Sheesh

Every time I find myself wandering farther and farther from these pages, I always have a good reason, and yet I still -- inevitably -- feel guilty and incomplete. It's not quite a month since I've graced -- or soiled -- these pages, and yet it feels like ages.

My bad.

First and foremost, happy belated-ish 4th of July. Kaia and I chilled out at home rather than go to a friend's. She wasn't feeling well and I was shot, so we chilled out and watched "An American Haunting" on Showtime -- how patriotic of us, natch -- before we caught the tail end of the bitchin' fireworks display over the East River. For those of you missed it, here's a net-based sample.

For those of you who did see the fireworks, I'm very happy for you and your family and your friends and all the people you'll yap about the fireworks about over the next 36 hours, which is approximately 15% longer than any human on this planet who cares about the 4th of July will care to hear about the fireworks.

To add to the excitement, on tonight's newscasts, they actually -- I shit you not -- had reporters live at the scene (by The Water Club) describe the fireworks. "It was magical," "it was exciting," "a lot of oohs and aahs from the assembled crowd..." Sorry, but I don't care too much about the ooh's and aah's and I even less care about what some bobble-head cares to say about said ooh's and aah's. I know it's about patriotism and excitement and being in America, but the truth is if you're spending the day/night with the one you love, the fireworks aren't nearly as meaningful as the ones between you and your other half. So pfffffffffffft :-D

In other news...aside from my writing project, which has continued to cook along at a steady pace, part of the reason for my absence herein had been a party I co-hosted with a friend on June 23rd here in NYC. We ended up getting everything just about perfect, aside from a little "what the hell is she doing here"-esque drama, and approximately 166 people, plus my co-host and I, had a bitchin' time. Until our next party, which we estimate to be called for October 20th, this was the topper. Then again, we've been saying that over the last three parties, so I'm hopeful this upcoming one continues the trend of steady improvement and -- to borrow from Lexus -- our relentless pursuit of perfection (and cleavage). We're getting there ;-)

Beyond that, Kaia's been in town since the 21st and all, as per usual, is well. We've been stuck in, stuck out, running around and hanging out, and in almost every situation our puzzle pieces match perfectly. Between spending time watching movies and the variety of items on my DVR, heading downtown to restaurants for drinks and eats, and just bouncing around the City, it's all good. The only caveat is that her family still resides in the Bay Area (ie San Fran) and she misses them while she's here, but again, like my co-host's and my party planning, every day gets better and it's just a matter of time before (unlike our party planning) we go pro.

Speaking of TV et al, since I last visited these parts my old venerable, 150-pound 27" Mitsubishi shit the bed, so I finagled me one o' them-thar new HD TV's, this one of the 32" Sharp Aquos widescreen variety. I'm not a big TV person -- or at least I wasn't prior to this bad boy's arrival -- but I'm seeing things on the screen I never did before. I think the most significant improvement in terms of quality can be seen when watching sports. Part of the reason I love visiting Yankee Stadium (besides the Yankees consistently winning, o' course) is stepping out from the tunnel to see the grass -- verdent, lush and the truest green I've ever seen -- and now, all I need to see that is to fire up the TV. Obviously going to the game will never quite be replaced, but the truth is that the HD reproduction of Yankee games is so superb that it's hard to justify spending $200 to go to the game when the broadcasts are so incredibly immaculate.

Of course, watching movies in 1080i through this doesn't hurt; but until the high definition format war (between Blu-Ray and HDDVD) is over, I don't need to see the pores in Denzel Washington's face whilst watching Crimson Tide. The quality is more than sufficient, and since I've been watching these things via a small, analog TV for so long, I will appreciate the next jump (ie to the winner of the format war) when/if I make it. Meanwhile, I'm watching DVD's I've owned for years and seeing more detail and jump than I ever did, so I'm still jazzed despite the fact it's been here about as long as has Kaia. Go figger.

Anyhoo...there's much more about which I could expound, but it's late, my lady's already sleeping and I'm ready for a few nice days without work.

I'll be back much sooner next time -- and despite saying that, this time I do indeed mean it -- so in the interim, happy post 4th of July. Hope you all enjoy(ed) the off day(s) and make good use of good summer weather and keep yourselves smiling for as long as possible :-D

Ciao fer now...