MikeBrum.com

Let’s just jump right into it.

Before

After

Corinne did most of the actual shaving and I cleaned it up a bunch. It was certainly a team effort, but there it is.

The ‘after’ pic is from last night and we cleaned things up a bit more this morning and I also shaved, so I look less scraggly.

Anyhow… tell me whatcha think.

The title isn’t a typo. I just remembered that I had some images from last year’s fireworks display on my phone and wanted to post them since I didn’t take any last night. I also uploaded them to the Image Gallery.

Enjoy!

Had a great long weekend. The forth was pretty cool. It started out “early” when we left Corinne’s place at about 11. We went and got breakfast, hung out at the pond for a while and then met up with her friend Joe.

From there we went downtown and met some other friends and headed into the North End for some food. I was still full from breakfast, so I just hung out while everyone ate. We then went down to a bar on Boylston and chilled for a while.

After that, we split up and Corinne and I went to one of her friends to hang out at a roof party to watch the fireworks. It took forever to find the place, and after some frustration, we finally got there.

The fireworks were really good as usual, though there was ton more smoke than usual and partially blocked the view (I think it was due to the high humidity, but I’m not positive).

We got in late and pretty much passed out after 13 hours on our feet. The exhaustion was worth it – such a good day!

Last, but certainly not least, I have a small image to include. If you’re not aware, Boston has this Cow Parade thing going on right now. There’s a ton of cows all painted up by different stores and such and they’re all over the city. Anyway, I’m sure this is one of those “going to hell” sorta things, but I can’t be the only person who sees the irony of this picture I took with my phone yesterday…

In terms of custom/vanity license plates, this is the funniest/cutest that I’ve seen in a while.

I’m really curious what that means to the owner, but I’m sure all the amusing scenarios that I can think of will be a lot funnier than whatever personal joke the person could relay. I’ll leave it to my imagination for now.

Oh – and I took that while driving after the guy, trying to get a steady shot – which wasn’t easy! I finally caught up with him at a light shortly before he turned off the road I was on while heading home. I’m glad my camera has a decent night mode (I didn’t have to touch up the photo at all and I turned off my flash since it would have given huge glare from the inside of my windshield).

I also wanted to relate a funny conversation from the zoo yesterday (as best as I remember it) while we were at the moon bear enclosure.

Little Boy – They’re fighting!
Some adult – No they’re not, they’re playing.
Little Boy – NO, they’re FIGHTING!
Some adult – No, they’re playing with each other
Little Boy – NO, THEY’RE FIGHTING
Some other adult – I think they’re kissing
Little Boy – Ewww gross!

And to think that some day in the not-so-distant future he will be a sex-crazed youth.

Yesterday Corinne and I went to Roger Williams Park Zoo. It was the first time I’d been there since I was a really small kid, so it was pretty cool. It was definitely smaller than I remember, but that’s the usual way of childhood memories.

All-in-all, it was really fun. The elephants and cheetah really made me sad. One of the older elephants was just swaying back and forth, which is just horrible to see. The cheetah was walking around in a very well-worn path over and over – the thing probably hasn’t run at all in the enclosure since it just wasn’t large enough. The animal looked in good health physically, but the repetitive behavior like that just makes me sad.

The highlights for me were the moon bears and the gibbons. There was a baby gibbon (that was very hard to photograph) that was simply adorable.

Here’s a few pics. I uploaded the rest to my gallery. There’s 25 in total.

After the zoo we went up to Andover and hung out at a pool and BBQ’ed with her mom and some friends. It was a lot of fun and a great way to cool down!

Today I went to my dad’s in the morning and got my soft top assembled and installed. It was a bit of a pain, but not super difficult. I’m just glad I can now drop down the top and ride around without it. I just need to get some mirrors and then the doors can come off. Yes, I’m excited for that!

I have Monday off in addition to Tuesday since it’s the forth. This is more than enjoyable.

I think tomorrow Corinne and I may be heading down to Rhode Island. We’ll solidify the plans tonight. I think we’re both pretty pooped, so tonight will be low key and we’ll be in bed early. Sleep will come when it comes.

Sunday I’m heading down to my dad’s to take off the hard top and put the soft top on the Jeep. Monday and Tuesday are a bit up in the air, but it’ll be a nice little vacation from work.

Going forward, I’m going to try to take more pictures and keep them posted. Images really spice up diary entries. A big issue is that I never carry my camera with me and I do most of my entries while at work – where I can’t get pics onto my computer anyway. Meh… I’ll figure something out.

Bad news first – I’m bitching out on BMEFest this year. I wasn’t able to find somewhere to crash and right now I just can’t shell out the money for a hotel.

This brings me to the good news – I got a new car. I’ve been saving up for a bit and it was pretty much exactly what I wanted. I got screwed on my trade in, however, and this cut into the funds more than I had expected/wanted. Though, in all fairness, my car was dying and I’m not totally surprised about the trade in.

Now for the pictures…

It’s an ’06 Wrangler, obviously yellow. Got a hard top on it now, but I’m putting a soft top on it this weekend. It’s just not really a one-person job. Once we get some good weather I’ll take off the doors and tool around like that for a while.

I’m a creature of habit. It’s that plain and simple. I get the same thing every morning when I go to Dunkin Donuts on my way to work. The girls that work there all know my order and always comment if I ever change it up. When I pulled up to get my food this morning one of them said “Oh, you changed your car.” They’re mostly ESL, so it was kinda cute.

So this weekend will be a Boston (or surrounding areas) weekend. Hopefully we have good weather on Tuesday as well.

Been a busy few days and I promise I’ll update for real soon.

Got some good news, some bad news and the usual pile of crap that nobody cares about.

Watch this space.

While leaving work I looked right just out the door on my way to the car and noticed a really big snapping turtle just hanging out on the walk way.

To say that this was unexpected is an understatement.

Since it was literally about 3-4 feet away from a busy driveway, with help from Michele, we got a box and I proceeded to coerce the turtle into the box. I then closed the lid and carried it a few hundred feet to a grassy area at the end of the parking lot away from cars.

Mr(s). Turtle was VERY pissed off at me and would have been more than happy to take off a few of my fingers. It’s a shame he (or she) didn’t realize that it was really in it’s best interest to not be where it was.

Either way… I did my good deed for the day by saving a (very dangerous to pick up) piece of nature.

I’ll try to get some pictures of the turkeys, but they’re a lot more aggressive and faster than turtles.

Last night ended up being rather nice. I left work, went home for a bit and then went to Corinne’s. We made some hot dogs, I installed her AC and we hung out for a while. We later went back to my place for the night and I dropped her off at the T in the morning. The change of pace was good for the mood I was in and I’m feeling 100x better today (as well as last night).

Today my new manager from Lindon was in and I got a chance to meet with him both with my co-worker along with one-on-one. He seems like a good guy and likely a good manager. He talks a good game, but I’ll give it some time to see if he makes good on the things that he’s said – which I’m remaining cautiously optimistic about. I’ve had ineffective managers in the past, so I’m just waiting to see how things pan out.

Other than that, the day’s going well. I worked through a backlog of about 12 messages I had queued up, so if you were waiting on something and didn’t get a response by now, re-send.