Red Zeppelin
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Sunday: February 01, 2009 - Drought Is Over
The good news is that Chompy saw her shadow so updates can again continue. It's been a busy week so hold on. I finally changed my tail light and burn the hell out of right forearm on an exposed bulb. Like any responsible adult, I called Chris Green for medical attention. You haven't really lived until you've seen your skin smoke on a cold winter's day. I did get the light changed after taking my trunk apart so at least I'll have a manly scar instead of ones I normally get typing.
On Friday Sam got an all-access deal to see Thievery Corporation at the 930 Club. It was pretty awesome hanging out backstage and drinking from the special free bar set up. I haven't had the opportunity to Photoshop myself next to the hot Brazilian singer--oh wait, I actually have that as a real picture.
I tried to watch the Superbowl with more than Chompy but effectively drove to VA twice. The second time I drove back I was just angry about not finding a parking place. I had tried to squeeze the Taurus into a spot that was maybe .0001" larger than it was but after I lightly tapped the guy behind me I decided to decrown myself as the best parallel parker ever and went home to watch the exciting fourth quarter with my moonshine-swilling dog. [Comments: 4]· permalink ·
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Monday: February 02, 2009 - Hope Springs Eternal
With football at all levels now officially over for the season, it's time to move back to baseball. I know I say this every year, but the span from February to April is my least-favorite time of year. It's too cold to really do anything outside and I don't really care about any of the sports that are going on. On the bright side, the Cubs are in ok shape going into next April. They'd be better with Jake Peavy and Brian Roberts but whatever. It's fun to fantasize that the Cubs somehow could acquire both and then be the best team in the National League by leaps and bounds.
The Cubs managed to get rid of every single player I hated over the past year so I guess I need to start looking for new people to hate.
Last night I caught up with Tim while he embarrassed me in a couple games of video football. I lost the first game trying to get cute and the second game I lost...well, in really every aspect of the game. It's tough to see that both your quarterbacks had passer ratings of 0.0 but fortunately they stopped one INT short of the record of 12. Ouch. Hopefully when NCAA 2010 comes up they'll have Ponder be able to run the option.
Speaking of FSU football, Preston Parker was kicked off the team today. I remember reading last year that he had two tattoos: one that said NFL and the other said JAIL because he knew he'd either be in one or the other. I guess that decision has been made. [Comments: 9]· permalink ·
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Thursday: February 05, 2009 - I Want To Be Like Mommy
Dear Mrs. Jones,
I wish to clarify that I am not now, nor have I ever been, an exotic dancer.
I work at Home Depot and I told my daughter how hectic it was last week before the blizzard hit. I told her we sold out every single shovel we had, and then I found one more in the back room, and that several people were fighting over who would get it. Her picture doesn't show me dancing around a pole. It's supposed to depict me selling the last snow shovel we had at Home Depot.
From now on I will remember to check her homework more thoroughly before she turns it in.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Smith [Comments: 6]· permalink ·
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Friday: February 06, 2009 - Happy Birthday Steve!
Congratulations! You're finally a man. And now that you're a man you get to do man-things like go to New Zealand!
I hope you enjoy the birthday-cupcake I so painstakingly made for you. In case you're wondering, you're celebrating on a party cruise that for some reason is filled exclusively with Asian chicks. Lucky you!
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Weekend: February 08, 2009 - New Zealand Ho!
I was going to write about my weekend but since Brian and I practically had the same one you can just read his. Mine contained some basketball, though, where his undoubtedly involved the cover-up of alien visitations and petting Booty.
Steve and I are going to go on vacation to New Zealand this summer for a week. We had made a list of places we wanted to go and then black-balled ones from the other person. Steve is a Ph.D student in history so I of course removed anything that might involve me having to learn about siege weapons or marauding Moops. The first choice was Tierra Del Fuego with a jaunt down to Antarctica to cross that continent off our list but going to Antarctica in the middle of winter was probably not the best choice. Living down the street from Embassy Row, I have the rare luxury of being able to walk down to have any questions answered like "What is the likelihood we will die there?". New Zealand, according to the CIA Factbook, is safe and they speak English. Further still, the US dollar has somehow managed to maintain a favorable exchange rate against the Kiwi. What more can you ask for? [Comments: 4]· permalink ·
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Monday: February 09, 2009 - Taxpayer Money
Here's something I don't understand: Why is taxpayer money called "our" money? The government is always saying "Oh, we're spending your money so well, blah, blah blah." It's not our money--it's your money. We paid it to you so it's yours. When your employer gives you your paycheck, it's no longer HIS money, it's YOUR money. And you can spend your money any way you want. For some reason, though, when the government spends THEIR money they like to pretend that it's ours and they have our best interests at heart. Neither case is true so I wish they'd stop saying it and acting that way. I realize it's a little bit different than the employer-employee example in that the employee does not dictate how much money they make but still, once the money isn't in your possession it can hardly be considered "yours".
