…and I mean that literally.

Yesterday after work, I picked up an airconditioner. Intead of the $79 5200 BTU unit, I picked up the $99 6000 BTU unit. It should keep the bedroom cool this summer. I might pick up one for the living room down the road, but for now, this one will be fine.

Said air conditioner is now installed. It was hell to install but the deed has been done. I’m sweating like a pig now. The coolness feels good.

For those aware of my current financial situation, the $1000 payment has been made and I expect the check to clear tonight. The $850 payment due tomorrow is going to be a few days late. This disappoints me because I really thought I was going to make it. Had I not bought the air conditioner, I totally would have made it on time. But I’m not going to fuck around without an air conditioner. People with MS don’t deal well in heat and nor do pugs. I wasn’t going to risk either one of us needing to be hospitalized because of the heat. That might sound like rationalization, and perhaps it is. But that’s the decision I made. I’ll have to deal with the consequences. I’m more disappointed in myself than worried about the consequences.

I could have made the $850 payment. I have the money. But it would leave me with $75 to survive until my next paycheck and that’s just too thin of a pillow to sleep on.

Have you ever turned on the TV only to find yourself sucked into some random show that would normally have no interest for you? Today, I found myself watching “The Tournament” on OLN. It’s about a bunch of overzealous hockey parents. They think the coach is gay but he’s just European. Every family has some type of dysfunction and it’s really kind of funny.  Weird.

In the past year or so, I’ve rediscovered my passion for food. I love to cook and learn how food is prepared, but more importantly, I love to eat.

One of my favorite food critics/writers is Lynne Rossetto Kasper, the host of The Splendid Table, found on many NPR stations. Lynne has traveled all over Italy exploring her Italian heritage through food. I’d like to do something similar with my German heritage, learning about the food.

Lets face it, there is more to German food than sauerkraut and bratwurst.

So in October, I’m going to be taking about 10 days and eating my way across northern Germany. I’ve been in the bigger cities of Frankfurt, Berlin, and Munich. This time, I want to find the smaller towns and see what kind of food they have to offer. Equipped with a camera and notebook, my ultimate goal is to publish this someday.

I’ve always wanted to write a book. Maybe this is my opportunity.

My question is this: Who knows enough about the country to give me some ideas of where to go?

Oh, and when I go, I want to leave Boston on Lufthansa flight LH425.

A while back, I mentioned missing a photo of the Alaska Airlines 737-900 in the midnight blue paint scheme. Well, here it is!

I got a ton of shots of a British Airways 747 coming into Logan today, too. Most of the pictures are crap because of the clouds. Hopefully I can get a few of them published on airliners.net.

I had the remains of Beth’s Lemon Mustard chicken in a plastic bag in the fridge. Last night, I cooked some rice and thew it in the bag. That became today’s lunch. After I heated it, I put some on a fork and gave it to one of my coworkers. The first word out of her mouth was “Wow.”

I woke up this morning and didn’t feel very well.  After taking Reggie out at 6:00 to pee, I went back to bed. I dropped my boss an e-mail and told him I was going to be late. My tummy is a little upset and I’m just utterly exhausted.  It could have something to do with the lack of air conditioning, too. I just don’t do well in the heat, and yesterday was a bit rough for me. On my way home from work, I’m going to make a diversion to Target and pick up an air conditioner. I hope they still have some little ones left. If not, i’m going to be kicking myself in the ass. They were only $80 and I didn’t pick one up the other day.

It’s a fact that people with MS don’t deal well with heat.

Anyway, I told my boss that I’m not feeling well and that I’m going to bail out early.

Poor Reggie. We just came back from a long walk, and he’s exhausted. We absolutely must get a fan for the bedroom soon. My friend Steven offered up his air conditioner since he moved into a new condo with central air. I do believe we’re going to take him up on that.

Memorial Day. It’s a good day at the beginning of the summer to do stuff around the house. I, being the apartment dweller, chose not to do such things.  Instead, I went to a movie, see X3, and I spent some time near the airport. I got a few decent shots, but nothing stellar.  These were taken at quite a distance with a digital camera as dusk was approaching. The photography gods were not smiling upon me. As soon as I got there, I missed a great shot of a Northwest Airlines A330 taking off.

May I present N618DL, a Boeing 757-200, operated by Delta Airliners.

