Red Zeppelin
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Monday: March 03, 2008 - DC: Alive (Barely)
Steve and I rolled in to DC last night around 10:30pm thus ending what I can only describe as the most unfortunate moving experience ever. We only came to blows once and fortunately we were in different cars. I will expound later but remember this: NEVER, EVER, EVER, rent from U-Haul. That's my advice to you. On the bright side I already have a story to tell.
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Wednesday: March 05, 2008 - Crazy Dream
This morning I took a three mile walk through Glover Park and upon returning home I fell asleep. I had the CRAZIEST DREAM while I was sleeping...
...It all started back in Tallahassee and it was Friday. Christine and I were at Olive Garden when U-Haul called to confirm my truck reservation. Although they had the right day, I certainly was not going to pick it up the next day at 10pm when my reservation was at 9am. Fortunately, after a brief, curt phone call it was all squared away and I was going to be able to get it at 10am on Saturday. Awesome. Here's how wacky the dream was--I still had a lot to do Friday night despite getting ready to leave town Sunday morning instead of being totally ready to leave. Crazy, I know.
On Saturday morning I called Ricky to see if he could take me to the U-Haul place at noon. He and AJ came promptly to pick me up at 11:30 and I called U-Haul to get their street address. They gave it to me and we headed out. Above five minutes into the trip the same woman who I had just spoken to calls back. (Ok, here's where the dream really starts to get weird.) She says something like "Yeah, we just got off the phone but I don't have a truck for you after all". Long story short, the previous customer still had it and she'd have to call me back when it was available. "Damn", I said (or something to that effect). Ricky and I ran errands while I called my team of able-bodied movers to tell them I would call them when I had the truck. Hours go by. More hours go by. Suddenly it's 7pm when I get a call from U-Haul HQ saying they have a truck for me but instead of the 14' I had requested they had instead procured me a 26'--a great service to me! Ricky and I immediately took off for the U-Haul place. We sat there for about a half hour before I call them back saying there is no one there. The conversation goes something like this:
U-Haul: "Oh, it's not at that location--it's the one on the other side of town. I thought I had made that clear".
Me: "No, not only did you not make it clear, you didn't say that at all. I'm reasonably certain that omitting that piece of information does not simply qualify as being unclear."
Her: "How could I have not told you the location?"
Me: "That's what I would like to know".
Finally Ricky and I get to the right place and they bring me out what is effectively a semi with a huge prehistoric turtle on the back of it. On the bright side, they started me off with 1/8 tank of gas so I was able to drive about four blocks to get gas before stalling out on the side of the road. Once back at my house Ricky guided me in the 26', no-radio, broken-window truck into the upramp into my apartment and after about 45 minutes I had it in there only leaving two small canyons on Lake Ella Drive from where the 26', no-radio, broken-window truck had bottomed out. Naturally, if you're going to make a truck that big, you want it only three feet of the ground. Duh.
One of my co-workers came by to help me pack the truck and between him, Ricky, and me we were able to get all of the big stuff packed. Ricky tetrised everything into the front of the truck and by 9:45 we were done enough that I could go pick up Steve from the airport. Steve was in good spirits until we got back to my apartment and saw the state of affairs. There was absolutely no way in hell we were leaving at 8am the next morning.
Despite our best efforts in cleaning and "packing" we were not able to leave until 4pm on Sunday. On our way out of town we brought back 95% of Ricky's Dyson (I have that piece if you're reading it by the way) and stopped by Jamie's mom's house to move some furniture around. We only had to stop for gas twice between Tallahassee and Jacksonville which, as I would learn later, would be amazing gas mileage. Jacksonville was under heavy construction so we sat around in our cars doing a whole lot of nothing. The first major problem with the truck happened here, on a narrow bridge. The main brakes failed and moved to the auxiliary brake which, in case you've never driven a 26' truck before, causes an alarm to sound. This alarm is high-pitched and cannot be stopped. For the next hour we drove in narrow construction lanes, surrounded by semis and concrete barricades and, in the truck, I got to hear the docet tone of imminent death. Although I had wanted to drive to Savannah, and Steve was certainly up for the task, I had such a pounding headache that we ended up spending the night in Darien, Georgia. It had taken seven hours to do what should have taken three. Awesome.
Steve and I woke up early the next morning, stopped spooning the dogs (he had Chompy, I had Abby), and hit the road. Although we had to stop for gas every hour (that's right, a four-figure gas bill) things weren't going too badly until we got to the Beltway at around 9:30pm. Apparently you're not supposed to drive 40 in the middle lane and since Steve was following my 40-mph-going-ass he was catching all the heat from other cars about it. Several angry phone calls later we had half-apologized and gotten off the expressway into Washington. I misunderstood the directions from Jamie, got lost, and had to double-back to get to Jamie's house. Finally we did arrive and Jamie had graciously prepared some Japanese Chicken for us. We made a quick jaunt to my new apartment to see it and then went back to Jamie's. Exhausted, we all went to bed soon after.
On Tuesday morning I blew a tire out on the no-radio, broken-window, auxiliary-brake truck while driving to my new apartment in morning DC rush hour. Believe me, it was every bit as fun as it sounds. Steve was behind me and said he saw a piece of black shoot off the tire along with a 2' burst of what we can only assume was air. This came about because the streets were too narrow to accommodate any sort of bad driving and coupled with me in a large truck that can't slow down quickly and some other car stopped at a light well past their line and halfway into the intersection I either had to drive up on the non-populated curb or slam head-first into this car. As if a non-working radio, a drivers-side window that didn't roll up, auxiliary brakes (with requisite alarm) wasn't enough having a flat tire and severely bent rim certainly was. Steve and I unpacked the truck relatively quickly but found my apartment was too small to adequately unpack with everything inside. We spent the day trying to make room for ourselves and eventually met up with Jamie for dinner at some place in Cleveland Park. After dropping her off Steve and I decided we need to get plowed and since I had only the two diet Dr. Peppers and the single Budweiser my landlord had left I elected to go on a beer run. Stupid. First, it was absolutely pouring. Second, I have no concept of street directions and I got lost. I'm talking lost-lost. In the 90 minutes I was gone I was in DC, Virginia and Maryland and with no phone battery (nor charger) I thought I might die. It was storming so hard I couldn't ready any street signs so it wouldn't really have mattered anyway. Despite my best efforts apparently you can't buy beer in DC anywhere so after all that I came home empty-handed. Steve was already half-asleep on the couch in the dining room so I crawled over boxes into the living to sleep on the dog's couch.
Yesterday morning Steve and I managed to get a lot done--we cleared a number of walking paths and just generally got boxes into the right rooms. Because my lease says I have to have 80% of the floors covered in carpet we didn't set anything up since we were going to IKEA with Jamie in the evening. When it came to pick Jamie up for the IKEA trip I got lost (again) getting to her house so it took a good 40 minutes to go the 7/8 of a mile which put all of us in a bad mood. I was already really stressed out driving the no-radio, broken-window, auxiliary-brake, flat-tire, demolished-rim truck on the narrow streets but somehow we navigated ourselves to the IKEA in College Park, MD. Once there I spent a ton of money on their crap, filling up a shopping cart with three of those furniture-hauler-things. After paying Steve suggested I go bring the truck to us; a good plan considering the volume of stuff we had. So I go to the no-radio, broken-window, auxiliary-brake, flat-tire, demolished-rim truck to bring it back and...oh, it won't start. The battery is dead (no I didn't leave the lights on). I attempt starting it about four hundred more times while screaming. I call U-Haul and the woman on the phone, while very polite, says, "The earliest we can get someone out to you is 9:30am tomorrow--is this acceptable?" It was right here that I think I formally began to have a nervous breakdown. I totally lost it on her to the point where I was channeling expletives in Arameic. Ultimately she agreed to send someone out immediately. After waiting around for another 90 minutes IKEA informed us they were closing. No one had called from the mechanic yet so I figured I'd give the truck another try. Viola! It started right up and Steve and Jamie loaded it while I tried to tell the retards at U-Haul they could cancel the mechanic. We dropped off Jamie's stuff (and her) at her place and Steve and I came back to my house to unload the truck. It was now 11:00pm and Chompy was freaking out. I called Jamie back and asked if she Ab could come over and watch Chompy while Steve and I unloaded the no-radio, broken-window, auxiliary-brake, flat-tire, demolished-rim, dead-battery truck from the tow-away zone. She agreed and we went to pick her up. I got lost (again). We all finally got back here but now it was too late for Steve and I to team-carry the heavy things up the stairs without waking up all of my neighbors so I suggested we leave those things on the side of the house. It probably was not a smart decision and Steve and I had it out for like the 10th time. A full 10/10 in stress at least the truck was unloaded and the plan was for me to bring it back to Jamie's house with them following in the Taurus, drop them off, then take the Taurus home. I somehow managed to get back to Jamie's house in the truck without getting lost (shocking, I know) but then Steve called saying the Taurus would not shift out of park. Awesome. After a lengthy conversation it was decided I would come back and bring them. I go to do that and...that's right, I get lost. Not only do I get lost, I get REAL lost. I call Jamie for directions and totally lose it when she's unable to use the GPS she had installed in me to figure out where I am. After screaming at her and throwing my phone I pull over, have a quick mental breakdown, and then realize I am but one street off from where I'm supposed to be. I make it back, bring Jamie and Ab home and we call a cab. It's about 2am at this point. Out of the dozens of cab companies the first to pick up was Yellow Cab (after getting recordings from the first six) and when they press me for address I flip out on them. I try to explain that I have only been in town for a day but the guy on the phone keeps saying, "WHERE ARE YOU TRYING TO GO???". His assholeness causes me to tell him to go f* himself and hang up, possibly ending my only chance to get a cab back. Thankfully another company has a person working this late who is not an asshole to me, and they come pick me up and bring me home. For $8 I should just use a taxi all the time. I got home around 3am, frustrated, embarrassed, exhausted, and frankly on the verge of tears. It was finally time for bed.
