saltydog

BJFF - Wrap Up

2005-11-17T15:40:00.000-05:00

So we enjoyed seeing Only Human so much, we decided to take in more screenings of the Boston Jewish Film Festival. We did a little research, and decided that we would probably enjoy Campfire, Live and Become, and Monsieur Batignole. Each of the four films we watched happended to be foreign. There were plenty of English language films in the festival, but for some reason the four that we chose were most appealing. I don't think I have ever seen as many subtitled films in such a short period of time. It was a new, and enjoyable experience.

Campfire was about an Israeli widow and her two daughters coping with life after the death of the husband. It deals with issues of Israeli settling, adolescence, social structures, etc... It had some dark moments, and coming after our screening of Only Human, it was a bit of a downer. Well worth watching, just difficult at times. After the film, the actress who played the younger daughter held a Q&A session.

Live and Become tells the story of an Ethiopian boy who's mother sends him off to Israel with a Jewish Ethiopian woman who pretends he is her son. In 1984/1985 a rescue mission dubbed Operation Moses was carried out to relocate thousands of Ethiopian Jews who were facing both famine and persecution at home. The story follows the life of this boy as he assimilates into Israeli culture and deals with his "secret" that he is not really a Jew. Three actors played the boy in three stages of his life: child, teen, and adult. The film was fantastic, and won this year's Best Feature Fiction Film award. After the film, the actor who played the boy as an adult held Q&A session. It turns out that his own story was quite similar to that of the main character, and his role in the film went far beyond playing a role. He was a primary consultant on cultural and historical aspects of the film, and really put a lot into getting the film made. It was really inspirational to listen to him and to see what he had accomplished.

Monsieur Batignole was last years Best Feature Fiction Film winner, so they decided to screen it again. It deals with Nazi occupied France and one man's unintentional involvement in hiding and saving three Jewish children. This was also difficult to watch at times, but well worth the discomfort. And every hard moment was balanced out by a comedic moment, so there was some pleasure with the pain.

I'm so glad we made an effort to see these films. Well worth the price of admission.

Difference 1,738,943 Between Boston And New York

2005-11-15T10:05:00.000-05:00

The mall near work has both a Dunkin Donuts and a Starbucks. Every morning there is a line 12 people deep at Dunkin Donuts. The line at Starbucks is usually only 1 or 2 people deep. In New York the exact opposite would be true. Starbucks is usually jammed, and Dunkin Donuts is a far second choice. A big reason for this might be that NYC Dunkin Donuts franchisees do not know how to run their stores. They are usually dingy and dirty, and their coffee tastes like crap. I know that DD is a New England empire, but NYC is not so far that they can't send some folks down from corporate to show the NYC guys how to get it right. One of the joys of living in Boston is that you can choose either vendor with the confidence that you will get a tasty cup of Joe. I myself am simply a coffee addict. I don't care which coffee I drink, as long as it is tasty. I love me some Java. Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts brews each have their strengths and weaknesses, but I enjoy them both. Thank you Boston, for coffee equality. NYC Dunkin Donuts hacks - get your shit together.

RIP

2005-11-11T12:16:00.000-05:00

We obviously live in a country of morons and half-wits. Arrested Development has been cancelled!!!!

I'll miss you dearly Buster, George Michael, GOB, Michael, Lindsay, Maeby, Tobias, George, Lucille, Annyong, Steve Holt, and Bob Loblaw.

Flippin Sweet

2005-11-08T16:14:00.000-05:00

Just booked flights to Colorado for New Year's Week. Going out to Breckenridge with the New York crew. Gonna ski a lot, drink a lot, laugh a lot, and eat a lot. Hopefully there will be some repeats from last year. I'm talking about shrimp and chicken stuffed fried avocados. I'm talking about Fleabag passing out and getting pickle faced. I'm talking about skiing A-Basin on a sunny day. That's what I'm talking about.

Canon Sucks

2005-11-07T12:11:00.000-05:00

Looks like I will need a new digital camera. I bought a Canon Powershot S400 in May '03. I was really happy with the camera, its portability, the quality of its pictures, etc... Then when it turned about 2 years old I started getting "Memory Card Error" messages, and losing some pictures. Once or twice I was able to recover lost pics by using a card reader to mine for them using Windows explorer. On other occasions they have simply been lost.

I thought perhaps the problem was my fault. Maybe I had dropped the camera. Perhaps I exposed it to water or sand one too many times. Turns out it is built this way. This is a known problem that many digital Elph owners have experienced. In fact, most people see the problem at 18 months. So I was lucky to get 2 years out of this $450 investment.

http://www.digitalcamera-hq.com/canon-powershot-s400-reviews.html

And I liked the camera so much that we bought the S410 for my cousin for a graduation present. And I recommended it to Pegg's sister and parents, and they each bought one. I can't believe that a major company would put such a shoddy product on the market. I will never buy anything from Canon again.

BJFF Update

2005-11-07T10:42:00.000-05:00

Only Human is playing again this Wednesday night. If you have even the teeniest, tiniest sense of humor you need to see it. We laughed so hard we were on the verge of tears. http://www.bjff.org/films/?id=5916

Pizza, Movie, Pizza, Movie. Now Let's Go To NYC.

2005-11-04T10:13:00.000-05:00

Heading to New York for the weekend. Going to celebrate the birthday of Pegg's roomate from college and her first two years in NYC. This friend had been living out in LA for the past few years, but recently moved back to New York with her boyfriend. We're going out to dinner in Brooklyn near their place. Should be fun.

I haven't been keeping in touch with my parents as much as I should be, given that I moved away from New York after having been there for seven years. Boston is not far, when you think about it, but apparently it feels far to them. So my mother has been sensitive lately about me not calling enough, about not visiting enough, etc... We had a long, drawn-out battle on the phone about how it takes two people to keep in touch, and how she should not be afraid to call if she misses me rather than standing on ceremony and waiting for me to call. But ultimately she is right. I don't call enough. Period. I know she is having a rough time in certain areas of her life, and I am not making enough of an effort to be there for her. So we're making a detour on our way to NYC this weekend, and driving to Long Island tonight to see her. We'll stay over, have breakfast together, get some talking and hugging in, and then head to the city.

We'll crash with Brother, who is flying solo for a few days while my sister-in-law is on a business trip. It will be good to see him, though we won't have that much time to spend together. He has some plans for the weekend, and we'll be out all of Saturday night. Sunday we have breakfast plans with one of my friends from college. He and his wife actually live around the corner from Brother. They had a baby girl a few months back, and we have yet to meet their daughter or give them the gift we bought. Looking forward to seeing them. I'm down with O.P.K. (Other People's Kids). It's great to be around kids in short bursts. Like grandparent mode. Drop in, play a bit, get the kid riled up, and just as they start to get cranky, get the hell out of there. I guess I'll need to change this attitude when it comes time to having our own little rugrats. But that's a ways off from now...

Last night we went to see a movie at the Boston Jewish Film Festival. We saw Only Human. It was great. It's a Spanish film about a dysfunctional Jewish family in Madrid, and the hijinks that ensue when one of the daughters comes to visit with her new boyfriend who, while Spanish, happens to be a Palestinian. This was honestly one of the funniest films I have ever seen. I could obviously relate to some of the Jewish elements in the film, but by no means do you have to be Jewish to appreciate it. I don't want to give too much away, but let's say that there is a scene involving the Palestinian boyfriend, the blind Jewish grandfather Dudu, and a toilet that had the audience roaring. Try to see it if you can. The combination of doing something "kinda Jewish", laughing throughout the film, and getting to munch on some Upper Crust pizza before the movie made last night great.

The night before last we went out with some friends to Emma's Pizza in Kendall Square. (Never in a million years could I imagine Pegg letting us have pizza two nights in a row, but we were in a rush before the BJFF movie last night). Dinner was great. These were friends of Pegg's from high school, and they are all friends with the owner of Emma's, so it was good to see him, and support his business. The fact that he didn't charge us for our drinks made it easy to enjoy offering this support, but the food there is honestly so good that it would be somplace we would frequent even without the connection. We shared two pies - the number 10 (Scallions / garlic / gorgonzola / traditional sauce with mozzarella) and the number 18 (Artichoke hearts / baby spinach / roasted sweet potato / rosemary sauce with mozzarella). Both were fantastic. The pizza there is possibly the best in Boston, and on par with New York and New Haven pies.

After Emma's we all went to see Shopgirl, the new film by Steve Martin. I enjoyed it, and thought it was an interesting character piece that was well written and well acted by the three leads (Steve Martin, Claire Danes, and Jason Schwartzman). Pegg, who would typically enjoy this type of film more than me, had a more critical view on it. She thinks that Steve Martin is full of himself and pretentious, and is sometimes annoyed by his pieces in the New Yorker. This film did not help his reputation in her eyes. She also felt the music was a bit harsh and overdone, and this hampered her enjoyment of the film. So there's our review - take it for what it's worth. And have a nice weekend.

Fort Point Afternoon

2005-10-30T18:30:00.000-05:00

Two weeks ago we went to walk around the Fort Point Open Studios. Saw a lot of interesting art. Didn't buy anything, but now we have a better sense of what we both like. Got a lot of exercise climbing multiple staircases during the day. And managed to take a couple of nice Boston shots, and one that I like on the T platform in South Station (where I was playing with black and white and shutter speed. The people are still, but the train is moving. Cool...)

Franz found. Friends lost.

2005-10-24T14:47:00.000-04:00

I forgot that I don't call my Girlfriend "Girlfriend" on this site, but rather Pegg. So back to that nomenclature...

Pegg and I went to see Franz Ferdinand last weekend at the Orpheum theater in Boston. We did a little pre-partying at home before the show, and had a lot of fun that night. The show itself was really good. Even though they have exploded as a band, and the whole hipster scene is already "over" them, we both still like them very much. And unlike so many acts that we've seen, they seemed to truly enjoy putting on a show. They played almost entirely from their two released albums, with only two songs during the whole show that we didn't know. They smiled. A lot. They jumped all over the stage, the risers, the drum kit. The entire feeling was euphoric and infectious - everyone there seemed happy too. It was a nice change from the jaded, bratty rock stars that seem to turn up more and more at shows we attend.

One of the songs they played had to do with losing touch with old friends. It got me thinking about old friends, and on the way home I had a long talk with Pegg about the topic. The number of people who have come and gone in my life is staggering. Thinking back over the years, from neighborhood friends, pre-school through high school, summers, college, work, etc.. I have made and lost a lot of good friends. At each stage of my life so far there have been people who I enjoyed talking to. People I trusted. People I laughed with. And for some reason or another, as time has passed, and circumstances have changed, many of these friendships have faded.

Am I to blame? Are these friends to blame? Is this just what happens as you wind your way through life? In some cases, there is a good explanation. There was a fight. There was a fundamental change in philosophy or position. And geography certainly plays a part. But there are some people I really miss. Some friends have slipped away for no good reason. This really got me down. How could this be prevented? Am I destined to lose touch with my current crop of close friends? Does everything fade?

