Excess Baggage

Maybe I'll leave this blog behind in NY when I move. Just not feeling it any more. Maybe I am just busy and stressed. Maybe I'm just lazy.

I love the 80s

My score: 112! How'd you do?

Last NYC concerts for a while...

So quitting my job was not quite the event I imagined it to be. It was not satisfying, because I don't really have something bigger and better lined up yet. And I don't hate the job, or the people there, so there was no "take this job and shove it" in me. It was all business. I am moving. My job cannot move with me. Guess I resign then. It did leave me with a little fear of what's to come, and a little excitement over actually getting the ball rolling on this next phase in life. Project Boston.

Thursday night was the Phish show at Keyspan. Met M, her boyfriend, and their friend on the boardwalk at Coney Island. We had some drinks at Ruby's. Their friend played Shoot the Freak which was good for a laugh. We caught up, talked about music, and then went into the show.

There were two pairs of tickets. One pair was for the floor/field level, and one pair was for the stands. We decided that M and her boyfriend should take the stands seats, because their friend had bought the tickets, and wanted to be on the floor, so it made sense for me to go with him, and not split up the couple. I actually bumped into two people I knew at the show, both from the town where I grew up. Always fun.

The show was great. They really played well. The only downside was all that damn rain. The show started off in the clear, but then the skies opened up. It wasn't cold, so it was bearable, but we literally got soaked to the bone. The money in my wallet is still drying. To all the people who were on whatever drugs they were on, I'm sure the rain was an interesting effect. It also seemed to come and go somewhat to the music, which must have blown people's minds. I wouldn't know, because I was one of the only people there not on anything. (Well, besides the handful of drinks I pounded at Ruby's...) In any case, by some point in the second set, the rain stopped, and all was good. And no, I never got to meet up with Brother. He was in the stands, and it was just too much of a pain. Though we did text message a bit during the show. Which was nice, in a real geeky sorta way.

Here is the setlist for any one who is interested. It really was a great show.

Saturday was the K-Rock Dysfunctional Family Picnic 8 show at Jones Beach. Pegg and I headed out there relatively early. Walked around the boardwalk a bit. Sat on the beach for a bit. I dipped my feet in the water. First ocean dip of the year. Always nice. Then we went into the show. It was pretty good, with some weird spots. First, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs opened the stadium portion of the show. No one was even there yet, and no one was into them. Pegg and I enjoyed their set, but we felt badly for them. The next band was Brand New. This is a Long Island band. I've never heard of the, but the crowd fucking loved them. Guess that's why they got a higher slot than the YYYs.

Next was Cypress Hill. They had the best props, a giant inflatable Buddha with a pot-leaf on his belly among them. I loved their set, because I am an old-school Cypress Hill fan. We used to listen to that shit all the time in college. "Sawed off shotgun, hand on the pump, left hand on a 40, puffin on a blunt...." Love it. Again, though, we were among the only people there not on anything, so perhaps others liked their set more than me. Then came the Darkness. They were awesome, and funny as hell. Justin Hawkins had us cracking up with all his theatrics and wise-cracks. The crowd was not into them, though, and there was a lot of jeering and booing surprisingly.

After the Darkness, the Beastie Boys came on. This is really the reason I went to the show. I love me some Beastie Boys. And they did an awesome set. Mixed it up with tracks from their whole catalog, and they seemed to really be enjoying themselves. The people next to us were taping their set on a minidisc player, and said they would send me a copy. I gave them my card, but I haven't heard from them yet. So if you're reading this, and you were taping the show next to the guy in the Superman t-shirt singing too loudly, hook a brother up already.

Next we were expecting the Strokes. Why the Strokes got better billing than the Beastie Boys, I'll never know. But they apparently were the headliners. Out comes Robin Quivers from the Howard Stern show. She brought out Jay-Z, who did "99 Problems". Unexpected treat. Then the Strokes closed the show. They put on a good show. At the end, they just put down their instruments and left us with a feedback buzz. Then some K-Rock DJ came out to thank everyone, and the Strokes drummer, Fabrizio Moretti, interrupted him to say "I wish this guy would shut the fuck up already." Really a dick move, considering that a. the guy was just doing his job and b. he was telling the audience to give it up for the fucking Strokes in the first place. So Fabrizio Moretti - or Fab Moretti - you're an asshole. Good luck with this piece of work Drew.

