Now that it is on its decline, this summer is worthy of a prominent place in my complaint department. It sucked on a number of levels. After dumped, sick, and finally starting to get better, it's almost fall. Who can I talk to get the season back?

The beaches were perpetually closed. We seem to have flown in Seattle's weather. For every sunny day, we have three rainy ones. This ratio may screw my getting a raise as the Zoo is behind enough on attendance (thanks to the weather), we're scrambling to make up although the rainforest exhibit is going to be pretty cool so that should help offset the numbers somewhat. Just got a feeling that with my luck, another screwing with my pants on isn't too far away. Try to get to the Canadian beaches and the customs Nazis all think they are in the army now. Sadly, absolutely nobody is safer for all those shenanigans. Pity too, "Hidden Beach" was a nice oasis away from everything. This all got more complex with the Bell's, I wound up hiding a lot during late June and July waiting for normalcy which has only recently returned. can't help but feel a little gipped.

Ah, well. It sort of stinks. I paid a good deal to the Bike Shop opposite Spot back in April and have only recently been able to take a turn.

Haven't made it to the drive-in yet. Got to squeeze one of those in soon.

There are other things to start thinking about. I've been extra broke because school is starting, rounding up supplies, becoming almost a crack dealer for composition notebooks, the cheap black and white high ("Dude, they're three for a buck at big lots!").

I am getting a kick out of my son's musical maturation. He's at the age where the kiddie stuff is being left behind and you start picking what is yours. I got him an Ipod shuffle and he asked that we load it up with Queen and the Beatles. I remember those days. Growing up in the burbs in the 70s, everybody had a copy of Hotel California, Rumors, Frampton Comes Alive, Running on Empty. You don't know how they got there, they just appeared in your collection. Before too long, your own true tastes allowed admittance to Led Zeppelin ll and lV, Born to Run, Dark Side of the Moon, etc. It's cool to see that despite changing technology, that still happens as he asked for some of my Ramones and David Bowie. Finding what does it for you can be a lifelong journey.

The Michael Phelps thing is pretty cool, but it gets a little distorted somewhat. No argument here in terms of his talent, abilities, etc, but swimming is the only event that affords that many chances. It's incredible, for sure, but I guess I wonder if the metals get a little defused in meaning in that every other time in the pool a medal is on the line. The only thing that comes close is the track and field where some folks do get numerous opportunities. I guess it is cool, but Natalie Coughlin got six or seven medals and will wind up being confined to the shadows. Phelps' relay partners get praise from him (I think he is a very classy dude), but afterthought status is already settling in somewhat for guys who reeled in three or four medals. I'm not poo-poohing, just something that occured to me. Still fun to watch and all, it's just the little things I think about while watching Bob Costas try to control Bela Karolyi.

Wordscraper on facebook is a hoot, just saying

Went looking at new phones yesterday. My phone activity doesn't merit paying 70.00 a month for an Iphone when I'm currently paying 30. As a sprint customer, I looked into an Instinct and the costs there are the same, so I took the best bargain and did nothing. Bought a copy of Madden instead.

Something similar to what I'm about to describe happened in an earlier journal but tonight's incident was so perfect I had to relate the updated version. It was a little before 8 and I'm on my way to retrieve my eldest from cheerleading practice. I'm on Delaware Ave. by Hutch's where traffic is still sorting itself out after surviving Gates Circle. One knucklehead uses the left turn lane at Delavan as his personal accerlation lane, and flies north on Delaware at 50+ mph into the "S" curve. I beep as if to say "Hey, I'm driving here" and continue on my merry way. As the cluster of cars I'm in thins out a little, it reveals a Buffalo Cop who saw the speed demon. Yonder Cop turns on his lights and we all slow down a little to make sure that it's........that guy. Cop floors it. I'm thinking how cool it would be if it is the road hog who gets nailed.

Pulled over a little beyond Nottingham is said road hog. Laughed all the way to the park. Made my day.

You might have seen some news coverage of Wines in the Wild at the Zoo. It was a pretty cool gathering, not often you can drink on the job, even pouring for the elite. I got the job of shoveling champagne for media and VIPs, operating fully on the principle of that's two for you and one for me for pouring.

I'm still whipped from the experience as whenever there is events, my office and the development folks are the principle "roadies" so from about 7AM till party time we were tossing and dressing up tables, tents, running supplies and whatnot. It's nice to know I can still do that, but damn it catches up with you. By the time the night was done, I must have walked 20 miles in stuff related to the gathering. For a work day that started a little before 7AM, rolling it at 11PM was a little weird. Woke up yesterday feeling like somebody beat me up while I was sleeping.

The ice cream, you ask, was the offering by Perry's at the big Zoo party on Wednesday night, but our Finance Director appropriated at tub on Thursday. Vanilla Ice Cream with chocolate chips and crushed cannoli shells all blended together. Three great tastes.....yada, yada, yada.

