The Weekend

Great weekend all around, so lets start with Friday. Didn't do much that afternoon after work. Cleaned the house, hung out, played some xbox, boring stuff really. That night, around 9ish, Eileen and Ern arrived! (not a typo btw, she goes by Ern, there's a story there, but I don't feel like typing it out) Our very first friend visitors!! Anyway, after we gave them the grand tour of the house, we headed out to the Sea Dog restaurant/brewery for a late dinner (thankfully the kitchen is open until 11.) We have buffalo calamari for an appetizer, which I'd never had before, and it was actually pretty good. I love buffalo sauce (the hotter the better) and I like calamari, so why wouldn't I like them together right? After dinner, some great conversation and a couple of beers (tried the Old East IPA. went down really smooth. I highly recommend all their beers, as I've never had a bad one from there)and headed back to our house for some tv watching and a couple more beers.
Saturday, we were all up early (by early I mean 830) and eventually showered and headed to breakfast. (mental note, don't take the 4th shower in the morning. there's not enough hot water to go around) Ern commented on how she hadn't slept that well in forever because its so quiet up here and they closed the shutters in the guest room which blocked out all the light and noise. Glad we could accommodate you guys :) Anyway, we headed to Nicky's Diner for some breakfast. Not the most amazing food I've ever had, but definitely very good, and its a cool place to go cuz of all the memorabilia on the walls etc.
Here's where the tour of Bangor begins. So we left there, and headed over to my uncles house to see the horses. Of course Eileen (who I introduced to my cousin as Elaine for some reason. I don't even know anyone named Elaine, sorry about that) brought her camera and took lots of pics, but I of course didn't have my camera, so no pics were taken by me. After hanging out there for a bit it was off to see Paul Bunyan. Yep, a 31 foot high statue of Paul Bunyan just outside downtown. Here he is..

There was an antiwar rally about to start, but thankfully we avoided all the crazies there, snapped a couple of pictures and headed to our next stop, Steven King's house. We drove by, turned around, stopped in front of his mammoth house, snapped a couple of pics and headed on our way. There was actually a car in front of us doing the same exact thing, so we didn't look all that staulkery or anything.

At the conclusion of our tour, Ern had to leave for a wedding, so Sarah, Eileen and I headed out to grab a sandwich and take a walk down the waterfront. Upon arriving back home, we watched the rest of the Notre Dame game and Eileen left for home, sad (she's an ND alumna and they stink).

That night my two cousins came over and we watched Mission Impossible 3. Euh, wasn't all that great, so next time the cousins can pick the movie. We bought tons of food, popcorn (which David ate nearly the entire package of. It amazes me how much food a 12 year old can consume), Doritos's and various candies, but we ate hardly any of it, which means we have all this crap sitting around the house now. Which means I'll eat it. Not good.

Sunday was spent being lazy, doing homework (Sarah), watching football (me), and generally just hanging out. We did go to my cousins football game, which is always fun, then for a walk around the neighborhood. We also found out that the old textile mill down the street, has been purchased and rezoned for condos, which is fantastic. It looks like crap now, but hopefully they'll do a great job redoing it, and it'll send our property value up!

We finally got around to watching The Reaper. Its a new show on the WB on Tuesday nights I think. Well written, funny, good cast, so we gave the season pass on the tivo. If you don't watch anything else Tuesday's, I'd give this show a shot. And as a bonus, Spanish from Old School has a costaring roll which is pretty sweet for him.

Not much else to report on. Sorry I'm not more interesting. Next week I get to help my uncle spread manure, so that should lead to an interesting story or two...

Slow Day.

Slow day all around...

• Is it weird that before we cook the DiGiorno pizza, I rearrange all the peperoni into a symmetrical pattern? It makes it so much easier to cut after its cooked. You don't have to worry about cutting thru a peperoni, which then pulls the cheese off the pizza, and no one likes to see that.
• We have two DVR's (digital video recorders, for the technologically backward) and they're the most fantastic thing ever. Everyone should have one. Wanna make a snack that takes longer than the commercial break to prepare, pause your show. Missed what someone said because a fleet of Harley's roared down the street, rewind. Wanna watch one show while recording another, just hit one button and its done. For a tv-aholic like me, it really doesn't get any better. Unless you're like my friend Fil, who uses his 80's dvr all the time, but has to keep buying blank tapes for it.
• Finally got around to watching Chuck (it originally aired Monday night at 8) Fun show. I recommend it to those of you with a DVR, because its on opposite How I Met Your Mother, which is a great show itself. The main character, Chuck, was like a cross between J.D. from Scrubs and Jim from the Office. Above average writing, good action scenes, and most importantly it doesn't take itself too seriously which is key.
• Watched the season premiers of My Name Is Earl and The Office tonight. Earl could have been better. It almost felt like they took a half hour script and stretched it into an hour, but it was still quality tv. The Office was hysterical as always. I really can't say enough good things about the show. And its like a "how not to be a boss" seminar for me every week. Whatever Michael Scott does, do the opposite. For example, when arriving at work in the morning, don't hit one of your employees with your car.
• Big day tomorrow. Our first non family visitors are arriving. You have no idea how excited I am. We're very proud of our house and can't wait for everyone to see it. Plus, we miss our friends back in Boston and its always great getting to hang out, even if its just for a night or two.
• Lastly, I'm reading a book called "Who Stole the Funny". Its a fictitious behind the scenes story of a tv show called "My Urban Buddies", with a cast of 3 men and 3 woman...sound familiar? It basically takes place over a one week time period (the time it takes to shoot one episode). There's all the stereotypical Hollywood types, the sketchy agent, the self centered cast, the coked out husband and wife team that are writers/producers/creators and the main character, the sane director. Funny book, I'd recommend if you're looking for a easy, fun read. Although buying this book presented a larger issue. When I built my bookcases, all my books fit, but that's it. So now I need to decide where to put another bookcase...

