Tony's Treehouse Blog

Duped

Lately I've been reading a lot. Even my boss has commented on how much I read. Begs the question does he catch me reading when I shouldn't be or does it come across some way? I would HATE to come across like some sort of elitist intellecutal snob. People who summarily dismiss others because their verbal pedigree isn't up to par. Bite my ass and then go get lives!

So the latest book I read, I was totally duped into reading it because the author is someone whose work I have historically loved in the past. His name is Jack L. Chalker and the book in question is called Priam's Lens. When I saw it was a new release of his, I didn't think twice to get it expecting it be cool right? Wrong. This book seemed like Chalker's first foray into some new socio-anthrolopical-pop-psychology-random-ass sci-fi genre. He rambled on and on about these small innane points for pages at a time. I found myself skipping pages in the hopes that it got better. I kept reading the book in hopes that there would be some redemption at the end justifying the time I invested into it. Sigh. No redemption at all. The booked ended. I put it down. And there go hours of my life I will never get back. Does Borders have a "if this book blows you can return it" policy?

Laaddy-Da

I am in freaking Philadelphia Eagles country. Almost every freaking car has an Eagles flag crammed in the window sil. I've always wondered what that does to a car's aerodynamics? Does it mess with the fuel economy or what? Not only am I in Eagles country, I'm in the freaking NBA Eastern Conference!! I'm on the look out for good teams to come out and spank the Si

So in the Vegas entries, I TOTALLY forgot to mention that Susan spotted a FatBurger in front of our hotel!! I am HUGE West Coast Burger fan!! You haven't had a burger till you've been to In-n-Out, Hamburger Habit, FatBurger or Carl's Jr.!! We got to have ourselves some REAL burgers that day! As I stood there staring at the menu, I kept thinking this is the only chance I'm going to get to have one of these in months! Hell the last time was more than a year. Asaunta saw that pensive look on my face and nudged me, and I got what I *really* wanted: FatBurger, Chili-cheese fries, and a lemonade. For the first time all weekend I finished before Susan, who usually quietly INHALES for food. Not that time though!

Quiet Storm

Who thinks up dumb crap like that, "quiet storm"? Lordy, anyway it kinda relates to my thoughts of when it snows things seem quieter. I wonder if snow acts like a natural sound dampener or something? It reminds me of when Nils and I drove out here, and then too, we just missed whatever that blizzard was and everything was blanketed in snow. Through the Rockies the snow covered everything like in one of those globes you turned upside down and the white stuff inside gracefully falls into place. Aside from driving in the crap, snow is really cool to see.

The serene scene has put me in the mood to do some planning, now that my debochorous weekend is over...haha! Thinking about what to do in '05, how to accomplish it, paying debts, financial planning, more education, et al. My motto lately has become, "live the dream". Not living the American Dream per se, although there are parts of my dream that are parrallel. There are things I wish to see, do, and experience in life - those things are the elements of my dream. It's not meant to realized in one calendar year, but then again life isn't meant to be lived on some arbitrary time table.

The pics from my birthday have been uploaded. Click here to go to the gallery. Note: The pics are unapologetically large in size and weight (download time).

Happy Belated-Birthday to my friend Tara who couldn't make it to Vegas with us! You were in my heart and thoughts while we danced!

Life Little More Ordinary

Back home FINALLY after many delays and plane hopping. Philly airport was closed part of the day on Saturday due to massive amounts of snow. My flight ended up getting cancelled at the last minute and US Air got me on a much later flight. It so happened that I was able to have a proper good-bye with Tasha and Nicki because they just missed me as my shuttle was pulling away. So all of us, save for Susan talked shit and reminisced in the terminal as we waited for our respective flights.

One thing for sure has come out of this weekend: we are all SPOILED silly and will probably be insufferable anywhere else we go. For one night we partied like rock stars, and the other nights we partied like one hit wonders off of the Surreal Life. It is true, that it doesn't matter what you do, but who you do it with.

Now, finally home back messed up from sleeping in contortionist positions on airplanes and in terminals, I am still happy. That contentment is still with me and I pray to God it doesn't go away anytime soon.

Parting...Such Fucked Up Sorrow

G-damn time to go. Watching Susan walk onto the shuttle was the reality check. It's been, I dunno 2 or 3 years since we saw each other last. Way too damned long. She's seeing if she can come out and visit in a few months. And that trip too is in the planning all now. It promising to be awesome!