I'd also like a law to be put in place where you could only complain about the government proportionally to your tax burden. If Warren Buffet wants to complain, step aside! We all pay varying amounts for the same amount of government services (they don't keep Warren Buffet any safer than they keep me) so it doesn't really behoove us to work hard for some sort of reward. I feel like more of a libertarian with each passing day. [Comments: 1]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: February 10, 2009 - Waa waa waa
Let me first say, since I know many of you have babies, that today's entry was not brought on by anyone I know but rather by a series of websites that I was perusing to buy advertising space. The deeper I got through them, the more irritated I got and I'll tell you why.
Most moms I know are college-educated and have some expertise in some field. Great. If you, kid-or-no-kid, started a sentence with "as someone with a degree in economics, I feel..." great. If you want to make a comment as a layperson you would simply say, "Well, I'm no economist but...". With those out of the ways, let me get to the point. What really pisses me off are sentences that start, "I'm no economist but I am a mom and...". Oh, I'm sorry. Somehow having a baby has given you an honorary doctorate in everything? I had no idea. Maybe I should just shoot out some sort of freak butt-baby and then I too will have a fraction of the intelligence as you do.
I sure as hell don't start sentences with "Well, I own a dog so my strategy in Afghanistan would be...". So if you're a mom, great. But stop pretending like it gives you these tremendous world insights into things that have nothing to do with parenting and everything to do with experience that you don't have. [Comments: 2]· permalink ·
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Wednesday: February 11, 2009 - Lost makes you WTF
Spoilers from last night so stop reading if you haven't seen it!
Ok, so WTF? What's up Jack's Dad? Good thing John Locke fell when he did or else he would have been smothered by the earth. Maybe not, since the shift in time whenever they would do something that would affect the future. Whatever dude. I hope Charlotte stays dead. I can't stand her. I wouldn't mind Miles dying either.
File it in the prediction column--we learn that Faraday is Widmore's son. I'm also a little unclear why certain people travel in time and others don't. Had the tanker been within range of the traveling, would it have gone? And all those dudes?
In other news, it's been really nice here. Nice and windy. I've been playing more basketball but I managed to hurt my knee yesterday so even though I'm trying not to complain too much about it, srsly it is really hurting. And right before roughing it in the woods too. [Comments: 3]· permalink ·
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Thursday: February 12, 2009 - 12 of 12
9:10am: Nothing like getting up early to start your day off right.
9:20am: I made Chompy wait for me to shower because I am cruel, cruel man. It was a surprisingly nice day outside.
9:45am: Two vanilla bean cupcakes and a gratis iced venti vanilla latte. Or, as it should be called, the breakfast of champions.
9:50am: They're even more delicious when you eat them in the car.
2:00pm: With the first half of my workday over, it's time for an episode of Fraiser and a nap.
3:30pm: Trying to admire the new hideous mobiles they installed on the AU campus while trying to avoid VA drivers who don't know how to cope with traffic circles.
3:45pm: Lunch. Mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm.
4:45pm: Going through the music for Guitar Night and making all the chords bigger so our old eyes stand a fighting chance.
5:15pm: Eating a delicious snack of Filipino mangos while Chompy enviously watches.
5:30pm: Feeding Chompy while getting ready to take the 1500-mile trek out to Sterling for Steak Night.
6:30pm: Watching the master grill steaks on a blustery night.
8:00pm: Booty doing her best trick: eat.
Bonus: Take 2 of trying to look hot in my backdoor's glass. [Comments: 4]· permalink ·
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Wednesday: February 18, 2009 - Cabin...Retreat
Over the weekend I took a jaunt to remote Georgia for Camp Yeehaw 2.0. I didn't go last year because I was in the process of moving to DC and I wasn't going to pass up a chance to hang out with Marty, Chris, and company...except they weren't there this year. What was there were two big things: ladybugs (everywhere, and I mean full-blown infestation everywhere) and drama.
Since I only knew a couple of the people going in (Amy, Jen, and Walter [and apparently Cory though I don't remember]) we bonded over a series of games; the most notable being one called (I think) Ben Cramer. It basically works like this, everyone writes three phrases onto a piece of paper, divides into teams, then takes turns drawing the paper. In the first round it's like Taboo except you can say anything not written on the card. In the second round, it's charades and in the last round you can read one word off the card. Since with the exception of the first round you've already heard all the cards once you'd think it would be easier to remember them but it's really not because the cards only contain random/weird/obscene/lengthy (and in most case all of those) phrases.
I won't rehash the drama on here since anyone who is anyone already knows but suffice it to say I've never had a weirder four-day stretch in my life. As Dickens should have said, "It was the best of times, it was the weirdest of times." [Comments: 1]· permalink ·
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Thursday: February 19, 2009 - Good Mental Health
I am sad to report that I have now completed watching Frasier in its entirety. I never really watched it except in syndication when it came on TV but once I found I watched pretty regularly from 2005 - 2007. It came on at midnight and Golden Girls came on afterwards so I wound up watching enough of that to know Rose was from St. Olaf to help us win the Battle of the Sexes earlier in the week. Anyway, I'm sad to see it go because the only other TV show I have in the house is X-Files and I'm not sure that makes for the best night-time watching. Maybe Brian will let me borrow 6 Feet Under so I can watch them all in a row instead of in the disjointed order they had them when I was in Tallahassee.
