when she feels like crying she starts laughing

Want to feel old? Verbungle just celebrated its 5th birthday a few weeks ago. What kind of meaningless crap was occupying my brain 5 years ago? Stuff like this:

-Old Man Steve at Paragon
-the eternal Eddie Murphy-John Stockton (then still active!) comparison
-Sitting on one's nuts
-Drunk dudes on the street
-The Lakers-T-Wolves playoff series (I was really into this matchup for some reason)
-The just-launched Iraq war and the U.S. deck of terrorist cards
-Dwarf Depression
-The color-coded terror alert level chart thing
-The moment when I threw a tennis ball out of a moving car and caught in on a bounce (you may know this as "The Greatest Moment in History")
-Granville Waiters
-Religion
-Smokers and the citywide smoking ban
-Hootie Johnson
-Bobby Knight
-Wizards-era Michael Jordan (then still active!)
-Murderous Office Psychos

Wow, Verbungle 2003 was a wild place. Makes Verbungle 2008 seem like a retirement community. What have we got going on these days...hmm...oh, I just got back from vacation in the money-launderin' Cayman Islands. I needed a break and it was perfect. I've never been on a vacation where I was less interested in the culture and scene of the place I was visiting than this one. It was just: beach, book, pina coladas, dinner, bed every day for five days.

I read 92 in the Shade by Thomas McGuane, which for a beach read was a lot more challenging than I had hoped. Man that guy can write though. It was dated, but in a fun, remember the 70's kinda way. And the book goes on all sorts of insane paragraph-long excursions that I was maybe not quite smart enough to follow. But I liked it nonetheless and recommend it to you all -- I kind of see it as a literary version of Easy Rider. In fact, if somebody wants it just let me know in the comments and I'll send it to you. It will be even more interesting for you if you like fishing.

The kid had a blast:
Oh, and there were tons of lizards in Grand Cayman. Lots of little fellas but also big ol' Iguanas just chilling all over the place:
I got a severe sunburn on the first day -- whenever I go someplace warm, I somehow always get it in my head that I am a swarthy Mediterranean hunk who tans well instead of the pasty Irish fuck that I actually am. So I had to wear a special skin-tight shirt thing the last few days to protect myself. Nothing has ever been more awkward and dorky than me in that shirt. Baby Bungle loved me anyway:
Now back to the shitsacking reality of my life. Under 2 months to go until HIATUS. Why can't I get excited about that? I am excited about softball, though. It starts next week and I am bringing a video camera to create a short documentary about opening day.

I took my bike in to the shop to get 'er all fixed up. I will be riding to work by next week at the latest.