Failure

Well, it is unlikely that there will be a matching 166th post in the blog this year. I'm back from the holidays in Maine and I'm doing a poor job of attempting to be productive on my few remaining days off. Tonight I did manage to exchange a shirt that I got for Xmas for a pair of new jeans. It was an even trade more or less... I only had to pay $1.84 in difference.

The holidays were good. I met my little cousin Justin, which is pretty much the first "baby" in my family that I've ever had contact with. Up until now, I was still the baby within the circle of relatives that I am close to. It was good to lose that title and Justin Ward brought a lot of joy to the holidays.

I have some house cleaning to attend to so I think I will bid the blog adieu.

Blog Entry

Yes indeed, another entry I shall write, because it is my destiny to do my best to match the 166 posts of last year. I don't care if there is absolutely nothing of value or substance for me to write about, I WILL put down my prose, I WILL write of the mundane, I WILL attempt to entertain? (Hey those last two rhyme!)

My evening prior to now:
Shopping, going to a liquor store to get beer (I had been looking forward to some quality drinking since a rather unpleasant commute home on public transit), getting lost in Peabody while looking for a store, realizing it is too late to have the pizza I had my heart set upon, settling on McDonald's because it is one of the few take out places still open, having my night cap, wrapping presents... and tah dah, here I am at last writing this Blog Entry.

Last weekend before the Holidays...

AND... I still haven't completed my Christmas Shopping. Whoopee!

I'm not looking forward to work particularly.

The weekend was good, I was snowed in, but other than that it was good. Kate and I put up my little tree and exchanged gifts. We had a Harrow's Chicken pot pie on Saturday night, and today we took advantage of the new Subway shop in the Richdale's convenience store next to my building. I need to wrap a couple of presents tonight to achieve my "daily accomplishment" so this is going to be short and sweet.

Enjoy your Monday.

Dinner out in a blizzard...and a funny article

I went out to Stearns & Hill's Bistro in Melrose for supper with his girlfriend Millie. It was sort of a last minute thing that came together yesterday and today. I was kind of out of it (tired I guess...) at supper, socially awkward, unintentionally interrupting etc. Midway through the meal I dropped the fork I was eating with on the floor. I got one from another table after turning down an offer from Millie to get another one for me. Millie was midway through explaining her thoughts about a political issue, I looked down at the floor then back up at Jason and Millie and said "go on" as I smirked and attempted to brush it off. My other bad habit was answering when the waitress asked a question with "I think we're all set" etc. It was a force of habit because when I'm out with Kate we are always on the same page and we'd talk it out beforehand if we weren't, so I can answer for us without concern. I've noticed that I've become more assertive over the past couple years, when I always used to be more passive. I may need to step back again and find some middle ground. Anyway enough of my psychological internal reflection babble.....

My idiosyncrasies aside, I think we all had a good time.

It is snowing at a fairly good quip. The town is really quiet with the exception of snow plows in the distance, and the occasional passing of the Commuter Rail.

And now finally the funny article:

Bush signs off on Clinton pay cut

I suppose I have a strange sense of humor, but I find this bizarre, and it sort of demonstrates everything that is messed up about government. Technically Bush could potentially refuse to sign off on the pay cut and keep Hillary out, wouldn't that be petty. (and funny too!)

YAWN....

I'm seriously waaay too tired lately.
Got home pretty early today, had a doctor's appointment, got some Chinese take out, and then after messing around with face book I pretty much crashed in exhaustion.

I have this new idea that I'm going to accomplish an errand or task on a "to do list" daily. So far it has been a very rewarding resolution of sorts. The past couple days however, I've just felt like I'm up against insurmountable odds.

Well I think I'm just about finished writing this dry, completely uninteresting blog post.

Happy Holidays and such.

Happy food

These master works of art are from the menu at Prince's on Rt. 1. Kate and I went there on Saturday night and had some bruschetta and pizza. It was lovely. Kate's slice is the one pictured on the left. My more minimalist design can be seen on the right.

Aside from that we went shopping on Sunday. And ate at the dandelion green in Burlington. Despite having pricey dinner options, the lunch was pretty reasonable.

Well, here we are another week....

Break comes soon!

Kelly's on a Rainy December Night

AND IT WAS THE BEST RAINY DECEMBER NIGHT EATING AT KELLY'S..... possibly ever!


Mike Caprio joined me at one of Boston's institutions... or at least a replication of the institution in Medford for a feast.

Caprio went for the time honored tradition of Kelly's Roast Beef sandwich. I had my heart set on the artery clogging seafood and got a clam plate. Here we wait anxiously... I was number 19, Mike was 2, apparently Kelly's counts off in intervals of 17. Whatever works.


