Resting and relaxing.  Picnicking on the Fourth with the in-laws, then catching the local fireworks in the evening.  While we’re out and about, some photographic repeats of recent Independence Days past.

2008:

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Spinner treated me to dinner at the San Diego County Fair last night.  The artery clogging menu included courses deep-fried zucchini spears, Australian-style batter fried potatoes, and a foot-long hot dog on a stick.  We saw no deep-fried twinkies, last year’s delicacy of choice, and a quest for chocolate covered bacon (recommended by the Sparklett’s man) was unsuccessful.  If someone has managed to merge the two flavors-above-all, we couldn’t find him.

My camera died early for want of charged batteries, hence the lack of pixels in this post, but I couldn’t have done the sunset justice anyways.  We were a hundred or so feet above the ground on top of the ferris wheel, watching the sun set over the dog beach in Del Mar as all the lights of the fair started to pop on.  If my camera had been charged I would’ve offered the operator a fortune to stay up there for half an hour or so, but had to settle for a few short minutes and commit it all to memory.  Wonderful.

We also did the roller coaster and the sky way over the fair, and took in a lot of the exhibitions and vendors.  Too much shopping and too much walking, but certainly a great night.

I was a fan of the Anne Rice books until the movies ruined the stories for me.  The Lost Boys is certainly one of my big-screen guilty pleasures.  I’ve always been a big fan of Buffy, though I never followed Angel when he went to his own series.  But I never got into Twilight, either in print or on screen.

We got the movie on Netflix, but I couldn’t get through it without falling asleep.  Spinner has the book, trying to read it this summer to prove his affinity for masochism better bond with his 10-year-old charges, but I’ve got no interest.

But my otherwise pathetic Monday was made when Mikerzz posted this video.

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Site maintenance is done, unless I’ve broken something that I haven’t noticed yet.  Now it’s time for Chuck maintenance.  A little swimming, a little tanning, and little reading.  Sundays rock.

There are code and files on the server here dating back to 2002, so I’m doing a little spring cleaning today.  Time to tidy up some code and get some consistency in the organization, such as it is. Apologies in advance for any temporary outages.

Procrastinating at the moment.  Got a big hearing this afternoon, but I’m not mentally dealing with it yet.  Focusing on my life once I’m past it.  Clean desk.  Significantly less family law stress.  Saturday.

I’ll be mostly alone this weekend since Spinner’s going to be with his M.Ed cohort.  May head out to Torrey Pines, since I haven’t been in forever and Spinner doesn’t normally like the cliffs.  If I survive this afternoon I’m going to need some sun and some sea water and a complete lack of cell phone reception, and that might just do it.

I’d seen a few of these photos around, but too many of the kids blogging (and Facebooking and Tweeting, etc), never learned how to do anything but steal an image and repost it.  Credit an artist?  No.  Cite the site where the work was found?  OMG NO!  Just put a photo in context with an accurate caption?  Huh?

Enough with the rant.  Maybe it’s yet another sign that I’m doing too much family law, but Fallen Princesses rocks.  Thanks to Soliloqueer for blogging it old school.

Pongo used to post here from time to time, using his special powers to telepathically move my fingers over the keyboard.

Diego’s never felt the need, but we did feel that he should have the opportunity to share his vacation experiences in his own way.

Still photography from the week is up in the galleries. It was a great vacation, and I’m still regretting listening to the pesky voice of financial reason and letting it end.

Still on vacation in Pismo, making a quick post while Spinner forages for breakfast.  Diego’s getting spoiled rotten with the long, leashless, walks on the beach.  This morning’s was a special treat though.

About halfway down the beach we stumbled on (and Diego sniffed) a young couple enjoying a bottle of champagne with the sunrise.  Didn’t want to intrude to the point of asking what they were celebrating – settled for luring Diego away so they could get back to their moment.  Have to assume though they were there to help celebrate our anniversary.  Yep, our wedding was one year ago today, on the second day of California’s 2008 marriage equality window.  The marriage is still going strong despite the best efforts of the H8ers, and I love Randy even more today then I ever have.

Meeting a physical therapist tomorrow morning at BorgHealth.  Haven’t seen one since I wiped out my back moving furniture in the 80s, but my neurologist passed the buck on deciding what I can do after having my arm in a brace since March, so here we go.  Yes, there’ve been no laps since March.  No gym since March.  Puppy walks are allowed, as long as I remember to hold the leash in the right hand (which my left-handedness usually overrules).

More and more I resemble a jelly donut, and a lack of physical activity and low body image aren’t really helping the depression coming from that whole ‘recession is hurting my business’ thing.

This is pretty much just an alcohol-fueled rant.  With a bit of luck the tequila in my system will magically heal my ulnar nerve and get rid of the numbness and weakness in my hand while I pass out tonight.  Then I can get back to my life and the meditative aspects of the swimming will help me deal with the realities of the economy.  But somehow I doubt it.  When the neurologist scheduled me for a four-month follow up I got the hint that life’s just going to suck for a long, long time.  At least I’m getting on my way to being too big to fail.  Bailout, here we come!