The Austin Humane Society is having its annual car giveaway. The catch: if you go for the car, then it's not a "donation" anymore. This place is where I adopted my cats Saturn and Orion, so I always try to give something every year in their honor.
I've been looking for some good new music but keep finding great "old" rock stuff that I haven't listened to in ages but grew up to (Poison, Firehouse, Scorpions, Def Leppard, Tesla). I got this 50-song Alphaville collection called "Dreamscapes Revisisted" that I really like. I ran across a few "new" songs that I like (new to me, old to most people) like "Trapeze Swinger" by Iron & Wine, "New Slang" by the Shins, Meatloaf's "What About Love", "Walter Reed" by Michael Penn, "Time Away" by Absinthe Glow, and "Dreaming of You" by The Coral.
My friend Rich has become this huge absinthe drinker virtually overnight and keeps sending me links to good absinthe he's tried. I haven't seen him in awhile; I have this vision of him sitting alone in a room surrounded by half-empty absinthe bottles and dirty glasses. However, there's something romantic about the whole notion of absinthe (moreso if you actually like the taste of licorice). I could develop an absinthe habit and write or paint while half drunk; or develop a weirder habit that will sound interesting in magazine articles about me when I become a famous author (such as the story about Agatha Christie writing her novels in the bathtub while eating apples). Plus, if you want to get drunk, absinthe is something like 160 proof. Interesting tidbit: did you know most of the modern absinthes use about 1/10 of the amount of wormwood (and thus thujone) that the original absinthes did? There are a few brands out there that are close to the original formulas but they are hard to find.
I really, really want a new car. I'm not the type of person to change cars a lot - I've been driving my 2000 Xterra since August of 1999 - but I think it's time to upgrade. The Xterra's held up really well, so much so that I wouldn't mind buying a newer version of it. At one time I was thinking I'd definitely buy a hybrid something, but now I'm not so sure - anything that gets better gas mileage than the Xterra seems like a good deal. But I'm thinking it would also be fun to go a completely different direction, like an Audi S4 Convertible. Anyway, who knows. I'm just looking around right now, not really prepared to buy anything at the moment.
Well, anything as expensive as a car, anyway. I just bought a set of Bowflex Select Tech dumbbells (yes, the ones from the commercial) with the gimmicky "dial it up!". I'm going to move my weight bench in from the garage and put it upstairs in the game room with the treadmill. There should be just enough room for that, and I can exercise while I'm watching TV. I've been using a pair of hand exercisers a couple times daily the past week in order to develop a more crushing grip (plus I read they can lower blood pressure). I think I might get a pair of them that I can leave at work, so I can use them a couple times during the day while I'm on the computer.
I really dislike it when people ask you, "Can I ask you a question?" Half the time I fail to resist the urge to answer sarcastically and I'm sure that just increases some people's perception that I'm an ass.