The food has arrived in this shot, my plate is ridiculously large being the glutton that I am. The soda was diet, if nothing else, but I foolishly ordered a large thinking that the small was too small.

A certain Scott Wilkinson was supposed to accompany Mike and I, however he cancelled because of errands. No sorry guys can't come out tonight, I really have to do laundry. Well Scott, you missed out, you missed out.
A chipper Kelly's employee was kind enough to take our picture. You can see how we are just exuding joy and excitement.

You too could have had a plate of fries, or some roast beef, Scott. It is a shame really.

This last shot is really kind of sad. Here is Mike shivering in the cold rain waiting for a train to arrive. A train perhaps that he wouldn't have had to take if only Scott were there to drive him home. Instead Mike suffered there on the MBTA concrete and braved the rickety orange line back to Charlestown. But you know what? I think Mike and I both agree that the rain and the cold were well worth it. A great time was had by all. All who were present....

Molly is Looking Good...

My rubber plant, which traces its humble roots back to a Tewksbury Home Depot when Tim Hayes and I lived up in Lowell, is now taller than I am. It has been nearly 8 years now and Molly, affectionately named a couple of years ago by Kate, had a little bit of a spa treatment today. I gave her a trim, and a lift, and a nourshing 2 liters of water. She sports two 5 foot pieces of conduit piping which I purchased tonight to support her tallest and heaviest branches. She's graduated from the dowels I bought a few years back which tend to rot out at the base where I stick them in the pot.

How about that Rod Blagojevich? Selling Obama's Senate seat... how on earth did he ever imagine he'd pull that one off? Wow...

Looks like congress and W are bent on giving some candy to the Automakers Union. 14 billion instead of 15 billion, what is 1 billion less some sort of compromise? With any luck there will be a filibuster in the senate.

The First 2008 December Weekend

My weekend started a little early on Friday when we had a holiday party at a local pub. From noon to 10:00 pm I essentially ate and drank, and until 4:00 pm it was on the company dime, which was very nice. A few of us stragglers, basically myself, and two other coworkers headed over to Bartley's for a late supper. I tasted my first sweet potato fries (finally) which were good, however I still prefer good old traditional potatoes.

When Kate came over Saturday night I had been seduced by Pizza Hut's latest marketing campaign for their "Panormous Pizza". Kate was immediately reluctant, and as you'll find out she was correct in her reservations. We decided to order the pizza online since Pizza Hut was offering a 20% discount, on top of an already great deal. When all was said and done, we got the "Panormous" along with the order of cheese sticks. The Panormous is like Pizza Hut's typical pan pizza, however it is the size of one of the Bigfoot Pizzas that have long ago been discontinued.

Well.... Kate and I headed out to pick up the pizza only to find out that the place I believed Pizza Hut to be was now vacant. I went inside the Rite Aid next door and they claimed that it had gone out of business 7 months ago. Kate and I were in a good enough mood that we both found this to be pretty funny. We headed back to my apartment, rechecked the address on their website, and discovered that it was at a new location near Everett's city center. I printed out the directions and finally an hour late we arrived to pick up our pizza. I unfortunately neglected to take pictures of the vacant Pizza Hut, so you'll just have to imagine it.

So we get back with our panormous prize, only to mutually agree that it wasn't that good. Despite a good nostalgic experience at an old fashion (if such a description can apply) sit down Pizza Hut this summer, Kate and I agree that Pizza Hut has probably seen the last of our business.

Today Kate and I did some Christmas shopping. After dropping Kate off, I headed back home and watched "A Christmas Carol" on television. It was the 1970s version with George C. Scott. I always thought they should make a horror movie/story that should scare people into decency. What I neglected to realize is that in many ways Dickens already wrote it in this holiday classic that has been retold again and again.

While I like to think I'm no Scrooge, I do relate to Ebeneezer in some ways, and I suspect most people probably can in some aspect more than they care to admit. The part that particularly hits home for me is the commercialism of the holiday, and a feeling of just going through the motions of gift exchanges rather than appreciating the true spirit of the holidays which should be a celebration of life and what you have. To Mr. scrooge the holidays had lost some of their magic. It can be a downer when it seems the world around you is self absorbed, chaotic, and lacking heart. It is easy to lose faith in the season and become part of the drab existence. It can be all too common to end up merely participating out of conditioning, rather than for your happiness, and to promote the happiness of others. I suppose it is up to the individual to make certain that it does not happen within themselves. That is what really matters before anything else.