Here are some pics from the show.


Cypress Hill


The Darkness


The Beastie Boys


The Strokes

Take this job and.... tell me I can keep it from Boston. Please. Please?

I am now officially a quitter. Let's see what happens....

Brother Bonus

So I just found out that Brother is going to the Phish show tonight too. How random. This is the same kid who, in high school, refused to listen to Phish or the Dead because they epitomized everything he hated about his druggie friends. This is the same kid who was a huge Blues Traveler, Neil Young, etc... fan. I used to tell him "you'll like the music, give it a chance" but he would refuse. Stong principles this kid.

So why is he going, you might ask? His close friend and co-worker is a HUGE Phish fan. He is so enthusiastic about the band, and their live prowess. In the past he has made Brother a convert of other bands by insisting that he go to a show with him. This guy's enthusiasm for music is apparently quite catchy. And he told Brother "you WILL come to Phish at Coney Island". So there you have it.

I hope we can all hook up. And I hope Brother likes the show. Though it should have been my influence bringing him around, not some stranger. Hmmm. I am a bit Brother posessive huh?

Simpson v. Simpson

So among our not-so-intelligent debates last night was whether Ashlee Simpson (Jessica Simpson's younger sister) is cute. I think not. Hammer thinks so. I said, ok, maybe she is kind of cute, but nothing like Jessica. It has carried over into emails today. He thinks my refusal to see her as beautiful means Pegg "has been slipping a liquid chemical castration pills into [my] coffee..."

America - you be the judge.

Not so weak weeknights

Went out tonight. Met Hammer at Trinity. We had a good time. Talked about our soon-to-be-priest friend. We're both psyched for him, but at the same time worried. We're not his parents though, so there's only so much we can worry. Talked about a bunch of random shit too, but at this moment it is hard enough to type, let alone recall random drunk conversations. We're both pretty smart, though, so I guarantee it was interesting. :-P

My friend M called tonight to say she and her friends had an extra ticket to Phish tomorrow night at Coney Island. I'm defintely happy to go. Haven't seen them in years, but given that this is their "Farewell until our next reunion" tour, I think it will be fun. Can't beat an outdoor show at Coney Island. And I have never met M's boyfriend, so it should be a lot of fun. M and I are college friends, and we hang out once in a while, but it always seems to be a random weeknight when Pegg is in Boston and M's boyfriend is not around. So this should be awesome.

I'll have a Nathan's frank for you. Don't worry.

Dude

I didn't pad the answers, I swear.

According to the "Which Big Lebowski character are you?" quiz:

Why don't you check it out? Or we cut of your Johnson!

Beastie Boss

Went to Best Buy today during lunch to pick up the new Beastie Boys album. Ripped it to my MP3 player right away. So far so good. I need to listen to an album about 10 times before I figure out if I like it or not, or which tracks I like better than others. But so far I like this album (we're somewhere into the third listen as I type). So if you like the Boys, and haven't picked up the album yet, I suggest you Ch-Check It Out.

Also decided it was time to pick up a cable that could hook up the MP3 player to my receiver at home, via the player's headphone jack. Stopped by Radio Shack after work and picked up one of those bad boys for about $7. Good investment. 5 speakers and a subwoofer sound a hell of a lot better than headphones. The subwoofer especially makes the Beasties album sound good.

Met up with Boom Boom after hitting Radio Shack. We haven't had a chance to hang out one-on-one and catch up in a while, so we made plans to grab a drink. We were both a bit hungry, so we hit Mori first, for some sushi, and then went to Duke's for some drinks. Nothing too crazy, just a few drinks and conversation. It was good to catch up. Boom Boom has some good shit happening at work, which is exciting.

Speaking about work, I am getting closer and closer to quitting. My boss is very upset about this prospect, which is certainly nice. It's good to be loved. He keeps saying he hopes I don't go through with it. I keep telling him "well, if you want me on the team so badly, convince your management to let me telecommute from Boston." It turns out he has already spoken to them about possibly letting me stay on for 2-3 months at least, to help through the transition.

