Dance Monkey Dance!

Here's an interesting slide show -- made by a monkey.

100 Facts About Me Contest -- Win a Free T-Shirt

This is another installment of the 100 Facts about me. This week there is an actual real prize for guessing which fact is not true -- a Running With Blue Sponge t-shirt. Below are 11 "facts" listed that pertain to me, but only 10 are true. Can you guess which one is a lie? Next Monday, I'll post 10 more facts and one non-fact next and disclose which one of the items was false. If more than one person guesses the lie correctly, there will be a random prize drawing for the t-shirt among the correct guesses. If nobody guesses correctly, then that will be just sad. Each person may only make one guess. Leave a comment or send an e-mail to

RunningWithBlueSponge@gmail.com.

The false item from last week was #9. I never won $5,000 in any lottery game. The other 10 items I listed were true.

Here's the fourth list of 10 facts and one non-fact:

1. I've had pet gerbils.

2. I took tap dancing lessons, and danced in front of hundreds of people.

3. I've written a country music song.

4. Shane and I own about 5 acres of land in Maine, where we plan to eventually build a house and retire.

5. I was briefly in the Barry Levinson movie Diner, filmed in Baltimore.

6. I have skied at ski resorts in Maine, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and New Mexico.

7. The first real concert I ever saw was REO Speedwagon, and I had won the tickets from a radio station. Survivor was the opening act.

8. I ran my first marathon in 1998 to raise money for AIDS charities and received just under $4,000 in contributions.

9. I did an internship during my last semester in college with the Baltimore News American and I wrote two front-page stories. The paper went out of business shortly thereafter.

10. I helped digitize maps used in the first Gulf War.

11. I buried a man in a cemetery while his young son watched.

You're So Vanity

We went to the Home Depot Home Expo today to reconsider our bathroom choices. This is the vanity that we already bought and is presently sitting in the box along with a bunch of other junk in our living room area. Shane is concerned we won't have enough storage, because we won't have a medicine cabinet. He was also worried that the toilet won't be pretty. We later went to Macy's and stocked up on some lush, white towels.

Sent from Mark's iPhone

More Pictures from Game Night at Archer's

Shane and I had a great time visiting with Archer and the Boyfriend. We ate Pizza Hut thin crust pizza and drank lots of great wine.

We celebrated the Boyfriends 45th birthday, though he seemed surprised he was that old. Archer made a delicious chocolate cake and gave him some beautiful wine glasses.

We played Cranium Party Playoff, a new game the Boyfriend had given Archer for Christmas. We played twice and I won both times. We then played a game I got for Christmas, Smart Ass. I won the first game and Shane won the second.

We then played Archer's old version of Trivial Pursuit. It was Shane and I against Archer and the Boyfriend. It was neck and neck, but Archer and the Boyfriend finally won. Go to his video Web site at http://www.archerrvideo.com/ -- he will be posting some video of the festivities there soon.

Pizza and Game Night

We're over at Archer's house for one of our game nights. Here's
Archer and the Boyfriend having pizza.

Wrecked!

I had a dentist appointment today, so I had to drive the car. We have a Honda CR-V. I guess technically it is Shane's car, since he pays for it and his name is on the title. Anyway, I stopped after my appointment to get some groceries at the Harris Teeter grocery store near our house. They have an underground parking garage. I was very happy that they were having a sale on wine. They were selling Oak Creek Merlot for 3 bottles for $10, which is a brand we've had before and like. Also, you get a 15 percent discount when you buy a case. I got 12 bottles of wine for $34.

However, when leaving the parking garage, I failed to notice this huge column behind my car and proceeded to back out of my parking place and zip squarely into the column. The tire is the only thing that contacted the column, but it pushed in the back panel of our car. Suddenly, the wine wasn't so cheap anymore. I can't wait to find out how much that is going to cost to fix. Luckily, neither me nor the wine was injured. The spare tire is now crooked and there is a noticeable dent to the right side of the tire where the metal got pushed in. Shane took the news better than expected. I thought about not telling him and then acting surprised when he noticed the damage, but I didn't want to be too Lucy Ricardo.

West Wing New Cast

I think this show will be much better this year!

Witchiepoo Sings Oranges Smoranges from HR Puffnstuf

I loved this as a kid. What was I thinking? I still love me some Witchiepoo though.

