i think the era of me wearing combat boots exclusively is over, or at least on hiatus. it's too hot out for heavy boots anyway; maybe i'll feel differently come autumn.

the zippers on my boots have been giving me static for awhile: one would stop working, then i would get it sorta-working again, then another zipper would break. or the pulltabs would come off completely. so i stopped wearing them a month or two ago. i've been wearing my old semi-worn chuck taylors from back in day (i've probably had them since high school, not that i wore them often in the past ten years [until recently]).

because today is my last day in town before going to san francisco for vacation, & my niece & her friend go home next week, the whole family went out for chinese buffet lunch one more time. we were there so early that no food was out yet when we arrived. but it was good, & the food came out promptly. afterward, "grampa" (my father; it's still weird referring to my own parents as grampa & grandma, though i guess those are their roles now) had plans to take the girls to shoe carnival. i'd been considering buying some new chucks anyway, so i tagged along. (i'm not exactly happy that nike is now the company making chuck taylors, but then again i have no clue who made any of my boots, or under what working conditions, so i can't complain too much.)

nike seems to be pushing the "flame" style of chucks pretty hard; i can't hang with that, sorry. like buying jncos, i have to be selective of what i will buy because some of the chuck designs are just too loud or gaudy for me. back in the day, by far the coolest chuck design was the "black mono", featuring black canvas as well as black rubber; if i'd seen those i would've snapped them up in an instant. shoe carnival had a "black mono flame", but that simply wasn't good enough.

shoe carnival had a "buy one get one-half sale", so i snagged two pairs: "gry/car/wht" and "navy/red/gold". grampa paid for one, as a birthday present. i also got a $3 discount coupon for being the first customer to touch my nose with my tongue, but i forgot to actually use it when at the register (true story). other than a pair or two of dress shoes that i never worn, this was the first time i'd bought new shoes in 8-10 years. so that's fun.

anyway, i have a couple errands to run, and i need to pack for my bay area vacation. i will have internet access there, but i don't know how often i'll get around to blogging. i'll be too busy hanging out with my lovely girlfriend, seeing the sights, going to shows, and so on.

after i return is the mms show. see awia news for more info about that show, as well as how to buy discounted badges for the whole conference.