This morning Steve and I got up at 8am and brought all of the stuff in that we had left outside. Only about 20% of the packages caused us to yell at each other and once we were done it was time to bring the no-radio, broken-window, auxiliary-brake, flat-tire, demolished-rim truck back to U-Haul. Unfortunately the no-radio, broken-window, auxiliary-brake, flat-tire, demolished-rim truck was also out of gas so our first stop was going to be a gas station. Unfortunately trying to get a gasless, no-radio, broken-window, auxiliary-brake, flat-tire, demolished-rim truck into a tiny city-gas station was impossible so I drove on fumes until Maryland when I finally found one on the right side of the road. It was much too small for a gasless, no-radio, broken-window, auxiliary-brake, flat-tire, demolished-rim 26' truck but I crammed it in there anyway. My first take brought the the gas tank to about 4" from the outstretched nozzle and in my second attempt I accidentally wedged the truck in between the filling station and a small brick building that was luckily vacated at the time. I put $50 in to get 1/1000 of a tank and rocked the truck back and forth to get it unstuck. Finally I just gave up and went over a 2' embankment with an enormous thud as I landed back on the main road safely. When we finally arrived at the U-Haul place the stoned-out-of-his-gourd attendant apparently did notice the scratched-up, no-radio, broken-window, auxiliary-brake, flat-tire, demolished-rim truck as having any new damage. I don't know how he didn't notice that a tire was flat and partially shredded nor that the rim was bent 4" OR that the other side had enormous scrapes by the tires where I unjammed the truck from the gas station. As soon as he checked the "No new damage" box I ran out of there like Chompy in a thunderstorm. The next problem was that Steve's flight was in a about an hour and we had no idea where we were. The iPhone provided basic directions and, once free of the cursed truck, we hauled ass towards Reagan and Steve made his flight. I came home to a house filled with dozens of unpacked boxes, unbuilt furniture and but a two-cushioned sofa in my dining room to sit/sleep on...
And that's when I woke up. Pretty weird dream eh? [Comments: 12]· permalink ·
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Saturday: March 08, 2008 - DC Poker Party #1
I finally got around to building my new desk and that only came about because Comcast came out earlier in the day to tell me my "cable was pinched" and to install their services I would need permission to drill a hole throw the brick wall separating my office and bedroom. Because of that delay I wasn't going have internet for a while but I knew I could hijack someone's wireless if I moved my computer to the back room. I went out and bought a wireless USB adapter for the desktop, built the desk and viola! My signal is pretty bad so I can't really do much other than check my email and (now) update my blog.
Around 5:30 I headed out to Sterling for Brian's poker party. The game wasn't until 7pm but I figured I'd get lost enough to push the 45 minute trip into an a 90 minute one. Sure enough! Even though I only got "lost" once (I knowingly missed a turn onto the parkway) having to go through Georgetown on a Saturday night was a big mistake. I arrived at 7:05 and managed to be the 3rd one there (after Chris and Kathy). By 7:45 everyone else had arrived and we started playing. I was out relatively soon after a swarm of 3/8's plagued me. Chris won and, from what I can tell by having so much time to watch, probably plays the most savvy poker. I didn't really see him suck out much (except to put me out of the game) so I have no choice but to assume he's the man to beat. As a consolation prize Brian got me a map of DC from CostCo which I promptly used on my way home after forgetting which way Dulles was despite a half-dozen signs that say "DULLES THIS WAY ->". I made it home in 30 minutes because I decided to take the longer (but not through Georgetown) way back. Look at me--I'm a regular now. [Comments: 1]· permalink ·
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Sunday: March 09, 2008 - You Are Here *
Since Jamie has been in Jacksonville visiting Meyer I've been left to my own devices. Yesterday I ventured out to Crystal City since that's where the closest Target apparently is. It took me a good half hour to get there and by the time I finally arrived I didn't really think it was worth the trip to spend $9 on two garbage cans so I went coat shopping. I was unsuccessful (again) but I did get a new pair of running shoes for my gallops through the Glover Park trails. I haven't gone yet today because I'm waiting for the temperature to get above 35--my Florida blood coagulates at anything below 60 so I fear I might be stuck inside for a while. It took me three tries to type "blood" because I typed "blog" the first two times; muscle memory at work.
When I got back from not buying a coat I made some lunch and built my dresser. It was 25 steps which was too many so I skipped the middle ten and it works just fine. I now have eleven tubs unpacked with only nine to go. My kitchen is now totally unpacked and usable but that's really about it. Both my living room and dining room need some furniture to be built and I started in on the dining room table last night but once I saw the number of directions needed to build a leaf-y table I elected to go to bed instead.
Chompy is still not used to all the noise so she spends a lot of her day walking around and growling. That's getting really, really old. [Comments: 2]· permalink ·
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Monday: March 10, 2008 - Exercises in Futility
I spent way too long building this little weather station last night. Hopefully when Steve becomes a world dictator he will decree that you can't make things for public use that have this mini-screws on them. Look, if you want to use mini-screws on things like airplanes or in vending machines fine--go for it. But please don't assume your average person has an eyeglass screwdriver set at his disposal. I eventually just gave up and ripped the back off and packing-taped it back it. On the bright side it works well and I know now it's 42F with 77% humidity without having to go outside...although I've already gone out with the dogs so maybe this wasn't the most savvy purchase.
I now have to walk to Starbucks because there is no place to park when I drive. I am apparently the only man not at work earning money for his wife and baby during the day. While at Starbucks there was a recruitment meeting going on for the Glover Park Mommy's Club. I'm not making up that name to feel like an outsider either--women and babies in large carts were being strolled around everywhere as if they were being shopped around at some sort of Chinatown market. "Oh you baby so cute!" "Oh no! YOU baby so cute!" Yeah yeah, all your babies are so cute. I really only saw one that was cute but I sure as hell wasn't about to say anything with the threat of being pelted with those Nygea bottles or whatever they're called. [Comments: 3]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: March 11, 2008 - 1e+a 2e+a 3e+
Jamie flew back into town yesterday afternoon from Jacksonville and I made it to Reagan in about 15 minutes. With Brian's map I can now do no wrong. After I picked her up we caught a bus (gasp) to Tenleytown where we had lunch then got on the metro (gasp) so she could get fingerprinted for her internship and I could get my SMARTcard. The woman fingerprinting her kept trying to resend a fax and must have done it fifty times while we were there. Getting my SMARTcard was pretty easy although I was hoping it would somehow be smart enough to repel the stench of the homeless on the bus from infiltrating my nose but no, it's just not that smart.
After having dinner in Georgetown we came back to my house and built my dining room table and about 95% of the kitchen pantry. Because it was so late I didn't want to do any hammering or else that would have gotten done too. With those items complete I'm down to only needing to build my new dresser and a bookshelf. Once THAT'S done then I can finally finish up my office and empty out four of the remaining tubs. Awesome. [Comments: 1]· permalink ·
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Wednesday: March 12, 2008 - 12 of 12
7:06am: Apparently I'm still in 8-5 work mode because I always wake up at 7:06. Since I don't have anything formally scheduled I'm sure this will be a productive day!
9:30am: I am Chompy, keeper of the bed. I'm sure sleeping with the plugged-in laptop power cord was a great idea. Chompy and I have not been on the best of terms since I moved up here but rest assured this was not a veiled attempt to electrocute her.
9:45am: Can I PLEASE just steal ONE internet connection? I wish people in DC were as unsavvy about internet connections as the yokels in Tallahassee. There were at least two quality unsecured connections in my apartment there. Now I have to settle for some Mac one that barely works.
10:00am: Ok, there's no internet and it's not going to get any warmer than 45 so it's time to go run in Glover Park. Just look at the smile on my face--so much ambition and determination.
10:45am: Oh my God, it is so cold out there. I probably only "ran" for maybe 15 minutes of the 40 I was gone. I did learn however that there are many "trails" that go for about 100 feet and then dump you into a busy intersection. On the bright side, on my normal route I've started naming landmarks; be grateful I wasn't on Louis and Clark's expeditions or else there'd be a lot more areas of country known by names like Creepy Dude Tree and Dog Sh*t Bridge.
Noonish: I traded Jamie her old carpet and chair-mats for some Starbucks. I also got Abby a new toy elephant.
1:07pm: What a waste of money this thermometer was. If it's in fact 85 degrees outside then I easily ran about 26 miles this morning.
3:30pm: Here I am putting the glass doors on my new kitchen pantry. I've gotten pretty good using the timer on my camera. The doors don't close all the way but that will come in time. Rome wasn't built in a day.
4:45pm: I haven't had to do dishes by hand since July of 2001. With each passing day I feel more and more like a housewife--going shopping in the morning, running in the park, and then cleaning up the house. I just need a rich husband who totally ignores me except when he beats me and I'll totally fit in here.
8pm: Looks like I accidentally brought a bunch of pets with me from Florida--the plants that now live in my desk used to be outside and they apparently house several colonies of ants. I have a fun time mashing them on my new desk...I'm pretty sure this is what people did before the internet to pass time.
10:00pm: There was an accident involving a bus which blocked one lane and this bitch was in the blocked lane. Because I'm a courteous anti-gridlock driver, I didn't block the intersection when the light changed to red and she waited until there was no traffic coming before running the red to get ahead of me. Once the lanes went back to normal I pulled up next to her to yell and she pretended to not notice just like I did when I cut some guy off driving back from Union Station. No harm done but seriously, do you really think gridlocking an intersection is helpful to ANYONE? Really? Seriously?
11:30pm: Ooh, it's my scared face after watching the "After Humans" show on the National Geographic channel that showed what would happen to earth if every human died today. Long story short, everything would get better for every other species once the radiation died down. I couldn't stay awake through the next show on how oil is created. I did have some weird dreams about the world ending which were pretty interesting (more than I can say for my 12 of 12).
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Thursday: March 13, 2008 - Miker!
Other than seeing Miker and saying "Miker!" like four hundred times, I was really disappointed with the whole episode. I audibly called Jin's timeline was out of order with Sun's and that there was no way Jin was alive (at least Oceanic Six alive). Like Brian, I totally saw Miker as the spy on the ship and the fact Sun didn't try to kill Juliet for spilling the affair-beans is totally beyond me. Jin is one of my favorite characters and I'll be sad to see him go when that time comes.