Thanks must got out to Asaunta, Nicki, Raissa, and Susan Tasha for taking the time and resources out to help me celebrate my birthday. Everything was perfect. This weekend I felt a sensation I am not used to feeling: contentment. From meeting Asaunta and Susan at shuttle port, to breakfast this morning
has exceeded any hopes and dreams about the weekend.

30th Day 2 - V.I.M.F.P.!!

Birthday! 30! How does it feel to turn 30? That question has been posed to me many times over the coming weeks, and you know what? Life is good. I'm blessed, healthy, intelligent, ambitious, great job, cool apt., paid off car - and I am not wanting for a damned thing. All of my "wants" are truly unnecessary, but sure I want them nonetheless.

Raissa, Tasha and Nicki were flying in this morning so I wanted us to all get together for lunch so we could introduce ourselves. We ate at the the pub at the hotel, and their brew master needs to revisit his recipes. Walking in really was the preview of things to come because it was just me along with 5 women. Hahaha! Apperantly we were getting looks from people when we walked in from the word go...haha!

So everyone was finally here!!!! I sat there looking at the table with Susan, Asaunta, Raissa, Tasha and Nicki thinking how cool this is! The day started out with me grinning like the Cheshire Cat and it promised that it would end the same way as well.

I have to talk about *my girls* here for a second. They all looked damned good! Good grief! I'm not even going to try to describe what each of them wore, pics will be posted in the Photo Gallery. All I gotta say is Asaunta, Raissa, Susan, Nicki and Tasha made me feel like the luckiest man in the history of 30th birthdays!!! There were fmbs, T&A, and hot bodies all around me at any given point in the night.

Walking into the the Palms was the BEST because here I am in this awesome suit and these 5 incredible looking women following. I felt like hot shit! The standing joke for the night was for the night they were my bitches and they would call me daddy. haha!!! Couple of times throughout the night a couple of them asked, "daddy can I have a drink?"

We had dinner at N9ne, a trendy steakhouse at the Palms hotel. I had read about it in a couple of places and saw a thing about them on the Food Network. They totally lived up to their reputation. I started with the Two Cones appetizers (sushi grade tuna *cooked* in citrus juices and a lobster one)
that was just off da chain. For the main course I had their "surf and turf" which was filet mignon and 1/2 a lobster with a light aoli, atop a red wine lobster risotto. To accompany the meal I chose a glass of an Australian wine that was described to have passion fruit infused in it. It too was incredible. All of their steaks are aged 24 days. Without a doubt, all of us at the table who ordered a steak said it was the most tender, juicy incredible steak we had ever had.

The restaurant itself was awesome too. Upscale and trendy, while not being quiet and museum like. They bumped Top 40s songs, and whole place was bathed in this purple light. A job requirement for the hostesses must be to have at least a C cup or better, and willing to wear a pushup bra because all them women were rocking serious cleavage!

The Club...

The club part of the evening warrants its own entry because all kinds of shit happened! We went to Pure, a new club at Caesar's Palace that was off da chain! Utter hotness! First off after much debate and research we all decided it was best to do VIP table service and split the costs amongst each other. This got us several things up front, and whole mess load of stuff we were NOT expecting! Usual table service gets you 2 bottles of some alcohol, a table or booth, mixers, bypass the lines and your cover is included. Well the place was packed and thank goodness we did get the table service! All of my friends were all rocking high heels and there was almost no where to sit. They would have been totally shit out of luck if we hadn't gotten the table.

Props MUST go out to staff at Pure who took care of us. Dave the security guy who was never far from our booth who kept an eye on our stuff when we left, and also kept an eye on the ladies. Jennifer our hostess, tall amazon modelsque woman who always stopped into say hey. Jennifer also got us free
aphrodisiac shots for my birthday. Andy who was there whenever something
looked even remotely half empty, taking glasses and what not. He was on point and doing his thing. Chrissy our little blonde waitress who fixed us drinks immediately as we arrived. Those guys rocked!

Man, VIP treatment is just a helluva thing. Dave was hanging out with us and in turn ended up having more of the security guys come by and take care of us. The girls told me at one point some guy tried to come and talk to Susan in our booth and Dave kicked them out..haha! Dave totally stepped in and ejected the guy. Wish I was there for that!!