That would be ideal for me. I'd get to move to Boston while still on the payroll, and can take the 2-3 months to comfortably look for work. Otherwise I will be up there temping or bartending, panicking about being a broke-ass fool. Or mooching off my sugar-mamma Pegg for as long as she will put up with it. Neither option is ideal. So hopefully they will see the light, and show saltydog some love. Wish me luck....

Weekend Redux

So the weekend went off pretty much as planned. The Champy family showed up around 8:00pm on Friday night. I got to play with Marumi a little bit, though I have to say she was none too interested in the awesome dog toys I had for her -- a tennis ball and a roll of packing tape. We caught up for a bit, had a beer or two, then headed out to Mr. & Mrs. Vegas' place.

Mrs. Vegas had whupped up a nice dinner, which we consumed along with lots and lots of pinot noir. That was the theme wine for the night, pinot noir from California or Oregon. We started with six bottles for the five of us. After dinner we decided to adjourn to their roofdeck, and somehow were almost done with the wine, so another two bottles were opened. I'm not even sure why, but some whiskey also made it into the picture as well. Suffice it to say, by 3am we were all spent. It's a good thing we didn't seriously consider the talk of going to Atlantic City that was going on at about 2am. Good thing.

Saturday we had promised Fleabag and Rinweeney that we would get to their place at 1:00 to help with the kegs for their party. So I woke up reasonably early, because I had to run to Brother's apartment first to feed his cat Felix. I cooked some breakfast for the Champy's, and then ran out. Brother's cat apparently loves the little fireplace, and was covered in soot when I got there. Very cute, but very much a pain in the ass. I tried to clean him off a little bit, but to no avail. Given that I am allergic to cats, and this bugger has claws, I was not about to try dunking him in the sink, though that would have done the trick.

Got back to my place in time to round up the Champy's and head down to the party. We were a little behind schedule, and got there at 1:30. They had already moved the kegs in, so I really felt like an asshole. Never figured that 1:00 meant 1:00. Not with any one I am friends with anyway.... So, we got to hang out early and graze on all the food they were putting out. Mr. Keane and P-Diddy were there early too, so it was fun to all hang out. Then the party got underway, and for the next ten hours basically (wow!) we just sat outside drinking beer, talking, and eating grilled meat. Mr. & Mrs. Vegas dropped by, Boom Boom showed up, and we all had fun. Not to mention that this couple was there with the cutest baby on the planet. This was the happiest, most chill one year old I have ever seen. So much fun to play with other people's kids. Later, Champy ran back to my apartment to get Marumi, because she had been in the apartment for about her limit of staying alone, and he brought her back to the party. It was fun to watch her "play" with the three other dogs there. Wasn't pretty, but wasn't terrible either. I think another couple of hours together and they would all have been friends.

We packed it in from the party about midnight. Went back to my place, and crawled into bed. Long day. And I had to wake up early on Sunday to catch a train to Long Island for my cousin's HS graduation party. Nothing better than waking up early on Sunday after you have been out like a rock star both Friday and Saturday nights. I haven't done double-duty rock star living in the longest time. So the morning was rough.

Mom and Dad picked me up at the train station. Got to drive for about an hour, in the back seat, with Dad's slightly erratic driving. Can you say "car sick"? I knew you could. I was never happier to arrive at a suburban parking lot in my life.

The party was nice. Lots of family and friends there, though I was the only one representing from Gen-X. Brother was away with his fiance, so they couldn't come, and Pegg was away with her girlfriends. Still, it was nice. Then Mom and Dad realized that we weren't far from JFK, and Brother's flight was due in around 4:30, so we decided to surprise him and pick him up. It was great for us, because we love to see Brother, but I'm not sure how thrilled he was to deal with all three of us at once after a trip. Either way, he put on a good show, and seemed happy. ;-) We all drove into the city, grabbed a bite together, and then went back to our respective homes.

And yes, I was home in time for Six Feet Under.

A Dog, Some Wine, Coupla Kegs, And Family Makes Saltydog A Busy Boy

Good weekend coming up. Too bad Pegg is not here to share it with me. But she'll be having an even better time on her annual girls' trip. They're headed out to Santa Fe, which should be awesome. Every weekend without her sucks though, even the busy ones.

I wasn't feeling too well today, and with a full weekend ahead, I decided to call in sick. Good move. Spent the day relaxing, and watching episodes of Band of Brothers on HBO On Demand. I know I am about 10 years behind the curve on this, but Band of Brothers is pretty good.