Last night's show did open up one big question to me which was if Penny's dad somehow "bought" 341 bodies to account for each person being dead then how are they going to explain the Oceanic Six? That there just happened to be an extra six corpses at the bottom of the ocean in that exact spot? Whatever, I guess we'll see.
I sat with one of my new neighbors outside last night while our dogs raced around the backyard and beat each other up. I cleaned up my office a bit and rearranged some things to give myself a little more room. I also emptied out another tub. Exciting, I know. I made Jamie and myself some filet and mashed potatoes before Lost. I also set off my smoke detector for the first time. Good to know I won't be able to sleep through that. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Weekend: March 16, 2008 - St. Uri's Day
Since Jamie was finishing a hellish workweek I had the weekend to myself. On Saturday night Kathy came into town for Anne's birthday party at the Geht-O nightclub down off 14th street. Before the party we met up with Jamie for a dinner at Cafe Deluxe where were treated ourselves to not only a delicious dinner but awesome desserts afterwards. Upon leaving the restaurant we dropped Jamie off and headed downtown to find this jazz club. The area could have been a lot worse but at the same time it's sad to see half-million dollar houses with bars over the windows and way too many people stoop-sitting at 11:30 at night--making those half-million dollar houses worth something in the narrow "Mike Could Buy It" range. It was good to see Anne and she had a bunch of people there. The band was ok--they only played two songs the whole time they were there but sounded pretty solid during All Blues and whatever jamsong they played after that. Since neither Kathy nor I knew anyone else we stayed cliquish talking only to Anne and peaced out after an hour. We safely made it back to the car (past all the stoopers) and I was safe and sound by 12:30.
On Sunday I spent the day cleaning my bedroom and ruthlessly going through my clothes to see what I could safely get rid off. I actually got almost everything off the floor and with the exception of the huge stack of "put these in the dryer to get the wrinkles out" I feel like I made a lot of noticeable progress. I also did another batch of dishes, resorted the clutter in my living room, and took out a bunch of trash. I left at exactly 4pm for the Urizoo for the St. Patrick's Day extravaganza. I brought GH so I could help spread the word and hopefully create more addicts since Chris won't be coming up for a new months. I could get to like that corned beef--seriously. After dinner it was time for board games and Anna ruled them. The first game we played had a bunch of The New Yorker cartoons that you had to caption. Mine were horrific and my lone winner is pictured here. I had a good time laughing hysterically at a couple of my answers though. After that we played some Apples to Apples and whatever skill I used to have at that game is now officially gone. Maybe it's the cold weather up here. After that it was time for Cranium and Brian and I pulled off the upset in the Boys vs. Girls despite my inability to sing and a thorough lack of knowledge of Happy Days. Around 11:30 I trekked back and was safely at home by 12:15. I must have taken a different route than last time because I had to pay two tolls on my way back instead of one. Next time I go out there I'm taking River Road; the novelty of Georgetown is officially gone. [Comments: 2]· permalink ·
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Monday: March 17, 2008 - New To DC
Now that I've lived in DC for two weeks I think I'm ready to give an opinion of what I've experienced so far. Since I lived in Milwaukee for four years I have a reference point as far as what a city should and shouldn't be and for the most part I'm really happy up here. To that end, let's start with the good stuff.
The drivers up here are great--sure they're more cranky than in Milwaukee or Tallahassee but they hit each other a lot less frequently than anywhere else I've lived. I also live in a really nice neighborhood with a great park almost directly behind my house. It's so nice that I've had a very easy transition from a sedentary lifestyle into one that involves walking/running for at least an hour a day. People, while not as "friendly", as they were in Tallahassee, are at least neutral and I haven't come across any mean strangers yet--but then again I haven't ventured into where all the politicians are yet.
Now onto the less savory things: the traffic is awful and trying to leave town through Georgetown is a nightmare. To get to Brian's I spend an equal amount of time in the mile between my house and I66 and the 20 miles from there to his place. The weather is exactly the same every day: cold in the morning, slight warm-up in the afternoon and rain at night. It's expensive as hell. There are no "general stores" even remotely close by. I just want to buy some hangers and it's going to take me over an hour round-trip to get some?
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Tuesday: March 18, 2008 - New Photos!
I've been trying to take a little bit of time each day to organize all of the photos I have on my computer. As a part of that I'm trying to put them online since I remember fewer of the details with each passing day and that means I would have to come up with clever captions which I obviously, as I learned a few nights ago, can't do. That said, you can see them all in the Photos section or, if you're already up to date on the current pictures go right to Jamie and I going to Atlanta to see a Cubs game, FSU vs. Kentucky in the Music City Bowl, and (a very limited set) our trip to NYC a week ago to see Chris and Miker.
Last night I picked up Jamie and we trekked out to Dulles to meet up with Amy and her friend, who happened to be in town for the night. It was clearly destined to be since they picked the Longhorn Steakhouse for dinner. It was a lot of fun and Jamie and I were regaled with a lot of fun stories--they kind we don't get to experience in our day-to-day working. We explained to Amy that surely she and Chris will be sucked here like everyone else and fighting it is just futile. We hung out for a good long time and by the time we left it was too late to get my much-needed haircut (mullets just aren't that "in" here for whatever reason). [Comments: 2]· permalink ·
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Wednesday: March 19, 2008 - Guest Entry: Chompy (the dog)
My name is Chompy and I'm a bad, bad dog. Food Guy was too mad to write an update today but he mentioned yesterday that he put up new pictures of Abby's Birthday Party, a steel band gig, and Christmas 2006. He's really mad at me right now because I have been really terrible since we moved out of Tallahassee. I was good sport on the ride up--I really was. I wasn't even that bad when all of my treats and toys were packed up and moved out of the house. However, now that I'm here I am a total bitch.
My new favorite hobby has GOT to be running away. I've discovered a small gap between where our fence meets our neighbors fence and with a running start I can get enough height to where it's high enough for me to fit. Until today Food Guy was clever enough to open a car door and trick me into getting in it but today I got smart. The FIRST time I escaped today I made it all the way into our neighbor's front yard before Food Guy corralled me. Fortunately it was so wet from yesterday's torrential rains (that really scared me, by the way) that while he was carrying me down the steep slope back into the house he fell down the stairs and *bam* I was free again. The SECOND time I escaped I wasn't dumb enough to go back to where I'd be caught so easily. I took off down the alley hoping that the many trucks collecting trash coming at us would slow him down. I know it's kind of weird because if I'm on a leash in the alley I rear back and act as though Satan himself is going to eat my soul if I go more than 10 feet away from the house but it must have something to do with the leash because I was off! I made it down to Davis Road before Food Guy tackled me in a big patch of mud. He mentioned feeling lucky to have been wearing his old leather jacket (that smells like good times) while he carried me back. Once he carried me all the way back he had the audacity to tell me, "Chompy. You're in big trouble, Chompy". Can you believe that? [Comments: 6]· permalink ·
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Thursday: March 20, 2008 - Reverse Day
Taking the day in reverse--9am (this morning) I had the rugs collected and thrown away. By 5am I had all of the poop cleaned up and a good portion of the barf. At 3:30am I heard Chompy yaking. At 3am I couldn't fathom why Chompy hadn't stopped pacing yet. At 12:30am I went to bed. At 9pm I had just gotten home to watch Lost. That was a good episode; more later. At 6:30pm I left for the auction. At 2:30pm I went running. Before that, I worked on the newest Call For Scores.
Now, in order starting from yesterday morning. After wrangling Chompy I went over to Jamie's apartment to pick up Abby for a day-long play date since Jamie was going to be at school all day. I got back and worked on my newest piece and although it's nowhere near completion it feels good to write it. Around 2:30 I decided it was time to run so I got changed and charted a hefty goal for myself--a solid five miles. A good hour into the trip I got lost in the woods; really lost. By the time I got home two and a half hours later I had walked almost 11 miles and got a lovely tour of my quarter of DC. I knew I was in trouble when Virginia was across the street and the Washington Monument was in plain sight. I quickly got changed for the AU Law Auction and quickly discovered that, somehow, I didn't have any black socks to wear with my suit. I don't really know how this is possible since in Tallahassee I owned at least a dozen identical ones. I met up with Jamie and her friends and they started auctioning a bunch of things I wanted that I didn't bid on. At 8:45 I left early to get home to watch Lost. Good thing! That was a great episode--almost good enough to make up for last week's bomb. I'm not sure if Jamie's watched it yet so...how is Widmore's outfit so lame they didn't check up on "Kevin Johnson's" real information? You would have thought they'd been more careful. If Walt was this big-time character why is he still living with Miker's mom and not in the possession of The Others? It's interesting to me that Miker can't die. Finally, when did Jin give him his watch and when did Tom time travel to find him?...after Lost I chatted on the internets for a while, played with Abby, and called it a night (until all of Chompy's Expel-This episode came on a few hours later). [Comments: 3]· permalink ·
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Weekend: March 23, 2008 - Easter Weekend
Happy Easter! On Friday night I met up with Brian, Rebecca & Co. for sushi at Kotobuki on McArthur. One of my personal goals for moving to DC was to never be late for anything. I parked at 6:05 for dinner at 6:30 but unfortunately by the time I realized I had parked over a mile away I strolled in at 6:35. Oh well, I made it three weeks. After dinner we dropped the Taurus off and headed out to Arlington for fun and games. It was like a seventh grade band trip but without the make-out session--I hadn't played BS since then and I certainly hadn't played it sober since then. Brian gave a primer on how to play poker a few hours later and I went out on the first hand on a gut shot straight draw. If you can't loosen up with no money on the line and seven chips, you're not living.
On Saturday I watched a lot of college basketball and starting developing my new project, codenamed Heaven. It will be a lot of programming but that's one of the perks of being your own boss--lots of time to do what *you* think is important. I also churned out a lot of stuff on my new piece and made a trip out to Target and got that big dent taken out of my car while at Starbucks by a kindly stranger. I divulged the secrets of the internet to him and after an hour of note-taking he (a manager of an auto body shop) said he's check out the car. For a $4.35 coffee he took the dent out and it looks really good; not bad for an Easter present.