We drank A LOT and was there from when the club opened and closed the joint down. We have Nicki our loud red head, tall with a banging ass body! Nicki didn't just walk, she would actually strut and earned the right to! She got loud when she was drunk and was pure comedy. Tasha's sexual meter goes off the
scale when she's drunk and has her own sexual gravitational pull. That pull ensnared this guy at the end of the night and she worked his ass! Susan, love her ass to death, was the most chill of all us. Raissa, good lord, was pulling game like the first olympic basketball dream team. By the end of the night Raissa had danced with or dissed and dismissed no less than 5 guys! And Raissa can shake her 5' 1/4 ass.

My girl Asaunta was chilled the fuck out with all that alcohol in her. She was lounging one minute and then belting out tunes the next minute. It was great! Me, I guess my sexual meter goes off the chart too. Flirting and being merge. Dancing got that much more fun and any cute bodies around me beware.
There were women checking me out, but no one came to dance with me. And honestly, I really wasn't trying pull anyone that night.

We left the club at 4:30AM and dragged ass back to the hotel. Good lord.

30th Bday - Day 1!!

Today is Day One of the Vegas trip and I find that I really can't focus on much else or keep 2 distinct thoughts in my head at once. This from the person who can talk on the phone, while chatting with 4 different people, and doing something else offline. Going to Las Vegas for my 30th Birthday has totally consumed my concious mind. The realization a dream I have had for some time. If I really thought about my dreams and consulted Dr. Freud, I'm sure that he would also include my unconcious mind in that analysis as well.

I ended up waking up this morning a good 30-40 minutes late in part due to the fact that I could not actually SLEEP until much later than I needed to. Bah!! Most of the night before was spent cleaning up laying clothes out and triple checking to make sure I had not forgotten something. Skipping ahead in time
here a bit: I did end up forgetting something, the TIE to the suit I was going to wear on my birthday. It occured to me about 30,000 feet above the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Great timing.

Upon arrival Asaunta, Susan and I, met up at the shuttle. Funny thing about that, Asaunta and Susan met up first, as I went trapsing through the terminal looking for Susan. They met proving how unnecessary I was to being there to introduce them! LOL!

OMG the day was awesome! Talk about things to come! First, we went walking along the strip looking for somewhere to eat and landed at Margaritaville. Little note on that: WTF is Vegas thinking charging $3.00 for a single way on their little tram?! Come ON! We got our excercise in and in the process saw the gardens at the Bellagio, in addition to their incredible hand blown glass ceiling.

Back to Margaritaville, plus 3 hours into the trip I'm already flirting with someone. Sigh. Can't help myself at times. BUT, plus 5 hours into the trip Asaunta is representin' New Jersey with her full on full tilt boogie no holds barred, flirt session with this shoe salesman - but she was entirely
clueless about the whole thing!! She was totally in the flirt zone and didn't know! My girl was macking her ass off and didn't have a clue! LOL

While at the mall quite randomly a fashion show broke out. Viva Las Vegas! Some of the models were hot, and some where most definitely NOT. What is the fascination with loosing so much weight, or keeping so much weight off the only thing the body is good for is to be a motorized hanger? I'll never get
it.

After we got back to the hotel we had an entirely anti-climactic end to our evening: we each passed out in turn succumbing to the fatigue of being up for 20+ hours and/or walking entirely too much!!

Birthday Prelude

Totally dragged ass today. I was able to get some stuff done at work, but most of the time my mind was elsewhere. Susan and I emailed daily for the almost 6 weeks leading up to tomorrow, and now that it's SOOOO mutha-effin' close, I don't know what to do with myself!

So I fell for the, "hey your boss needs to talk to you in the kitchen" routine. Totally thinking I fucked up and did something I walk over there. Ha! Psyche!! My team had gotten me a tart (much better than any birthday cake in my opinion) with a candle on it and sung me happy birthday. How friggin' cool is that?!

Oh yea, it started to snow. All of sudden in the middle of the afternoon we got like 3" or 4" in like a matter of 30 minutes.

