This weekend I entertained a business guest from England. The weather wasn’t great, so Jen and I took him to the Yale Art Museum and the Yale Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library.

The Art Museum was awesome. Renovations were just recently completed, and as a free art museum this one might be the best I’ve visited. In an hour we couldn’t walk through the museum in its entirety. In addition to having a noteworthy collection of compositions from art masters, the museum impressed me in the breadth of its exhibits: Sculptures, Ritualistic art, and even Coins.

But it was the unexpected Beinecke Library that impressed me most. We stopped by mostly on a whim. The library houses rare books and manuscripts, but since the books are rare – you can’t stroll through the book shelves – instead there are a few key pieces in protective cases placed around the center of the excitement: the vault of books.

Five stories high and encased in glass, the vault is awesome to behold. Making the experience all the more eerie, the walls are plates of marble. The plates are so thin that light from outside shines through them. Unfortunately for us, it was cloudy. Still an impressive sight.

If you have some time in the New Haven area, I strongly recommend visiting these two Yale locales.

There are two tools that seem backwards to me: crescent wrenches and drill chucks.

I will always get these wrong. I tighten them when I intend to loosen them, and loosen them when I intend to tighten them.

It is my weakness. It is my curse.

Every morning I drive about 10 minutes from the Hotel to my workplace here in Ohio. On my exit from the highway there is a glowing burger king sign. A glowing round sign with the yellow buns and the red text across the front.

Before the seasonal change, when it was really dark and my mind was weak from lack of sleep – I would consistently be tricked into thinking that the Burger King sign, lofted and partially obscured behind the trees, was the moon.

This is not interesting at all, except that I think Burger King Moon would make a good album title.

I’d like to send out a big thank you to the participants of last week’s writing prompt. I hope everyone had fun. The general feedback I’ve received from the authors was positive. I think it’d be a lot of fun to do more of this type thing in the future.

Starting tomorrow, I will post one prompt each day at 8am EST.

Happy reading!

I have received three awesome prompts from MikeDiDonato.com readers, I hope you’ll consider joining in! I’ll start posting them on Monday, we’ll do one a day next week. And if we get any more? Great!

I’ll be posting the prompts without authorship at first. Then, if the author wants to put their name to it in the future, more power to them. If they want to remain anonymous, that’s okay too!

If you’d like to participate, send your submission to MikeDiDonato AT gmail D0T com before Sunday at midnight!

AHH! Google is dropping reader!

This is tragic and will likely kill about 50% of my readership, but perhaps the life of the blog is falling out of favor with our twittering youth.

Still, I’m not here today to talk tweet. Instead, I’m here to talk Writing Prompt. Tomorrow Jen is going to come onto my blog and post a writing prompt post. I’m having Jen do this so I can participate in the challenge as well. We’ll set it up so that if you visit the website you won’t absentmindedly see the prompt before you’re ready.

Whenever you are ready, you can take a look at the writing prompt. Then start the timer! You have 45minutes to complete the task.

You’ll have 10 days to submit your entry to me via e-mail. Then during the week of March 25th, I’ll start posting the entries one by one.

Try not to look at the writing prompt in advance. If this event is a huge success we’ll do more in the future with more flexibility in the rules.

All the guidelines will be listed in the post tomorrow. But if you have any questions in advance, feel free to post them here!

About two years ago I dove into Netflix. I have since changed completely from a physical activity fiend to a couch friend eager for more effortless stimulation.

Jen and I are always looking for some new shows to watch, so I figured I’d come here to see if others had recommendations. Here are a few of the television shows we have enjoyed so far:

Breaking Bad
Alphas
White Collar
Luther
Battlestar Galactica
House of Cards
The Killing

Many have pushed the satirical comedies like Parks and Recreation and Arrested Development, but I just can’t sink my teeth into these. Perhaps my intellect is not sufficient for its subtle comedic allusions.

Any other recommendations out there?

Let’s see if you, good reader, can realize my mistake before I did.

Last night, after a grilled cheese sandwich and a cup of progresso tomato soup, I decided to venture upstairs to do a little work before bed. I’ve chosen to learn Microsoft Project for work, so I’m spending an hour a day going through a book to become the ultimate pro. It’s pretty fun actually. I enjoy learning new software.

Obviously, before hunkering down for education, I needed some chocolate. Conveniently, I had just the right thing. At a recent HoR party, Vivienne made a blissful pot of hot cocoa for everyone and there was a bit left. I heated up a short glass carefully in the microwave. Stirring and temperature testing interspersed with six or so 15 second bursts at power level 5 did the job. Topping it with a homemade marshmallow, I had the perfect cup of delicious.

I grabbed my briefcase with my right hand and, with my left, balanced the mug of cocoa on top of my book and then balanced that on top of my laptop and raised it aloft like a dinner tray. I went upstairs, opened my bedroom door with my briefcase hand, and then, in the process of leaning over to put down my briefcase I dumped my cocoa everywhere.

Dumped isn’t the right word. Launched? no. Catapulted? not quite. Trebucheted? Perfect. It’s not a word, and officially there was no trebuchet involved, but it might be the only verb to properly communicate the transfer of potential energy to the now wildly spiraling mug projectile.

The hot chocolate trebucheted through the air. I swear it happened in slow motion. The glass careening across the room amidst my pitifully helpless cry. The liquid splaying out like fireworks of cocoa and half melted mallow. The glass crashed across the floor in a carnival of chocolate ruin.

It got EVERYWHERE. Door, bed, floor, mirror, shoes, shoe cleaning kit, robe, rug, bureau, walls, books*, laptop, desk, briefcase, arms, freshly dry-cleaned clothes… everywhere.

A half-gallon of carpet cleaner, an industrial roll of papertowels, laundry, and a new trip to the dry cleaner and my room is slowly returning to its previous state.

Did you see my error? Clearly, if I had taken the briefcase in my left hand and balanced the laptop, book, and cocoa in my dominant right hand – I probably would have been fine. Ugh. So dumb.

*Shaun L. I may or may not have permanently stained your MS Project book with hot chocolate.