Easter morning I got up at 7:30 to open the Easter Care Package from my mom, took a shower, and then went to pick up Jamie for church. Like most Easters it was clear and nice although pretty darn cold. Jamie and I dropped the car off at the metro station and then took the train to meet up with some of her friend who were going to church with is. We went to the Episcopal church across from the White House and apparently W. himself was at the 7am service. I believe it because I saw crayon all over the pew in front of the one labeled "Presidents Pew". After church Jamie worked on law stuff while I pet the dogs. We met up again around 3:30 to go to lunner (lunch/dinner?) at the Beacon Street Grill which was a buffet. We ate for a couple of hours, picked up Abby, and I dropped the two of them off and came home where I added limited Easter Pictures and tried to beat Super Mario I (that's right, for the original Nintendo). I made a couple of rules: no warping and no using the internet to look anything up. I died in 5-1 the first time and 5-2 the second time. That's kind of embarrassing but I never beat the game as a kid so I want to get that checked off my list. I also added the photos from the 4th of July last year at Chris E.'s house. Hope you had a relaxing weekend. [Comments: 2]· permalink ·
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Monday: March 24, 2008 - Crime in America
On Friday someone spray pained the bus stop by my house. I don't really understand the allure of graffiti. Most crimes, as I was telling Brian and Rebecca, I get--hey, I need some money so give me your money. Crimes like this are totally beyond me. How does spray painting your JH in huge red letters on the side of a bus stop accomplish anything? It's not like from that point forward you're the only one who gets to ride the bus. Thanks for defacing my nice neighborhood.
Speaking of defacing my nice neighborhood, there are Obama and Hillary signs everywhere. I feel like a freshman in high school all over again in the sense that because SO MANY people like Obama for really stupid reasons that it makes me like him less. This, in case you were too cool to know, reminds me of high school because if you liked a particular band and then they got popular you had to hate them. Such are the ways of the world. I think he's really smart and he certainly speaks well; I'm probably going to vote for him. That said, I don't consider him an anti-establishment campaigner--he did grow up in a life of privilege and is just as out of touch as any other politician when it comes to be "outside" or having any idea how "regular" people go about their lives. I'll give John Edwards (a very bad speaker, not very smart) a waiver here since he grew up poor and made his own riches. Way to go John--but you went to Clemson, which says a lot.
In other news, Chompy ran away again this morning and took off out the alley onto somewhat-busy 39th Street (more busy than the alley). I also watched a special on how bread is made on the History Channel. It was so riveting that I was asleep by 11:30. [Comments: 6]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: March 25, 2008 - Out on the Town
Around 10:30am I took a shower, a deep breath, and then set out into DC's vast public transportation system. I caught the bus by my house to the metro stop and then took the metro down to Foggy Bottom to meet Kathy for lunch. I have to believe that Foggy Bottom was named by someone like me running around the pre-developed swamplands of DC. If I were in charge of renaming the area today I think I'd have to go with Skinstafack (Sketchy-into-students-after-a-block). I'll know I've really "made it" in DC when someone other than me refers to Foggy Bottom as Skinstafack. Because I'm no longer late for things, I was there a good 45 minutes early so I walked around listening to the practicing students. Around noon Kathy was done with her office hours so we headed out to a converted-pharmacy for a Loop-like lunch. They served tater tots instead of fries and the BLT I had was awesome. We hung out there for about three hours drawing on the paper table cloth and discussing profound issues such as the role of the Night Elf in Warcraft.
I got home in a lot less time than it took me to get there so I went for a short, known, run. My calves are still pretty sore from the lengthy exploits of the past few days so the long, uphill walk back was especially grueling. I took a quick shower then threw Chompy in the car to go pick up Jamie in Ab for Errands & Date Night. Our first errand brought us out to PetSmart in Bethesda where the dogs got their nails clipped in the hopes they'd stop sounding like those Under Armor commercials: click-clack. After we dropped them off we went to Old Europe, which is a very short walk from my house, for some German food. The beers were excellent and my viener schnitzel was too. I can handle German food--meat and some sort of potato product. After dinner we came back to my house and I got a haircut, which I was needing pretty badly. I wasn't in the mood to clunk around building my wardrobe so unfortunately that didn't get done. Alas. [Comments: 3]· permalink ·
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Wednesday: March 26, 2008 - John McCain in love
As I clean off my computer I'm trying to use up all the random pictures I've saved and today I elected (get it?) to go with this one with John McCain appearing to really enjoy hugging. The look on his face looks like the same one that a young grandchild gives while hugging a beloved grandparents. Whatever, you'll never beat Obama so wipe that smirk off your face.
I spent most of the day working on my piece and by the time evening came around I was a good 90% or so done. I didn't go running until about 4pm and while I tried not to get lost I did want to start going further so I wound up going on a very similar path to the one I took when I went all the way around Georgetown. On the bright side it was an absolutely beautiful day and I could have easily made a coffee table book about flowers had I had my camera with me. I really like the route I took yesterday in terms of the length (just far enough to hurt, not far enough to make me want to kill myself or cry) but the fact that there is no sidewalk on Reservoir and a lot of hospital traffic makes me not really want to go that way.
The French Embassy is marked as the "A" flag. It's a really beautiful building and, as I cut across their front yard, I couldn't help wondering how many cameras were watching me trot along.
In other news, Jamie was elected a place for the Criminal Law Society and to be the president of the Womens Law Association. Brian and Rebecca are getting ready to leave for Europe in a few days too. Their departure will effectively halve the number of friends I have in DC so if you're planning on moving here, this weekend would be excellent; I can totally help you move in. [Comments: 1]· permalink ·
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Thursday: March 27, 2008 - Hacked
Yesterday someone hacked one of my sites. I can't say for sure it was hacked yesterday but I found it then; I don't really spend a lot of time on that particular site and I certainly don't check it daily. The hack wasn't too hard to clean up--someone just posted a bunch of their ads everywhere--but, as I would imagine with any sort of break-in, you don't like the idea of someone going through your stuff. It only took thirty minutes at the most to get everything back under control but since the site is hosted for free elsewhere I'm a little concerned that it could happen again. Oh well.
Last night Brian threw an impromptu party and, as a non-WoW player/non-band-member/non-law-student, I found the time to go. Before we settled into the fun, I got to do something I hadn't been able to do since early December (if memory serves): eat at Chick-Fil-A. Although their chickeny goodness has spread through DC there aren't any even remotely nearby but fortunately there was one about five minutes away from Brian. After returning we took turns whomping each other in Guitar Hero the moved on to the Wii (my first adventure outside bowling). Finally, after a little Dance Dance Revolution we settled into a blast-from-the-past (Hi Alex) and played Smash Brothers. Not surprisingly, I was the worst and as my punishment had to drive the longest distance home.
While we were having fun Jamie *officially* won the presidency of her law association. I jumped the gun a little bit on my previous entry. [Comments: 4]· permalink ·
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Friday: March 28, 2008 - 100 Years
The Cubs haven't won the World Series in a long time. They haven't even gone to the World Series in my parents' lifetimes let alone mine. I remember watching the last game of the NLCS in 2003--we had a gig that night at the FSU Black Student Union and I would call Steve in between songs to get status updates. I got home for the painful last three innings and with Jamie safely asleep had myself a little cry when they lost. It wasn't really the loss that made me cry--it was all the old people dressed in Cubs regalia knowing they'd die before the Cubs would be this close again.
I've gotten my hopes up before (see last year) but I feel pretty good about this year. I don't feel all that great about the Cubs themselves--you have Marquis AND Dempster in the starting rotation and Lieber in the 'pen when Lieber was the only one to pitch really well this spring? Ronny Cedeno is still on the team and I can't stand him. I have no idea what people see in him; at least Matt Murton will be banished to AAA (at least until Soriano rips a quad in the second game swinging at a pitch over his head). Whatever--the Cardinals are a mess (I could probably make their starting rotation). The Brewers are already getting hammered by injuries. The Astros are either too old or too young to be playing (or on steriods). The Pirates are playing with all AA players and the Reds...well, they have Dusty Baker who will ensure all of their great pitching is completely exhausted by the All-Star break and totally unable to pitch the second half. Go Cubs! [Comments: 3]· permalink ·
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Weekend: March 30, 2008 - National Cathedral
On Sunday morning I met up with Jamie to take in a service at the National Cathedral. Since it's only four blocks away from me I thought it would be cool to go. It's beautiful inside but the volume of tourists was a little ridiculous. It's no secret I'm not the most devout practitioner of faith but seriously people, have some respect. If you're in the National Cathedral and there's a service going on maybe, just maybe you shouldn't be swearing at your kids. Or looking like hell. I can understand if it's like a Tuesday at 4pm and you're on a tour but come on--Sunday at 11am is not the time to let your kids be scooting around with their hidden-wheels-inside shoes. Suck it the f* up and have a little bit of respect for the people who are attending the service.
Because baseball season starts tomorrow I guess I should pass along my 2008 Predictions. Away we go:
AL East
1) Yankees
2) Devil Rays(?!)
3) Red Sox
4) Blue Jays
5) Orioles (AND they'll lose 100 games)
AL Central
1) Tigers
2) *Indians
3) White Sox
4) Minnesota
5) Royals
AL West
1) Mariners
2) Angels
3) A's
4) Rangers
NL East
1) Mets
2) Phillies
3) Nationals
4) Braves
5) Marlins
NL Central
1) Cubs (duh)
2) *Reds
3) Brewers
4) Pirates (no really)
5) Astros
6) Cardinals
NL West
1) Diamondbacks
2) Rockies
3) Padres
4) Giants
5) Dodgers
Playoffs
Cubs beat Diamondbacks
Mets beat Reds
Mets beat Cubs
Tigers beat Mariners
Indians beat Yankees
Tigers beat Indians
World Series
Tigers beat Mets in six games. [Comments: 2]· permalink ·
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Monday: March 31, 2008 - Pretty Annoying
Yeah, that was pretty annoying. Just imagine what I went through testing it.