There are some old friends who have popped back into my life. Re-connection is possible, however rare it might be. So I got to thinking about the sociology of it all. Wouldn't it be interesting to draft the Complete List of Lost Friends and then try to contact them all? Try to discover what caused the friendship to fade. Try to understand why a friendship was kindled in the first place? This has the potential to make a great documentary or book. Too bad I have neither the strength nor the drive.

And I wonder why I lose friends....

Best. Game. Ever.

2005-10-17T10:08:00.000-04:00

The New York Times is good for something after all. I just learned about a new drinking game. Edward 40-Hands. Where was this when I was in college? I don't know if my 30-year-old body could handle this. Guess there's only one way to find out!

"Edward 40 Hands — named after the movie, Edward Scissorhands where the main character has scissors in place of hands — is a drinking game in which contestants duct tape forties to their hands. The forties can only be removed when the contestant finishes both forties. Having their hands duct taped to the forties forces the contestants to finish their beer before engaging in other activities such as peeing."

http://www.smithappens.com/40hands/40hands.html

I remember the sun

2005-10-15T10:05:00.000-04:00

Just two weeks ago it was nice enough to go for a long walk outside. We drove over to the JFK Library near UMass Boston. You can walk along the waterfront in either direction from the library for miles, with some great views of dontown Boston along the way.

Trouble...

2005-10-14T16:25:00.000-04:00

Uh-oh. Peanut butter filled pretzels in the snack cabinet at work. So. Hard. To. Have. Just. One...

Mall Music

2005-10-14T13:11:00.000-04:00

I work very close to the Cambridge Side Galleria mall. Given that they have a Dunkin Donuts and a Starbucks, not to mention the food court, we wind up there a lot. (I also tend to frequent the Best Buy on Tuesdays for new releases, and CVS for personal needs, but that's neither here nor there.) Lately when I've been in the mall, I've gotten a big kick out of the music that they pipe in. It hasn't been Muzak, or "Lite Lovesongs", but rather 80s tunes! Not sure who controls the tune selection over there, or if it is some national corporate thing, but I have to say it has been rather enjoyable. Some recent selections include:

Little Red Corvette - Prince

Electric Avenue - Eddy Grant

Here I Go Again - Whitesnake

I Want A New Drug - Huey Lewis & the News

I Would Do Anything For Love - Meatloaf

Take On Me - a-ha

and so on

I'm going to need some fat laces and a pac-man t-shirt to wear on my coffee runs soon. So rad!

Let's be friends?

2005-10-12T13:59:00.000-04:00

Even though he seems to hate white people, I am really enjoying the new Kanye West album. In a completely different genre, "It Still Moves" by My Morning Jacket is bringing joy to my work day as well. We saw these guys open for Wilco, and were impressed.

Weekend Washout

2005-10-11T18:18:00.000-04:00

Spent most of the weekend indoors. Here's what went down.

Friday night we had tickets to see Stellastarr* at the Paradise. It was a late show, so Girlfriend and I were planning to meet at home. In a last-minute move, Brother decided to visit his college roomate in Maine for the weekend, and would be passing through Boston Friday night. So Brother came over for a little bit. We had a bite, watched the Red Sox blow it, drank a beer or three, and then said goodbye to Brother. Girlfriend and I headed over to the show, but shortly after we got there she started to feel ill. Combination of a cold coming on and a couple of beers is never good. So we hopped in a cab and headed home. Catch you next time Stellastarr*

Saturday was still pretty rainy, so we decided to hit the movies. There is a Bed, Bath & Beyond near the theater, and we had some coupons handy, so we decided to have a Frank the Tank day of excitement shopping before the flick. We grabbed the main things we were after, and were almost ready to check out. You can use one coupon per item, so we split up the two highest priced items, and went to check out separately. Before I could check out, I saw something else that I wanted high on a shelf. I was waiting for someone to get it, when the alarm started sounding. They evacuated the store. An hour of BB&B shopping, and I didn't get to check out. What a waste of time. So f-ing pissed. Plus, I was holding most of what we came in for. Girlfriend at least got to pay, but we didn't walk away with too much of what we were there for. And then she started giving me shit "You had to have that thing, didn't you? See what you get?" Thanks.

So, with our more or less useless BB&B purchase in hand, and the stuff we wanted abandoned in the store, we went and saw Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Excellent film. Very well done, and quite entertaining. (Disclosure - we have been W&G fans for years, and had been looking forward to this film...) Champy and H-Bomb were in town for a football game, and called to see what we were up to in the evening, but they were with all of their college friends, and we had seen them recently, so we didn't want to bust in on the college fun. Hopefully they didn't think we were being crappy friends by not making an effort to see them, but we didn't feel right about it. Perhaps the fact that their Boston friends, who have now become our friends, never mentioned any plans added to our lack of enthusiasm. Oh well. We were having a sensitive weekend... Went home instead and caught up on DVR shows. SNL with John Heder was mediocre. I love Napoleon Dynamite. It's friggin sweet. But the guy was not so hot on SNL. If they're thinking about Napoleon sequels then for his sake they better get them out soon. Otherwise we can look forward to him on Surreal Life XXXXIV.

Sunday was a similar day. Grocery shopping, gym, cooking, DVD. We made a noodle soup using some udon noodles we had around, some shrimp, some fish balls, spinach, carrots, etc... Turned out pretty well. Then we tried to watch Fever Pitch on DVD. The disc was scratched, though, so we didn't get to see all of it. Netflix got me again. Not that there is much of a surprise ending. Sox win the series, and guy gets girl. Come to think of it, I'm glad I didn't have to sit through that. It was more fun watching the Sox lose Friday night than re-living last year's lucky triumph.

Ughhh. This weekend seems long just writing about it.

Monday - more of the same. Ripped some new CDs onto MP3: new Neil Young album, new Ryan Adams album, a Pharcyde album, the Mitchell Brothers, the Editors, etc... Organized papers and had fun with the shredder. Cooked some dinner - poached flounder filets - not bad. Then watched the Yankees blow it. Terrible game. The almost-rally in the 9th was a real tease. It might have been a different series if A-Rod had actually shown up to play. Oh well. Always next year.

4th of July. In Mexico.

2005-10-08T23:31:00.000-04:00

Welcome back Blogger

2005-10-07T13:53:00.000-04:00

It's been almost a whole year since I've blogged. A year since I started my new job. A year in which I have more or less become a Bostonian. A year in which my brother got married. A year in which my grandmother passed away. Basically, it's been a year in which a lot has happened, and I have not documented any of it. Perhaps this should change. Let's see if I can get back to regular posting.

Back to the grind

2004-10-09T11:30:00.000-04:00

Started my new job this week. I am working for a small company in Cambridge. The contrast to my last job is extreme. The people are pretty young, everyone seems very bright, everyone seems pretty social. It reminds me a lot of my second to last job, which I liked a lot. The only issue is that this seems to be the standard response when I ask people how they like the job "Oh, it's great. We're doing great things, and having a lot of fun. And I've never worked harder in my life!

So the hours might be more than I had anticipated. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for working hard, when there is work to do. I just don't like the culture of "well, I'm going to stay late because Jim and Joe are staying late." If I am being productive, and I get my shit done, then I want to go home. Life beckons kids. (And yes, by "life" I am referring to life as depicted and available for me to watch on my tv.)

Went to a couple of good concerts recently. We had tickets to see Wilco at the Wang Theater here in Boston. It's like a big Broadway theater. Nice molding, gold-leaf painted things, frescoes, etc.... Very nice theater. The staff was their usual staff, though, and it didn't work well for a concert. All the ushers were little old retired ladies, like at a Broadway show. It was pretty funny. And we ditched our four balcony seats at the last minute, because the day before the show they released some great orchestra seats, so I was able to get a pair in the 12th row, center. (We didn't need another pair, because Champy and H-Bomb had to bail.)

The Fiery Furnaces opened. I enjoyed their set, though I wouldn't necessarily listen to them a lot. A little too avant garde for me. Their drummer was really funny though, making crazy faces, and at one point playing with two over-sized plastic toy battle axes. We got a good chuckle out of him.

Wilco was great. They had great energy on the stage, and seemed genuinely happy to be playing, to be playing together, to be playing in Boston, etc... Jeff Tweedy made a lot of good crowd small talk, cracked a lot of jokes, and generally won everyone over. And their set was long, and good. They covered their catalog well, and threw in some things I hadn't heard before. Unfortunately, the theater had a strict cut-off time for their show, or they would have extended their already two and a half hour set. Great show. Here is the review.

The other show we caught recently was the Killers, at a small club in Boston called the Roxy. There were two openers, Surferosa and Ambulance LTD. We didn't catch Surferosa, but Ambulance was decent. They had been described to me as mellow, so I was surprised by how rocking they were.

The Killers played very well. They only have one album out, plus a couple of b-sides, so it was no surprise that their set lasted only about 50 minutes. Still, they were tight, and sounded really good. I would have liked a little more deviation from the studio versions of songs, or maybe some soloing, to get a better sense of their ability. My only complaint about the show really, was that there were no surprises.

And that's the update kids. New job means a lot less free time. But I am excited about the work, and the people, so it should be good. Tomorrow night we are going to a wedding. Nothing wrong with getting drunk and dancing to Hot Hot Hot. As long as it only goes down once or twice a year, I can get into it. Hope you all have a great weekend.

I'm still here...

2004-10-01T13:26:00.000-04:00

Been neglecting the blog lately. No excuse really, because I have had the time. Just haven't been motivated to write.

Went to Pearl Jam Wednesday night. Great show. Deathcab For Cutie opened, and I had been excited to see them. I had heard good things about them. Unfortunately, I was not impressed with their set. Though it might have been because of opening-band syndrome.

Pearl Jam kicked butt. Great set. Though there were a lot of songs I didn't know, between covers and newer stuff. Still a lot of fun.

Tonight we're going to see Wilco. Found out that they released seats, and I was able to get us much better seats. Champy and H-Bomb were originally going to join us, but they had to bail now that he is working in NYC. So I just bought a good pair, and sold the original four on craigslist.

So it's been three months of unemployment. That might end today. If all goes according to plan, I am going to pick up and sign an offer letter in about an hour. Pretty exciting stuff. Too bad I pretty much wasted these three months. Not much to show for them. No tan. No travels. Oh well. Wish me luck in the new job....

P.S. - In spellchecking this entry, the word "blog" was flagged. Good work Blogger.com! ;-)

Long weekend for some - three days in the life for me

2004-09-09T11:46:00.000-04:00

This past weekend was a lot of fun. Mr. Keane's birthday was on Saturday. He, Rinweeney and Fleabag got tickets to the Saturday and Sunday Red Sox games, and made the trip up here for the weekend.

Rinweeney got in early, so she and I hung out a bit on Friday afternoon. Walked around a bit, bought some beer, and made the requisite Newbury Comics stop. Then Pegg got home from work, and the three of us had a beer or two at home, before going out to meet Mr. Keane and Fleabag, who spent the better part of the day battling traffic and getting lost in Boston. Did I neglect to mention that Fleabag used to live here, yet they got lost anyway? I guess not.

