You are in the Brett Bugle archives right now. The HOMEPAGE is much more important.
2006-06-30
In all my visits to Corky's BBQ, I never noticed until today that they have a drive-through window. Mmmm, boy. Now I finally know how to get sweet-potato fries with a quickness. From now on, every time I go to a movie, I'm gonna hit the Corky's BBQ drivethru and snag some sweet-potato fries to smuggle into the theater.
In other food news, I deeply want your help. Don't discard any coupons from Fazoli's, GattiTown, ChickFilA, or Corky's; give them to me. I will gladly save them from destruction and give their little paper lives some purpose.
Similarly (and off the subject of food), if you ever see a coupon for free bowling, you are hereby forbidden from throwing it away. You must send it to me immediately. The punishment for noncompliance is severe.
2006-06-29
Go download and install the beta version of Microsoft Office 2007, for free; it's amazingly different, in a captivating way, and you'll want to get familiar with it early in order to have an advantage over all the other computer guys who won't be comfortable using it until it's running on every single workplace PC in America.
Speaking of new things, don't bother visiting the 16-plex that just opened at Fayette Mall; I saw Superman Returns there and was unimpressed. Was the theatre a yawn? Yep. Was the 2.5-hour movie a yawn? Occasionally.
Speaking of new things, I finally got my plain-and-simple replacement license plate. If you're outside Kentucky, you know nothing about our big license-plate controversy, so let me fill you in. The state government had switched our default plate design to a ridiculous smiling-sunshine-face version a few years ago, and EVERYONE hated it, and no one could figure out how such a design zipped through the approval process, and life sucked. The government responded with a major overhaul of our state image, and the citizens were allowed to vote on the new "Unbridled Spirit" slogan and logo, and life no longer sucked. The new default plates came out last August, and my birthday is in June (but the state thinks it's in July), so I was condemned by the system to be admiring and desiring that lovely "Unbridled Spirit" license plate from afar — until now! I am so relieved. Bye, bye, mister smiley sunshine. See you in hello.
Speaking of new things, where did this flea come from? I found a flea on my leg while walking through my house recently, and I don't have any pets, and I thoroughly cleaned the house 3 weeks ago when I was about to host 7 guests. Maybe one of those guests brought the flea and told it to strike at the end of the month.
2006-06-28
If I were still using categories for my entries, then this would be classified as CITY. There are two Lexington things I want to mention here.
(1) A week ago, Ace Weekly had another free movie screening at Regal Cinemas, and I missed it. They ran an advance preview of Adam Sandler in Click. Oh, well. They've been good to me in the past, letting me sneak a peek at Elizabethtown and 40 Year Old Virgin and a few other films.
(2) On June 10, I attended Swingin On Main, which you know because I already mentioned it before. What you may not know is that I "got my pitcher made," and that picture can now be seen at TopsInLex.com. Go to the "People and Parties" section and view the Swingin On Main slideshow. You'll see a very goofy shot of me there. I feel like hacking into their servers and posting a better shot of me.
2006-06-27
All right, here's a super-long entry for sharing everything I've done lately.
16 June. The trip to the top of the St Louis "Gateway Arch" is the scariest elevator ride you'll ever take in your life. Thank goodness I did it while I was 35 because I would have had a heart attack if I'd taken that ride at 36.
17 June. Turned 36 today, and Meaghan took me to the St. Louis Zoo and bought me dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. What a splendid birthday. I mean, Meaghan was not very warm to the idea of driving me around St. Louis looking for postcards, but she did it anyway because I am the birthday boy. Thanks, Meaghan! Because of you, 17 people in my address book will be getting snail mail from me.
18 June. Drove back home to Lexington just in time for the appreciation party for Dance Trance volunteers.
19 June. Gave Nancy one of my spare TVs, and we watched When Harry Met Sally on it. Are you aware that men and women can never be friends, just friends?
20 June. Visited with three of my women friends, just friends, today: one at lunchtime, one in early afternoon, and one in the evening. Maybe men and women can be friends, just friends.