Are we there yet?

So good day today at work. I've reached that point where when I finally figure out how to do something new, I get that feeling you get when you're 5 years old and you tie your shoe for the first time. The toughest part though, is figuring out how to be a boss. I've never really been one before, and now I have 6 people under me, with no boss over me in the office. Which means I get to make each and every decision. Luckily, my staff is fantastic. Trying to find that boss/friend line is probably the hardest though. I don't have it in me to rule with an iron fist, but I don't want to come across too soft either. I guess the atmosphere that I've tried to create here is that I'm a friend first and a boss second, and probably an entertainer third.
Seriously though, its tough determining what to do myself and what to delegate, but I'm slowly figuring it out I guess. The most difficult part is coming into this job and receiving basically zero training. I'm a relatively smart guy, I can figure most things out on my own, but there are so many different databases and policies to learn in such a small amount of time, that it can be excruciatingly frustrating (just ask Sarah, I'm sure she's sick of listening to me vent). I do however, really enjoy the position and think I'm doing a darn good job too. They're sending me to Pittsburgh for the day next week for some more training. Yippee, Pittsburgh. Its only one night and a day of training before flying home, so it shouldn't be too bad.
Anyway, so I've been watching that Ken Burns documentary, The War on PBS. Really excellent stuff if you're a history buff like I am. No reenactments, all home movies/pictures etc solicited from people from around the country. Really engaging tv. I think things like this should be required viewing. People need to be reminded about the past, and thankful for the sacrifices others have made before us. I guess I think about this more than most people because I work in a building full of people who fought, or lived thru this. They're called the greatest generation, and after watching The War, you really understand why.
Wow, since when did I become so serious in my blog. Time to lighten up a little euh.
No real tv on so far tonight. Watched some of The Bionic Woman. Its entertaining, but it doesn't have me glued to the tv yet. The show on later tonight, Life, looks pretty good though. Tomorrow is the season premier of My Name is Earl and The Office. Looking forward to both of those.
And finally, only 2 more days until the arrival of our first non family guests! Can't wait!!! We'll have to do something to commemorate the occasion, but I just don't know what yet... suggestions????

Tuesday, I think.

For some reason I thought it was Wednesday all day and its only Tuesday. I hate when that happens. As you can tell, I'm a big fan of bullets, both to make individual points, and to shoot.

• For those of you interested in my post a while back about the Paul Shirley book I read, (he is the guy who's played for like 8 professional basketball teams in the past 5 years) his column is back on espn.com. Good stuff. There's a link on the side of the page to go back and read his older writings too.
• There are two great video's here. (scroll to the bottom) One is the Kansas City Chief's mascot helping security stop someone who ran onto the field, and the other is a ipod commercial parody. Funny all around.
• Tried a new beer tonight. Gritty's Halloween Ale. Tasted like a Sam Adam's Octoberfest, junior. Obviously not as good as a Sam's, but pretty darn tasty in its own right. Had the same flavor as an Octoberfest, but not as strong I guess I would say. While I was at the liquor store, I almost bought some mead too. They had it right on the counter next to the cash register, very tempting. Mead(basically a honey wine) has been around forever, and by forever I mean you could have settled up to the bar, thrown back a couple of pints with Socrates and discussed life. I've never had it, so I might have to buy some soon.
• Nice job by the Bruins trying to bring back some of the old magic. They hired Cam Neeley as a VP today.
• We renamed the kitten. Anny just wasn't working for us anymore, mostly because she stopped sounding like Darth Vader. Her new name is Lucy, as in lucy-fer, the devil, evil in kitten form.
• Watch two shows tonight. Both favorites from years past. Bones is a good show, usually some good twists and the misses loves David Boreanaz. And of course House. Always entertaining. Although this year they started using a hand held camera for some scenes and that just didn't work for me. No need for it, almost superfluous. We also tivo'd The Reaper, which is supposed to be another good show (tonight was the pilot), we'll watch it tomorrow and report back later.
• And finally, I can't encourage you enough to go here and send the link around. Hilarious, in my humble opinion. Plus, everyone could use a good pep talk from time to time, right?

Mea culpa.. actually it wasn't...

So let's see now.. where to begin??? Don't be upset with me, I have a very good reason for not posting yesterday. Our internet was down. Gotta love Time Warner Cable.
Anyway, on to the wknd. Great wknd I must say. Down in Boston, didn't do much Saturday night. Had the yummiest ribs ever for dinner with the misses and the mother in law. I don't know what makes them so good, but every time she makes ribs, they're soooo good. After dinner, we went to the mall, again. Didn't buy anything this time though. Or at least I didn't. Sarah went to Sephora (which is kinda like her Mecca) and picked up a couple of items.
Sunday, Sarah went to another baby shower, while I went to Friday's with some of the boys. At first we went to Chili's but they're tv placement was a joke, so we went to Friday's where it was much better. Red Sox and Patriots side by side. Although someday when I own my restaurant, I'm going to make sure to invest in some nice bigger tv's for the bar. Nothing smaller than 42 inches, so everyone can see them clearly. Three Sam Adams Octoberfest later, we left. Sarah showed up around 4, and three and a half hours later we were back home in Maine.
Ok, now that you're all caught up, a few thoughts..