Champy and HJKT (aka Mr. & Mrs. Champy) are coming into town for the weekend. They're staying at my place, along with their doggie Marumi:


Marumi

We're going over to the Vegas abode this evening for dinner and lots of wine.

Tomorrow Fleabag and Rinweeney are having a party, in honor of Fleabag's boyfriend's recent graduation from lawschool. Should be fun. What isn't fun when kegs and bbq are involved? A full day of beer drinking sounds great right about now. It'll be fun to hang out with the hosts, their friends, the Champy's, P-Diddy, Boom Boom, and Mr. Keane. Can't wait.

Sunday I am headed out to Long Island for my cousin's HS graduation party. She's such a little star. We're all very proud of her.

Hopefully I will make it home in time to unwind and watch the season premeire of Six Feet Under.

Hope you all have a good weekend too.

F*cking technology

Update: OK, disregard this post. There is a way to do it. It's a pain in the ass, but it can be done. I'm just a moron who did not look at the link called Portable device concerns? on the CD interface screen. Still, this was a pain.

P.S. - If you use an iPod with Windows, it won't work for you. Bummer.

---

The Velvet Revolver CD came out on Tuesday. I am a huge Guns n' Roses fan. Really, who isn't? If you say you're not, well, you're full of shit, ok? (Let's pop in Appetite and see if you don't sing along.) And I liked STP enough back in the day. Not a huge fan, but i liked their hits. So I was excited for this album.

Popped it into the computer, fired up the MP3 player software, ripped the CD, transferred the goodness to my player. Get on the subway, hit play. What did I hear? A bunch of garbled bullshit.

Looks like this CD has rip protection on it. When you pop it in a computer, you can only play it through its own interface. What a crock. I am mostly law abiding. I plunked down the cash for the CD. I should be able to listen to it as I choose. I choose my Nomad. Fuck BMG.

<done whining now>

Oh goody!!!!

So. Fucking. Excited.

Just bought tickets to K-Rock's Dysfunctional Family Picnic 8.

Hope Pegg is planning to be in NYC that weekend, and that this doesn't mess up anybody's Father's Day plans.

Here's the lineup right now:

Beastie Boys
The Darkness
The Strokes
Cypress Hill
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Brand New
New Found Glory
Story of the Year
Taking Back Sunday
Midtown
Vertigo

I love, love, love the top five acts. And I've never seen The Darkness, Cypress Hill, or the YYYs in concert.

Oh man. Can't take it. Just shot a wad on the keyboard.

Coloradeux

Here are some more pics from Colorado. I forgot to mention where we skied. Not everyone on the trip wanted to ski all the time, so most people did three or four days (out of six). I am a glutton for punishment, so I did five. I think Champy and P-Diddy did five as well, but I can't remember. Really, I needed to justify taking a week's vacation without Pegg, who is not much of a skier (yet) so she didn't come. If I'm going to fly somewhere to ski, then I want to ski dammit. Too bad the altitude and my out-of-shape legs didn't agree with me. Anyway, the first two days were at Breckenridge. Day three was at A-Basin. Day four was at Vail. And day five was back at Breckenridge, though we packed it in early because conditions sucked, and we were beat.

I loved A-Basin. Wide, open trails. Great conditions. Beautiful day. Vail was nice too, but it was a little too warm and slushy on the day we were there. Did a few back bowl runs, on the intermediate bowls, which was pretty cool. Cool at least until we hit the mud at the bottom. But bowls still can't be beat.

The first non-skiing highlight of the trip was probably the fried, stuffed avocado appetizer at one of the Mexican restaurants we tried. It was called Mi Casa, I think. Un-fucking-real. One is chicken stuffed, the other shrimp stuffed. We polished them off in record time. The other highlight happened to be Mexican in nature as well, and was the Endless Summer margarita at Rita's. Killer. Slayed us all.

Now, on with the pics.


Mmm. Lift runs are always scary. Didn't ski this one, but thought it was pretty awesome to look at.


Scenic view.


Hey! Is that your friendly neigborhood saltydog skiing a double black diamond?


Um, well, it was.


I'm ok! Really, nothing broken.