And N708UW, an Airbus A319 operated by US Airways.

Okay, I did come across something pretty cool. I’ve been drooling over the Lufthansa A340s lately. Well here is D-AIFA, operating as Lufthansa flight LH420 from Frankfurt. This is one of the few Lufthansa aircraft that have their nose cones painted to represent a football (European football, that is) to promote the World Cup which is being hosted by Germany this year.

I have to say that living near Logan has reignited my passion for planes.  I may register mikelikesplanes.com to keep a sub-blog about aviation and planes similar to what I do for mikehasms.com. 

Anyway, I’m off to bed. My lunch for tomorrow is packed and it’s going to be a long day. We have two new interns starting. Lets hope they’re good ones.

I went to see X-Men 3: The Last Stand today. I’ll avoid any spoilers. But if you’re a real fan, you would have seen it opening weekend, too.  It could have been better, but it certainly didn’t suck.

I got to the theater about 3:05 and got tickets for a 3:15 showing. That was a mistake because there were no seats left. Well, they were all in the front of the theater and I ended up in the third row.

The basic plot is that Jean Gray isn’t really dead and that they find a cure for mutants. This sparks a war between humans and mutants.

Here are my review bits. Ben Foster as Angel is cute and should have gotten more screen time, preferably without his shirt. Blondes don’t normally do much for me, but he’s hot.  Halle Berry made that movie.  Without her, the movie would have sucked. She should at least get a nomination for Best Supporting Actress.  Kelsey Grammer as Hank McCoy/Beast was fantastic, especially in his few action scenes.  Shawn Ashmore as the iceman… well, it’s about time they let him win one.  And finally Patrick Stewart. He was okay, but this certainly wasn’t his best performance.  Its hard to look at Hugh Jackman as a rough and tough Wolverine after you’ve seen videos of his performance in The Boy from Oz.  Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde is another unsung hero of the movie. She really put on a great performance.

My only real complaint about this movie is that they shouldn’t have titled it The Last Stand if they were going to leave so many avenues for a sequel.

Nah, I take that back. The ending could have wrapped up a few ends. What happened to the source of the cure and why wasn’t it used to stop Phoenix? What was it with Wolverine’s “I’m the only one who can stop her” bit? That’s bull.

Okay… time for dinner.

It’s a nice day outside. Well, it’s warm but a bit humid. I’d seen an idea on airliners.net for a place to take some pictures. The spot is prime, but the aviation gods weren’t smiling on me today. ATC had planes landing on runways where photography just wasn’t that good.

I have a few photos to post, but my hosting provider appears to be having issues at the moment and I’ll have to post them later.

Until then, I think I’m going to go see XMen: The Last Stand today.

Today was a good day, and it was quite yummy. I slept in a little later than I had wanted but it was good to sleep in. Then I headed up to pick up Beth. We did some shopping.  Our first stop was a place in Marblehead called Fruits of the Four Seasons. They had the most amazing produce. I also picked up some prepackaged things that are quite tasty, including a Buffalo Chicken Salad that is incredible. Then we went to the Hilltop Butcher Shop for some meat. I spent more money than I had planned, but it’s okay because I now have enough food (good food, at that) to get me through the rest of the week. 

Then we came back to my place to do some cooking. Beth is hoping to start doing some personal chef work and wants to know what to expect when cooking in someone else’s kitchen. I was happy to volunteer. Not only that, but she brought Brutus and Buddy, so Reggie had some fun too.

Beth made me a lemon mustard chicken that is incredible. It’s accompanied by an avocado mash and chocolate covered strawberries and cherries. There is enough for at least two meals and a snack. On top of that, she helped me put together a few things for myself.  These include a jalapeno mustard lime rump steak and lime garlic rosemary chicken. The stuff she made just needs to be reheated. The stuff I did needs to be cooked. In the meantime, it will rest in the marinade and just get better in flavor.

This is going to be some good eats!

After we were done, we met up with Paul at their house and grilled some steaks. She and I both had jalapeno mustard steaks while Paul had a lemon mustard steak. Words are just too pale in describing how amazing these steaks were.

I’m tired and tomorrow, I have no plans. It shall be a day to eat, drink, and relax.

Oh, while Beth and I were driving back to their house, we got to see LH425 take off again.  It was a beautiful thing to watch. Shortly after that, we saw a Swiss A330, flight LX53 taking off.