Last night I went out with Annie, Marc, and Sam to some fancy club that we would have probably considered with the HGA before it was dissolved in December. Speaking of the HGA, it's not like I was particularly close to any of them but it made me feel like a real Washingtonian--an experience that was glad to have. I'm not sure how comfortable I'd be with it as a lifestyle but it was nice to dress up and get into cool places.
On an unrelated note, I'm tired of people saying they're from DC when they're really from like Alexandria. I'm not sure why I'm so protective of a city that hasn't even been my home for a year but apparently I'm not alone--there's a FB group dedicated to it.
Confidential to Anna: Yes, I am alive (and hanging out on Saturday?)
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Weekend: February 22, 2009 - About That Time
I had a surprisingly full weekend. On Sunday, Annie and I went to hear Anne perform with the Master Chorale of Washington down the street from me. Let me say first that the singing was excellent. That said, maybe doing two (or even one) Copland pieces for voice...eh. Not what I would have picked. An intermission would have been nice too so we could have stayed focused on the awesome singing and not being cramped in a pew but whatever. Congratulations Anne!
On Saturday I met up with Brian somewhere near Centreville and he drove me through the dicey parts of Manassas to Anna and Ben's house. I hadn't seen Anna/Ben/Ella is ages but they were all were in good spirits and we played games and ate pizza until around 11pm when it was bedtime for babies/kitties/me. We also played Munchkin (which I played for the first time at the Cabin of Terror) but this was a much more manageable game with the focus more on the strategy than blatant cheating.
On Friday, I had a surprise party at my house in that I wasn't really expecting a party at all. I did learn that I'm good at Boggle despite not having played it in easily a decade. My wins were so devastating I decided to only make four-letters words and I still won.
The big news of the weekend was my inability to read a calendar. This, sadly, is not a new skill-drop but one I've had for a while. I've missed some pretty important stuff in the past year because I put a wrong date in my phone. User-error all the way. I should get an administrative assistant. [Comments: 4]· permalink ·
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Monday: February 23, 2009 - Places I've Lived
Thanks to the power of Google Street View I can now revisit every place I've ever lived. With my departure from Washington imminent, I thought it would be nice to do a little review before I had to make the image bigger with a new house in a few months. For the record, I plan on staying in DC through the summer and then figuring out which city to next grace with my presence.
First off, here's my house in Washington, where I've since March 2nd of 2008. Situated in Glover Park on the outskirts of Georgetown, it's easily the nicest neighborhood I've ever lived in. The apartment itself is really small and doesn't have things I would have originally considered deal-breakers: W/D, Dishwasher, etc. That's what you get for impulse house-shopping. If I had the whole top floor, instead of just half, and it was updated, I couldn't really think of a better place to live.
You can't really see my old house on Lake Ella in Tallahassee, but it was awesome. A small fenced yard for the pup, two stories of lake-view and plenty of room. I had a full-sized office which I wasted since I wasn't working from home then. Jamie had picked this place out for me because I was completely destitute when I moved there and was too busy looking for janitorial jobs to go house-hunting. $550/month for a two-story townhouse. Man, those were the days.
Ah, the Florida Towers. Most of my favorite adult memories took place in that hellhole of an apartment. At least it had a dishwasher. It was close enough to campus that it was a good hang-out spot and you couldn't go wrong with the decor--dozens of friend-painted artworks coupled with a living-room sized pool table. From cooking $1 discount steaks to it being Chompy's first home, it was the worst place I ever lived but yet I have nothing but fond memories of it. It also housed the AIDS couch.
My senior year of college I lived with two guys: Paul and David. Down the street from me lived a bunch of other closer friends. We lived in the upstairs unit and a gaggle of snotty girls lived downstairs. Paul, David, and I got along for the most part and fortunately when we didn't we were all weird enough to do things that would make for awesome stories that I still tell today.
My junior year of college I lived with a guy named Josh, who was the RA in the dorm above me. He and I were both enormous slobs and one day our fruit fly problem got so out of control that we took to lighting lysol and shooting fire around. Probably not the best decision in retrospect but it took care of the problem. We lived in this bright pink house and I remember having to walk to school on these blisteringly cold days. I also remember finding 3/4 of a chocolate cake underneath the couch one day.
I lived in the dorms my first two years of college and like anyone else who ever lived in their school's dorms I have my share of weird stories. My second year I actively choose a suitemate, Ben, and he's one of the few people I keep in touch with ten years later.
We never moved growing up, so I lived in the same house my entire life. It was in suburbs of Chicago and my parents still live there. My old room is now an office but other than it's still pretty much the same.
Ta-da.
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Tuesday: February 24, 2009 - Hope Springs Eternal IV
The Cubs start Spring Training games today in Arizona. It's not my favorite day of the year but it's certainly up there.