The previous pics don't do the trail justice, but they were taken on the East Wall at A-Basin. Pretty hairy double-black diamond, with ungroomed powder. Champy and I decided to try it after lunch, when we saw tons of people on the catwalk out to it. The wipe-out pictured happened when my right ski hit a buried rock. Not fun. Needless to say we only skied East Wall once. Then we came back to take pictures by the sign, so we could one day tell our kids how badass we were.

Michael! No!

I thought his car could drive itself. Dumb-ass.

CNN

Rocky Mountain High

So writing about Champy, and the warm weather, reminded me that I've been meaning to post pics from that trip to Colorado back in March.

The trip was awesome. Our friend gets use of corporate condos once a year, basically for free. So nine of us flew out there for a week of skiing, drinking, eating well, and just relaxing. What a great trip. (Well, except for that last shot of Rumple Minze...)

Here are the first few pics.


Little fluffy clouds.


Somewhere between Denver and Breckenridge. We were nervous about the lack of snow....


Ah. That's better. Day 3 @ A-Basin


Another pre-run view of A-Basin.


That's me in the shadow.


Up we go for another run.

Darts of Pleasure

Getting excited. Goldfish might be able to get tickets to the Franz Ferdinand show at Webster Hall next week. OK, I'm busted. Yes, this hipster-hater secretly likes hipster music. Sue me.

For Champy

So my friend Champy asked me how the rest of my weekend was. He knew I was in Boston because I called him from Newbury Comics in the Garage at Harvard Square to say that they had a Resort Smithers Simpsons figure there. See, we had seen this figure about a year ago in another store, and Champy was thinking about buying it for a close friend of his who is a Simpsons fan, and who had recently come out of the closet. For some reason, he decided against it. Since then we have mentioned Resort Smithers once or twice, and I couldn't remember if he still wanted to get this as a gift for his friend. So I called to check. He said he would swing by Newbury Comics and check it out again. (Champy actually lives in Boston.)

Anyway, in an email covering several things, including my weekend round-up, I referred him to the entry below. His response:

if you're gonna laundry list your weekend, at least include a resort smithers reference.

Ask and ye shall receive.

Best spam ever

Just got my favorite spam email ever:

Still sell to her from microscope inside, laugh and drink all night with her inside roller coaster with for mating ritual.Indeed, defined by guardian angel figure out bride defined by graduated cylinder.If toothache around girl scout pour freezing cold water on ruffian toward, then class action suit about rejoices.
paradise handbook agglutinate converse persecution rope cartwheel communicable

Mini Weekend

So Friday's office fire didn't free me from work. My area of the building had power, so we were "lucky" enough to get back to work after lunch. Apparently there is another blogger at my company, and she fared better than I did on Friday. Oh well, such is life. Guess it's only fair to work for my money.

With office escapades done for the day, I clocked out around 5:15, and headed over to Penn Station to catch the usual train to Boston. Wasn't too late this time, which was nice. Pretty non-eventful train ride. Messed around on my laptop, read, listened to some music. Somewhere in Connecticut, I think, the sunset was unreal. I snapped a few pics of it, and would post them now, but I left my digicam with Pegg so she can use it this week. (That's right, Girlfriend is now to be known as Pegg. She didn't like my chosen moniker for her, and shall henceforth be known only as Pegg. OK?) So when I get the camera back, I will post the pics. Though by then, they won't be so relevant. But you'll look at them and think, "Yes, yes. Sunset from the train. Long long time ago. I remember."

Pegg picked me up from the train station, and we went back to her parents' place. Not sure if I ever explained this, but Pegg left NYC a couple of years ago to work with her family. She comes to NYC most weekends, and hadn't committed to staying in that job with them, so she was always staying with them during the week. So when I visit her there, we're obviously at her parents' place. Now that she has decided to stick with the job up there, I have decided to move up there so we can be together again all the time. We're getting a place together in Boston, hence the vague references to moving, working on my resume, Boston, etc.... in the annals of this blog. So there you go. Our Boston story. But I digress.