MBTA to test Torture Chamber

MBTA to experiment with nearly seatless subway cars
Welcome to an accident waiting to happen. There are clearly no posts in the center of the train to hold onto. There are times on the red line when you are on a car that has seats, and it is so crowded that you can't grab a hold of a bar if you are near the doors, so.... I can't wait to see how this works.

The joke is that there are going to be surveys seeing if people are still going to willing to ride. It isn't about being willing to ride or not, a lot of people don't even have a choice. I think it is such a joke that the government can force a small business to close because they don't have a handicap accessible ramp or elevator, but then turn around and concoct an abomination such as this.

My mother, who isn't elderly, fell down on a train this summer and seriously injured her back because she was slow to react.

The comments section after the article I linked to is great. 1 out of 10 people actually support the idea, but they are totally missing the point of the complaints. They say to the people who want to run more cars that it is an impossibility. Try again, the MBTA can't make trains longer due to station constraints, but they can run more trains and increase the frequency at which they arrive in stations. Secondly, yes, they added more bars to hold onto, as is evidenced by the window bar in the picture, however, this is NOT where they are needed. many NYC trains have a centrally located post in the intersection of doorways, not only would it be wise to include those on all red line trains, but these central posts must be installed if they are even going to ponder removing any seats.

It really makes me wonder if they even hired an engineer or if some brilliant T work just came up with the idea and got out a screw driver. Come ON!!!

I had supper at Kate's tonight, we pigged out on tacos, nachos, and topped it off with a brownie sundae for desert. Can't beat that! The weekend is almost here!

Candidate for Museum of Bad Art

Quite a while ago (This Summer?) I had purchased a stretched canvas upon which I was going to create an abstract masterpiece. After painting the background the wrong color and abandoning the project for months I pretty much half-assed (according to spell check assed is not a word) it and completed a much simpler, cruder, and somewhat unsatisfactory design. I debated on working on it more, repainting etc, and perhaps I will, but since my turn over is incredibly slow I just decided to go ahead and hang it up anyway. I even went out of my way to buy a kit at the craft store last night so I could get it up on the wall. Perhaps if I see this lack luster dud every day I'll rise to the occasion and try something new. Now I have to find a spot for the photo of barren trees which used to occupy the spot (something I found in a discount prints bin at Michael's a few years back). It was too small for the former location anyway.

Interestingly there seems to be something about the squiggly lined patterns I made that reflects my penmanship. Kate joked once that we could paint abstract designs representing each other's personality. Perhaps inadvertently I painted my own personality. I think the only reason I ultimately put it up was that it matched some of the accents in my futon, and I thought it was at least as good as half the crap they do on TLC in those shows like trading spaces.

So Long Sling!

My Dr. visit was a quick one. The doctor asked me if my arm seemed more stable, I said yes. I was then handed new instructions for physical therapy, told to toss the sling, and sent on my way. Probably taking the entire day off was a bit unnecessary, but it was a nice extension to my vacation. I headed to Burlington to start some of the Christmas shopping I neglected over the weekend.

My other accomplishment was putting up the jigsaw puzzle that Kate bought for me while I was recovering from my surgery. It took me several attempts to get this photo to come out with out the glare, while remaining focused. It seems my camera always is more sensitive to slight movement when the flash is off. I finally used the refrigerator door as my "tripod" and angled the camera up with the flash on.

Tomorrow it is back to the grind. Of course I should be thankful that I have work for the time being, because who knows what may happen in this economy.

Turkey Day Weekend....

It was a rather melancholy Thanksgiving for me. My Aunt Gigi was away in Maryland visiting my Aunt Rita & Uncle Fritz and cousin Hope, her husband Tom and their newborn Justin. My holiday as a result was extra small, and it consisted of just my parents and I. My parents are taking on the project of moving the bathtub and re-tiling the wall in the bathroom. As a result I could not take showers while I was home, which was tough to bear. I find baths kind of worthless (I always feel as dirty or more dirty after them), and the whole sponge bath technique never seems to do the job.

Shopping didn't go as I would hope, all I bought was wrapping paper. The malls in my home town of Lewiston/Auburn were rather dead too. A sign of the times. I suspect the markets will reflect this as the figures start coming in and "Black Friday" turns out to be "Still in the Red Friday".

I took my mother out for her first Thai meal at "The Thai Dish" in Auburn, which actually has a location here in Boston as well. The food was pretty decent and could stand up to the Thai establishments of Boston. My mother busied herself pegging the staff with questions ranging from the composition of Thai tea, to the portraits of Thai royalty on the wall. One amusing result of this inquisition was the admission that a tapestry actually had a Japanese sign on it rather than a Thai character. The staff did not know what it meant, but joked that they might just tell anyone else who asked that it means "Love".