Not so bad

I think shopping for clothes is the worst possible chore a human can endure. To think that some people actually relish going to crowded malls, sifting through racks upon racks of clothes, in search of the right size and price. And to think they do it at multiple stores! Gawd. In Hades it is said punishment is metted out by making the victim perform a task over and over again, but never letting them actually complete the task. Sysiphus had to push a boulder up a hill, only to have a roll back down every back when it neared the top. Other residents of Hades were cursed with being tied to trees and their luscious fruit hanging inches from their mouth, but never able to get close enough to eat it. Hades for me would be to have to go clothes shopping everyday. *SHIVERS*

Today, I went shopping in part because I had company (Elise) who was fashion conscious enough not to let me go astray. Elise is the opposite of me when it comes to clothes, that is to she knows that she's doing when she goes shopping. Anyway, I am, well, was in dire need of replacing some stuff. I got a new pair of non-tennis shoes that are sort of dressy. It occured to me that the last time I bought non-New Balance/Saucony/K-Swiss shoes was about 4 or 5 years ago. And the last time I bought actual full on dress shoes was in 1992. That year is accurate. So yea along with paying debt, more schooling, and what not in 2005, redoing my wardrobe is on the list. And that isn't saying much as I don't really have MUCH of a wardrobe to get begin with. One of my co-workers likes to mess with me for the obvious lack of color in my 'business casual' attire. Blacks, greys, green and khaki are the staples of that wardrobe. Having Elise's help made shopping marginally bearable.

Time Travel

Comments are turned on for the last several entries. A little experiment to see what happens. If you're feeling it, drop me a comment.

There are times when my memory is long and deep (gawd please no one read into that), when the silliest stupidest details about an event or person gets lodged into my memory. Oft times this happens without any conscious effort on my part, and more times than not it happens with people and events I wish I could forget. Every now and then those pleasant memories get lodged in there too. It also reminded me tonight of things and people I lost in my memory after my accident. To this day some people don't quite fit in my memory. I realized today that more people and things are missing from my memory than I realized.

Anyway, this walk down memory lane was brought on by one of my chores tonight of cleaning out my old pics, documents and contacts from my computer. There were the pics from Lavida and Hugo's wedding that I totally missed because I was in California and couldn't afford it! Then there are the pics of the twins when they were born. Among my Outlook contacts were a bunch of folks in California I hadn't seen, heard of, or thought of in ages. One of whom was my very good friend Tara who does pop into my head on occasion, but tonight I had to call her.

Field Day At the Museum

This afternoon Heather and I went to Philadelphia Art Museum. That place is awesome. Walking up the steps and turning around to look at the city, that was my first 'Philly Moment'. Think the scene in Rocky where he's running up some steps on his run. I made up my mind then that I would try to see as many Philadelphia landmarks as possible while in the area. The museum itself was incredible sporting a wide array of classic and modern art. Something about all the stone used in the building appealed to me. We really didn't see the whole museum, but what we saw was cool.

While in the modern section we came across a room whose art didn't really appeal to me. I was looking some of the pieces hanging going, ok, what's the point. So I walked up to the little sign next to it said the artist was Pablo Picasso. I had been looking at several Picasso's and hadn't even known it. So the thought occured to me, would it have been better to look at them closer because they were Picasso's or let my gut be the judge. I think the latter should be the true response. You shouldn't like a piece soley because it came from particular artist. There should be some kind of visceral reaction accompanying your adoration, it shouln't be blind. I did like some of the the Picasso's though. My mixed reaction to a notable artist wasn't limited to cubists because in the other gallery I ran into some Monet's. Wasn't too partial to all of those either. I however can appreciate the fact that I was looking at Picasso's and Monet's in the flesh. There was even a smaller version of Rodin's, The Great Thinker.

All I want is a cheese sandwich.

For all of my gourmet leanings and wannabe epicurean ways, it's the simple stuff that really brings a smile to my face. Today I went on a ride along with another of our sales reps and towards the end of the day, I just wanted a cheese sandwich. Nothing by wheat bread, brumble & brown, and cheddar cheese. The kinda snack you'd have after school. Don't ask why, because an answer couldn't be offered up. It was an honest to god craving.

So, trekked to the store to get some cheese for my sandwich and some other stuff. Got to the dairy section and peered at the cheese selection. Paid particular attention to the sliced cheese offerings and the same 3 words kept appearing, "processed cheese food". What the flying fuck, is processed cheese food?!?! Is that what I've been eating since I was a kid. I stared at those plastic wrapped bricks of dairy fakery in disbelief. Not only that, the little fuckers were almost twice as much as a block of honest to goodness real cheese! So yea, I got the cheese. Real cheese. And boy that sandwich was good.

