Awesome is: being one of the urban Northeastern elite.

[ellaguru]

Oh, that is not awesome at all, Mr. Knuckles, esquire. Hope it all works out okay.

(Although I guess at least you've got a good lawyer now...)

[donblood]

Whoa, that sucks, Freddy.

Not to 180deg this or anything, but I forgot an awesome thing from Seattle:

Went to a little dinner party with a bunch of the lady's friends.  They got a little...  exuberant...  and ended up inviting a mishmash of folks from different social circles, and every conversation was hijacked by these two dudes whose only preferred topics were home ownership and what you can buy at CostCo.  I wanted to put a gun in my mouth, especially when they were complaining (?) about getting cheap laborers outside Home Depot, and also during this exchange:

dumb guy:  "And it's even worse when you have renters!  Like, if you want to sell, you can't just kick 'em out.  You have to wait until the lease expires."
the lady:  "Yeah, sucks about that contract you signed allowing them to live there."
dumb guy, not getting it:  "I know!"

So after that we'd planned on heading back to her folks' place, but we needed a little wind-down time, so we found a bar in the city and chilled out for a bit, mostly rehashing the various inanities of the evening.  We were getting ready to leave, so I ordered a shot of Mekhong (weird Thai liquor) and asked the bartender to call us a cab.

db:  "We'd like to go to Redmond."
bartender:  "A towncar would probably be cheaper.  Let me make some calls - I used to be a concierge, so I know some people."
[he calls some people]
bartender:  "They say it's gonna be fifty bucks.  That can't be right."
db:  "Dude, fifty bucks is FINE.  It's a long ride.  Nineteen dollars for a shot of Mekhong is pretty suspect, though.  It's like thirty bucks for a bottle."
bartender:  "Okay, let's make it five bucks then."

So I tip the bartender all to hell and we go outside to wait for our car.  We'd managed to salvage a small bit of enjoyment from the evening, anyway.

After about ten minutes, a STRETCH FUCKING LIMOUSINE pulls up, the window slides down, and the driver says "donblood?"

[clare]

Nice! Towncars are the way to go...

[davy]

Now that is a good story.

[auto-da-fey]

okay, another +1 for Philly, particularly my awesome neighborhood: the joy of waking up, wishing I had spinach, and within ten minutes holding a basket at Reading Terminal Market loaded up with apples, hella cheap blackberries, bananas, red pepper, and spinach, then walking back to the strains of "Two-Headed Boy" and just sort of feeling like this is how I want it to be.

also, ACT UP street rally in a while almost right outside my window!

[davy]

I just had one awesomely productive hour and-a-half.

* I walked out of my front door and discovered that Sabian had delivered my brand new (and free!) 15" AAX crash cymbal.

* I checked my mail and discovered that I still had some back-payments from unemployment coming in. I drove by the DOL and checked my account and sure enough, the first of these payments had already been processed.

* I got divorce papers notarized. Not too difficult, though the notary public seemed sad for me.

* I successfully returned a sucky video game for a full refund.

* I sat down at a sidewalk cafe and had a nice mini-meal of croussaints and iced coffee.

* I drove to Anchor Tattoo, (finally) met the artist I've had my eye on, and made an appointment for Saturday at 5.  He seemed amused by the idea and said it would be no problem at all. He's going to draw something up and email it to me within the next couple of days.

Yowza. Things happen when you go outside!

Bonus: Ryan Bingham show tonight!

[DCDave]

I'm renting a place in New Orleans with a bunch of my friends for Halloween this year.

YES.

[alexandra]

I'm heading back to Austria just in time for fashion week...

[davy]

Welp.

[coldforge]

you cover that the fuck up, davy

[RavingLunatic]

What's the significance of that number?

[davy]

649.1 [Dewey class (subject) number for books on Child Rearing]

[Aglaya]

That looks awesome!

[G.C.R]

eee! Nice, Davy!

[FreddyKnuckles]

Blue polyester harry potter robes.  aw yeah bitches.

[Aglaya]

That is a fine-lookin' graduate there.  Congrats man!

[clare]

Nice one Davy, and YAY Freddy!! (you got robes that fit, score!)

[G.C.R]

Those really are some hella striking robes. I wish we had exciting colour mortarboards!

[FreddyKnuckles]

The stripes are velvet.  There is a giant red white and blue hood.  it was $90 to rent for the day.

[mountmccabe]

Taht looks fantastic, Davy.

And congrats, Freddy.

[auto-da-fey]

yeah, dig the tat, davy; congrats FK, now go sue some motherfuckers.

[morgan]

Hurrah to both of you!

[milesofsparks]

you cover that the fuck up, davy

why do new tattoos have to be covered? is it to prevent infection?

looks awesome, D.

[ellaguru]

Feeling tentatively good about how my new place is going to stand up against the heat this summer. It's still pretty cool in here, and I haven't even gotten my winter windows out. Setting up the breeze is the plan for tomorrow, I think.

Turns out that first floors are cooler than third floors in the summer, and houses under trees are cooler than houses not under trees.

[RavingLunatic]

Setting up the breeze is the plan for tomorrow, I think.

Turns out that first floors are cooler than third floors in the summer, and houses under trees are cooler than houses not under trees.

How does one set up a breeze exactly?

That last part reminds me of a Bill Nye (the Science Guy)  interview I heard one time. He was talking about energy conservation, and said something like "We're not talking about expensive, high-tech stuff here. It's things like,' Sun shine on black pipe. Water get warm.'" He also had this thing where, after talking about how could do one thing or another, he'd add "and — dare I say it — change the world." It sounds stupid now, but it's really funny if you hear the actual interview. I tried Googling but can't find it.