Abby is 6 months old

Abby, my niece, is 6 months old. She's now enjoying baby food, as you can see from these photos of Uncle Steve feeding her sweet potatoes. Isn't she cute?

Prince Harry

Looking at these actual photos of Prince Harry, you can definitely tell that the Radar magazine cover is fake. As I mentioned earlier, he's much more pale in real life than Radar's fake body.

Prince Harry photo is indeed fake

As I suspected, the hot Prince Harry photo is indeed a fake. Today's Telegraph reports the truth. The courtiers at Buckingham Palace and Clarence House would never allow a member of the Royal Family to pose almost naked for a photographer while holding a can of beer. I should have known better. Plus Harry's skin has never been as tan as the body in the photo; he's as pale white as me. Yet it's still fun to dream.

Zac Efron

I willingly admit that I'm part teenage girl who swoons over cute guys. I had thought that Zac Efron, fantasy crush of Tiger Beat readers, was cute. I didn't realize until I saw this Rolling Stone cover shot of him that he's not just cute, he's hot. You'd think that Disney would make him shave his chest hair, but I guess not. That scores him huge bonus points in my book. I do wish he'd stop wearing so much makeup. That makes him a bit less attractive, but the chest hair wins out.

Prince Harry - Wow!

This photo of Prince Harry is so incredibly hot, I can barely stand it. Wow! I wonder if it's real or if it's Photoshopped? It could be similar to the recent pic of Andy Roddick on the cover of Men's Fitness. Andy himself said that Men's Fitness faked the photo below the neck. Although this appears to be the Prince himself. I wonder if Prince Harry is a chest shaver? Prince William, Harry's older brother, has quite a bit of chest hair. From this photo, it looks like Prince Harry has has done some manscaping. He should let his hot chest hair grow in. Regardless, he's looking mighty fine. Who says that redheads are unattractive? Prince Harry proves that theory wrong for sure.

Jimmy John's

Email that I sent to Michelle, who goes to Jimmy John's almost as often as I go to Subway:

Michelle aka Queen of Jimmy John’s,

I am anti-Jimmy John’s today. I went there for lunch today with Tom G. (a co-worker). I ordered a #4, no mayo, add Dijon and hot peppers. The cashier asked me to repeat my order. I said a second time, “#4, no mayo, add Dijon and hot peppers.” When I received my sandwich, it was a #4 with no mayo. However, it did not have either Dijon or hot peppers. Needless to say, I was rather disappointed. Plus the sandwich was awfully dry. I didn't take it back because I didn't want to seem like a complainer. Plus I didn't want to be too particular in front of my colleauge.

LS

Wall of Sound

I must be in a Wall of Sound mood today. I've been listening to "Be My Baby" by The Ronettes and "Then He Kissed Me" by The Crystals. Both are excellent and important parts of pop music history. I'm certainly no fan of Phil Spector the person. In fact, I find him vile. But he could produce a hell of a record. The fact that both "Be My Baby and "Then He Kissed Me" still sound fresh and compelling today is testament to that. I confess that I relate to the perspective of both records, and am earnest enough to want to experience the emotions of the singer. I'd like to have a guy "walk up to me and ask me if I want to dance." After we dance, he'd walk me home, "all the stars would be shining bright" and, of course, "then he'd kiss me." And to have a guy want me to be his "one and only baby." That would be quite nice. I can dream, right?

Which photo is better?

I need to upload a new photo on Yahoo Personals, Friendster, etc. Which one should I use, the first or second? Thanks!

Brewer game

Andy and Brian, my cousins from Florida, are visiting Wisconsin this weekend. Andy is about to begin his last year of dental school at the University of Florida and Brian is about to begin his first year of dental school at Tufts. In addition to being my cousins, they're nice guys. Last night Andy, Brian, Dave (my brother), my dad, and I went to the Brewer game. The Brewers beat the Phillies 2-1. It was a great night to be at Miller Park, have a few beers, watch the game, and talk with the group.

Irritated

So I met this guy named Will online. He has an attractive photo. We chatted via email for a couple of weeks, and he seemed like a nice guy. Then on his recommendation, we agreed to meet at the Starbuck's on Downer at 3 p.m. today. And, you guessed it, he stood me up. I was there between 3:00 and 3:20 p.m. No Will. Here's the email I sent him, which I think was pretty restrained for me:

"Will, Where were you? I was at Starbuck's on Downer from 3:00 to 3:20. You never showed up. Do you have an explanation, or are you just an asshole? Steve"

I was so upset by being stood up that I came home and did what any good Virgo would do: I scrubbed my hardwood floors. While doing that, I contemplated what is so awful and disgusting about me that Will stood me up. Am I that unattractive physically? Is my personality that terrible? I realize that Will is a flake and it's probably not about me, but I can't help but wonder.

If at first you don't succeed...

Something that Lesley and I have in common is that we're both seeking something elusive. For her, it's getting one of her screenplays bought and produced. For me, it's finding a boyfriend. She's so talented, some agent, director, producer, or other Hollywood-type is bound to notice one of these days. Her comedy writing is a hundred times better than most of the banal comedies you see on TV or at the movies. She tells me that I'm so earnest, nice, and charming, some guy is bound to want to date me. Yet we are both presently stymied. As Virgos, we hope that our perseverance will ultimately pay off. Hope springs eternal, I guess.

