My old neighbors -- well, the ones that live next door to my mom -- went through a dramatic tragedy today. My mom called me three times -- the first time, to tell me that a giant paramedics truck was at the neighbors' house, presumably for the very elderly grandfather that lived with them, and that it was blocking her driveway and she couldn't ( Read more... )

Tonight, I picked up my lovely friend
( Read more... )

Some kid left his scooter on the sidewalk in front of our house, propped up against the low brick wall that supports our lawn. I think this was yesterday afternoon. This morning, the scooter had been tossed onto the lawn by some passerby, I suppose, and now it's just laying there. It's not ours, obviously, but it's getting to be an eyesore ( Read more... )

My mother likes to give gifts of wine. She says it's pretty economical and shows some kind of "taste" -- and by "taste", she's not talking about the fine points of wine. More on that later ( Read more... )

My mom and brother are out of town, in Taiwan. I've been fending for myself over the last week or so. It's not been bad...but there are some things I am realizing, which I will post about later on. For now, here is an email I sent to my kid brother on June 14th:

Dear Mom and Alex ( Read more... )

I've been throwing myself into work and school. It's a welcome distraction, I have to admit. Work, school, and a smattering of lunches and dinners with friends and things are good.

At work, we have auditors in from Canada (if you'll recall, I work for a company that is publicly-traded in Canada on the TSX Exchange). They are planning to work a ( Read more... )

We're getting the two bathrooms at my house remodeled. This is the beginning of a total revamp of our entire house. I'm not sure what comes next, but we shall see -- I think probably the fireplace (it's hideous because my mother doesn't know to look at the big picture, she likes to hodgepodge everything together), or the floors (changing to ( Read more... )

Mental note: kill my brother for freezing [my] Lindemans Framboise Lambic Ale (CARBONATED), then realizing the err of his ways, and putting it in the refrigerator, then having it EXPLODE ALL OVER, INSIDE, during the process of melting. Fucking retard. I spent a total of 2 hours cleaning the area inside and outside the explosion area ( Read more... )

So I'm not sure who I'd spoken to yesterday, but I got a phone call from the bike shop today, letting me know my bike was ready for pick up. I headed over to the shop after work with my brother and his truck, and wheeled it out of there ( Read more... )

I called into LA Superior Court this evening...and I've escaped one more day of jury duty (Tuesday). This is exciting. Obviously, court isn't open on Wednesday, so I'm hoping I'm overlooked on Thursday and Friday, too ( Read more... )