I've been carrying my camera around with me on my motorcycle rides. I started a photo gallery where I'll post some of my favorite shots of Washington. I'm also going to try to add captions to each one that says where they were taken in case you want to visit them yourself.
Everything I own fits in 96 boxes. The movers dropped them all off yesterday at the condo. (Side note: I find myself wondering whether I should say "house" or "condo.") As soon as the movers were done I ran down to the garage and fired up the motorcycle. It has been over a month since I've been able to ride and I can't wait to get out this weekend. There are so many fantastic places to ride. It should also cut down the commute time since I can use all the carpool lanes when I'm riding.
So I have a stack of boxes in the house. Which ones get opened first?
1. TV, stereo, speakers, Xbox360, etc
2. Computer
3. Sheets
Those are the necessities. The rest can wait.
It's Monday morning and I don't have anything particularly interesting to write about. (It's a good thing I'm not in marketing.) Let's start with a bulleted list and see where it takes us…
And finally let's close out with a few chuckles:
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Xbox, Microsoft, and motorcycles. Oh my! Looks like the good people of the Xbox team are doing a motorcycle ride for charity. I wonder how long it would take me to ride to Redmond to join up with them. I was thinking we should start up something like this at Lockheed. I know a lot of people ride, and I bet we could get a fairly good sized group together.
Speaking of motorcycles, I had the first warm ride of the spring yesterday and I'm looking forward to a lot more of it today and tomorrow. I own an extra helmet now so if any of you lovely ladies would like a ride, just let me know.
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Anyway, back to my point, I do in fact have spring fever. Our ever-reliable weathermen are predicting 68 degree weather by this weekend. (But then again these are the same weathermen who had live “Winter Storm Coverage” last Friday simply because it was raining all day.) This weekend was still chilly in the 40s but it was sunny. I got my car washed and my motorcycle cleaned and oiled up. It's time for spring. Ski season, such as it was, is winding to a close around here. Until I move west, March means grass showing through the snow. Every season has it's charm, but the freshness, warmth and vibrant colors of spring make it my favorite. Bring on the warm weather, the sunshine, barbeque's on the deck with friends, and long Saturday rides on the motorcycle. Bring on rollberblading along Kelly Drive, tailgating at Phillies games, and the endless debate over whether or not someone will punch Hibbs at the next softball game. I'm declaring an end to winter in Philly. It's spring. I'm ready. PS. If you don't understand the image I chose for this post, watch this SNL clip. |
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I must say that even though it's rainy and cool outside, I'm in a pretty good mood today. It has been a great week. I've been out of my house the past three evenings and that's always a good thing (except my Xbox is feeling neglected.) Tuesday night was Valentine's Day, Wednesday was our ski trip escape, and last night was a melding of representatives from three different groups of friends at PJ's. (Cue the clip from George on Seinfeld: My worlds are colliding!) My only regret is not getting out on the motorcycle during the warm days we had, but there will be more days time for that in the coming months. I have no big plans this weekend, but catching up on sleep is high on my list. Sunday afternoon will be filled with HD NASCAR. The rest of the time will be periods of Xbox360, chewing, and sleep (did you know you technically cannot catch up on sleep?) Sounds like a good time to me. Three meetings and 6.5 hours of work stand between me and freedom. |
Today was the day. It finally happened! All the waiting has paid off. Here's how it happened…
Around 3pm I was sitting at work and I got notified (notifywire.com) that there was a new bundle for sale on WalMart.com. I definitely didn't want to buy 6 games and all the extra stuff they were selling just to get the 360, but I had this plan to return everything except the console. It was a risky move though and I've been holding off in hopes of getting one in a store with no bundle. While I was searching around looking for information on Wally World's return policy, I saw a couple links to inventory searches at Best Buy and Circuit City. The Best Buy site said there were two stores that had them in stock! I immediately called the one in Northeast Philly and he said there were two premiums and three cores left. In about 30 seconds I had vacated my desk and fled the building. It took me a half hour to get there (thanks to Cho for navigation help on the phone), but I was too late. There were only two cores left by the time I got there. For those that don't know, the Core version is $100 less than the Premium version but it comes with a wired controller instead of wireless, no hard drive, and no HDTV cable. In short it's not a good deal. My willpower won out and I didn't get the Core. I flew back home, jumped on the computer, and saw that the second store still had them in stock. I called the store as I ran down the stairs armed with my GPS, but he wouldn't tell me how many they had. Oh well, I didn't have anything else to do. I drove up to Levittown (about 30 minutes up the interstate), walked inside, and was greeted by empty shelves. I decided to at least ask if they had any Premiums and he went in the back to check. Sure enough, he walked out with a box. It was too good to be true! I picked up a copy of Call of Duty 2, and I was on my way back home.
So why am I blogging instead of playing? I was able to play for about an hour, but now I'm headed off to dinner in Philly at the Melting Pot to celebrate Kristin's birthday. Believe it or not, there are a few things in life better than a new game console. Large pots of cheese and chocolate in the company of good friends qualifies.
It's going to be a fun weekend.
I officially sold the arcade machine today. I've had the word out on the street for the past couple months and finally had an interested party. He got a great deal out of it, but I'm just happy to have it off my hands. It was a 
I'd like to congratulate Aubry on his recent purchase of what may be the 
It's funny how some of my strongest memories are stupid things I've said and done. For example, I remember riding in the car with Mrs. Hintz around this time when I was probably 11 or 12. We were sitting at the intersection of Hickory and Cleveland in their old brown minivan. “So Ben, do you have spring fever?” … “Nope, I feel fine. I know a lot of people are getting sick though.” At least we were the only two people in the car for that one. It wasn't nearly as embarrassing as my answer to Mrs. A's “So Ben, have you ever had a yard sale?“ question on the trip from Boston to Harrison in a car full of people I didn't know very well yet. I think the recurring theme here is that I'm a moron.
It's Friday. The engineers have shunned their tan khakis in favor of jeans that are a little too tight and ditched the brown shoes for the velcro sneaks. It's like a fashion runway at a bingo tournament.
On a Steel Horse I Ride
Although my derriere would vehemently disagree, I had a fantastic time. It was fun to be a part of a ride that big, and the views were stellar. Photos have been posted to the Washington album and I expect more to be posted on the Jeff Henshaw's site. He was the ride coordinator, and yes, I thought his named sounded familiar too. This is the same group of guys I posted about back in March.
A big thanks for Jeff for putting this together. It might take me a day or two to recover, but it's definitely something I'd like to do again.
[UPDATE] Jeff has put up a post about the ride and a link to some more pictures.