In honor of the birthday at hand, we all went out to dinner at The Capital Grille on Newbury. What a great dinner. This was our first trip to a steakhouse in Boston, and it did not disappoint. Some of the dishes ordered included lobster bisque, new england clam chowder, steak tartare, creamed spinach, mashed potatoes, potatoes au gratin, filet mignon, porterhouse steak, and steak au poivre. Everything was excellent. Really. Top-notch meal. I'm now waiting for someone else to have a birthday.

After dinner we were too stuffed to really drink anything, so we stopped into a bar just to watch the end of the Sox game, and then called it a night.

Saturday while the three New Yorkers were at the game, Brother and his fiancee came up from New York. They took the chinatown bus, so we decided to meet them in chinatown, and grab some dim sum. We stopped in at the ticket office for the bus line they took, just to double check the drop-off point, and we found out that the two major chinatown lines now use South Station Bus Terminal in Boston, as opposed to a random street corner in chinatown. I guess they're moving on up.

We grabbed the weary travelers at the station, and then went to China Pearl for dim sum. Pegg explained to us as we sat down that we would "need to take it easy" because there are a lot of choices, and we wouldn't want to fill up too quickly. Then, within 30 seconds of the pep talk, she proceeded to load up our table with about six different selections. Not a cart passed that she didn't agree with. It was very funny. Needless to say, we wound up eating more than we needed to.

We made our way home, went swimming with Brother and his fiancee, and then got ready to go out. Brother's roomate from college was also in town that weekend, and was at the Sox game with his father. So we all decided to meet up at the Tiki Room for some drinks. When we got there, Brother's friend and his dad were there, but the NYC crowd was not. So we went inside, had a drink or two, and then Brother's roomate took off. A little while later the NYC crew showed up, having made a pit stop at Cask & Flagon first. Booze-hounds. We then proceeded to spend several hours at the Tiki Room, and consumed many many beers and mai tais along the way.

Sunday morning we took Brother and his fiancee to the Pour House for brunch, having heard good things about it. The food was ok, but we were starving, so we could have eaten anything. During the brunch, we were talking about Brother's old NYC roomate. He knew her from high school, and they are still friends. She is expecting a baby, and thinking about moving out to the town where we all grew up. We were talking about how weird it would be to go live there as adults. We were also talking about how her younger sister lives in Boston, and how Brother and his fiancee felt they should have called her to say hello. Well who walks into the Pour House for breakfast? His old roomate's sister. This is the smallest fucking city on the planet. I'm not kidding. So we talked to her and her husband for a bit, and then left them to their breakfast. What are the odds? The one couple Brother knows in Boston, and they show up at the same dive bar for breakfast.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing in the apartment, and watching movies. Then Brother and his fiancee hit the road. When we were in the bus station waiting for them, Champy called to see if we wanted to go to Tavern on the Water with them and some of their friends. Tavern on the Water is in the Charlestown Navy Yard, right near where a bunch of us had training for our first job. Pegg, Champy, Mr. Keane, Red, and I all worked for the same company years ago, and all went to this training program. Everyone from the program used to go to Tavern on the Water to eat and drink. So it is very nostalgic for all of us. We have been talking about going there for a while this summer, but never got around to it. This was as good a night as any, so we went. It was a lot of fun, but more corwded than I remembered. Maybe because it was a holiday weekend. In any case, the food was really good, and we had a great time.

Monday was a quiet day for Pegg and I to recover. We did a little shopping, in order to take advantage of the big Labor Day sales and all. We went out to Chestnut Hill and bought some linens. New sheets, new towels, etc... Then we grabbed a quick lunch at Bernard's chinese restaurant in the mall. It was nothing special, and completely overpriced. On the way out, we noticed that they had a framed copy of the Improper Bostonian Best Of Boston issue by the register. We were trying to figure out what they got Best-Of for. Best rip-off? Best low-grade mall restaurant? Then we got home and looked it up in the copy of the issue that we kept. They got Best-Of for Chinese food. I couldn't fucking believe it. In such a big city, with its own chinatown, the best Chinese restaurant distinction went to a rip-ff mall restaurant?? Get out of here. I now have to question the validity of the entire Improper Bostonian Best-Of list. I am completely thrown off.

The weekend was capped off with a trip to the gym, dinner at home, and some TV. Nothing better really.

I'm rich, bitch!

2004-09-02T12:47:00.000-04:00

Well, I can be, with your help.

Seeing as how I am unemployed at the moment, I thought it wasn't such a bad idea to take Google up on their offer to host ads on my blog.

I only earn credit if you click on the ads, though, so help a guy out and click away.

Thanks, bitches.

Well that was nice

2004-09-02T12:01:00.000-04:00

Just as I am starting to feel a little down about not really having a clear future mapped out, I got a call from my old boss.

"Hey, it's Old Boss. Just calling to say hi. Wondering if you're planning a visit to NYC any time soon. We miss you here. Talk to you soon."

In the midst of irrational feelings of uselessness, it was nice to get a message like that. Here I was, thinking that I don't necessarily have any tangible skills, and am not in a good position to go back to school for what I'd be interested in (Psychology), and I was starting to feel low.

Good time for a reminder that in another life I was valuable somewhere....

A simple question

2004-09-02T08:33:00.000-04:00

So if the terrorist attack on September 11th 2001 had never happened, what would the Republicans have to talk about right now? Bush's domestic record? Too funny.

So many choices

2004-08-31T19:18:00.000-04:00

It turns out Boston is a great city to live in if you like going to concerts. So far I have been able to get tickets to anything that I have wanted to see.

Today I read about two upcoming shows that I'd go to. Both are club shows, and both are cheap.

The Von Bondies are playing at Axis on 10/1. Problem - I am going to see Wilco that night.

The Kings of Leon are playing at Axis as well, but on 10/7. Problem - I am going to see the Killers play that night.

It figures. The one city where I can get any tickets I want, and there are multiple conflicts. Good problem to have I guess.

Which do you want to hear first?

2004-08-31T08:25:00.000-04:00

Good news: Got tickets to see Pearl Jam at the Fleet Center in October. I've never actually been to see them before. This should be fun.

Bad news: I over-did it at the gym yesterday with too much weight on the middle and upper back machines, and now I am in a serious spasm/pain cycle. Good times.

Fright Night

2004-08-27T13:50:00.000-04:00

This week started of pretty badly. Brother and his fiancee were up in New Hampshire for a wedding. They borrowed a car from Mom & Dad for the weekend. And apparently they did not communicate their plans or schedule well to any one.

At about 10:00pm Sunday night we got a call from my parents. "Have you heard from Brother?" Nope. "Neither of their cells is on." I explained that they were probably driving home, and hitting traffic, and in a no cell reception area. "OK," Mom said, "we're on our way home too, and should be there by 11."

Midnight. We're asleep. "Ring ring." I let the machine get it. It was Mom. "Hi. We're just calling you back. Talk to you soon."

Hmmm. That was weird. Mom called at midnight just to let us know they were home ok? Guess so. Parents can be weird.

2:30am. "Ring ring." My cell phone. "Hello??" "Hi Salty. It's Dad. They're not home yet."

Gulp. (That's me swallowing my heart back down into my chest.)

"Um, ok Dad. Maybe they decided to spend the night somewhere. It was a Sunday wedding, so maybe they were too tired to drive. Or they probably went off to elope. That's all it could be. You know they are flighty sometimes. And Fiancee's mom is coming into town tomorrow. So maybe they eloped so everyone could be there tomorrow to celebrate. Get some sleep."

I hung up the phone. I called both their cells. Both straight to voicemail. That means they are probably asleep somewhere. But... Who knows? Damn. Mom is always insane about this shit. Dad is more rational, but he guilts himself into buying Mom's craziness. Now they will both be up all night. So now I'm worried about Brother, and Mom and Dad. Shit.

Let's be reasonable. Let's see if we can find a cell number for someone else who would be at the wedding. Shit. Nothing. Ok. Let's be an adult. We'l deal with some scary shit, for the likely outcome of comfort. "Hello? Is this New Hampshire Highway Patrol? Were there any big accidents tonight? None? Ok. Thanks."

"Hello? Is this Massachusetts Highway Patrol? Any big accidents tonight? None? Ok thanks."

"Hello? Is this Rhode Island Highway Patrol? No accidents? Thanks."

"No major accidents tonight in Connecticut tonight? Thanks."

"Oh, they would get in touch with the car owner right away if there was a major accident in New York? Ok. And there were none that you heard of tonight? Ok. Thanks."

Now it was 4:00am. I IM'd Dad, who was online, and told him about my calls. No major accidents all along their route home, and the car's owners would have been notified. They are definitely sleeping or married somewhere. We could have the cops go to their apartment and see if they are there. No? Too much? Ok. Go to bed then Dad.

I realized there was little I could do at this point. I was not about to start calling hospitals. Brother is usually at work by 6:00am. I would sleep until then, and call his office. If he was unaccounted for there, then I would shit myself.

5:50am. Alarm clock goes off. I had several different dreams about Brother and his fiancee. In one, they showed up here with Mom and Dad, and they had been married. It was all good. In another, they were in NYC, they had been home the whole time. But these were dreams. It was 5:50am, and they were still missing. I called his office. No answer. Shit. Maybe he'll go in later today, after a long weekend. Ok. Back to bed.

6:20am. Pegg's alarm goes off. Time for her to get up for work. Let me try Brother's office again. No answer. Shit. This is weird. I talk to Pegg for a bit about where they could be. "Buzz buzz." My cell phone. Text message:

"Hi Saltydog! We had the wedding last night and just left new hampshire to pick up my mom from the airport. talk to you later! -fiancee"

Phew. Phew! Absolute relief like I have never experienced. I called Mom and Dad. Told them everything was fine. They hadn't slept. Mom broke down in sobs. I got off the phone and went back to sleep. Had normal dreams about sushi and beer and big tv's. Everything was ok.

Now, here's the funny thing. Brother and fiancee never knew they were "missing." Brother swears that he told me and Dad all along that they were planning to stay Sunday night and sleep it off. Now, our nuclear family consists of three men and one woman. There is only one good listener in the bunch. You can bet who that is. So can I swear, for sure, that he never told me this? No. Would I swear on Dad's behalf? Never. However, I remember asking Brother if they would want to swing by Boston on their way home. "Nah. It will be too tight. We'll be driving home from the wedding, and fiancee's mom is coming in the next day, so we'll just want to get back." Or something like that.

What do I think? I think that Brother changes his plans often, and doesn't always keep such good track of who he's told what to. I think that Brother thinks he told us they were coming home Monday. I think that this was a big mix up. I think that was one of the worst nights of my life, and I am somewhat rational. I think that Brother took several years off the lives of Mom and Dad that night. I think that we're all just grateful nothing was wrong. I think that Brother's fiancee over time will need to compensate for his flakiness, and make sure that the rest of us are informed of their plans. I think that I am going to give her a good talking to when I see her this weekend. I think that I am going to punch Brother in the head when I see him this weekend. I think that really, I'll just hug them both good and hard instead. Little shits.

Day trip to Rockport

2004-08-25T17:14:00.000-04:00

(Pegg took this one.)

"Motif No 1" - the most painted/photographed building or spot in Rockport. Truth.

Last sunday Pegg and I decided to take a drive to Rockport. It's a small coastal town near Salem and Gloucester.

We got up relatively early, for us, and hit the road.