We went back to Pegg's parents' place, and I gave Pegg her birthday present. I got her an iPod Mini. It was a tough choice, between than and a regular iPod. And it was a tough choice for me to go iPod in the first place. I've been sort of anti-iPod for a while. I got myself a 40GB player from Creative. It was the best value for a 40GB player. Almost half the price of the 40GB iPod. And all the people with the white headphones on the subway, walking iPod commercials, they kill me. But, this was a gift. Would Pegg want my clunky Creative player? No. Would she want something sleek, and cute, and stylish? Of course. Could I hold a gift purchase to my messed up principles and rationale? Not if I wanted the recipient to be happy. So I sucked it up and decided that Pegg should have an iPod. But which one? I thought she'd like the sleek, compact cuteness of the Mini. I've been noticing more and more women with Minis on the subway. I can spot a trend. Then I thought about capacity. 4GB is not that much. About 1000 songs. That's about 100 albums. But then I thought about Pegg's music listening habits. She is not crazy like me, swapping things all the time. She finds something she likes, and listens to it for a while. I doubt she's listened to 100 different CDs over the last year or two. That clinched it. Mini made the most sense for a present. And she loved it.

The rest of the weekend was good. We went into Boston on Saturday to do some apartment stuff. Then we went shopping for a bit. Caught a nice lunch at Rock Bottom which is a pretty decent brew-pub chain. Nice step up from Friday's in the suburbia restaurant pecking order. Then we spent a lot of time ripping Pegg's CDs and loading up her Mini.

I forgot to mention that Pegg's cousin was visiting. He's studying out in California, but is in Boston for two weeks visiting them. So we decided to take him into the city yesterday, to show him around a bit. We hit some standard spots. Quincy Market/Fanueil Hall, Harvard Square, etc... It was fun, but it rained like hell. Made it back to the house in time for dinner, then whoosh, I was back to the train station. Weekends fly by so frigging quickly.

Different Kind of Friday

Today has been a pretty non-standard Friday.

I'm headed to Boston this weekend to see Girlfriend and celebrate her birthday, which is really next week. So between packing and straightening up this morning, I was running late. No big deal, it's Friday.

When I get to the office, I see emergency vehicles outside. Then I see our security guards standing outside, directing people away from the building. "What's going on?" I asked. "Small fire. Building's closed for now. Check back in an hour." Good thing I didn't rush to work.

Nice day out, MP3 player in my pocket, I proceed to take a walk. Stroll over to Best Buy to look around. Bump into some people from work. Chit chat a bit. So far a pretty good work day.

Stop in at Comfort Diner for a late breakfast. What a good meal. I was so absolutely surprised. See they opened a Comfort Diner in my neighborhood a couple of years ago. We went once, thought it sucked and was overpriced, and shortly thereafter were not surprised to hear it had closed. Today's experience, however, was a complete 180 degree shift. The food was awesome. Perfect omlette, great bread toasted perfectly, good service, great coffee, and they were playing the Dead and then Dylan. To top it all off, this enjoyment was had when I otherwise would have been at work. Thankfully the fire was minor, and no one was hurt, otherwise I'd be feeling mighty guilty about my liesurely breakfast right now.

As I was walking to the diner, I checked my voice mail. A friend from college who lives in Chicago is in town. He wanted to hang out this weekend. So I called him back, and he asked how the building was doing. WTF? How did he know? Turns out he was in the neighborhood, and heard people talking about it in Starbucks. Small world. Anyway, I told him that I was headed out of town, but would be psyched to grab lunch. He mentioned that he had some personal matters to discuss. "Is everything ok?" I asked, growing a little concerned. "Yep, everything's cool" he replied. "I'm just with my boss right now, so I can't talk." OK. Cool. We agreed to meet at noon.

I went back towards the office, and saw people milling about. Figured I would mill too, and see what was happening. My friend called again, and wanted to know where we should meet for lunch. We picked a spot, and then chatted a bit. He came out with his news. He is planning to quit his job in finance and go into the priesthood! Wow. Big big news. We talked about it a bit, I told him how happy I was for him, and how I couldn't think of any one more well suited for that calling. I truly believe he will be an awesome priest, and given everything going on in the Catholic church lately, they are lucky as all hell heck to be getting him. I told him that if he was doing this for the right reasons, I couldn't be more supportive. And then we agreed to catch up more over lunch.

Had a great lunch with him. We talked about lots of things, including his new plans. We have very different backgrounds, beliefs, etc... so it is always fun to talk to him. Now it was even more interesting, because his conviction is that much stronger. I am excited for him and the road ahead. He will learn so much, and get to experience so much, and will help so many people. And he is the second college friend of mine to work for the Big Boss, as I have a friend who is going to be a rabbi, so I'll have some great connections. ;-)

Now I'm back in the office. Hard to work after such a full, interesting morning. Gotta pay the bills though... Have a good weekend.