I've been getting a lot of mileage out of the "Time Machine"--a year ago today T-Chris was celebrating the completion of his dissertation and we were at Gil's throwing back a few in his honor. I was only a few days away from moving out of Tallahassee and complaining about the weight of a particular box. A box that now sits behind me that I have not opened since I moved here.
Four years ago I bought my mandolin and learned all of four songs on it before retiring it. You need carny-small hands to play that thing (sorry John Paul Jones, I tried) and sadly my enormous, masculine hands can't quite be precise enough to reliably hit all the notes necessary.
Chompy also caught and killed a squirrel (yesterday). I don't know how squirrels have survived evolution with a defense mechanism that is only "don't move". I didn't actually see the fatal bite but there wasn't a whole lot of commotion after the running so I'm guessing it died pretty quickly. Chompy has had her rabies shot and is acting normal and now the squirrel is gone. I wonder if one of the big birds picked it up and carried it away.
This random entry was brought to you by a lack of sleep. [Comments: 7]· permalink ·
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Wednesday: February 25, 2009 - Then I Found $100
Yesterday my landlord left me a $100 SBUX gift card. I received the gift card, along with a DC SBUX mug, because I took a virus off her computer. This process took approximately one minute. Based on this number, I have now recalculated my time to be worth $6000/hr, or substantially more than I had previously valued it.
Last night I spent $18,000 worth of time driving out to Sterling, eating delicious steaks, and watching what might have been the single worst episode of Lost I've ever seen. Wow, a whole episode dedicated to learning that Ben and Widmore are at odds with each other. Wowee.
On the bright side, it was a wholly good day--starting with two pink Flintstones vitamins. I can usually predict my day based on the colors: two purple being the worst, two orange being average, two pink being the best, with appropriate levels for the various combinations.
I also swapped Brian the Wii Fit for the complete set of Six Feet Under. Boy, did I win out on that one. That's what happens on a double-pink day. [Comments: 4]· permalink ·
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Thursday: February 26, 2009 - My Evil Twin
So I'm at SBUX yesterday and the new barrista (not to be confused with the one that loved me) says to me, "Wow, it's like you have a twin." I quickly scan around the coffee shop to see who looks like me and discover that there is absolutely no one even remotely close. I grab my gratis iced venti vanilla latte and hit the road with no further comment.
I go back this morning and the same girl is tending the bar. She says, "You just missed your twin". "Oh really?" I reply. She nods yes and I ask her if she told him that he too has a twin in me. She replies, "No, if I told him you were his twin he wouldn't like that very much."
WTF is that supposed to mean? I even asked if we were twins because we ordered the same thing and she said no. WTF! [Comments: 7]· permalink ·
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The good news is that Chompy saw her shadow so updates can again continue. It's been a busy week so hold on. I finally changed my tail light and burn the hell out of right forearm on an exposed bulb. Like any responsible adult, I called Chris Green for medical attention. You haven't really lived until you've seen your skin smoke on a cold winter's day. I did get the light changed after taking my trunk apart so at least I'll have a manly scar instead of ones I normally get typing.
On Friday Sam got an all-access deal to see Thievery Corporation at the 930 Club. It was pretty awesome hanging out backstage and drinking from the special free bar set up. I haven't had the opportunity to Photoshop myself next to the hot Brazilian singer--oh wait, I actually have that as a real picture.
I tried to watch the Superbowl with more than Chompy but effectively drove to VA twice. The second time I drove back I was just angry about not finding a parking place. I had tried to squeeze the Taurus into a spot that was maybe .0001" larger than it was but after I lightly tapped the guy behind me I decided to decrown myself as the best parallel parker ever and went home to watch the exciting fourth quarter with my moonshine-swilling dog. [Comments: 4]· permalink ·
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Monday: February 02, 2009 - Hope Springs Eternal
With football at all levels now officially over for the season, it's time to move back to baseball. I know I say this every year, but the span from February to April is my least-favorite time of year. It's too cold to really do anything outside and I don't really care about any of the sports that are going on. On the bright side, the Cubs are in ok shape going into next April. They'd be better with Jake Peavy and Brian Roberts but whatever. It's fun to fantasize that the Cubs somehow could acquire both and then be the best team in the National League by leaps and bounds.
The Cubs managed to get rid of every single player I hated over the past year so I guess I need to start looking for new people to hate.
Last night I caught up with Tim while he embarrassed me in a couple games of video football. I lost the first game trying to get cute and the second game I lost...well, in really every aspect of the game. It's tough to see that both your quarterbacks had passer ratings of 0.0 but fortunately they stopped one INT short of the record of 12. Ouch. Hopefully when NCAA 2010 comes up they'll have Ponder be able to run the option.
Speaking of FSU football, Preston Parker was kicked off the team today. I remember reading last year that he had two tattoos: one that said NFL and the other said JAIL because he knew he'd either be in one or the other. I guess that decision has been made. [Comments: 9]· permalink ·
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Thursday: February 05, 2009 - I Want To Be Like Mommy
Dear Mrs. Jones,
I wish to clarify that I am not now, nor have I ever been, an exotic dancer.
