Red Zeppelin
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Weekend: May 03, 2009 - Unicorn Bar
This weekend I flew to Chicago for an early Mother's Day surprise and a couple of Cubs games before flying back to DC last night. Since Steve had rooftop tickets to a game at the same time as my flight in he gave me directions to the Unicorn Bar: a bar devoted to the Cubs, Bears, and Seminoles. It was actually called The Pianoman but I'll always remember it as the Unicorn Bar because I can't believe such a place existed. After the game I met up with Steve and his friends there before we went back to Loyola for the evening.
On Saturday my parents came up and we went to the Cubs game (my first one at Wrigley since Middle School) and watched the Cubs slay the Marlins. We had great seats down the left-field line and it was rumored that we might have been on TV according to the douchebag that was sitting next to my dad. After the game we went out to dinner somewhere by Steve's apartment (Leona's?) and then played some Pictionary.
On Sunday I picked up Amy from Midway and then met up with Steve's harem for the game. It was a perfect day and before the game the Cubs retired #31 for Maddux and Jenkins. We got to see Lee hit a grand slam and MARMOL, who amazingly did not walk or hit a single batter. He did give a homerun but whatever. MARMOL. After the game we hung out at the Unicorn Bar so Amy could verify it wasn't a figment of my imagination. After that we all parted ways and Steve dropped my off at O'Hare with about 20 seconds to spare. Thankfully I had my boarding pass and no checked luggage or I would have missed it by about 45 minutes. Whew!
Unicorn Bar! [Comments: 14]· permalink ·
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Monday: May 04, 2009 - Guitar Recital II
Last night I jaunted out to Alexandria for Annie's guitar recital. Because I lost I arrived at exactly 8pm and the first person had *just* started. Following appropriate concert etiquette I had planned on staying outside until intermission but fortunately it became obvious that there was in fact no concert etiquette to be followed and I went inside a few minutes later. Rebecca arrived shortly after that and we both got to hear Grand Finale; in an artistically ironic program placement (not last).
After the concert we went to Bungalow Billiards for some libations and then to "the best diner in all of Arlington" (2006 reference: The best band in ALL of Tallahassee). It ended up being a late but fun night. HIMYM be damned, only fun things happen after 2am.
I spent the afternoon working and studying but took a break to watch my newest Netflix acquisition: Goodfellas. It was pretty good but I feel like it needed a better ending to merit the length of the film. I've watched a lot of things with Robert DeNiro and I feel like if I saw him on the street I might recognize him now. I was pleased with the characters but the story didn't really move along with much drama and was pretty predictable. Final Grade: C. [Comments: 1]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: May 05, 2009 - Sicilian Superstars
This week pairs Steve's Sicilian Superstars against my Chompy DC in our fantasy baseball league. It's my first time playing and to say I'm not doing well does not do justice to my sucking. Last week I lost to someone who has yet to log in this season to play. Ouch.
Last night Kathy and Chris had a Cinco De Mayo party but since that's code for Couples Night I didn't go. I'm looking forward to living in a place where you kind of measure miles to minutes as 1:1 and not 1:20 like here.
I'm ashamed, horrified, and disgusted to report that I might get a Mac. My PC, while dutifully performing its programming work like a champ is so lacking when I try to do any sort of recording for music that it's unusable. This is you: "waa, waa, just get a new sound card". I can't. I got the tiny-tiny Dell and they don't make performance-level anything for slots that small. No matter what I'd have to replace this computer so I might as well get a new Mac AND a new PC right? Six monitors on my desk? Don't mind if I do. [Comments: 7]· permalink ·
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Wednesday: May 06, 2009 - Shock me like an electric Chompy
Last night I drove out to Briecca's for steak and Lost. The Safeway by Brian's house was offering a $6 off/lb on the fillets so the only remaining package was an interesting shade of both blue and black and I had to settle for getting the NOW SERVES MORE (somehow?) thin-cut New York strips.
On the whole I was pretty pleased with the Lost episode last night. Jack has become a regular Dick Cochman and I'm kind of waiting for him to die. I was hoping that Kate or Sayid would do it but alas. I'm going to start making of list of concepts that have randomly disappeared and that will definitely include: Rose and Bernard, The Magic Box, and Walt. Man, that's going to be a long list. I'm looking forward to the season finale next-week. Maybe in a two hour show they'll be able to get more than 20 minutes of non-commercials in.
The drive home last night was pretty horrible. I haven't driven in rain like that in AGES. It was so bad DC drivers were driving at/under the speed limit. I thought it was pouring when I left but in reality the worst came at the big toll plaza where 66 meets 495 and the toll road. Yikes. It was raining so hard that just walking from my parking spot to my house has left my clothes so wet they were still wet this morning when I put them back on.