It was a beautiful day. Traffic was light. Sun was out. It was a nice day for a drive.

We spent most of the day walking around the town, stopping in at little shops, and taking in much of the scenery. We stopped at Tuck's Homemade Candies to pick up a treat. We got a lot of sun. Grabbed some lunch at Portside Chowder House. Clam chowder and lobster rolls. Yummy. Then we sat on a bench overlooking a small strip of public beach. An elderly couple was sitting next to us on the bench. I imagined us sitting there in 50 years. It made me smile.

Good. Real good.

2004-08-24T12:32:00.000-04:00

I'm digging Real right now.

Their Real Player Store is trying to compete with iTunes. In order to do so, they have cut prices in half. $4.99 albums, and 49-cent tracks.

And their Rhapsody streaming service is free for a week or so right now. With it, you can use your computer to listen to any song in their catalog. Anything you've been wanting to hear, or maybe sample before you buy.

Here's what I've purchased so far:

Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
The Killers - two unreleased tracks from the Somebody Told Me single
The Pharcyde - Humboldt Beginnings
Dizzee Rascal - Boy In Da Corner
The Music - The Music
Shyne - Godfather Buried Alive
213 - The Hard Way

Let's Stay In For Dinner, And See A Movie

2004-08-24T11:09:00.000-04:00

Friday night two of my friends from high school and their wives came over for dinner. I cooked up some chicken parm, pasta, and a big old salad. Nothing fancy, but it was pretty tasty, if I do say so myself.

One of my friends and his wife are both teachers, and they live about 40 minutes outside of Boston. They tend to just take the summer off, as opposed to doing another job, which sounds awesome. It is similar to the position I am in now, that of being able to sit on my ass in August, but better. They know this is what they are supposed to be doing, and that work will start up again exactly when it is supposed to. I, on the other hand, am not 100% relaxed in this summer vacation mode I'm in. I definitely have a little bit of future-anxiety going on. Not enough to drive me crazy, but enough to color my dreams a bit. More of a nuisance than anything, really. But I digress....

My other friend is a medical resident. His wife also works for the hospital system. They live in Jamaica Plain, home of the JP Licks ice cream company. They were both off Friday, so they took the time to bake brownies for us. Nice. Few things in this world are as good as home-made brownies.

Dinner was nice. We drank a lot of wine. Talked a lot. Then we all watched Donnie Darko. Pegg and I had it out on Netflix, and had watched it a few days prior. None of our guests had seen it, and we had been planning another viewing before we returned it, so it worked out well. After the movie we watched the deleted scenes, and talked about the film a bit. These are all smart folks, so it was a good conversation.

This was our first crack at "entertaining" since we bought a dining room table and chairs. It felt good to have dinner guests, and pretend we were all grown up.

Who's the big winner?

2004-08-20T11:37:00.000-04:00

So timing is a bitch. Just as I move to Boston, and start to get settled in, Champy gets lured to New York. I can't really blame him. He's going to be working with Red and the Drummer Boy. We all used to work together in 1997/1998. It was a blast. And now they get to do it again. Long live Turkey Time!!! (Inside thing - don't worry about it.) It's really a great thing for Champy, and it should be a pretty good thing for H-Bomb. I know she's giving up a lot for this move, but so much good will come of it too. New job. New friends. New adventures. Hey, I'm going through it myself right now. It's not so bad.

Anyway, the point is that I need to take advantage of any chance we get to hang out, because they are splitting soon. So last night I got together with Champy and his friend G. They were at a bar in Central Square, where they both live. So after going to the gym with Pegg, I headed out to the bar to join them.

The bar was hosting a promotion. It was a joint promotion between a radio station and a drink company. You had to buy their brand of drink to enter the contest. If you had their drink in your hand, you could go up to their table and fill out an entry form. The prize was a trip to NYC for two to see the Red Sox play the Yankees, hotel accommodations and transportation included. Sweet prize. In addition, when you gave them your entry, you could take one thing from their schwag table. They had hats, t-shirts, etc... There was an XBOX game on the table too. I asked if that was up for grabs. They said sure, take it. So I was psyched right there. Free XBOX game just for doing what I was there to do - having a drink.

We hung out there for a while, because the grand prize winner was to be chosen at 10pm. Them emcee gets on the mike, gives his little promotional spiel, and announces the winner. It was me! Holy fucking shit! I won! I never win anything. What a sweet prize too! I was ecstatic. The emcee hands me the mike and I go "This is great! I just moved here from New York, and I'm a Yankees fan. Now I get a trip home, and I get to see the game too!"

The bar went silent. There were a few boos. One guy mumbled "good way to make friends". I pumped my fists into the air, and sat down again to finish my drink. "Screw you haters," I thought. "I'm the big winner."

Royal Visit

2004-08-19T12:41:00.000-04:00

We went to see Prince at the Fleet Center Tuesday night. What an awesome show!!

Pegg knew someone who was going, and so she decided to look into tickets. She realized that day that good seats had apparently been released for sale. So we got on ticketbastard.com and got the best seats we could find.

Turns out that our seats were great. The stage was in the center of the stadium, and we had 10th row in the first non-floor section, right on one side of the stage. It was basically center-ice, if we had been there for a hockey game. And because the sides of the stadium are narrower than the ends, there were barely any rows of floor seats between us and the stage. So we got really lucky.

Before the show we met up with Pegg's friend and his buddy. We went to Sullivan's on Canal Street, because Grand Canal was too crowded. Grabbed a couple of drinks with them, then went into the stadium.

I don't think I realized how much purple there would be. :-) These fans are really loyal. The best, though, was the 6-foot-5 white guy we saw in a Patrick Ewing-esque purple suit. Big pimpin' my man.

The show itself was really amazing. I have never been to such an animated stadium show. People were just into it. Everyone was dancing for basically the whole show. And the band was so tight, I almost didn't believe it was a live show. He's got Maceo Parker in his band! Everyone else in the band was fantastic as well. I especially liked the drummer, John Blackwell. It was cool to compare his performance to that of Rush's Neil Peart, who is considered among the best.

My only complaint was that some of my favorite songs (When Doves Cry, Kiss, Raspberry Beret, etc..) got glossed over in medleys. Otherwise it was a fantastic set. Here is the setlist.

Canadian rock

2004-08-16T15:28:00.000-04:00

Went to see Rush Thursday night at the Tweeter Center. Pegg's friend from her last job got us free tickets. It was pretty cool of him. I happened to briefly mention being somewhat of a Rush fan when we were out one night and Tom Sawyer came on. He remembered this, and hooked us up with the tickets.

The show was really good. It's their 30th Anniversary tour. They are pulling out all the hits. And I think they play the same set each night, so it should be tight.

Pegg got the most enjoyment out of their video footage, which happened to be very funny. Some of the clips had Jerry Stiller starring as a big Rush fan. Pegg's other favorite part was my comment that the audience there was perhaps the ugliest, grittiest audience of any show we had ever been to. We couldn't figure out if it was Rush, Massachusetts, or an unfortunate combination. We agreed that it was the combination.

Parking at the Tweeter center is a bitch, and it takes forever to work your way out of the lots in lines of traffic. Knowing this, and knowing that Pegg had to get up early the next day for work, we cut out before the encore. I had read that most of the encore was covers anyway, so this was an ok move. We got out in a reasonable amount of time, which was good considering the drive home sucked balls. It was pouring the entire ride home.

Oh yeah. Two observations about the Tweeter Center. First, beers cost $8. Fucking hell. Second, there was absolutely no security. None. They just scanned our tickets, and let us right in. No bag checking. No metal detector wands. NOTHING. Fucking hell.

Bull... Shit. Bull... Shit. Bull... Shit.

2004-08-12T13:31:00.000-04:00

This is total crap.

Last I checked, the Olympic games constitute an international competition. Meaning countries compete against each other.

Every other country there will go ape-shit and wave their flags around when they win something.

I could care less about the Olympics, really. But our athletes should have as much right to celebrate and show their pride as any other country there.

Come on already. Even a liberal Kerry supporter like me appreciates a good bit of Old Glory waving and a "U. S. A." chant once in a while.

Roger

2004-08-11T15:19:00.000-04:00

Got Wilco tickets today. Guess Boston isn't so bad...

Also went for dim sum lunch in Chinatown with Champy. The name of the place was Pacific Gardens. It's in the basement, on the corner of Beach and something or other...

The way it worked at this place is that they give you a dim sum menu, like an a-la-carte sushi sheet. You mark down what you want, then they bring it fresh from the kitchen. So while you don't get the pleasure of watching the carts roll by, and choosing from unknown delights, you do get the extraordinary pleasure of eating fresh, hot, made to order dim sum. Definitely a fair trade-off.

We had big eyes, and ordered ourselves up a nice little spread.

- Baked pork buns
- Shrimp and chive dumplings
- Shrimp and pork dumplings
- Clams in black bean sauce
- Salt and pepper shrimp
- Rice noodle roll ups with shrimp (they call them fajitas!)
- Fried sesame shrimp spring rolls

I'm just noticing now how shrimp-heavy our choices were. We would have made Benjamin Buford 'Bubba' Blue proud.

Everything was good. The stand-outs were the salt and pepper shrimp, the pork buns, and the shrimp and pork dumplings. The salt and pepper shrimp are fried whole, with shells, tails, and heads intact. At first I was squeamish about not removing the head and tail fins, but then I got over it. They tasted very good, heads and all.

Walked home from there, talking to Champy about our respective job situations. We're both kind of at crossroads, so it comes up often.

I couldn't avoid the pull of Newbury Comics. Had to buy some cheap CDs. So much music that I want. Hard to resist albums that I'd like when they are $8.99 or $9.99. I'm a bad boy. But I did buy my very first Pixies CD. Rinweeney will be proud.

Things I realized at the gym tonight

2004-08-09T19:50:00.000-04:00

1. The Jay-Z song "Money, Cash, Hoes" with DMX is great to work out to.
2. When the Jessica Simpson video with her dancing around in a rainbow belly shirt and a mini-skirt comes on, all men in the gym conveniently stop for a break.
3. After you've had your "complimentary" introduction session with the trainer, it is very awkward to see them in the gym. One, because you shot down their pushy sales pitch for personal training. Two, because you are blatantly disregarding everything they taught you in your session.

Little Boy Lost

2004-08-09T15:27:00.000-04:00

I feel like a lost soul.

Yes, yes. This is a whiny career post.

No, no. I don't really feel like a lost soul, nor do I particularly want to talk about it beyond what I will write here.

I have been without a job for over a month now. While a month may seem like a long time, the month in question has certainly passed in the blink of an eye. I am not pulling my hair out. Nor am I restless. I happen to be fairly content with how I pass my days.

Pegg wakes up at about 6:30am for work. I hear her getting ready, and feel her kiss me goodbye, and then fall back to sleep for a bit. Usually by 8 or 8:30 I am up, and ready for another day.

I make coffee. I have breakfast. I fuck around on the internet. I fuck around with my resume some. I watch some TV. I do some laundry or straighten up a bit in the apartment. Usually I will venture out on an errand, or for a walk, or for some food. Today, for example, I met Champy for lunch. Then I'll wait for Pegg to get home so we can make dinner, or go to the gym, or go out with friends. Not a bad way to spend the day, I tell you.

