Friiiiiiday

So the misses and I have started making Friday night, movie night. I picked the Simpsons (power went out 20 mins into the movie, stupid lightning, so I never saw the rest), she picked Stardust, and this week I picked Superbad.
I'll give you my thoughts, then Sarah's. I thought it was funny, but not nearly as funny as I thought it was going to be. Some laughs, but no huge laugh out loud moments. I'd give it a 7. As far as its place in the high school movie rankings, American Pie was funnier and Can't Hardly Wait was better. My friends know of my love for high school comedies, but I think I'm over it now. Watching the movie didn't make me feel nostalgic for high school (when I peaked in life I think), it just made me feel old haha. Anyway, overall, it was good, but not great...

my thoughts:
My favorite part was the end, because it was in a mall, and it was finally over. I think I lost a day and a half of my life- and the movie was only really about a 24 hour time span. This movie doesn't even compare to Can't Hardly Wait. I think there were 4 funny moments, and that might be generous.
So as you can see, Sarah really didn't like it. But she went in with an open mind, and thats all I can really ask for.

Just Another Day

Not much to write about today. Tons to write about about work, but since its not smart to talk about work on a blog, I won't.
But I do have a question for everyone out there. Why is it, that i get about 25 hits a day, but hardly anyone ever comments? Are my postings not that interesting? Do I not leave my thoughts open to postings? Just curious. There's a few of you out there who post often, and I really appreciate that, but beyond those 3 of so people, that's it. So I guess my question is, what can I do to make the blog more interesting? Reader feedback time.
Moving right along, no big plans for the weekend. Lots of yard work and the Blue Hill Fair ahead of us, but that's about it. Sounds like a great weekend all around.
So I've started watching Big Brother on CBS. Does anyone else out there watch it? I've never watched any of the other seasons, but because of the lack of good shows on this summer, I've been watching it. I'd give it a 6.5 to a 7, entertaining, but more than a season or two of it could get really really repetitive. The only other reality show I watch consistantly is the Amazing Race. I'd love to go on that show, anyone wanna try out with me? riiiiiiiiiiiight..
Another fun thing about Maine... Powerball. Just one more thing for me to blow my money on.

Let the ridiculing begin!

So not much really going on in our Bangor life. Busy at work, looking forward to a long weekend of relaxing, yard work and the Blue Hill Fair..
Last night, the misses and I took a ride to the Bangor Humane Society. TONS of animals, so if you're looking for a cat or dog (for those of you in Maine who read this) that's the place to go. Being the bleeding hearts that we are, we of course wanted to adopt another animal. You have to have no soul not to be effected by those shelters. Tons of animals just looking for a home, c'mon...never mind the look the misses gets on her face, pure sadness and compassion. Thankfully, them closing at 6 didn't allow us enough time to go thru with it, so we went home and enjoyed a normal night at home.
However, we went back at lunch today, and I'd like to introduce you to the newest member of our household... Zoey
Take away the crazy eyes (stupid camera) and you get a very nice cat. She's really affectionate, when she's not hiding under the couch, however, any and all noises above a pin dropping sends her running. (for all you crazy Northrups out there, she's very similar in color to Elfie) So far the other two cats don't seem to have a problem with a new friend, which is good. (the main reason we got her was because one of our cats used to go outside, but we don't let her out in Maine, too many other cats in the neighborhood etc, so she's been depressed and bored lately. hopefully having someone to run around with all day will help)
So there you go, let the jokes begin. I'm now a crazy cat person, along with my wife. Although if we ever got divorced, she'd be stuck with the cats, and instantly would become a crazy cat lady, which is like a dating death sentence, so I've got that going for me which is pretty sweet.
The added bonus is, that for all you people that really have no interest in coming to visit, but kinda feel like you should, this gives you an excuse not too. Everyone seems to be allergic to cats these days, so having 3 cats (but a cat free guest room) is a good excuse :)
Off to the Power of Ten, followed by Mythbusters.
Let the jokes begin...

Wanderings

• Did you know that there are very strict rules for doing laundry? I'm 30 years old and have NEVER separated the darks from the lights and have never had anything run. But the wife likes to separate, so I've recently started doing so as we've finally reached the point in our relationship where we are now combining our laundry. So I separate the colors from the whites, but apparently yellow and khaki are whites sometimes, depending on how dark the dark colors are. This is too much for my little brain to handle. Everything goes in together and there are no more rules, simple as that!
• Rob, you'll be happy to know that I purchased a thatch rake yesterday. This weekend is the big yard clean up/weeding so that I can plant new grass in a couple of weeks. There will however, be no aeration.
• A Bangor cab company has recently started using Mercedes for cabs. One would have thought that, being Maine, they would have started using crew cab pickups instead.
• Inappropriate for work, but wicked funny. No Kids please, lots of bad language!
• So I'm listening to espnradio at work today, and at 4pm the local radio show takes over. Most of the people calling were like caricatures of sports talk radio callers. So I'm thinking, that with a listening audience of maybe 50,000, I should totally become one of those regular caller guys that everyone loathes, but I need a cool handle. Jay from Bangor just isn't going to cut it..
• Speaking of sports talk radio, they were talking about their all-time favorite sports video games, so I figure I'll chime in with my top five...