What, like you don't reuse your clothes? [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Thursday: May 07, 2009 - Treats and Toys
Yesterday was a shopping day. I'm not particularly fond of shopping days but it had to be done. After buying a couple new suits (wardrobe is an issue when "business casual" = "non-stained t-shirt") I went to Barnes and Noble to buy a book and lo and behold I come across an I Can Has Cheezburger book. Ok, it's a fun site but a lot of the fun is seeing the new ones each day. Having a book of the best, while I'm sure interesting, may provide what, like 30 seconds of enjoyment? It's not like reading lolspeak is time-intensive so you'd burn through the book in no time. And at $9.99--come on.
Speaking of weird-but-addictive sites here's one that you probably don't know about. It's a collection of photos where someone in the background is "bombing" it. Ever since I first visited the site I've been trying to bomb more in the hopes of one day making it on there. It usually works best at college or weddings. Look out Briecca.
Last night was Tater Thoughts instead of Thirsty Thursday and, as predicted, the night was over by 11:30. I'm all for being responsible but come on. PRIMES OF OUR LIVES. That's all I'm going to say. [Comments: 6]· permalink ·
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Weekend: May 10, 2009 - My Malfunction
Working backwards, I managed to knock out three movies this weekend. Shockingly, I am prepared to give out my first final grade of an A. That honor goes to Shawshank Redemption, easily the best movie I've ever seen. Since I'm sure everyone else has seen it I won't extol upon its greatness. Final Grade: A
I also watched Fight Club, irritatingly predictable but nice to see people fighting. I was kind of hoping that there'd be a twist where Edward Norton was a figment of Brad Pitt's imagination but no. Final Grade: C
Not knowing better, I got a documentary about Africa and the Lost Boys called God Grew Tired Of Us. It was really boring and certainly not worth watching. Final Grade: D-
I slept until 3:30pm on Sunday before watching the Cubs game and the last movie. In my defense, I didn't go to bed until 5:30am and my life wouldn't be my life without nine to ten hours of nightly sleep. I also copied all the music for Guitar Night but my scanner has decided to declare war on me.
On Saturday submitted a request for designs for a new site, met up with Marc for lunch at Red Hot and Blue, played some basketball, did a bunch of lesson planning, looked through my new guitar books for songs, then met up with Annie for dinner and drinks. Amazingly, we hung out past 11pm. I knew this day would come. We also stole $11 in drinks from Bourbon. If only Judas Priest had been playing on the radio.
On Friday morning I picked up Abby and she and I tooled around town before coming home to work. After work I started a new arrangement of a song and worked on a bunch of paintings.
In other news, Steve beat me in our fantasy baseball match-up 7-3. It's because he has Ryan Braun, my evil twin with nicer eyes. I hate that guy. [Comments: 7]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: May 12, 2009 - May 12 of 12
8:43am: My new stereo alarm clock failed at turning on my iPhone at 8:30 so I got an extra few minutes of sleep.
9:00am: Art shot of Chompy and a Rose.
9:15am: Off to the bank after becoming $920 richer. Thanks internet.
9:20: Notre Dame graduate proudly displaying their logo backwards. This surprises me 0%.
12:30pm: Freshly-powered by Steve's data entry'ing, my new color-coded charts bring me an unusually large amount of joy.
3:30pm: Tasty Tuesday merited driving out to Old Town to get Jimmy John's. I can't wait to have chains again.
5:00pm: I was going to write an entry yesterday about my new GPS but I got busy taking pictures for my 12 of 12. As you can see, I've already managed to drive it off the road.
5:30pm: Picking up some man-items just in case they're needed in Massachusetts.
6:15pm: Echolocation win!
8:45pm: Picking up dinner from Chipotle. I don't know why everyone hates eating there. I like it.
9:00pm: Chompy enjoying her late dinner.
9:15pm: Multi-tasking with work, lesson-planning, Chris, and the Cubs. CUBBIES!
Nerd Bonus! 12:30am: Steve and I playing a computer game until 1:30am. [Comments: 3]· permalink ·
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Wednesday: May 13, 2009 - Lost Season Finale
Happy 24th Birthday! You're now a grown-ass woman. You have three solid years of the prime of your life left. Hooray!
I went over to Briecca's last night for Steak+Lost. Anna and Ella were both there and Rebecca came about 10 minuets into Lost. What a stupid show. What a stupid season finale. The most interesting part of the evening was when the new GPS steered me onto the toll road for the single exit that contained the toll then put me back on the highway.
CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!I don't even know where to start with my hatred of the season finale. Ok, the good part first--we got to see Vincent The Dog, Rose, and Bernard. Beyond that there was nothing good. Wow, Jacob left Hurley a guitar. Wow, John Locke may or may not be the reincarnation of Jacob's former lover. Wow, Juliette isn't really dead. Wow, magnetism only applies to large structures. Wow, Jack is still alive (unfortunately). Wow, a nuclear bomb can fall a quarter of a mile and not detonate but being bumped by a woman with a rock COULD set it off. Wow, a version of John Locke might be dead.
