Yesterday I drove down to my four-year-old niece’s birthday party. My brother and sister-in-law pretty much rocked it out for a kid’s birthday party. It was about 95 degrees but the kids had a two pools (with slides), one squiggly water hose thingie, a giant beach ball that also shot water out of it and a blowup moonbounce. Occasionally I would venture out of the protection of the two tents erected for the adults, but a quick trip back was always in order; it was too bloody hot. So while the kids ran around and had fun, I think most of the adults enjoyed the shade and the ice water and sodas.

In between the cake & ice cream and the bbq that was to happen later I scooted down the road to visit my aunt & grandparents. My 85 (?) year old grandfather has been having some anxiety attacks recently so I wanted to spend some time with them, even if we did just chat over the television and make fun of the spaghetti western that was showing.

Later back at the party the bbq was getting worked out in full force. And the beers came out too. That’ll beat the heat! Then the most fun part of the day (selfish) happened when my brother told me they had a Wii! You mean we were outside in the heat all day and we could have been inside in the aircon Wiiing? We played with Mario Kart (they had several steering wheels) and some bowling with the kids. They had a bunch of other games, too, I hear the tennis is really fun. I think I need to plan a Wiikend to go down there and overload on all the video games.

Okay, I’ve just discovered this and I haven’t seen it written about anywhere, not on any forum so I am claiming it as my own. If you’re not aware, Apple has just released a new iPhone and also upgraded iPhone software. The most important component of the new software is the ability to download 3rd party applications. These include all kinds of business, geographic-specific and social network applications. There’s also a slew of fun games, the funest of which rely on the iPhone’s built-in accelerometer.

The mostest of the funest of these games, in my opinion, is Sega’s Super Monkey Ball. It consist of rotating, angling and tilting the phone in order to guide the monkey-enclosed-in-a-ball through a series of mazes. One major complaint of users, including me, is that these apps that normally contain a melodic yet annoying soundtrack would silence the iPod component of the iPhone, killing the idea of being able to listen to your tracks while you played the game. So it’s a choice: play Sudoku or listen to Simian Mobile Disco’s latest album. Which is going to get you through your commute easier, being able to concentrate on guiding a monkey through a maze or the drowning out through music of someone cracking their gum? You decide.

But now you don’t have to. Because I have discovered a workaround for the problem. Here it is: listen to your music. Select your game app. Once the app has loaded it will fade out your music, just as it does when you’re receiving a telephone call. Once the game has started, click your iPhone earbuds just as if you were un-pausing your music. Your tunes start up again. Aaaah, Sudoku and Kylie. Bliss.

Yaz’s Reconnected Tour pumps its way through DC on Sunday, fresh from three nights in the Big Apple. We get to experience the show towards the end of the tour, with only one show in Dallas and one more in Cali to wrap it up, so hopefully Alison and Vince will be relaxed, confident and technical blips will be non-existent.

They also have recently released a 4-Disc Box Set, “In Your Room”, complete of pretty much everything recorded yet remastered (they only put out two full-length albums), b-sides, remixes and additional DVD featuring new interviews and vintage television performances. I hope to pick this up tomorrow so I can jam on that 2nd album and get more familiar with it before the show. Upstairs At Eric’s, their debut, is well engrained into my mind and life.

Since The Cheese Stands Alone took the bestest title “Blue-Eyed Dressed for Every Situation” for his post when seeing them in L.A., I have to settle for this one. Do you know which Yaz song it’s from?

Joe.My.God. has a great review of the show in NYC and also live video of “Don’t Go”. And I tried my best to not look at the setlist… Didn’t I bring your love down? Indeed.

Name, Age, Occupation, Hobbies and any other observations you may have that you’d like to share in the Comments section, please.

MOO is having a summer sale, 15% off everything. MOO makes the fun little calling cards I have, as well as stickers, postcards and I believe they have standard-size business cards now too. All of these items you can customize with any image (or images) you’d like. The entry code is SMHTJJ (new customers only). Offer good until midnight, July 27. 

Between the Network Solutions and the WordPress and the HostMySite to the passwords and the logins and the changing of DNS and the cookies (not the “Ahoy” kind) left at work that I can’t access from home, I think I’ve had enough of computers today.

I’m not sure this plan I’m on at the new provider is going to give me access to add all my archived entries. I’ve taken a special “WordPress Blog” plan that allows me generous amounts of storage space, but I’m not sure it will allow me to use that space as a server where I can simply throw files out on their own. If that’s not the case then I may have to take this down or get to a different more regular plan that will allow me freedom of access. I can still throw a WP template up there though. I’m hoping I can do it this way though because it will be a lot cheaper (and easier).

So the tinkering may have to wait until tomorrow or even the weekend. Because I’m fed up, I’m going to go get more fed up (with dinner) and wait for Project Runway to start.

I believe the kind people at hostmysite.com have gotten me up and running here. Now I’ll have to play around with the WordPress software and figure out all the new and fun things I can do with it.