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good news: I enjoyed my business trip in Owensboro
bad news: saw War of the Worlds and was disappointed
lunch news: Danielle introduced me to Bourbon-n-Toulouse on Euclid
weekly news: another Thursday Night Live concert

The main source of income in my life right now is a custom-software project that Eve Podet found for me. It's pretty sweet, but it does require some distance driving. Yesterday I was doing software updates in the Richmond office, which is about a 40-minute drive from my house in Lexington, but today I have to go to the Lawrenceburg office (a 30-minute drive) to get some hardware to install in Owensboro (an extra 3-hour drive past Lawrenceburg). Once the hardware is set up, then I will be installing the software I wrote and heading home. Might be spending the night in Owensboro; don't know for sure.

I've visited Quest Community Church a few times now, not because it fills a spiritual void in my life, but because it fills a social void in my life. See, lately, a lot of my local friends (which, I'm sure you'll remember, are all female) have become distracted by other guys. Every passing month, I get less and less companionship from my formerly reliable companions. Like last Saturday night, I went to the open-air concert at Cheapside Park by myself, and I know the concert would have been more enjoyable if I'd had a dance partner with me.

Wonder if any of the Quest folks would go to the downtown concerts (Thursday Night Live and Saturday Night Jive) with me. They've been great about inviting me to hang out with them at church functions; I should return the favor.

two exciting surprises today:

— Heather arranged for the specials board at Joseph Beth Café to have "Happy Birthday, Brett" written on it when we arrived for lunch (as seen in the photo linked here)
— the house next door to mine just sold to someone I know!!! What a coincidence! I helped him move in, before I went to Woodhill Cinema to see Bewitched

Speaking of Bewitched, there is a turtleshell-flavored cat in that movie which reminds me of the cat I'm catsitting.

two items that I've noticed at Kroger that I haven't bought yet but am thinking of trying soon:

— chocolate covered Nutter Butters
— key-lime flavored Almond Joys

Last night, Ariana and I did a lot of dancing on the Cheapside Park sidewalk during the Thursday Night Live concert, and all along the 150-minute way, we had people coming up to us and telling us how much they enjoyed our little show. One of those people was local celebrity Gatewood Galbraith. Huh!

Thanks, Gatewood! And thanks, Ariana!

since I don't have any recent photos of myself on this page, I figured you might like to see what I look like today, even though you've already seen me hundreds of times before

Need to give a quick shout-out to Salina Ramsay, who hired me today to handle changes to her website of equine fine art.

She is the lucky one who has the coolest apartment in Lexington. You should see it!

whole lot to catch up on here...

at Swingin' on Main on 20050618 Saturday, someone had a heart attack in mid-swing, fell to the street, and died...

at Chili's restaurant on 20050619 Sunday, the pastor of Quest Community Church told me not to be like an arsonist who hangs around a fire station, wanting to stir up trouble...

at Damon's restaurant last night on 20050620 Monday, a really nice guy that I worked with a long long time ago came up to my table to say hi and kinda offer me a computer job with his new employer. Then the waitress later told me that he bought my dinner!! Happy birthday to me.

More birthday news: Friday was my bandmate Shannon's birthday; yesterday was Kelly Y's birthday and Bethany D's birthday; today is Bobi C's birthday. As Jim Carrey says in a movie, "P-A-R-T-Why? Because I gotta."

Thank you!

Pretty excited about my birthday gifts: a subwoofer for my PC, a Visa gift card, a Fiddler's Fakebook songbook, Will Smith's Greatest Hits CD, and Brian Regan: I Walked on the Moon DVD.

Big day today, with me turning 35 and whatnot. Know who else is turning 35 today? Will Forte. If you don't watch Saturday Night Live, then you won't know who he is at all. But I am a big fan of SNL, and I was surprised to learn that Will Forte and I were born on the same day back in 1970. Man, if things had been a little different for me (like if my hair hadn't started falling out), I could have been a TV celebrity.

In other celebrity birthday news, M.C. Escher would have celebrated a birthday today, if he hadn't shuffled off this mortal coil in 1972.

In other celebrity (non-birthday) news, Tom Cruise proposed to Katie Holmes this morning, at the top of the Eiffel Tower! Isn't that neat? They wanted my birthday to be an extra-special milestone day in their lives. I predict they'll get divorced on my birthday, too, a few years from now.

Now that it's summertime, the city of Lexington is cranking up their outdoor events. Tonight, Bethany and I will be at the "Thursday Night Live" concert at Cheapside Park, where we hope to dance on the sidewalk. Saturday night is the street dance called "Swingin' on Main," a lively event held every year on the street between DeSha's Restaurant and Triangle Park. I suspect I'll be dancing with Bethany a whole bunch then, also. Come dance with us.

Speaking of dancing, I read on Yahoo News that ballroom dancing is making a comeback, thanks to stuff like that ballroom dancing show on ABC and a new ballroom dancing documentary in theaters. Well, Lexington's amateur ballroom association has dances every month, as seen on their website, but for some reason they have scheduled the June dance to coincide with the "Swingin' on Main" event mentioned above. Wonder how many people are gonna skip a free street dance, downtown, to go to an expensive ballroom dance on Southland Drive?

I would repeat that I have nothing going on, but actually there's a family crisis going on that I can't discuss here on the World Wide Web. Since it's not taking place in Kentucky, I can say for sure that there's nothing going on in Kentucky.