Wow. LOST FAIL. [Comments: 6]· permalink ·
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Thursday: May 14, 2009 - Thirsty Thursday
For Thirsty Thursday Becky came to pick me up and we set off to Mad Hatter. It was night filled with weird girls, namely Gropey and Wet Girl. Remember in the 1980s when the "wet look" was in? Yeah, Wet Girl is bringing it back. Gropey was pretty explicit in what she wanted done and even stalked me outside in a weak attempt to escape. Bucking Gore Vidal's advice to "never miss a chance to have sex or appear on television" we called it a night around 1:30am. Ah, that's how it's done (or not done depending on how you look at it). Becky and I can hang. Period.
I had the interior of my car cleaned and it might have been the best $200 I've ever spent. Not only was it completely dog fur free, but they found an extra car key and, most disgustingly, they fixed my steering wheel. See, I thought my steering wheel was deteriorating from spending seven years fighting the Florida sun. Oh no, that was not the case. I'd brought my car in for a cleaning yearly but, like me, the other cleaners had assumed the wheel was just falling apart and didn't touch it. These guys though, despite originally thinking the same thing, eventually learned it wasn't the wheel itself that was ripping apart, it was the half-inch of...grime(?) that had built up on the wheel. Driving home I couldn't believe how skinny my steering wheel was. Gross.
[Comments: 1]· permalink ·
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Weekend: May 17, 2009 - Last Weekend in DC
I spent my last weekend in DC dog-sitting Abby, looking for my misplaced iPhone, discussing the likelihood of Kathy and Chris' baby being a hermaphrodite (anywhere from .005 - 2% according to the intertubes), and coupling with Angry Alligator Head to win my last poker game.
I leave for Lowell bright and early Thursday morning. I already started packing my newly-clean car and found it amazing how little stuff I actually "need" despite having a whole houseful of items that I would have claimed were integral to my life. As I was cleaning/packing I realized that unless I have company over I spent no time at all in my living room. I mean none. It's essentially Chompy's bedroom, resplendent with a big TV and many unplayed video game systems. I'm thinking that I just might be able to live in one of those Tiny Houses in the middle of nowhere afterall.
Last night I watched the movie Earthlings, a super-liberal documentary about how we mistreat animals on the planet. It was just as dopey as a super-conservative "documentary" "proving" "global warming" doesn't exist. It made me not want to eat pork (as they cannibalized the tumors growing on each other) or buy leather again but other than that it was more gratuitous than effective. Final Grade: F [Comments: 2]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: May 19, 2009 - Short Narrative
I had been planning today's entry for months; if not a full year. A nice narrative, complete with pictures, of the past 14 months of my life. That'll have to wait for a little while. Here's a last picture of Abby. It makes me sad to think she and Chompy will never be together again.
See all y'all in Lowell.
[Comments: 6]· permalink ·
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Monday: May 25, 2009 - Greetings from Lowell
Ah, Lowell. I left DC at 7am on the dot Thursday morning and set out with Chompy to pick up Chris, who was kind enough to be my driving buddy, at BWI. It was smooth sailing until Boston and the GPS only caused one wrong turn; unfortunately it caused me to pay the toll twice on the Washington Bridge. Alas.
The past couple days have been an adjustment--a wicked awesome adjustment. Suddenly I have the option to do things with another live human being: eating, video games, playing guitar, or--best of all--just sitting around talking. I forgot how great it is to talk about nothing while sitting on the porch enjoying an icy beverage. It seems so insignificant when in reality that's really what life is all about. I should know seeing that was more or less absent in my life for the past year.
Chompy's adjustment has been more...trying. Suddenly she has a new, black, furry earring. When Oreo and Chompy aren't walked around with each other, they spend a good part of the day with Chompy looking out the open door of her crate into Oreo's eyes. Oreo is fun and unlike Chompy or Abby in just about every way. Chompy is learning to love (at least not kill) her and I'm it's just a matter of time before all is good and right with the world.
My first day of teaching went smoothly. No one fell asleep and there were no riots. In the future I'll be more careful about my beamings so I won't get called out on it again.
Ah, Life Part II. Ah. [Comments: 2]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: May 26, 2009 - Chalk Dust
After a successful first day of class Chris took me to the gym for our first work-out. I had two, simple rules: bench press the bar and don't complain. Rule #1 was much easier than I thought it would be but I unfortunately fell way short of 100lb. Oh well. I'm not sure I'd give myself an A+ for Rule 2 but undoubtedly Chris must miss Marty the most right about now. I only managed to hit myself in the face with a dumbbell once and aside from spending the night unable to use my "triceps" it was almost, dare I say, fun. In other news, Chris is huge and strong as hell.