1. Techmo Super Bowl - the best sports game ever, I will not argue this.
2. NHL 94-95 - hockey made perfect. good fights, the occasional blood on the ice, perfect.
3. Baseball Stars - the first game where you could climb the wall and really dive for balls.
4. Madden - they just keep getting better and better
5. RBI baseball - for nostalgia sake, how could I not put it on the list.

Anything you want to add?

Random Thoughts

• Scrubs is on Comedy Central right now. What a great show, too bad its the last season coming up.
• Watched Midway and The Dirty Dozen this weekend. Both great movies. Its amazing how many big name actors are in them. And did you know that a very young, very thin Officer Poncherello is a fighter pilot in Midway??? You just don't find movies with that many stars in them anymore, with the exception of the Ocean's movies of course.
• Have a new favorite show, Holmes on Homes on the Discovery Home channel. Its this guy who goes in and fixes things in your house (major issues) that the contractor you hired royally effed up. Its an entertaining show because he's a real ball buster and I'm pretty sure its filmed in Canada, so he talks funny, euh. Hearing the word "organization" pronounced OR-gan-I-za-tion, just makes me think of the interviews they do between periods in hockey games.
• Beauty pageant contestants are smart.. no seriously, they are... or maybe not so much...
• And I think I'm addicted to baba ganouj .
• The BlueHill Fair is this weekend, and I'm pretty sure we're going to go. Nothing beats wasting tons of money on rigged carnival games that are next to impossible to win, and when you do win they give you the smallest prize there is. Can't go wrong with carnival food either. Everything is fried, and its perfectly fine and socially acceptable for me to eat a corn dog there. Fair's are the only place that's allowed. mmmmm corn dogs....
• This one is just for laughs..
• And one last item, a big congratulations to my brother and his lovely girlfriend for the newest arrival to their little family(the one with the yellow border around the picture). Any suggestions on a name??? Throw out your suggestions and I'll post them in a poll on the blog...

Baba-Ganouj!!!

So its Sunday, and the end of the weekend, but what a good weekend it was. Sarah's parents came to visit, and the arrived around 3:30 Friday evening. I of course, got stuck at work late, and didn't make it home until 6. Luckily that was the time the lobsters and steamers were scheduled to be picked up. So we lit a fire, that didn't want to stay lit, lit the citronella candles/torches and settled outside to eat. The lobster, as always was fantastic. Before picking up the lobster, I stopped at the grocery store to get some beer. I tried a Wingwalker beer a week or two ago and loved it (honey wheat), so I decided to try to more kinds, lager and amber ale. The lager was fantastic (very similar to a Brooklyn lager, not too far off from Sam Adams), the amber ale wasn't as good, but my father in law might beg to differ. For those of you who like lobster, (not you Phil) we'll have to get it when you come up. The place we get it from will cook it for us, and its always soooooo good. I'm not a huge fan of lobster but they just taste better up here. The rest of Friday night was spent basically just hanging around and catching up.
Saturday we drove to Acadia/Bar Harbor. Sarah got the bright idea to walk around Jordan Pond. She told us it was only 2 miles, but it ended up being 3. Three miles isn't a whole lot, but it was really hot and humid out. Needless to say, Sarah is never in charge of planning a day again.

As you can see, part of the trail is boardwalk, and the other 2/3 or so is just normal dirt hiking trail.
The halfway point where we promised the in-laws that it would be shady from there on out. Not that we were lying, but it wasn't.
This is a view from the start of the trail around the pond. Its a beautiful place to hike, I just think we needed to be better prepared (and in better shape). If you're into the outdoorsy stuff, I highly recommend you come up to Acadia National Park, we can even go camping if you want.

After that, we went to Bar Harbor for lunch. Bar Harbor is a typical little New Englandy seaside town. Lots of shops and restaurants. We had a nice time walking around, etc, nothing all that exciting, but still fun.

After Bar Harbor we stopped over my uncles house so the in-laws could see the barn/horses they've heard so much about. We hung out and chatted for an hour or so and headed home for a nap (seperate naps of course). That night we hit the local Thai place for dinner. (good food as always, tried Singha, the Thai beer. Good stuff, basically a better quality Coors light I thought.) After we went to the American Folk Festival, which was in Bangor for the weekend. Maine is a state of around one million people, and over 200,000 come to this festival ever year. The music was good, the Tibetan monks "singing" was pretty interesting I guess. With all due respect to the monks, to my uncultured ear, it basically sounded like a burping contest. (the funny part was when they were giving a synopsis of the music before singing, the monk speaking said that the lamas were going to come out and sing now. My first thought of course was llamas, not lamas, and it provided a pretty funny visual.)

Sunday morning we went over my other uncles house for coffee, but it was basically so my in-laws could meet the rest of the family we talk so much about. Good time all around I'd say.

One of the perks of Sunday morning coffee was the presence of many yummy foods, one of which I'd never tried before.. baba ganouj . Fantastic stuff. I actually bought some more when I went grocery shopping this evening. Its good, but not as good as the home made stuff I had over my uncles house, so I'll need to get the recipe for it from them.

All in all, it was a a great weekend. We had our second official houseguests and we haven't heard one complaint yet. Two for two, not bad...

FRIDAY!!!!

Today was the kind of day that drives one to drink.. but now its Friday night, and I can drink, so it makes it all better..
Won't be posting much until Sunday night as the in-laws are visiting.. stay tuned for a full wrap up Sunday night though. Have a great weekend!

Is it the weekend yet??

