Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Happy Halloween! Again..

So we got minimal trick-or-treaters today. Mostly 8th-9th graders, which is no fun, but there was one group of little kids that came by, which is always cute..
This was the temperature this morning... Its not even November yet!

Also, on a sad/annoying note, my tv is broken. This is what it looks like...
As you can see, you can only see half the picture (the flash from the camera makes it look brighter than it actually is) So when I called Circuit City Monday to get a repairman sent out, they said because of our location they have to contract the repair out. Somebody would call us in 24-48 hours to schedule a repair time. So Sarah calls back this morning, 48 hours later. Yeah, turns out its 24-48 BUSINESS HOURS. That's like 3-6 DAYS!! Are you kidding me? My tv has looked like this since Saturday, but since they aren't open on the weekends I had to wait until Monday to call, now you want me to wait until next Monday to maybe get it fixed! Ooooh I don't think so evil Circuit City. Not with the big Patriots game this weekend, no sir! My thing is this though, Circuit City is open 10am-10pm, so that's 12 business hours a day. We're open 8am-5pm, so that's 9 business hours. The customer services line is open like 8am to 10pm, so that's 14 business hours! So why, for the sake of all that is good and just, are they using 8 hours as a business day! Why!!!! This is killing me!!! Its got me so annoyed that I can't stop using exclamation points!!!!!!!!
There are two things you don't mess with, my girl or my tv. My girl can defend herself, the tv can't, so someone needs to stick up for it, and that someone is me! (or Sarah if someone needs to yell, she's much better at being the jerk than I am) So as of now, I'm reduced to watching a normal size tube tv. I feel like a piece of me is missing...


Happy Halloween!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtyJbIOZjS8
seriously, its too bad he's a whack job..

Monday, October 29, 2007

Another start to another week

  • Woke up, it was 31 degrees out. Sweet.
  • So I did the math. It cost me a total of (rental and sandpaper) $62 to sand the floor and it'll run us about another $50-$75 for stain/poly. To hire someone, its $2 a sqft up here, plus other costs. The room is about 400 sqft, so we're talking somewhere in the $1000 vicinity. Which means that by doing the work ourselves, we saved over $800. I love that. Plus, every time I look at the floor, I know that I did that. Its a good feeling.
  • Right now my friend Lori is in the hospital having a baby!!!! Everyone wish her luck!
  • My tv is broken, its very sad. Basically, the tunnel that projects the picture onto the bazillion tiny mirrors (its how dlp tv's work) is collapsing. Which means I can still see the picture, its just that half of the screen is really really dark and the other side is normal. Sorta like a shadow during a baseball game. Half the field is bright and sunny, and the other half not so much. Thankfully we purchased the extended warranty on the tv, so they'll send someone out to fix it. Not so thankfully, we live where there are very few technicians, so who knows how long it'll take.... In the meantime, I go back to watching a normal picture on the 30 inch tv in our bedroom. It makes me sad...
  • And after talking to my buddy Jimmy, I realized he was right. My superstitions had nothing to do with the Sox winning, but this did...Good job supporting the team Emma! Look how tiny and cute she is! Fits right into a baseball glove. Jimmy, you weren't too swift with the glove back in high school, I remember all those errors, so I'd hold her with both hands if I were you ;)

WORLD SERIES CHAMPS BABY!!!!

Wow!! Can you believe it, twice!!! First one was for our fathers and grandfathers, this one was for us. Great stuff!
Of course, Sarah went to bed around 1030... She offered to stay up, but her sleepy eyes said otherwise. We need to have kids if for no other reason, just to have someone to stay up with me to watch all this stuff!
I'd like to think I played a small role in their victories, always sitting in my new lucky seat on the lucky couch, legs crossed at the ankles, arms folded across the chest, taking a sip of my drink whenever they needed a big hit or a big out. No, I'm not superstitious or anything...