I work at Home Depot and I told my daughter how hectic it was last week before the blizzard hit. I told her we sold out every single shovel we had, and then I found one more in the back room, and that several people were fighting over who would get it. Her picture doesn't show me dancing around a pole. It's supposed to depict me selling the last snow shovel we had at Home Depot.
From now on I will remember to check her homework more thoroughly before she turns it in.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Smith [Comments: 6]· permalink ·
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Friday: February 06, 2009 - Happy Birthday Steve!
Congratulations! You're finally a man. And now that you're a man you get to do man-things like go to New Zealand!
I hope you enjoy the birthday-cupcake I so painstakingly made for you. In case you're wondering, you're celebrating on a party cruise that for some reason is filled exclusively with Asian chicks. Lucky you!
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Weekend: February 08, 2009 - New Zealand Ho!
I was going to write about my weekend but since Brian and I practically had the same one you can just read his. Mine contained some basketball, though, where his undoubtedly involved the cover-up of alien visitations and petting Booty.
Steve and I are going to go on vacation to New Zealand this summer for a week. We had made a list of places we wanted to go and then black-balled ones from the other person. Steve is a Ph.D student in history so I of course removed anything that might involve me having to learn about siege weapons or marauding Moops. The first choice was Tierra Del Fuego with a jaunt down to Antarctica to cross that continent off our list but going to Antarctica in the middle of winter was probably not the best choice. Living down the street from Embassy Row, I have the rare luxury of being able to walk down to have any questions answered like "What is the likelihood we will die there?". New Zealand, according to the CIA Factbook, is safe and they speak English. Further still, the US dollar has somehow managed to maintain a favorable exchange rate against the Kiwi. What more can you ask for? [Comments: 4]· permalink ·
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Monday: February 09, 2009 - Taxpayer Money
Here's something I don't understand: Why is taxpayer money called "our" money? The government is always saying "Oh, we're spending your money so well, blah, blah blah." It's not our money--it's your money. We paid it to you so it's yours. When your employer gives you your paycheck, it's no longer HIS money, it's YOUR money. And you can spend your money any way you want. For some reason, though, when the government spends THEIR money they like to pretend that it's ours and they have our best interests at heart. Neither case is true so I wish they'd stop saying it and acting that way. I realize it's a little bit different than the employer-employee example in that the employee does not dictate how much money they make but still, once the money isn't in your possession it can hardly be considered "yours".
I'd also like a law to be put in place where you could only complain about the government proportionally to your tax burden. If Warren Buffet wants to complain, step aside! We all pay varying amounts for the same amount of government services (they don't keep Warren Buffet any safer than they keep me) so it doesn't really behoove us to work hard for some sort of reward. I feel like more of a libertarian with each passing day. [Comments: 1]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: February 10, 2009 - Waa waa waa
Let me first say, since I know many of you have babies, that today's entry was not brought on by anyone I know but rather by a series of websites that I was perusing to buy advertising space. The deeper I got through them, the more irritated I got and I'll tell you why.
Most moms I know are college-educated and have some expertise in some field. Great. If you, kid-or-no-kid, started a sentence with "as someone with a degree in economics, I feel..." great. If you want to make a comment as a layperson you would simply say, "Well, I'm no economist but...". With those out of the ways, let me get to the point. What really pisses me off are sentences that start, "I'm no economist but I am a mom and...". Oh, I'm sorry. Somehow having a baby has given you an honorary doctorate in everything? I had no idea. Maybe I should just shoot out some sort of freak butt-baby and then I too will have a fraction of the intelligence as you do.
I sure as hell don't start sentences with "Well, I own a dog so my strategy in Afghanistan would be...". So if you're a mom, great. But stop pretending like it gives you these tremendous world insights into things that have nothing to do with parenting and everything to do with experience that you don't have. [Comments: 2]· permalink ·
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Wednesday: February 11, 2009 - Lost makes you WTF
Spoilers from last night so stop reading if you haven't seen it!
Ok, so WTF? What's up Jack's Dad? Good thing John Locke fell when he did or else he would have been smothered by the earth. Maybe not, since the shift in time whenever they would do something that would affect the future. Whatever dude. I hope Charlotte stays dead. I can't stand her. I wouldn't mind Miles dying either.
File it in the prediction column--we learn that Faraday is Widmore's son. I'm also a little unclear why certain people travel in time and others don't. Had the tanker been within range of the traveling, would it have gone? And all those dudes?
In other news, it's been really nice here. Nice and windy. I've been playing more basketball but I managed to hurt my knee yesterday so even though I'm trying not to complain too much about it, srsly it is really hurting. And right before roughing it in the woods too. [Comments: 3]· permalink ·
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Thursday: February 12, 2009 - 12 of 12
9:10am: Nothing like getting up early to start your day off right.
9:20am: I made Chompy wait for me to shower because I am cruel, cruel man. It was a surprisingly nice day outside.