My problem is not that I am unhappy with this lifestyle. My problem might even be somewhat opposite. My problem is this: I know it can't last. I must work. I just don't know what I want to do.

Since college I have worked in technology. Computers. Servers. Applications. Systems. This is all I feel I am qualified to do. The problem is, I barely feel qualified to do this. I don't have much of a background in it. I was a Psychology major, after all. I've been faking it a bit, for years. Now I have time on my hands. Time I could use to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. Unfortunately I don't really have the foggiest idea.

Part of me thinks I should just take the best tech job I can find. Get back to work, ASAP, and start saving again. Then I will have income and stability behind my craziness, and can take all the time in the world to figure things out.

Another part of me is realistic enough to know that if I take another tech job, then that is what I will wind up doing indefinitely. I would stick with that until something major happened. Until an offer to do something else fell into my lap, or until we needed to move, etc... I wouldn't spend my free time looking for a real career. That's just me.

So here I am in limbo. I know I need to work. I know my only qualifications are for tech jobs. I know I might want to do something else. So I am half-heartedly starting to look into tech openings, silently hoping that something better comes my way.

Is it possible to feel so pigeon-holed this early in my career? I guess so.

Hot Fuss

2004-08-06T11:53:00.000-04:00

Just bought tickets to see The Killers in Boston. Yay.

Boston so far

2004-08-04T10:41:00.000-04:00

Some Boston highlights from our time here so far:

Dinner at Charley's with friends.
A night of no-limit hold 'em at Dr. & Dr. Beasties' place.
Dinner at Koreana with H-Bomb (formerly known as Mrs. Champy) and Champy.
Giant beers at Pour House. These beers must be a pint and a half, for less money than a pint in NYC. So there! :-P (Just look at the pics!)
Dinner at Brown Sugar with friends. Most extensive Thai menu I have ever seen.
Yankees vs. Red Sox game at Fenway (7/25) - thanks to H-Bomb & Champy.
Chowder (ahem, "chowdah" to you) and fried clams at Legal Seafoods.
Scorpion bowls and Mai Tais at the Tiki Room near Fenway. And the spicy appetizer poo poo platter. Yumm.
Breakfast at Cabot's. Mmm. Banana hotcakes with strawberries on top. Mmm.

I think that about covers it for now.

Oh, yeah:

Being with Pegg for the most consecutive days we've had together in over two years. We live together again!! {sigh}

Broken Crate

2004-08-01T10:29:00.000-04:00

In the last post I alluded to some time spent in the suburbs of Boston last week. I forgot to tell the best story from our time out there.

We are looking for a couple of small furniture items for our new apartment. We have been to stores that range from Pottery Barn to Target. (Yes, Target is the only store so far where we have purchased anything....) One of our stops was Crate & Barrel in the South Shore Plaza mall. They had some ok stuff there, but the price:quality ratio was too steep. Anyway, we're walking over to ask someone a question, and I see this comfy looking chair. I'm still a little kid in many ways, so I had to touch the surface of the comfy looking chair to see what it felt like.

Well, this comfy looking chair was not sitting squarely on its little display pedestal. One little rub of its cushion knocked its leg back the lone millimeter necessary to send the whole chair off balance. Good thing the stack of cocktail shakers was there behind it, to slow its fall. I got to watch in slow motion as about 50 of these shakers, and the 1-inch thick glass shelf used to stack them, came crashing down.

There is nothing quite so musical as the loud clanging of 50 metal objects paired with the crash of a glass shelf. The only thing louder than this was the "oh shit!" that I heard in my teeny, little brain.

As if this wasn't embarassing enough, Pegg later told me that while I was bending down to help the poor salespeople clean up, I had a little crack problem. That's right. Plumber's butt. The cherry on top of my embarassment sundae.

Today was a good day

2004-07-30T16:45:00.000-04:00

So there's lots to catch up on. Quitting my job. Cutting most of my hair off. Packing. Moving. Settling in. Etc... But I don't have the stamina for a long, drawn out entry. (Nor do you, I presume.) So I'll skip to today, for now. We'll play catch-up in bits and pieces soon, I promise.

Pegg and I had been spending the last few days at her parents' house out in the 'burbs. Pegg is commuting to that area for work, and the DNC highway closings would have made her commute a nightmare. So she decided to stay out there for the week, and asked me to join her. She wanted the company, and thought I'd be better off away from the mayhem that was DNC '04.

Given that the convention ended last night, today was a good day to come back into Boston. Pegg dropped me off at the train station on her way to work, and I caught the 8:15am train back to the city. (New York will always be "The City" to me, so Boston will have to be referred to as "the city". Note the case.)

The area of town we live in is called Back Bay. Those of you familiar with Boston might know the area. You might also know that there is a train station called Back Bay Station. I decided that this must be closer to home than South Station, the main train station in the city, so I got off when the conductor announced "Back Bay". This put me right in the Copley area. OK. Not exactly our doorstep, but not bad either. In about 15 minutes I was home. Nice new discovery. Back Bay station is somewhat convenient.

Got home, hopped in the shower, and got to work. I finally got around to finishing a draft of my resume while we were at Pegg's parents' house. Pegg had some suggestions for me, so I revised the draft with her changes. So far so good. Then I sent it out to a couple of friends to review. The more the merrier. And I need a job. Soon.

Speaking of jobs, I did send the first draft of my resume out the other day to a few places. I got a couple of nibbles from some recruiters. I am actually going to meet with one on Tuesday, just so she can get to know me, and get a sense of my skills. My mad mad skills. Ha. So I decided that I should be ever so fresh and clean for this meeting on Tuesday. She told me business casual. I realized that I've been wearing the same old raggedy polo shirts for a couple of years now. I never really cared so much at my last job. My co-workers were all middle-aged techies. My worst polo shirt, with holes in it, still vaulted me way ahead of this bunch. I always wondered if their wives were awake yet when they left in the morning....

Off to Downtown Crossing I went. Now I can appreciate a nice shirt like the next guy. I am still a guy, though, and I cannot appreciate paying $100 for a shirt with a horse or alligator on it, however trendy I might want to be. So it was off to Filene's Basement for me. I used to love Filene's Basement. They had one near me on Long Island growing up, and I could always find good stuff there that I could afford. Today's trip, to the real, original, honest-to-goodness Filene's Basement was like being reunited with a high school crush. It was an orgy. I went nuts.

I think this happens to me once every year and a half or so. I get to a big store, with a wide selection, and I realize "hey asshole, if you are patient, and do a little looking, you can get all your shopping for months done here, in this one store, in about an hour or so." I just grab whatever looks good, or cool, try it on, and if it even remotely fits, I buy it. Then I come home with a ton of shit, and take a day or two to decide if I need to return anything.

Today's 1 hour total: $375

Not bad.

Got home with all my crap, plus some baskets Pegg had wanted from a department store, and decided to do what every house-husband does after a hard day's shopping. Go to the pool. :-) Grabbed my book (Life of Pi), a towel, sunglasses, keys, and cell phone, and went to the pool. And here I am bitching about wanting to find a job. I'm such an asshole.

Now I'm waiting for Pegg to get home from work. We're going to hit the gym, and then go out somewhere new for dinner. There's still a lot of the city we have yet to explore.

Guess who's back? Back again. Salty's back. Tell a friend.

2004-07-30T10:30:00.000-04:00

I've been told that because I am currently unemployed, I have no excuse not to blog again. So here I am. Back from the blogger cemetary. Raised from my slumber like some creepy Stephen King or Anne Rice character. It is not your blood or soul that I seek, though. I have another modus operandi. I seek to bore you to death. Look out...

Excess Baggage

2004-06-28T10:09:00.000-04:00

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

2004-06-24T12:57:00.000-04:00

My score: 112! How'd you do?

Last NYC concerts for a while...

2004-06-21T18:43:00.000-04:00

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?

2004-06-18T12:11:00.000-04:00

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

Brother Bonus

2004-06-17T15:25:00.000-04:00

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

2004-06-17T13:57:00.000-04:00

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

2004-06-17T00:19:00.000-04:00

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

2004-06-16T11:36:00.000-04:00

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

2004-06-15T21:46:00.000-04:00

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

2004-06-14T10:12:00.000-04:00

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

2004-06-11T18:07:00.000-04:00

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

2004-06-10T12:00:00.000-04:00

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!!!!

2004-06-08T23:46:00.000-04:00

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

2004-06-08T22:51:00.000-04:00

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!

2004-06-08T11:24:00.000-04:00

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

CNN

Rocky Mountain High

2004-06-07T19:12:00.000-04:00

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

2004-06-07T16:36:00.000-04:00

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

2004-06-07T15:29:00.000-04:00

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

2004-06-07T11:18:00.000-04:00

Just got my favorite spam email ever:

Mini Weekend

2004-06-07T10:23:00.000-04:00

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

2004-06-04T15:03:00.000-04:00

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

2004-06-03T12:26:00.000-04:00

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?

2004-06-02T17:23:00.000-04:00

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

2004-06-01T14:17:00.000-04:00

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.

Spring is here and love is in the air

2004-05-27T19:25:00.000-04:00

One of my oldest friends in the world came over last night with his new girlfriend. We grew up around the corner from each other, and have been friends since about nursery school age. We don't see each other that often, but we'll call or email every now and then. I know that I could count on him for anything, and he should know the same of me.

Anyway, when it comes to girls he is one of the pickiest people I know. He makes Seinfeld look like a sweetheart. Too short. Too tall. Not pretty. Too pretty. Too smart. Too dumb. Too cold. Too affectionate. You get the idea.

When he told me he was seeing someone, and wanted me to meet her, I knew it was serious. He was introduced to her by a mutual friend, and they've been seeing each other for a month.

They were having dinner in my neighborhood, and stopped by after. We talked for a bit, watched Fantasia win on Idol, then talked some more. And they squeezed in some footsie and hand holding in between. That's right. Footsie. I know he's hooked.

After they left, and he was in the car on his way home, he called me. "So? What did you think?" My answer: "Keeper."

I'm very excited for him.

How my mind works....

2004-05-26T21:08:00.000-04:00

I hate to think it, but the timing of this new terror threat is interesting, perhaps a wee bit uncanny. Seems like a good time to re-focus the country on backing our "tough on terror" leaders. Is there an election coming up or something?

Maybe I'm crazy, but I wouldn't put trumping up a "threat" past them. Come to think of it, hopefully I'm crazy. However much a trumped up threat would suck, and however sad a state of affairs it would indicate, I can only pray that we don't see any more attacks here.

Pics from last weekend Upstate

2004-05-26T20:52:00.000-04:00

Rocky creek

Lost toy

Mmmmm. Hammock.

Sun peeking through.

Wild flowers

Orchid?

Orchids??

Brother's new friend

Old Mil - NA

2004-05-25T14:01:00.000-04:00

Ha. Just read something on The Black Table that made me laugh. Someone on craigslist is giving away two six packs of Old Milwaukee non-alcoholic beer. They bought it by mistake.

