Those are my legs, standing in the Pacific Ocean for the first time.

Been a bit quiet around here lately. Sorry about that. Nothing’s wrong, I’m just super busy. And while I’ve had a lot to say, I found myself unable to get it out of my head in any coherent fashion. I don’t know where to begin. It’s weird, how only a week without writing can get you so out of whack. Anyway, I’ll just try to get things back on track here and catch up a little, starting with where I was this weekend…

My internet tubes were stopped up all day! But I called in a plumber, and everything seems to be freely flowing once more. Sorry about that!

For a moment there yesterday morning, I thought I’d wandered into one of my nightmares: SEPTA buses and more SEPTA buses.

Everywhere! As far as the eye could see! And none of them actually moving!

I was getting a little freaked out, but then I spotted this:

And I have to admit, my first thought was “El Shuttle? WTF? Does SEPTA think that’s Spanish for ‘bus’ or something?”

Well, it took me a minute, but I eventually remembered that the Market-Frankford El is currently bussing between 40th and 69th Streets.

Ugh. That IS a nightmare.

Time for another Pandora edition of the Friday Random Ten. This time it’s Bob Dylan style.

1) One More Cup of Coffee (Valley Below) - Bob Dylan
2) Take It From Day To Day - Stan Rogers
3) Oh, Freedom - Pete Seger
4) Wanted Man (Live) - Johnny Cash
5) Shooting Star - Bob Dylan
6) Daughter - Pearl Jam
7) Cept You & Me Babe - Greg Brown
8) The Kids (Live) - Lou Reed
9) You Angel You - Bob Dylan
10) Have You Ever Seen The Rain - Creedence Clearwater Revival

Bonus: Ranger’s Command - Woody Guthrie

I have to say, this is quite possibly my favorite random ten ever.

Link Love will be up a little later.

Holy crap, I came very close to blowing away today! As I was leaving work tonight, the wind kicked up something fierce. By the time I got home, I was covered in city dirt and grit. In my shoes, my hair, my eyes, my ears, my mouth… and a few other places I won’t mention. YUCK.

I’m trying something a little different for the random ten this week. Recently, Edo turned me onto an internet radio site called Pandora. You start off with an artist or a song that you really like, and then they play similar songs based on it. You can fine tune it by approving or disapproving the songs it plays. For more info, read the Wikipedia article or check out pandora.com.

Anyway… here’s my list, based on my U2 radio station:

1) Stuck in a Moment - U2
2) Closer - Jimmy Eat World
3) Let’s Make a Night To Remember - Bryan Adams
4) Thursday’s Child - David Bowie
5) Too Long - Firehose
6) I’ve Seen You Before - Violet Nine
7) Trust - Ned’s Atomic Dustbin
8) Immortality - Pearl Jam
9) Wire - U2
10) Do Your Best and Don’t Worry - Morrissey

Bonus: Let’s Go - The Cars

And I just realized that I should have included the lyrics “But the nights you filled with fireworks / They left you with nothing” in my fireworks post. Oh well.

Link Love for Other Random Ten Players:
-A Modest Construct
-Apartment 2024
-Area 151
-The BM Rant
-Freakapotimus
-Popscholar
-The Sam and BeckyBoo Show
-The Smedley Log
-Strolling Luna

Before I forget… I wanted to show you guys the cake I made for the UFIL. He’s been an avid pipe smoker for more than 50 years, so Edo thought we should use that for the design. Originally, I also was going to have smoke rising from the pipe to form the words “Happy Birthday,” but that turned out to be a bit much (plus his real birthday was back in May). A painting by René Magritte was my inspiration.

I loved fireworks when I was a kid. The sight, the smell, the sound… especially the sound. The bigger the boom, the happier I was. My dad and I would call the extra loud ones “gutbusters,” and I looked forward to them every 4th of July.

But these days, I’ve become quite apathetic toward fireworks. It could be that I’ve just grown out of it, but I think it’s also because they seem less special than once were. Back in the day, it was hard to see decent fireworks. Now they are everywhere: anyone and everyone can put on a good show. And that’s great, but it does make them more commonplace.

My dad’s sentiments are pretty much in line with mine; my mom, on the other hand, still LOVES fireworks. It seems that as the quality increases, so does her enjoyment. If she could, I believe she would drag my father to every fireworks display in the tri-state area. So when my parents decided to come spend July 1st with me here in Philly, I couldn’t very well refuse to take them to see the pyrotechnics at Penn’s Landing that night.

I had the digital camera with me, so I amused myself by taking little movies and pictures of the fireworks. It actually made things a lot more fun, because given the nature of the subject, each photo turned out to be a surprise. I didn’t expect any of them to actually come out, but some of them did, and beautifully.

So… before the subject matter is completely irrelevant, I thought I’d post a few of my favorites. See the others after the jump. (more…)

July Open Thread

Holz and I are another year older today!

(I know, I know, try to contain your excitement.)

So, in honor of our continued aging, here’s some useless information about 7/11 throughout history…

On July 11, 1274, Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland was born.

On July 11, 1533, Pope Clement VII excommunicated England’s King Henry VIII.

On July 11, 1767, John Quincy Adams, sixth President of the United States, was born.

On July 11, 1798, the current US Marine Corps was formed.

On July 11, 1804, Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr killed Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton in a pistol duel near Weehawken, NJ.

On July 11, 1838, John Wanamaker, founder of Wanamaker’s department stores, was born.

On July 11, 1889, the city of Tijuana, Mexico was founded.

On July 11, 1899, American writer E. B. White, author of Charlotte’s Web, was born.