What a day at work! Crazy doesn't even begin to describe it. Anyway, a nice cold beer always makes the bad day go away..
But if this doesn't make get you pumped up, then go back to Russia you commie pig! http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117970702.html?categoryid=14&cs=1
Simply one of my top 10 shows all time. When we were living in Newton with Sarah's parents, we only had basic basic basic cable, so I didn't have my normal 200 viewing options. Luckily however, we had ESPN Classic which showed the old American Gladiators every night. It made not having actual ESPN less painful. (thanks to Rob for providing the link)

Another Day

Not much going on today, although it is my mom's birthday, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! (I won't say how old for fear of retribution)
Usual day at work, followed by the gym and a nice dinner of tips on skewers with red peppers and onions, a baked potato and a Bud Lite (trying to clear out all the crappy beer before the father-in-law comes up. He's a beer aficionado of sorts and I don't want to embarrass myself by having bud light in the fridge). Good stuff all around. Just a quiet night of Mythbusters on tap for tonight.
Big day tomorrow as its my buildings anniversary party (they have one every year) We throw a big party for the residents with a band playing 50's music, a cookout, root beer floats, a hula hoop contest and other assorted games. Should be interesting that's for sure.
And apparently someone forgot to tell the Orioles that they had a game today. As my lovely wife put it, "holy crap, isn't there a slaughter rule!". Unfortunately for Baltimore, there is not..
http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=270822201
And you'll notice that former Red Sox Kason Gabbard got the win, and David Murphy went 5 for 7. But we have Eric Gagne and he's good too, well not really, unless of course you're the opposing team, then he's good for you.

Tuesday Random Thoughts...

• Great thing about Maine, that Massachusetts can't compete with - HAPPY HOUR! Yep, its alive and prevalent up here, unlike in my former puritanical state. Beer and appetizer specials every night. What a wonderful thing.
• Everyone remembers and loves the Ground Round right? Everyone remembers going as a kid, and participating in the "pay what you weigh" promotion, right? Well they still do that up here! How great is that? Although at my current weight, it might be cheaper to pay the regular menu prices...
• The Bangor Folk Festival is this weekend. http://www.americanfolkfestival.com/ So of course we'll go check it out. And for those of you who are interested, Diva's, the local strip club is waiving their cover charge for the weekend. Nice huh
• The in-laws are coming up this weekend. Should be fun. We're off to Bar Harbor for the day Saturday too. The funny thing is, well let me back up.. pretty much everything I've learned in life, I've learned by watching tv. Every bad sitcom out there tells us that we're not supposed to get along with our in-laws. I get along great with my in-laws and am looking forward to seeing them, and I'm pretty sure they feel the same way, so does this mean that tv lied to me? I don't know if I'm prepared to deal with that...if tv lied about that, what else did it lie to me about? Do kids in Beverly Hills really not lead that much of an entertaining life? Was Mr. Brady just talking out his ass when he solved all the kids problems in a cool 30 minutes? Did kids living in the 1970's suburban Wisconsin really not get involved in that many hijinks's and wacky escapades? Is Neil Patrick Harris really not a suit wearing womanizer? Do people really not have super powers? Next you're going to tell me that Jennifer Love Hewitt really can't talk to ghosts while wearing gravity defining shirts... I just don't know what to think anymore.
• Gonna try a new section to the blog. Reader Favorites I'm going to call it. Anyone has anything they'd like to recommend, whether it be a new beer, movie, book, store, whatever, shoot me an email and i'll post your suggestion, giving you full credit of course.
• And lastly.. a shout out to my boy Tom in the Wooo, what up...

The Way Life Should Be.

So today was your typical crazy Monday at work.. moving on..
After work, Sarah and I hit the gym, then decided to go to Target to buy some duraflame logs for our new outdoor fireplace. Fantastic idea, well maybe not so much for the other people in Target that were unfortunate enough to catch a whiff of me in all my post gym glory. So we came home, made dinner (boneless pork ribs in olive oil, salt, pepper and a touch of garlic cooked on the grill, macaroni with olive oil, apple sauce and a glass of Chardonnay) which was very tasty, and sat outside and ate by our new fire. The way life should be..

Or because its so dark out, here's what it looks like in light..
A good way to end a hectic Monday I'd say.

Now all you Maine Morrissey's, c'mon by and feel free to enjoy our new outdoor "patio", although it doesn't quite have the view of Uncle Dennis' porch or the solitude of Uncle Barney's yard, it'll definitely do for now.

Weekend Report..