Lasagna Night Turns Romantic

Shane and I went to our local Italian restaurant for dinner tonight
where I had this lasagna with the meat on the outside. It got very
romantic for the couple at the table next to us who became engaged
soon after we sat down. She got very excited and announced the news
to all the diners in the restaurant. Then, her fiancé surprised her
by having flown her parents in from Arizona. He also invited several
more friends and family, until there were about 12 people at their
party. It's a good thing she said yes.

Bathroom Remodel Update

The tiling has begun! The floor is tiled and they started the subway
tiles on the wall. We had a shower door crisis today. The door we
wanted became unavailable. We had a conference call with the
contractor and settled on another model -- for more money of course.

Inauguration Experience -- We Were There

Shane and I walked down to the National Mall to witness the inauguration of President Obama. It was cold and crowded, and we didn't see much --the top photo shows the closest screen we could see -- but we were there. We could hear what was going on. We managed to get on the Mall near the Washington Monument. Just getting on the Mall was quite difficult. We climbed over barriers and squeezed through an area where they had moved a portable toilet. The crowd was so tight that it was difficult to lower my arms after waving my "We Did It" sign that we got from someone handing them out on our way into the crowd. Below is a collection of photos I took, mostly crowd shots. I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Where Shane Met Barack Obama

Shane shook Barack Obama's hand outside this Dunkin Donuts on DC
primary day. They have some photos on their wall of that day. We
stopped there on our way to the inauguration for coffee and hot
chocolate.

Bystander's Reaction to the Inauguration Rehearsal

This was just the rehearsal on last Sunday! Multiply this by about 2 million today.

100 Facts About Me, Part 3 -- Numbers 21 - 30

This is the third installment of the 100 Facts about me. Again, you may notice there are 11 items listed. That is because one of the items is not true -- the other 10 are true. Can you guess which one is a lie? Everyone that guesses correctly wins a brand new car*! (Don't forget that sometimes I lie.)

I'll post 10 more facts and one non-fact next Monday and tell which one of the items below is false next week.

The false item from last week was #1. I have never been engaged to a woman. The other 10 items I listed are true.

Archer, of Archer Radio, guessed the item about me having plastic surgery was the false one. I have had plastic surgery, but I'll explain more about that another time.

Greg guessed the false item was the one about the forest fire. The fire wasn't as bad as it could have been. I was a bit of a pyromaniac as a child and I was playing with matches in a woods. It was fall and there were dry leaves everywhere. The leaves caught on fire and started to spread fast. Luckily, my grandmother saw the flames from across the road, and amazingly, she and another woman she was visiting with were able to beat the flames out before there was a disaster. I'm not sure why, but my grandmother never told my mother about this and never really punished me for it. She may have felt guilty for allowing it to happen. Anyway, that was my closest call with fire.

CHM guessed the Clorox bleach story was false. As a child, (prior to the forest fire) I was laying on the floor near the washer and the bottle of bleach was beside me. For some reason, I lifted the bottle of bleach up and turned it upside down over my face. The cap was apparently very loose or only sitting on the top of the bottle and it came off and bleach splashed on my face -- a small amount which I swallowed. I wasn't very happy, but I lived. It wasn't as bad as having a mouse run up the inside of my pants. I still get the heebie-jeebies from that.

Here's the third list of 10 facts and one non-fact:

1. When I was a supervisor at a previous job, I had one of my employees arrested after I discovered he was exposing himself to little girls.

2. I have been diagnosed with a heart murmur.

3. As a child, I underwent a medical procedure several times that used radium-tipped rods -- the size of knitting needles -- stuck up my nostrils, which were supposed to shrink my adenoids.

4. My neighbor Kirby and I caused my sister's arm to get broken.

5. I am a certified SCUBA diver and have seen sharks in open water while diving.

6. I have shaken the hands of both President Clinton and Vice President Gore.

7. I sang tenor in my church choir.

8. I have walked on the Great Wall of China.

9. I won $5,000 on a scratch-off lottery ticket.

10. I've been a member of both a volleyball league and a bowling league.

11. I am a Community College graduate.


*Brand new car prize is restricted to imaginary and/or fictional characters.

