Warning If you're walking from Ben's Chili Bowl at 1:00 a.m. to your car and you're eager to get home because you're tired, be careful about choosing your steps. There are large rectangles of what looks like dirt. You might decide to walk on what you think is dirt to get around that slow couple in front of you. It's not dirt. It's cement. Be careful out there.   ¶ 9:50 AM

  Mark your calendar Franz Ferdinand at 9:30 on June 20th. Be there or be square. Check out FF's artist page on betterPropaganda.  ¶ 7:21 AM

  Beach Weekend Growing up in Florida, I became accustomed to making frequent trips to the beach. Since moving to D.C., I do what I can satisfy my beach cravings. I drove to Dewey Beach this weekend with five goals in mind. Luckily, I accomplished each one. While Delaware beaches are certainly no replacement for those on Florida's gulf coast, they're good enough for my $100 budget.

Here are my goals and how I met them:

1. Drink a margarita on a deck--Rusty Rudder Restaurant & Saloon in Dewey. Pretty good drinks. A little too much tequila for me.
2. Eat coconut shrimp--Jake's Seafood House Restaurant on Rehoboth Beach. Also discovered a delicious new beer there (Magic Hat #9).
3. Lay out on a beach and read a trashy magazine--Dewey Beach with Cosmo.
4. Swim in a pool--stayed at Adams Ocean Front Resort. Great pool. There was a problem with our room, so we ended up getting bumped to a two-bedroom condo.
5. Buy salt water taffy--Dolle's at Rehoboth.

My friend and I also went to Bottle & Cork (can't find a link right now). Cool venue--basically a big garage with an open-air patio and lots of bars. Kind of a cheesy scene. Maybe it gets more interesting after Memorial Day.  ¶ 10:31 AM

  First Sighting and Missed Sighting I saw my first cicada this morning. Kind of creeped me out. Not sure how I'm going to handle seeing a billion of them in the next few weeks.

I missed the Stills last night at 9:30. Bummer. If I didn't have to be functional at work today, I would have certainly made the late show. Stupid work making me think about stuff on a Thursday. Check out pics here of what I missed. Looking at the pics kind of makes me depressed as I sit at my desk reading and writing about XXX, Inc.'s technology. I really gave up the Stills for this?  ¶ 10:44 AM

  I knew there would be old people there . . . but I didn't think that an old lady would actually poke me with her pokin' stick. NM hooked me up for the Blondie show at 9:30 last night (thanks again). I went expecting a good time for free with a bunch of people in their 50s. Nothing wrong with people in their 50s. But this one lady totally poked me in the back of my left knee with her cane when I accidently stepped in her line of sight. Yes, she did have some sort of disability that required her to sit on a bar stool, so I understand that she was limited as far as staking out her place in the audience. But she didn't have to poke me!

Other than the poking incident, I had a great time. That Debbie Harry sure can rock. Here's a pic from the show.   ¶ 10:28 AM

  Nurse Precious Did anyone else out there know that the NBC soap opera, "Passions," has a character played by an orangutan? I just learned this last night. If I had this knowledge earlier in the week, I certainly would have watched "Passions" when I was home sick on Tuesday. The character, Precious, is played by Bam Bam. Precious works as a nurse and fantasizes about wearing lingerie for some of the hunky male characters. For some reason, the Center for Nursing Advocacy has a problem with this storyline. PETA and Dr. Jane Goodall are not crazy about the Nurse Precious storyline either.

From soapcentral.com:

"Passions" is known for its far-out storylines - including one in which Precious fantasized about the soap's resident hunk and one involving a magical doll (played by a real little person) who came to life.

An orangutan AND a little person! That's just too much entertainment in one soap opera. I have to see this show!  ¶ 1:34 PM