I had hoped to see my friend Eric Labelle, however he did not make it back to Sabattus from Manchester, NH as planned. I never got around to seeing my other old high school friend who lives in Lewiston, Jason Chaloux. I suspect it would have been tough to orchestrate with the holidays, and since he works a lot of hours at the county jail. I will have to make a more of an effort to get in touch during Christmas break.

1 month post op now. I have an appointment tomorrow, however I've just realized that I have conflicting appointment information, one form says that it is at 10:00 am, another 3:00 pm. Go figure. I guess I will be showing up for the 10:00 am, and if that time is wrong, I can busy myself shopping at the North Shore Mall.

So long November 08, you've been a month for the history books in more ways than one.

The old haunt...

Kate and I had a great evening out after work. We met at our favorite Chinese restaurant in the Boston area "Mary Chung's". We warmed ourselves with some hot tea, and enjoyed our food and great conversation. I tried Mary Chung's "scallion pancakes", an item I've never had but had read about in reviews of the restaurant. They were quite good and were served with a spicy soy based dipping sauce. Kate had chicken with peppers in a black pepper sauce, and I had chicken lo-mein. I had never tried the lo-mein there before but the noodles were al dente, and the vegetables were crisp, just how I like it. Mary Chung's has one of those endless menus, and has preparations that are probably less "Americanized" than the typical Chinese restaurant.

After our meal Kate and I went to the 1369 Coffee House in Central square. We had hot chocolate and a Blondie-Brownie. It was tough to go home. We'll have to wait till after Thanksgiving till our next night out on the town.... travesty.

Sushi and Spinach

Makes a fine supper....

It has been an exhausting day, work, meetings, a sense of no accomplishment, and some physical therapy.

A random sampling of things I experienced today:

A mentally ill man on the subway claimed that everyone was hitting him.

Pigeons sharing bread crumbs with those tiny frisky birds.

A young woman with a cell phone and an ipod rudely ask a elderly overweight woman with a cane to step aside so she could get by when exiting the Central Square subway station.

People not washing their hands after releasing violent diarrhea in the bathroom stall next to me.

The continuous announcements of Obama's "bipartisan cabinet of change".

A cold and crisp November day.

Other than that Mitt Romney has apparently decided to return to making sense now that he is no longer running for president. This column he wrote for the NY Times is worth a read.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/opinion/19romney.html

From article:
"Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will stay the course — the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check."

You might have seen this today:
Big Three auto CEOs flew private jets to ask for taxpayer money
You can tell there is a crappy business model for American automakers when the U.S. congress can point out wasteful spending.

It is good to see that DC seems to be listening for the time being, however it is short lived. Pro-Union Barack has already pledged to help Barney Frank and company send a bailout to Detroit so Unions can continue to overpay a spoiled, unproductive, work force. Unions all of course supported Barack and donated heavily to his campaign and the campaign of democrats every where. Payment for a service.... I thought Barack was supposed to be above that sort of thing?

Related reading:
Labor unions look to cash in with Dems

American Axle Strike: Unions Continue to Kill U.S. Manufacturing

1st post op physical therapy session

Well it was this morning and it went fairly well. No complaints. I don't have a lot to write about. Work is busy, life is hectic. Annoying things have been going wrong on top of my surgery to make life that much more fun.

I've been doing some paperwork in the evening, and I've occasionally been taking some work home with me. (Yecch...)

Tonight I had some Chinese take out, a kung pao chicken combo (George likes his chicken spicy), did a few errands, and then finally sat down for some Cosby Show reruns. The Cosby show is my new guilty pleasure... reminds me of childhood I guess.

So I guess that's all. Not much to report.

You wouldn't believe me if I told you....

I'm having a little tiff with the landlord about him fixing a running bath tub faucet. It took the landlord 3 business days to respond, and if I was an outsider, and if my arm wasn't in a sling... his response may have been comical.....

Guesses anyone?

In other news our once "generous billionaire's" true colors are revealed when he turns out to be just another big business opportunist looking to exploit the public. Suddenly when he finds out that he can't make as much of a fortune off of the Natural gas due to falling gas prices... suddenly independence from foreign oil and reducing CO2 emissions gets put on the back burner.
Can't say I'm surprised.
Pickens' wind plan hits a snag

sigh....

Too tired to write anything.... I'll write about my eventful day tomorrow if I manage to survive it.

Surgery Recovery: Day 6

I can't tell if my allergic reaction from the bandaging is getting worse or better. Today it was scabbing over, and I decided to wear a white T-shirt all day. This is a milestone, the first day I put on a shirt that didn't button up the front.

