Did Ya Miss Me?

Woah, what gives?

Well, I'm back after a three-week blogcation and just felt the need for a bit of a change.  My last blog background had a mountain in it.  So I thought (I do that from time to time), hey, I'm never gonna climb a mountain, and it has nothing to do with the content I write, so ixnay on the mountain, eh!

I'm test-driving a cleaner, simpler approach.  And in keeping with that cleaner, simpler approach I've also done some weeding...of my blog roll.  Check out "dufus denizens" in the right hand column, where I promote my buds' blogs and their content.  And, I created a couple of pages, the buttons for which are up there under the masthead.

But getting back to mountains, I did fly over some while I was away.  Here's a view of the Rockies on a flight from Calgary to Kelowna...

I was actually quite sociable on my break from computerville, or what Mrs. Dufus calls the "unsociable media" (don't get me started).  We visited with her family: mom, brother, nephew, Tante Poutine (my name for her), cousins and their kids.  It was a full house.  While some visited lavender fields and wineries, went water-skiing and tubing, I sat in the sun by the pool, overlooking the lake taking it easy, sipping some silly pops and reading books.  Formerly a voracious reader, this was something nevertheless new for me as I hadn't really picked up a book in close to a year.  And I went through four of them.  For you literary types, I read 2 works of fiction, one quite hilarious, a humorous memoir and a book about the music business in the late 60s/early 70s:

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Thirty-Nine Years Of Short-Term Memory Loss by Tom Davis (the other half of SNL's Franken and Davis)
Let The Great World Spin by Colum McCann
You Can't Always Get What You Want by Sam Cutler (former tour manager with the Stones and the Dead)

And I still found time for some other things like transfering 18,000 songs to my brother-in-law's iPod from my laptop, playing a little miniature golf - manicured like a real golf course, complete with sand traps and a water hazard.

Here I am addressing the ball: "Hello ball. How are you today?"

And we took in the wonders of Lake Okanagan, repudiated home of the sea monster - I guess "lake" monster would be more apt - Ogopogo...

In case you're wondering here's a rendering of Ogopogo

We didn't see him but that doesn't mean he doesn't exist.

All in all it was a most relaxing vacation spent with good friends - even if they are family - good food, and a daily cocktail hour.

Just to keep my mind and fingers engaged while I was away I left a comment here and there, posted a few things over at The Parody Files, participated in some forums and wrote a piece for Tribal Blogs and joined Studio30 Plus.  And I gave some thought to dropping either my political or music blogs but instead started a tumblr account nonamedufus - A Picture A Day.  It can be accessed here or through the link in the right-hand column.  My post-pal Cat Lady Larew told me in a Tribal Blog forum she thought I was on vacation.  I told her I just could't quit cold turkey.

g-g-g-g-g-gob-b-b-b-ble, g-g-g-g-g-gob-b-b-b-ble

It's good to be back.

Now however, it's nose to the keyboard!

I'll be around to visit everyone soon!

***

Oh, by the way, see this sign at the top right of my blog?

Do me a favour? Go there right now, click through and vote for me? Having been away for three weeks hasn't helped my vote tally at all. But if you guys were to vote every day for me you could put me over the top! Hoo-yah! Thanks.