21 June. Little neighbor boy Zach persuaded me to get some fresh air, and we were having fun playing baseball (with a tennis ball, as always) on my front lawn until we noticed that his dog had escaped from his house and was hanging out on his sidewalk. I started to help Zach get the dog back into the house, but then another dog was being walked nearby, and Zach's dog went OFF. At first, Zach's dog was being playful, but once the first bark was launched, the teeth came out, and it appeared that Zach's dog was gonna tear the other dog a new throat. The other dog's owner was kicking and cussing, and I did not jump in because I am more comfortable leaving my body parts undamaged. Eventually the situation closed, and a witness told us a story of a similar dog who went nuts and tore up his best friend. The witness had words with Zach and Zach's mom, and that put Zach in tears, so Zach went home for the night. I was relieved to get back inside because too much fresh air gives me too much hope for a bright and wonderful future.
22 June. Introduced Heather to Schlotzsky's Deli today. (I'm throwing that in because of my need to stop documenting my life, every so often, to start documenting yours.)
23 June. Hadn't been working much lately, so today I went to the Richmond (KY, not VA) office to do some network support for several hours. Well, lucky me, when I was driving home, I discovered that a section of I-75 north was completely closed during rush hour. The police were making EVERYONE exit. Hoe. Lee. Shick!! What a frustrating mess of a drive. When I finally got home, I found a traffic report on the web which said that 2 colliding vehicles had both overturned. Yeah? So what? Keep the effing interstate open anyway! Idiots. We'll drive on the shoulder. We'll drive on the grass. We do not want to go around 50 miles of back roads. Idiots.
24 June. Went to Newport Aquarium with a church group, and praise the Lord, I didn't have to drive. Rode with the group leader Rebekah. Took pictures and mini-movies to share with the group. Will tease you by not posting a link to those pictures, which are uploaded just beyond your reach.
25 June. While chillaxing with Danielle at Beaumont Library this afternoon, I spotted an article in Psychology Today magazine about being single. Pretty helpful for a guy like me who thinks he wants a wife and kids but who is too lazy to doggedly pursue that goal. It seems to me I'll be a never-married bachelor from birth to death. Relationships are too much work, and you definitely know how I feel about that.
26 June. If you have lots of time to kill and want some serious entertainment, visit the RECUT category of YouTube. Me, I need lots of distractions like these, since I only work one day a week now. So much for my goal of paying off my mortgage this year!
2006-06-18
I am back in town and will update when the mood strikes me again. Hold, please! St Louis Zoo, 17 June 2006
2006-06-16
GOING, GOING, GONE on a long-weekend vacation in St. Louis, MO (see photographic evidence). Don't bother calling me on my birthday; no one will answer my phone.
2006-06-15
Since I am going on a trip to St. Louis for the weekend, I figured maybe I should publish a nice long entry for you to read while I'm gone. Here it is, getting you all caught up on everything since June 6th.
7 June. Was very, very destructive today after I learned that my neighbor has a chainsaw I can borrow. Ripped through the stupid overgrown bush in my front planter with the greatest of ease. What a relief, executing that focker.
8 June. Formed a new friendship with a church girl named Nancy, including giving her dance lessons at the outdoor concerts called "Thursday Night Live" in downtown Lexington.
9 June. Skipped work and did lots of final housekeeping preparations all day. At night I welcomed 7 strangers into my home (i.e. Dance Trance dancers who need a place to crash for the weekend).
10 June. Attended "Swingin on Main," the annual dance in downtown Lexington that I've mentioned time and time again in this website. I took some photos and had an excellent night. The weather was perfect, with cool breezes throughout the dance. As an added bonus, my friend Lisa introduced me to her former coworker named Nicole, who introduced me to a bar named Rosebud and a beverage named Jagermeister.
11 June. My seven guests departed, leaving my mini-mansion empty once more. I enjoyed a little bit of waltzing at Dance Trance and then reset my house to its former cluttered / lived-in pleasantville.