Last night was the first night I didn't have Kate over in several days. I did miss her, and I found myself waking up in the middle of the night and putting the television on to help me fall back to sleep.

Today I logged into work and worked on one of my reports. It was a bit aggravating because my work lap top was especially slow over the VPN connection. I made a couple of substantial edits to a report before giving in for the day and eating the left over shepherd's pie for supper.

Tomorrow is election day and its results will likely (almost certainly) mark a fundamental change in nearly all American policy for years to come. I'm going to hobble across the street to my polling center, cast my vote, and then return and watch the talking heads. It will be very interesting to watch history unfold over the next few years. I'll be awaiting the "New"New Deal, the potential for isolationist policies, and to see if the end of free trade is brought by Obama as he has been promising to many of the blue collar Americans he is courting.

If you visit Obama's website, he is promising to expand pretty much every program including the military, all while creating giant new bureaucracies (Nationalized health and College tuition for "Volunteer" work), then he also says he'll be fiscally responsible, and at the same time he'll cut taxes for 95% of Americans. It makes George W. Bush's fuzzy math seem pretty straight forward. And he even continues to sell these ideas in the face of over 1 trillion in "bailout" spending. Did I mention that Barack Obama is anti big business and wants to increase energy taxes? Something has to give somewhere.... It will be interesting to see what it is, how it is spun, and what the public reaction is.

Surgery Recovery: Days 3,4, and 5

Halloween was a rather uneventful day, with the exception that I was able to take the bandage off finally. I did take some pictures of my iodine and adhesive stained wounded shoulder, but I decided against ruining any one's Monday morning by posting them here. Kate and I celebrated Halloween by getting some pizza delivered, and watching some of ghost hunters, and the latest Harry Potter installment. I continued with my regiment of opiates to sedate me, which made for some good sleeping, albeit with rather strange dreams that included the occasional glowing disembodied head.

On Saturday Kate and I put a jigsaw puzzle together that she bought me. She had mentioned it previously, and asked me what sort of puzzle I'd want, just in case I wanted to hang it up. I thought a retro-food advertisement would be nice to put in the kitchen. I think the coke ad that she settled on will look pretty sweet in a frame.
After putting the puzzle together, Kate and I went to Shaw's and CVS to pick up some more band aids for my shoulder, and ingredients for supper. Kate cooked up an excellent meal of Shepherd's pie. I look forward to having the left overs this week!

Here I am interacting with Molly (the plant) in a drug induced haze. This is me headed out for the first time post surgery. This coat, with some effort is able to fit over my sling. I suspect I am going to have to stand on the Subway because it makes me sort of bulky.
Here I am getting high off of a Reese's peanut butter cup wrapper. I thought it would be a good alternative to eating more junk than I should, and rationing out my supply.Chinese food on Sunday! The ice pack on my shoulder was named "Binky" by Kate. The suggestion I believe was that I hold a certain amount of affection for it, which I'm neither going to confirm or deny.

Kate made the time go by fast and helped me out a lot through out the Weekend. I'm really lucky to have her in my life!

Surgery Recovery: Day 2

I just watched Kate board the commuter rail out my back window. Of all my time living here I've always walked to the subway so I anxiously await feedback on the efficiency of her commute.

Several hours after I finished off yesterday's entry, I awoke from a nap to find myself rather uncomfortable. I was sitting in a puddle, and apparently my ice pack had ruptured during my nap. The ice melted, taking with it the iodine I had on my shoulder and staining my sheets, my shirt, and yes... sadly even my recliner. For the most part the recliner looks all right, but I can't say the same for the sheets and shirt. I immediately soaked the shirt with some stain remover. The sheets are pictured below, it sort of looks like I had some sort of bio-accident. Here I am modeling my replacement shirt and a new ice pack that Kate was kind enough to pick up for me.

Around noon today, I'll remove my bandage, shower, and apply some band-aids. This means no more shirt over the sling. It should be a great improvement over my current state!

Well as my arm is starting to ache, I think it is time for me to get back to my drugs.

TGIF?

Happy Halloween

Surgery Recovery: Day 1

Well I'm all in one piece after my torn labrum repair (ligaments in shoulder). My general anesthesia didn't make me violently ill or anything, but I was queasy afterwards, to the point where the cute Irish nurse attending to me gave me a second bag of fluids and held me in the OR longer to recover. They seemed a bit weirded out by how pale I was. It had been a while since I had bitten anyone in the neck, and so it was to be expected.