9:45am: Two vanilla bean cupcakes and a gratis iced venti vanilla latte. Or, as it should be called, the breakfast of champions.
9:50am: They're even more delicious when you eat them in the car.
2:00pm: With the first half of my workday over, it's time for an episode of Fraiser and a nap.
3:30pm: Trying to admire the new hideous mobiles they installed on the AU campus while trying to avoid VA drivers who don't know how to cope with traffic circles.
3:45pm: Lunch. Mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm.
4:45pm: Going through the music for Guitar Night and making all the chords bigger so our old eyes stand a fighting chance.
5:15pm: Eating a delicious snack of Filipino mangos while Chompy enviously watches.
5:30pm: Feeding Chompy while getting ready to take the 1500-mile trek out to Sterling for Steak Night.
6:30pm: Watching the master grill steaks on a blustery night.
8:00pm: Booty doing her best trick: eat.
Bonus: Take 2 of trying to look hot in my backdoor's glass. [Comments: 4]· permalink ·
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Wednesday: February 18, 2009 - Cabin...Retreat
Over the weekend I took a jaunt to remote Georgia for Camp Yeehaw 2.0. I didn't go last year because I was in the process of moving to DC and I wasn't going to pass up a chance to hang out with Marty, Chris, and company...except they weren't there this year. What was there were two big things: ladybugs (everywhere, and I mean full-blown infestation everywhere) and drama.
Since I only knew a couple of the people going in (Amy, Jen, and Walter [and apparently Cory though I don't remember]) we bonded over a series of games; the most notable being one called (I think) Ben Cramer. It basically works like this, everyone writes three phrases onto a piece of paper, divides into teams, then takes turns drawing the paper. In the first round it's like Taboo except you can say anything not written on the card. In the second round, it's charades and in the last round you can read one word off the card. Since with the exception of the first round you've already heard all the cards once you'd think it would be easier to remember them but it's really not because the cards only contain random/weird/obscene/lengthy (and in most case all of those) phrases.
I won't rehash the drama on here since anyone who is anyone already knows but suffice it to say I've never had a weirder four-day stretch in my life. As Dickens should have said, "It was the best of times, it was the weirdest of times." [Comments: 1]· permalink ·
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Thursday: February 19, 2009 - Good Mental Health
I am sad to report that I have now completed watching Frasier in its entirety. I never really watched it except in syndication when it came on TV but once I found I watched pretty regularly from 2005 - 2007. It came on at midnight and Golden Girls came on afterwards so I wound up watching enough of that to know Rose was from St. Olaf to help us win the Battle of the Sexes earlier in the week. Anyway, I'm sad to see it go because the only other TV show I have in the house is X-Files and I'm not sure that makes for the best night-time watching. Maybe Brian will let me borrow 6 Feet Under so I can watch them all in a row instead of in the disjointed order they had them when I was in Tallahassee.
Last night I went out with Annie, Marc, and Sam to some fancy club that we would have probably considered with the HGA before it was dissolved in December. Speaking of the HGA, it's not like I was particularly close to any of them but it made me feel like a real Washingtonian--an experience that was glad to have. I'm not sure how comfortable I'd be with it as a lifestyle but it was nice to dress up and get into cool places.
On an unrelated note, I'm tired of people saying they're from DC when they're really from like Alexandria. I'm not sure why I'm so protective of a city that hasn't even been my home for a year but apparently I'm not alone--there's a FB group dedicated to it.
Confidential to Anna: Yes, I am alive (and hanging out on Saturday?)
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Weekend: February 22, 2009 - About That Time
I had a surprisingly full weekend. On Sunday, Annie and I went to hear Anne perform with the Master Chorale of Washington down the street from me. Let me say first that the singing was excellent. That said, maybe doing two (or even one) Copland pieces for voice...eh. Not what I would have picked. An intermission would have been nice too so we could have stayed focused on the awesome singing and not being cramped in a pew but whatever. Congratulations Anne!
On Saturday I met up with Brian somewhere near Centreville and he drove me through the dicey parts of Manassas to Anna and Ben's house. I hadn't seen Anna/Ben/Ella is ages but they were all were in good spirits and we played games and ate pizza until around 11pm when it was bedtime for babies/kitties/me. We also played Munchkin (which I played for the first time at the Cabin of Terror) but this was a much more manageable game with the focus more on the strategy than blatant cheating.
On Friday, I had a surprise party at my house in that I wasn't really expecting a party at all. I did learn that I'm good at Boggle despite not having played it in easily a decade. My wins were so devastating I decided to only make four-letters words and I still won.
The big news of the weekend was my inability to read a calendar. This, sadly, is not a new skill-drop but one I've had for a while. I've missed some pretty important stuff in the past year because I put a wrong date in my phone. User-error all the way. I should get an administrative assistant. [Comments: 4]· permalink ·
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Monday: February 23, 2009 - Places I've Lived
Thanks to the power of Google Street View I can now revisit every place I've ever lived. With my departure from Washington imminent, I thought it would be nice to do a little review before I had to make the image bigger with a new house in a few months. For the record, I plan on staying in DC through the summer and then figuring out which city to next grace with my presence.