After the gym we got some lunch and I came back and spent a few hours working, the a few hours napping, then a few more hours working. The napping hurt my early departure to bed and when I did finally fall asleep around 2:30 my dreams were crazy.
Yep, yep, yep. I'm going to be huge in like six months. Huge. [Comments: 3]· permalink ·
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Wednesday: May 27, 2009 - About Lowell
After a week in Lowell I think I'm ready to share my limited knowledge about it. First of all, NH has no sales taxes so it's always preferable to make the 20 minute drive. Manchester has the preferred airport and Boston is...Boston.
The demographics of Lowell are...poor. I haven't seen many neighborhoods jump out as exceedingly nice or exceedingly horrible yet. Solidly lower-middle class. I suspect because of the amount of snow the roads are not in the best shape and it helps contribute to the appearance of dilapidation.
I might have just gotten lucky with the segment of student I have, but so far they seem both reasonably smart and attentive. They are atrocious at sight-singing but fortunately that is not my responsibility. The look of the university is classic 1960s university-style, complete with stairwells that lead nowhere and garish colors. The classroom is more than adequate in terms of size and technology although I wish the pieces of chalk weren't so nubby. Then there'd be more of it get all over my suits. The library, on the other hand, is the kind of place where you could kill someone and no one would find the body for a week.
That will be convenient for students who double the third after I told them not to. [Comments: 3]· permalink ·
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Thursday: May 28, 2009 - Introduction to Raquetball
Yesterday Chris introduced me to a little game called racquetball. When I think of the game I think of Miker and Kevin always going to play so I had always assumed you had to be a hulk of a man to play. Not so. You can be small and frail like me and play too. You just have to be a hulk of a man to play well. It is a lot of fun and not surprisingly Chris whomped me as has been the trend in any/everything competitive since I got up here. Despite my sucking, I can't wait to play again.
I spent the afternoon trying to get the accursed Chinese spammers to stop hammering one of the sites. I thought I had it figured out but they keep sneaking past me. I think of the countless hours I've spent trying to stop people from messing with it and that alone is aggravating. Like they have nothing better to do with their time. Go pollute a river or kill a panda or something.
Since Chris was leaving for a conference in SD in the morning we had Steak Night instead of Thirsty Thursday. Life's rough sometimes in Life Part II. [Comments: 9]· permalink ·
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Friday: May 29, 2009 - Condogenate Those Strings
Around 5am Chris and I left for Manchester and his flight to San Diego. I got home around 6:30am after getting slightly lost and then slept until 9:30. I don't teach on Fridays (life is rough in Life Part II) so I cleaned up my room, made some revisions to Monday and Tuesday's plans and then work-worked for the rest of the day. Around 7:30pm I drove up to Nashua to buy myself a "summer" coat since there are only three or four days left before winter starts here. Fortunately people are tough up here and coats were on super-sale. I got it from the Gap for $16 (originally $88). I also got some Mall Chick-Fil-A for dinner.
I had heard rumors how dicey downtown was at night so I figured "Hey, let's go explore it alone". I made it out both alive and without incident. Like New Orleans, the blocks change quickly so on one block you have a patio full of Lowell Yuppies (Luppies) and on the next a Cambodian crack head. For the record I saw neither a luppie nor a Crackbodian.
I slept with Oreo quite literally on top of me the entire night. That dog loves being all up on you. She is indeed the Anti-Chompy. [Comments: 3]· permalink ·
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Weekend: May 31, 2009 - Mike and Chompy Is Legend
Since I'm effectively living in a Netflix warehouse I took the opportunity to catch up a lot of movies. A lot movies for even a normal person.
Predator: A ha! So that's where "get to the chopper" is from. Things blowing up are cool and it was nice to finally be able to place Carl Weathers from something other than Arrested Development but come on. An alien that has all of these cool gadgets can't see through mud? Come on. Final Grade: D
Anchorman: I knew I hated Will Ferrall but I figured I'd give him another chance. That was dumb. Final Grade: F
No Country For Old Men: I like that it didn't turn into a feel-good story. I didn't like that it was epically long with such a terse ending. Final Grade: B
I Am Legend: If there were a category at the Oscar's for Best Acting In A Terrible Film I would hope Will Smith would win it. He did a great job but special effects aside boring. Final Grade: D+
Snatch: I can only describe it as campy. It was predictable but still fun. I like the roles that Brad Pitt gets. Final Grade: B-
In between gobbling down movies I revised some teaching plans and recoded ~8k lines of the promo code site. Each time I think I have stopped the Chinese spammers they hit me again with some sneaky little movie. I also FINALLY won my first fantasy baseball week 5-4. It only took two months. [Comments: 5]· permalink ·
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This weekend I flew to Chicago for an early Mother's Day surprise and a couple of Cubs games before flying back to DC last night. Since Steve had rooftop tickets to a game at the same time as my flight in he gave me directions to the Unicorn Bar: a bar devoted to the Cubs, Bears, and Seminoles. It was actually called The Pianoman but I'll always remember it as the Unicorn Bar because I can't believe such a place existed. After the game I met up with Steve and his friends there before we went back to Loyola for the evening.
