Peanut butter jelly time

Haven't posted in a while. The after-work routine has been much less of a routine lately, so I tend to forget about the blog. Also, less energy lately to form words.

Haven't been getting a lot of sleep this week. Only about 4 hours last night. Partly from too much caffeine. Partly from an internal dialogue that WILL NOT SHUT UP.

This weekend is filled with a bunch of obligations that I'm not too excited about and they're sorta interfering with my original plans for a nice long 4th of July weekend with S., who was gone all last weekend. I also feel like I'm going to fight someone this weekend and the outcome will not be good. This is why I need anger management, among other things.

Our pets are awesome. New cat is getting along great with our dog, and I think they are really bonding on a new level. Harmony is good.

Merv.

Hi.

Kind of a busy week. Got a cat Monday. Refinancing our mortgage tomorrow. Can't wait for the weekend, as usual. More soon.

One more for good measure ...

I think I've lost my mind!

There's a perfectly reasonable explanation for this (I think)

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Hot town, summer in the city

Hello. Back at home, posting from my phone because my laptop is still being repaired by HP. Or, I should say it's supposed to be in the process of being repaired, but according to the HP status site, they haven't even received it yet, even though USPS says it was delivered last Wednesday. Called customer service today to ask about this. After fighting with the automated response robot woman for several minutes, who simply could not understand what I was saying no matter how slowly and clearly I enunciated, I spoke to a live person who I could not understand. So, 20 minutes later, the phone call was over and nothing was accomplished.

I just spent part of the evening preparing my quarterly taxes, which is always kinda fun, aside from the whole paying taxes part. Since I'm self-employed, no taxes come out of my paychecks, which basically means I get screwed every few months. By the way, they call it quarterly, but the due dates aren't spread apart equally. In fact, the first due dates for 2011 are April 15 and June 15 -- only 2 months apart -- and that's in addition to the regular end-of-year taxes that are also due on April 15. So let's just say it's not an easy time of the year, financally. (Thank goodness we just went on two trips in the last month.)

Speaking of trips, I keep forgetting that we'll be getting (hopefully) our security deposit back for not blowing up our room in Wildwood. Getting a security deposit back that you paid months ago is like finding money in a pair of old jeans, but a lot more. It's great.

I spent a lot of vaca reading a book about cats. This may sound crazy, but I have forgotten how to care for these litter creatures (which I once considered to be my favorite animal), and I want to make sure I don't traumatize the kitten, my dog or myself within the first minute we bring him in the door. Gotta say, learning cat psychology is not nearly as interesting to me as dog pshychology. Then again, I only read one book so far. Anyway, we SHOULD be picking up the kitty next Monday. Woop!

Since I spent a week gorging myself with the worst foods possible, I'm trying to get back onto a rigid cycling routine. Forced myself to do a 24-mile ride yesterday, which I finished in about an hour and 45 minutes. Not too bad, except I can barely walk up the steps today.

Okay, I am getting concerned that my phone is going to freeze up and lose this whole post, so I'll stop here. Pardon any typos - I can't spellcheck in this app!

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Wildwood, By-the-Sea

It's a lazy Wednesday morning on day 5 of our vacation, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to blog. Hello there! This week has been all about reliving my childhood, checking out the familiar sights and sounds of Wildwood, NJ. I think it's been about 10 years since I've last been here. I am surprised at how little has actually changed. One new thing: alcohol on the boardwalk! You can actually get beer and other drinks at a handful of places now. I looked this up, and it's a fairly recently change over the last year or so in some parts of North Wildwood. Apparently the rules are still pretty strict about how businesses can sell alcohol (and advertise it) -- for example, it has to be a restaurant that primarily serves food and has 120+ seats -- SO, I don't think they'll be allowing any dirty dance clubs on the boardwalk just yet. Another new law: no kite on the beach! What is this? Maybe they are worried that people will now get drunk on the boardwalk and spill out onto the beach with dangerous kite-flying rage? There are fewer games on the boardwalk too, I think. Fewer ways to win stuffed animals by flipping flogs into floating lily pads, spinning a giant wheel, popping balloons with darts, or throwing small rings around a bottleneck. They're still around though; just not as prevalent. Fewer mini golf courses too, and that kinda stinks. Some things that haven't changed: the tram cars, Fascinations ("Boardwalk Bingo," as some call it, where my family would spend hours a day during our vacations), the same old roller costers, same big weekend crowds, surf shops and sketchy people all over town. We are staying very close to the beach, so we've spent a lot of time there. I've never been a big beach/ocean person. But man, the weather this week has been awesome for it. Plus, the crazy crowds that were here over the weekend completely vanished by Tuesday. Wide-open beach, wide-open boardwalk.

And, some photos!

We packed like we weren't coming back.

View from our balcony.

Evening walk on the beach, first day.

Contemplating all that is humorous and divine.

Blurry boardwalk fun.

Empty boardwalk for our 2-person surrey adventure!


And, some video of our surrey adventure!


ANNNND, one more vid, just to continue my recent trend of recording obnoxious vacation videos.