I am not even married yet, but I think this article could help all of us, single, engaged, or married.

What Shamu Taught Me About a Happy Marriage
(From the NY Times Magazine Modern Love column.)

"Least Reinforcing Syndrome (L. R. S.).
When a dolphin does something wrong, the trainer doesn't respond in any way. He stands still for a few beats, careful not to look at the dolphin, and then returns to work. The idea is that any response, positive or negative, fuels a behavior. If a behavior provokes no response, it typically dies away."

I have always been fascinated with Warren Buffet, not just because he is the second richest man in the world, but because of his smarts, wisdom, and most of all, his lack of dynastic qualities.

This week he announced that he will begin giving away most of his fortune. Approximately 37 BILLION DOLLARS mostly to charity. You can read about it here and also if you have time, read each of the 5 letters he personally sent to the lucky recipients of his philanthropic wishes. I applaud you Mr. Buffet. Along with you and Bill Gates, you could quite possibly change the world. Who needs governement when you have these two smart individuals.

Wynkoop Brewery
Double Daughters
La Boheme

Thanks to all the dudes that accompanied me on Friday night. And Saturday night.

Today my buddy Marcus arrives for my Bachelor Party. I am so excited to see him. It's almost been a year. We will tear up Denver this weekend. Oh yes.

Here is a quad collage of my beautiful fiance taken with my cell phone before the Yeah Yeah Yeah's concert at Red Room.

We went to the Botanic Gardens last night to see Aimee Mann. Richard Thompson opened. I had never seen either of them before. They are both excellent musicians and I was equally impressed with both. We met the Walmers and shared their blanket, along with wine, pears, bread, cheese, cobb salad and a few Aspen Edge beers. This was our first concert there and apparently it, like most "places-to-be-seen" events, has gotten out of control with too many people. Just like Sunday when we went to the City Park Jazz. It used to be this intimate setting with just the right amount of people. Now, due to marketing and attempts at wringing every last penny they can out of everything, they have ruined the mood. I would go back though, for the right artist. It helps that we get free tickets though. Helps a lot. We were hoping Aimee would dust off some old Til Tuesday songs, but sadly, none came. Here is a video snippet of her last night. She has a beautiful voice, and, according to Walmer as he was leaving the show, quite a nice butt.

I read about this guy ze frank in the New York Times Sunday paper. He is from Albany, NY, lives now in Brooklyn, but graduated from Brown University with a degree in Neuroscience, but is basically a comedian.

This one, Animal Noises, particularly cracked me up.

This one, too.

I have become fascinated with birds. Ever since I moved in with Christy, she had a finch feeder, and ever since we have revamped the backyard, there are birds everywhere. Well, a few weeks ago we got another bird feeder. I hung it in the tree next to the finch feeder but then the squirrels came and scared all of the birds away. I would spray them with water, shoo them, and sic Tica on them to no avail. So, we decided to get a big sheppards hook pole and put it in with the new stretch of shrubs and flowers. This obviously drew a lot of birds. Chicadees, swallows, finches, doves, and some skanky black birds. While her parents were here meeting my parents a few weeks ago, her mom suggested that we get another feeder so that the big birds would not bother the little birds. We did just that. AND I got a hummingbird feeder as well. We boiled sugar in water, added some red dye and put it in the tree. No hummers yet tho. The other feeder mounts to a pole and I put it out by the new patio. This brought more birds. And squirrels. Now we have red-headed somethings, some other very chirpy birds, and, I THINk I hear cardinals but cannot see them, and more skanky black birds. Nothing pleases me more than waking up early, making coffee and sitting on the patio with a fresh Saturday weekend Wall Street Journal, watching the birds fight and party at the feeders. It's my favorite thing to do these days. Thanks for reading Boring post #64.



See the squirrel on the fence? He's been trying to figure out HOW to get to the feeder. It's been two weeks and he still is stumped.

Last weekend, I felt old. I felt old but the funny thing was, it was not me that this was happening to. In the past 4 months, two hip guys, yes, guys, were telling me in different situations, that they had just purchased THE BEST vacuum cleaner in the world. Two different, hip guys, two different occassions, two different vacuums. Go figure. These were not women talking. These were not completely undomesticated dudes. These are guys that, one, plays in a band, another that is a recovering network engineer dude gone HVAC that races road bike guy. They went on and on about how these machines suck! Suck in a good way. I am not saying I was bored or uninterested with their enthusiasm and comments. At the time of each incident, I was intrigued. I love a good vacuum. And when you have a bad sucky vacuum, you really want one that really sucks. So I inquired to both on features and accessories. How well did they suck? How did they perform on wood floors? Shag carpet? flat rugs? Did they leave a dust cloud behind and a layer of dust on all your furniture? Were they able to get into tiny crevices? Pick up dog hair? All of these were answered sufficiently and I got some good knowledge on new vacs. Sad thing is, I wish I could remember the brand and model of each of these, but cannot. I will do some digging and question asking to see if I can find out and will update this entry later.

Weather: It is cool today, high of only 75. It is lovely and comfortable.

Hello fellow PATIENT readers. Sheesh, it must be the heat. Or the procrastination.....or the work, or the dogs, or...I could go on forever. We have had one busy month. For starters, I had been working on our invites. Well, those are done. Sent. Then my parents drove in and Christy's parents flew in for a first time meet. It we better than expected. Everyone got along despite the few political discussions that came up. You cannot keep politics down, that is all I can say. The dogs are cute as ever. Tica is just a complete doll. Even when she rolls around in worm guts she is still sweet.

So Tuesday night, Christy and I were preparing the backyard for her bookclub. She pulled out one of our long banquet tables we got from a guy in Boulder for cheap to use for the reception. Anyway, she leaned it up against the patio support beam. Tica was walking around and all of a sudden...boom! the table fell and landed on Tica. I have never seen Christy so upset since the time she forgot about her newly permed hair and ran her head under the shower. Seriously though, it was scary. Tica acted scared but ok. It is now three days later and she is still fine. Cute as usual running around chasing the frisbee, tennis ball, toys, and begging for treats. It just makes you freak a bit and question...."what if this was my child?"

In other work news, a month ago I bid on a website project against 5 other people for the new Lakewood CPD site. And won! I was informed last week by phone that I got the bid. I met with them this week to go over details. This will be my biggest project to-date with over 100 pages. I have hired a programmer and will begin work in the next few weeks. Hurray Studio Hampton.

Weather today. Hot, but a relief from 6.14.06's 101 degrees.

Happy Number of the Beast Day!
We were going to bake a Devil's Food cake but just were too busy.
Have a fun one!

I know I say this a lot, but I really need to post more. Neck and shoulder chronic pain are too blame though. I have just been to my second acupuncture treatment which really helped. That along with P.U.S.H deep tissue massage and some ergonomics should hopefully put me on the road to recovery. If anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them.

In other news, we have been busy entertaining on our new patio. We had Erica and Jeff over for dinner the other night, Burt and Lora, and then this Memorial Day, Christy invited her friends over. I could hang out in the backyard all day. The shrubs are coming in nicely and we just put up a bird feeder that is getting a lot of attention from chickadees, sparrows, and those damn squirrels. That is a big problem. Squirrels scare the birds. Ok, so does Tica though. She loves to run up and try to jump into the tree after the birds and squirrels. We want to get a post and put the bird feeder on that out by the patio. 

One more thing. this guy put a dachshund on his arm. cool. I love Flickr.com.