it's unlocked. it's yours.

Sometime back in November, the door lock on my camry broke. I suppose it could've been worse. I happened to have the day off and wasn't terribly inconvenienced by an extra cup of coffee while I waited for TripleAAA. The tow truck guy came, and I told him what I'd gone through that morning. The key would fit in the lock, but I could only turn it one way. The other way wouldn't budge. I was able to lock and re-lock the door as much as i wanted. The passenger side never worked. The handle itself was broken as a matter of fact. The guy told me it would be around $300 for him to get a locksmith there to work on it. I asked him to pop the lock instead, and have left it unlocked ever since. Most of the time I'd leave all four locks wide open. other times I'd powerlock them all and then leave the backseat behind the driver open. (I figgired that was three times more secure.) In extreme cases I'd lock it and then wiggle in through the trunk. An unused license plate frame from the trunk kept me safe from the dreaded 'accidental' lock. With all that, I felt as secure as I needed to with the car I call "The Mamry." I got this car last fall when I bought my friend's wife's '94 Camry. It has a sunroof and a V-6. It's pretty quick, green, but all keyed up, with 175,000 miles on it. I guess I hoped someone would take it and I'd get the car I want. This past Friday I finally got it fixed. I was curious about how long it had been, so I counted up the days. A grand total of 190 days and no one ever took advantage.

twelve

Today is day 12 of my 30 day effort to blog daily. anyone reading this blog knows they aren't reading it regularly. i've blogged every day this week at work, which has been really interesting. I haven't known what to put on some days, other days its been easy. i've had varying feeback from workers. from those who know blogging only for its dangers to those who say they appreciate things they've found. the boss likes the "daily habits" angle I've been working. on the days I don't know what to talk about, I just work through a book called The Eighth Habit. what always ends up happening with bullplop is happening again tonight. , i don't have time to finish this post . going out for dinner with friends.

Santa Barbara

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Originally uploaded by SpeakEasy.

We spent Friday and Saturday night in Santa Barbara. We had a nice hotel room right on State St., the main strip downtown.

It was a relaxing weekend, but we managed to squeeze a lot in. We did some shopping, and took some pictures. We had a drive down the coast, and some wine in the afternoon. We went hiking, then cooled off at the beach. I was thrilled to take a nice long nap on Saturday, but probably the funniest thing that happened all week was on Sunday.

See, on a nice romantic weekend like this, you need to be on your best behavior. So instead of just farting when I felt like I had to fart, i actually held it in. Am I great or what?

As I was heading out the door to go downstairs, I stopped in the doorway, smiled, and gritted my teeth and forced it out as loud as I could. She laughed hysterically when I did.

I had just farted right on a man walking down the hall to go downstairs, and we're not talking a small fart here, either, so he couldn't pretend he didn't hear. I never looked him in the eye. I just went back in the room, closed the door, and laughed my ass off.

Tiv-No!

I wake up each day to an alarm clock, and I keep it far enough away from the bed that I can no longer just reach over and slap it. I have to hop my ass out of bed in the morning to turn the sucker off. My clock has both the radio, which I like, and the beeeeep beeeeep beeeeeep that sounds like a truck backing into my bed, which I don't like at all. I set them both about twenty minutes apart. I hear music and I know if I don't get my ass out of bed, I'll get run over by a truck. Good motivation. This morning I actually woke up at five... ready to go! Look out world, here I come! Even early birds like me shouldn't be that awake at five, so I stayed in bed until I heard the music. Today, though, it wasn't a nice wake up tune. It was the News lady reading the score to the Pistons-Spurs game I was planning on watching this evening. My first word of the day was a really loud, "Bitch"

two

Sunday morning we went out to Mission Trails. We rode what I call snake trail- we pedal up a twisting path for about an hour before the hike-a-bike section up to the top of the ridge. The view from up top looks out over Tierrasanta and the rest of the park. It's truly awesome. Climbing up the last part we saw some japanese tourists bombing down the best section of the trail. One yelled out "Dis is-uh good-uh" as he passed. I agree-uh. We gather ourselves, take in the view, then bomb down----> covering the previous hour's climb in about 20 minutes. You dart through twisting singletracks. (one week after SDMBA cleared back all the overgrown brush.) It darts through a rocky riverbed, silty swooping turns, and a couple drops for the brave. Its the kind of trail that's doable for the novice, but still hard enough for experienced riders. The fun forces you faster. I enjoyed myself so much, I decided to bring part of the trail home with me...

daily habits

one. this is day one of a thirty day writing exercise. tomorrow, when I post, I'm going to title it two, after that I imagine I'll go back to regular titles and hopefully loosen up and get into the fun of a post. I miss blogging. I really enjoy posting regularly, but I find myself wanting to write about professional things, I've been contemplating a switch to a new domain to have more of a consultant's blog. I've wanted to start one at the credit union, do one for language learners, another blog for the SAGE site. with too much to write, I can't prioritze, so I do none of them. that's why I'm doing this thirty day exercise. i want to be more effective. develop those highly effective habits I keep hearing about. I dream of posts that have all the great photos I've been taking, but I haven't been taking pictures. I want my cellphone to send pictures right to my blog. I want the flickr account i don't populate to make its way onto the web. Maybe this'll help. I dream that all my posts are helpful stuff like links that help you integrate flickr with iPhoto. My photostream could sure benefit from smooth integration with photos I already have. Tin Hwin's stream has inspired me. How many posts will I get in a thirty day timeframe? I'll find out. I have a goal of how many posts to squeeze in between now and July 12th. We'll see how I do.

Slightly off target

I was at the Target on Sports Arena. busily defending myself and my lack of potholders (If you don't put anything in the oven, you don't need them!) when I heard a familiar voice behind me. It was my buddy, Matt, who I thought was living in Canada. What a surprise, that he would be there looking for a floor rug. We both had a laugh later on at the domestic version of me that turns off the computer and occasionally goes out to shop for girlie crap like potholders, bowls, and candles. Great to have you back, buddy.

Miss T

Its only a few posts ago on my blog, but March 21, I talked about the new girlfriend of mine. I did a bad job juggling blogging, girlfriend, work and school. The job is still great. Its actually one of my best experiences ever. School is still going strong thanks to an extension from a kind professor. Hopefully I can get back into the rhythm of blogging again. Here's a picture of the hottie, Miss T.