Well friends, saltydog here has a confession. I too was suckered into buying two six packs of Old Milwaukee NA just last year. I was back at college for The Game and staying with some friends in a hotel. We decided to grab some beers for the room. In the spirit of re-living those glory days, we went to the same ghetto liquor store that used to sell to us when we were 18, you know, to give something back to them. In the same spirit, we decided to drink the crappiest beer our money could buy. Golden Anniversary. Milwaukee's Best. Old Milwaukee. Etc... So we grabbed up some six-packs, including some Old Mil.

We get back to the room, fill up the sink with ice, throw in the beers, and each grabbed one. I went straight for the Old Mil. Crack the can. Take a sip. Mmmmmm. Goooood. Then I look at the label. "Hey. What the fuck? What is this NA crap? Oh man!!!!!!" I was so pissed.

The damned store had the Old Mil NA mixed right in with all the beers. I was bamboozled man. Perfectly good waste of $10. I'm just glad to know I am not the only one who has been such a fool. Thanks Amy Blair.

A Weekend Upstate

2004-05-24T18:27:00.000-04:00

So posting pictures is fun. Makes the blog a little more interesting. Though it would be nice if there were some way to upload in bulk with the Hello client. If any one knows how to do this, let me know. In the meantime, when I have the energy to load up a bunch of pics, I'll post some more.

How was everyone's weekend? Mine was pretty good. Wrote ~~a song~~ an entry 'bout it. Like to ~~hear~~ read it? Here it goes.

Drove upstate with Dad and Brother Friday night. Dad somehow has a knack for making what should amount to a two-and-a-half hour drive turn into four hours at least. Not sure how he does it, but each and every time I drive up with him it takes forever. So we got up there Friday night in time to go to bed. Not that going to bed early is a bad thing.

Saturday I started off the morning splitting wood. A couple of big branches had to come off a tree, which left us with lots of fire wood potential. The tree guys don't seem to have a concept of how big a fireplace log should be, so there was lots of splitting to do. I have to say, once I took a few swings with the axe, I really got the hang of it. Not bad for a bookish city-kid. A lot of the logs went sp-lit with just one swing. I was kind of wishing Girlfriend had been there to see her Grizzly Adams in action. Oh so manly.

Once the wood was split and piled, I got to work with Dad and Brother removing the ten or so piles of leaves and other fallen tree produce. We used every instrument imaginable. Rakes, pitchforks, blowers, shovels, hands, etc... Hard work, but we got it done. Then Brother and I set about moving all the wood I had split into a nice pile in the broken down shed. We worked well together, so it went pretty quickly. And we had a good time talking and catching up as we worked.

Got cleaned up and rested a bit, then went out for some dinner. There is a good local Italian place up there that Dad likes. We split some really good calamari, and then each had some parmagiana. Brother had chicken while Dad and I each had veal. It was quite good.

Sunday was another working day. Helped Dad install a fence-post on which he had mounted a bell that he got at some auction. Like a mini Liberty Bell. He's calling it the dinner bell. He dug a nice hole, then we mixed some cement and installed the post. Came out pretty well, and he was happy. After that we did some weed-whacking. Those little motherfuckers sprout like you wouldn't believe. When the work was done, Brother felt like going for a run. I can't keep up with him (he runs semi-regularly, and I eat take-out semi-regularly) so I rode a bike along side him. It was fun until I got chased by a dog. It wasn't a big dog, but it was fast as hell and barking like crazy. I was just glad it was interested in me on the bike, and seemingly unaware of Brother running behind me. So I pedaled away from it, and its owners called it back. We had a good laugh at that one.

Dad drove us each back to our apartments before he headed home. I was looking to get back relatively early because Girlfriend was actually in NYC for the weekend. She was hanging out with her college friends from LA and Baltimore, and was planning to stay until this morning. So I got to spend some time with her, which is always nice. We caught up, watched the Sopranos (kick ass episode) and got some sleep. Good times.

Last of the Block

2004-05-24T18:21:00.000-04:00

Here is a last sampling of Block Island pics.

More B.I. Pics

2004-05-23T20:23:00.003-04:00

Some more pics from Block Island. Enjoy.

Block Island, Last Summer

2004-05-20T23:45:00.000-04:00

Here are some pics from our BI trip last summer.

Pretty Fly

2004-05-20T21:34:00.000-04:00

Check it out. Photo support for Blogger via Hello. Cool.

Weak week

2004-05-20T18:09:00.000-04:00

This week has been pretty lame so far. Stayed home sick on Monday, and worked on my resume. The rest of the week has been work -> gym -> couch. Except today, when I am skipping the gym. Gotta get some shit done at home tonight. I am leaving after work tomorrow to head upstate with my father and brother. Girlfriend is coming into NYC, though, to hang out with friends of hers from college. One of them now lives in LA, but is here for the week. So Girlfriend and another friend of theirs who now lives in Baltimore are going to hang in NYC for the weekend. I need to leave the place in somewhat decent shape for them. But I'll spare you the details of my chores. (I don't want to give any more credence to the title that a friend has given this blog: "Interesting stories of laundry folding".)

Just heard the "ding" of the microwave. Time for dinner. Maybe I'll burn the roof of my mouth, or stain the couch, or do something even remotely interesting between now and my next entry. Or maybe I'll just finish the week weak.

More weekend fun

2004-05-19T19:14:00.000-04:00

Caught the 5:40 train to Boston again this past Friday. Surprise, surprise it was 20 minutes late. Again.

Train ride was decent. Worked on my resume. Watched The Big Lebowski. Classic film, highly recommended to those who haven't seen it. Listened to some music. 4 hours later I was in Boston.

Girlfriend picked me up at the station and we headed back to her place. Passed by a small carnival that was still open (this was about 10:20pm) and decided to check it out. Not much was going on there, but they had a roundup ride, so we had to go on it. Hadn't been on one in years. Brought back a lot of memories. Sadly we were not nearly as unfazed by it as the two 10-year-olds who were on at the same time. It was still fun.

The only other thing we did at the carnival was play one game. They had a cork-gun game, where you had to try to shoot soda cans or zippos. You put a cork in the muzzle of the air gun, pump the gun, and shoot. $2 for unlimited shots. If you knock a can down on its shelf, you win a teeny prize. (This is why you get unlimited shots. Everyone wins at least the teeny prize.) If you knock a can back off its shelf, you get something better. If you knock a zippo down on its shelf you also get a teeny prize. If you knock a zippo off its shelf, you get whatever is taped to it. Some of the zippos had $5 bills taped to them, and some had the word "jumbo" on them. Knocking a jumbo zippo off the shelf got you choice of jumbo prizes.

I was playing for Girlfriend. Had to at least try for the jumbo. I corked the gun, and took aim at a "jumbo" zippo. Missed. I cork again. Take aim. BLAM. Zippo knocked-the-fuck off its shelf. Ok, maybe it wasn't that dramatic. But it was pretty cool. Girlfriend got a big stuffed Patrick and I got to feel like a manly man for winning it for her. Manlier yet for winning it with a toy cork gun.

Saturday morning we woke up to help Girlfriend's parents prep for a barbecue they were having that day. We got to skewer some things, and make some hamburger patties. Then we got to enjoy a bit of their BBQ before heading out to another party. The younger sister of one of Girlfriend's friends from high school just graduated, and they were having a graduation party for her. So we headed over there, with some baked brie that we cooked up for them. I think Girlfriend's parents' guests were bummed when they saw us make the baked brie, then take it out of the oven and bail with it. I know I'd be bummed if someone dangled some baked brie goodness under my nose and then absconded with it.

The graduation party was fun. Lots of good food, lots of nice people, lots of cute little kids running around, and great weather. Plus they had Corona, which always makes me happy. Between the two parties we ate way too much. Went back to Girlfriend's place, and her parents' guests were still there! We had enough of other people for the day, so we holed up in her room and watched tv until they were gone. Then we went downstairs, somehow managed enough appetite for the Klondike bars we found in the freezer, and watched more TV. Thankfully a couple of Umpa Lumpas were on hand to roll us up to bed.

Sunday we headed out to do some errands for the new place in Boston. Girlfriend's parents wanted us to eat leftovers from their BBQ for breakfast. I couldn't even look at a burger, let alone eat one for breakfast. So we politely declined, and had some ham and toast instead. Then we went on our way, erranding the day away.

We grabbed lunch at the nicest TGI Friday's I have ever seen. I'm not kidding. The place must be brand new. They've gotten all fancy on me. Well, fancier than ever. Plus the proportion of Star Wars swag on the walls was awesome. Intact Millenium Falcon. Darth Vader action figure carrying case. C-3PO head. Hoth snowspeeder. Awesome Friday's swag. Good lunch.

We erranded some more, and then made it back to the house in time for me to pack up and for us to grab some dinner with Girlfriend's dad. Then off to the train, and back to NYC. Fun weekend.

Dirrrrty

2004-05-19T15:40:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I think a list of "Suggested Tips" should be posted in office Men's Rooms. At a minimum:

1. Don't piss on the seat. People sit on seats.
2. Don't get shit on the seat. See #1.
3. Flush when you are done. The next customer will not be as proud of your work as you are.
4. Wash your hands before you leave. Especially if someone is there to see you skip this chore.

Someone just ignored Tip #4 right in front of me. No shame.

If I have to leave this job perhaps I will have the balls to print and post this list.

Ha. Who am I kidding?

Bring it

2004-05-18T14:39:00.000-04:00

I know. My life is pretty boring. At least in print. At least the parts I am willing to share. But people, please comment. Even if it's just to tell me how lame I am. I know at least a couple of people have found this site. But no one tells me how I am doing. Do you want more detail, less, more thoughts, more rants, more journal-style writing? Hello? Is there anybody out there????

Bummer

2004-05-17T21:53:00.000-04:00

My DVR is busted. That makes me an unhappy boy. I'm in love with my DVR. It's the best thing to come from the cable company since Cinemax-On-Demand. Two tuners, pause, rewind, picture-in-picture, plus 35 hours of hard drive storage to record on. All the goodness of TiVo for a couple of bucks a month. Such a cool invention. Um, well, except when they break. All those episodes of Family Guy, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Chappelle's Show, Justice League, Las Vegas, CSI, etc... that I had saved up are now goneski. Get me a Betamax. I want my DVR back. I'm Rick James bitch.

Doppelganger

2004-05-14T16:44:00.000-04:00

So I was in Best Buy this afternoon looking for a DVD to watch on the train ride to Boston tonight. I saw that they had the Miramax Collectors' Series version of Swingers. Seeing as how this week just happened to mark the 1 millionth time someone has told me I look just like Jon Favreau, I decided to pay homage to the most handsome actor in town and buy the DVD. Now I own Swingers. I'm so money. And literally, one million people have commented on the resemblance. Kills me.

Oh man

2004-05-13T23:28:00.000-04:00

This had me laughing out loud, so I had to share. Poor kid. But as I said, laughing out loud.

More than meets the eye

2004-05-13T18:12:00.000-04:00

So who wants to buy me a PS2?

http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/action/transformersarmada/index.html

Unfinished Business

2004-05-13T17:10:00.000-04:00

I suppose I should finish last weekend's wrap-up before this weekend rolls around.

So that was Friday night. Korean food, beer, and comedy tv. Pretty enjoyable.

