I’m on day three of my new/old diet and fitness regime. I started this plan about a year ago this time when I did not like the weight I had hit. I did great on it . . . . untill the fall holidays/January cruise hit and I ate it all back. That and the fact that for various reasons I stopped going to the gym (mistake!). So now that I hit one pound over my unhappy weight of last year, I’m back on. The only problem is my feet are still healing from Las Vegas so I’m avoiding tennis shoes as much as I can these days. Hopefully when I return from Virginia next week I’ll be back in the gym regularly.

Princess got her bath today, boy that was an ordeal. I took her into the bathroom WITHOUT Nikko, who stood outside the door and howled and cried. This of course upset Princess. But she’s clean now! Tomorrow I take Nikko in for his first grooming. By the end of next week they will smell terrible again, probably more so as usual as they’ll have free reign of my mom’s backyard and who knows what they’ll find out there.

I continue to be enthralled with the goings on at the E3 in LA. There is a lot of talk about the new Windows OS, Windows Vista. Uhg! This thing looks to be a monster. They claim it will run on most “ancient” PCs, but I’m looking at what some of the early recommendations are and what I have, not good. I would need more memory and probably a better video card for my desktop AND my lap top. I would probably also need a bigger hard drive in my lap top (at which point it would probably be easier to by a new laptop with Windows Vista already on it). The dekstop will be a lot cheaper to upgrade. However I’m thinking given Microsoft’s track record with Windows, I’ll be waiting at least 6 months after it’s release to upgrade to Vista.

Meanwhile the games coming out of E3. Ohh la la! The above is Alan Wake, from his self titled game Alan Wake. You can find out more and see movies at AlanWake.com. Isn’t he pretty? This is one of the games I must have, not only cause of the beauty of it, but also because it’s a psychological thriller. I like those kind of games.

Call me a sadist, but I’m giving Friday night in Philly another go. I better not be disappointed like last week! Oh and for those wondering, I did get an apology

Dustin

Don’t you hate it when you get your signals crossed? Turns out Happy Hour with J is NEXT Friday, not this Friday. However she was planning to meet me out later tonight for dancing. Had to call up M to get the plans for tonight, it seems dancing is still on, though she doesn’t know what the plans are yet.

The upside to all of this is that I don’t have to rush out right after the soaps, that’s a plus. Unfortunately right now I’m not in a partying mood. I’m tired and I think my allergies are getting to me. I don’t know if I want to go out anymore tonight

Tomorrow night I have my friend’s bachelorette party to go to (yes, bachelorette party). Hopefully I’ll be in a better mood for that. I’d say what we are doing, but it’s a surprise and if she somehow reads this I don’t want to spoil it. She’s not a wild girl though, so I don’t think anything crazy will be happening. Though one never knows.

As I’m writing this (rather drab blog post) I get hear back from J, she’s all in a party mood as well. It must be Cinco De Mayo that has everyone ready to party. I guess I have to find a way to get myself into a party mood as well.

Dustin

(I used initials for my friends cause I don’t know if they want me using their names, and if I make up Aliases I’ll never remember who I named what!)

*update* Wouldn’t you know, I get a call from my friend L right after I post this. Plans are changing again! I am headed to Philly sooner rather than later, but I don’t mind as I haven’t seen L in over a month. We are having dinner before meeting up with everyone else.

So today I had to head into school to meet with my adviser to go over some of my findings for my dissertation and then discuss the writing aspect and how to structure everything. He was really excited about some of the stuff I showed him that I had found so far. He said he can’t wait to read my dissertation. Neither can I, cause that means it’s finished However I got a little freaked out when he talked about how he’s already got publishing in mind and a publisher lined up that he thinks will eat it up. Ahhhhhh! The pressure! I’m going to have to forget about that and just focus on getting it written and done first. The idea of publication is so much more pressure though because it means I can’t make any errors or say the wrong thing, many more people will be reading this, more than I originally thought at least. Fortunately I don’t think it’s like I’ll just hand the dissertation over to a publisher, it will take another year of editing and stuff for the book deal I have time to double check errors then. Still, it’s going to be a long summer getting this thing done by fall (my current goal). I foresee myself stuck in my house on the PC for many many long hours.

Tomorrow (well today actually) is Cinco De Mayo. I head out shortly after the soaps end to get to Philly and meet my friend J. She invited me out to happy hour with her coworkers, I said sure why not, there is always a good time to be had with J. Plus I might get to put some faces with some of the names I’ve heard mentioned in stories. We are going to some bar called Cavanaugh’s on Delaware Ave. I have never been there, in fact I usually avoid Delaware Ave. For those not familiar with Philly, this is normally referred to as Frat Boy Row. Nuff said. This bar is on the riverfront and is Philly’s only outdoor Irish Pub. Ooooh! (Note to myself, avoid eating Cheeseburgers while there).