Oh, where to start. Ok, if you scroll down, you can read my and Sarah's review of the movie we saw Friday night..
Now as for Saturday. Just basically hung around and cleaned all day for me, while Sarah started to build our new tv stand (it was her turn for a project and she really wanted to build it, so far it looks great). Brianna stopped by to chat in the afternoon, which was nice cuz it gave us someone else to talk to. That night, we had a friend of mine from work and her fiance over. We started out just hanging out at the house, and after an hour or two we moved on to the first bar of the night. Pat & Larry's, which is located in the Holiday Inn, was a lot of fun. Cozy little bar, all the free popcorn you could eat (self serve out of the popcorn maker in the corner, so it was always hot and fresh), good music and cheap beer. What else do you really need right? We left after an hour or so when a bachelor party started getting a little too friendly with my wife and friend.
After that we hit Barnaby's, which is in the Ramada across the street from the Holiday Inn, so it was easy to get to. Apparently all the hot night spots are in hotels up here. Figures, the 10-15 times Sarah and I came up in the past year to look at houses, and we stay in the Fairfield Marriott with no bar in it. Now Barnaby's is a club, Maine style. Three dollar cover (yep, only $3), and it kinda reminded me of The Harp. Its a meat market, plain and simple. Girls in clothes 7 sizes too small (not in a good way), guys trolling the dance floor for easy conquests and all the free popcorn you can eat, again (its starting to become a theme, which I don't mind, cuz who doesn't like free popcorn). We had a good time, although the music was really loud and techno-y which isn't my style, but once again, $3 beers, how can you go wrong. The line of the night came from my lovely, hilariously judgemental wife, who said at one point, "holy crap, check out the braces on Boobs McGee". Now I don't know about you, but when you nickname someone Boobs McGee, the first thing I'm looking at isn't her braces. Matter of fact, I never caught the braces, but apparently they were little kid style with the rubber bands and huge fronts on them, so they were very noticeable, especially on someone in their 20's. Since it was in the Ramada, it kinda felt like we were at a bad wedding ya know, the function hall feel, with people doing inappropriate things on the dance floor. Although I did get spoken to by the "bouncer" for taking my beer into the bathroom. You see, the bathroom isn't in the club, its in the hotel, so you have to leave the bar to go to the bathroom...interesting huh.
Interesting night to say the least, and if you ever come up to visit and you're looking for a night to base a sitcom episode around, we'll go to Barnaby's.
Sunday was spent hanging out, nothing too exciting really, although we did go to home depot and for some wood screws and ended up buying tons of flowers, planters and an outdoor fireplace, which is pretty cool.

My Latest Project & My Movie review

When we moved out of my parents' house, my mom presented us with my grandmother's old couch. This very useful, hardly used pullout couch was not exactly the height of fashion as you can see... But it is fully functional, and provides a reasonably comfortable sleeping location.

I had said that I would recover the couch in hopes of making it prettier... But since I have never recovered anything, and really have played with a sewing matchine in years, I didn't want to spend much money to do it. So I started thinking, "Well, I'll check TJ Maxx for some pretty sheets." No luck, but I did find a bunch of very large table cloths on clearance, along with 4 pillows that match really well- also on clearance. I now present the $100 couch:

It's not perfect, but it's an improvement, and the bed can still be pulled out very easily. Yeah me!

Movie Review:

I liked Stardust much more then Jay did, but I sort of knew that going in. I was hoping it was going to be more "Hocus Pocus"-like, a little goofy witch movie. But it wasn't, I still liked it though. There was something that was just a little off about the movie, like I missed part of the story or something. Michelle Pfeiffer was a pretty good evil witch, and I think the second best source of comedy in the movie. Robert De Niro definitely took the cake for that- an unexpected role for him, with some serious overacting, obviously intentional, but highly amusing. I would watch it again if it were on TV on a rainy Saturday afternoon.

While Jay found the two people behind us entertaining, I wouldn't have called them Statler & Waldorf since they were very invested in the movie and jumped and shrieked when the littlest thing happened.

Friday Night Movies

So Sarah and I have decided to make Friday night movie night. So tonight she got to pick (which means next week I get to pick. Superbad here we come) and she picked the movie Stardust. (more like Stardon't..oooooh) Anyway, I'm assuming you can tell that I didn't really care for it. I didn't hate it, it just wasn't remotely entertaining. Think of it as a cross between Harry Potter, Shrek and the Adventures of Baron Munchausen, but not nearlyas good as Munchausen. The only two redeeming qualities of the movie were the overacting of Robert DeNiro and the female versions of Statler and Waldorf sitting behind us. They had a comment for every single part of the movie. It was easy to hear them seeing that we were two of eleven people in the theater, and that's not an exaggeration, I actually counted.
The weirdest thing was that every half hour or so two ushers would walk down the isle (one on each side of the theater) to the first row, turn around, and walk back up the isle and out of the theater. They didn't appear to be looking for anything in particular, just out for a stroll..

Random thoughts...

• So I saw a guy on a motorcycle today (motorcycles are EVERYWHERE up here) and he had on those protective glasses you'd wear if you were using some sort of power tool, but no helmet. So apparently he was worried about his eyes, but not his brain, go figure.
• Been watching a lot of the DIY and DiscoveryHome channels lately. And yes, I do watch This Old House every night at 7 & 7:30. I think I might be addicted to home improvement shows.
• Also been watching a lot of Fox Soccer Channel. Its pretty easy to watch whatever game happens to be on at that time, and its always fun listening to British people talk.
• We had a visitor in our yard today;

A wild cat I believe (or as you cat people would say, feral). I'm just guessing that he was feral because he was umm very bold... some might say very ballsy...if you catch my drift. Sarah doesn't think he's feral though, she just thinks he was sad and was looking for a friend. Calling crazy cat lady, your housecoat and rolled up newspaper are waiting for you beside the giant ball of yarn.
And of course a foreign cat in the yard means one of our cats spent a good hour starring out the window at him.
Thats all for now. Be sure to read more later when I'll have pictures of Sarah's most recent project. You will all be thoroughly impressed...

Spooky Stuff..