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Weekend Report

So where to start... Friday after work I got my hair cut. While I was sitting there, the barber and I were discussing local restaurants. Apparently there's a lot around (Indian, Japanese and 3rd Thai place) that I didn't know about. Lots more to try now. Sarah and I just hung in Friday night, but tried a new Chinese food place. We have a winner! Finally. Panda Garden, on the recommendation of my aunt's sister, was fantastic. Beef teryaki was ok, but the chix fingers, general gao's and crab rangoons were all really good. (those are our staples. If a place has those 4 foods to our satisfaction, it'll get our business) We also watched a stand up on Comedy Central, Jeff Dunham. He's a ventriloquist, and if you haven't seen him, he's hilarious. I happen to love stand up comedy, but I haven't heard Sarah laugh that hard in forever..
Sidenote: I've got a buddy who's in San Diego right now with his wife. (she has a conference for work) Apparently he's got a thing for disasters. A year after Katrina, we went to New Orleans for his bachelor party. Unbelievably good time, but we felt a little guilty as you could still see the water marks on the sides of some of the buildings. (never mind the hundreds of cars still sitting under the highway) Now he's in southern California, right near the wild fires. Apparently he's got a thing for partying in depressed areas. What's next, a trip to the beaches of the Caribbean?
Moving right along, Saturday, we started the floor. The 3rd floor has been painted, except for the trim, so it was time to start sanding the floor. $50 to rent the floor sander for the day, not too bad. So after we spend 20 minutes trying to figure out how to attach the sandpaper to the sander (you don't attach anything, the weight of the machine holds it in place), the real work begins. I did all the sanding, while Sarah took up the last piece of carpet tack strip that was still down.

I hate taking up carpet strips, so my lovely wife was kind enough to finish the job for me. The reason there was still some left to do, is because the cast iron, 200 lb. radiator to her left was still on a piece of carpet. It took me a few minutes to move it so she could remove that last piece of carpet to get at the floors. And it may not look like it, but the walls are actually yellow, almost a sand colored yellow. They look great.
There's that incredibly handsome guy again. The machine probably weighs 80-90 lbs, but once its on, it practically moves itself. You just have to guide it along.

Here's the mostly finished product. I went over it multiple times with different grades of sandpaper then got down on the floor with the handsander to get the spots the big sander missed. I think I spent more time on my knees then a french hooker this weekend. There's still a lot of touch ups to do and you can see that the baseboards still need to be painted. We haven't decided if we're going to do them before or after we stain the floor.
If you don't remember from an earlier post, here's what the floor used to look like. The room I sanded first is on the left, and the hallway floor is on the right. The hallway has since been sanded a couple of times, but still needs lots of work. We're going to stain the floors a darker color. They're pretty old and beat up, so a darker stain will hide a lot of the imperfections too. Hopefully we'll get that done this week.

That mask was white. The dust was so bad, that Sarah couldn't breathe all that well, so she cleaned the house instead. So now we have newly sanded floors and an incredibly clean house. I had a couple of windows open, with a fan sucking the air out of the room, but it didn't help that much. My boogers were black from all the dust. Gross huh. Too much info, I know, deal with it :)
Saturday night was spent doing the same thing millions of other people were doing, watching the Red Sox game. While I was doing the floors/watching the game, Sarah cooked. She made a fantastic chicken pot pie for dinner. (thanks Lisa for the recipe)
Sunday I attacked the floors again, this time focusing on the small hall outside the 3rd floor room. We're most likely going to have a runner on the stairs and continuing to the doorway of the room, so this floor doesn't have to be as perfect. Which is good, cuz its in HORRIBLE condition. Sarah had a pretty bad headache and lots of homework to do, so I went outside and tackled the leaves. I noticed that they're more yellow than in years past. I seem to remember raking lots of orange leaves in the past, but who knows. The best part is up here you don't have to put them in bags and wait for the leave collection. All you need to do is pile them like a column on its side, along the street and they have this truck with a giant leaf vacuum that comes along and sucks them all up. Nice huh. Made my job a lot easier.
Tonight Sarah made a chicken soup for dinner. Normally I don't think that soup is a meal, after all, when you go to a restaurant its on the same page as the appetizers, right? But this was so full of yummy goodness, that it was definitely a meal.
On a completely unrelated note, I would like to thank my parents for the ah ha! phone call I received today. Dad had tix to the Patriots game, and took mom (he totally should have taken me, his first born and favorite child). While they were in the pregame tent eating and drinking for free, they felt the need to call me and rub it in. So thanks guys.. .jerks.. :)
And finally, two new beers to report on: (well one new, one new to the blog)
1. Weyerbacher Blanche - its a white beer, which its a Belgium ale. I'm a big fan of this type of beer, and this hit the spot. There wasn't as much bite to it as there is in some other white beers. Its light in color and goes down very smooth. Overall, I'd give it an 8 on the Jayscale.
2. Dogfish Head Punkin Ale - Fantastic stuff. I had it while eating the chicken pot pie Sarah made and it complimented it perfectly (ever Sarah agreed, and she really doesn't like beer) The spices (pumpkin, brown sugar, allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg) were all very evident with every sip. Its a brown ale, so its a darker color, goes down very smooth and actually tasted better while eating, than on its own. Overall, I'd give this one a 9 on the Jayscale. Dogfish Head is one of the better beer makers on the market right now. I'd recommend most of their beers.
Anyway, time to finish up, I've taken up too much of your time as it is. Sox start in an hour and a half, so here comes another late night...

