today, though thursday, should really be friday. i should not have to work on fridays during the summer.

i saw the bird man yesterday. he's this guy, probably in his late 20's / early 30's, who goes around with a big feather strapped to his forehead making loud birdcalls. I don't think he's trying to attract birds; i think he's just nuts! Well, he might actually be a bike messanger or something. The noises he makes are really quite startling. They'd work well to get people out of his way and alert cars in close proximity. Yesterday he started out with a WHOO-LALALALALALALALA at the top of his lungs as he rode down the street. It sounded like the African yell/cheer that I heard a lot when i was in Zambia. Then he switched to a loud CAW-CAW.... CAW-CAW. It's shocking, then funny, then slightly annoying.

I love New York.

hot mommas, it's hot! even the beach was hot this weekend. i was there only four hours before i called it a day, although i had some errands to run and a silly notion that i could get back to the city for a barbeque. There's usually a cool breeze off the water, but on saturday the wind blew from the shore. The water was sooo refreshing, but the wacky wind, though strong, meant no waves.

i'm taking a break from the book i'm rereading because rebecca just lent me her copy of the latest Harry Potter. I hope it's good (for a kids books, right?). well it didn't cost me anything.

I've been doodling a lot recently trying to put something togther for a retirement house on the family farm. (not for me, obviously.) It's funny how you can make everything work out nicely in a sketch. Now i have to st down and see if the hardline versions still work. but it's summer, and so dang hot. maybe tomorrow i'll start. :)

Christina and Judith made yellow-cake cupcakes last night. They didn't have frosting, so we made some powdered sugar frosting and i melted some chocolate chips ont top of some for chocolate frosting. not gourmet, but still tasty.

Ryan finally managed to drag himself away from work so we could watch some more "24" last night. I'm going to lose a lot of sleep becasue of those DVDs. We have three seasons of shows to watch, and it's too hard to just watch one at a time. you've GOT to find out what happens next!

well, it's been hot all week. Time to hit the beach tomorrow. Ry adn C went today those lucky...

This morning at the gym I saw a few of what must be my favorite tv commercials, at least for the moment. The first is the AARP commercial featuring Mr. Yang volunteering all over town, made possible after he somehow cloned himself. I love to watch his wife react as she wakes up to multiple copies of her husband.

But even better is the coffee creamery commercial showing grumpy people. There's the woman who grimaces at the smiley face pin before dropping it in the trash; the woman who doesn't hold the elevator; the woman who hoses down the paperboy on his bike; and in the long version, the girl that nonchalantly pushes a stack of documents onto the floor as she walks by a table at work. I love it. Too bad I always see the short version of that commercial.

I hope the other folks at the gym don't think I'm too weird when I crack up laughing on the elliptical machine, because I can't help it.

church just started, but i'm at work. deadlines suck! how to finish all this drawing? 12 hours at work yesterday.

humid heat hovering in the high nineties, but office temp more for polar bears, well that sucks too.

coworker sharing world-famous cheesecake from soho... that rules!

check out my pics from FLW's Fallingwater and from my family reunion. they're on my main site.

this is my break. i've been doing some t-t-tedious drawing all day and it's driving me to the edge... of something. it's that feeling when you're craving something but can't get any of it - like chocolate. maybe that's what my problem is.

so i'm using this blog as a distraction. ______ problem is, there's nothing to write about. Anybody know any interesting websites? I'd watch some movie trailers online, but since i'm at work it would be very obvious that no work is getting done at my station. what i really need, besides that chocolate, is another day/week/month at the beach (once my sunburn goes away. whoa, momma, did i burn this last saturday! i'm still hurting.)

Thank God it's Fourth of July weekend coming up! I love the hol-i-day!

I just added an XML feed to my website. The link is to the left. You can add my blog to things like your myYahoo homepage so you'll know when I've updated... which ain't all that often.