On Saturday my parents came up and we went to the Cubs game (my first one at Wrigley since Middle School) and watched the Cubs slay the Marlins. We had great seats down the left-field line and it was rumored that we might have been on TV according to the douchebag that was sitting next to my dad. After the game we went out to dinner somewhere by Steve's apartment (Leona's?) and then played some Pictionary.
On Sunday I picked up Amy from Midway and then met up with Steve's harem for the game. It was a perfect day and before the game the Cubs retired #31 for Maddux and Jenkins. We got to see Lee hit a grand slam and MARMOL, who amazingly did not walk or hit a single batter. He did give a homerun but whatever. MARMOL. After the game we hung out at the Unicorn Bar so Amy could verify it wasn't a figment of my imagination. After that we all parted ways and Steve dropped my off at O'Hare with about 20 seconds to spare. Thankfully I had my boarding pass and no checked luggage or I would have missed it by about 45 minutes. Whew!
Unicorn Bar! [Comments: 14]· permalink ·
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Monday: May 04, 2009 - Guitar Recital II
Last night I jaunted out to Alexandria for Annie's guitar recital. Because I lost I arrived at exactly 8pm and the first person had *just* started. Following appropriate concert etiquette I had planned on staying outside until intermission but fortunately it became obvious that there was in fact no concert etiquette to be followed and I went inside a few minutes later. Rebecca arrived shortly after that and we both got to hear Grand Finale; in an artistically ironic program placement (not last).
After the concert we went to Bungalow Billiards for some libations and then to "the best diner in all of Arlington" (2006 reference: The best band in ALL of Tallahassee). It ended up being a late but fun night. HIMYM be damned, only fun things happen after 2am.
I spent the afternoon working and studying but took a break to watch my newest Netflix acquisition: Goodfellas. It was pretty good but I feel like it needed a better ending to merit the length of the film. I've watched a lot of things with Robert DeNiro and I feel like if I saw him on the street I might recognize him now. I was pleased with the characters but the story didn't really move along with much drama and was pretty predictable. Final Grade: C. [Comments: 1]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: May 05, 2009 - Sicilian Superstars
This week pairs Steve's Sicilian Superstars against my Chompy DC in our fantasy baseball league. It's my first time playing and to say I'm not doing well does not do justice to my sucking. Last week I lost to someone who has yet to log in this season to play. Ouch.
Last night Kathy and Chris had a Cinco De Mayo party but since that's code for Couples Night I didn't go. I'm looking forward to living in a place where you kind of measure miles to minutes as 1:1 and not 1:20 like here.
I'm ashamed, horrified, and disgusted to report that I might get a Mac. My PC, while dutifully performing its programming work like a champ is so lacking when I try to do any sort of recording for music that it's unusable. This is you: "waa, waa, just get a new sound card". I can't. I got the tiny-tiny Dell and they don't make performance-level anything for slots that small. No matter what I'd have to replace this computer so I might as well get a new Mac AND a new PC right? Six monitors on my desk? Don't mind if I do. [Comments: 7]· permalink ·
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Wednesday: May 06, 2009 - Shock me like an electric Chompy
Last night I drove out to Briecca's for steak and Lost. The Safeway by Brian's house was offering a $6 off/lb on the fillets so the only remaining package was an interesting shade of both blue and black and I had to settle for getting the NOW SERVES MORE (somehow?) thin-cut New York strips.
On the whole I was pretty pleased with the Lost episode last night. Jack has become a regular Dick Cochman and I'm kind of waiting for him to die. I was hoping that Kate or Sayid would do it but alas. I'm going to start making of list of concepts that have randomly disappeared and that will definitely include: Rose and Bernard, The Magic Box, and Walt. Man, that's going to be a long list. I'm looking forward to the season finale next-week. Maybe in a two hour show they'll be able to get more than 20 minutes of non-commercials in.
The drive home last night was pretty horrible. I haven't driven in rain like that in AGES. It was so bad DC drivers were driving at/under the speed limit. I thought it was pouring when I left but in reality the worst came at the big toll plaza where 66 meets 495 and the toll road. Yikes. It was raining so hard that just walking from my parking spot to my house has left my clothes so wet they were still wet this morning when I put them back on.
