Milano Fashion Capital

My wife wisely, or unwisely, informed me that Milano, Italy is some kind of fashion model mecca. So, tonight (my second night here), I befriended some Italians and they took me to some "hot spots".

After I had a few glass of Italian wine...

Ooooweeeeee. They have bars that are nothing but liquor serving photography shops. It's like way crazy. I felt guilty for not enjoying it to the fullest extent allowed by law so I started asking people if they spoke English and if they'd mind taking pictures with touristy Texans. I found one Italian and then I found a group of 3 Italians and a Norwegian. Oooooweeee. Can you spot the Norwegian?

I'm hoping my wife is not currently paying attention to myblog.

For demonstrations of how I get myself into this kind of trouble, I'll also include a picture of someone pouring me a glass of mucho bueno Italian wine (that's mixing Italian and Spanish).

Another thing I discovered tonight is that Italians invented Sopapialas, but as an appetizer served with meat. Not a desert served with honey. I always thought it was an interesting Mexican invention. Do they have anything original?

Traveling To Milan

The company I work for has a customer in Italy.  I’ve been asked to go help out (get payment). 

There are perceived problems with the system we delivered.  I’m taking my software and my pliers and my blowtorch.  It is Italy after all.

I’ll be in Milan for the next two weeks or so.  It should be fun, but I suspect my blogging will suffer more than it already has from my normal day to day fiascos.

I’ll try and remember to take lots of pictures and give some good travel documentation when I return.  I bet ya can’t wait!

Anti-Aquarians…Meet My Niece

I’ve been subtly pressured by two people to cease and desist with my weekly Aquarius posts.  One of these persons is a Leo.  The other is a Virgo.  I’m doing research now to see if there is some deep seated and unjustified animosity between these two signs and the loving Aquarius folks.  I’ll try and keep you posted without further frustration to the Leos and the Virgos.

My Aquarian star this week is my niece, Emily.  For all my life, I have been the only Aquarian in my list of relatives that I keep up with.  A few years ago my older sister produced a baby Aquarian girl and she’s nice and sweet and pretty and smart just like her Aquarian uncle.

Another Elena Tan?…This One’s Pretty

Coincidentally, and perhaps because of my previous Elena posting, I received another email from Elena. Although I think it’s a different Elena. She doesn’t appear old.

It was titled, “Hello, can we be friends?”. The previous Elena was promising me a large inheritance. What this Elena offers, I’m too naive to figure out. I’m almost too embarrassed to post the email, but in honor of full disclosure… (incidentally, I haven’t been on a dating website in about 8 years). At least they both have God in common. And her typing skills seem to be about as good as Elena Tan’s lawyer: Barrister Richard Lee (you have to read Sophia’s comment).

Hello my new friend!
My name is Elena.
how are you? I hope you are fine!
I have found your profile and e-mail on dating site.
As for me I want to find my love.
If you are interested, answer me and we can begin our acquaintance.
So let me tellsome words about me. I am was born 20 OCT 1982.
I want to find someone who can love me and i can love. I looked your
profile and read information about you
and what you want to see in a woman of your choice.
And i believe, i can have all parts of what you want in soulmate, out of
thousands of people that is me, i find you to be my true choice and i
hope that you should feel the same way too.
It's really wonderful moment as I am writing this letter to you
and i pray that i should hear good and sweat reply from you.
You are far from me but i belief that there's nothing that love can not do.
I belief love can move mountain and love turns around person's life to
precious life and sweet one.
Ok, i wish that you will write me and lets have more
discussions and get to know more about each other.
My new friend I ask you to write to my e-mail:
elenchiksweet_27@yahoo.com
I will be great to read marvellous letter from you.
Hoping for God of love and in power of love I would like to hear from you.
Thanks for the reading.
Elena.

Illegal Aliens and Their Hurt Little Feelers

Read this today.  I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry -- so I blogged.

My favorite part of the above article?

Jorge-Mario Cabrera, the director of communications for CHIRLA, said he initially thought the costume was a stab at harmless satire. But when he saw the Green Card, he realized it was a swipe at illegal immigrants.

I wonder if he realizes that the “green card” makes you legal?  Repeat after me: if you have a green card, then you are legal. 

The stupidity of people continues to amaze me.

Then it makes you wonder if perhaps the makers of the costume paid someone a small fee to complain so that they could get some free advertisement.

I know I wouldn’t have ever thought of buying the costume until I heard the complaints on the radio (heck, I didn’t even know it existed!).  Now, I’m thinking of buying one for my German wife.  My kids think it’s funny that she’s an alien.

Ed is An Aquarius!!

It may come as a shock to you, but one of the regular visitors to my humble blog is also an Aquarius.

He gets a posting all to himself because I’ve known him and called him a friend for almost 30 years. He’s even been my best man -- twice!

I started dabbling in Astrology about 8 years ago. I don’t take it too seriously, but it’s good for conversations and it’s quite entertaining. For it to be entertaining, I have to (at least pretend to) take it very seriously.

I started to look closer at Astrology when I realized the one man I had known and kept in contact with longer than any other was a fellow Aquarius. I reckon it is just a whacky coincidence, but it’s still pretty cool.

Ed was born on January 23rd.

I don’t have many friends. A lot of my old friends I hear from rarely.

In 30 years I think the longest I’ve gone without hearing anything from Ed is maybe 6 months. Maybe. I didn’t really keep track. He was always there.

Ed introduced me to the Internet. I enjoy hanging out with people that are smarter than me. I figure that way I’ll be able to learn something every time I talk to them and I am a big fan of learning. I’ve learned a lot from Ed and continue to do so. Just checkout some of his comments!

I met Ed when I was playing Dungeons & Dragons with his older brother. Ed is a year younger than me and lived just down the street when we were growing up.

When I needed a best man for my wedding(s) Ed bought a plane ticket and flew down (both times) without asking for anything in return. I don’t think I ever said how much I appreciated it. I’m not good at showing appreciation. Maybe since Ed is a fellow Aquarius, he understands that.

When I was going through my divorce, it was a very difficult patch of time in my life. Ed was always there to talk to. He might be the only person I know that looks at things more logically than I do. Of course, the women don’t appreciate it. Is there such a thing as love in logic? Or logic in love?

I could write all day from my memoirs of our teenage years together. We played AD&D, we setup Bulletin Board Services, we played chess, we wrote software, etc. You name it, we did it. It’s the only thing I remember enjoying about being a teenager in the desert.

Here’s to Ed. Thanks man!

Hostmonster

I use Hostmonster for my web hosting. I picked it because of the cute little blond on the front page.

I'd give you my website, but there is literally nothing of interest there. I started out in earnest and when I hit my first hurdle I sat down and rested.

So it surprised me today when I got the email from Hostmonster that my account had been suspended for activity that violated their terms of use.

They gave me an 800 number to call so I called it.

Apparently I had setup a message board that was getting inundated with spam.

Remember back when I hit my first hurdle? I was trying to setup a message board and I couldn't get it to work so I bailed on the idea. However, I left my failed attempt behind (it wasn't taking up that much space and I thought I'd get back to it later).

Apparently, it was working because someone was posting lots and lots of messages. So many messages that the Hostmonster server flagged it.

A technical guy answered the phone at Hostmonster really quick and helped me to disable the message board (that I thought wasn't working anyway). He only chuckled at me politely. I was disappointed that the cute blond didn't answer the phone though.