Jumpin' At The Woodside

Photo for the New Lounge .

Although I realize we’re in the south, I didn’t know we were far enough south to see these little green critters running about. I’m used to seeing them when we visit Florida, but I was quite surprised to be greeted at the back door by this little fella. I was heading back inside from cutting the grass today and there he was on the bricks right alongside the back door. He moved over to the window ledge by the time I took the photo with my camera phone, which is why the quality is not so good. I watched him for awhile and he seemed like he was used to seeing people. He acted differently than the lizards I see in Florida. His movements were slower and not as jittery as the Sunshine State lizards. As I watched him, he caught a bug and ate it. It was then I told him he could hang around and eat all the bugs he likes, just as long as he stays outside. Of course that’s more for the lizard’s sake since the cats and dog would have a fine time making a chew toy out of him. Tonight at 8pm is our ...

I bought the first season of The X-Files on DVD back in May or June of this year. I’ve been missing The X-Files since it went off the air a few years ago. Now you can’t even find the repeats on cable. FX channel used to air the X-Files episodes all the time, like catching Seinfeld or Friends that seem to always be on TBS. I think TNT or another network air it at 5pm and 2am, how am I supposed to watch that? The X-Files has been out on DVD for some time, but at $80 for an entire season, that’s a bit much. Finally, this year The X-Files season episodes have been packaged at half that price. I recently picked up the second season as well, but still working my way through the first season. The summer is a good time of year to catch up on an old favorite since most of TV is repeats. It’s great to have the X-Files back by just popping in a DVD. One of the things I liked most about The X-Files is that each episode was like a short scifi-thriller-mystery movie. OK, so I liked Gillian Anderson ...

Rainy day view from the office. It’s raining here, supposed to rain all day. At least it’s a break from the sauna-like conditions we’ve had for the past few weeks. Football season is under way with pre-season games and I’m really looking forward to watching the games this year on our new 60” big-screen TV. It’s HD and I hooked up the DVD player with an HDMI cable and the movies look just like they do in the theater. I also hooked up the HD DVR cable box with an HDMI cable and football and baseball games look amazing in HD. The HDMI cable sends a pure digital signal to the TV. We’re still looking to get some furniture for our “theater room.” It’s kind of funny, we’re watching this huge TV sitting on lawn chairs. We got rid of our old sofa before we moved and haven’t shopped for new furniture yet. We’d like to get some sort of sectional sofa for the theater room and we still need to get furniture for our other living/sitting room. That’s where we have Lago’s piano. We’re really looking f...

Apparently, the answer to that question is “Yes.” The events that occurred this past Friday afternoon (July 28) were difficult and unexpected. This is what happened... I was in the office until around noon then I came home to be here when the cable guy arrived. Once here, I showed the cable guy around. He was going to install cable, Internet and digital phone service. He climbed up the pole and when he came down and started working around the house I kept hearing phrases like "This isn't good" and "It's worse than I thought." Apparently our house needs to be rewired for cable. Even though there are alleged cable outlets all over the house, we only had one viable connection downstairs in our living room. We have one of our extra bedrooms upstairs set up for the office. Our phone lines were pretty much non-existent even though like the cable, there were outlets all over the house. The cable guy was able to put an extra outlet in the living room for the modem....

Written Friday, July 21, 2006 Photos taken Sat., July 22, 2006. We closed on our new house on Mon., July 17 in Charlotte, drove back to Virginia, where the movers packed us and loaded the truck Wed. – Fri. Now, here it is Fri. afternoon and I’m standing in the new house. It feels like ages ago when we were here on Mon., it’s been a long week. I brought the three cats with me and Lago has the dog. Our belongings are set to arrive tomorrow, Sat., and Lago should be here tomorrow or Sun. The cats and I will be spending our first night in the house tonight. The cats were very good for the most part on the drive down. Each was in their own carrier and Lago sedated them early this morning for the drive. Not a peep was heard from Flipper and Ella, but Vita was not happy about the drive and I let her wander around the car in her delirious state in hopes she would eventually quiet down. She took naps, but never for very long. Finally, she went back in the carrier on her own and I locked her in ...

I was in New York City this week for meetings at the Time Warner Center. There’s nowhere in the world that smells like New York. It has a perfume of trash, sewage, traffic, sweat and cart vendors. I wasn’t able to take in any entertainment, but had some excellent meals at the Red-Eye Grill and Smith & Wollensky’s . I had the jumbo gulf prawns at the Red-Eye, enormous shrimp with the bodies still attached. At Smith & Wollensky’s I had the butcher style filet – momma mia, good eatin’. I also had drinks at the Stone Rose Lounge which overlooks Columbus Circle and Central Park. A very cool spot for cocktails with big, cushy leather sofas and chairs, and an amazing view. View from the 46th floor of my hotel.