What, like you don't reuse your clothes? [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Thursday: May 07, 2009 - Treats and Toys
Yesterday was a shopping day. I'm not particularly fond of shopping days but it had to be done. After buying a couple new suits (wardrobe is an issue when "business casual" = "non-stained t-shirt") I went to Barnes and Noble to buy a book and lo and behold I come across an I Can Has Cheezburger book. Ok, it's a fun site but a lot of the fun is seeing the new ones each day. Having a book of the best, while I'm sure interesting, may provide what, like 30 seconds of enjoyment? It's not like reading lolspeak is time-intensive so you'd burn through the book in no time. And at $9.99--come on.
Speaking of weird-but-addictive sites here's one that you probably don't know about. It's a collection of photos where someone in the background is "bombing" it. Ever since I first visited the site I've been trying to bomb more in the hopes of one day making it on there. It usually works best at college or weddings. Look out Briecca.
Last night was Tater Thoughts instead of Thirsty Thursday and, as predicted, the night was over by 11:30. I'm all for being responsible but come on. PRIMES OF OUR LIVES. That's all I'm going to say. [Comments: 6]· permalink ·
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Weekend: May 10, 2009 - My Malfunction
Working backwards, I managed to knock out three movies this weekend. Shockingly, I am prepared to give out my first final grade of an A. That honor goes to Shawshank Redemption, easily the best movie I've ever seen. Since I'm sure everyone else has seen it I won't extol upon its greatness. Final Grade: A
I also watched Fight Club, irritatingly predictable but nice to see people fighting. I was kind of hoping that there'd be a twist where Edward Norton was a figment of Brad Pitt's imagination but no. Final Grade: C
Not knowing better, I got a documentary about Africa and the Lost Boys called God Grew Tired Of Us. It was really boring and certainly not worth watching. Final Grade: D-
I slept until 3:30pm on Sunday before watching the Cubs game and the last movie. In my defense, I didn't go to bed until 5:30am and my life wouldn't be my life without nine to ten hours of nightly sleep. I also copied all the music for Guitar Night but my scanner has decided to declare war on me.
On Saturday submitted a request for designs for a new site, met up with Marc for lunch at Red Hot and Blue, played some basketball, did a bunch of lesson planning, looked through my new guitar books for songs, then met up with Annie for dinner and drinks. Amazingly, we hung out past 11pm. I knew this day would come. We also stole $11 in drinks from Bourbon. If only Judas Priest had been playing on the radio.
On Friday morning I picked up Abby and she and I tooled around town before coming home to work. After work I started a new arrangement of a song and worked on a bunch of paintings.
In other news, Steve beat me in our fantasy baseball match-up 7-3. It's because he has Ryan Braun, my evil twin with nicer eyes. I hate that guy. [Comments: 7]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: May 12, 2009 - May 12 of 12
8:43am: My new stereo alarm clock failed at turning on my iPhone at 8:30 so I got an extra few minutes of sleep.
9:00am: Art shot of Chompy and a Rose.
9:15am: Off to the bank after becoming $920 richer. Thanks internet.
9:20: Notre Dame graduate proudly displaying their logo backwards. This surprises me 0%.
12:30pm: Freshly-powered by Steve's data entry'ing, my new color-coded charts bring me an unusually large amount of joy.
3:30pm: Tasty Tuesday merited driving out to Old Town to get Jimmy John's. I can't wait to have chains again.
5:00pm: I was going to write an entry yesterday about my new GPS but I got busy taking pictures for my 12 of 12. As you can see, I've already managed to drive it off the road.
5:30pm: Picking up some man-items just in case they're needed in Massachusetts.
6:15pm: Echolocation win!
8:45pm: Picking up dinner from Chipotle. I don't know why everyone hates eating there. I like it.
9:00pm: Chompy enjoying her late dinner.
9:15pm: Multi-tasking with work, lesson-planning, Chris, and the Cubs. CUBBIES!
Nerd Bonus! 12:30am: Steve and I playing a computer game until 1:30am. [Comments: 3]· permalink ·
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Wednesday: May 13, 2009 - Lost Season Finale
Happy 24th Birthday! You're now a grown-ass woman. You have three solid years of the prime of your life left. Hooray!
I went over to Briecca's last night for Steak+Lost. Anna and Ella were both there and Rebecca came about 10 minuets into Lost. What a stupid show. What a stupid season finale. The most interesting part of the evening was when the new GPS steered me onto the toll road for the single exit that contained the toll then put me back on the highway.
CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!I don't even know where to start with my hatred of the season finale. Ok, the good part first--we got to see Vincent The Dog, Rose, and Bernard. Beyond that there was nothing good. Wow, Jacob left Hurley a guitar. Wow, John Locke may or may not be the reincarnation of Jacob's former lover. Wow, Juliette isn't really dead. Wow, magnetism only applies to large structures. Wow, Jack is still alive (unfortunately). Wow, a nuclear bomb can fall a quarter of a mile and not detonate but being bumped by a woman with a rock COULD set it off. Wow, a version of John Locke might be dead.