Busy bee

I've been lax in my posting. My bad.

Let's see. What's been going on. A little bit of everything, but nothing major.

Memorial Day weekend was pretty relaxing. We had "early release" from work on Friday. While it may sound like a men's problem, possibly remedied by any of the millions of products I get spammed about, "early release" is actually quite nice. Got home by 4:00pm. Cleaned up a bit. Played some XBOX. I had bought this game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic a while ago. People raved about it. Best. Game. Ever. So they said. Maybe I am getting too old for this shit, or maybe I am not as much of a dork as I think I am, but the game just didn't do it for me. After 30 minutes I was longing for Dig-Dug.

After giving up on high technology, I watched some TV and waited for Girlfriend to show up. She was driving into town, so she got in earlier than when she takes the train. Some friends were going to No Idea because one of them came up on name night. We thought about going, but decided to pass because Girlfriend was not feeling so great. This was a good idea, because as it turns out she was sick, and was much better off with a night of laying on the couch watching tv than she would have been at a dive bar.

Saturday we took our time getting up. After two or three cups of coffee, we hit the road. We were headed upstate to hang out with my parents. Traffic was surprisingly bad, given that it was already well into the long weekend. But we had some good CDs in the car, so the time passed pretty quickly. Saw more road-kill on this drive than ever before. Three deer in the bunch. Kind of sad. And we saw more "Yard Sale" "Tag Sale" "Garage Sale" signs than I have ever seen in my life. Guess that's the big thing to do up there for Memorial Day. Not my scene, but we knew my parents would be into that.

We stopped off for lunch at Sweet Sue's, which is one of my favorite places up there. Best breakfast in the world. No lie. This time we tried lunch, which was also pretty good. I had this curried chicken with dried fruit wrap, and Girlfriend had a turkey reuben. Both tasty. And we enjoyed watching the staff interact and break for the day, as we got there about closing time. Interesting bunch of people there.

The rest of the trip was pretty relaxing. I had wanted to go hiking, which we haven't done in a while. Girlfriend's cold left her feeling a bit weary, though, so we didn't wind up doing too much. Walked around outside a bit, watched some TV, went to a lot of flea markets and yard sales with my parents, and that was that. Sunday night we took off, planning to spend the day in NYC on Monday.

So Monday comes, and Girlfriend is still not feeling so hot. How did we spend our big day off in NYC? Watching about 6 episodes STRAIGHT of Law & Order on TNT. Somehow managed to clean up a bit, eat, and get some other things done in between, but that was basically the extent of our day. I was glad they spread the episodes across the seasons. Got to see the rotating cast. No Ice-T though, which is a bummer. I still like anything he is in. He cracks me up.

Then we decided to go nuts, and switch it up to some Deadwood in the evening. We're fucking out of control.

This week has been busy at work. I'm also starting to work on finding someone to take over our apartment so we can get going on this move. Boston is becoming more real with every passing day. Sent out a mass spam to basically everyone I know. Figure it will be better to work with a friend, or friend of a friend at least, to lessen chance of complications. We'll see how it goes.

Couldn't fall asleep last night. Stayed up watching TV until 3am for some stupid reason. Such a dumb-ass. Wasn't happy to hear the alarm this morning. Oh well, another weekend is almost upon us. Headed up to Boston. Hopefully it will be restful.

Comments?

Sorry to all the faithful out there, but I have removed the comments for now. I was using Comment This, a free comment tool. It doesn't allow you to edit or remove comments. So I am going to switch to blogger.com comments, once I figure out how. Then if I am motivated, I will re-copy past comments back into their appropriate entries. Hang in there. I know the anticipation will be a bitch.

Update: So Blogger comments are now on. Wasn't too bad. Took a minute to figure out that I had to go into each post and click on "More Post Options..." to activate comments for old posts. Tedious. But it's done. Now to retro-fit all the old comments....

You've got blog

This isn't really a post. I'm trying out the feature in blogger.com that
lets you email posts to your blogs. I just want to see if it works, in
case I ever feel like posting this way. It's good to have options.