• I went to get bagels for breakfast Sunday morning at the Brueggers in Newton. They have maybe 13 different kinds of bagels there, but were out of 6 or 7 of them. The couple of Newton ladies ahead of me in line acted as though it was some personal attack on them, "What do you mean you have no plain bagels? How can you be out?". I honestly thought one of the ladies was going to flip out on the poor 15 years old behind the counter. I of course just ordered two sesame bagels and went on my way.
• So Friday's is running this promotion where you get an appetizer, meal, and desert for $12.99...not a bad deal right. What's the name of this deal, according to the inside of the menu... Menage a Trois. Ummm, hello marketing, anyone awake there? How did no one catch this? A nice family restaurant like Friday's wouldn't be ballsy enough to name their promotion that on purpose, would they?
• We have an insane cat. She must have woke me up 7-8 times last night. Any piece of skin outside the blanket was fair game. My ears were bitten, my neck scratched and my eyes clawed at. Luckily, its a little known fact that kittens are made of rubber. So when you throw them across the room, they just bounce off the floor, however, they just keep coming back like this is the most funnest game in the whole wide world. Its not.
• And I have fantastic news! We have our first visitor officially scheduled!!! Eileen and Erin are coming up Friday night, spending the night, hanging out Saturday, then heading back for a wedding and a baby shower that that evening. (two separate events, not some sort of twofer at the local VFW) We haven't seen either of them in a couple of months, so we're very excited to hang out. Who knows, maybe a night out in the big city of Bangor is on tap.
• Tv review time. Its Monday, and all the season's new shows are starting. How I Met Your Mother on CBS was is a favorite from the past couple of seasons and the season premier tonight definitely did not disappoint. If you're a fan of old fashioned sitcoms (ya know from the 90's, like Friends and Seinfield, shows with laugh tracks) then you'll like this show. And if you watched tonight's episode, and remember a theme throughout last season, you'll love this. Also tonight, we watched The Big Bang Theory which was also on CBS. Typical awkward geeks meet hot blond premise, but it was actually pretty funny. Then again, sitcoms were designed for people like me, I'll laugh at pretty much anything. Considering there's nothing really on opposite it, I'll probably continue to watch it. I also tivo'd Chuck on NBC, but I won't get around to watching that for a few days. Lastly, the season premier of Hero's was tonight. FANTASTIC show. I really can't say enough good things about it. Half drama, half comic book, all around good stuff. As a matter of fact, I'll be purchasing season one shortly. Watched the first 20 minutes of Journey Man on NBC too. Not too bad, not that great. Just seems like a show you can watch just to watch when nothing else is on.
• Anyway, stay tuned for more reviews as the week goes on. Any suggestions for shows, just let me know.

Live from Newton

So we're down in MA again, and here I am at 9:30pm sitting at the in laws writing on my blog. Man I need a life. We arrived in Boston around 2 and went over to my grandparents for a visit. We haven't seen them in way too long, so we went by to hang out. Gotta say, its tough not going over there every other wknd for Sunday dinner. We ended up staying until 330 or so, swung by my parents house to drop off my brother's birthday gift, and left for the in-laws were we're staying.
Sarah's mom cooked some bbq pork ribs on the grill (trust me, it doesn't get any better) and headed over to the mall to kill the night.
I'll tell you this much, if I knew at 16 what I know now, I would have cleaned up. There must have been 10,000 high school kids there. I pray every night that someday when we have kids, we don't have any daughters. No way I'm letting my kid leave the house looking like a hooker. When I was 16, the baggy look was in, now apparently the stripper look is the way to go. Seriously girls, wearing more than 7 square inches of clothing isn't a bad thing.
Going to the mall can be fun though, as both the misses and I can be very judgmental of strangers. Observing what some people think to be acceptable, can be pretty funny. Yeah yeah, I'm going to hell, I know, I was already on my way, just add this to the list.
Anyway, that's all for tonight I think. Almost time for bed, then off to a baby shower for the misses and an afternoon of football for me.

Everybody's working for the weekend!

And its finally here. Left work at 330 today, the one benefit of the job is that we can get out early on Fridays if we reach our weekly goals, which is nice..
Headed home and proceeded to play on the computer and watch tv for the next 3 hours. Good times. We ordered chinese food for the first time in Maine, and I've gotta say it was pretty good. Not great, but very acceptable all around. Dinner was followed by more tv watching by me and 18 hours of homework for the misses. Not good times.
Couple points before heading off to bed, then back to Boston..

• So have you ever seen the radio dj's parody on the Simpsons? The two guys who talk in those "radio" voices and use lots of cheesy sound effects. Yeah, well the local afternoon sports radio guys sound exactly like them, its pretty bad. Rumor has it WEEI is coming up soon, so we'll see. Also, apparently Howie Carr's show is syndicated up here and everyone seems to love him. Well I suppose not everything can be perfect about Maine.
• In addition to high school football, they also broadcast high school soccer on the radio. The games are also taped and played on the local access channels. Gotta say, they do a much better job then the people who did our high school baseball games. My buddy and I used to get up and play catch during the game our senior year(cuz we didn't play much obviously) and every time we did they'd announce that we were warming up in the bullpen. Mind you neither of us had ever pitched in a varsity game, but thats neither here nor there..
• Question, what would you consider the modern equivalent to Animal House? Old School? Van Wilder? Feel free to throw out your suggestions. I was talking with a buddy about it, and I had this feeling like I was missing something really obvious.
• You know what annoys me? The new trend in football where they say, "Joe Schmoe is out with a shoulder." Not out with an injured shoulder, or bad or sprained or whatever, just a shoulder. What the heck does that mean? Does he have an extra shoulder that just gets in the way? Or maybe he's missing one of his shoulders and can't find it...
• I can't get the surround sound to work on my tv. The tv and receiver just don't seem to want to communicate and work together. Any suggestions, fire away.
• Found a fantastic new liquor store. They deal in mostly wines, but have a lot of specialty stuff, and the guys said they'll order whatever I want. And for all you DogFish lovers out there, they have every kind, except for the newest seasonal, in stock.
• And lastly, I forgot to mention this before, but I finally donated my car. Its been sitting in my parents driveway for waaay too long, and I finally got around to sending in the paperwork and whatnot. I donated it to the National Kidney Foundation. A huge thank you to my parents for being so patient and letting me keep it at their house for so long. The neighbors are probably very thankful its gone. As a matter of fact, I think the value of your house just went up a bit.
• That's it for now, have a great weekend loyal readers...