My Mom and Aunt Gigi came down and drove me to and from surgery. Afterward they picked up some goodies for me from Shaws Supermarket while I began what will be a week of vegging out and recuperating. Kate picked up the "George-watch" duty where they left off. She brought over a nice veggie platter that she made herself, which served as part of my breakfast today. Yesterday all I ate was a can of chicken noodle soup, a handful of grapes and a scoop of ice cream. You aren't allowed to eat anything after midnight, before surgery.

The Doctor gave me some Percocet for the pain, and a nasty smelling and tasting antibiotic, Cephalexin

I did manage to get some sleep last night. Kate came over to make sure I dealt with the drugs OK, and to keep me company. She'll be back again tonight, I look forward to it.

Well... as I am tired, and as I am not quite up to 2 hand typing yet, I think I'm going to cut this short and get some more rest.

I'll post my progress: Tomorrow bandage removing and my first post-op shower.....exciting!

Just like the old days....

Well the Red Sox made it into the playoffs, led us on, and then let us down.

A packed Tropicana field celebrated, overflowing with newly minted fans who never showed up to games, or bothered to care until their team made the playoffs. I wonder if it will go back to being vacant again next year, or filled with patrons supporting the opponent.

I kind of wish Lester had been taken out of the game earlier, to me it reminded me of 2003 where Pedro Martinez was left in to pitch against the Yankees too long, however given the strength of our bullpen now vs. what it was then, I just thought it would have been more obvious this time around, but I guess not. It would have been fine to leave him in during a typical season game, but in the deciding game to get in the World Series? I don't know, I guess I just don't see it that way.

With any luck hopefully we won't have repeat performances of this night that last for another 86 years.

My weekend was spent cleaning the apartment, and on Saturday night I had dinner with Kate and her mother, which was nice. Tonight Kate and I got together for a light meal at Panera.

Well..... Go Phillies!! (Can't say I'm going to change plans to watch the world series however..)

Postings far and few between...

I know, I know.... I've been lax in the world of blogging.

I'll get better....

Politics quite frankly has been even too grim for me as of late.

Work has been busy, and my life outside of work has been busy as well with Dr. appointments etc.

Kate and I celebrated her birthday last night. We went to her favorite guilty pleasure restaurant, "Friendly's" and had some greasy food. I brought over a cookie cake which I'm sure she and her roommates are enjoying.

I slept "wrong" last night and I've had a sore upper back all day. I'm headed to bed with an ice pack.

The Red Sox had a great turn around tonight. Those early innings made me queasy, but in the end we get to face the Rays back in St. Petersburg.

Tomorrow (Today technically speaking) is Friday, and that is welcome news if I ever heard any....

May everyone enjoy their weekend!

October Weekends, take 2.

My weekend started out with a show at the Middle East that featured Dr. Dog, Delta Spirit, and Hacienda. Hacienda and Delta Spirit were some of the best "opening" bands I've seen. I'm definitely going to have to go and try to track down some of their tunes. The show started late, however I entertained myself watching the Red Sox play in the mean time. I actually only ended up staying for I estimate, half of the Dr. Dog performance. This was primarily due to the show's really late start. Dr. Dog didn't get on stage till probably quarter of 12:00. As the T (subway) service can be dicey after 12:30 (they shut down around this time), I ended up leaving around 12:20. The cab ride can be as much as $35 to $40 back to Melrose and that didn't seem like a real attractive option. I might of considered it, but to be honest when Dr. Dog got on stage they turned their volume way too high. The vocals sounded like Charlie Brown's teacher, and I could feel them resonating in the beer can I was holding. I threw ear plugs in, when they weren't even half way through the first song and it was still too loud. I'm tempted to send a comment to their web page as sort of an FYI, but I'm not sure how serious they would take it. I'm sure it would have been great if they care more about sound quality and less about the shock & awe of being louder than the openers. One thought was that their systems just were set too high for the small Basement club that is "The Middle East".


Kate came over on Saturday and I had prepared a tomato tortellini soup (from a mix that my Aunt Rita had purchased for me) and made up some Italian sandwiches. The soup is great and I look forward to finishing the rest off this week.


Sunday I got up early and set a pot roast up in the crock pot for supper. Kate and I had pancakes for breakfast, and then afterward she helped me clean my car (which was desperately needed). We walked up into the Fells Reservation and then back to Main St. to supplement our feast with apple cider and pumpkin pie. It was a lovely autumn feast. Kate said she felt as though she were a puritan settler eating a meal during harvest.
I was feeling pretty lazy and tired all day for some reason...

Smoken Joe's

Kate took me out to a new BBQ joint in Brighton Center tonight called Smoken Joe's BBQ. The food was excellent, affordable, and the atmosphere was laid back and casual. As an added bonus a decent jazz group began performing as we were finishing our meal. We were reluctant to leave but decided we wanted to spend the rest of our time walking around on such a nice evening.

