, what else is new that isn't on the sux0r work calendar? This Thursday is the Houston Blues Society Open Jam at The Big Easy Social and Pleasure Club - House of Mixology... always a good time. I'm considering it. October 10th is the Minnesota Vikings vs. the Houston Texans at Reliant. I got the hook up on a two 50 yard line club level seats... $560.00 worth of ticket for eff-arrrrrrrr-double-eeeeee! It should be fun because EL is a Vikings fan. Friday the 24th of October, Guy Forsyth is returning to Houston. Friday the 22nd is a solid scheduled Spanking at the Duck and the 23rd and 24th are wildlife shoots at Brazos and Brazoria respectively. I refuse to become a slug despite my complete lack of energy these days. I want a motorcycle. Oh, and another thing, the weather is supposed to be awesome this weekend. Chiminea weather!

toy boats

This is worth checking out.

Still going through wedding shots... This is going to be a long weekend! Went out to see Harry and Eric last night. Today is Sandra's birthday, so we're probably going to do some cooking out over there with grill-master Urs. I'll post a link to the wedding gallery once everything is done. I have a long way to go.

Look up bitter in the dictionary. There is a picture of this guy.

Loaded for bear...

Here are the top nine comments allegedly made by NBC sports commentators during the [2004] Summer Olympics that they would like to take back 1. Weightlifting commentator: "This is Gregoriava from Bulgaria. I saw her snatch this morning during her warm up and it was amazing." 2. Dressage commentator: "This is really a lovely horse and I speak from personal experience since I once mounted her mother." 3. Paul Hamm, Gymnast: "I owe a lot to my parents, especially my mother and father." 4. Boxing Analyst: "Sure there have been injuries,and even some deaths in boxing, but none of them really that serious." 5. Softball announcer: "If history repeats itself, I should think we can expect the same thing again." 6. Basketball analyst: "He dribbles a lot and the opposition doesn't like it. In fact you can see it all over their faces." 7. At the rowing medal ceremony: "Ah, isn't that nice, the wife of the IOC president is hugging the cox of the British crew." 8. Soccer commentator: "Julian Dicks is everywhere. It's like they've got eleven Dicks on the field." 9. Tennis commentator: "One of the reasons Andy is playing so well is that, before the final round, his wife takes out his balls and kisses them . . . Oh my God, what have I just said?"

You want fries with that?

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) _ A 20-year-old man has been arrested in England in the theft of the proprietary software blueprints used by Cisco Systems Inc.'s networking equipment, police and the company confirmed Friday. The man, who was not identified and has not yet been formally charged, was arrested Sept. 3 in connection with the theft made public in May. He has since been released on bail, and the investigation is continuing, said Alan Crockford, a Scotland Yard spokesman. The man was arrested on suspicion of violating the Computer Misuse Act of 1990, Crockford said. Other details of the investigation and arrest were not immediately available. About 800 megabytes of the software blueprint, or source code, for Cisco's Internetwork Operating System appeared on a Russian Web site in May. It was quickly removed at Cisco's request. The company said the theft was not the result of a software or service vulnerability. Cisco confirmed at the time that the FBI was investigating the theft. ``We have and are continuing to cooperate with law enforcement agencies on this matter, and we are encouraged that an arrest has been made,'' the company said in a statement Friday. ``We view the arrest as what will likely be many steps in this matter, and we will take every measure to protect vigorously our intellectual property.'' The software breach is the second time this year a prominent technology company has faced an embarrassing disclosure of its source code. In February, some pieces of Microsoft Corp.'s tightly guarded blueprints for some versions of Windows were circulating on the Internet.

There seems to be some cyclic nature to time management in my daily existence. Every few months I slip into this blur that can only be described as entropic. I have this floating task list in the back of my mind consisting of items of varied importance. I have the best intentions of completion, but invariably the goal slips through my grasp. I've considered writing them down. I've scheduled time each day to work on my list, but something always comes up. Common descriptors of my state of being during these troughs are exhaustion and confusion. This time, pain joins the fray. I can't describe how uncomfortable I have been over the last week or so with some sort of spine area badness going on. I can't turn my head far enough to get my chin near my should in either direction without excruciating pain shooting through my back. It's not happy. My list is growing and I'm not working toward any of the items due to time slip. I hate that I work most of my waking hours and spend energy that should be allotted for other tasks on getting through the work day and making it home without crashing my car. I feel like I would be all better if I could force myself to sleep for a month straight... no interruptions. It would be nice to take a nap... a big long nap. So, yeah... whatever. I was looking online at land in Colorado. I discovered that if you are looking to purchase a small plot of land, there is a good chance that you won't get the water rights to the property because of the water situation in the state. Colorado state law does however, dictate that any land sale greater than 35 acres will include the water rights. I suppose that makes the quantity of land target clearly defined in my case, because a water well is almost a must-have in the mountains. I have a friend that moved to Houston two years ago and sold his place up there to make the move. Crazy fool. He had a 7000 square foot home on 500 acres nestled behind Pike's Peak. Actually, there was nothing between him and The Peak except a reservoir. He said that his well was 850 feet deep because of the water table at that altitude. The huge down side to a well of that magnitude is the cost because of the rock passage. I think he said his well installation was about $45k. Ouch! I think wind generators would be cool too... the more self sufficient the better. In case anyone gives a hamster fart, I am winning the Lotto tonight. I already have my ticket. Well... that's the plan anyway.