Almost there...

Weekend here we come! One more day to go, then back to Boston, yet again. Feels like I've done nothing but drive this week, but that's ok, cuz we won't be coming down again until one of our friends has their baby.
So, one of the many perks to living with me, is that I love to listen to music...loud. When we lived in MA, I could go hide in the office at the other end of the house and listen as loud as I wanted to, but in the new house, I really can't (but still do of course, sorry Sarah) An additional benefit to getting to listen to my favorite songs, is getting to listen to me sing to those very songs. Now I use the term "sing" loosely because lets face it, I'm no Tony Bennett. In fact, I can't sing worth a lick, and those of you who have had the pleasure of hearing me do karaoke can attest to that. My choice in music can also be suspect, I'll admit. Lots of country, lots of top 40, and lots of 80's music. But I'm definitely not afraid of making an arse of myself, so whatever..
So at one point tonight, I'm off in my own little world playing Snood, singing along and the misses yells out incredulously , "Are you singing along?", I responded by saying an emphatic "No."... well "ok so what if I was." The song you ask, Nick Lachey, "what's left of me". I have no idea why I'm telling you this. Sometimes I think I have the musical tastes of a 13 year old girl.
For some reason, listening to music is therapeutic for me. Relaxes me, and with work being as stressful and crazy as it has been, this does the trick. Some people (cough Sarah couch) take baths, some people have a few drinks, some go to the gym, I sing at the near top of my lungs to crappy boy band songs, so sue me..
On a completely unrelated note, the new rugs Sarah ordered came and they look great.

Yes, that is the kitten on the rug. She had a rough day at the vet. She needed a couple of shots and has to take some medicine now, so she's not happy with us. On the flip side, she's up to a whopping 2.5 pounds now..
Both rugs look great where they are, they really make the rooms look more finished. As always, the pictures really don't do them justice. You'll see for yourself when you come visit though. Gotta love overstock.com though. Sarah had spent the better part of an hour wrapping presents on the living room rug, so I kicked her off so I could take the picture. I will say though, that girl has quite the talent for wrapping presents, and that's not even sarcasm! If she worked at the mall during Christmas time wrapping gifts for the shoppers, she would tooooootally be the best wrapper there.

Finally, we've decided to head down to Boston Saturday morning, not Friday night. So hopefully we'll get a chance to see more people this trip down.

On the road again..

So I drove back from Boston today, which means I'm back in Maine.. phew, the big city can be a scary place ya know..
Just a bunch of randomness today..

• Bought the misses an ipod nano, the new version with the screen. Of course she loved it. What can I say, I'm just the bestest husband ever;
• Watched an episode of Scrubs on Comedy Central tonight, great episode, the singing one...there are a couple of great songs there.. like this and this;
• I've started watching Countdown with Keith Olberman. Does this make me old cuz I'm watching a show on MSNBC?
• Have you seen this video? Turns out the kid is a "prankster" and basically knew this was going to happen. Funny though how Kerry is speaking to a half filled room;
• Its only Wednesday, and I'm really ready for the weekend. Then again we won't be getting much rest, as we'll be back in Boston again this wknd, but that's ok, cuz we get to see all our friends and everyone again which is always a great time. Not sure if we're coming back Friday night or Saturday morning yet though, details to follow.

Heading back..

So its Wednesday morning, early, but I forgot to post last night, so I'm going to post now, before heading out to work.
Good day yesterday, lots of learning in Worcester, which was really needed. Going back for some more today before heading back home.
After work, I went and got my haircut. The girl cut it a little too short, but that's ok cuz my head is like an effing chea pet it grows so quickly. Did some errands after that, went back and checked out the new Natick Mall again, ooh excuse me, the Natick Collection its called now.. and still feel like I don't belong there. Cleaned out the car, which it desperately needed and headed back to Mike & Kim's for some more quality Maya time.
That night we went to dinner with Lori & Rob and Jimmy & Stacey. Both Lori and Stacey are about to burst any second now (they're both just weeks away from their due dates) so it was great seeing them as I haven't seen them in a couple of months. J&S don't know if they're having a boy or a girl, so they haven't painted the nursery yet. Its all primed and ready to go, they just have to wait until the baby pops out to know what color to choose. Mike and I told Jim that as soon as he knows , to call us (obviously) and not only will we congratulate him, but we'll head over and paint the nursery for him. Since I'm 3.5 hours away, It might take me a little longer to get there, but I'll be there!
Finally, a big thank you to Mike and Kim for letting me stay in their guest room the past couple of nights. It was slightly better than a shady Worcester Days Inn or something. Although it would have been a lot easier to score some drugs , a hooker or a continental breakfast at the Days Inn...
Anyway, off to work I go, next you'll hear from me, I'll be back in the comforts of Maine...

Back to MA again..