The weather paterns here have been weird. Raining like cats and dogs, when it really should be snowing. Yea I said it! Bring the damned snow on so we can have it down and over with! Before X-mas I opted to get new tires (presents are going to come late for people this/last year) so I wouldn't get messed up if the snow came on suddenly. Well no snow, but dammit there's all kinds of rain. And I'm glad I got those tires because only NOW I've been realizing how unstable my car was in the rain! My car used to hydroplane in the rain, slide precariously in corners loosing grip easily, and would unnecessarily burn out. To this last I would think it 'soooo cool' that it would do that. It didn't occur to me that, gee, the reason why it's burning out is because the tires are are not GRIPPING to get TRACTION to AVOID burning out.

Embrace the Fear...

...of rebuilding your computer. Yesterday I had to totally gut the OS and reinstall all my apps. Good lord! So this is what it is REALLY like when you have a good computer and there isn't a whole lot of crap on there. Web pages that snap to QUICK! Movies that que and play FAST! Start up and shut downs that don't give you time to breathe! And oh gee, look, it's working with none of Comcast's evil bloated 'help' software. Kiss my ass!

Lately I've been having several come-to-Jesus moments with several of the people around me. No I won't be getting into all the details as to each situation, but none the less I'm putting this on here more of a marker to my future self. If anyone who has ever been to my blog knows, I don't break out with Perry Mason-esque confessions or use the Treehouse to lambast the people I love. That's between me and them. Matters of integrity, truth, image, expectations, friendships, communication, and I think most important: honor. In my memoirs if I ever write them, this will probably the character building or destroying part. It's one thing to talk about a thing, it's a total other to live it.

Returns and Randomness

Today I went out and did a few returns, one of which was to the CompUSA where I had gotten my ATI HDTV tuner card for my computer. The SAME store where the kid behind the counter proclaimed he wasn't a computer person. Guess what? The kid is now a supervisor. I don't know if he was a supervisor before, but he's one now. Good God. Anyway, anyone out there considering this card should think twice. Apperantly the drivers do not play nice with any NVidia based graphics cards. Symptons include considerable computer slowdown, locking up, and dropping for the IP stack. I had to learn the hard way. It's what I get for an impulsive buy. The lady at customer service says almost every single one they sold, has come back. However it seems to working well for Hugo who is running an ATI graphics card. The point of the whole excercise was to enable me to watch tv in the office without having another *thing* sitting on my desk. And the NVidia options are not good powerful enough if you truly care about gaming. I'm waiting for the ATI X800 XT All-In-Wonder, and waiting for the 2nd of drivers!

Ok, onto the random bit: every now and then this, sound, emenates from the apartment below me. At first I was thinking, they were watching a movie or something but the sound persists every few days! The best way to describe this sound to liken it the sound a wookie would make when its pissed off. Either they have a Wookie living with them, which wouldn't be good because pets aren't allowed. Or they managed to sublet their apartment to a member of the big foot family.

Merry New Year!

If you haven't seen Trading Spaces: drag your behind to the video rental place and get it. It will crack you up. I just got back from New Jersey hanging out with Asaunta and Saida and Raissa. Man, a lot of my friends have cool names. So Friday, we hung out and watched movies and drank. One of the movies was I, Robot "suggested by the novel from Isaac Asimov". Sigh. Why does Hollywood, take perfectly awesome literary works and then bastardize them with a movie? Out of the whole 2 hours of the movie, may be 30 minutes directly related to the book, and oh yea the name. Starship Troopers, another let down from a great book by Robert Heinlein. Millenium Man, originally authored by Asimov had a decent silver screen adaptation.

Saturday night we went to comedy club, and we could have totally skipped the warm up acts because they sucked donkey balls. The premise of most of their matireal was playing up to a bunch of racial and ethnic stereotypes in a piss poor manner, that was simply grating. Yea, we have differences and some of those differences are the perfect fodder for comedy, but good god man, apply some SMARTS to the writing!

A friend of mine brought up something that totally annoyed me, and I'm going to vent using my site because, well dammit I can. A friend of theirs tried to broach the argument that certain Caribbean countries were not part of the Caribbean, including the US Virgin, where I was born. What the fuck?! This is a totally cliche' example of the difference between people in the states and those brought up back home, especially african american and afro-caribbean people. The crux of their argument had to do with the countries those islands are affiliated with, e.g. islands that weren't independent. Total and utter bullshit.