12 June. Bragged about my exciting weekend over lunch at Heavenly Ham with Heather.
13 June. Valerie came to town for a visit which mostly involved shopping at Fayette Mall and Lexington Green. Then, later, I took Nancy out, and we had drinks with Robert at Regatta then performed karaoke songs at Grapevine.
14 June. Have skipped work all week, and I skipped work again today to hang out with Nancy at her swimming pool.
15 June. Finally returned to work, but only stayed for a little while. Focused all my energy on teaching Nancy some rumba moves at Thursday Night Live instead.
All right; that's it.
2006-06-12
You wonder when I'll get around to posting more updates. Keep wondering! And while you're waiting for the updates, send me some snail mail! (My birthday is on Saturday; it's not too late to visit your local Hallmark store and select a humorous card.)
2006-06-06
A few hours before I started typing this blog entry, it was 06:06:06 on 06/06/06. I slept right through it! Dang. Wonder if I can finish my dining room project exactly at 06:06:06 p.m. on 06/06/06. No, no. No! I have a much better idea. I'm going to accidentally trip on a dropcloth and accidentally swallow a paintbrush at 06:06:06.
Speaking of random weird things, have you ever noticed this spam message in your email inbox? It's off the chain. "Hello! I am ready to kill myself and eat my dog, if medicine prices here (http://stupid.spam.address/?62690368) are bad. Look, the site and call me 1-800 if its wrong. My dog and I are still alive :)"
Spam is not a big problem for me, even though my email address is published on several of my webpages, because of a miracle cure called Cloudmark Desktop. You must get this program. It is one of my all-time favorite programs now, along with Ad-Aware, PTFB, SolSuite, and Microsoft Access.
2006-06-05
My boss picked me up at my house and drove me to Pikeville today. My first trip to Pikeville. Such a lovely place. Doubt I'll ever go back.
2006-06-04
For several years, I have been ignoring my home-improvement project known as "the crappy-looking dining room." Well, today, for no good reason at all, I had a sudden burst of motivation, and I started painting the dining room white.
Oh, now I remember the reason. In a few days, I am going to have company, and I don't want them to judge me and my crappy-looking dining room.
2006-06-03
Today I helped Danielle with her new website, Gonzalez Art. She created the whole thing herself in an Apple program called iWeb, and I helped her with the process of uploading it to her web host.
While Danielle and I were working on this project at Fauntleroy's Coffee Shop, my former coworker Robert Shaver showed up. This is the same Rob Shaver that I wrote about in May. He, too, needed my help with a website. Specifically, he really wants to get his website Devomni.com ranked on Google. I told him I'd think about it.
2006-06-02
For the past two days, I've been recruited to throw tennis balls at a neighbor boy. How many computer guys can say that? I tell you what: I am living the dream.
Here's the full story. There is a little kid who lives three houses down from me (I've written about him before). He knows that I'm usually available to play catch in the front yard whenever the sun is shining, so he rings my doorbell several times a week, expecting me to come outside. Yesterday, I broke away from my usual websurfing routines in order to visit with him, and our visit turned into a game of dodgeball. The kicker? I don't own any dodgeballs. All I have are tennis balls. So Zach and I played dodgeball using tennis balls, and he enjoyed it so much yesterday that he came back for more today. He'll come back again tomorrow, I just know it.
2006-06-01
Here is a helpful hint for anyone who finds himself with several encrypted NTFS files and folders that he cannot possibly open. This happened to me (and it will happen to you) when I goofed around with the encryption feature and then later, Windows crashed, and I had no choice but to reinstall Windows on the same drive. At that point, I lost all my decryption keys... or so I thought. It wasn't until I found the program EFS Data Recovery by Elcomsoft that I was able to recover the files and folders I thought I'd lost forever. Thank you, Elcomsoft!
2006-06-00
Would you like to read my blog entries from May 2006? Sure you would! Feel free! Go read them! Gosh!
For search engines: Kentucky KY 40504 USA, not Lexinton
