I've been super busy/productive this week. Its weird how work ebbs and flows from periodic boredom to total hectic-ness in such short periods of time. I prefer the hectic to the boring though, so life is good.

I'm sure you've all heard of Anna Nicole Smith now... what you might not know is that the casino she collapsed in was my neighborhood casino. Yes, I have a neighborhood casino. Actually, my mother's family has a neighborhood casino, which is the Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Fl, mere blocks from where they live (closer than downtown Houston is from my house). I have spent time in this casino giving my money to slot machines. Now that I rock at poker, though, maybe that will give me something to do there while I wait for my gambling happy relatives to either win big or go home sad.

Ah, Boca Raton, the connections pop up in all the random places. Musical medlies. Love trysts with the Boss in Sopranos (why, oh why, didn't I discover this show before, its amazing!) Seinfeld repeatedly called Boca Raton "God's waiting room", oh and a musical, Bounce which I had the fortune to see during its brief time at the Kennedy Center. And little things people might not know about Boca, its where the personal computer was invented by IBM at their (now defunct) technology center next to the airport I learned to fly at. This is probably why the BBS I was on had such a draw, all those kids of IBM geeks acting out on computers before there was such a thing as Instant Messaging and when you still accessed the Internet with a telephone line (yes, for one brief period of time, I was on the cutting edge of using the Internet for social networking, I just didn't know it then, I was just looking to date crazy college dropout 21 year olds... what the hell was I thinking?). Oh, and its home to Marylin Manson (and yes, Boca does inspire that behavior in its young people). According to wikipedia, Boca Raton is also the source of a surprising percentage of the world's spam and internet schemes (more proof of a seriously odd youth culture... and after reading this, I wonder if I've encountered some of those internet evil-doers in my misspent adolescent years.)

My other hometown, a place in the lower part of Bucks County, is not nearly as pop culture-y, but just as beautiful (with 5 state parks, which is 5 more than I have access to now) as Boca in very different ways, has a far less interesting Wikipedia entry. Its only real claim to fame is its appearances in bizarre M. Night Shyamalan films. Plus, unlike Boca, I keep running into random people that are also from Bucks County. And here I was, I thought I was the only one who ever left town, there's even someone in the office next to me from Bucks... and everyone I know from there just seems to stay put forever and ever (also the opposite of those I know in Boca, who seem to flee as they reach adulthood... maybe to come back at retirement?)

Ok, that was a rambling ramble.

I actually started this entry because I wanted to tell another story about how my relatives crack me up. Crack me up. I am having four cousins (three at the same time, one on a different weekend) and my Grandma come to visit in a few weeks. Yes, this is part of the reason I have got off my ass and started to make some 1. decorating decisions (for Grandma) 2. fun decisions (so me and my cousins will have fun toys to play with).

Anyway, I just ordered a PS2 because I need a new DVD player anyway, and thought this would be more fun. I asked Sarah if I could borrow guitar hero and DDR to play with the kids. I didn't tell any of this to my relatives (though I did tell them to bring PS2 games with them). I got this e-mail (referencing guitar hero, I guess this means Sarah is going to have to come over and show them some moves):

... robbie is totally psyched. make sure you teach him to play air guitar as I got it for him for xmas and he cant figure it out, which means his mother (who is the real person who wanted the gift) hasn't been able to play