Yes folks we're coming to you LIVE (well live for me as I type this, but not live for you as you read this obviously) from Mike & Kim'sin lovely Framingham, MA. I'm going to be in Worcester for the next 2 days training for work, and they let me stay at their place to cut down on the commute time. Normally I could have stayed at my parents house, but I'd be on a couch there, or the in-laws, but they don't have good cable, and I need good cable to survive. So I get to stay here and play with my new bestest friend baby Maya, who just happens to be the cutest most talkative baby ever!
So on the way here, the solar glare was really bad, so I figured I'd stop at Target and look at sunglasses. Bad idea. I spent 15 trying on sunglasses, but apparently I have a misshaped head as none of them looked right or fit right. ooh well, I'll just wear my hat and hopefully that'll do the trick, I've survived this long without them, right!
Obviously, since I'm in Framingham, and Sarah isn't, we won't be seeing each other for a couple of days. I'm ok with that part, its not like I don't miss her, but two days apart won't kill us, its the sleeping apart that that'll kill me. Its gotten to the point where I can't sleep unless she's next to me. Weird, I know, but that's how it is. When we sleep, my leg stretches out so that my foot touches her foot. My legs aren't long enough to reach from MA to ME, so that ain't gonna happen tonight. So basically what I'm saying is, if I'm a little cranky the next couple of days, you'll know why.
Switching gears.. new beer alert. I'm in the process of trying a Sam Adams Black Lager. Really good, dark, almost a chocolately taste. So far so good, but I don't know if I could have more than one or two at a time. (well not at a time, its not like I'd be double fisting them, I mean consecutively)

And Away We Go..

Wow.. what a weekend. So much packed into so little time. So let's see, Friday Sarah and I headed down to Boston for a friends baby shower on Saturday. So on the way down, we were trying to figure out what our plan would be for the night, and it ended up being us going in two different directions. She went out with two of her friends, and I went to a bar with my buddy to watch the Sox game. While at the bar, Fil (not his real name obviously) and I bumped into a "friend" from the past. The Tramapoline. All you Simpsons fans out there should hopefully get the reference. Ya see there's an episode where Krusty buys a trampoline, but ends up giving it to Homer because people get hurt on it etc. So after Bart and some other kids get hurt using the trampoline, Homer tries to return it to Krusty who doesn't want it back and pulls a shotgun on Homer to emphasize his point. Well that's this girl. When you're friends with her, you pass her on to the next sucker and that person can't pass her back... mean, kinda, but it is what it is..

Otherwise though, the night was fun, I got back to Sarah's parents (where we were staying) at 1130, and the misses rolled in sometime after 1.

Saturday, the misses had me up and at DSW (shoe store, there are none in Maine) at 930, and we were in the new mall in Natick at 10am sharp! The new section of the mall is very uppity, like I thought they were going to run a credit check on me before they let me in. All these stores I've never heard of and stores I would never shop in. (i.e. one store had simple hand soap, maybe 6 oz. for $27. yes $27! are you kidding me! Is it some sort of SuperSoap, does it fight bacteria and crime?) So needless to say it wasn't really my style, but Sarah found quite a bit that made her happy.

After that Sarah went to the baby shower with a couple of friends and I hung out with perhaps the cutest baby ever, while watching football. An odd occurrence happened though while we were watching tv. Mike was scrolling thru the channels looking for another football game and he passed over HBO, but for some reason we were getting someone elses feed (he doesn't subscribe to HBO) The person watching HBO was watching something from HBO OnDemand, and was fast forwarding thru the show, only stopping on the sex scenes. Obviously we didn't watch any as there were baby eyes and ears in the room, but still, very odd. The boys and I got to talking about developing a new system for rating the beers we try. Its still in its infant stages, however, a rough draft of our system will be rolled out for your input later this week.

Had a lot of fun hanging out with my friends whom I haven't seen in a couple of months, but Sarah and I had to head back up to Maine Saturday night as we had family in town. After a 3 hour 15 minute drive (yeah, I drove a little too fast at times, I know) we arrived back in Bangor. Shot over to my uncles house and hung out for a bit before turning in for the night.

Sunday, great day. Woke up, raked leaves, mowed the lawn, was done by 1030. Sarah had to do homework (nerd alert!) so I headed over to my uncles house where I met up with him, my father, cousin and 3 other uncles. What did we do, you say? We went shootin! Loaded up the pick up trucks with the guns (sadly, there were no gun racks present) and headed down into "the pit" for some clay shooting. Lots of fun, can't wait to go again (hint hint). Of the maybe 20 targets I shot at, I hit 2. But it was my first time shooting a gun in 15 years. Apparently all those years of Nintendo Duck Hunt didn't do squat for my accuracy. Lots of fun though, now I need to find a gun club to join so I can practice... we'll see about my own gun someday. I'd tell you all the guns we used, but I don't remember. A bunch of shot guns, some with two triggers, one the pump shotgun you always see in the movies. Great stuff really.

The rest of that day was spent hanging around the house, giving tours of the house, and taking in every word my aunt the interior designer had to offer. Thankfully she doesn't charge by the hour. Followed by another pop warner football game. Good times.

Tonight was the very yummy traditional lobster dinner. Sarah and I split one, but I had some steak too. Seriously, we eat like kings up here. Every time family comes out, my full time Maine relatives really go all out. Once the misses and I buy a dining room table, we'll take our turn in hosting, I promise! After diner my uncle drove his tractor over and we went for a hay ride (maybe 15 of us total) looking for deer in the woods/field out back. No deer, but that's because my cityfolk aunts were so loud that the deer in Nova Scotia could hear them. Little chilly out, but a lot of laughs. Telling you the stories thru typing really doesn't do them any justice at all.

Although I'm exhausted, this was easily one of the best weekend I've had in a while. Busy week ahead of us though, as I'll be in Boston Monday night thru Wednesday afternoon, then we're coming back down next weekend. It'll be great though, cuz we'll get to see everyone we didn't get to see this weekend.

Is it the weekend yet?