First off, here's my house in Washington, where I've since March 2nd of 2008. Situated in Glover Park on the outskirts of Georgetown, it's easily the nicest neighborhood I've ever lived in. The apartment itself is really small and doesn't have things I would have originally considered deal-breakers: W/D, Dishwasher, etc. That's what you get for impulse house-shopping. If I had the whole top floor, instead of just half, and it was updated, I couldn't really think of a better place to live.
You can't really see my old house on Lake Ella in Tallahassee, but it was awesome. A small fenced yard for the pup, two stories of lake-view and plenty of room. I had a full-sized office which I wasted since I wasn't working from home then. Jamie had picked this place out for me because I was completely destitute when I moved there and was too busy looking for janitorial jobs to go house-hunting. $550/month for a two-story townhouse. Man, those were the days.
Ah, the Florida Towers. Most of my favorite adult memories took place in that hellhole of an apartment. At least it had a dishwasher. It was close enough to campus that it was a good hang-out spot and you couldn't go wrong with the decor--dozens of friend-painted artworks coupled with a living-room sized pool table. From cooking $1 discount steaks to it being Chompy's first home, it was the worst place I ever lived but yet I have nothing but fond memories of it. It also housed the AIDS couch.
My senior year of college I lived with two guys: Paul and David. Down the street from me lived a bunch of other closer friends. We lived in the upstairs unit and a gaggle of snotty girls lived downstairs. Paul, David, and I got along for the most part and fortunately when we didn't we were all weird enough to do things that would make for awesome stories that I still tell today.
My junior year of college I lived with a guy named Josh, who was the RA in the dorm above me. He and I were both enormous slobs and one day our fruit fly problem got so out of control that we took to lighting lysol and shooting fire around. Probably not the best decision in retrospect but it took care of the problem. We lived in this bright pink house and I remember having to walk to school on these blisteringly cold days. I also remember finding 3/4 of a chocolate cake underneath the couch one day.
I lived in the dorms my first two years of college and like anyone else who ever lived in their school's dorms I have my share of weird stories. My second year I actively choose a suitemate, Ben, and he's one of the few people I keep in touch with ten years later.
We never moved growing up, so I lived in the same house my entire life. It was in suburbs of Chicago and my parents still live there. My old room is now an office but other than it's still pretty much the same.
Ta-da.
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Tuesday: February 24, 2009 - Hope Springs Eternal IV
The Cubs start Spring Training games today in Arizona. It's not my favorite day of the year but it's certainly up there.
I've been getting a lot of mileage out of the "Time Machine"--a year ago today T-Chris was celebrating the completion of his dissertation and we were at Gil's throwing back a few in his honor. I was only a few days away from moving out of Tallahassee and complaining about the weight of a particular box. A box that now sits behind me that I have not opened since I moved here.
Four years ago I bought my mandolin and learned all of four songs on it before retiring it. You need carny-small hands to play that thing (sorry John Paul Jones, I tried) and sadly my enormous, masculine hands can't quite be precise enough to reliably hit all the notes necessary.
Chompy also caught and killed a squirrel (yesterday). I don't know how squirrels have survived evolution with a defense mechanism that is only "don't move". I didn't actually see the fatal bite but there wasn't a whole lot of commotion after the running so I'm guessing it died pretty quickly. Chompy has had her rabies shot and is acting normal and now the squirrel is gone. I wonder if one of the big birds picked it up and carried it away.
This random entry was brought to you by a lack of sleep. [Comments: 7]· permalink ·
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Wednesday: February 25, 2009 - Then I Found $100
Yesterday my landlord left me a $100 SBUX gift card. I received the gift card, along with a DC SBUX mug, because I took a virus off her computer. This process took approximately one minute. Based on this number, I have now recalculated my time to be worth $6000/hr, or substantially more than I had previously valued it.
Last night I spent $18,000 worth of time driving out to Sterling, eating delicious steaks, and watching what might have been the single worst episode of Lost I've ever seen. Wow, a whole episode dedicated to learning that Ben and Widmore are at odds with each other. Wowee.
On the bright side, it was a wholly good day--starting with two pink Flintstones vitamins. I can usually predict my day based on the colors: two purple being the worst, two orange being average, two pink being the best, with appropriate levels for the various combinations.
I also swapped Brian the Wii Fit for the complete set of Six Feet Under. Boy, did I win out on that one. That's what happens on a double-pink day. [Comments: 4]· permalink ·
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Thursday: February 26, 2009 - My Evil Twin
So I'm at SBUX yesterday and the new barrista (not to be confused with the one that loved me) says to me, "Wow, it's like you have a twin." I quickly scan around the coffee shop to see who looks like me and discover that there is absolutely no one even remotely close. I grab my gratis iced venti vanilla latte and hit the road with no further comment.
I go back this morning and the same girl is tending the bar. She says, "You just missed your twin". "Oh really?" I reply. She nods yes and I ask her if she told him that he too has a twin in me. She replies, "No, if I told him you were his twin he wouldn't like that very much."
