Have wizards, will travel…

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Mom surprised me the other day with a copy of the new Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which was extremely cool because I hardly said a word about the book, except that there was a big release party planned downtown Friday night for all of the kiddies. (No, I didn’t go – there’s just something about a 22-year-old guy running around in a cape that’s just got creepy written all over it…) Unfortunately, I can’t even start reading it yet because I’m still a book behind, but I did start on #4 last night and as fast as I blew through the others, it shouldn’t be long before I’m stuck on all of the hype like everybody else…

In other news, it seems that just as I got caught up on my latest deadlines, two or three new ones jumped on board, which don’t get me wrong is a very good thing, to still be in work and all, but it’s still a bit stressful. This week, however, I do get to write about festivities for the 4th of July, which are pretty much limited to fireworks and sparklers up around here, so hopefully that’ll be a little easier than, oh say, writing about golf. And of course, the week following that will be featuring our illustrious Alpenfest, which I’ll be covering a little more “tastefully” than I have in the past.

A few of our readers though it was funny, but hey – what do a million or so complete strangers know, anyways?

A View from the Top…

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Today was a very cool day.

As part of a media relations deal, myself and two exceptionally attractive reporters from one of the local television stations were given the opportunity to take a tour of the Mackinac Bridge, which for you out of towners is the largest suspension bridge in the Northern Hemisphere. Ok, technically they were there to spread some light on a recent toll increase (because the bridge is currently being repainted), while I was there mainly to say, “Wow…” intermittently while they were trying to film, and come up with an entertaining, yet educationally-slanted column for next week’s paper, but either way it was probably the most interesting thing I’ve done for this paper so far and if the column comes out half as good as the pictures did, then everybody should end up more than happy…

 


My only regret was that I didn’t bring my laptop with me because after the tour, it was just way too nice of a day to go back home and sit in front of a computer for the rest of the day. 80-some-odd degrees with a cool breeze coming off the Straits would’ve been the perfect environment for writing that column…but of course, I probably would’ve ended up falling asleep anyways! Ahhh, the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer…

More like St. Crap…

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I heard parts of the “new” Metallica album, St. Anger, on the radio the other day and I’ve come to only one conclusion:

After years of legal battles, Metallica has finally found a way to beat the file-sharing thieves at their own game…by putting out an album so absolutely horrible that no one would ever even consider pirating it.

R.I.P. Metallica – it was fun while it lasted…

Dieting sucks, but so does breaking the two hundred mark on the scale…

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I took the dog for another walk this evening, although she was a hell of a lot more rambunctious than she was last night. Nonetheless, I’ve got a feeling that it’s actually going to become a regular thing this summer, as we both need the exercise and it’s a nice break from staring at a computer screen all night. I figured that the route we’ve taken so far was about two miles long and even though I’ve never really considered walking to be exercise before, I’m sure it’s gotta be better than just walking back and forth between the refrigerator and the computer…

I guess I’ve also kinda started my “diet” this weekend, to go along with the whole exercise thing…you know, with bikini season in full tilt now and all! We’ve been down this road before, and I’ve never really been able to keep it up for more than a week or two, citing time constraints or some other nonsense, but now it’s not even a matter of cutting down so that I don’t need to carry as much lead while I’m diving (although that’s still a bonus!) – I just don’t want to have to buy a whole new wardrobe here shortly! Ok, so maybe it’s not that bad, but if I could manage to lose ten or twenty pounds this summer, it certainly couldn’t hurt much!

So this new diet that I’m trying now is one that I’ve somewhat created myself, or more so adapted from somebody else’s plan. Basically, my goal is to prove that this diet pill that they’re always advertising on the radio – calor-ad or cal-a-trim or whatever – is a bunch of hooey. You’ll note in the instructions that they also say that you need to drink eight glasses of water a day and stop eating three hours before bedtime, so I’m going to just do that and leave out the stupid pills altogether. Mind you, eight glasses of water is technically sixty-four ounces, or damn near two liters, which I’ve yet to be able to ingest in a single day…but that’s probably just because I keep leaving it until the last minute. I guess it basically comes down to not drinking much else other than water, so you hammer away at it all day, which could be tough because I’m also horrendously addicted to Dr. Pepper (the beverage, you sickos…), but we’ll see what happens.

The plan is lots of water, no more snacking late at night, a few sit-ups here and there, and a couple of miles wandering around town with the dog…twenty pounds in three months? Wish me luck!

Hmmm…

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Wednesday marked the first day of my five-day weekend, yet oddly enough I still managed to spend nearly an hour of my time at work last night and I have a list of people that I need to call tomorrow morning. What part of vacation is so difficult to understand?

Tip for Anyone Planning on Taking Time Off from Work:

Don’t turn your cell phone on…ever! It may result in quite the mess and your co-workers will inevitably hate you for taking the same personal time that they don’t seem to have a problem with taking, but ultimately, they’ll never learn to fly for themselves if you don’t let them crash every once in a while.

Besides, they don’t pay you nearly enough to be “on call” for them, anyways…

I hate my bank…

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I have money, or at least I do in theory, but for some reason I can’t have my money. If I had just deposited it today, I would almost understand because it usually takes a day for them to get my hard-earned cash into that little computer of theirs, but I didn’t deposit it today – I deposited it last week. I even tried to get some out over the weekend, but it wouldn’t let me have any, so I put even more in, thinking it might see the errors in its ways and help a brother out, but no… “You have almost two hundred dollars in your account and you can’t touch a dime of it.”

People keep telling me that I should switch to a credit union, but I’m honestly thinking about cutting out the middle man and just keeping my money in a cardboard box from now on. My bill collectors probably won’t like getting paid in loose change and dirty five dollar bills, but as long as that box doesn’t hold out on me like the greedy corporate jerks who are currently hoarding my money, it’ll be worth the extra effort…