Dating report

This is a follow-up to my previous dating report. Since that post, I had a second date with Jerry. After not hearing from him for almost four weeks, he called and asked if I was free for dinner. We met at the Comet, which is just across the street from my condo. My thinking was that I wasn't going to inconvenience myself too much since he had been incommunicado for almost a month. We had a nice conversation, although it didn't seem like there was as much of a spark this time when compared to our first date. I attribute some of this to my own uncertainty about him. He's only in Milwaukee Monday morning through Thursday afternoon each week. Plus I have absolutely no idea what he's looking for. Am I just a friendly guy for him to call when he's bored in Milwaukee? Or does he want something more? Since the Comet dinner, I haven't heard from him. I did email him once, but have yet to receive a response. As a result, my expectations for what could happen with Jerry are low.

Since the last post, I've also been thinking about Jason. I know that I should stick to my decision and not contact him, although part of me wants to contact him just to see what would happen. This may be one of my problems in finding a boyfriend: part of me seems to be attracted to guys who make themselves unavailable.

Lesley's awesome t-shirt

I love Lesley's t-shirt commemorating the fact that she (and I) survived the Milwaukee winter of 1982. That was one of the coldest and snowiest winters in our lifetimes. I bet she gets some great comments when she wears this t-shirt in Los Angeles.

Dinner with Barbie and Lesley

Barbie, Lesley, and I had dinner at the new/old Il Mito on 6th and Virginia. They were supposedly closing this spring, so the gang got together for a final meal there. Now they did a partial remodeling and tweaking of the menu and re-opened. The food is still quite good. Most importantly, they still serve a mighty fine cherry cosmo; Barbie and I each had two. Unbeknownst to Barbie and Lesley, I gave one of my cards to the bartender. He had beautiful blue eyes. I told him that this might be impetuous, but it would be great if he called me. You already know how this ends: he never called. Nevertheless, it was a nice evening.

Lunch with Lesley

Another excursion I had with Lesley was lunch at the George Watts Tea Shop. We each had the all-white meat chicken salad sandwich. It was a very "ladies-who-lunch" kind of thing. Our waiter indulged us and took these photos.

More Palomino photos

It looks like Lesley could have been the model for the excellent "woman with horse" painting.

Palomino with Lesley, Ruben, and Mark

Lesley hears me talking about Ruben and Mark all the time, and Ruben and Mark always hear me talking about Lesley. They had met before, but only at large events such as Barbie's annual Halloween party where in-depth conversation is difficult. So they could get to know each other better, we met for dinner at Palomino, one of our favorite Bay View restaurants. We had a most enjoyable evening. I gave one of my cards to a guy who was eating at Palomino with two women. While giving him the card, I said, "this may be impetuous of me, but give me a call." Needless to say, he didn't call or email.

Novelty license plate

Lesley couldn't resist taking my photo next to this novelty license plate. It's the last thing I'd ever have on my car, which makes it rather amusing, at least to us.

80s TV viewing

After paddle boating, Lesley and I came across a really bad made-for-TV-movie on the Sleuth Network. I didn't even know that I received the Sleuth Network until Lesley found it. Featured in the photographs are our (posed) reactions to the movie. After the bad movie, we switched to the Game Show Network and came across an old episode of Super Password hosted by Burt Convey with Markie Post as one of the celebrity guest stars. We were enraptured by her outfit and earrings. One of the words that a contestant had to guess was "impetuous." Lesley said that when I give out my cards, that is rather impetuous of me.

Paddle boating with Lesley

One of Lesley's and my excursions was renting a paddle boat at the Veterans Park lagoon. It was a beautiful summer day, and we had a fun time. Before the boating began, we had to walk to CVS because Lesley didn't want to use my SPF 55 sunscreen; she wanted a less protective SPF factor. She bought SPF 15, I think. I use the serious sunscreen given my Norwegian and Irish heritage, fair skin, and freckles. Lesley and I had numerous moments that day when we said that it was good that neither Barbie nor Mikel could hear us because they would engage in some serious eye-rolling at our tomfoolery foolishness.

Lesley visits Milwaukee

Lesley recently made her summer visit to Milwaukee from Los Angeles. I was fortunate enough to be able to spend some quality, FAN-TASTIC double Virgo time with her. I'm so lucky to have her as one of my best friends. Love you, Honey!

Target

I had the day off yesterday because I'm still trying to use my vacation days from last fiscal year. After running and swimming, I had my usual lunch at Subway. Then I went to the Target on Miller Park Way. When entering the parking lot, I wondered if I would see Michelle, since she works near there and she oftentimes makes a Target run over her lunch hour. Sure enough, just when I was putting Propel Fitness Water in my cart, Michelle came walking up the aisle, a vision in black. It's hard for me to surprise Michelle, since I'm a Virgo and so predictable, and she's a Leo and more spontaneous. Michelle is a bona fide Target junkie. In fact, she once had a blog about shopping at Target, but I don't think that she's updating it anymore. We chatted for a few minutes at Target, but Michelle was in a hurry. I told her about the new M&M TV commercial I had seen that references the web site mms.com. I got such a kick out of seeing that commercial since Michelle's initials are MMS. I said that it should be her web site, not M&M's. She agreed.