WTF is that supposed to mean? I even asked if we were twins because we ordered the same thing and she said no. WTF! [Comments: 7]· permalink ·
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Good Things Take Time...
-6 days until FSU Football (2010)
Random Picture...
Oh I was wrong, Cosumel translates to English as Tetnus.
Oh I was wrong, Cosumel translates to English as Tetnus.
Time Machine:
09-10-2009
· 09-10-2008
· 09-10-2007
· 09-10-2006
I took the day off blogging but only because I was thinking of you.09-10-2008: It seems like just yesterday I was dreaming about Dr. Spencer and the Corkasaurus. Turns out it's been a whole year. Last night I was talking to Chris Green and he's going to do a guest entry next week to catch everyone up on his life so get ready! Later in the evening I was thinking to myself that it would nice if a bunch of people would write "catch-up" entries so that we could find out all of the exciting things that have been happening since we interacted on a daily basis. Even the people that I've seen/talked to somewhat regularly, I don't really know the full-blown details of what's going on with their lives. Here's where you come in--you too can write an entry to catch everyone up. Send me an email and I'll give you a date from which to start. Then you can post on here in the next few days/weeks. Just think--between 150 and 200 people reading all about your interesting life! And to think I get to live that each and every day.
09-10-2007: Apparently Britney is back after performing at the MTV Music Awards over the weekend. Everyone railed against her out of shape body and poor performance. While I won't comment on performance (I didn't see it, although I'm sure it was a abysmal), she just had two kids. She's not a miracle worker, she can only look so good.
In sadder news, it looks like my mentally-vacating grandmother is headed for an assisted living facility. That sounds really cold but for the past year my dad has dutifully driven over there to attend to her every day and took a sabbatical from work the past six months and she apparently can't even remember that he visits at all. There's been some speculation that since she's lived alone for so long her memory deteriorated into nothing because she never really had to use it; she's at the point now where she can easily ask you the same question six times in ten minutes. It's really sad. I really don't envy the decision my parents have to make at all.09-10-2006: Chompy, what's this? jamie and I scored some tickets from her sister's husband's parents for the Troy game so naturally we went. The game even more horrible in person than it could have been on TV. FSU couldn't hold onto the football to save their lives. De'Cody Fagg was the only trustworthy receiver and there were no, and I mean no, trustworthy rushers. I wish I knew what went on in Lorenzo Booker's head. I bet it's something like, "'Lo, listen" (it should be pointed out that Lorenzo sounds strikingly similar to Alex) "don't dance this time. Just run straight ahead." Then he gets the ball and his feet take over. "Damn it, feet. Stop doing this, we've been over this a zillion times!" And that goes on like that every play.
Their damn band would not shut up. They played under our band the whole time since of course the eight members of the TSU band could not be heard over the Marching Dorks. They played when we had the ball...or Troy had the ball...or there was a timeout. However, the largest trigger to their playing was...our band playing. Which was funny because there were so few of them that you only realized this after FSU's song stopped and the Troy band kept going. Anyway it was horrible. Next week is Clemson and I'm going back solely to beat the shit out of their fan who kept tapping my head last time. I know Jamie doesn't believe it but after eight months of fighting at least twice a week I'm feeling pretty confident I could kick some frat-ass.
In sadder news, it looks like my mentally-vacating grandmother is headed for an assisted living facility. That sounds really cold but for the past year my dad has dutifully driven over there to attend to her every day and took a sabbatical from work the past six months and she apparently can't even remember that he visits at all. There's been some speculation that since she's lived alone for so long her memory deteriorated into nothing because she never really had to use it; she's at the point now where she can easily ask you the same question six times in ten minutes. It's really sad. I really don't envy the decision my parents have to make at all.09-10-2006: Chompy, what's this? jamie and I scored some tickets from her sister's husband's parents for the Troy game so naturally we went. The game even more horrible in person than it could have been on TV. FSU couldn't hold onto the football to save their lives. De'Cody Fagg was the only trustworthy receiver and there were no, and I mean no, trustworthy rushers. I wish I knew what went on in Lorenzo Booker's head. I bet it's something like, "'Lo, listen" (it should be pointed out that Lorenzo sounds strikingly similar to Alex) "don't dance this time. Just run straight ahead." Then he gets the ball and his feet take over. "Damn it, feet. Stop doing this, we've been over this a zillion times!" And that goes on like that every play.
Their damn band would not shut up. They played under our band the whole time since of course the eight members of the TSU band could not be heard over the Marching Dorks. They played when we had the ball...or Troy had the ball...or there was a timeout. However, the largest trigger to their playing was...our band playing. Which was funny because there were so few of them that you only realized this after FSU's song stopped and the Troy band kept going. Anyway it was horrible. Next week is Clemson and I'm going back solely to beat the shit out of their fan who kept tapping my head last time. I know Jamie doesn't believe it but after eight months of fighting at least twice a week I'm feeling pretty confident I could kick some frat-ass.