Window fixed Monday, long, long drive Tuesday.

Took hours longer than it should have.   Made it though. 'Just follow the Slush Puppie,' I kept telling myself. 

Vandalism in the Berkshires

Driving home Thursday night,  my passenger side window  shattered inward, spraying tempered glass all over my car. One lane road; no cars around on either side of the road; no rocks on the highway. I think someone threw a rock at my car. Fortunately it's covered -both with plastic and insurance- repairing it Monday,  the insanely loud plastic taped over it the biggest drawback.  Do I have terrible luck or what? 

Seiji Ozawa - famous conductor, oft-appearing at hoity-toity Tanglewood, a Wolf Trap-like performing arts place nearby

...and appearing in urinals at the Cranwell as well.   How honored he must feel. 

Last two days have been actually golfing on actual golf course

Even got to drive a cart! Did horrible,  naturally,  but not as horribly as I expected.  Wrists,  ankles,  feet, sore as hell. 

Second in an ongoing series: pointless and gratuitous quotation marks

I think the first in this series was five years ago or so, but never mind.  I eventually remembered to do another.

Oh, plus I got a haircut

Also, took the Taconic Parkway up this time

A touch longer but pretty and relaxing.  With colorful,  friendly bridges. 

Back to the Berkshires

And back over this stupid bridge again.  You know, a truck just like this knocked a young woman in her car off the Chesapeake Bay Bridge just two days ago. She lived somehow, but still...damn. And I'm not even scared of that one.  Stupid bridges.  

Detroit airport

There is definitely WAY more of this airport. This is like a nanoparticle of it. 

Detroit having gone bankrupt yesterday,  we were glad to get out before they started auctioning off the seats and gates. On the plane back to Baltimore now. Our first plane's air conditioning didn't work. Consequently I now resemble a used Kleenex.

The Traverse City airport.

This is entirety of it beyond security.  I love airports like this.  Still a slight amount of Barney Fife-ism at small airports but not nearly as bad as it used to be. 

The view from Room 203, the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa, Michigan

Have definitely had worse. 

Off to Travers City, via Detroit...except. ..

...this is sorta where my plane should be.  Hmmmm.

Drove home yesterday from Massachusetts

...today flying to Michigan.  Guess I'm getting all my shows in at once to get them out of the way.  Terrible picture but a clearer one might be worse. 

Also, went to a cool place called 'Rock House' yesterday

This is not the Rock House.  The Rock House is made of rock.  And took a blurry, indistinct picture.

A quote from our President. Who is now hunting down anyone who attempts to live up to it.

"My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government."

This is the little room where you get yer Buckets O' Balls

I like it cause it smells just like that old pumphouse/root cellar that Mitch and I turned into a restaurant at Mamaw Willis'. Mmmmmmm... Rooty...

Close seats...

...but not a close game.  Nats stunk it up again, getting shutout 4-0.  They are really quite disappointing this year.  However, the seats were great, free, very close (here's Bryce Harper within easy yelling distance - and yell I did after multiple f***-ups) the food was gratis, and Carol beat a young man in hand to hand combat for a foul ball that ricocheted off a railing, my and another guy's hand, and then rolled in the aisle. The other guy didn't have a chance: she has that Pilate's grip... 

Quote of the Day

Comment from a bostonglobe.com article delineating the insane, draconian 'necessary security precautions' to be implemented on the Fourth of July, virtually ruining the holiday for thousands of Bostonians who can no longer enjoy their generations-long 'Independence Day' traditions, thus handing 'the terrorists' yet another in a long line of victories. 

"We're celebrating a group of rag-tag average citizens who created the greatest (until recently) nation in the world by defeating the greatest existing empire in the world by cowering behind the police in fear of two morons with pressure cookers."

Yeah. Boston Strong. Way to turn us into sheeple, authorities.  NWA had it right. 

On a smilier note, we got free behind the plate Diamond Club passes plus elite parking for today's Nats game! Free food, game, and tickets.  And seats in the a/c should we so desire. Woohoo!

Also, Moo is headed to California

Jo got a dog-friendly place to live and Moo is making the trip this week.  Had to say bye. What a nice dog.  She insists upon holding hands,  which I love. 

Radio show weekend

Delores,  Elaina,  and Jenny go over the script. Should be on capsteps.com by the 4th. I'm actually on quite a few things this time.  Three days until I head north.