I can't remember the last time I was this excited for a weekend. Lots of family coming up Saturday and Sunday, so it'll be a blast as always.
So last night, I'm asleep somewhere in dreamland (I believe it was an Indiana Jones type scenerio. In my dreams I'm always saving someone or whatever. I think I was destined to be a superhero minus the super powers of course. And tights, tights just don't work for me. I guess I could be a Batman type, but I'm not rich and not all that tough. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to stick with this property manager thing then, but I digress) when I feel this scratching at my neck. Yeah, turns out our cat Anny, who I affectionately call Sh*t for Brains, was attacking the necklace around my neck. Apparently she thought it was some sort of chew toy. Not good times.
Then on the way to work this morning, I see the bizarro Coolio. This guy looked exactly like Coolio, with the funky hair and everything, except he was white and driving a Corsica..
For those of you who care, the great beard experiment has come to an end. After eleven days, I came home from work and shaved it off. As you can see in the picture, I couldn't seem to get any hair to grow beside my mouth, and I kinda felt like a 13 year old boy trying to grow a mustache to look cool, which isn't exactly the look I was going for.
You can also tell from the picture, which was taken after work, that it wasn't the best of days at the office. I had a nice cooshy well paying job working for the state, then I come up here and get a much lower paying, crazy busy job. Not one of the better decisions I've made haha.
So this morning, I get an email from the misses saying she's having the worst day ever. I figure its something work related blah blah blah... boy was I ever wrong. Apparently she found, and plucked, a gray hair off her head. Her first one...welcome to the club! Now mind you, this is the same woman that spent the better part of a pop warner football game pointing out the white hairs in my "beard". Some might say karma, I just say she's getting ooooooooooold. (good thing the couch is comfy). Although to balance her old feelingness, she got hit on and invited to a frat party Saturday night at UMaine. Tragically, we won't be able to make it and neither will the little punk that talked to her, as I broke his kneecap later in the day. Whaaaat I didn't want to really hurt him, just warn him. The last thing I need is the misses running off with some college boy, right!
And lastly, a big shout out to my crazier the us sister-in-law. We received in the mail today a gift for the new cats, catnip. So on behalf of my crazy cat lady wife, thanks.

Everybody's working for the weekend..

That about sums up the week so far. Both the misses and I didn't have best of days at work. A nice trip to the gym helped relieve some of the tension though. Although I think that the Domino's pizza we had for dinner negated the gym... oh well.
Quiet night all around really. I've actually started watching the Real World this season. Haven't watched it in a couple of years and for some reason I've been watching it this year. Entertaining, but boy do they fight over the dumbest things..
Great Sox game last night, and of course I shut off the game when it was 8-1, and played video games. Caught the highlights on Sportscenter this morning. I hate when that happens. It looks like a blowout, so you go to bed or whatever and it ends up being a great game..
Tomorrow is my baby brother Steve's 22nd birthday, any idea's what to get him?
Sorry for the boring post, it was just a quiet day. If I could talk about work without the risk of getting fired, I've have lots to talk about, but since I can't, then no stories.
Lots of people coming up to Maine this weekend, including my parents. Should be a great time. We'll have the lobster dinner at my uncles one night, followed by dinner at my other uncles the next. Can't wait to see everyone. One of my aunts that is coming up is an interior designer, and we're looking forward to getting her input/feedback on our house. Also can't wait to show off the misses new tv stand and my bookcase to Dad. Thirty years old and still looking for approval haha

The Beard Continues

• Day 9 of the great beard experiment, and I gotta say, it doesn't look half bad. By the same token though, if it doesn't look half bad, it only looks half good I guess.
• Espn.com is running a good set of articles on China and the women's World Cup, if you're looking for an interesting read, I recommend it.
• So I'm reading the Bangor Daily News today, and I come across the obituary section. Right next to that... the pet obituary section.. weird.
• Yes, I'm still watching Big Brother, and I don't know why.
• On another tv note though, gotta say, I'm still a huge fan of The Power of Ten. One of the few game shows where its fun to play along at home. Drew Carey is hysterical and I think he'll be a very good Price is Right host.
• Hagen Daz chocolate sorbet is fantastic stuff. I really wish I could eat more ice cream. Maybe I'll start a lactose intolerant support group.
• So there have been all these commercials on tv recently (i know i know, i have 2 dvr's in the house, and i still watch commercials, its inexcusable) for the Universal Technical Institute, but they call it UTI for short. Did no one in the marketing dept at the school catch that? UTI? Seriously? You want to name your school after a painful infection? Do they serve nothing but cranberry juice there?
• Downloaded two new demo's for the xbox. Dirt, car racing game, tons of fun and BioShock, a first person shooter. I just wish you could play it online.

Manic Monday

I'm beginning to really not like my job, but that's the way life is, isn't it?

• I would like to thank Mike and Kim for introducing me to Orangina. I had one today, haven't had one in a while.. very tasty.
• Day 8 of the Jay Beard Project is underway. I must say though, I'm very disappointed in all my family and friends up here. No one has made a single joke at my expense yet...
• Great game, great win for the Patriots yesterday. Only bad thing is Time Warner Cable is a joke. FOX, ABC, ESPN and NBC are in HD, but not CBS.. no good
• Took the car to get the transmission fluid changed and asked them to find the mystery rattling and fix it. They changed the fluid and claimed to have fixed the rattling, only when I drove away, it was worse then it was before I dropped it off. So I get to drop it off again tomorrow to be refixed. I hope they try to charge me a second time, I've really wanted to yell at someone for a while now.
• Anyone see the Britney Spears "performance" last night. I could have done a better job, and I think I may have looked better up on stage. Just bizarre how totally disinterested she was.

