So 4th of July I got to go on a 7 mile kayaking trip down the Susquehanna river. It was nice way to spend the holiday. I've been kayaking a few times, and prepared accordingly. hat, sunglasses, water, jerkey, powerbar, and a lot of sunscreen. I tend to sunburn very easily, and have already had two moles lopped off for biopsy, so wasn't taking any chances.
Well, turns out we didn't have waterproof sunblock, and it washed off my legs early on from launching the boat.
 
Remember this is 6 days ago. Every other burn spot on me has already healed, and the dead skin flaked off. Also the color contrast on my camera isn't great, the red should look about like uncooked hamburger, and the white strip in the middle is white.

Ok, now go find a roll of duct or masking tape, and pull off a long strip. hear that sound? I was sloughing off pieces of dead skin large enough to make that same sound.  My leg swelled up painfully, but not immobility large. I never blistered, so my Dr told me to just ice and aloe it, and it would be fine. I've been wearing jeans and just noticed how awful it looked. I have an appointment wednsday.

So for the last month now I've been stuck in New jersey, helping to provide hospice care for my mother-in-law-to-be. The cancer finally took her on tuesday morning, with just me and a nurse in the house. One daughter had just left to take an exam, and the other was 5 minutes away. I held her hand, kept her calm, and she simply relaxed and stopped breathing.
The night before I had gone and bought a copy of Just cause 2, having kind of reached my limit of Fallout 3. So after dealing with what needed to be dealt with, and having my fill of condolences, I opened the tray, dropped in the disk, and the fucker Red Ringed on me. Its my third xbox, and I'm pretty sure its out of warrrenty. Will be making the serivce call shortly, but I'm pretty sure I'm better off getting an elite or something.
 
But yeah, whic death do you think I'm more upset about? The one that we had known was coming, and had prepared for, or the one that was of my coping mechanism. I'm bored out of my fucking mind, and broke until assets are unfrozen, and policies cashed. And my gaming PC is still boxed up.

...Or at least the room. So damn tired right now. Put over 3 thousand miles on my car in less than a week, and have an entire apartment to pack up and throw away before Tax Day. Awe-freaking-sum.

Late to the party, I picked up Battlefield bad Company to see what all the fuss was about before BBC:2 comes out. For the most part I'm having fun blowing the shit out of shit and stabbin' dudes. But it's taking me hours and hours and hours to finish to single player campaign. It's not because of the difficulty, or a glitch or something; its the damn pause screen gloating that I still have 2 collectibles and three Gold left to find on this map. 
And so i feel forced to play with a map and FAQ open on my computer, constantly interrupting ht e flow of the game to back- and side-track to go find these hidden littel boxes, that have no real in-game reward. I hate myself because of it, and don't really want to keep playing.

• No more than two types of collectible, stunt-able or shoot-able object.
• Total of less than 50
• No items that are missable during boss fights, QTE, or other events where you really shouldn't fuck with the  immersion by having the player stop and pick a fucking daisy.
• Have tangible in-game rewards for collection, besides Trophy/achievements, but not so much as to unbalance the game wither way. 
• Don't place them in areas as the only carrot for the player to visit that area. If there is nothing else to do there, don't waste the resources. 
• Do give some in-game indicator of where they are.
• Again, if the player has to stop to read a faq every 2 minutes to avoid replaying an entire game just for some shit pokemons , you're doing it wrong.
  

So I got the most exciting news to happen to me so far this year. 
Few weeks ago I submitted a cocktail to the Magnificent Bastard's Cocktail Contest, and was surprised that it even made the cut to be one of 32 recipes considered. Today I flicked over and found out that i had survived the first round of the single elimination tourney by a a 5-0 vote! I'm kinda stoked. I could win a $500 shopping spree at a kegworks.com, which while not as awesome as cash, will still be kick ass. That would put me substantially closer to a Keg-orator, at best, and at worst, make work less annoying with new tools and fruit picks.  I mean Christ, i didn't even have a damn spoon this weekend.
 
Anywho, that's my good news for the month, here's yours:
The Weatherby cocktail, by gary "Mr Nitro pb" cartwright
Ingredients:
4-6 mint leaves
1 3/4 oz bourbon
3/4 Citronge or other quality triple sec
splash sweetened lime juice

Instructions: