Never met a weekend I didn't like!

I cannot recall a single bad weekend that I've had in the past few years. It's a perfect time for me to "recharge" and possibly get some things done on the outside with my newly-found energy. Not every weekend is the same, and sometimes I just want to lay around and play computer games every possible waking minute. Then sometimes I get sick of it and I'm ready to unleash the fury by Saturday evening!

Well this weekend was just a little bit strange. My air conditioner which has been in existence probably since the Nixon administration decided to stop running right. And with that, my house slowly turned into a 95-degree humid breadwarmer. Not the best environment for playing computer games, obviously. So the next best thing was to switch houses. I'm used to switching computers when one goes down, so I figure the same rule applies to shelter as well. I made my way to my mom's, then Brendan/Joe's, then back to mom's where I stayed the night. And among other things, played computer games and did some more family tree research.

Did I mention I'm still completely enamored by family tree research...possibly because I see it as the "story of me" and everything else that made myself and our relatives who we are. And it's really cool to meet perfect strangers who are on the same exact quest as myself, without ever knowing it otherwise! Not only that, but sometimes we're able to trace the roots of personal quirks, sayings and other behaviors that we can't otherwise explain. Fun stuff, indeed.

So let's see...I stopped over my brother's house to hang out with the nephews which always brings joy. I asked for a can of pop and my 4 yo. nephew brings me a can of Coke. But not just any old coke...a can that's been sitting in the fridge for TEN YEARS! Of course I had to try it, and it was perfectly fine...but the kids seemed to like it too so I was forced to share.

I finally decided to go shopping for a belt. This is usually not what I have in mind at 8pm on a Sunday night, but it seemed like a fine opportunity and something I've been thinking about for awhile. Mind you, the mall is CLOSED at 8pm on a Sunday and I should've known that. But I took my chances and voila! JCPenney was having a VIP sale and was open until 10pm, AND everything was 20-30% off sale price! Now the fun part: I'm a guy, and don't really care for shopping. And I've never bought a belt before in my entire life. And there are literally hundreds of belts to choose from. So I have no idea what the difference is between dress/casual styles and so forth. But after about a half hour staring at countless racks, I finally settled on an ultra-conservative style in both brown and black. So goodbye to my tattered black woven belt and hello to the new me! Oh yeah, and I picked up some dress shirts and ties while I was there. Now that I think about it, I should probably tell more stories about my shopping escapades. I actually think I should have someone filming me at all times and then I could make a fortune selling comedy videos.

So I finally get home Sunday night, the LoL servers are down (again) which made it possible to do laundry and read, read, read. Right now I'm working on a book called the Five-Thousand Year Leap, which is about the principles of the Founding Fathers and the Constitution. It's basically American History 201 with a definite bias toward small government which I am mostly in favor of myself. I never get too wrapped up in politics for various reasons, but I am a huge fan of sociology so it fits right in. I've also got an easy read about 100 cool inventions that I bought back in the winter and am finally getting around to it. Next up will probably be one of Phil Jackson's books - More than a Game.

Slowly but surely I'm getting away from the iPad and going back to paperback books. Why? I think the biggest benefits are availability and cost. While iBooks has a number of free books, I find that ones that I am particularly interested in are either > $10 or unavailable at all. I can read fine on either, but it's a little weird switching between the two. Also, I can lug around paperbacks literally anywhere without worry that they will get lost or stolen...such is not the case with the iPad. That said, I am in now way writing off the iPad as it is still the preferred device for travel. But I'm not really on the move too much so the benefit isn't as great to me as it may be for others.