So earlier today, I'm sitting in my office working away. I have a radio on my desk, because I like to listen to music while working. Helps time go by. Anyway, all of a sudden the station cuts out and stops playing music and starts broadcasting some NPR type discussion. Figuring its just something weird, I turn the station, and its playing the same thing. Odd. So I turn off the radio, turn it back on, no change. I unplug it, wait a minute, and replug it in. No change, still playing that discussion. So I scroll thru the dial (digital radio) and stop on random stations and EVERY SINGLE STATION is playing this. I called into my assistant and another person in the office and they came in and verified that I was indeed sane and all the stations were playing the same thing.
An hour or so later, one of the girls in the office approaches another woman I work with, and asks her if she just tried to contact her over the walkie talkie. Nope, she didn't. Well the walkie talkie said her name, in a woman's voice, and there are no other women in the office.
I think we're being haunted...
There was a murder in the building 40 or so years ago, that was never solved...
http://bangorinfo.com/Focus/focus_bangor_house.html

Mmmmm.. Domino's

So apparently their plan worked. After receiving a call from them yesterday, asking why I hadn't ordered in a while, Sarah and I ordered Domino's tonight. The usual, her half pineapple, my half bacon, and of course its accompanied by garlic bread sticks.
So, we've decided that we're not going to be going back to Boston for Labor Day. You know what that means?!?! Anyone who wants to visit can come up then!
Also tried a new beer tonight: WingWalker Summer Honey Wheat. Fantastic stuff. I highly highly highly recommend it. Goes down smooth, light on the hops (I usually prefer less hoppy beers) with no bitter aftertaste.
Big night of tv ahead of us, that's why I'm writing so early. The Power of Ten (Drew Carey is a great host, and the show is fun to watch) followed by a new episode of Mythbusters. Pretty close to the perfect weekday summer night for me.

Is it Friday yet?

Yet another crazy busy day at work, but its never boring, and that's what counts..

So I got an odd call today. Domino's Pizza called me, yes, they called me. Apparently I ordered from them rather frequently, and I haven't in a while, so they were just calling to make sure I was doing ok, offer me some special offer on pizza. How sad is that? Domino's has called me to say they missed me, more than my own brothers have hahaha.

So Sarah and I joined the Y yesterday, and went for the first time today. We were there about 35 minutes. 25 minutes on the elliptical and 10 on the treadmill for me. Its time to lose the gut and get back into shape. Plus, it gives me something to do. I work 8-5, get home at 5:03 then sit around the rest of the night. Going to the Y will get me to at least 6-630 now (between travel time, getting changed, etc) It was interesting though, usually at the gym there's a bunch of too buff guys on the free weights, a bunch of girls on the treadmills/elliptical/bikes, and some normal guys/girls using the nautilus machines. This gym was full of guys with bellies using the weights and maybe 10 other people scattered about. And unlike most gyms with multiple tv's, this one has one tv (60 inch flat screen) on a shelf on the wall about 10 feet off the floor. So whatever's on, you're watching! I use my ipod, so whatever..with the work out mix rockin' away...(prepare to laugh)
You can do it - Ice Cube
Eat the rich - Aerosmith
Rollin' - Big and Rich
Livin' on a prayer - Bon Jovi
Pour some sugar on me - Def Leppard
Give a little bit - The Goo Goo Dolls
Who says you cant go home - Bon Jovi
Paradise City - Guns and Roses
Breathless - The Corrs
I play chicken with the train - Cobwoy Troy
Lot of leavin left to do -Dierks Bently
Welcome to the Jungle - Guns and Roses
The Power of love - Huey Lewis
Living in Fast forward - Kenny Chesney
Top of the world - Van Halen
As good as i once was - Toby Keith
I go back - Kenny Chesney
Eye of the tiger - Survivor..
any other suggestions for me to add????

Just another manic Monday..

So a lot happened today at work. Really a crazy busy, draining day, but its work and I really don't want to blog about it.
Sarah and I did, however, join the Y today. $60 a month for both of us, not each of us, both of us. And that includes all the classes we want to take, racquetball, pool use, everything. I love Maine haha. While we were there, I asked the girl signing us up when the most busy times were, and she said it was then. There were like 12 people in the place, tons of machines/weights not being used, so we'll never really have to wait to use something which is nice.
I also was trying to figure out how to put up a calender on the site, so people can "book" when they want to come visit. Can't figure out how to do it though, so that's not going to happen. (if anyone knows, feel free to email me with suggestions)
That's all for today.. latah...

Anyone up for some deer jacking?

So I'll get to the deer jacking in a minute. (minds out of the gutter everyone) So Friday we went to the Sea Dog brewery for drinks and dinner with a friend from work, her fiance and 2 of their friends. We had a great great time, good food, good beer, and everyone was really cool (first time meeting 3 out of the four).
Saturday was a very productive and fun day. Sarah and I spent a lot of the morning/afternoon doing more yard work. The first picture is what the yard/overgrowth looked like before, followed by after, followed by our new compost pile. Good times..



