Saw wicked this weekend. Good show, especially the first half crescendo and the “Popular” song/scene. It’s not very often you see a scene so funny that even the professional actors start laughing. I’d have to say I liked Avenue Q a little better, but still Wicked was a lot of fun.

Saturday night we took a trip to Beale street so I could take some pictures. I’m experimenting with High Dynamic Range photography again. I got a few interesting shots that show promise. Plus, we watched a cook make the best tasting most fat saturated hamburgers ever. Picture this: Burgers being boiled in grease. Take the burger out, slap some cheese on it, dip it back in the grease, press the now saturated burger into the bun so the bread soaks up the grease, then put the a burger in basket with a handful of fries. I’ll never order one of those, but hot-damn they looked so good. Interestingly, despite the fact I was there solely to take pictures of Beale, I didn't get one of the grease burgers in action.

Finally, on the way home last night I had a tire blow out. Then I had a little struggle with the jack and Shilo kept insisting on trying to help, but as I looked around at the fields and trees around me, I realized it wasn’t a bad spot to break down at. Combine the blowout with my nearly bald front tires and I’m going to get all new ones this afternoon. Not exactly an expense I was expecting, but still it will feel good to have handled the problem. There is a strange satisfaction gotten from successfully dealing with unexpected problems. Maybe it’s the Y chromosome problem solver in me, but when this is all said and done, I’ll be feeling really good.

Posted by Johnny Rockstar at 10:23 AM | Comments (1)

Admittedly, my motivation comes from wanting to save money a little more than wanting to green my life, probably in a ratio of about 60/40—but I’ve put all my major energy hogs on power strips that I can shut off when I go to Memphis. Now when I go away for my four day weekends I can easily shut off my big tv, dvd player, receiver, xbox, record player, modem, and router. The tv and Xbox are the two biggest energy vampires, but I’m pretty sure all that other stuff adds up. I’ve started doing this just as I’ve needed to start running my ac, so it’s hard to see how much I’m saving. Regardless, I’m rewarded with the warm cozy feeling of knowing my footprint is a little bit smaller.

Posted by Johnny Rockstar at 02:17 PM | Comments (1)

For my birthday Kathryn got us tickets to see a broadcast of Michael Feldman’s “Whad’Ya Know?” in Memphis this past weekend. I’ve often wondered how a show like that looks when it’s being performed, and now I know. It was a great time even if he didn’t pick my question: Who would win in a footrace, Superman or the Flash? The funniest part was this:

Some person: We’ve got fried green tomatoes.
Michael Feldman: That’s a southern thing. We don’t really have fried green tomatoes in the north.
SP: What do you do with green tomatoes?
MF: We let then ripen … then rot.

Posted by Johnny Rockstar at 02:17 PM | Comments (2)

Took half a day of yesterday with a headache and spent my afternoon on the couch in the dim light of my living room with all the shades closed. I felt back because Shilo really wanted some lovin' but I didn't want to be bothered. Eventually it got better but I didn’t move very far. I spent the evening on the futon watching movies with Shilo. She knows she’s not supposed to get up the furniture so at first she wouldn’t jump up. But I really felt like cuddling with my doggie in front of the tv so I coaxed her up. Then she wouldn’t get down. Usually if I leave the room she follows. But not last night; I think she was afraid that I wouldn’t let her back up. I love my dog. She’s awesome. Today I brought two new toys home for her on my lunch break—she couldn’t decide which to play with so she took them both to her bed and chewed on one then the other and back again.

Posted by Johnny Rockstar at 01:06 PM | Comments (5)

This week is flying by. It feels like it should only be Monday afternoon. Probably mostly due to the fact I have big deadlines next week. It’s the theory of relativity … or proportionality … or something—the speed of time increases exponentially as my deadlines approach. Bitch-ass Einstein.

Posted by Johnny Rockstar at 03:24 PM | Comments (3)

Sarah and Bryan visited Memphis this past weekend. Bryan’s dad and his girlfriend happened to be there too, so we went out with them a few times. Just seeing my sister and Bryan was great. I’m looking forward to the stage in life where I’ll be able to see all my family more than just a handful of times a year. But back to Memphis; we hit Stax, Sun Studios, the site of MLK’s assassination, Graceland (Sarah and Bryan only), Beale St for authentic blues and amazing rockabilly and the two best BBQ joints in the city. It was dog-walking, beer-drinking, nose-piercing, face-stuffing, sister-visiting, chocolate-martini-making, disc-throwing, trivia-playing, kiwi-hugging, toothpick-shooting good time. Somewhere in the middle of all that, Sarah taught my dog to lie down, which is nice. I miss them already and I’m in serious need of a nap after my 4:45 am wakeup.

Posted by Johnny Rockstar at 08:19 AM | Comments (1)

It’s pouring right now. The good news is that a nice lady at work rolled my jeep windows up for me. The bad news is that I didn’t zip the back window on this morning like I had thought about. So my front seats will be nice and dry, but there’s a good chance I’ll find a small lake in the back. On top of what’s already being soaked, depending how fast the storm is moving, I’ll probably end up driving through it again on my way to Memphis tonight … still without my back window in.

Posted by Johnny Rockstar at 04:28 PM | Comments (0)

The physical part of the big move is done. Kathryn and I managed to get all my stuff moved into my new place, including that incredibly heavy foosball table. That hard part is done, now I just have to finish sorting through all my boxes and do some heavy cleaning to the new place. But it’s taking shape and starting to look pretty good.

Posted by Johnny Rockstar at 09:35 AM | Comments (1)