Zona

$3,000 Coca Cola

I sit on the sofa of my living room and surf the net on my MacBook Pro. Just moments ago it was time to get up and change out of sweats and into "go outside" clothes.

So I instinctly grab my coke off the end table so my granddaughter won't knock it over, spilling coke onto the table and eventually onto the old dog-piss-stained-in-places carpet.

Then it hit me.

I always do that. I always pick up the coke so it won't get spilled. And I always leave my $3,000 lap top sitting on the arm of the sofa.

Always

Interesting

WEDDING UPDATE

scratch the lasagna. put deli trays and croissants in between a couple of scheduled "something"s.

there seems to be a splatter on the wedding dress concern.

I am off from work all week.

Gonna be busy.

Here's the schedule.

Monday: Something, golf, something, something
Tuesday: Something something, suit, something
Wednesday: Something, something, something, something
Thursday: Something, something, pick up mom, son, and rental car at the airport, something
Friday: Something, make 6 trays of lasagna, relocate everybody to hotel in Ferndale, something
Saturday: Something, wedding, reception, something
Sunday: Sleep, drink, something, primal scream, drink, something, something

My dad would have been 81 today. I usually skip work and go play golf but today's a Saturday and I don't want to deal with crowds. I'm sure he won't mind if I make it Monday.

Now if your dad is still around call him and tell him you love him.

Yesterday was a lot of fun. We went down and got the marriage license and the cake and the flowers. I've rarely enjoyed spending about $900 on somebody but me more than I did yesterday.

The kids were cooing like love birds and I hope they pause to let each step soak in before they wake up a week from Sunday to realize that it's all over.

I can see that they are becoming one and it's a real thrill for me.

I'm tired. I'm tired of being tired. It makes me apathetic. I'm apathetic to so many things that it's hard to get excited for anything. I'm set on autopilot. I go through the motions. I "phone it in". I want to not have to do anything. I want a room with no windows. I would love nothing more than to spend a day or two in complete darkness and silence to remind me that there may be some value in light and sound.

I don't care how that just sounded.

(and no, it has nothing to do with the wedding. I'm enjoying everything about the wedding)

Nine days 'til the wedding. Very short notice but it's all falling in place very nicely.

Ten steps away from the door and I feel the heat of June. No ceiling fan. No quiet view from the back of the house lying in the messed up bed and the tussled long black hair. I feel closer to the people in the street now than the woman I just left behind. The ice cream vendor is more of a friend as he raises his glance from the children to me.

The bus pulling up on a route unknown to me holds more of a homecoming hope to me than the way I have known all my life. So I ignore it and walk in the opposite direction. There is the moment of right now. The rest of my life is past tense. It has always been that way but right now, this now, I feel like I'm starting from scratch more than ever before. More than the last time I lost a job. More than even closing the door that put me out on this street.

I decided to pull that door closed. I didn't decide to end that job. But both decisions left me in the same condition.

It was invigorating. It was a heart racing uncertaincy. It was empty.

WTF?! hey?

Opening day baseball is on. Granted it's being played in Japan but it's A's VS Bosox.

America idol is on. It's "sing a song that came out the year you were born" night.

Dancing with the Stars is on!!

What am I watching?

And actually enjoying?

CURLING!!!

Women's World Championships.

USA vs Canada

last night I watched Canada vs Russia. The Russians had a real cute blonde but they lost. The US women had a big lead but they're choking now.

If this pattern keeps up I may actually catch myself using my signals to change lanes soon.

Another movie

The Atonement

Outstanding.

As much as I LOVED No Country For Old Men, I think The Atonement was a better movie and should have won the Oscar for best picture.

It's Easter and the kids ate all my chocolates

So I have nothing to go with this coke I'm drinking.

I woke up at three and my system wasn't showing me any love so I banged in sick. That's our slang. We don't call in sick, we bang in. I thinks it sounds cool. March Madness and Midway on TV. The wife, one daughter, and the babies are at church. The other daughter is at work and my son is going into work on his day off. He works at a restaurant and wants to be a chef.

I like TV. Last night Charleton Heston was the deliverer of the Jews out of Egypt and now he's dive bombing Japanese aircraft carriers. The man who got the ten commandments just slammed his plane into the flight deck. Burning bush to burning wreckage.

Ah modern technology

Miss you Binsk

Last day of the long winter.

This winter just kicked my ass but I got out on a gray day and played golf. I hit the ball well and putted decent. I was pleased. There IS no bad day golfing it's said and that's true.

The world is spinning off it's axis but there's something about a white ball on green grass and a good swing that sends a divot flying.

I played alone which is my preference and I took a cart because hell, I just laid out 16 hun on a dress and 8 hun on tires and brakes.

$35 for an electric golf cart?

Peanuts.

Two more movies.

Goya's Ghosts

Picture me pointing to my tonsils with my right index finger.

The Bee Movie

Of course it was corny but a few parts made me laugh out loud. The windshield scene was my fave.

I walked across the street from the lawyer's office to a local eatery.

A trendy place with raw wood beams and brick walls. We were seated next to some type of water valve apparatus. $300 frames and $100 haircuts at the table next to us. Two waitresses, one with short straight red hair and the other with long straight blonde hair in a pony tail cruise our end of the restaurant. They had perfectly sized black tees on with expensive bras that shaped their breasts perfectly without showing any lines.