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Steve and I rolled in to DC last night around 10:30pm thus ending what I can only describe as the most unfortunate moving experience ever. We only came to blows once and fortunately we were in different cars. I will expound later but remember this: NEVER, EVER, EVER, rent from U-Haul. That's my advice to you. On the bright side I already have a story to tell.
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Wednesday: March 05, 2008 - Crazy Dream
This morning I took a three mile walk through Glover Park and upon returning home I fell asleep. I had the CRAZIEST DREAM while I was sleeping......It all started back in Tallahassee and it was Friday. Christine and I were at Olive Garden when U-Haul called to confirm my truck reservation. Although they had the right day, I certainly was not going to pick it up the next day at 10pm when my reservation was at 9am. Fortunately, after a brief, curt phone call it was all squared away and I was going to be able to get it at 10am on Saturday. Awesome. Here's how wacky the dream was--I still had a lot to do Friday night despite getting ready to leave town Sunday morning instead of being totally ready to leave. Crazy, I know.
On Saturday morning I called Ricky to see if he could take me to the U-Haul place at noon. He and AJ came promptly to pick me up at 11:30 and I called U-Haul to get their street address. They gave it to me and we headed out. Above five minutes into the trip the same woman who I had just spoken to calls back. (Ok, here's where the dream really starts to get weird.) She says something like "Yeah, we just got off the phone but I don't have a truck for you after all". Long story short, the previous customer still had it and she'd have to call me back when it was available. "Damn", I said (or something to that effect). Ricky and I ran errands while I called my team of able-bodied movers to tell them I would call them when I had the truck. Hours go by. More hours go by. Suddenly it's 7pm when I get a call from U-Haul HQ saying they have a truck for me but instead of the 14' I had requested they had instead procured me a 26'--a great service to me! Ricky and I immediately took off for the U-Haul place. We sat there for about a half hour before I call them back saying there is no one there. The conversation goes something like this:
U-Haul: "Oh, it's not at that location--it's the one on the other side of town. I thought I had made that clear".
Me: "No, not only did you not make it clear, you didn't say that at all. I'm reasonably certain that omitting that piece of information does not simply qualify as being unclear."
Her: "How could I have not told you the location?"
Me: "That's what I would like to know".
Finally Ricky and I get to the right place and they bring me out what is effectively a semi with a huge prehistoric turtle on the back of it. On the bright side, they started me off with 1/8 tank of gas so I was able to drive about four blocks to get gas before stalling out on the side of the road. Once back at my house Ricky guided me in the 26', no-radio, broken-window truck into the upramp into my apartment and after about 45 minutes I had it in there only leaving two small canyons on Lake Ella Drive from where the 26', no-radio, broken-window truck had bottomed out. Naturally, if you're going to make a truck that big, you want it only three feet of the ground. Duh.
One of my co-workers came by to help me pack the truck and between him, Ricky, and me we were able to get all of the big stuff packed. Ricky tetrised everything into the front of the truck and by 9:45 we were done enough that I could go pick up Steve from the airport. Steve was in good spirits until we got back to my apartment and saw the state of affairs. There was absolutely no way in hell we were leaving at 8am the next morning.
Despite our best efforts in cleaning and "packing" we were not able to leave until 4pm on Sunday. On our way out of town we brought back 95% of Ricky's Dyson (I have that piece if you're reading it by the way) and stopped by Jamie's mom's house to move some furniture around. We only had to stop for gas twice between Tallahassee and Jacksonville which, as I would learn later, would be amazing gas mileage. Jacksonville was under heavy construction so we sat around in our cars doing a whole lot of nothing. The first major problem with the truck happened here, on a narrow bridge. The main brakes failed and moved to the auxiliary brake which, in case you've never driven a 26' truck before, causes an alarm to sound. This alarm is high-pitched and cannot be stopped. For the next hour we drove in narrow construction lanes, surrounded by semis and concrete barricades and, in the truck, I got to hear the docet tone of imminent death. Although I had wanted to drive to Savannah, and Steve was certainly up for the task, I had such a pounding headache that we ended up spending the night in Darien, Georgia. It had taken seven hours to do what should have taken three. Awesome.
Steve and I woke up early the next morning, stopped spooning the dogs (he had Chompy, I had Abby), and hit the road. Although we had to stop for gas every hour (that's right, a four-figure gas bill) things weren't going too badly until we got to the Beltway at around 9:30pm. Apparently you're not supposed to drive 40 in the middle lane and since Steve was following my 40-mph-going-ass he was catching all the heat from other cars about it. Several angry phone calls later we had half-apologized and gotten off the expressway into Washington. I misunderstood the directions from Jamie, got lost, and had to double-back to get to Jamie's house. Finally we did arrive and Jamie had graciously prepared some Japanese Chicken for us. We made a quick jaunt to my new apartment to see it and then went back to Jamie's. Exhausted, we all went to bed soon after.
On Tuesday morning I blew a tire out on the no-radio, broken-window, auxiliary-brake truck while driving to my new apartment in morning DC rush hour. Believe me, it was every bit as fun as it sounds. Steve was behind me and said he saw a piece of black shoot off the tire along with a 2' burst of what we can only assume was air. This came about because the streets were too narrow to accommodate any sort of bad driving and coupled with me in a large truck that can't slow down quickly and some other car stopped at a light well past their line and halfway into the intersection I either had to drive up on the non-populated curb or slam head-first into this car. As if a non-working radio, a drivers-side window that didn't roll up, auxiliary brakes (with requisite alarm) wasn't enough having a flat tire and severely bent rim certainly was. Steve and I unpacked the truck relatively quickly but found my apartment was too small to adequately unpack with everything inside. We spent the day trying to make room for ourselves and eventually met up with Jamie for dinner at some place in Cleveland Park. After dropping her off Steve and I decided we need to get plowed and since I had only the two diet Dr. Peppers and the single Budweiser my landlord had left I elected to go on a beer run. Stupid. First, it was absolutely pouring. Second, I have no concept of street directions and I got lost. I'm talking lost-lost. In the 90 minutes I was gone I was in DC, Virginia and Maryland and with no phone battery (nor charger) I thought I might die. It was storming so hard I couldn't ready any street signs so it wouldn't really have mattered anyway. Despite my best efforts apparently you can't buy beer in DC anywhere so after all that I came home empty-handed. Steve was already half-asleep on the couch in the dining room so I crawled over boxes into the living to sleep on the dog's couch.
Yesterday morning Steve and I managed to get a lot done--we cleared a number of walking paths and just generally got boxes into the right rooms. Because my lease says I have to have 80% of the floors covered in carpet we didn't set anything up since we were going to IKEA with Jamie in the evening. When it came to pick Jamie up for the IKEA trip I got lost (again) getting to her house so it took a good 40 minutes to go the 7/8 of a mile which put all of us in a bad mood. I was already really stressed out driving the no-radio, broken-window, auxiliary-brake, flat-tire, demolished-rim truck on the narrow streets but somehow we navigated ourselves to the IKEA in College Park, MD. Once there I spent a ton of money on their crap, filling up a shopping cart with three of those furniture-hauler-things. After paying Steve suggested I go bring the truck to us; a good plan considering the volume of stuff we had. So I go to the no-radio, broken-window, auxiliary-brake, flat-tire, demolished-rim truck to bring it back and...oh, it won't start. The battery is dead (no I didn't leave the lights on). I attempt starting it about four hundred more times while screaming. I call U-Haul and the woman on the phone, while very polite, says, "The earliest we can get someone out to you is 9:30am tomorrow--is this acceptable?" It was right here that I think I formally began to have a nervous breakdown. I totally lost it on her to the point where I was channeling expletives in Arameic. Ultimately she agreed to send someone out immediately. After waiting around for another 90 minutes IKEA informed us they were closing. No one had called from the mechanic yet so I figured I'd give the truck another try. Viola! It started right up and Steve and Jamie loaded it while I tried to tell the retards at U-Haul they could cancel the mechanic. We dropped off Jamie's stuff (and her) at her place and Steve and I came back to my house to unload the truck. It was now 11:00pm and Chompy was freaking out. I called Jamie back and asked if she Ab could come over and watch Chompy while Steve and I unloaded the no-radio, broken-window, auxiliary-brake, flat-tire, demolished-rim, dead-battery truck from the tow-away zone. She agreed and we went to pick her up. I got lost (again). We all finally got back here but now it was too late for Steve and I to team-carry the heavy things up the stairs without waking up all of my neighbors so I suggested we leave those things on the side of the house. It probably was not a smart decision and Steve and I had it out for like the 10th time. A full 10/10 in stress at least the truck was unloaded and the plan was for me to bring it back to Jamie's house with them following in the Taurus, drop them off, then take the Taurus home. I somehow managed to get back to Jamie's house in the truck without getting lost (shocking, I know) but then Steve called saying the Taurus would not shift out of park. Awesome. After a lengthy conversation it was decided I would come back and bring them. I go to do that and...that's right, I get lost. Not only do I get lost, I get REAL lost. I call Jamie for directions and totally lose it when she's unable to use the GPS she had installed in me to figure out where I am. After screaming at her and throwing my phone I pull over, have a quick mental breakdown, and then realize I am but one street off from where I'm supposed to be. I make it back, bring Jamie and Ab home and we call a cab. It's about 2am at this point. Out of the dozens of cab companies the first to pick up was Yellow Cab (after getting recordings from the first six) and when they press me for address I flip out on them. I try to explain that I have only been in town for a day but the guy on the phone keeps saying, "WHERE ARE YOU TRYING TO GO???". His assholeness causes me to tell him to go f* himself and hang up, possibly ending my only chance to get a cab back. Thankfully another company has a person working this late who is not an asshole to me, and they come pick me up and bring me home. For $8 I should just use a taxi all the time. I got home around 3am, frustrated, embarrassed, exhausted, and frankly on the verge of tears. It was finally time for bed.