I wanted to add in this amusing Conan O'Brien clip where he took some liberties of the debate footage.

A rather uneventful weekend

The Red Sox played two exciting games, although it is a shame that tonight's ended the way it did. I really didn't want the Angels to break their losing streak.

Saturday was a day of many errands, laundry, my car inspection, and taking the air conditioner down for the season. In the evening Kate came over and she and I got some take-out from Liberty Bell. I had fish & chips and she had the chicken finger plate. The fried food and cole slaw was very satisfying . Saturday Night Live had one of the best shows I've seen them put on in quite a long time. Their take on Speaker Pelosi, Congressman Frank, and President Bush giving a press conference on the bailout was spot on, albeit marginally exaggerated (by a hair or so). The Killers were the musical act. I had seen them on either SNL or Conan back when their first album came out and recalled their performance being rather poor despite having liked samples I had previously heard in a record store (which honestly made me write them off). They seemed to give a solid performance this time around. Their take on the post punk/ new wave sound to me doesn't quite measure up to Interpol, or their precursors from the 80s (The Cure, Joy Division, Stone Roses, etc.) but I still would say their are probably better than most of the crap on pop radio today. I really got a kick out of the lead singer because his stage antics were basically a study of David Byrne's Talking Heads days... stiff spastic, at times symmetrical movements, with an oddly disconnected expression on his face as he sang.

Sunday didn't go quite as planned. Kate and I were going to go to the Topsfield fair, however, we headed out a bit too late. After sitting in traffic for an hour or so, we decided to cut our losses, turn around and get lunch. We stopped at Chili's on rt. 1 and had a mediocre chain restaurant meal. The chips and salsa were good if nothing else. Next I decided to head back to my apartment a bring a lamp that I don't use much to Kate's. It is one of those cheap dorm room lamps, and actually it belonged to Tim Hayes and he left it behind. Kate was going to put it behind her standing mirror in her room, however when I tried to clean the plastic lamp shade it broke in pieces. (I was very sad) We tried looking to see if there was something that we could use as a substitute but our search at K-mart and Target proved fruitless. I ended up saving the energy saving light bulb I had in it and tossed the lamp. On a positive note Kate did manage to get some shopping out of the way while we were looking around.

Rockport Adventures

The official last weekend of summer has come and gone, and Kate and I made it a good one.

Kate came over Saturday night and we had some spaghetti and meatballs with some bread and butter. It was a simple yet enjoyable meal. Kate had baked some brownies and brought some over and I had bought some ice cream so it was brownie sundaes for desert. Top that off with some diet orange soda and it was one classy meal.

Sunday was up in the air till noon or so, and Kate suggested going to Rockport, Massachusetts. She had been a few years ago and really enjoyed her time there. I myself had never been so I was eager to explore another picturesque New England seaport.

I sort of caught Kate off guard on this first photo. The town as you'll see from the photos is really quaint and pretty. The flowers are still in bloom and the streets were still crowded with tourists checking out the galleries, shops, and restaurants located in the many weathered shacks and homes that make up the town. This is a nice shot of part of Rockport's small harbor. The weather was a little cool, high 60s (Fahrenheit of course) but otherwise it was a spectacular day. There was a great ocean breeze that gave me some much needed invigoration as we strolled around.
The above shot is a look across the harbor at the granite cliffs where are a prominent feature of many coastal locations in New England.
A lone boat moves along with others only barely visible on the horizon.
We ate at this small cafe/ diner called the Red Skiff. We both really enjoyed our meals. Kate had a turkey club sandwich with some fries and I had some whole belly fried clams with fries and cole slaw, and a cup of clam chowder. The clam dinner was only $13.25, and the portions were quite nice. Regretfully I only thought of getting a photo of the food after I had cleared half of my plate.The faux lighthouse seen here is on a small street island off of one of Rockport's main streets. I was somehow amused by the energy saving light bulb inside of it.After walking around the town for a while we went for a short drive to Halibut Point, a small state park out on the end of a peninsula. Within the boundaries of the park is a quarry. We picked up a brochure at the visitors center. The park had numbered points of interest and Kate and I amused ourselves walking around finding them. It was sort of like a scavenger hunt for adults. One of the numbered attractions below were these pins that the quarry operators would use to split the rocks. We were reminded frequently by signs not to swim in the quarry.The park has some gorgeous coastline and we had fun climbing around on the rocks and pausing to enjoy the sun, the breeze, and the sound of the crashing waves.Peek-a-boo. The rocks were piled up before I arrived, it may seem tough to believe, but I don't have that much free time.I briefly considered asking Kate to take a picture of me drowning after I saw this sign, but I couldn't figure out how I was going to write about it and get it into the blog.The master is seen at work above. Well... hopefully next weekend will be another for the.... blog. Happy Monday.