Exciting news! I cashed in my coins this morning. Okay, so maybe it was just exciting for me. I dumped out my checkbook box and a little tupperware into the machine at Commerce Bank on my way to work. You've probably seen their commercials about this free service, even to non customers. Anyway, wowzers! The machine spit out a receipt telling me I had 1 quarter, 211 dimes, 181 nickels, and 638 pennies. It's always more than you expect. I was hoping for $25, but would have been happy with anything over 20 bucks. The machine said I would get a prize if I guessed with $1.99 of the actual amount. So I guessed $30. When it said I didn't win, I figured I had overestimated. But nope, I was getting more cash than I dared dream: $36.78

I wish paychecks were like that.

There's nothing quite like a holiday weekend. On my walk home from church sunday night I was planning what I needed to do at work the next day when I remembered that I had Monday off for Memorial Day. Now that's a happy moment!

After living in New York for 4 or 5 years, I finally made it to a baseball game. Until a few weeks ago, I hadn't seen any professional sports in New York. (Although I've watched a half dozen or so of Ryan's hockey games. Probably doesn't count.) Now I've seen a Mets come-from-behind win over the Marlins at Shea, and I watched as Boston creamed the Yankees 17-1 in the Bronx. And I didn't pay a dime for either. My friend Dalcy sprung a Mets ticket on me out of the blue, and I filled in for a no-show brother at Yankee stadium. Whoever said nothing's free just had bad karma or something. Maybe he or she wasn't a tither!

Did you see the sunset pics I put up on the website? If not, you're missing out. They're sweet.

Nothing exciting going on around here. We had a few days in the low 70's, but since then the high has only been in the low 50's. I went to the park over the weekend, actually two different parks, but it was too shilly to stay very long. hot sun and cold breeze.

We got another pastor at my church this week. One of our frequent guest speakers is now full-time at our church. It was very unexpected; they just announced that it was so. well, not like i expected a vote or anyhting. And we got a new locker room for the guys in the choir. Now we're trying to convince them to make part of it a lounge.

My room mate and a friend are drawing on a wall at home. No, keith, they're not four (years old). Actually it's pretty cool. And it's nice to come home and discover something new up. I can't wait to see what happens once they add color.

And speaking of color, the project i'm working on in the office is getting painted now. Just a few more weeks and they'll be done with everything. I'll have to post some pics soon. And our firm is in the current (may 2005) issue of Architectural Digest, so check it out. You can always just page through it at barnes and noble and then put it back on the shelf. I had nothing to do with that project, but... whatever.

okay, lunch is about over. And this isn't worth reading anymore anyway, right?

It's spring... and it's snowing. Where's this global warming?

I have the ALTIM8 in town this week. I drove into the city so I could go to a church fellowship (aka party) in Connecticut last Saturday, and so I could go to IKEA with my roommates. But the week is so full of stuff going on, we weren't sure we would make it out there. Monday was our day, but something came up (previously scheduled sushi lessons). I have church or choir on tues and thurs, and Wednesday got taken by a birthday dinner. But then I was too sick to go to church Tuesday night. There was no debate out that. But I decided that I wasn't too sick to go to IKEA. We also stopped at Target and ate dinner at Panerra Bread, my favorite! Note: the IKEA restaurant was closed since we were there only for the hour before closing. Let me tell you, it was strange being at IKEA when it's not overflowing with people. I guess I'm usually there on Saturdays. It felt like the place had already closed and any minute someone would catch us lurking around the store. Whatever, I'm just happy I finally got a bookcase to store all my surplus crap that doesn't yet have a home. Maybe soon I'll actually have time to put it together and use it.

Our subway system is falling apart. Every day something new breaks down. On Monday it took four trains before I could actually squeeze onto a train. But it's better than the paying for cabs, like our $30 cab ride home from dinner last night. Ouch! Good thing I have two roommates to defray the costs.

Happy Easter.

okay, so it's snowing outside... horizontally. i really don't want to go out there. i should be working from home today. and speaking of work, i should get back to it, becasue i've got a ton of it to do. It's only Tuesday... There should be a Tivo for life so you can skip ahead to the weekends, and pause during the good times.

TGIF. Why, because fridays are gym-free for me. I let myself sleep in every friday, and boy was it nice this morning.

