What I've Been Doing With My Summer Since I Obviously Haven't Been Blogging

It's not that I don't love you. My head's just elsewhere right now. Best I can muster is a bullet list. The last month or so in a nutshell...

• Finished putting the apartment together - (whew)
  
• Joined Facebook. -Not sure how I feel about this one yet. People are sort of coming out of the woodwork. It's cool, but also... you know... I dunno...
  
• Saw "The Dark Knight" - Amazing. Can't wait to see it again, in IMAX this time. THANK YOU Christopher Nolan for finally getting this franchise CORRECT. And, Heath... Oh, Heath. Damn your silly pills. You should get a nod for this regardless of your existential status.
  
• Saw Underworld, Andrew Bird & Radiohead at the All Points West Festival - All three acts were fantastic, but I have to say what impressed me most about these outdoor stages was the SOUND. Crystal clear. Really satisfying. And we'd never seen Radiohead live, so The Missus and I were TRULY floored.
  
• Christened our new apartment with a real-deal summer BBQ - I'm still eating leftover sausages and potato salad, but a good time was had by all and my grill skills continue to grow.
  
• Finally bought my plane ticket for the Canyon - My good friend Troy, a Canyon virgin, will be joining us for this one. We're doing our first-ever rim-to-rim.* It's going to rock like nothing has ever rocked in the history of rocking.
  
• Accepted a permanent position with the American Express Company only to find out a month later that I may be losing my job - I've never considered that I was someone who worked in "the financial sector" of the economy, but apparently I am. They like to call major layoffs like this "a reengineering". Brilliant. Utterly brilliant.
  
• Switched out our old cable box for a new HD box - Two words: Sunrise Earth
  
• Had some great dinners with The Missus in our new 'hood - Thank you for the paella, El Olivo


• Discovered one of the most delicious $6 bottles of white ever - We're total fans of the Indaba Sauvignon Blanc from South Africa. $8.99 on Ditmars, but only $5.99 in our old neighborhood. We drove over and bought a case. Good shit.
  
• Boycotted the Olympics - Didn't even watch the opening ceremonies. In HD. With SurroundSound. Which was probably awesome. But, fuck 'em.
• Got to Level 25 on the Vortex game on my iPod - I'm not usually a game person, but this one's been a blessing on my hour-long train ride to work.


• Started growing my hair out - And am hating it. Might be chop-chop time.


• Mowed a lawn for the first time in about 12 years - Having a yard we can use has been a real upgrade from our last place. Having fun planning what we're going to do with the space next spring.


• Made an appointment for my first physical in over two years - Taking advantage of the insurance while I have it. Doc's gonna love that I started smoking again. (...ugh)


• Started smoking again - Brilliant. Utterly brilliant. Planning to quit after the Canyon. Have heard some firsthand accounts of success with auriculotherapy, so I've started doing research.


• Ate sashimi for the first time - We have five sushi places on Ditmars. Only one we'd tried was Watawa, which we love love love. It's still the best, but I decided to check out Sakura one lonely night while The Missus was away and I gotta say... the yellowtail sashimi was a winner.

That's really about it. I've been having a quiet summer.

Not relaxing. Not restorative. Not particularly fun. But quiet.

And I guess that's just going to have to be okay for right now...

-IMBA

*Please note that the phrase "rim-to-rim" refers to the North and South Rims of the Grand Canyon. Not whatever you were thinking. ...sicko.