Saturday we woke up, and lounged around the apartment a bit. We enjoyed a gourmet breakfast, surfed the net a bit, and watched some TV. Then we headed out to do some errands. Girlfriend had some new pants she wanted shortened, so we stopped in at the dry cleaner where she has happily had other pants shortened before. Then we made our way down to Hallmark to buy some Mothers' Day cards. Stopped in to Krispy Kreme for some coffee, but no donuts! We were trying to be good, so we simply watched the donut machine do its thing, resisting the glaze waterfall all the while, drank our coffee, and left. We're talking some serious resolve here folks.

After that we went to the Gap because I had a coupon. There was nothing I wanted there, though I did toy with the idea of a new belt, but they all looked funny on me. Girlfriend got some stuff though, so the visit was productive.

Girlfriend had been talking about getting a haircut, and we were near a place where I sometimes get mine cut as a walk-in. Their walk-in price is decent for shampoo and cut, at $20. So Girlfriend decided to give it a try. I sat like an old Jewish husband and read a magazine while she had her hair done. When she went to settle up, the price was three times what we expected. Apparently once the blow-drier makes an appearance, the prices go way up. Girlfriend was upset, feeling she had been swindled. So I had some words with the manager.

Me:

Manager:

Me:

Manager:

Me:

Manager:

Me:

Manager:

Me:

Manager:

Me:

OK. So we didn't exactly have words. But he got the point that I was upset. Then we walked out. Girlfriend acknowledged that she should have asked how much extra for styling when the haircutter busted out the drier, and that her hair did come out well, but she still felt ripped off. So never go to Amour De Hair. They suck.

We shrugged off the bad experience there, and decided to head home. We were both hungry by now, so we stopped off at the gourmet Italian deli for some salads. They have that pick your ingredients salad bar with unlimited toppings for $5.95, which is a good deal and healthy. So salads in hand, we headed on home.

After manging and resting a bit, we headed down to our friend's apartment. A bunch of us had tickets to Super Diamond that night at Irving Plaza. This friend lives near Irving Plaza, and had a bunch of beer left over from a previous get together. So we met up there to polish off those beers and listen to some Neil before the show.

As it so happened, one of Girlfriend's friends from college was also going to the show with some of her roommates/friends. So we met up with them at 119 Bar before the show. Almost immediately the friend whose place we had been hanging out at moved in on these girls. He was talking to them all, while I was talking to Girlfriend, her friend from high school, and the other people we started out with. At first I thought he was doing pretty well with them. Right when I was about to pull him aside and tell him how well it looked like he was doing, he came over to us and said "Holy shit these girls hate me." But he was having fun, so it was worth it. Suffice it to say that group left the bar quickly, without us. Oh well.... Their loss. Especially when it comes to this particular friend, but I'll save the friend ass-kissing for other posts.

We got to the show right as the opening band, The Lounge-O-Leers, was finishing up. They take pop songs and play them in a lounge-y fashion. Cute at first, but it could get annoying quickly. We bumped into the other girls, said hi to Girlfriend's friend, and then they bolted again. I won't touch that one. Anyway, Super Diamond came on about 11:00. Good times. They did all the hits, and then some. And I had forgotten that Heartlight was a Neil Diamond tune. That was the highlight of the night for me. The show let out some time around 1am. Given that Mother's Day plans were up in the air for the next day, we decided to call it a night and head home. (If my mother was into getting up in time she was going to take a train into the city early so she could see Girlfriend before Girlfriend headed back to Boston to see her mom. If not, my brother and I were going to head out to her after Girlfriend left.)

We woke up on Sunday a little hung-over, and a little relieved that Mom never called in the morning to say she was coming in. Everyone got to sleep a bit. So we got ready, and headed down to Penn Station. Girlfriend hopped on her train, then I met up with Brother and we hopped onto ours. Little surprise for the day, Dad would be there too. Mom and Dad aren't doing so well together lately, so this was unexpected, and a little uncomfortable. Their lives, though, we're just along for the ride.

Mom picked us up at the train station, and then we headed to the house. Dad showed up a few minutes later, and we were ready to head out. We went for Middle Eastern/Mediterranean food. It was really quite good. Conversation focused on politics, war, and local gossip. It was surprisingly civil and tolerable, all things considered. And my moussaka was awesome. (It's basically Greek lasagna with beef, lamb, feta, etc...)

After lunch we walked around town a bit, passing by the town dock which is always nice and peaceful, and stopping in at the ice cream store where Brother worked in high school. The owner was so happy to see Brother, and we all had a really nice time talking to him. One thing the four of us will always agree on is that we swell with pride when someone outside our inner nucleus has something nice to say about one of us. So Mom, Dad and I ate it up while the guy re-lived fun times with brother and praised him. Couldn't stop in there without buying anything, just wouldn't be right, so we each had some ice cream. Good call.

We went back to the house, helped Mom get rid of some stuff of ours that we didn't want any more, played with the cat a bit, then headed back home. Home. Guess I've been out of their house so long now that it's not where I would call "Home" any more. Now it's "the house" and my little apartment is "Home". And not for much longer. But I digress....

Full weekend. Nice weather. Friends and family. Dysfunctional or not, it was nice. And time with Brother always makes me happy and helps keep me sane.

WAH

2004-05-13T15:34:00.000-04:00

Today was air conditioner maintenance day on my floor at home. This means I got to work at home for the morning, while waiting for the AC guys to come. I could have just left a permission-to-enter form with the management company, but I like to be there when people are working in the apartment. And I love working at home.

Working at home. Laptop on my lap. Radio or TV on. Boxers and t-shirt. Temperature settings that I control. Fridge two feet away. These are all good things. And I got a lot of work done, to boot.

Fielded some calls, dealt with some things on email, etc...

I don't see why my management is so opposed to letting me switch to telecommuting when I move to Boston. Nothing better than working at home to me.

Have I mentioned that I need to finish my resume?

Lookee lookee

2004-05-12T11:28:00.000-04:00

So I found the URL to my friend's not-yet-ready-to-reveal blog accidentally today. I was checking my Site Meter stats, and took a look at the referring URLs. Most referring URLs are comment pages on other sites where I have left some pearl of wisdom. Sometimes I get a Google hit. And once before I was linked into by another blogger, Ron. Today I noticed another blog link, but from a blog I had never seen before. So I clicked on it. The first entry I saw was about a recent injury suffered by a friend of mine. (He ruptured his Achilles heel playing softball Monday night.) Then there in the sidebar of this blog was a link to mine. So I knew right away whose blog this was.

Anyway, that's not even the point. The point is that she has spent a lot of time making her site look very very cool. Slick in the slickest of Slick-Rick senses. It made me jealous. My site looked like donkey doo. But if you haven't learned this by now, I am lazy. And laziness tends to trump most things, even jealousy. Being the lazy shit that I am, I hopped onto blogger.com and chose a new template for my site. Something a little more pleasing to the eye. After all, I need to appreciate my two readers. Might as well give them something better to look at.

Hope you like the new look. Methinks it is much better than the old one.

Sadly, it took this IT professional much longer than I would like to admit to retrofit the original comments and site-meter tags into the new template. Guess that's why I don't code any more...

And I dropped the book list. I realized that it wasn't changing at all. I have been bad about reading lately. Though I did bring A Man In Full to work today, hoping to have lunch in the park and get some reading done. This is true.

Friday night contd...

2004-05-11T15:30:00.000-04:00

After Korean dinner we walked over to the subway and headed on home. We grabbed a couple of beers and went up to the roof on our building. It was a little windier than we were expecting, but we got to catch the end of a magnificent sunset, so we toughed it out a bit. Talked a little bit about my parents and the current state of their relationship. Never a fun discussion, but good to get some things out. Then we went back down to the apartment and decided to watch some TV and have a couple more beers. Caught a couple of old Chappelle's Show. He consistently cracks me up. Then we watched the Chris Rock HBO special "Never Scared". It was pretty good. We laughed throughout, which was surprising given that we had heard mediocre things about it. Then again, maybe it was the beer. Finally, off to sleep. Girlfriend by my side. The way it is supposed to be.

Weekend Update

2004-05-11T11:38:00.000-04:00

No, sadly I am not pretending to be Dennis Miller or Jimmy Fallon, or the lovely Miss Tina Fey. Just re-counting this past weekend's activities. You know, for posterity.

The weekend started off nicely. Picked up Girlfriend at Penn Station on Friday around 6:00pm. She came in earlier than usual so she could leave earlier than usual on Sunday in order to spend some time with her Mom on Mother's Day. The weather was beautiful, so we decided to walk somewhere rather than just hop on the subway home. The idea of walking somewhere is usually fun, especially in cases like Friday when "somewhere" is as specific as we get.

A few paces away from the station Girlfriend asked if I wanted an early dinner. I gave her my standard response when offered food - "I could eat" - and we agreed to find some food. I'm a big boy, so I have two responses when asked if I am hungry:

Response 1: "I'm starving" (given when I have even the slightest feeling of hunger)
Response 2: "I could eat" (given at all other times)

Anyway, we thought it would be fun to try one of the Korean restaurants on the stretch of 32nd Street between Broadway and 5th. There are lots of good places there, and we hadn't been there to eat in years. We tried to find the place we went to the last time, but it must have closed. Not knowing any better, we decided that Kun Jip looked busy/good and decided to give it a try.

They sat us at a table for four, in the back near the kitchen. We were hoping that the menu would have pictures, given that we don't know the first thing about Korean cuisine. Alas, it did not. We decided to pass on the table-top BBQ or hot-pot dishes. They are better for big groups. Instead we each ordered a regular entree. Girlfriend chose a comfort/peasant dish that consisted of ground beef, a fried egg, and some other ingredients over rice, served in some sort of crock over a flame. The idea was to mix it all up and then eat it. I went with a fish dish. Chunks of cod in broth with tofu, clam, and veggies. We thought we ordered well, considering we were flying blind.

After our order was in our waiter brought over eight plates of kimchi. The portions were generous, the variety was wide, and the flavor was abundant. We were both impressed with the quantity and quality of this complimentary/included course. After that, the waiter confused my by bringing over a casserole in a crock over a flame. Apparently this was complimentary as well. It was very light, and quite good. By the time the main courses came, we were almost full. Well, as you could have guessed, "almost full" is not really a problem. We made quick work of the entrees, and then enjoyed sipping what must have been persimmon punch - also complimentary.

The meal was good, fun, and inexpensive. Might have been better if we knew what to order, but we did okay. And we certainly had a good time gazing at the various delights on all of the other tables. We decided that next time we'll simply point at other tables and tell the waiter "we'll have what they're having...."

Also, I made a comment during the meal about wishing I had my digital camera with me to capture the loveliness that was in front of us. Girlfriend responded "why, so you can post food-porn?" I had never heard that term before. Didn't know that's how people refer to foodie-picture-postings. Very funny.

This turned into a long description of our dinner. I'll split the weekend update into multiple posts....

ATHF

2004-05-10T10:46:00.000-04:00

This "engine" is way off-base. I would have bet on a Meatwad outcome. Oh well. Let my inner Evil shine.

Which Aqua Teen Hunger Force character are you??