I really need to straighten up

Here's a handy guide to how the Supreme Court's ruling on gay marriage may affect you, depending upon your beliefs

Something to pass along to the retarded, bigoted, shit-headed majority of residents of your state.
(from Cracked.com of all places)


If You Are a Homosexual and Are Already Married:
The federal government now recognizes your marriage as a thing, and you are eligible for tax, health, and pension benefits under federal law like any other married couple, pending further political shenanigans. You can file taxes jointly, all that shit.

If You Are a Homosexual and Want to Get Married:
This does nothing to affect you UNLESS you live in California. States are still free to decide whether or not same-sex marriage is legal; if you live in Mississippi, this does not help you. But, the voter initiative to ban gay marriage in California is now dead, pending further legal challenges or other fuckery.

If You Are a Heterosexual and Do NOT Want to Enter into a Homosexual Marriage:
You will not be required to marry a gay person. This is a common misunderstanding. This decision actually does not affect you in any way.

If You Are Currently in a Heterosexual Marriage:
This decision does not affect you in any way.

If You Are a Heterosexual Who Is Not Currently Married:
This decision does not affect you in any way.

If You Are a Heterosexual Who Hopes to Eventually Marry:
This decision does not affect you in any way.

If You Are a Member of a Church That Performs Wedding Ceremonies but That Does Not Believe in Gay Marriage:
This decision does not affect you in any way.

If You Are a Religious Official Who Performs Wedding Ceremonies but Who Thinks Gay Marriage Is Wrong:
This decision does not affect you in any way.

If You Are an Individual Who Believes Gay Marriage or Homosexuality in General Is Wrong for Religious Reasons, and Wish to Continue Expressing Those Beliefs:
This decision does not affect you in any way.

If You Are an Individual Who Believes Gay Marriage or Homosexuality in General Is Wrong for Non-Religious Reasons, and Wish to Continue Expressing Those Beliefs:
This decision does not affect you in any way.

If You Are a Heterosexual Who Fears This Decision Adversely Affects Your Marriage or the Concept of Marriage in General:
This decision does not affect you in any way.

If You Are a Heterosexual Who Fears This Decision Negatively Affects You in Some Way:
This decision does not affect you in any way.

If You Are a Heterosexual Who Suffers Anger or Anxiety at the Thought of Gay Couples Getting Married as an Abstract Concept, and Believes the Only Cure Is to Legally Prevent Gay Marriage:
This decision will cause you some degree of anger or anxiety. Otherwise, this decision does not affect you in any way.

Hope this helps!

A most likely futile attempt to straighten my stupid broken pinkies

Baskin-Robbins spoons are multi-taskable

Wary at Nationals Park

I am sure you are not aware, but the Nats have one of the truly great young ballplayers ever produced: Bryce Harper.  Last year, at 19, he was the Rookie-of-the-Year and became the youngest player to have ever made the all-star game; he plays hard like Pete Rose used to, when he hits a home run he RUNS around the bases instead of strolling.  He is the epitome of hustle and effort.  People love him.  And miss him, he's been hurt and the entire team of guys way older than him have collapsed without his energetic presence. The Nats, to put it bluntly, suck without him.

So we went to his bobblehead give-away game the other day.  We figured it might be popular, so we left a little early.  Good thing.

This is Carol guarding our bobbleheads in the most secluded place we could find at Nats Park.  Why?  Because at at 12:04pm, they ran out of bobbleheads.  The game starts at 1:35.  They had 15,000 bobbleheads: the usual giveaway amount. This is a picture of the large pressing crowd at the exact same time.

 It never looks like this.  The final crowd tally was just shy of 40,000 paid attendances. And 25,000 of them were bobblehead-thwarted on a 90°+ day. These are people who thought that coming to the park 90 freaking minutes early would be enough.  It wasn't. People were pissed.  Fortunately, we brought a bag to hide ours in.  We only left as early as we did because of false bad traffic reports. So yay for misinformation!

Oh, and the Nats got crushed early, 7-1 and came back in the eighth to make it 7-6 and then just couldn't do it.  Why?  Cause the only Bryce that was there was a damn bobblehead, that's why.

But we did get two of 'em and they're going for $50-90 on eBay, so it may work out just fine.  :)

I begin to suspect there is some connection between ice cream and fatness

And I further begin to suspect the connection is me.