Archerr

The celebration of the boyfriend's 42nd birthday was this weekend. I made him a special dark chocolate cake and topped it with the appropriate candles. After a wish or two, he blew out the candles. Then he opened his gifts. I believe he was pleased with the digital camera, photo book, and framed photo of the National Cathedral. It's one of his favorite places.

We continued the celebration at Gray Ghost winery. We took various foods and enjoyed them with their 2002 Reserve Cabernet. What a tasty wine! It went perfectly with our meal. We just relaxed and enjoyed the unusually warm January day. It was a wonderful afternoon. I think the boyfriend enjoyed his 42nd birthday.

Today is the boyfriend's 42nd birthday! Happy Birthday, honey!

It's that time of year again. The freaks are out and they are auditioning on American Idol. I know people have dreams and all but can't the majority of these people hear themselves sing? Aren't they kidding themselves when they all think they are going to Hollywood?

Of course the show only shows those who are really bad. That really makes the show I think. I only watch the show when the first auditions take place. Once they get down to the smaller groups and even to the few who make it that far, I stop watching. It isn't fun anymore. I think the two most successful winners so far have been Clay Aiken and Kelly Clarkson. What happened to Ruben? I saw Bo Bice on Access Hollywood this evening. He seems like he's got something going. I haven't heard anything about Fantasia either. I wonder who will come out on top this season. Time will tell. Maybe this season I'll watch to the end.

Last Saturday the boyfriend made lasagna. It was SO good! I decided to make a short video of us talking about the lasagna and some wonderful wine. Click on the picture to see the video. I used the new iMovie to add a nice intro and exit. Of course you'll need QuickTime to see the video.

Today the boyfriend and went to hear Al Gore speak at Constitution Hall in Washington DC. The boyfriend heard about the speech from MoveOn.org and asked if I wanted to go. He got the tickets online and we went. It was the first time (besides seeing Howard Dean speak) that I had seen a major political figure speak. I was going to bring my camera and my iRiver to record some audio but then we read about the event and it said you couldn't bring anything with you. When we got there plenty of people had cameras and cell phones. We hadn't taken anything with us but when we got there I wished I had taken something to record the moment.

The speech focused on the unchecked growth of executive power in the federal government, with a spotlight on the NSA domestic spying scandal. It was a powerful speech and made me wish he spoke like this during the 2000 election. Gore sited many examples of Bush's abuse of power and how the legislative branch is losing power because of Bush's law breaking programs like the wire tapping of American citizens in the name of terrorism. I can't begin to describe the contents of his speech but you can see the full text here. What I can say is that I was totally blown away by his ability to rally a crowd. I really wished he had demonstrated this kind of enthusiasm during the 2000 election. I think if he had, he would be our President now and we wouldn't be where we are. I doubt that Gore will run in 08 but if he did, he'd be a candidate that I could get behind like I did in 2000.

Click on the picture to see the video. Of course you'll need QuickTime to see the video.

Today MacWorld Expo began in California. Apple introduced lots of products with most of the attention going to the Intel iMac and MacBook Pro. While both of these new computers have me interested, I'm more interested in Apple's update to the iLife suit of programs. They have updated the software to include a cool new application that will build websites for you. It's call iWeb. Of course the information says it's best to have a dot mac account but I wonder if you'll be able to do it all with your existing web hosting service. I'll have to look into that. It's got a blogging section that has me very interested. But I just migrated all my blog entries from Blogger to Tangelo and don't feel like doing the whole thing again. I went ahead and ordered the new version of iLife and it will be here in a week or so.

The iLife program also includes updates to iPhoto, iTunes, iMovie, iDVD, and most notably Garageband. The new Garageband includes a podcast studio. I watched the demo on the streaming keynote address today and I'm very interested in seeing how you can integrate different pieces of artwork or photos in your podcast. It's almost like the enhanced podcasts they've talked about before. Not many people do the enhanced podcasts and I've never done one but this update to Garageband makes it look too easy to create one. Again, we'll see just how easy it works.

My problem with getting excited about the new Intel Macs is that unless your software is Universal, it will have to run under Rosetta, which is a program that makes the software run correctly. Of course this means that eventually I'll have to buy all new software that will run natively on the new Intel Macs. I don't plan to upgrade to one of the new Intel Macs for quite awhile. Maybe next fall. We'll see.

Click on the picture to see the video. Of course you'll need QuickTime to see the video.

I opened my mailbox today and found a holiday card from Homer. There was something amiss when I took it out of the mailbox and several specs of glitter floated to the ground in the mail room. When I got to my condo and opened it at my desk, TONS of glitter came flying out of the envelope. Now I have glitter all over the place. I'll be vacuuming this stuff up for quite awhile. The holiday card is beautiful and Homer's artwork is wonderful but lighten up on the glitter, Homer!

Here's a video from New Year's Eve. The boyfriend had a small dinner party. We had a great time. The movie is about 12 minutes long and is a HUGE file. It will take time to download. Click on the picture to see the video. Of course you'll need QuickTime to see the video. Enjoy!

Last night the boyfriend had a small gathering of friends to ring in the new year. After a wonderful dinner with many Virginia wines, we watched the ball drop with some sparkling Viongier. It was wonderful entertaining friends on New Year's Eve. We had a great time. Then we stayed up until almost 3:00 AM cleaning all the dishes and putting his house back together. We were very tired by the time we went to bed.

Today was pretty relaxed. We had a simple breakfast with mimosa from the leftover sparkling Viongier. I then watched TV while the boyfriend went to church. Then he did some laundry while I watched more TV. I was like a slug. When he came back from doing the laundry we had some lunch and then decided to take a long walk around the N.W. DC. He lives near the National Cathedral and it's a beautiful area to walk around in. We walked up to the Cathedral and walked around the grounds. Everything is in winter mode and stark. Inisde the Cathedral there was lots to see. We walked around and looked at the holiday decorations. Then a service was beginning to start so we left. I took lots of photos around the Cathedral.

We walked around the neighborhoods near the Cathedral. Along Wisconsin Ave. there are lots of shops and stores. At one store I saw this homeless man and asked if I could take his photo. He said sure. And he didn't ask for any money or anything. When I was finished I gave him some money anyway. I thought it was odd seeing a homeless man in the middle of a rather afluent neighborhood. I guess that's George Bush's America in 2006. I don't know that I felt sorry for this guy. I just found him interesting and wanted to take a photo of him. I've been taking lots of photos of nude men lately and creating art with the photos, but I think I should spend some time taking photos of just regular people. Maybe in 2006 I'll work on that.

I have no resolutions for the new year. It's just more of the same from years past.