This morning Steve and I got up at 8am and brought all of the stuff in that we had left outside. Only about 20% of the packages caused us to yell at each other and once we were done it was time to bring the no-radio, broken-window, auxiliary-brake, flat-tire, demolished-rim truck back to U-Haul. Unfortunately the no-radio, broken-window, auxiliary-brake, flat-tire, demolished-rim truck was also out of gas so our first stop was going to be a gas station. Unfortunately trying to get a gasless, no-radio, broken-window, auxiliary-brake, flat-tire, demolished-rim truck into a tiny city-gas station was impossible so I drove on fumes until Maryland when I finally found one on the right side of the road. It was much too small for a gasless, no-radio, broken-window, auxiliary-brake, flat-tire, demolished-rim 26' truck but I crammed it in there anyway. My first take brought the the gas tank to about 4" from the outstretched nozzle and in my second attempt I accidentally wedged the truck in between the filling station and a small brick building that was luckily vacated at the time. I put $50 in to get 1/1000 of a tank and rocked the truck back and forth to get it unstuck. Finally I just gave up and went over a 2' embankment with an enormous thud as I landed back on the main road safely. When we finally arrived at the U-Haul place the stoned-out-of-his-gourd attendant apparently did notice the scratched-up, no-radio, broken-window, auxiliary-brake, flat-tire, demolished-rim truck as having any new damage. I don't know how he didn't notice that a tire was flat and partially shredded nor that the rim was bent 4" OR that the other side had enormous scrapes by the tires where I unjammed the truck from the gas station. As soon as he checked the "No new damage" box I ran out of there like Chompy in a thunderstorm. The next problem was that Steve's flight was in a about an hour and we had no idea where we were. The iPhone provided basic directions and, once free of the cursed truck, we hauled ass towards Reagan and Steve made his flight. I came home to a house filled with dozens of unpacked boxes, unbuilt furniture and but a two-cushioned sofa in my dining room to sit/sleep on...
And that's when I woke up. Pretty weird dream eh? [Comments: 12]· permalink ·
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Saturday: March 08, 2008 - DC Poker Party #1
I finally got around to building my new desk and that only came about because Comcast came out earlier in the day to tell me my "cable was pinched" and to install their services I would need permission to drill a hole throw the brick wall separating my office and bedroom. Because of that delay I wasn't going have internet for a while but I knew I could hijack someone's wireless if I moved my computer to the back room. I went out and bought a wireless USB adapter for the desktop, built the desk and viola! My signal is pretty bad so I can't really do much other than check my email and (now) update my blog.
Around 5:30 I headed out to Sterling for Brian's poker party. The game wasn't until 7pm but I figured I'd get lost enough to push the 45 minute trip into an a 90 minute one. Sure enough! Even though I only got "lost" once (I knowingly missed a turn onto the parkway) having to go through Georgetown on a Saturday night was a big mistake. I arrived at 7:05 and managed to be the 3rd one there (after Chris and Kathy). By 7:45 everyone else had arrived and we started playing. I was out relatively soon after a swarm of 3/8's plagued me. Chris won and, from what I can tell by having so much time to watch, probably plays the most savvy poker. I didn't really see him suck out much (except to put me out of the game) so I have no choice but to assume he's the man to beat. As a consolation prize Brian got me a map of DC from CostCo which I promptly used on my way home after forgetting which way Dulles was despite a half-dozen signs that say "DULLES THIS WAY ->". I made it home in 30 minutes because I decided to take the longer (but not through Georgetown) way back. Look at me--I'm a regular now. [Comments: 1]· permalink ·
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Sunday: March 09, 2008 - You Are Here *
Since Jamie has been in Jacksonville visiting Meyer I've been left to my own devices. Yesterday I ventured out to Crystal City since that's where the closest Target apparently is. It took me a good half hour to get there and by the time I finally arrived I didn't really think it was worth the trip to spend $9 on two garbage cans so I went coat shopping. I was unsuccessful (again) but I did get a new pair of running shoes for my gallops through the Glover Park trails. I haven't gone yet today because I'm waiting for the temperature to get above 35--my Florida blood coagulates at anything below 60 so I fear I might be stuck inside for a while. It took me three tries to type "blood" because I typed "blog" the first two times; muscle memory at work.
When I got back from not buying a coat I made some lunch and built my dresser. It was 25 steps which was too many so I skipped the middle ten and it works just fine. I now have eleven tubs unpacked with only nine to go. My kitchen is now totally unpacked and usable but that's really about it. Both my living room and dining room need some furniture to be built and I started in on the dining room table last night but once I saw the number of directions needed to build a leaf-y table I elected to go to bed instead.
Chompy is still not used to all the noise so she spends a lot of her day walking around and growling. That's getting really, really old. [Comments: 2]· permalink ·
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Monday: March 10, 2008 - Exercises in Futility
I spent way too long building this little weather station last night. Hopefully when Steve becomes a world dictator he will decree that you can't make things for public use that have this mini-screws on them. Look, if you want to use mini-screws on things like airplanes or in vending machines fine--go for it. But please don't assume your average person has an eyeglass screwdriver set at his disposal. I eventually just gave up and ripped the back off and packing-taped it back it. On the bright side it works well and I know now it's 42F with 77% humidity without having to go outside...although I've already gone out with the dogs so maybe this wasn't the most savvy purchase.
I now have to walk to Starbucks because there is no place to park when I drive. I am apparently the only man not at work earning money for his wife and baby during the day. While at Starbucks there was a recruitment meeting going on for the Glover Park Mommy's Club. I'm not making up that name to feel like an outsider either--women and babies in large carts were being strolled around everywhere as if they were being shopped around at some sort of Chinatown market. "Oh you baby so cute!" "Oh no! YOU baby so cute!" Yeah yeah, all your babies are so cute. I really only saw one that was cute but I sure as hell wasn't about to say anything with the threat of being pelted with those Nygea bottles or whatever they're called. [Comments: 3]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: March 11, 2008 - 1e+a 2e+a 3e+
Jamie flew back into town yesterday afternoon from Jacksonville and I made it to Reagan in about 15 minutes. With Brian's map I can now do no wrong. After I picked her up we caught a bus (gasp) to Tenleytown where we had lunch then got on the metro (gasp) so she could get fingerprinted for her internship and I could get my SMARTcard. The woman fingerprinting her kept trying to resend a fax and must have done it fifty times while we were there. Getting my SMARTcard was pretty easy although I was hoping it would somehow be smart enough to repel the stench of the homeless on the bus from infiltrating my nose but no, it's just not that smart.
After having dinner in Georgetown we came back to my house and built my dining room table and about 95% of the kitchen pantry. Because it was so late I didn't want to do any hammering or else that would have gotten done too. With those items complete I'm down to only needing to build my new dresser and a bookshelf. Once THAT'S done then I can finally finish up my office and empty out four of the remaining tubs. Awesome. [Comments: 1]· permalink ·
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Wednesday: March 12, 2008 - 12 of 12
7:06am: Apparently I'm still in 8-5 work mode because I always wake up at 7:06. Since I don't have anything formally scheduled I'm sure this will be a productive day!
9:30am: I am Chompy, keeper of the bed. I'm sure sleeping with the plugged-in laptop power cord was a great idea. Chompy and I have not been on the best of terms since I moved up here but rest assured this was not a veiled attempt to electrocute her.
9:45am: Can I PLEASE just steal ONE internet connection? I wish people in DC were as unsavvy about internet connections as the yokels in Tallahassee. There were at least two quality unsecured connections in my apartment there. Now I have to settle for some Mac one that barely works.
10:00am: Ok, there's no internet and it's not going to get any warmer than 45 so it's time to go run in Glover Park. Just look at the smile on my face--so much ambition and determination.
10:45am: Oh my God, it is so cold out there. I probably only "ran" for maybe 15 minutes of the 40 I was gone. I did learn however that there are many "trails" that go for about 100 feet and then dump you into a busy intersection. On the bright side, on my normal route I've started naming landmarks; be grateful I wasn't on Louis and Clark's expeditions or else there'd be a lot more areas of country known by names like Creepy Dude Tree and Dog Sh*t Bridge.
Noonish: I traded Jamie her old carpet and chair-mats for some Starbucks. I also got Abby a new toy elephant.
1:07pm: What a waste of money this thermometer was. If it's in fact 85 degrees outside then I easily ran about 26 miles this morning.
3:30pm: Here I am putting the glass doors on my new kitchen pantry. I've gotten pretty good using the timer on my camera. The doors don't close all the way but that will come in time. Rome wasn't built in a day.
4:45pm: I haven't had to do dishes by hand since July of 2001. With each passing day I feel more and more like a housewife--going shopping in the morning, running in the park, and then cleaning up the house. I just need a rich husband who totally ignores me except when he beats me and I'll totally fit in here.
8pm: Looks like I accidentally brought a bunch of pets with me from Florida--the plants that now live in my desk used to be outside and they apparently house several colonies of ants. I have a fun time mashing them on my new desk...I'm pretty sure this is what people did before the internet to pass time.
10:00pm: There was an accident involving a bus which blocked one lane and this bitch was in the blocked lane. Because I'm a courteous anti-gridlock driver, I didn't block the intersection when the light changed to red and she waited until there was no traffic coming before running the red to get ahead of me. Once the lanes went back to normal I pulled up next to her to yell and she pretended to not notice just like I did when I cut some guy off driving back from Union Station. No harm done but seriously, do you really think gridlocking an intersection is helpful to ANYONE? Really? Seriously?
11:30pm: Ooh, it's my scared face after watching the "After Humans" show on the National Geographic channel that showed what would happen to earth if every human died today. Long story short, everything would get better for every other species once the radiation died down. I couldn't stay awake through the next show on how oil is created. I did have some weird dreams about the world ending which were pretty interesting (more than I can say for my 12 of 12).
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Thursday: March 13, 2008 - Miker!
Other than seeing Miker and saying "Miker!" like four hundred times, I was really disappointed with the whole episode. I audibly called Jin's timeline was out of order with Sun's and that there was no way Jin was alive (at least Oceanic Six alive). Like Brian, I totally saw Miker as the spy on the ship and the fact Sun didn't try to kill Juliet for spilling the affair-beans is totally beyond me. Jin is one of my favorite characters and I'll be sad to see him go when that time comes.
Last night's show did open up one big question to me which was if Penny's dad somehow "bought" 341 bodies to account for each person being dead then how are they going to explain the Oceanic Six? That there just happened to be an extra six corpses at the bottom of the ocean in that exact spot? Whatever, I guess we'll see.