Diversity's Not Just a Slogan

At the Lincoln Memorial concert today, I snapped this shot of a girl
with an HRC sticker on her hat, but just now noticed the guy in the
turbin in the foreground. Though there may have been fewer older
white men at this event (even if you count me) than were at W's
inauguration events, I saw lots of not only African Americans, but
also Hispanics, Asians, and a few of us old white guys... Actually,
just me and Joe Biden. Oh, and the guy in the beret and the old guy
next to HRC girl. That's 4.

Photos from the Lincoln Memorial Concert

I thought it was odd that they placed this screen directly behind a tree.

Though the pictures don't show it, we could actually see the people on the stage, but they were tiny. I need to get a better digital camera. That was me in the yellow coat in front of the Washington Monument and Shane in the red coat below me. There were lots of people on top of the port-a-potties, until the roof caved in on one and they made everyone get down.

It sucked that HBO didn't carry Bishop Gene Robinson's prayer. We were there and we couldn't hear it. The audio speaker near us didn't kick in until the HBO show started. Though I'm not a religious man, I hate seeing any gay leader snubbed. If it had been Billy Graham (or Rick Warren?), I bet he would have been on HBO.

Though I'm really not a Garth Brooks fan, I'd have to say the best thing in the show was him singing American Pie. Bruce Springsteen singing The Rising and Mary J. Blige singing Lean On Me also were good.

It was very cool just being there and feeling the excitement that the crowd generated. Though there were lots of stars there, they were there to see and hear our new president. I had never been in a crowd that size before, and there were times it was very tight. I could see how people get trampled to death. Big crowds have a life of their own. I was surprised we were able to get as close as we did. I can't wait until Tuesday.

Waiting for the Lincoln Memorial Concert

This is what I see before the show. It is pretty crowded.

I've Been Obamaized

I didn't want to be the only one who didn't do it.

West Side Snory

I don't think the New York reviewers will be kind to the new production of West Side Story.   Though the show has beautiful music and the sets -- particularly the transformation of the stage to the under the highway rumble set, was amazing --  and the two female leads also were very good -- this is not a show I would recommend.   

There was a lot I didn't like.  The male leads were adequate, but dull.  I don't understand what Maria saw in this Tony to make her risk everything.  The show just seemed long and dated -- very dated.  If the Spanish singing was suppose to make it seemed more updated, it did not.  I'd advise them to go back to English.  Sometimes the Puerto Ricans sang and spoke in Spanish and sometimes they sang and spoke in English.  I assume this is how it works in real life, but I don't speak much Spanish and did not understand what they were saying much of the time.  There were prolonged periods of singing and dialogue that were entirely in Spanish.  It was my understanding that they would going to have surtitles above the stage, but they did not.   It would have been nice.

I was hoping to like this show, but was very disappointed.  Overall, the sound was not good.  The orchestra sounded muffled and the actors sound level also seemed low.  Also, the theater became uncomfortably hot during the show, and I was just wishing it would end.  It never seemed to end.  I wanted to shout out, "Die already!"" during the dramatic and prolonged ending scene.  If you are in NYC and want to see a good show, go to Billy Elliot.  

Going to this show did cause me to have a couple flashbacks.  I remember when I was in elementary school, and the movie of West Side Story was shown on TV.  The next day on the playground, all the boys went around bouncing into a hunched position and snapping their fingers pretending they were Jets or Sharks.  They thought they were being cool, but looking back on it, it seemed very gay.  The other memory I had was a Laverne and Shirley episode when the gang was trying out for parts in a production of West Side Story.   The production I saw could have used the Big Ragu!

I tried to find a clip on YouTube from the Laverne and Shirley show on West Side Story, but I couldn't find one.  What I did find was a better train wreck.  There is a sketch, I assume from the old Cher variety show, where Cher plays all the parts in West Side Story.  It was in two parts and about 14 minutes long, and what I did watch of it, was hilarious.   The sound quality is horrible on the clips I found and it was long, so I didn't link it, but it is very easy to find if you want to see it.  It is something. 

West Side Story

There's a place for us and it is row N at tonight's performance of West Side Story, the classic musical revival is heading to Broadway, but we get to see it here in DC first. I've heard mixed reviews, especially about the gimmick of many of the songs being done Spanish. There are surtitles above the stage for us unilingual people. I'm excited! The photo shows Matt Cavenaugh as Tony, and newcomer Josefina Scaglione as Maria. I heard he isn't such a great singer. I'll give a full report tomorrow. But, tonight, tonight, won't be just any night...