Tried to hang out at the Square last night, but had to be a parent and rescue a rideless child (my own), but I'm not sure I would have lasted through Spirit of the West anyway as my knees were calling me names, none of them terribly kind ones.

Number one Son wound up on the front page of the paper. Saw the electronic version, but it was nice photo op.

Can hardly wait till Sunday, a day off, a free morning, before a week with the youngins. One has work, the youngest has camp, and the middle child, has to babysit, all hail a week of kid centered relaxation after a zoo event heavy schedule. My lovely son decided he wanted to see the elephants on Sunday, this is after I spent all Saturday with them and talking about them incessantly. Got to love going to work when you don't have to.

Love the job, love the pending day off.

Random notes:

I would really like to get excited about the Olympics beyond the opening ceremonies, but I just can't. While it was/is interesting to see what a show the Chinese will put on, the nature of the environment makes it tough. There was a piece on this morning's news were an "Air Quality" minister snapped at a journalist that "Nobody can be certain what causes the air to appear that way, that the appearance is not indicative of quality." My inner bullshit detector redlined. I saw another piece about one of the inland reservoirs was diverted from needed farmers to make sure the Beijing flowers look nice for tv. It's a mystical, amazing place and I want to see it again, but the folks in charge need to work on their people skills.

Brett Favre should have taken the money and gone away.

I'm enjoying a few days off with the youngins, but between number one son going to Zoo camp and Eldest child working at concessions, Monday will be my first completely free Zoo day since June. I think I'll be at the beach (anybody else want to come along?).

Why is Pfizer spamming me so often?

I want to go to a Bisons game, but they really suck this year with Cleveland bolting for the door. Hard to get pumped to go see really bad baseball, when you know from the getgo that it is really going to be bad.

Finally, in our sports report, the Bills asked if I'd come back to usher this year. I would have thought telling them no would have been more fun, but no. The union represents the arena and standing around lost whatever little charm it had. Think I'll try one job for the time being. It was nice to run into one of the Bills hostess folk at a recent Zoo fundraiser who was sorry to see me not come back. Told her somebody else has to break up the fights this year.

Kids have been in residence and while I grumble about the regularity of the August vacation, it's been pretty great. The prodigal daughters were rummaging through my kitchen concocting food and referred to when I was at the house and doing the shopping as "the good old days." Made me smile (well, I wanted to, but still can't all the way).

The Paris Hilton ad is the best political commercial since we've established the nominees, of whom I'm very weary, along with their cheerleaders, O'reilly and Olbermann.

Darling eldest child told me she was organizing a car wash next week at the Elmwood Jesus church. She and her cheerleading squad from City Honors were going to meet with "Pastor Drew." This is indeed a small neighborhood.

Tru-teas is heading to Hertel. Paul, perhaps you should register Hertelstrip.org while the getting is good.

My recent round of media appearances caught up with me. I met somebody at Shakespeare in the Park last night (pre-flood) who said they did a google search on the coverage and that lead them to estrip.org where I mentioned whoring myself out for the elephants. Told her to hang on as next month I whore myself out for the Rainforest exhibit. Actually, I'll just be doing a lot of billboards, and making other people create commercials. Good times. My dad was giving me some lip last week about how it had been three days since he'd last seen me on tv, when he opened his paper last friday only to see my son staring at him.

Coolest aspect to that was that my older brother recognized my voice from the tv. I know that doesn't sound remarkable, but he is autistic and has a number of other factors that he deals with on a daily basis. Sometimes, my siblings and I are pronouns, but he locked right in on me on Channel 4. I think that was mostly because he has a thing for the weekend weather girl, but the smirk of recognition from him over the weekend was pretty cool.

Hope the recently non-journaling estrippers are doing alright.

Enjoy the soggy weekend, ya'all

The thrill of live TV is always numbed when you are doing it at 5:30 in the morning. I did two segments on Daybreak today. You can see me whoring myself for the elephants behalf here.

The video link is off to the left.

Nearly lost my train of thought, but it didn't completely derail.

It's part of my job these days to be a bit of a media trollop. The first segment was on-air but not posted online (It was all me). I was worried that with the almost gone Bell's Palsy, I was going to look like the Hunchback of Notre Dame, turns out I just talk with my hands a lot for an Irish Guy.

It was early. I got a call from my dad after nine saying he thinks Mom was up for the first segment. What a whackjob. It went okay considering I was up at 3:30 and fighting with the Zoo security guard by 4:30. That type of segment used to be a little more second nature in the type of work I do, but it's been awhile. The first segment was up against the Elephants's railing where the eldest of the ladies was sniffing me and the interviewer up for treats.

Ah, the life of a star