I sat with one of my new neighbors outside last night while our dogs raced around the backyard and beat each other up. I cleaned up my office a bit and rearranged some things to give myself a little more room. I also emptied out another tub. Exciting, I know. I made Jamie and myself some filet and mashed potatoes before Lost. I also set off my smoke detector for the first time. Good to know I won't be able to sleep through that. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Weekend: March 16, 2008 - St. Uri's Day
Since Jamie was finishing a hellish workweek I had the weekend to myself. On Saturday night Kathy came into town for Anne's birthday party at the Geht-O nightclub down off 14th street. Before the party we met up with Jamie for a dinner at Cafe Deluxe where were treated ourselves to not only a delicious dinner but awesome desserts afterwards. Upon leaving the restaurant we dropped Jamie off and headed downtown to find this jazz club. The area could have been a lot worse but at the same time it's sad to see half-million dollar houses with bars over the windows and way too many people stoop-sitting at 11:30 at night--making those half-million dollar houses worth something in the narrow "Mike Could Buy It" range. It was good to see Anne and she had a bunch of people there. The band was ok--they only played two songs the whole time they were there but sounded pretty solid during All Blues and whatever jamsong they played after that. Since neither Kathy nor I knew anyone else we stayed cliquish talking only to Anne and peaced out after an hour. We safely made it back to the car (past all the stoopers) and I was safe and sound by 12:30.
On Sunday I spent the day cleaning my bedroom and ruthlessly going through my clothes to see what I could safely get rid off. I actually got almost everything off the floor and with the exception of the huge stack of "put these in the dryer to get the wrinkles out" I feel like I made a lot of noticeable progress. I also did another batch of dishes, resorted the clutter in my living room, and took out a bunch of trash. I left at exactly 4pm for the Urizoo for the St. Patrick's Day extravaganza. I brought GH so I could help spread the word and hopefully create more addicts since Chris won't be coming up for a new months. I could get to like that corned beef--seriously. After dinner it was time for board games and Anna ruled them. The first game we played had a bunch of The New Yorker cartoons that you had to caption. Mine were horrific and my lone winner is pictured here. I had a good time laughing hysterically at a couple of my answers though. After that we played some Apples to Apples and whatever skill I used to have at that game is now officially gone. Maybe it's the cold weather up here. After that it was time for Cranium and Brian and I pulled off the upset in the Boys vs. Girls despite my inability to sing and a thorough lack of knowledge of Happy Days. Around 11:30 I trekked back and was safely at home by 12:15. I must have taken a different route than last time because I had to pay two tolls on my way back instead of one. Next time I go out there I'm taking River Road; the novelty of Georgetown is officially gone. [Comments: 2]· permalink ·
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Monday: March 17, 2008 - New To DC
Now that I've lived in DC for two weeks I think I'm ready to give an opinion of what I've experienced so far. Since I lived in Milwaukee for four years I have a reference point as far as what a city should and shouldn't be and for the most part I'm really happy up here. To that end, let's start with the good stuff.
The drivers up here are great--sure they're more cranky than in Milwaukee or Tallahassee but they hit each other a lot less frequently than anywhere else I've lived. I also live in a really nice neighborhood with a great park almost directly behind my house. It's so nice that I've had a very easy transition from a sedentary lifestyle into one that involves walking/running for at least an hour a day. People, while not as "friendly", as they were in Tallahassee, are at least neutral and I haven't come across any mean strangers yet--but then again I haven't ventured into where all the politicians are yet.
Now onto the less savory things: the traffic is awful and trying to leave town through Georgetown is a nightmare. To get to Brian's I spend an equal amount of time in the mile between my house and I66 and the 20 miles from there to his place. The weather is exactly the same every day: cold in the morning, slight warm-up in the afternoon and rain at night. It's expensive as hell. There are no "general stores" even remotely close by. I just want to buy some hangers and it's going to take me over an hour round-trip to get some?
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Tuesday: March 18, 2008 - New Photos!
I've been trying to take a little bit of time each day to organize all of the photos I have on my computer. As a part of that I'm trying to put them online since I remember fewer of the details with each passing day and that means I would have to come up with clever captions which I obviously, as I learned a few nights ago, can't do. That said, you can see them all in the Photos section or, if you're already up to date on the current pictures go right to Jamie and I going to Atlanta to see a Cubs game, FSU vs. Kentucky in the Music City Bowl, and (a very limited set) our trip to NYC a week ago to see Chris and Miker.
Last night I picked up Jamie and we trekked out to Dulles to meet up with Amy and her friend, who happened to be in town for the night. It was clearly destined to be since they picked the Longhorn Steakhouse for dinner. It was a lot of fun and Jamie and I were regaled with a lot of fun stories--they kind we don't get to experience in our day-to-day working. We explained to Amy that surely she and Chris will be sucked here like everyone else and fighting it is just futile. We hung out for a good long time and by the time we left it was too late to get my much-needed haircut (mullets just aren't that "in" here for whatever reason). [Comments: 2]· permalink ·
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Wednesday: March 19, 2008 - Guest Entry: Chompy (the dog)
My name is Chompy and I'm a bad, bad dog. Food Guy was too mad to write an update today but he mentioned yesterday that he put up new pictures of Abby's Birthday Party, a steel band gig, and Christmas 2006. He's really mad at me right now because I have been really terrible since we moved out of Tallahassee. I was good sport on the ride up--I really was. I wasn't even that bad when all of my treats and toys were packed up and moved out of the house. However, now that I'm here I am a total bitch.
My new favorite hobby has GOT to be running away. I've discovered a small gap between where our fence meets our neighbors fence and with a running start I can get enough height to where it's high enough for me to fit. Until today Food Guy was clever enough to open a car door and trick me into getting in it but today I got smart. The FIRST time I escaped today I made it all the way into our neighbor's front yard before Food Guy corralled me. Fortunately it was so wet from yesterday's torrential rains (that really scared me, by the way) that while he was carrying me down the steep slope back into the house he fell down the stairs and *bam* I was free again. The SECOND time I escaped I wasn't dumb enough to go back to where I'd be caught so easily. I took off down the alley hoping that the many trucks collecting trash coming at us would slow him down. I know it's kind of weird because if I'm on a leash in the alley I rear back and act as though Satan himself is going to eat my soul if I go more than 10 feet away from the house but it must have something to do with the leash because I was off! I made it down to Davis Road before Food Guy tackled me in a big patch of mud. He mentioned feeling lucky to have been wearing his old leather jacket (that smells like good times) while he carried me back. Once he carried me all the way back he had the audacity to tell me, "Chompy. You're in big trouble, Chompy". Can you believe that? [Comments: 6]· permalink ·
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Thursday: March 20, 2008 - Reverse Day
Taking the day in reverse--9am (this morning) I had the rugs collected and thrown away. By 5am I had all of the poop cleaned up and a good portion of the barf. At 3:30am I heard Chompy yaking. At 3am I couldn't fathom why Chompy hadn't stopped pacing yet. At 12:30am I went to bed. At 9pm I had just gotten home to watch Lost. That was a good episode; more later. At 6:30pm I left for the auction. At 2:30pm I went running. Before that, I worked on the newest Call For Scores.
Now, in order starting from yesterday morning. After wrangling Chompy I went over to Jamie's apartment to pick up Abby for a day-long play date since Jamie was going to be at school all day. I got back and worked on my newest piece and although it's nowhere near completion it feels good to write it. Around 2:30 I decided it was time to run so I got changed and charted a hefty goal for myself--a solid five miles. A good hour into the trip I got lost in the woods; really lost. By the time I got home two and a half hours later I had walked almost 11 miles and got a lovely tour of my quarter of DC. I knew I was in trouble when Virginia was across the street and the Washington Monument was in plain sight. I quickly got changed for the AU Law Auction and quickly discovered that, somehow, I didn't have any black socks to wear with my suit. I don't really know how this is possible since in Tallahassee I owned at least a dozen identical ones. I met up with Jamie and her friends and they started auctioning a bunch of things I wanted that I didn't bid on. At 8:45 I left early to get home to watch Lost. Good thing! That was a great episode--almost good enough to make up for last week's bomb. I'm not sure if Jamie's watched it yet so...how is Widmore's outfit so lame they didn't check up on "Kevin Johnson's" real information? You would have thought they'd been more careful. If Walt was this big-time character why is he still living with Miker's mom and not in the possession of The Others? It's interesting to me that Miker can't die. Finally, when did Jin give him his watch and when did Tom time travel to find him?...after Lost I chatted on the internets for a while, played with Abby, and called it a night (until all of Chompy's Expel-This episode came on a few hours later). [Comments: 3]· permalink ·
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Weekend: March 23, 2008 - Easter Weekend
Happy Easter! On Friday night I met up with Brian, Rebecca & Co. for sushi at Kotobuki on McArthur. One of my personal goals for moving to DC was to never be late for anything. I parked at 6:05 for dinner at 6:30 but unfortunately by the time I realized I had parked over a mile away I strolled in at 6:35. Oh well, I made it three weeks. After dinner we dropped the Taurus off and headed out to Arlington for fun and games. It was like a seventh grade band trip but without the make-out session--I hadn't played BS since then and I certainly hadn't played it sober since then. Brian gave a primer on how to play poker a few hours later and I went out on the first hand on a gut shot straight draw. If you can't loosen up with no money on the line and seven chips, you're not living.
On Saturday I watched a lot of college basketball and starting developing my new project, codenamed Heaven. It will be a lot of programming but that's one of the perks of being your own boss--lots of time to do what *you* think is important. I also churned out a lot of stuff on my new piece and made a trip out to Target and got that big dent taken out of my car while at Starbucks by a kindly stranger. I divulged the secrets of the internet to him and after an hour of note-taking he (a manager of an auto body shop) said he's check out the car. For a $4.35 coffee he took the dent out and it looks really good; not bad for an Easter present.