Wow. LOST FAIL. [Comments: 6]· permalink ·
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Thursday: May 14, 2009 - Thirsty Thursday
For Thirsty Thursday Becky came to pick me up and we set off to Mad Hatter. It was night filled with weird girls, namely Gropey and Wet Girl. Remember in the 1980s when the "wet look" was in? Yeah, Wet Girl is bringing it back. Gropey was pretty explicit in what she wanted done and even stalked me outside in a weak attempt to escape. Bucking Gore Vidal's advice to "never miss a chance to have sex or appear on television" we called it a night around 1:30am. Ah, that's how it's done (or not done depending on how you look at it). Becky and I can hang. Period.
I had the interior of my car cleaned and it might have been the best $200 I've ever spent. Not only was it completely dog fur free, but they found an extra car key and, most disgustingly, they fixed my steering wheel. See, I thought my steering wheel was deteriorating from spending seven years fighting the Florida sun. Oh no, that was not the case. I'd brought my car in for a cleaning yearly but, like me, the other cleaners had assumed the wheel was just falling apart and didn't touch it. These guys though, despite originally thinking the same thing, eventually learned it wasn't the wheel itself that was ripping apart, it was the half-inch of...grime(?) that had built up on the wheel. Driving home I couldn't believe how skinny my steering wheel was. Gross.
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Weekend: May 17, 2009 - Last Weekend in DC
I spent my last weekend in DC dog-sitting Abby, looking for my misplaced iPhone, discussing the likelihood of Kathy and Chris' baby being a hermaphrodite (anywhere from .005 - 2% according to the intertubes), and coupling with Angry Alligator Head to win my last poker game.
I leave for Lowell bright and early Thursday morning. I already started packing my newly-clean car and found it amazing how little stuff I actually "need" despite having a whole houseful of items that I would have claimed were integral to my life. As I was cleaning/packing I realized that unless I have company over I spent no time at all in my living room. I mean none. It's essentially Chompy's bedroom, resplendent with a big TV and many unplayed video game systems. I'm thinking that I just might be able to live in one of those Tiny Houses in the middle of nowhere afterall.
Last night I watched the movie Earthlings, a super-liberal documentary about how we mistreat animals on the planet. It was just as dopey as a super-conservative "documentary" "proving" "global warming" doesn't exist. It made me not want to eat pork (as they cannibalized the tumors growing on each other) or buy leather again but other than that it was more gratuitous than effective. Final Grade: F [Comments: 2]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: May 19, 2009 - Short Narrative
I had been planning today's entry for months; if not a full year. A nice narrative, complete with pictures, of the past 14 months of my life. That'll have to wait for a little while. Here's a last picture of Abby. It makes me sad to think she and Chompy will never be together again.
See all y'all in Lowell.
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Monday: May 25, 2009 - Greetings from Lowell
Ah, Lowell. I left DC at 7am on the dot Thursday morning and set out with Chompy to pick up Chris, who was kind enough to be my driving buddy, at BWI. It was smooth sailing until Boston and the GPS only caused one wrong turn; unfortunately it caused me to pay the toll twice on the Washington Bridge. Alas.
The past couple days have been an adjustment--a wicked awesome adjustment. Suddenly I have the option to do things with another live human being: eating, video games, playing guitar, or--best of all--just sitting around talking. I forgot how great it is to talk about nothing while sitting on the porch enjoying an icy beverage. It seems so insignificant when in reality that's really what life is all about. I should know seeing that was more or less absent in my life for the past year.
Chompy's adjustment has been more...trying. Suddenly she has a new, black, furry earring. When Oreo and Chompy aren't walked around with each other, they spend a good part of the day with Chompy looking out the open door of her crate into Oreo's eyes. Oreo is fun and unlike Chompy or Abby in just about every way. Chompy is learning to love (at least not kill) her and I'm it's just a matter of time before all is good and right with the world.
My first day of teaching went smoothly. No one fell asleep and there were no riots. In the future I'll be more careful about my beamings so I won't get called out on it again.
Ah, Life Part II. Ah. [Comments: 2]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: May 26, 2009 - Chalk Dust
After a successful first day of class Chris took me to the gym for our first work-out. I had two, simple rules: bench press the bar and don't complain. Rule #1 was much easier than I thought it would be but I unfortunately fell way short of 100lb. Oh well. I'm not sure I'd give myself an A+ for Rule 2 but undoubtedly Chris must miss Marty the most right about now. I only managed to hit myself in the face with a dumbbell once and aside from spending the night unable to use my "triceps" it was almost, dare I say, fun. In other news, Chris is huge and strong as hell.