Weekend Report

Where do I start.. well, I guess starting with Friday would make the most sense. So let's see, Friday, dropped the car off to get the transmission fluid and oil changed, so I got to walk home from work. Its only a little over a mile, but it was like 90 degrees out, so that was no fun. That night was spent out and about. The misses and I decided to really go all out and have a crazy Friday night. So of course, we went to the mall. We originally planned to go for an hour before settling in for a night of tv, but that didn't happen. We hit the mall, where I bought a pair of Umbro shorts, which had me thoroughly excited (Umbro's were like the shiznit back in the day. They're a European soccer company that ruled the soccer world before adidas. Apparently they're making a comeback. Most comfortable shorts ever though, but I digress) Sarah flirted with the idea of hitting the Orange Julius, but decided against it. After the mall, we hit Bed Bath and Beyond ("Well, um, actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time") and Borders. Yeah that's right, I said Borders. We know how to party up here in Bangor. Oddly enough though, Borders was packed, and we were there at like 930. When we got home, I turned on the tv to find a show called World's Best Dating Shows on. Fantastic stuff. They took clips from Cheaters and Blind Date and shows like that. Man, the things some people will do to get on tv. My favorite was the clip from Cheaters where the guy found out his stepdad and wife were having an affair. So of course he comes barging into the house (where he lived with his stepdad, mom and wife) with camera crew in tow and confronts the wife and stepdad and the same time. Took the mom a few minutes to realize what was going on, and when she did she thought it would be a good idea to turn the garden hose on the stepdad. Great stuff really.
Saturday was spent doing stuff around the house, watching tv and playing xbox. The perfect Saturday really. Saturday night, the misses and I went with my two cousins to play some mini golf. We're all horrible mini golfers, although some blame does have to go to the course conditions. Every hole had a huge lip around it! No good, no good at all. After though, we stopped at Gifford's for ice cream. FANTASTIC. Mocha chip... to die for.. seriously. They have like 10 more flavors I need to try. When we dropped off my cousins at their house, which is only maybe 2 miles away, we realized that it had poured at their house (fog was really bad driving down their street), but not a drop had fallen at the ice cream place thankfully.
Sunday. Good day. Hit the gym, Target, then went to my cousins first pop warner football game. He's playing nose tackle and some left guard. I've gotta say, for never playing football before, I was pretty impressed with his play. (thats him in the red, in the three point stance)






The best part is, the field is only a couple hundred yards down the street from our house. Makes it very easy to get to the games. After, of course watched the Patriots and Red Sox games, played some more xbox and headed over to my Uncle's house for a pot roast dinner. Scrum-didily-umtious stuff. Pot roast with potato's, carrots, etc, and a chocolate cake for dessert, perfection.

Well, that about sums up the wknd... just a couple of random thoughts before I let you go..

• I'd like to introduce you to the newest member of my brother's family...little Maya. She's only a puppy, but look at the size of that noggin', she's gonna be huge!

• There's a great show on HDNet called, Nothing But Trailers. All it does is show movie previews. I think I watch it every time its on, even if I've already seen it once.
• There are a lot of yard sales up here, which can be a good thing. Sarah and I are looking for a couple of antiquey pieces of furniture, so this might be where we would find them. Problem is, all the yards sales around us seem to only be selling clothes... no thanks.
• High school football is so big up here, that they bump the Red Sox games to another AM station in favor of the Bangor High games.
• The kitten is no longer sick, which is good an bad. Good cuz she's not sick, bad because now she enjoys walking across the keyboard and attacking the cursor/mouse arrow on the screen.
• Ok, that's it. Have a great week...latah
  
  

Thirsty Thursday?

• Lets start off with a big congratulation and HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to my parents. 32, years, 30 of which have been wonderful of course. (the first 2 without me around were just so-so)
• Tonight's the start of the NFL season, fiiiiinally. Gentlemen, start saving, cuz you're all going to owe me some money by the end of the fantasy football season.
• I went to buy a Patriots jersey tonight, but I just can't bring myself to spend the $75 for it. Does this make me cheap? Or am I too old to own one anyway?
• The misses and I tried a new restaurant tonight. Paddy Murphy's, which is right down the street from our house. From the outside it looks huge, but its really not all that big inside. Decor was typical understated Irish bar, huge booths which is nice (easily fits 6), not that many tables, but plenty of room at the bar and at bar tables. Food was decent I guess (they seem to be trying to be too fancy) Drinks are another matter entirely. They classify their beer as follows: domestic, imported, and Maine. I tried two beers, both from the black bear brewing company(they don't seem to have a website, go figure). One was the Gearhead Red. Similar to Killian's, only not as good. Best described as having no aftertaste, and almost a "smokey" taste to it. Went down smooth though, so that was nice. I also tried their Pale Ale, which tasted like a poor man's version of Sierra Nevada. Although I'd much rather have a Sierra Nevada. Overall, I'd try them both again, but I'm in no rush. (they also had a porter, stout and blueberry beer on tap). To summarize, I'd go back to Paddy Murphy's, but really only for drinks and appetizers. The food just wasn't worth it. (they burned my burger, I hate that. there's no excuse for a medium burger to been burned)
• And lastly, we finally thought of a name for the new kitten. Get your jokes ready. She's been sick since we got her, sniffling and sneezing. So we named her Anny which is short for Anakin, which is Darth Vader's real name. (that's what she sounds like when she breathes)
• No real plans for the weekend, can't wait to sleep and watch the Patriots though