On July 11, 1914, Babe Ruth made his major league baseball debut with the Boston Red Sox.

On July 11, 1921, former US President William Howard Taft was sworn in as the tenth Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, becoming the only person to ever be both President and Chief Justice.

On July 11, 1934, Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani was born.

On July 11, 1959, Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora was born.

On July 11, 1969, David Bowie’s first hit single, Space Oddity, was released.

On July 11, 1979, after over six years in space, Skylab, the first American space station, reentered the Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrated over the Indian Ocean and Australia.

On July 11, 1987, the world population reached 5 billion (according to the United Nations).

On July 11, 1991, there was a total solar eclipse in Hawaii. [I remember using a homemade pinhole projection viewer to watch the partial version of this eclipse during my birthday party.]

See Also:
-July 11 [Wikipedia]
-On This Day [NYT]
-On This Day [Encarta]
-This Day in History [The History Channel]
-July 11 [On-This-Day.com]

Yes, yes… before one more person asks me… Edo and I watched the World Cup Final yesterday. Not that either of us really cares about soccer, mind you.

Don’t get me wrong: I played as a kid, and like any good Italian, so did Edo. And he followed the teams, even went to some matches—but he’s just not passionate about the sport. However, during this year’s World Cup, he began to feel as though he had to pay attention.

You see, over the past few months, almost every person he’s encountered (especially at work) has assumed he was big soccer fan simply because he’s Italian. And this started way before Italy made it to the finals. So he gave in to the pressure and started following the World Cup so he would have something to say when pressed for his opinions. I thought he was selling out.

Me: Why are you bothering if you really don’t care? Can’t you just tell people that you really aren’t interested in soccer? That they are unfairly making assumptions about you based upon a stereotype?
Edo: Kate, it’s business. I need to have useless conversation topics.
Me: But you’re living a lie!

Anyway, even if Edo wasn’t selling his soul in the corporate world, we probably still would have watched the championship game. After all, it’s not every day that your country of birth makes it into the final game of the World Cup. And I do think that soccer is an interesting game, despite how many times I may delight in making fun of it (I only ever do it to get a rise out of Edo, anyway).

So, I will now present you with my wise and insightful observations about Sunday’s game:
1) While I fully understand why it’s done, it really sucks to end a game with penalty kicks.
2) A lot of the game seems to consist of grown men falling and flopping around on the ground like big babies.
3) As far as I could tell, France only had one player; so it was really stupid that he got himself thrown out of the game, even if that Italian guy really did give him a titty twister and call his sister a whore.
4) The Italians players have A LOT of hair.

[AP Photo via Yahoo]

See Also:
-National Zoo puts on a panda party [CNN]

Previously, at the Landslide in My Ego:
-I Have a Confession to Make…

This Week’s Leg Bloggers:
-Stan

In honor of that which is currently eluding me, here are 20 Things You Didn’t Know About… Sleep.

[Discover, via Fark]

So… the UFIL left yesterday. And I have to admit, I really didn’t mind having him around; not that much, anyway. He’s really very sweet, and our communication deficit was quite amusing at times. Things probably would have been great if Edo and I had a spare bedroom. Well that, and a magic perpetually stocked refrigerator…

The day after he arrived:
Me: What happened to all the crackers?
Edo: What you should really be asking, Kate, is “What happened to all the cheese?” Remember all the cheese we had?

At the Indian buffet:
UFIL: You not having more to eat?
Me: No, I’m full.
UFIL: You eat like a bird!
Me: Well, I did have a good amount of food on my plate…
UFIL: A very tiny bird!

Wednesday night:
Edo: Are you hungry?
Me: Nah, I’m okay.
Edo: My dad says he’s not hungry, but I don’t believe him.
Me: Well, if you saw how much cake was left in the fridge, you might understand.
Edo: *looks in refrigerator* Oh…

Later Wednesday night:
Edo: Papi, do you want more food?
UFIL: No!
Edo: Are you sure?! Do you want some pizza?
UFIL: No!
Edo: Kate, check his pulse!
Me: *checking his carotid* Well, he’s still alive.
Edo: *explains to his father in Italian why I just felt his neck*
UFIL: *giggles*
Me: You know, Edo… it took two weeks, but I think we finally filled him up!

1) Dani California - Red Hot Chili Peppers
2) The Mercy Seat - Johnny Cash
3) Where the Streets Have No Name - U2
4) Lady Midnight - Leonard Cohen
5) Bathwater - No Doubt
6) Pleasant Valley Sunday - The Monkees
7) Colossal - Wolf Mother
8) Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite - The Beatles
9) Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay - Otis Redding
10) Peaceful , Easy Feeling - The Eagles

Bonus: Handbags and Gladrags - Rod Stewart

Link Love for Other Random Ten Players:
-A Modest Construct
-Area 151
-The BM Rant
-Freakapotimus
-Mixtape
-Popscholar
-The Sam and BeckyBoo Show
-The Smedley Log

Sorry for the unannounced hiatus I seem to have taken here…. I didn’t really plan it. But man, life just gets in the way sometimes. Infuriating office politics, major work deadlines, and family obligations, not to mention the presence of a certain guest….

I’ve spent the last week writing, editing, formatting, copying and FedExing; cleaning, cooking, baking, and cake decorating; touristing, band watching, and firework ogling. The rest of the time, I’ve been holed up in my bedroom as a prisoner in my own apartment: UFIL goes to bed early, in the living room, next to my computer (and my big beautiful monitor).

It all added up to a recipe for my near self combustion.

Anyway… I’m not trying to make excuses. I’m just here now to beg your forgiveness. I’ll be back in the swing of things before you know it.