Portland was super fun and very productive. I only wish I could have stayed another week so I could hang out with more peeps. But as soon as I landed back in NYC this morning, I was so happy to be home. I still love it here after all these years, and that's a feeling I've never had anywhere else.

One of my computers died. I'll live.

I'm going to be in PDX all next week if any of you want to hang (though none of you are reading this).

My annual summer-to-autumn season-change sickness has stricken. I want tomato soup and grilled cheese right now, even though I know it's not very good for me. Maybe I'll just eat veggie corndogs instead.

My Entourage crashed today and I lost all of my e-mails and contacts for the last year. Fucking BOO!

And yet, sometimes New York City is not awesome.

Our air conditioner broke last week, and I've been avoiding the purchase of a new one simply because of the degree of difficulty involved in getting it home. See, in just about every other city in the Western world, you would simply drive your car, truck or Segway down to the local appliance store and have some high school who hates his job cart that shit out to your trunk.

But if you live in NYC, you likely don't own a car or truck, or maybe your Segway has a flat tire (bummer sauce). You have a few alternatives:

a) Haul the air conditioner (all 82 pounds of it) onto the subway, then drag it up the multiple flights of stairs in your apartment building.

b) Take a taxi home. Presuming you can actually hail a taxi driver that will put up with your bullshit air conditioner situation, this will add another $20-25 to your purchase price.

c) Take all of your clothes off and learn to live the way your ancestors did. After all, we've only got a couple more weeks of hot weather, right?

I wish I was friends with WALL-E. He sure could help me out right about now. I would even settle for a b-list Transformer at the moment.

"Hey man, you or anybody you know wanna buy a CD player or a trampoline?"

One of my favorite things about New York City is the incredibly short distance that I have to walk to encounter someone who will sincerely ask me the above question, and still be very polite when I have to tell him I'm not interested. I love this city so much.

SUGAR-FREE
SUCCESS!!!

This makes me SO happy.

SUGAR-FREE
DAY 28

I woke up at 6AM to see the early morning screening of The Dark Knight @ IMAX. It was great.

SUGAR-FREE
DAY 25

I'm in the home stretch of my 30-day vacation from sugar, caffeine, or any sweets besides fruit. I've felt particularly moody the last week or so, but I'm starting to feel normal again, which is better than normal since it's a normal without the bad stuff. Which is good.

Tonight I watched Back to the Future Parts II and III. Some haters claim that Part III jumped the shark, but it holds up in the context of the trilogy just fine, so let it go.

I've got tickets to see The Dark Knight at IMAX on Tuesday morning. That was the earliest showing we could get, since that shit's been sold out for weeks. I can't wait. Between the iPhone and The Dark Knight, I think I've had enough of the long lines for a while.

By the way, some folks have asked me if I've lost any weight since quitting sugar. The answer is yes, I have lost 7 pounds in the past 25 days. I've done nothing different in my life besides quitting sugar and caffeine, so I can assume that it's all empty calories being burned off as the sugar leaves my system. Pretty fascinating that it can have that profound of an effect on the human body. I have another friend who quit just sodas and lost 25 pounds in four months. Scary.

In other news, Clio is in town right now, I'm hoping we get a chance to hang before I leave again.

SUGAR-FREE
DAY 19

Yesterday I bought the new iPhone. I feel like I'm in Back To The Future Part II. Now I just need power laces and a hoverboard.