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Originally uploaded by mikehillwig

I’m moving in a few weeks and starting to pack up almost everything I own. A few things need to stay out. These are my bare essentials.  I don’t use the gin much, nor the apple pucker. The gin will be the next thing to go into the box. As far as the apple pucker goes, one never knows when the urge for an appletini will hit.

I’ve thrown away a lot of alcohol tonight. My rule was simple. If I remember packing it up for the move from Pittsbugh to Providence (three years ago), it got pitched.

Oh, and the Petron tequila is already wrapped up in the plastic bubble wrap.

Ralph Nader has announced that he’s throwing his hat into the ring as a third party candidate for President.

If you recall, some scholars think that if Nader had not been in the 2000 race, Gore would have beaten Bush.

This will be interesting.

I swear, one of these days, Reggie is going to be a rug. More on that later.

This morning, he was on my face at 7:00 to go outside. Well, more like kibble. He wanted to eat. So we went outside and then he ate. As soon as he ate, we went back to bed and slept until 11:30.

Yesterday we got a ton of snow, somewhere between nine and twelve inches. So today, I went to the beach. I’ve always wanted to see what a beach looked like with snow on it. I had to trapse through a foot of snow just to get to the beach. That was fun.

While I was out, I went to Whole Foods and then Fruit of the Four Seasons. At WFM, I ran into a former coworker. He’s still ridiculously hot.

When I got home, there was a mess on my kitchen floor. Reggie had decided to go through my backpack, where he found a candy bar I forgot that I had put in there. He ate the whole thing, foil wrapper and all. Now, I know that chocolate is poisonous to dogs, let alone my 18.2 pound Puggernaut. I assume Reggie is going to be sickened by this. Did he vomit on the floor? No. Did he poop everywhere? Nol. Instead, he drank every bit of water in his bowl.  When I got home, we went outside to pee. Not thirty minutes later, I was in my bedroom, and I couldn’t hear Reggie. I found him in the bathroom, taking a serious leak right on the vanity. I bet he pissed a good quart of water, not more than 30 minutes after we had gone outside. Yeah, a rug. He’s fortunate that I’ve already bought rugs for my new place. Although, I do need a new toilet seat cover.

When I was at Whole Foods, I picked up a couple pieces of cod as well as some panco bread crumbs. The fish was really good except for one thing, it was seriously underseasoned.  In my zest to play with the bread crumbs, I totally forgot to season the fish. The texture was good, but I had to salt it afterward. It was a learning experience, and considering that I only used a small amount of canola oil, reasonably healthy, too.

Ever since the chocolate, Reggie has been SO wound up. He’s been running around the house like a mad dog. He did a pugtona in the driveway and in the house several times. I finally broke out the children’s benedryl. Yes, I’ve drugged Reggie. Hopefully he’ll settle down before too long.

I’m looking forward to watching Trading Spaces tonight. I haven’t watched it in a few seasons, and now Paige Davis is back. I’m drinking cosmos. I think I have this cocktail down perfectly. They’re deliciously pink.   I think I prefer Contreau over Grand Marnier. There is a rather large bottle of Garnd Marnier I bought earlier this week that needs to find a purpose in life.

If you think you’ve had a bad day, read about my fabulous neighbor’s trip home from Germany. Suddenly, my day seems pretty good. 

Today, I created a new playlist in iTunes to see what I’ve listened to. Create a smart playlist like this:

I set mine for 50 songs, and this is what I came up with:

I must have loved the Mama Mia! cast recording an awful lot.

I read in a recent blog post that Delta is premiering their new safety video.

It’s awful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgpzUo_kbFY

If the cheesy acting isn’t bad enough, the flight attendant wagging her finger while telling me that smoking is not allowed on any Delta flight is just too much.

Maybe I’m just nitpicking the aircraft, but they filmed this on a Boeing 757 and the graphic showing the exits is a 737-700. Keep in mind that Delta doesn’t even fly the 737-700.

In all fairness to Delta’s people, these things are incredibly boring to watch, so making them has to be even more painful.

UPDATE: Okay, in fairness, I double-checked my facts and wasn’t entirely accurate. I was correct when I said that Delta doesn’t fly the 737-700. They fly the 737-800. However, Delta does have ten of the 737-700 on order. (details)

When I’m trying to stay focused, I’ll put something on my iPod that isn’t too distracting. Listening to the news on my Sirius receiver will certainly be a distraction.

Yesterday, I put it on my Pet Shop Boys playlist that grabs everything where the artist is the Pet Shop Boys, all 11.9 hours of it.

Wow.

Some of that music really takes me back to a really good place in my life. I used to listen to the Pet Shop Boys a lot when I was in my twenties. Yeah, we’re really talking so gay it hurts, here. There’s just something magical about that time in my life. It seems like I had no worries, no commitments, and my entire future was in front of me. My weekends were spent clubbing, sex was abundant, and everything was possible. I didn’t have to worry about managing my money nor my credit.

Sure, I’m totally romanticizing that era of my life. I had no idea what I was capable of back then. I wasn’t dealing with MS. And in retrospect, I was pretty poor. I made a lot of mistakes back then. My focus was a job, not my career. I trashed my credit. Today, I’m still cleaning that up. And I’m going to buy a house in the next couple of years. The friends I have today are real, not just bar buddies. And of course, I have Reggie.

Yeah, so gay it hurts.

Sometimes we can be rather cynical about how much people suck. But let me tell you, the generosity of people never ceases to amaze me. I’m trying to raise money for the MS Walk, and my coworkers continually humble me with their generosity. As I said to my friend Ian today…

My company is amazing at raising money for good causes. If you ask around, send a few e-mails, and post it to the intranet, money will fall from the sky.

I just sent out the first barrage of e-mails to my friends and family. I’m hoping their generosity is equally abundant.

(link)

Does anybody else think the man’s already dead?

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Originally uploaded by mikehillwig

This picture was taken Christmas day at my parents’ house. My mom was sitting on the floor in front of the fireplace and then fell asleep. Reggie decided that he needed to curl up with her.