That night, my Uncle Timmy and Aunt Erin came up. (my dad's brother and sister). Now you have to understand, where ever my Uncle Timmy goes, hijinks's are sure to follow. Typing the stories out really don't do them justice. So we had a fantastic dinner of the best lobster you'll ever eat (caught Friday) with muscles for an appetiser (dug up earlier that day) Soooo good. Followed by the usual evening activities of sitting around on my uncle's front porch, having the occasional adult beverage, telling stories and laughing hysterically. (apparently we were laughing/talking so loud that my uncles neighbor, which is a good 400 yards away, could hear us) So at some point in the night, we kept seeing these flashes of light over at the tree line. My Uncle Barney's guess of aliens thankfully proved to be wrong. It was people in the woods "deer jacking". Now let me explain deer jacking. Its an illegal way of hunting deer. You drive into the woods at night, when you see the deer you turn on your headlights/flash a strong light at them. The deer then freeze, and you shoot them. Basically it takes the entire sport out of hunting. Thankfully, the people out there weren't shooting the deer, they were just flashing the lights so the deer would freeze and the kids could see them.
So someone gets the bright idea to all pile in the gator (http://www.deere.com/en_US/ProductCatalog/GT/servlet/com.deere.u90785.cce.productcatalog.view.servlets.ProdCatProduct?pNbr=1970W&tM=GT) and head over to find out whats going on. It started out just me and David, with David driving (he's 11 going on 30) and Breezy and Sarah in the back. More people wanted to come, so we hitched up the trailer, which had hay in it (and is used to transfer heavy items, like hay, food, ummm fresh fertilizer and what not around the barn. We didn't tell Timmy and Erin that) and Uncle Tim, Aunt Erin and Aunt Sheila hopped in.
So David took us over to the neighbors house where they had a HUGE bonfire going. We stopped, said hi, said we were going to go look for deer. Four more people hopped in the gator, and we proceeded to head to the clearing in the woods to go look for deer. Well long story short, it was one of the funniest trips ever (you really had to be there) and we only saw one deer, maybe 200 yards away.
Sunday, I finally got the dishwasher installed, after many trips to home depot for the right connector pieces etc. So we now have a fully functional kitchen! Erin and Timmy came by and looked at the house, and like everyone else who sees it for the first time, were amazed. Everyone thinks we bought a little fixer-upper. That's only partly true. We bought a big fixer-upper haha.
So far so great though. Maine has been wonderful to us, and we're really loving it. Then again, its only been 3 weeks in the summer, we'll see if our opinion changes this winter.

Good News

So the washer and dryer we bought, arrived Wednesday morning, and after a couple of trips to Home Depot for new valves etc, they're up and running! Next year, when we redo the kitchen and half bath, we'll stack them to save space, but we can't do that right now. (we'll have to move the toilet, lots of work) Next, I get to connect the new dishwasher.. let the good times roll...
As you can see, our 2nd bath (1/2 bath) is pretty small. Next year when we redo it, we're going to stack the washer and dryer where the toilet is, push it into the corner and put the toilet and sink where the washer and dryer currently are. We can't stack them where they are now because the back stairs are above them and there's not enough room, but there's plenty of room above the toilet.
So the washer and dryer we bought, arrived Wednesday morning, and after a couple of trips to Home Depot for new valves etc, they're up and running! Next year, when we redo the kitchen and half bath, we'll stack them to save space, but we can't do that right now. (we'll have to move the toilet, lots of work)
Next, I get to connect the new dishwasher.. let the good times roll...

So I've come to notice, that every day at 11am a man playing the bag pipes walks right by my office window. Apparently he does this every single day, and has been for years. He starts downtown(1/2 mile away) and goes right down Main St and over the bridge into Brewer.. weird huh. I though I left all the crazies back in Boston.

Some Random Thoughts...

So far I'd say Sarah and I are settling in pretty quickly. The house is coming along nicely and we're both adapting to our new work environments, but the best part is the people that come up to visit. My relatives that live up here now (Uncles Barney, Michael and Dennis, Aunt Sheila and cousins David and Brianna) are all fantastic and have been incredibly welcoming to Sarah and I. We really couldn't ask for anything more (unless of course they want to keep sending David over to peel wallpaper and mow my lawn), but beyond that there seems to be a constant flow of relatives that are up here. Two weekends ago it was my parents, last weekend it was Aunt DeeDee, Uncle Steve and family and this coming weekend it'll be Aunt Erin, Uncle Bobby (maybe) Uncle Timmy (perhaps the best story teller alive) and Uncle Brian. This is fantastic. We're loving this cuz we basically just sit around and listen to all these old Morrissey growing up stories, of which there are easily five million, with each one more hilarious than the previous. Now I know that once it starts to get cold, we won't have another visitor until spring, so we're just going to enjoy it while we can! Plus, with all these people coming up, it motivates Sarah and I to keep the house clean for when they come see the place. Speaking of which, the new washer, dryer and dishwasher showed up today, so I should really go hook them up now...ttfn

Edgamacational tv..

So have you ever seen that show Mythbusters on the Discovery Channel. It’s basically these two guys who take myths and legends and test them to see whether or not they’re true. Fantastic show, always entertaining.
Well on tonight’s episode, they tackled four baseball myths. (http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-schedules/series.html?paid=1.13056.24704.3913.x)
The first was whether or not balls stored in a humidor (like the Rockies do) will influence the distance a ball is hit. Amazingly enough, their data showed that balls not stored in a humidor (like every other stadium besides Colorado does) went 14% further than balls stored in one. (that means a ball hit 425 feet at Fenway would only travel 365 in Colorado) Cool stuff.
The second myth was the corked bat. Their experiments showed that using a cork bat actually decreases the distance the ball will travel. The cork will actually absorb the impact of the ball to the bat, minimizing the distance it will travel. And to think for all these years, guys have been corking their bats thinking that the ball will go further.(for myths one and two, they took out the human element by using an air cannon and a bat rigged to swing on command)
The third myth is that pitches aren’t actually moving, that they’re optical illusions. Now anyone that’s ever seen a curveball in person, will tell you that its definitely moving. And their data showed that all the pitches were in fact moving or not moving (fastball, slider and curveball, with special guest star Roger Clemens) They also proved, with the help of NASA scienticians, that its physically impossible to throw a fastball that rises.. go figure.
And finally, they proved that sliding into a base is faster than running to the base and trying to stop on it (as opposed to running thru the base, like first base)Interesting stuff all around. Science is fun!