Sigur Ros: Friday Night

Jess Wheeler (friend from St. Joseph's college) had emailed me a couple weeks ago about this show, and invited me along. I was glad to go see a band that I had not yet seen, and that has received good critical acclaim in the past. Also the concert was at the Bank of America Pavillion which is my favorite non-club venue in the city. It is a great amphitheater on the Boston waterfront with an excellent sound system. The band was great. They were very different than anything I've seen live before. They put on some interesting theatrics in addition to a great musical performance. There were interesting props, a fantastic light show, some movies projected behind the band, in addition to streamers and confetti that was shot out on the crowd during certain songs. The Icelandic lead singer was very eccentric, hair that reminded me of a 17th century wig/ pony tail, glitter on his face, and a black outfit that included tassels and a cape. He played all but a couple songs on the guitar with a bow (think Jimmy Page). While I've always thought of Sigur Ros as being sort of derivative of Radiohead's softer collection, some of their music was quite intense. One song in particular had great percussion session that the band demanded audience participation in with a up tempo clap. Some of the better songs from the show were actually on the latest album which I had purchased before to familiarize myself. Perhaps I'll have to consider looking into some of their older material.

It was good catching up with Jess as I had not seen him since last November.

Thursday in Back Bay...

Somewhere some college kids were thirsty.... and then there was John Madden (college friend... not the football hot head) and I exchanging banter at Bukowski's over supper and beer. Two thirty-somethings clawing onto our youth as time drags us towards... well whatever it is that tomorrow has in store for us. It was nice to see John.... I had some music to give him, but left the cd in my backpack forgetfully as we parted ways. We'll be seeing Dr. Dog playing at the Middle East in a couple of weeks so I suppose I can hand it off then. I was incredibly tired tonight, and alas here I am, still awake, typing away.

I was going to write something witty but instead I decided to post this picture of a failed kite flying experience this summer. I feel it best describes some of my emotions and enthusiasm now before I go to bed.

May all of you have a pleasant Friday.

MFA Boston

Kate suggested taking advantage of "free admission night" on Wednesday at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. We went on a short guided tour that focused some of the museum's most prominent pieces and women's role in art. It was a nice tour and the woman who gave it was very well educated on the pieces, art history, and the history of the museum. I'd like to go back and do some more themed tours.

After eating Kate and I resorted to UNO's where we hadn't been for a couple of years. It was getting late, and the Huntington Ave. UNO's was convenient to the museum. The meal was a bit lack luster. I remember years ago really enjoying UNOs. I like the sauce on the pizza how it had a heavy basil flavor, however my pizza tonight was lacking flavor, and the vegetables on it were clearly not fresh. Kate had a burger which she described as a large "McDonald's" burger. The service was pretty poor and the prices have gone up. Needless to say we probably won't be back any time soon.

Belated posting

About a month ago Kate and I headed up to Schenectady NY to visit with her mom and Aunt. We had a handful of pictures that were taken so I thought I'd post some of them and supply a brief narrative.


En route to New York we finally found a reason to stop at the Pizza Hut in Framingham which is lost in time. It still looks essentially like the old dining restaurants of my youth, although the interior is more circa 1990s then the darker decor of the Pizza Huts of the 1970s and 80s. Most Pizza Huts, at least in New England have either closed up shop or have been redefined as fast food and take out as opposed to the sit down dining experiences I remember. I was pleased to see that the Book-It promotion is still going on today. I enjoyed many a free personal pan pizza as a wee lad.



After the long drive I had no trouble catching some Z's. The ape on top of the head rest is one of Kate's childhood stuffed animals "Coco".
On Saturday Kate and I went to John Boyd Thacher State Park and did some hiking and exploring. Kate's mom thoughtfully printed out directions for us and some descriptions of the park. Our first impression of the park wasn't the best because we parked the car in a lot for a fee, and we were greeted with what appeared to be a large public pool in disrepair, and a large picnic area that did not seem to have many patrons. Once we found our way over to the ledges that are the show piece of the reserve, the park redeemed itself. We hiked the "Indian Ladder Trail" which takes you to the base of the impressive escarpment. The photos were taken along the trail. The last picture is of a red spotted newt that we came upon hiding beneath some ledge.


After enjoying the park and the great weather we headed back into town and had a nice dinner with Kate's Mom, Donna, and her Aunt Nancy.