The food was really good.

The service could have been a tad better.

Our table was the only one in the place where a cell phone the size of a calculator was not held up to an ear at least once.

To those of you who are not in Vancouver this means very little.

Anybody in the Vancouver area has already asked themselves, "I wonder what Dan was doing in Yaletown"?

Putting the wedding together

So I was down in the States and I found Martinelli's sparkling cider on sale. (no booze at the wedding) Three bottles for $8.00. I bought two cases. I was happy. When I got it home I found out Ilsen and Magaly were out looking for a dress.

They found one that they fell in love with.

$1,600 with shoes and veil.

Now they're off after flowers.

I need some booze.

Movie review time

3:10 To Yuma:

Hey, let's make a western! Let's get Russell Crowe. That's where the good ideas end. Dumb movie. Cliche'. Good guy owes money to a guy who wants to run good guy off his land for the railroad. Bad guy has a gang of killers who are about as stupid as it gets. Big shoot'em up scene. Good guy dies but wins back respect of son. You're led to believe that the bad guy will get away.

No I didn't just ruin it for you. I just saved you some time and money.

Two fistfulls of popcorn.

Redaction:

Soldiers in Iraq doing what we know they've done. The latest in "clip" movies. (Traffic, Crash) This one sucked though.

Empty hand.

Lust, Caution:

Intrigue in Japanese occupied Shanghai. Directed by Ang Lee and in Chinese with subtitles. THIS was a very good movie. Adults only as the sex scenes are as graphic as it gets without being porn. Resistance movement plots the assassination of the head of the secret police. Great acting. Great characters.

Four and one half fistfulls of popcorn.

Mr and Mrs Daniel Lilly are pleased to announce that their daughter

Ilsen

is marrying Scott Arcondous

son of Mr and Mrs Phillip Arcondous.

Sometime in April.

We are very happy as are they. Now we are scurrying around coordinating everything.

Drove back up from Portland yesterday. We had a wonderful weekend in what is a truly cool downtown. Drove out east of Portland to an outlet mall to buy some clothes. The granddaughter made out big time and we continue to spoil her. I also drove by where I spent a summer living in Gresham.

The drive was terrible until we got a little north of Seattle.

Sunny Sunday in Portland, Oregon

My friend Matt Good in Lola's Room at the Crystal Ballroom.

15 floors above Portland

Took a weekend getaway with the missus. Portland's an amazing city and she's never been here except for a drive through. Had dinner and a novoperuvian place called Andina. It was very very good and marks the first time I've eaten in a restaurant where the food is arranged like art on the plate and I wasn't using chopsticks.

Then over to Lola's Room at the Crystal Ballroom to see my friend Matt Good perform. Upstairs at the same venue the had a Swing Band show and the kids were dancing thunder on our ceiling. Matt's performance was the best I've seen him. He just let it go with the flow and threw guitar and vocal notes out like darts.

Matt had posted on his blog that he was not feeling well on stage he mentioned the laziness of his dress saying that he usually wears a sport jacket but he "couldn't be bothered". I'm reminded that Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan mentioned that he threw several of his no-hitters when his back was acting up and he felt like shit.

So maybe the ol' "aw fuckit" attitude are what some need to shine.

It's almost 11 on a Sunday morning and my wife is in love with this king sized, thousand pillowed, Marriott Hotel bed so I'm letting her sleep.

Across the street is a 7 story apartment building and this hotel just earned it's 5th star when I saw a naked woman in the hot tub on the patio of her rooftop apt. I was thinking of grabbing my camera which was in reach but that would have been rude of me don't you think? She got out with her back to me like she knew there was a hotel across the street. I watched her put on her robe. Then her man got out.

He had shorts on!

What a chickenshit. I don't think there's a etiquette book anywhere that finds that behavior acceptable. Dude, if she's butt nekkid, YOU gotta be butt nekkid. Yes, I believe I read that somewhere.

Good morning I need a Coke

On my back in bed with laptop and iPod about to get up and hit the shower.

Maybe after this song.

Maybe after this post.

Spring training baseball games are going on back home. The Cleveland Indians when I was a boy and my dad taking me to see Willie Mays play and sitting in the left field bleachers hoping for foul balls. Then the Indians left town and were replaced by the Rockies. The Toros in the summer. AAA ball but then the Toros left and were replaced by the Sidewinders who have announced that they are leaving as people who never went to any games complain about losing their team.

I left some time ago and have been trying to get back ever since.

When i do, all the baseball will be gone and I'll be left standing in empty fields where my childhood once played.

Time to hit the shower.

My father in Germany. Age 18. He was drafted and inducted the day the war ended.

He spent two years as a Military Policeman near Cologne.

My daughter asked me how my work week was.

I said it was good except for the last day.

fuckers

Ellen Page is a voyeur

The cover girl on Interview magazine stares me in the eyes from her shelf next to the bowl in the bathroom but when I get up off the seat I know what she stares at. It's something I notice about most women who approach me on the street as well. That's why I take my eyes off their eyes. So they can give it a quick glance.

Check it out ladies. I really don't mind.