756

So Barry Bonds finally hit 756 last night. Doesn't really bother me that he broke the record. Sure, we all assume that he was/is all juiced up, but so were/are a great percentage of other players, including pitchers. In 20 years, people are just going to look back on this era of baseball as the steriod era, and they're going to take all the records with a grain of salt. Its not like we're going to forget Hank Aaron (who, in my opinion, is still a better ballplayer than Bonds). Aaron and Ruth both hit their homeruns when hitting more than 25 in a season was considered huge. Bonds plays at a time where hitting 40 is no big deal anymore. The game has changed, chicks dig the long ball as they say. So congrats to Bonds, I guess, enjoy while you can (until ARod overtakes him in 5 years)

Its Fun Being the Boss..

So I had an interesting day to say the least. First there was a "fire" last night in the building. Fire trucks, police, the whole nine yards showed up at like 630 last night. Turns out a resident fell asleep on the couch while something was cooking, up goes the smoke/steam, off goes the alarm, in come the firemen.
Today, another alarm goes off. The alarm in my office just tells me which floor its on, not the specific unit, which is annoying. So I hop on my trusty walkie-talkie and radio the maintenance guys to meet me on the 3rd floor so we can figure out whats going on. After 2-3 minutes of searching for the correct unit, it turned out to be a resident whoaccidently pulled her emergency chain (ya know, the ones that hang from the wall, so they can be reached if the resident falls or something) whiles she was getting into the shower. So there I go into the apt of an 80 year old woman, looking for the source of the alarm while she's in the shower. Made for some VERY awkward moments.
Then I had a blue haired bully yell at one of my staff, to the point where she was thinking of quitting, so I had to talk her out of that. Then I got to go be the boss and defend my staff to this lady. I put that old fogey right in her place, I'll tell you that much! Being the boss is fun :)

Finally, just a rundown of the new beers I've tried since moving..
1. Gritty's Summer Ale - bought it in one of those mini kegs. good stuff all around, once I figured out how to use the keg. Nothing spectacular though.
2. Sea Dog IPA - Very tasty. The brewery is right down the street and we'll be going there this wknd to sample more.
3. Casco Bay Summer - My second favorite so far. Light, but not too light. Comparable to Harpoon UFO. They're RipTide Red is also very very good.
4. Weyerbacher Extra Hoppy - EXCELLENT. I've never heard of this beer, and I'm usually not a fan of the extra hoppy beers, but out of the tap it was perfect. And its at the same bar that has the Dogfish Head on tap. Good times.
Obviously, there's not much to do in Maine except drink, which isn't such a bad thing.

Just another Monday

So not much happened today. Or at least nothing of any interest. So I figure I'll throw a plug out there for my friend Eileen's blog. http://divinecomedyoferrors.blogspot.com/ Great stuff, its what I aspire my blog to be someday. Although I'm married and living in the middle of nowhere, and she's single and living in Southie, so her life is FAAAR more interesting than mine...so I guess my blog will really never be as interesting as hers.. ooh well

Although something amusing did happen at work today. Just the usual morning, nothing out of the ordinary really. Then after lunch, I'm talking with my coworker Kelli and I notice something different about her. So I say to her, "Did you change your clothes at lunch" and without missing a beat, she says, "Yep, the dress I had on made me look fat". Now, those of you who really know me, know I can have my ummm less than manly moments I guess you'd say, but never once have I put on clothes, go to work, decide that I don't look good, and go home and change. It's times like this that I'm glad I'm a guy... All the self esteem in the world and none of the self conscienceness.

Weekend Report

Another wonderful weekend in Maine. Friday night, we saw The Simpsons, or at least the first 20 minutes before a thunderstorm caused the theater to lose power.
Saturday a day working in the yard, buying patio furniture and hitting the local art festival. (I now know why starving artists are starving. They price they're stuff so high no one can afford it, so they don't make any money and can't eat. ) The art was really nice, but really expensive. We also hit our first local restaurant/bar. Very nice place, only a mile down the street. 15 beers on tap (including Dogfish Head) and another 50 or so in bottles. Great food, great prices, can't go wrong.
Sunday my Aunt DeeDee and Uncle Steve, their daughter Jessica, her husband David and their niece and nephew came up for the day. (they're staying in their cottage an hour south of here, like they do every year) Good time had by all. Michael and Barney cooked their usual delicious spread, and all of us along with Uncle Dennis, Aunt Shelia, Brianna and David hung out.
As usual, when more than 2 Morrissey's get together, the stories from them growing up flow out. These stories never fail to make you cry cuz you're laughing so hard. Somewhere, there's a great book that needs to be written on them...
Afterwards, DeeDee, Steve et. al. came by to see our house, and of coursed ooh and ahhed over it. What can I say, Sarah and I have great taste.
All in all, a great weekend... back to work tomorrow...unfortunately

NOT a good way to wake up...