On the bright side, though, my friend Larry (see June 3rd entry) just gave me a subwoofer for my PC, which was on my wish-list, and I've been spending hours upon hours here at home, simply listening to my MP3 files in full, thundering sound. Sometimes, to take a break from that, I'll play Centipede with full, thundering sound. Thank you for the early birthday present, Larry!

Got nothing going on, but I just thought I should post a new entry for the sake of all the folks that check my website every day looking for new entries.

After a whole day without the cat and most of the day without a Mom, I decided to do my own thing and go see the new movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith. When I came home, Mom's cat was waiting for me on the front sidewalk!!! What do you know? Mom was right. The cat is very smart and can find its way back to a slightly familiar place.

Now the experiment can begin: how many flea bites will I find on my legs in the upcoming week leading up to my birthday?

Several days ago, when I showed up for the main dance event of the Dance Trance weekend, I was encouraged to create a nametag to wear while dancing. All the nametags had different adjectives on them, and I chose "Brett the unpredictable." Ariana was working the registration table at the time and told me that I am so predictable, she could have predicted that I would choose the "unpredictable" nametag.

Well, this morning, I was thinking about that episode because my Mom just left, and she is the epitome of unpredictable right now. Yesterday she tried to give me a gas grill even though (1) I rarely spend time outside, (2) I never cook, and (3) I never have people over for barbecues. She keeps telling me things she needs me to do, like cash a check for her or wash some clothes for her, but then she stops me and says not to. Last night, she let the cat outside to roam around the neighborhood, and now that Mom has left without finding the cat, I suspect that the cat will never be seen here again. I also discovered that, while I was sleeping, Mom had put my dirty dishes from the dishwasher back in the cabinets and moved a lot of stuff around inside the refrigerator.

Wow, life can be pretty wacky sometimes.

Bonus photo from last night at Joe Bologna's restaurant:
Mom telling Tara a secret about me

Mom has come to visit me, and I am required to watch her cat for a week while she travels around the Southeast. For my birthday, she was planning to buy me a dog or a cat, and I said no, so this is the next best thing: me having a temporary cat. When I mentioned earlier in this blog that I'm under a lot of pressure to buy a cell phone, I probably could have mentioned that I'm also under some pressure to own a pet or two. Why are these things (cell phones, pets) so necessary? And how many fleas will take up residence in my house? Guess I'll find out this week.

Let me tell you about Joy, a student at Asbury Seminary. She is an impressive person, not just for her intelligence and beauty, but for her fascinating past. Last night I was visiting with her in Wilmore, and I learned that she has been a shepherd! She's the only one I've ever met. Also, prior to attending a church service with her, she was the only Orthodox Christian I'd ever met, but now I've met about a dozen.

There is a new cell-phone tower being built very close to where Joy lives. She and I noticed that no fence has been built around it yet, making it vulnerable to random climbers. So, naturally, we walked to it and started climbing it. She got up a whole lot higher than I did before coming back down to terra firma. I am always impressed by French-speaking banjo-playing women who have no reservations about putting their lives in danger so impulsively.

One can meet some very exciting people in Contra dancing.

I'm in a strange state of mind this week. I have lots of money and lots of time, and I don't know what to do.

Should I see the world? I remember how frustrating it was to be in France without a travel companion. I remember telling myself in 1995 that I don't want to do any more world travel without a companion.

Should I pay down my mortgage? Seems like a shame to do something so responsible when I'm this young and this loaded. Having a mortgage will be all right for the next five years or so. I reckon I'll have the house paid off before I turn 40, so there's no rush there. Besides, this idea will drain my money and not my time, leaving me broke and bored. (Same thing applies to massive home improvement expenses like getting a new roof or a new furnace.)

Should I hang out at Keeneland and bet on horses all day? Well, that's too far in the opposite direction from the last idea, being irresponsible, and leaving me broke and stressed.

Should I get an XBox and other guy gadgets? Yes. Will I? Doubtful.

Should I finally pay for a gym membership or YMCA membership? Hmmm, that sounds good. I can definitely afford it, and it'll be nice to always have something fun to do, like shooting baskets, swimming, or reading magazines while pretending to get some cardiovascular exercise on the treadmill.

I am super-stoked that many entertaining cable-TV shows are available for download on the Internet (using BitTorrent). I can see "Daily Show with Jon Stewart," "Entourage," "Penn and Teller BS," and "South Park" without buying cable. The only reason I'd subscribe now is to watch "Best Week Ever" on VH1.

Dance Trance, a Contra dance weekend, is running full force right now in Lexington. People come from all over to enjoy our annual shindig.

This weekend, I am housing five dancers, as if I am some kind of bed-and-breakfast (without the breakfast, or in most cases, without a bed). Two of my guests are from Louisville, one is from North Carolina, one is from Kansas, and one is from Utah.

June 3rd is my sister's birthday (and I'm guessing she had a happy one). I just found out that it is also the birthday of Larry Sharpe, pictured here. His family and friends threw a 50th-birthday surprise party for him, and I attended and took pictures and taught people how to cha-cha.

make your way into my archives: May 2005, April 2005, March 2005, February 2005, and January 2005. Or just head over to my news page from 2005 and 2004

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