Afterwards J and I may be meeting my friend M for more fun, dancing at Tavern on Camac. M is a lot like J, where she is there is fun to be found. Tavern on Camac, btw, is where we ran into those swingers that one night . . . . . I haven’t seen them since, but who knows! It’s going to be warm out tomorrow night, and the nice weather brings out all types of people. Though J and M there at the same time could be trouble, especially if J’s friend C comes along. Oh dear! If we do hit Tavern on Camac tomorrow I might actually have some stories to tell!

M is also my “Starting Over” buddy. She has been addicted to this show for as long as I can remember. I would watch it off and on as it came on before the soaps. Now I’m hooked on the damn show, mainly cause of Cassie and her search for her son. For those who don’t know, “Starting Over” is this show where six women live in this house together and each has some life issue that is holding them back. They go to the house to learn how to break free and basically start their life over, with the help of life coaches Rhonda and Iilyana and Dr. Stan the psychiatrist. It’s addicting, and both M and I want to go on it cause we know those coaches will make us finish our dissertations in record time. “What have you done today! What have you done! Board of review tonight, be there and be prepared!”

Dustin

This was at 5pm yesterday, 5 fricken pm! Yeah, talk about insane. Hope your St. Paddy’s Day was a good one. Dustin

Hope everyone has a good one. I’m heading out shortly after the soaps to hang out with friends for the night. I need a breather. I’ve been cooped up working all week and my head is about to explode. Not sure when I’ll be back in tonight or what the night will hold!

Dustin

PS I’ll try and take photos!

Last night was pretty uneventful. Went to dinner at a local Irish pub. The food was good, the pub was WAY too smoky. Left wreaking like an ashtray (I hate that!) Then we went back to “the swingers club.” Okay it isn’t a swingers club, but after our incident the weekend before it will be forever thought of as that.

The club was PACKED! I had never seen it so packed. Everyone and anyone was there. I even ran into a friend from school I hadn’t seen in over a year. I always end up running into her at obscure clubs. The crowd was also a much younger crowd than I had seen before, so the music was geared towards them at the beginning of the evening (dreaded hip hop stuff). Fortunately the music changed later on.

The swinging couple did come back, which made me giggle. The woman even remembered my name and waved! I was sober this night so looked at them a little better. The wife reminded me a whole lot of one of my cousins when she was younger. Freaky! The husband was a giant, I didn’t realize how he towered over everything the night before. Anyways it was so packed they didn’t come over and we just sorta waved. Maybe I’ll see them next Friday and it will be less crowded.

The only eventful part of the night was when J’s platonic friend decided he didn’t want to be just friends anymore. Oh dear!

Tonight I went out with Em, her friends and sister. It was fun, but I was pooped from the night before and seem to have a stomach bug. It wasn’t a late night. I’m about to go to bed and watch “Saw 2″ (probably not the best thing to watch with an already upset stomach!)

Dustin

So tomorrow night I’m going out to celebrate my friend J’s birthday. I’m meeting her and her friends at an Irish Pub in Philly for dinner and drinks, but from there it’s open. She’s told me her goal is to go dancing. I said I’m there, which she already knew. Even though I told her about the Sadam and Gamorah club, she thought it was hysterical and we do like the music there. I have a feeling I’m going to be back amongst the swingers, and J can be a bad influence on me if we get hit on! No I am obviously not going to go swinging, but there is a chance we will lead them on or grill them about exactly what it is they do (and want to do with us). Maybe this weekend I’ll have something funny to post. Then again it could turn out to be a harmless night.

Dustin

Okay, I can’t really detail too much of last night here because this is a family friendly blog lol. I should say they reason I was going to bed at 5am is because after leaving the club at 2am, we had to take PATCO from Philly back to New Jersey, then we had to stop at the all night McDonalds for food. By time we got in it was 4:30, that’s when I made the post. As for what happened last night, lets just say we met some swingers at the dance club who were all over us and wanted to have some “group fun.” They were scarey! They also had two teenage children at home!
Dustin

It is almost 5am and I’m about to finally go to bed after the most insane night out of my life. Fortunately my friend is in my guest room, safe from the perverts of the world. I don’t even know how to begin to decribe this night. Perhaps in the morning I’ll have a better outlook on it all and be able to give you the PG version.

Dustin

So Christmas is gone, over, past. The next big holiday is New Years! I’m so looking forward to this, but right now plans are in shambles. Right now I’m supposed to spend the New Years with my friends, we’ll call them Marla and her out of town friend Nicole, Lila, Amelie and Jonathan. Kristen and Kevin may also be joining us. Because of the holidays we have been spread out over a few states. We are all making are way back to the Philly area this week. Since we’ve been spread out, talking and making plans hasn’t been that easy. Some of us are harder to get a hold of than others. We also don’t know what everyone can commit to. Some of us want to dance, some want to do dinner before dancing, we all want to drink and be merry. We haven’t picked a place to eat. Because it’s New Years, most places will require reservations and most will have some flat 60 dollar or higher dinner fee. I think we are going to chance it with a pub for dinner, or a diner if need be. Those of us who want to dance haven’t settled on a place to go either. I have a few clubs in mind, but Marla and Nicole might have other ideas. Who knows at this point!

All I know is, New Years better not turn into a drama filled suck fest!

Dustin