Easter morning I got up at 7:30 to open the Easter Care Package from my mom, took a shower, and then went to pick up Jamie for church. Like most Easters it was clear and nice although pretty darn cold. Jamie and I dropped the car off at the metro station and then took the train to meet up with some of her friend who were going to church with is. We went to the Episcopal church across from the White House and apparently W. himself was at the 7am service. I believe it because I saw crayon all over the pew in front of the one labeled "Presidents Pew". After church Jamie worked on law stuff while I pet the dogs. We met up again around 3:30 to go to lunner (lunch/dinner?) at the Beacon Street Grill which was a buffet. We ate for a couple of hours, picked up Abby, and I dropped the two of them off and came home where I added limited Easter Pictures and tried to beat Super Mario I (that's right, for the original Nintendo). I made a couple of rules: no warping and no using the internet to look anything up. I died in 5-1 the first time and 5-2 the second time. That's kind of embarrassing but I never beat the game as a kid so I want to get that checked off my list. I also added the photos from the 4th of July last year at Chris E.'s house. Hope you had a relaxing weekend. [Comments: 2]· permalink ·
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Monday: March 24, 2008 - Crime in America
On Friday someone spray pained the bus stop by my house. I don't really understand the allure of graffiti. Most crimes, as I was telling Brian and Rebecca, I get--hey, I need some money so give me your money. Crimes like this are totally beyond me. How does spray painting your JH in huge red letters on the side of a bus stop accomplish anything? It's not like from that point forward you're the only one who gets to ride the bus. Thanks for defacing my nice neighborhood.
Speaking of defacing my nice neighborhood, there are Obama and Hillary signs everywhere. I feel like a freshman in high school all over again in the sense that because SO MANY people like Obama for really stupid reasons that it makes me like him less. This, in case you were too cool to know, reminds me of high school because if you liked a particular band and then they got popular you had to hate them. Such are the ways of the world. I think he's really smart and he certainly speaks well; I'm probably going to vote for him. That said, I don't consider him an anti-establishment campaigner--he did grow up in a life of privilege and is just as out of touch as any other politician when it comes to be "outside" or having any idea how "regular" people go about their lives. I'll give John Edwards (a very bad speaker, not very smart) a waiver here since he grew up poor and made his own riches. Way to go John--but you went to Clemson, which says a lot.
In other news, Chompy ran away again this morning and took off out the alley onto somewhat-busy 39th Street (more busy than the alley). I also watched a special on how bread is made on the History Channel. It was so riveting that I was asleep by 11:30. [Comments: 6]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: March 25, 2008 - Out on the Town
Around 10:30am I took a shower, a deep breath, and then set out into DC's vast public transportation system. I caught the bus by my house to the metro stop and then took the metro down to Foggy Bottom to meet Kathy for lunch. I have to believe that Foggy Bottom was named by someone like me running around the pre-developed swamplands of DC. If I were in charge of renaming the area today I think I'd have to go with Skinstafack (Sketchy-into-students-after-a-block). I'll know I've really "made it" in DC when someone other than me refers to Foggy Bottom as Skinstafack. Because I'm no longer late for things, I was there a good 45 minutes early so I walked around listening to the practicing students. Around noon Kathy was done with her office hours so we headed out to a converted-pharmacy for a Loop-like lunch. They served tater tots instead of fries and the BLT I had was awesome. We hung out there for about three hours drawing on the paper table cloth and discussing profound issues such as the role of the Night Elf in Warcraft.
I got home in a lot less time than it took me to get there so I went for a short, known, run. My calves are still pretty sore from the lengthy exploits of the past few days so the long, uphill walk back was especially grueling. I took a quick shower then threw Chompy in the car to go pick up Jamie in Ab for Errands & Date Night. Our first errand brought us out to PetSmart in Bethesda where the dogs got their nails clipped in the hopes they'd stop sounding like those Under Armor commercials: click-clack. After we dropped them off we went to Old Europe, which is a very short walk from my house, for some German food. The beers were excellent and my viener schnitzel was too. I can handle German food--meat and some sort of potato product. After dinner we came back to my house and I got a haircut, which I was needing pretty badly. I wasn't in the mood to clunk around building my wardrobe so unfortunately that didn't get done. Alas. [Comments: 3]· permalink ·
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Wednesday: March 26, 2008 - John McCain in love
As I clean off my computer I'm trying to use up all the random pictures I've saved and today I elected (get it?) to go with this one with John McCain appearing to really enjoy hugging. The look on his face looks like the same one that a young grandchild gives while hugging a beloved grandparents. Whatever, you'll never beat Obama so wipe that smirk off your face.
I spent most of the day working on my piece and by the time evening came around I was a good 90% or so done. I didn't go running until about 4pm and while I tried not to get lost I did want to start going further so I wound up going on a very similar path to the one I took when I went all the way around Georgetown. On the bright side it was an absolutely beautiful day and I could have easily made a coffee table book about flowers had I had my camera with me. I really like the route I took yesterday in terms of the length (just far enough to hurt, not far enough to make me want to kill myself or cry) but the fact that there is no sidewalk on Reservoir and a lot of hospital traffic makes me not really want to go that way.
The French Embassy is marked as the "A" flag. It's a really beautiful building and, as I cut across their front yard, I couldn't help wondering how many cameras were watching me trot along.
In other news, Jamie was elected a place for the Criminal Law Society and to be the president of the Womens Law Association. Brian and Rebecca are getting ready to leave for Europe in a few days too. Their departure will effectively halve the number of friends I have in DC so if you're planning on moving here, this weekend would be excellent; I can totally help you move in. [Comments: 1]· permalink ·
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Thursday: March 27, 2008 - Hacked
Yesterday someone hacked one of my sites. I can't say for sure it was hacked yesterday but I found it then; I don't really spend a lot of time on that particular site and I certainly don't check it daily. The hack wasn't too hard to clean up--someone just posted a bunch of their ads everywhere--but, as I would imagine with any sort of break-in, you don't like the idea of someone going through your stuff. It only took thirty minutes at the most to get everything back under control but since the site is hosted for free elsewhere I'm a little concerned that it could happen again. Oh well.
Last night Brian threw an impromptu party and, as a non-WoW player/non-band-member/non-law-student, I found the time to go. Before we settled into the fun, I got to do something I hadn't been able to do since early December (if memory serves): eat at Chick-Fil-A. Although their chickeny goodness has spread through DC there aren't any even remotely nearby but fortunately there was one about five minutes away from Brian. After returning we took turns whomping each other in Guitar Hero the moved on to the Wii (my first adventure outside bowling). Finally, after a little Dance Dance Revolution we settled into a blast-from-the-past (Hi Alex) and played Smash Brothers. Not surprisingly, I was the worst and as my punishment had to drive the longest distance home.
While we were having fun Jamie *officially* won the presidency of her law association. I jumped the gun a little bit on my previous entry. [Comments: 4]· permalink ·
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Friday: March 28, 2008 - 100 Years
The Cubs haven't won the World Series in a long time. They haven't even gone to the World Series in my parents' lifetimes let alone mine. I remember watching the last game of the NLCS in 2003--we had a gig that night at the FSU Black Student Union and I would call Steve in between songs to get status updates. I got home for the painful last three innings and with Jamie safely asleep had myself a little cry when they lost. It wasn't really the loss that made me cry--it was all the old people dressed in Cubs regalia knowing they'd die before the Cubs would be this close again.
I've gotten my hopes up before (see last year) but I feel pretty good about this year. I don't feel all that great about the Cubs themselves--you have Marquis AND Dempster in the starting rotation and Lieber in the 'pen when Lieber was the only one to pitch really well this spring? Ronny Cedeno is still on the team and I can't stand him. I have no idea what people see in him; at least Matt Murton will be banished to AAA (at least until Soriano rips a quad in the second game swinging at a pitch over his head). Whatever--the Cardinals are a mess (I could probably make their starting rotation). The Brewers are already getting hammered by injuries. The Astros are either too old or too young to be playing (or on steriods). The Pirates are playing with all AA players and the Reds...well, they have Dusty Baker who will ensure all of their great pitching is completely exhausted by the All-Star break and totally unable to pitch the second half. Go Cubs! [Comments: 3]· permalink ·
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Weekend: March 30, 2008 - National Cathedral
On Sunday morning I met up with Jamie to take in a service at the National Cathedral. Since it's only four blocks away from me I thought it would be cool to go. It's beautiful inside but the volume of tourists was a little ridiculous. It's no secret I'm not the most devout practitioner of faith but seriously people, have some respect. If you're in the National Cathedral and there's a service going on maybe, just maybe you shouldn't be swearing at your kids. Or looking like hell. I can understand if it's like a Tuesday at 4pm and you're on a tour but come on--Sunday at 11am is not the time to let your kids be scooting around with their hidden-wheels-inside shoes. Suck it the f* up and have a little bit of respect for the people who are attending the service.
Because baseball season starts tomorrow I guess I should pass along my 2008 Predictions. Away we go:
AL East
1) Yankees
2) Devil Rays(?!)
3) Red Sox
4) Blue Jays
5) Orioles (AND they'll lose 100 games)
AL Central
1) Tigers
2) *Indians
3) White Sox
4) Minnesota
5) Royals
AL West
1) Mariners
2) Angels
3) A's
4) Rangers
NL East
1) Mets
2) Phillies
3) Nationals
4) Braves
5) Marlins
NL Central
1) Cubs (duh)
2) *Reds
3) Brewers
4) Pirates (no really)
5) Astros
6) Cardinals
NL West
1) Diamondbacks
2) Rockies
3) Padres
4) Giants
5) Dodgers
Playoffs
Cubs beat Diamondbacks
Mets beat Reds
Mets beat Cubs
Tigers beat Mariners
Indians beat Yankees
Tigers beat Indians
World Series
Tigers beat Mets in six games. [Comments: 2]· permalink ·
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Monday: March 31, 2008 - Pretty Annoying
Yeah, that was pretty annoying. Just imagine what I went through testing it.[Comments: 1]· permalink ·
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Good Things Take Time...
-6 days until FSU Football (2010)
Random Picture...
The dinner musicians were kicked off stage to ensure pleasurable picture taking.
The dinner musicians were kicked off stage to ensure pleasurable picture taking.
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.