Quick Update

2004-05-07T12:27:00.000-04:00

So how'd I do?

Clean up Check!
Get groceries Check!
Drop off dry cleaning Check!
Do laundry Check!
Work on my resume Check!
Figure out Mothers' Day plans Check!
Test out remote access to work servers Check!
Eat Check!
Watch TV Check!
Web surf Check!

Let's not go crazy patting ourselves on the back now, though, because (ahem) I cheated a little. (I haven't actually folded the laundry yet, and I did some of the clean up work this morning....)

But between then and now, everything got done. Miraculous. Uninteresting, I know. But miraculous nonetheless. Happy Friday!

Catch up

2004-05-06T18:37:00.000-04:00

OK. Had fun last night. Now it's time to pay the piper. Lots to get done around the apartment tonight. What I hope to accomplish, in no particular order:

Clean up
Get groceries
Drop off dry cleaning
Do laundry
Work on my resume
Figure out Mothers' Day plans
Test out remote access to work servers
Eat
Watch TV
Web surf

What are the odds I will get all this done? Slim, my friend, slim.

OK. Phase I. Dry cleaners close in 20 minutes. Better get my shit together....

OC ya later

2004-05-06T09:52:00.000-04:00

The OC finale last night was pretty good. It was actually pretty emotional, for a cheesy show. I got a little choked up from it. Maybe that's because I was pretty buzzed from a night out. Either way, it tugged at my heart strings a little bit. Except for the character Seth's ending. Leaving notes for his parents and girlfriend and then running away on a 10 foot Hobie cat sailboat. Come on. How far can a kid get on a boat like that? So I got a good laugh out of that part, while sniffling at the other parts. I am embarassingly looking forward to next season....

Google love?

2004-05-05T16:13:00.000-04:00

Looking at stats for this site I came across a weird entry point into my blog. Apparently someone did a search for meeting "girlfriend's parents" sucked and got my blog as one of the results. Funny stuff. Well, funny to me. Obviously not too funny to the poor guy who met the parents.

Hump Day

2004-05-05T15:34:00.000-04:00

The week drags on... Tonight should be fun though. Meeting a friend from college for a drink. He chose The Ginger Man for some reason, even though he and I could not be less of the "Ginger Man-type". Though my business attire serves as good camouflage to fit in there, internally I will be crying. But, on the bright side, they do have a huge selection of beer there, and I am friends with one of the bouncers so I might get to say hello to him if he is working. The friend I am meeting has to leave around 7:00 to go teach a class. I would assume this is a class on the scripting language PHP, because this is his area of expertise. Wouldn't it be nice if I were enough of an expert on something to earn money teaching it? "Channel Surfing 101: Professor Saltydog" is not what I have in mind....

After posing like someone who belongs at Ginger Man, I will head out somewhere hopefully more laid back to meet up with some friends for some Cinco de Mayo margaritas or cervezas. Perhaps some place with an outdoor area. Hopefully some place with good music, and that is not too crowded. Something a little divey. Either way, I am anticipating a fun evening.

Are we really this stupid?

2004-05-05T10:48:00.000-04:00

This business about abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American troops is killing me. It's one thing that we invaded without real justification. (Yes, I know that all involved will ultimately be better off, but that is not a justification....) Once the war was a reality, I was ok with the idea that we did topple a horrible regime, and would eventually bring democracy and stability to the country. But part of the reason I was ok with the whole thing was because of my "holier-than-thou" view of how WE do business. How WE treat enemies and civilians in enemy territory with respect. I have visions of the WWII GIs being welcomed into European towns with waves and smiles. Our troops are supposed to represent America, freedom, democracy, and most of all HOPE.

Now here we are, exposed to the world as a bunch of animals. Torturing and humiliating prisoners lowers us to their level. The only way we could have put a good spin on this invasion in the eyes of the world was to have acted with the utmost respect and professionalism. How can we scorn the behavior of dictators and terrorists when some of our own troops are no better? This hurts me as an American. It is shameful and embarrassing.

We have smart missiles for a reason. We have tactical teams for a reason. We aim to conduct our operations with absolute precision. Why? To reduce the risk of civilian casualties. To wage war in the most humane way possible. Can war ever truly be humane? No. But we like to tell the world that we take the moral high road. Or at least we did....

Wars are inevitable, I know this. I am not a pacifist by any means. War is a part of humanity. It is a necessary evil, that sometimes turns out for the best. American independence. Ending the Nazi juggernaut. There are, however, rules of engagement. There are measures to be taken to limit atrocity. It seems sadly that our own forces are losing sight of what they are out there to represent. It should mean something to be an American soldier. The job should be performed with dignity, professionalism, and respect. It saddens me that some of our troops have lost sight of this fact. It saddens me that the behavior of a few misguided troops has tarnished any good that could have come from this war, and has tranished the memory of fallen US troops. Fallen troops who were professional and respectful, I'm sure.

I'm not hungry, so why am I eating my words?

2004-04-28T22:55:00.000-04:00

Two reasons why hearing the new Beastie Boys single on the OC was not so bad:

1. It served as the theme music to the boys' Vegas entrance. I too love the Vegas. And I'd be psyched to begin a Vegas trip with the BBoys as my soundtrack.
2. The episode also featured the Franz Ferdinand track "Jacqueline". Franz Ferdinand is an up-and-coming band with a lot of chic-appeal and hype right now. Good company for my Beasties.

My vocabulary, actually

2004-04-28T21:46:00.000-04:00

Wow. Just reading the longer entry from tonight. I ~~somehow~~ actually managed to use the word "actually" three times in three consecutive sentences. Time to go back to skool and learn me up good!

Yooowww

2004-04-28T21:08:00.000-04:00

Ok. I lied. I do have something to complain about. Alas, not wittily.

Spicy steamed vegetable dumplings.

That's right - spicy.

Steamed vegetable dumplings are not supposed to be spicy! Yet here I am, bald-spot sweating, acid-reflux refluxing, tounge burning, and brain whining.

Had to order from the Chinese place by my old apartment because I passed it yesterday and felt badly that I stopped giving them my business when they were so nice and friendly and all. Some thanks I got!

Reunited and it feels so good

2004-04-28T18:26:00.000-04:00

So this blog has now become somewhat of a chore. Sadly. It was supposed to be fun, and now it is one of the many things on my mind that I feel I must attend to. "Gotta update my blog" has now joined the ranks of "gotta clean up", "gotta pay bills", and my new friend "gotta work on my resume". Such a shame. But I will try to remedy this.

Part of the problem is that nothing major has been happening. Nothing funny to report. Nothing annoying to wittily complain about. Just moving along, working during the week, relaxing on the weekends.

This past weekend was pretty good. Girlfriend came to NYC. (Yes, I am now using the name Girlfriend for her, as opposed to always writing "my girlfriend". Seems more familiar, while respectfully maintaining anonymity.) We went over to a friend's place on Friday night to watch the Red Sox embarrass the Yankees. Pitiful game. And sadly the Sox fans at our friend's place outnumbered the Yankees fans, making it all the more sour. Girlfriend made some brie en crut (sp?) with puff pastry dough, and with chopped almonds inside. She did the prep work and cooking at our friend's place, which was fun, and everyone lapped up the cheese. I enjoyed it thoroughly. After the game we were all tired, and just went our separate ways home.

Saturday was beautiful in NYC. We bummed around the apartment for a bit, then got up off our asses and went to Central Park. Plopped ourselves down on a blanket, near the Great Lawn (but not on it) and relaxed. Did some people watching, read a bit, and tried to soak up a little sun. Then we decided to walk around, and we bumped into two separate people from the neighborhood where I grew up.

One of them is the son of one of my mother's closest friends. (Got that? ;-) He and I were actually best friends from 3rd grade until 7th grade. Then he became somewhat popular, and left me out in the cold with no friends. Tragic in 7th grade. How sad for me, I know. I can make light of it now, because I am a grown up with a decent crowd of friends, but believe me it sucked ass back then. Anyway, we forgive and forget. Especially when the person's family is still close to yours. Definitely when there mother is the saint that his mom is, and is like an aunt to you. So it was nice to see him, and to meet his girlfriend finally.

The other guy we ran into used to be my next door neighbor growing up. He is a few years younger than me. Nice guy. I actually used to babysit for him and his brother. His parents moved away from there last year, and are actually living in the city now. He was on his way to see them, actually, making a detour through the park. I like that whole family a lot. Good people.

Small world huh?

Saturday night Girlfriend and I went to see Kill Bill Volume II. It was good, though not as good as Volume I. And one of the speakers near us was out, and static-y as hell all through the movie. But I decided to suck it up, rather than get stressed out about it, and walk out in the middle to complain and get another ticket. Stress sucks. Though one of the reasons I see movies in the theater is for the killer sound. So I was bummed about that. (But not stressed, remember....) Anyway, the movie was enjoyable. I feel as if I was laughing more at the first one, though, or maybe more surprised by the first one. Maybe it's because there had not been a new Tarantino film in years when I saw Vol. I. Or maybe I need to see Vol II. again...

Sunday nice, but busy. My aunt and my mom came into the city to meet us for lunch. My brother also came along, which was cool. We went to a diner in our neighborhood, and then back to our apartment to talk for a bit. Had to kick everyone out around 4:00 though, because Girlfriend had to hit the road, and I had to go to my college fraternity's initiation ceremony. My chapter actually folded a couple of years ago. The chapter really went to shit a couple of years after I graduated. Wrong type of guys, wrong reasons for joining. Lack of motivation and interest caused it to dissolve. The National office liked having a presence on our campus, though, so they are trying to start it up again. They sent some advisors to school to rush a new group, and they re-founded the chapter. Relations between the alumni of my chapter as we knew it, and the new chapter, have not gotten off to the best start. So the new chapter wisely decided to hold the initiation of their first pledge class in NYC, where lots of alums are concentrated. This would be fun for them, and easy for us, and we could all share the experience together.

Anyway, the initiation was held in my friend's basement apartment. A lot of alums showed up, which was nice. Then we all went out to dinner at a coal oven pizza joint. I actually did the work to arrange the dinner, which was a pain in the ass. Last minute dinner for 40 can suck. But when all was said and done, everyone was happy, and the eight alums that made it to the dinner were all able to kick in enough dough to cover the whole cost. That felt really good, and was a nice gift/gesture to the undergrads.

All in all a good weekend. But see, if you are not me, this can't have been too interesting a read....

Maybe I need to start making up some blog-worthy shit. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Hero defined

2004-04-23T14:01:00.000-04:00

The news about Pat Tillman is tragic. Here is someone who had everything going for him, and decided to risk it all for his country. As someone who lives in New York City, and was affected emotionally by the September 11th attacks, I have only the depeest sympathy and gratitude for this hero. I am not a super patriot. I am not a huge NFL fan. But this is something significant to me still. Here is someone who walked away from a lucrative and successful NFL career and left a wife behind to do what he felt was his patriotic duty. Regardless of political leaning, one has to respect his commitment and sacrifice. I'm sure he will be missed sorely.

Hooray for Blogger

2004-04-22T00:04:00.000-04:00

blogger.com is offering its users early access to gmail. 1GB. Search built in. This is cool. Thanks blogger.