Song: Madonna - La Isla Bonita

Toinerz recently moved into a townhouse out in Ashburn, and has been trying to get everyone out for a housewarming party, and it finally happened this Saturday. Toine moved in with his friend Victor, so both of them invited friends (and, in Victor’s case, relatives) over for a barbecue. They have an excellent townhouse out in Ashburn, with their backyard opening up to a lake with fountains in it. The ceilings and spaces are large, and it is a total bachelor pad. Instead of a dining table they have a pool table. In the other room is an air hockey table, and I’ve been told a foosball table is on the way. There are 4 high definition televisions (all showing the same Redskins game,) 2 surround sound areas, 2 Nintendo Wii’s and Playboy Playmate autographs/naked lady pictures in their bathrooms. The women are gonna love that!

Tim and Amanda McKay, Brandon and Katie Jones, Allison and Greg Xanthoupoulos and I showed up on the Doh side. The McKays brought a meal I can’t remember the name of (some kind of South American meat dish,) I brought store-bought cookies, The Joneses brought chips and cupcakes and The Xanthoupouloses… well they brought something a little more appropriate. They were eating at some restaurant and discovered the employees all wore shirts with a saying on the back that was too good to be true. Greg asked if it was possible to purchase a shirt, without joining the crew, and when they said yes, it was as if it were meant to be. The phrase on the back stated that the wearer was “Dedicated To The Dough!” After a bit of haggling we got Toinerz to model the shirt (he left it on for the rest of the night.) When he was changing into that shirt it was like the paparazzi frenzying over a celebrity! The Xanthopouloses and I left around 11pm, after a game of Mario Kart on the Wii (I’m still not a big fan of the controller.)

Sunday, I woke up early - 10 on a weekend is early - and got desperately needed groceries and a haircut. Around 2, Nate came over to help plan and start work on building some sort of soundproofing for my garage. We’re planning on using it as our possible band rehearsal space, as it would be the cheapest option around. We ran to Home Depot (actually the third time in as many days for me) and loaded up on plywood and wood for a frame, as well as insulation to go in between to (hopefully) deaden sounds. The only problem was the wood we were buying was 8 feet by 4 feet, and all we had was a jeep. I put my old Boy Scout knot knowledge to the test (I had won some kind of knot challenge back at camp once, ages ago) and we both crossed our fingers that the boards wouldn’t slip off and behead someone. We got lucky, but I don’t think we’ll try it the next time.

We created the soundproof “box” which took longer than expected, but our biggest mistake was putting it all together on top of the garage. The only way to get it into the garage is through the sliding door, which is down the inclined driveway, and around back of the alley. That thing was heavy and at one time we almost put it onto the roof of my car we were so desperate. But luckily we found the strength to lug it into the garage. Now we just need to build inside the garage from now on.

Song: Saved By The Bell: The College Years Theme

Trying to keep entertained at work I found this fun little site on Saved By The Bell. The Photohunt is addictive - Check it out! And no, I did not vote on who’s dreamier between Zack and Slater…

Song: The Beatles - I Saw Her Standing There

Non-Blog alert! And yes, this title was deliberatly stolen from [stanus.net]! I’ve been reading a ton of books lately and. thought it’d be interesting/boring to talk about a few of them real quick.

I’ve finally finished the entire James Bond 007 run of books by Ian Flemming. I read them in order, and remember reading “Casino Royale” before the movie came out, so it had to be 2005-2006. I’m glad I read all of them, it’s been something I’ve wanted to do for awhile now, but I’m way more of a 007 film fan than the books. Surprisingly, most of the time I read them I was picturing George Lazenby as 007 as opposed to the other, better ones. Most of the copies I went through were Stan’s Penguin paperbacks which have fantastic covers. Although just recently I found those photos I merged to form this blog’s photo, which somehow outdo the Penguin ones with their simplistic style. Anyways, I recommend these books to most people, especially those who enjoy the 007 movies, just to check out the similarities and differences between the written page and the big screen. These are definitely novels of their time, however; there are hints of racism and sexism.

I also went through 2 music auto-bios: Slash from Guns ‘n’ Roses and Lance Bass from *NSYNC. I’m afraid I cannot recommend either of them as they are EXACTLY as you can imagine they are. Slash’s is like a watered-down version of Mötley Crüe’s “The Dirt” only more interesting on the music side. But he hardly covers the music! The best section is obviously the founding of Guns ‘n’ Roses and them discovering themselves as a band. He glosses over the songs so much, I swear I read the following at least three times: “That song came together so quickly, in about an hour.” …Boring. It just goes on to fuel my fire for thinking Guns ‘n’ Roses were not committed to writing good songs, they just came up with some good music. And by the time you come to the part in the book where Slash leaves GNR, it’s time to put the book down. The rest is such a non-read, much like this blog itself.

Lance Bass on the other hand (I can’t believe that’s the beginning of a sentence,) has a bit more interesting read if only because I’m used to reading such inane material about pop musicians. He goes into details about hiding his homosexuality from millions of mostly-female fans and Lou Pearlman being a crook. But he does it in such a fluffy, lightweight way, I felt like I was reading a middle school student’s paper. I’ve read some amazing music books, and I guess I’m just more inclined to prefer biographies over autobiographies. Most of the time the auto-bio’s are self-serving and gloss over the real interesting stuff.

Oh, and the guitar is so close to being done I can taste it. All I have left to do is connect the wiring to the control panel!!!! Click the guitar at the bottom of this blog to see my progress.

Song: Fleetwood Mac - The Chain

This past weekend was Elise’s last in DC (at least for awhile) as she has moved back to Nashville where her family is. She was getting burnt out here and home base just happens to be states away. Don’t fret, dear SteverOnline Fan, we’re not breaking up. We saw this coming from a long while away so we have planned much to keep things going, including lots of visits!

We had a happy hour get together on Thursday with Elise’s close friends at Tortilla Coast, a cool mexican bar/restaurant. The rest of the time we spent just taking it easy together. Monday morning was a little difficult as we both left at the same time; me to work and her to Tennessee. But things are looking up as we just had our first Skype video chat last night. It was great, and the webcamera we both got is top of the line, it feels like you’re talking to and looking at someone in the same room! Head to the Photos section to check out the Anniversary photo-shoot (with pictures by Brandon “b log” Jones!)

And yes, constant work is going into my guitar building project, but it’s just been the same thing over and over: lacquering. Blah, I want this whole project to be done this month …and that’s a Doh-Promise!