Randomness

• Book review: Can I Keep My Jersey, by Paul Shirley. Very entertaining read all around. Shirley is this guy who played college basketball at Iowa and has since spent the last four years as a basketball vagabond, playing in Europe, Russia, the NBA, CBA and ABA (11 teams in all) Easy to read, funny stories, some good insight into all things basketball. I'd definitely recommend it, especially if you're one of the 9 NBA fans left out there. Next book is The Wheel of Darkness. The misses and I have read pretty much every other book by these authors (two guys cowrite them) and have enjoyed them all. This is the newest in the series.
• I've rediscovered Wise Onion Rings. I forgot how much I love these things... mmmmm
• We held our fantasy football draft last night. I think I selected a pretty decent team, but we'll see. We held the draft online using the gmail chat function. (no chat room) Needless to say, with 7 of us drafting (one team couldn't make it, and was thus drafted for) my fingers got quite the work out. Whenever a player was selected, I had to inform all the other teams who got picked. Not to mention having to cut and paste all the trash talking that went on.
• Another action packed day at work today. It might be time to start getting the old resume together haha
• Got my hair cut today at lunch. There are 3 barbershops in Bangor. Two are owned by the same guy and are 50 yards away from each other (I have no idea where the third is located). The bonus is though, if I ever want one, they do hot shaves, with the warm shaving cream and the straight edge razor. I don't see myself getting one anytime soon, but its nice to have the option I guess.
• Our newest kitten is still a little under the weather. Really, there is nothing more pathetic looking than a 4 pound kitten sneezing its brains out then looking at you like "what the heck just happened"
• Big fan of the new game show, Power of Ten. I highly recommend it.
• Friday night is movie night.. any suggestions?

sorry

nothing tonight.. had our fantasy football draft.. tired,.. must sleep...too much typing in the past 2.5 hours.. next year we go back to having the draft in person... not online... using too many periods.. must sleep...

Labor Day

Which it really was for me... I went over to my uncle's house this morning and helped him stain his new deck. 16'x24' so it was no small task. It only took us like 3 hours, so it wasn't so bad. Now we just have to pray it doesn't rain anytime soon and wash away all our hard work.

The nice part though, was my reward. I went go-karting with my cousin out in the gravel pit/field/woods behind their house. Good times. He drove the go-kart, I took the gator. As it turns out, the new gator can hit about 35 mph, slightly faster than the go-kart, so I can take him in the straightaways, but he had far superior handling. I can't wait to buy my own go kart someday :)

On another note, Sarah finished building the tv stand. And it looks fantastic! I'm not just saying that cuz I don't want to sleep on the couch either. It really does look great. Built out of mdf and painted white. The picture honestly doesn't do it any justice, but it fits the room perfectly.
Two last random thoughts. The misses and I opened one of the two bottles of champagne we've had in the fridge for months, last night. It was a bottle of "All Shook Up" champagne, apparently its an Elvis theme.. Anyway, it tasted pretty good (I can't seem to remember where we got it though, so if you gave it to us, it was excellent!), although it had big bubbles. And everyone knows, big bubbles big headache, little bubbles little headache. About two glasses in, the headache started, so I stopped.
Lastly, does anyone know of a company that puts out ice cream flavored sorbet? I found a chocolate one, but I'm looking for a coffee flavor or something like that. The soy ice creams just aren't that good, so I needed to switch to sorbet... thanks!

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!

• Used my new thatch rake today, needless to say I can't lift my arms above my head. It pulled up lots of thatch, but it was too hard! Next time I'm just going to rent the dethatching mower at Home Depot for $50. (fyi, thatch is the layer of debris that sits on a lawn when it hasn't been mowed/raked in a long time. this layer doesn't allow the water and nutrients to get to the grass, so the grass won't grow. this is what you learn watching the DIY and DiscoveryHome networks.)
• Speaking of my lawn.. I'm a competitive guy, and the only reason I dethatched it was so that I can guarantee that my lawn will be nicer than yours. And by yours, I mean everyone reading this.
• Congrats to Clay Buchholz on the no hitter yesterday
• Two new beers were tried. Shipyard Summer was very good, but it was heavier than the normal summer beers. Good, but not great. Doesn't really distinguish itself from other beers out there. Also tried the new Miller beer with salt and lemon or whatever (it was $5 for a sixer, I had to try it). You know when you're about to do something stupid, and that little voice inside of you really encourages you to think hard before completely the task at hand... well I should have listened to the voice (which sounds suspiciously like the misses, even when she's not around) and not bothered trying it. Not good at all. Tastes like a Miller lite that someone peed in. Not that I know what that would taste like, but you can imagine.
• And as I recently read in the summer edition of Boston College Magazine, "Mike, '98 and Kim (last name left out) celebrated the birth of their daughter Maya Lin on November 1, 2006. The family is doing great and living in Framingham." Also, "Jon and Erin (last name left out) celebrated the birth of their second child on May 25." Congrats to all! Wiggum, what no wedding announcement?
• Fantasy football draft is Tuesday night. Looking for one more team if anyone is interested, let me know. Although you will have no chance of winning, along with the other members of the league you'll get to experience the feeling of losing to me.

Saturday

Where to start, well this morning we went and picked up the newest member of our household..Yep, apparently the misses and I have in fact gone batsh*t crazy and picked up another animal. When we were at the shelter, Sarah just didn't have it in her to leave the kitten in the cage all by herself, so now she's ours. Which brings the official tally to 4 cats, making us officially nutso.
Moving right along.. we went with the family and some of their family and then some, to the Blue Hill Fair today. Great time. Unfortunately, we forgot the camera, fortunately I had my phone with me.
Who doesn't love alpacas.
Little cousin J.D (that's your new nickname, john deere), the misses and a ginormous pig. Try to guess which one is which..and yes, I will be sleeping on the couch tonight, but its comfy so its ok.
baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

We had a great time. Tons of animals to see including the above pics plus horse harness racing, mini horses, pig races, ugly pig races (ducks), cows, llamas (not to be confused with the lamas from last Saturday night), roosters, chickens, and more.

Also, because its a fair, that means fair food. Fried everything and then some. I only had a hot dog, curly fries, cotton candy and a funnel cake though, but everyone else indulged in what I didn't. Fried dough, sausage peppers and onions, hamburgers, dots ice cream, regular ice cream and even pad thai were tried. Needless to say, none of us will be eating anytime soon.

I'm kind of sad to say that neither the misses or I went on any of the rides, we were too stuffed, and lots of food and spinning objects do not go together.

So far, great weekend, with two full days left to go!