So we made it through february. Bitter cold and driving snowstorms couldn't stop us. But I can say that it sure slowed me own. But March is so close to spring... i can't wait. And March is Brent and Tracy Month. (B, A, +B)

It was funny, the other night in church the visiting speaker ended the teaching with a Star Wars illustration. That's Pretty funny if you know anything about my church. He told about the problem George Lucas faced during the filming of the "first" star wars movie when the main character got into a motorcycle accident. Everyone said that the movie was sunk because they couldn't continue filming. But George Lucas said, "Give me three days," and he went and rewrote the story. (He just wore a mask.) In the same way, humanity's sin was the death of us, but God said, "Give me three days," and rewrote our story. (Jesus in the grave.) Pretty neat illustration. Obviously, the pastor's long version was more eloquent.

RANDOM THOUGHT OF THE DAY: today just after one o'clock it was 01:02 03/04/05.

Do you get free cookies on friday where you work? sucks to be you!

Have you seen "The Gates" in Central Park? if not, i've posted a few pictures on the webpage from this past saturday. Besides seeing the art, it was great to try out my new camera. No problems. I even took a few movies since "The Gates" looks better in motion. But i might argue that some of the images do okay with showing movement.

Though extremely cold, the park was full of people who had come out to see the temporary art installation. And sun always helps it feel warmer. I bought lunch on my way over to the park. Actually, I picked up a small sandwich and some water in Grand Central Terminal. I mention this only becasue while i was there, i saw some of the squash tournament that was going on inside. So weird. Not squash; the fact that they were playing inside Grand Central.

And i was in Grand Central becasue I started out the day at Scandanavia House, which is nearby. They had an exhibit called "Modern Finnish Churches" that I've been meaning to see. There was a dozen or so designs shown that were pretty interesting. The churches were from the late 60's to the ate 90's, mostly the results of design competitions.

On sunday I had brunch with some friends, a few of whom were visiting from California. We eventually got into Cafe Lalo for some yummy food. (it's the cafe from "You've Got Mail!") While my eggs and salad didn't quite fill me up, Christina gave me a big portion of her waffle that made my day. It was sooooo good. There's nothing quite like a tasty meal. But don't worry, i've been going to the gym again.

Happy V Day. whatever.

it's been a month since i visited this page, but i'm under no obligation to report here at any specific frequency. and it's february, and what really goes on in february? it snowed, it melted, it snowed, it got bitter cold... you get the picture.

but i guess some stuff did happen. My church had another three-day fast. I made it. My project at work finished construction documents and id now in construction. I returned to the gym this morning after a long hiatus. I scooped out litter boxes for the first time this morning.

Sadly, my camera broke a while back. I don't know what happened, but it refuses to extend the lense. I'm sure it's probably fixable, but it gives me a great excuse to go for the upgrade that i've been thinking about.

I would have had a new camera by now, but i took a long time to research for a replacement. I've been scouring the reviews at Cnet.com, and user reviews at amazon.com, and even advice from some local camera shops. Basically much of my free time has been devoted to this decision. I wanted to stick with Olympus, since I've really enjoyed my last camera, but ultimately I decided to go with one from Konica Minolta. I pretty much decided this a week ago, but it took another week for me to go through with it. Indecisive Josh. I had to decided which features were most important to me since no camera does it all. oh, here's what i got:

konica minolta dimage a200

My goal was to have a new camera so i could take some pictures of "The Gates" in Central Park by the artists Cristo and Jean-Claude. If you haven't heard about it, then i pity and look down on you. The piece opened on saturday, but i haven't seen it yet (because i don't have my camera yet!).

The last thing I'll mention is the party I went to this past saturday. A friend from the choir at church invited me to his place for some papayas that friends requested him make. and isince this was a Christian party, I guess i shold refer to it as a fellowship, not a party. Seems strange to me, but i guess it's to avoid the alcohol that "party" connotes. It was pot-luck, so there was an overwhelming amount of food to be had. I made a pistichio torte that went over pretty well. Not bad for the first time making it. Some people sang and played guitar, we hung out and chatted, but it turned out that much of the focus was on games. There were three simultaneous games going on for a good chunk of time. We played 2 rounds monopoly, a round of trivial pursuit, half(?) a game of risk, and there was some informal taboo going on. Sometimes people forget how fun simple board games can be.

but, alas, games are for the weekend. right now it's time to work.