Seen on an Aston Martin Vantage:

"NO BOND"

Just a couple of shots from our Halloween Night:

All of the boys before they invade the neighborhood in search of the Mother Of All Sugar Rush's. Conner is the Tigger, Kyle is standing behind him.



Here's how Conner spent part of the trip - we were using the wagon to collect canned goods for a local charity. By the end he was sitting on a layer of produce.

And my "Slave Leia" fantasies suddenly acquire a whole new twist... ;)

Dawn, mikespixie (My Esteemed Wife) has flown out East to spend the weekend with her BFF Michele michelelight in Texas. This means I have the boys to myself until Sunday. In theory the house should still be standing when she gets back.

Won't have a word count yet, since to facilitate my writing at work (during downtime) I'm going longhand in a Moleskin notebook. Will plug it into yWrite for a count later in the week. Might be a bit behind on the whole 1,666 words a day, but it's flowing nicely and I'm sure I'll catch up.

Joined NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. Idea is to bang out a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Hoping I can use this as an excuse to get my creative juices flowing again, it's been way too long since I've written anything. Heck, I got something published TEN YEARS ago, and since then -- nada.

Time to take that first step...

Be sitting in the Pasadena Rose Bowl with Dawn tonight to see my favorite group!

Taken at Bates Nut Farm - Valley Center, CA

I think we've found the culprit...

Damn, I suck at keeping up to date with this thing...

So, turned Fifty two weeks ago. Got a great present from my Lovely Wife - a sweeeet 40" Sony LCD TV for the living room. Not only is it bigger than the old 34" Sony, plus it has 4 HDMI inputs, which means I've almost literally cut down the rat's nest of wires behind it in half! And now I can watch all my Blu-rays and PS3 games in pure digital 1080/24p beauty. Now I just need to get a HDMI equipped XBox 360 and receiver. :)

So anyway - the funny thing was that Dawn at one point thought I was depressed about my Fiftieth birthday. The truth was I had hardly remembered it was my 50th! It would have been just another day for me - well, except for the truly excellent carrot cake. Now, I will admit to being a little bummed, but that had more to do with the six hours of my life I'll never get back thanks to the California DMV. (Story to follow later).

I don't even think I now what 50 is supposed to feel like. I know intellectually that I was born in 1959, which means I've walked the Earth for fifty years. But what does that MEAN? Would I have been able to guess where I would be right now twenty years ago? Ten? Five? Considering that I grew up an economically-challenged Black Male in New York City, odds that I should already be dead seem pretty high. That I am now living in Sunny California with a Wife and two Sons occasionally boggles the mind.

I guess the one thing that I wonder is am I doing enough? I've been working for Continental twenty years next January. That's a lot of time in anyone's book - for me it's practically legendary. I've walked away from many a job for numerous reasons, while most of my time with this airline has been wonderful, my stint here at John Wayne has truly tried my patience and sanity. I worry some times that they will push me to my limit, and then things will - well, lets not dwell on ugly things. What keeps me going is the thought of Dawn and Kyle and Conner waiting for me back home - my little piece of heaven away from it all.

You know, I don't even know where this is going. Maybe turning fifty means taking stock of your life and wondering if you've done well. And wondering how many more years you have to go. And can you possibly fit everything you want to do in the remaining time...


Never know 'till you try...

Yep, hit the Big 5-0 today.

1/1 Scale Gundam




Yes it is F*cking Awesome! Yes, I have WAY more pictures. Yes, I will post more of them later, whether you like it or not. :)

Russian Subs Patrolling Off East Coast of U.S.




http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/05/world/05patrol.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

The 10 Geekiest Pieces of Furniture in the Universe


http://www.cracked.com/article_17550_10-geekiest-pieces-furniture-in-universe.html