Don’t you just LOVE YouTube!

I had a mouth full of metal for almost 3 years and I hope there is a difference…or that was a waste of time and money.

I had a Navy Blue shirt that I loved and have had for some time.  It went the way of the dodo and I thought, “I’ll just go and pick one up this weekend at Target”.  To my surprise that was not the case.  Target, Walmart (I bought clothes there once), Kohl’s, didn’t have a Navy Blue button down long sleeve shirt with pocket.  What?  Maybe they’re just out of stock right now, right?  Nope, even a check online revealed one place that has them and their primary business was mail order dress shirts.  When you actually get to ordering it tells you, “this item is out-of-stock.”  My mother-in-law, thanks Gaye, gave me a gift card to Steinmart and I thought, well we just might be able to find one there…and…no dice.  They had many nice colored shirts, but no NBBDLSSwP.  Polos, polos, and more polos of navy blue, even pockets, but not button down collared shirts. 

Next step?  Department stores.  First of all, Target normally fills my every need when it comes to clothes (excluding suits), but a department store?  In fact, Ginger was able to find and bought a NBBDLSS w/o pocket at Target, but it just isn’t the same.  I resigned myself to go to Dillard’s, I even hate to type it, and voila a NAVY BLUE BUTTON DOWN LONG SLEEVE SHIRT with POCKET and it was on the clearance rack, $13 too!  On the clearance rack, though?  What’s with that?  Is even conservative dressware dying?  Professionals really want to look like they’re going clubbing?  By that I mean, many of the nice colored shirts they had there and elsewhere had no pocket and other funky designs on them that said, $30K millionare, not professional. 

Mind you, there are dress shirts galore, white of which I have plenty and Kohl’s (Mervyn’s when it was around) will fill that need quite nicely, light blue as well, light brown khaki if you will, isn’t a problem either.  It’s just with Navy Blue. 

They even have this color

Now I need to replace my dark green dress shirt that is on its last legs and from the looks of it, I may not be able to find one.  I suspect there are more men like me, but fashion is dominated by women’s clothing so I’m sure nobody cares.

There are more…

Sophia Madalena Coria.? 7lbs 6oz, 20in.? 5:52pm Monday 08/11/2008.

Yep that’s me?at our annual flooding exercise at the Maricopa County Emergency Operations Center (EOC).? Channel 15 came and did a story on our exercise and they interviewed the Director of Emergency Management, one of my bosses.? Click here to view the story, there is a video to the right.? You’ll also notice some of the maps and applications that I developed for the response.

I went to a conference for work a few weeks ago in Boston, MA.? It was pretty cold considering we were in the high 80′s, low 90′s when I left and it was about 40-50 degrees with the wind blowing off the ocean when I arrived in Boston.? The first thing that was an interesting difference was Logan Airport is located across the bay from Downtown and to get there you don’t go on a bridge, you go under the bay.

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In fact the freeway sits mostly underground (in some places 6 stories) around downtown.? Big Dig indeed.? Since I’d never been to Boston before this was a chance to take a few pictures of some historic sites.? Of course I didn’t take that many photos, because I’m a guy and Ginger didn’t go with me to make me take more anyway.?

One such place is Faneuil Hall, or the Cradle of Freedom, where Samuel Adams famously delivered several speeches denouncing the Crown and seeding the sentiments that bore our great country.?? How about Old Ironsides, the USS Constitution.? They don’t have tours on?Monday, oh well.

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If you can read the third one it says in the year 1634, wow that’s old.? Apparently it was a monument not made in 1634, but commemorating the purchase of the land now used as a public park called Boston Common.? Since it was still “winter” the famous duck pond was empty.? Next to that one is a house that is on Beacon Street which runs right in front of Boston Common.? There are some really interesting homes there and you can tell which folks are rich (or trying to be), because they have their windows open at night to show off their home decor.

It wasn’t all history in the country sense either.? I got to see Fenway (the Red Sox were away everyday except when I arrived and left) and I took a picture of Cheers, well at least the sign.? They say if you walk down the stairs to go in, it doesn’t look anything like the set of Cheers, well duh.? I also went into Cambridge and mingled with the folks from Harvard and MIT and found a delightful Brazilian Steakhouse.? Mmm, chicken hearts.

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If I had more time or money I would’ve stayed a couple more days to do more touristy things, but I missed the kids and Ginger kinda missed me.? Since for our ten year anniversary we went to Hawaii we are proposing to go back East to the Historical Sites for our 15 year.? Got to plan now, eh?