The vacuum that is Facebook has sucked me in. Help!

So I've started adding friends, mainly by looking at their lists and adding from that. It seems that every name I'd put in the search box comes up empty. One of the odd things about connecting with friends that I haven't seen in upwards of 20 years is that our relationship has not progressed since then. I mean, talking (or writing) to them now is like picking up where and how we left off back then. One example, there was this girl in grade school with whom I was good friends in a grade school kind of way. In high school I had a huge crush on her, but being the shy, unconfident, geeky kid I was (or I thought I was), I could never get past "Hi". Although we were on the same bus everyday, we were in different cliques at school and I couldn't bring myself to work up the courage to talk to her. Then her family moved to another state. I saw her at a few of the reunions since then, but once again I was the deer in the headlights. So, now I saw her in Facebook as a friend of several other of my friends. Do I friend her? No, too nervous. Does she even remember me? What would I say? Anyhow, she friended me today. And all I could manage was a "Hi!" on her wall. Its just like it was in high school.

So what's new with you? A few things are new around here:

At the end of my last trip I went to this restaurant for lunch before my flight home. The picture does not do the lady talking on the cell phone justice. She had a smoking hot body! I'm thinking she's in her late 50's by the man she was with. I noticed her mostly unbuttoned blouse and her shoes when she walked in. The first table they sat at she had her back to me. Her jeans road down enough that I could tell she wasn't wearing anything underneath. Thankfully they sat where they did as it gave me a better look at her nice breasts. If I could have only gotten a better picture!

Brewed on Saturday. I made a clone of New Belgium's Fat Tire Amber Ale. The brewery is in Colorado and they don't distribute in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, or Florida. I haven't had one since I was in Colorado in 2000. I very much recommend you try one if you haven't. My beer's in the fermenter and will be ready for bottling in about 2 weeks, then another 3 or more until its ready to drink.

Picture of Philly: City Hall
The Hard Rock Cafe (tourists only):The Comcast building. That's where all of your cable and internet money goes! Seriously, if you ever do visit Philly you must visit this building. The ginourmouse video wall in the lobby can only be seen to be believed - words just don't do it.

Saturday I went to The Star Trek Experience at the Franklin Institute in Philly. Unless you are die-hard Trek fan, skip this. I'm a die-hard Trek fan and wish I had spent my money elsewhere. It was mostly a display of the various uniforms and costumes from the various TV series and movies. There were a few large props and some small ship models. There was a recreation of the bridge from ST:TNG and Kirk's chair, both of which one could have their picture taken by the staff. Although when we were at both stations no photographer was around. A group ahead of us got a really good photo of them on the bridge. The gift shop was very much laking in anything that wasn't already available in stores, except Ben Franklin in a uniform on a mug and key chain. The "space simulator" was interesting to watch (I didn't go in). Compared to last year's Star Wars exhibit, this was a dud. Star Wars had a much larger display area, many more ship models, interactive displays, and was a much more integrated exhibit. Maybe Star Trek was better in other cities.

I'm in Miami Lakes again this week. I arrived Monday afternoon and the rest of the work day was pretty much a bust. The equipment was not ready as it was supposed to be, so the technicians worked on them in the afternoon. I left around 6 and went to Total Wine & More to make a six-pack for the week's enjoyment, and then I went to the outlet mall. I bought a pair of American Apparel's thigh-high tube socks, new stockings, and a pair of heels. I could have spent a lot more time there. Maybe another day this week.

An estimated 720 beers on those racks!!

And as I was surfing the Interpornet last night I came across this and proceeded to, well, you know ;) I think it would be fun to be the guy in that video. There's just one or two thing that they do to him that I would not like, butt for the most part it would be a fantasy cum true.

As I may have mentioned, I'll be back in Miami Lakes next week, M-F. I was hoping to for a shopping adventure after the work days were over, but that might not be the case. My co-worker that was there this week ran into a lot of problems and didn't make much progress on the project. That means I'll need to do a lot of catch-up work to stay on schedule. Argh! I'll have to work harder & faster to make enough time have some fun.

Is anyone else having problems with their "Blogs I'm Following" on their Dashboard? Mine aren't here today.

Edited to say that it was fixed yesterday.

Last week's business trip was OK. Nothing spectacular. A couple of nights of running. I did go see the latest Harry Potter movie. Pretty good! Not for those not interested in HP or that haven't seen/read the previous movies/books in the series.

One highlight was a trip to the Total Wine and More in Pembroke Pines. I went up that way to find something for dinner. I didn't really have anything in particular in mind and I did want to drive the Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder around. I had been to the Total Wine in Miami Lakes and was impressed. Not a big store, but it had a fairly good selection. So you could understand my complete amazement when I went into the Pembroke Pines store. It was HUGE - about the size of a very large grocery store. Didn't spend much time looking at the wine and liquor aisles - I went straight for the beer. They had a very, very wide variety of single-bottles for sale (I'll make an estimate next trip) - in the hundreds. And not just one or two types from each brewery - almost all the offerings. I went on Thursday night (leaving on Friday) so I couldn't stock up on a few different beers. I just picked one, Mississippi Mud's Black & Tan, and I was happy that night. Sure, there were many, many, many, many that one could say are better, or could have been a better choice. But I was like a deer in the headlights - stunned by too many choices. Next trip I'll go there on the first night and pick up at least one bottle of a different beer for each night I'm there.

And I'll do that on my way to the outlet mall in Sawgrass. I didn't bring any girl clothes with me last trip and I really wished I did. The next trip I'll head up there for some new clothes. American Apparel had a lot of nice things in a kind of slutty way. There were a few shoe outlets which I hope have my size in women's shoes. I'm sure I could find at least a few nice bra & panty sets at one of the underwear stores. And maybe jeans and a top. I'm thinking about trying what I described in the last post - putting on each thing as I go from store to store so that by the end I've gone from wearing all male clothes to all female clothes. I'd be fun to shop with someone.

Hi everyone! I've been away from the Internet for a while. First, there was the Phillies game almost two weeks ago. Here's the highlights of the rain delay:

Then I went on vacation to the New Jersey shore. It was very relaxing - sit on the beach in the morning & afternoon, go to the hotel's pool in the late afternoon, eat seafood for dinner, and then ice cream at night. Funny thing about the beach we go to - it's mostly families and the eye candy tends to be girls in their late teens and their hopefully hot moms. I mean, I'm looking at these girls not too far from where I'm sitting, or as they walk by, and I'm thinking "Wow!". Then I realize that they are probably only 15 or 16. And I have to remind myself not to stare so as not to become a creep. One interesting photo:

Then I participated in a relay race across New Jersey, 92 miles divided by 7 people. Again, lots of eye candy during the race. Here's my proof that I made it to the sea:

The finish line at night:

And now I'm back in Miami Lakes this week. During my last trip I went up to the huge Sawgrass Mills shopping outlet mall. Lots of neat things at sometimes bargain prices. I didn't have a chance to shop for girl-clothes as I was with a few other folks from work. Maybe this week I can go back and pick up a few things. I was chatting with another CD and we thought it would be fun to go to the mall in male clothes and proceed to progressively buy a female outfit and change into those clothes as we went from store to store, so by then end of the trip we'd be in all-female clothes. I may have to try that if I can find some time. Here's this week's rental car!