At about 7:30 this morning I had finally had enough of Minnie playing with her toy in our room, so I threw a pillow at her. She just looked at me, then kept playing with her mousie (small furry toy mice that she loves). So I got up to throw the mousie down the stairs, so she would play down there. Now, since I didn't bother to put my glasses on to walk the 4 feet over to her, I didn't realize until I reached a hand out to grab mousie, that it was in fact a REAL mouse... dead... on the floor of my room.
So, I shrieked, ran back to bed and leaped in, which woke Jay... Since he is the boy and he was awake, it was now his job to remove the dead mouse. Minnie was not partial to this idea, so this task also invovled chasing her down the stairs and trying to grab it (without actually touching it!) before she picked it up again and took off.
Mouse found proper burial in the back yard bushes.

Big Storm

So we had a HUGE thunder storm tonight. The storm started just as Sarah and I left for the movies at 635 or so. About 15 minutes into the movie (which started at 705, the Simpsons movie) the power went out. Completely pitch black. The emergency lights turned on for a bit, then shut off. An user came in with a flashlight, asked everyone to leave the theater, then left us in the dark. Everyone just used the glow from their cell phones to find their way out. Needless to say, the first 15 of the movie were fantastic, but we didn't get to finish it. So we got our money back and left. Of course I did what any other Mainer would then do.. sit on the front porch, have a couple of beers and watch the lightning. Good times.
The storm just ended (its like 11:05 now) with downpours and tons of lightning. Easily the most lightning I've ever seen in a storm.
On a somewhat related note, Sea Dog IPA is really really good...

Weekend Plans

So its Friday, finally. Nothing much on tap, lots of outside work to do, maybe some painting, go see a movie and hit up a local restaurant or two. We really need to paint the bathroom soon though, as the previous owners used a super glossy paint. So when you look at it, you ask yourself is it plastic or just shiny wood (insert joke here). Here are a couple more pictures..

This is the upstairs bathroom. Its the room with the shinny paint. Who doesn't love a blue toilet though! Soon, there will a 100% renovation to it. Everything but the tub is going, and we're adding lots of tile and paint.
And here's the guest room. Not much too it right now, just a bed, dresser, tv and bookcase. Eventually, someday, when somebody who isn't my parents (who have been up once and already have a 2nd visit scheduled) or Sarah's parents (coming up later in August) comes up to visit, this is one of the rooms you can stay in.

These pics are from the soon to be dining room, once we buy a table and chairs that is.. Sarah picked the color and it looks great in person. But the best part is the tin ceiling. Obviously now, its just being used as room to put everything that doesn't have a place yet..

These pictures are from the office (not to be confused with Sarah's work office) or as we like to call it, the Library. Obviously, the blue tape still needs to be removed. There was wood painted a dark brown under the trim/windows so we painted it white. 5 coats later (including 2 primer coats) and you can still kinda see the brown.

Here's my bookcase I built. Trust me, it looks a lot better in person. Man, if I had a dime for every time I've had to say that.. I mean nuthin.. I built the shelves and desk myself. The shelves are 6.5 feet high by about 6 feet across. The desk is just about 4 feet long. For my first time ever building something, I'd say its pretty impressive.

Fireplace in the Library. Its got some umm interesting tile work on it, so we figured we'd keep it as we probably couldn't do anything better.

And remember, if you do decide to come visit us at the Morrissey House, we offer free wi-fi, turn down service, complementary continental breakfast and access to historic Bangor, Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor.

The Simple Things

So as you all know, I have a new job. Its a good job, everyday is different, keeps you on your toes. But my favorite part? The fact that I get my own walkie talkie. I know I know, I'm not 10 years old, but who doesn't love walkie talkies?!?!?

Working from home might cause heart attack

I finally have something interesting to blog- which was really why I hadn't said anything before now- nothing interesting happens when you work from home....

So I'm sitting in my office actually doing work- it's been a busy morning- and I hear a noise from the front of the house (my office is all the way in the back) sounds almost like knocking, but only one knock... so I figure it's a cat and wander into our bedroom, where both cats are sound asleep. Then I hear the noise again from downstairs. I sneak down the stairs, and would have sworn the noise came from the front porch, but nobody is there. Then as I watch the front door, the doorbell rings! so I walk towards the back door, picking up a screwdriver on the way, you know just in case.

Look out the back door-nobody there. I also have all the shades closed in the house because it's so warm and sunny out, so if someone was hiding I wouldn't see them. Back I go to the front door and finally open it... nobody. Then I get the nerve to open the back door and a piece of paper falls to the porch scaring the hell out of me. Someone has left a note tucked in the back door offering to buy the papazan chair that is on the front porch...

So Mainers apparently think it's normal to check out furniture on the front porch of someone's house then offer to buy it. Must be what happens when there aren't enough stores around.

Pictures!

so here are a couple pictures of the house..







Obviously, the yard needs to be worked on. That'll be my project this weekend..





Here's the new car. You've all seen the Rav4 before...

I'll have more pictures of interior rooms tomorrow..

And before I forget, a big HAPPY 31st BIRTHDAY to one Michael Regan.. you're old dude.. careful climbing those steps, you don't want to break a hip.