Just found out that Randy Johnson pitched a perfect game tonight.

I remember when Randy was pitching for the Mariners in the early '90s and he couldn't decide whether he would be a good pitcher or a shitty one.

I guess he's decided.

Been a little busy the last few days. I'll just post one entry instead of the several that I probably should have posted.

I wasted the last two days of my vacation. There was no painting and no siding work done because of the rain.

Friday night I spent most of the night at Rich O's talking with DooRagGirl's husband. Seems like a pretty cool guy when you consider he's married to a supermodel. LaptopGirl was there but she had one of her interesting friends in tow so she didn't see me.

Saturday night I went to a party at TrainGirl and RealTrainGirl's house. I had fun although I didn't know very many people. I got to meet PrettyHairGirl who filled me with hope by having a geek for a boyfriend.

Sunday I ran into LaptopGirl at a lame beer memorabilia sale. I was in a hurry to leave so I didn't get to meet the loser she was with.

Also on Sunday I started my siding project, and fixed my mailbox door that had been broken for over a year. All it took was a cordless drill and some titanium bits.

Monday and Tuesday the painters started applying primer to the house. I think I'll like the color though it's lighter than I was picturing.

On Monday I found out that my old boss is leaving his job. Kind of weird. This, along with the recent terminations, cannot help but remind me of the sinking ship I stayed with in Seattle until it was nearly too late.

Tuesday night I completed more of the siding but had to stop when I realized that (a) I'm a dumbass that forgot to buy the right nails, and (b) I'm a dumbass that nailed the trim up wrong so it has to be redone.

Over the last few days I've spent about a thousand dollars on various power tools to help with the siding replacement. Hopefully I'll be able to make use of these tools for other projects as well.

The cicadas are getting ridiculous.

Spending my vacation day listening to the rain hit my skylights I just couldn't stand it anymore so I decided to kill some time making a new Terragen image.

I also updated an old image, raising the water level to add a little more detail.

Last night I figured that as long as I was using up my vacation days I'd try to make the most of a bad situation and so I went to Rich O's.

Also, LaptopGirl started her new job today and I wanted to see how that went.

Rich O's was fairly crowded - I'd heard that Wednesdays were popular - but I got a seat at the Island with RealTrainGirl and Matt-Josh-Willy Whatever (turns out one of my guesses is right) and ordered an Upland Winter Warmer. I also had an Alaskan Smoked Porter put on ice for later.

The Upland beer is becoming one of my favorites. This of course means that it wil be going away soon.

After a little while LaptopGirl showed up (HOT!) and she was pretty excited about her new job. I'm hopeful that the stress she felt at her old job is a thing of the past.

RealTrainGirl is having a party this weekend, and I may actually go if I don't have to work Sunday morning. They'll have a keg of NABC Solidarity which is really good, but scary because it's so sneakily strong. I may even take a tent.

MisunderstoodGirl joined us for a while. I'm becoming convinced that I've done something to piss her off - or else maybe she'd just been in a bad mood for a couple of months. What used to be pretty interesting conversations have been reduced to grunts and nods.

Anyway, I drank my Upland beer very quickly and since my Smoked Porter hadn't had a chance to chill I ordered a Domaine DuPage French Style Country Ale. I've actually just been calling it "that frenchy beer" rather than butcher the proper pronounciation. I like it, though after the Upland it seemed a little weak.

At one point LaptopGirl noticed her ex at a nearby table so she zipped over there, leaving a little puff of smoke in her wake. I can say that I've come to expect these occurances and I wasn't really bothered.

After RealTrainGirl left Bubbles and MusicalHippyDude joined us at the island. LaptopGirl came back after her ex left and began bad-mouthing him. I can say that I've also come to expect this and I think it's funny.

My Frenchy beer went down pretty quickly and I had the bartender bring out the Alaskan Smoked Porter (Vintage 2003). It hadn't quite cooled down as much as I would have liked but that was my fault for drinking too fast.

The smoked porter is just a very good beer. Like many of my other favorites I wish it had a little less alcohol so I could drink more of it. This ended up being my last beer of the night, though I did have a root beer while LaptopGirl continued to complain about her ex and MusicalHippyDude continued to be more interesting than me.

Had my house pressure-washed today to get it ready for painting.

Unfortunately the pressure proved to be too much for some of my siding.

I have to replace six panels.

This won't be as expensive as I initially feared, but I'm pissed about it anyway. It messes up the painting schedule, and I have to figure out a way to get six panels from the store to my house.

Plus I've got to burn another day of vacation to get this done. If this painting project ends up costing me my vacation for the Derby City Classic next January I will be quite miffed.

I'm pretty sure that I've solved the problem where the font on my 'blog entries would change for no good reason.

It seems to have been the little trademark characters I was putting after some nicknames.

I've removed them all and everything seems okay with the fonts now.

It's too bad. I liked the trademark signs, and now people can freely steal all of my cool nicknames.

I give up.

After a couple of weeks of stuggling to pick a color for my house, I realize that the colors in my head do not exist in the real world, so I give up.

I'm getting the house painted with two different shades of gray.

Woo-hoo.

The garage doors will be painted white.

Double woo-hoo.

I figure I'll get the house painted gray, regret my choice for a year or so, then learn to live with it.

Today I had fun.

I got to play with my new chainsaw by cutting down two trees and about seven bushes that had been planted way too close to my house.

The front of the house looks a little bare now, but it still looks better than it did with all of the half-dead shrubbery.

In the back of the house I trimmed the hell out of a little Japanese Maple that had also been planted way too close to the house. Getting into my back door past that tree was a little like what I've always imagined the soldiers went through in the jungles of VietNam. Except for the part where people shoot at you.

I'll be surprised if the tree lives. I removed nearly a third of it.

My final project for the day was to get rid of the ugly useless clubhouse in my back yard.

That project failed.

I tried to pull the thing over with my truck and managed to spin all four wheels instead.

The events of Friday night tear at my mind. Once I manage to come to grips I'll post about it. Perhaps. I may decide that it's just too much to process and decide to ignore the whole incident.

But for now, just a beer report.

Friday night I started out with one of NABC's Solidarity porters.

I don't remember if I've had this before (I think I have) but I kindof like it. Nothing special, just a decent porter without any bitterness. I hate bitterness.

My next beer was a Domaine DuPage French Style Country Ale by the Two Brothers Brewery. This beer, oddly enough, is not listed on their website.

I have to say that despite the long-winded name and its French implications, this is one of he best beer I've had in a long time. Smooth, not too strong, not too weak.

I ended up having four of these things, then I had three more on Saturday night. What an excellent session beer! I wish I could describe it more clearly. "Drinkable" is the word that comes to mind most often.

Also, on Saturday, I went to Hooters to see my cousin Jeff and I had a Newcastle Brown Ale. It was a little flat - they had warned me beforehand - but it was still very good. I miss being able to get Newcastle's on tap in New Albany. Jeffersonville is just too far to drive for a beer.

Wow, it's been a while since I've done one of these.

Anyway, One of the most beautiful voices anywhere, I found out today, happens to be attached to one of the most beautiful women anywhere.

My May 9th Hottie of the Day is Amy Lee, lead singer of the group Evanescence.

Her singing gives me goosebumps, and her appearance causes some physical effects on me as well.