After the gym we got some lunch and I came back and spent a few hours working, the a few hours napping, then a few more hours working. The napping hurt my early departure to bed and when I did finally fall asleep around 2:30 my dreams were crazy.
Yep, yep, yep. I'm going to be huge in like six months. Huge. [Comments: 3]· permalink ·
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Wednesday: May 27, 2009 - About Lowell
After a week in Lowell I think I'm ready to share my limited knowledge about it. First of all, NH has no sales taxes so it's always preferable to make the 20 minute drive. Manchester has the preferred airport and Boston is...Boston.
The demographics of Lowell are...poor. I haven't seen many neighborhoods jump out as exceedingly nice or exceedingly horrible yet. Solidly lower-middle class. I suspect because of the amount of snow the roads are not in the best shape and it helps contribute to the appearance of dilapidation.
I might have just gotten lucky with the segment of student I have, but so far they seem both reasonably smart and attentive. They are atrocious at sight-singing but fortunately that is not my responsibility. The look of the university is classic 1960s university-style, complete with stairwells that lead nowhere and garish colors. The classroom is more than adequate in terms of size and technology although I wish the pieces of chalk weren't so nubby. Then there'd be more of it get all over my suits. The library, on the other hand, is the kind of place where you could kill someone and no one would find the body for a week.
That will be convenient for students who double the third after I told them not to. [Comments: 3]· permalink ·
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Thursday: May 28, 2009 - Introduction to Raquetball
Yesterday Chris introduced me to a little game called racquetball. When I think of the game I think of Miker and Kevin always going to play so I had always assumed you had to be a hulk of a man to play. Not so. You can be small and frail like me and play too. You just have to be a hulk of a man to play well. It is a lot of fun and not surprisingly Chris whomped me as has been the trend in any/everything competitive since I got up here. Despite my sucking, I can't wait to play again.
I spent the afternoon trying to get the accursed Chinese spammers to stop hammering one of the sites. I thought I had it figured out but they keep sneaking past me. I think of the countless hours I've spent trying to stop people from messing with it and that alone is aggravating. Like they have nothing better to do with their time. Go pollute a river or kill a panda or something.
Since Chris was leaving for a conference in SD in the morning we had Steak Night instead of Thirsty Thursday. Life's rough sometimes in Life Part II. [Comments: 9]· permalink ·
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Friday: May 29, 2009 - Condogenate Those Strings
Around 5am Chris and I left for Manchester and his flight to San Diego. I got home around 6:30am after getting slightly lost and then slept until 9:30. I don't teach on Fridays (life is rough in Life Part II) so I cleaned up my room, made some revisions to Monday and Tuesday's plans and then work-worked for the rest of the day. Around 7:30pm I drove up to Nashua to buy myself a "summer" coat since there are only three or four days left before winter starts here. Fortunately people are tough up here and coats were on super-sale. I got it from the Gap for $16 (originally $88). I also got some Mall Chick-Fil-A for dinner.
I had heard rumors how dicey downtown was at night so I figured "Hey, let's go explore it alone". I made it out both alive and without incident. Like New Orleans, the blocks change quickly so on one block you have a patio full of Lowell Yuppies (Luppies) and on the next a Cambodian crack head. For the record I saw neither a luppie nor a Crackbodian.
I slept with Oreo quite literally on top of me the entire night. That dog loves being all up on you. She is indeed the Anti-Chompy. [Comments: 3]· permalink ·
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Weekend: May 31, 2009 - Mike and Chompy Is Legend
Since I'm effectively living in a Netflix warehouse I took the opportunity to catch up a lot of movies. A lot movies for even a normal person.
Predator: A ha! So that's where "get to the chopper" is from. Things blowing up are cool and it was nice to finally be able to place Carl Weathers from something other than Arrested Development but come on. An alien that has all of these cool gadgets can't see through mud? Come on. Final Grade: D
Anchorman: I knew I hated Will Ferrall but I figured I'd give him another chance. That was dumb. Final Grade: F
No Country For Old Men: I like that it didn't turn into a feel-good story. I didn't like that it was epically long with such a terse ending. Final Grade: B
I Am Legend: If there were a category at the Oscar's for Best Acting In A Terrible Film I would hope Will Smith would win it. He did a great job but special effects aside boring. Final Grade: D+
Snatch: I can only describe it as campy. It was predictable but still fun. I like the roles that Brad Pitt gets. Final Grade: B-
In between gobbling down movies I revised some teaching plans and recoded ~8k lines of the promo code site. Each time I think I have stopped the Chinese spammers they hit me again with some sneaky little movie. I also FINALLY won my first fantasy baseball week 5-4. It only took two months. [Comments: 5]· permalink ·
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Good Things Take Time...
-6 days until FSU Football (2010)
Random Picture...
Me ruling in ping pong.
Me ruling in ping pong.
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.