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Thomas Magnum works for BC?

So I'm flicking between the Sox and the BC games.. during the BC game they show a commercial for the school, as they always do during college games. They have a couple of kids praising their professors and programs, and then they have a couple of profs saying how great Boston is, etc. Yeah, the female prof they used in the ad, totally rockin the full mustache.. Don't you just love hd tv.. "Boston College, neither in Boston, nor a college and all our professors have mustaches". Great stuff..

Game 2

Great win by the Sox last night. I stayed up until the 8th inning, then called it a night. I figured at that point the victory was pretty much in hand. Hopefully tonight will be another blowout so I can go to bed again at a reasonable hour(before midnight)..
Two new beers to report on. But first, you'll notice to the right I posted my beer scale. Its not perfect, there's still more work to be done, but it's a start. Now obviously there are a million beers out there, so I just picked ones that came to mind. Feel free to criticize my scale, and suggest better examples or ways to tinker with it. Constructive criticism is always welcome... now on to the new tastings.
1. Weyerbacher Blighering Idiot - Interesting to say the least. 11.1%abv. Its a barley - wine hybrid beer. I can't figure out how much I liked it. It basically tastes like someone took 3 parts beer and one part red wine and mixed them together. Part of it reminded me of a port, but port is much fuller in taste. The first flavor that hits your pallet is the malt/barley, but the after taste is very wine like. When slowly sipped (like a wine or scotch etc) it wasn't bad. When I took a couple of sips in a row (to finish it off) it was not good at all...
I think I'd like to try it again, but for now I'm giving it a middle of the road 4 on the Jayscale. But like I said, I reserve the right to change that after I try it again. The website suggests drinking it from a snifter, so I might have to give that a whirl.
2. Flying Dog Dogtoberfest - Euh. I'm not a huge fan of Flying Dog beers in general. Mostly middle of the road. To be truthful, October beers are my favorite, so I'm a little tougher on these beers. Dogtoberfest is 5.8%abv. Not a fan of this one. Very banal in flavor, almost like they forgot to add taste. I wouldn't recommend it if you're looking for a solid Fall beer. Dogtoberfest gets a very minimal 2 on the Jayscale.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

10:51 pm

Pitching change in the 5th, with the Sox up 10-1.. good stuff..
So, to make the playoffs seem that much more real to me, since we are far off in the Atlantic Northeast(I'm basically the Lieutenant Dunbar of Red Sox Nation), Sarah was kind enough to charge me $50 to park in the driveway. She also moved the couches, one in front of the other leaving no leg room and squeezed by me once an inning, spilling beer on me in the process. On top of that, she bought some peanuts and thru them at me periodically, and charged me $8 every time I went to the fridge to get a beer and won't let me get another beer after the 7th inning. Some would say she took it too far, others would say she's the best wife ever…

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Quickie

Power went out today at work. They've been doing a lot of work on the street, and apparently all of downtown Bangor was out. Thankfully we have a backup generator that runs the elevators, some lights and the office. Which means even though the power is out, my computer will still work. Good times.
We got the first coat of paint on the 3rd floor. Second coat goes on tomorrow night, with the trim thereafter. Called and reserved the floor sander at the tool rental place for Saturday. $35 a day, not too bad considering it was $50 to rent a simple nail gun down at a Boston Home Depot. So we'll attempt to redo the floor Saturday. Before that though, I'll need one of my Maine uncles (and you know who you are) to come over and give me a hand lifting a radiator off the floor and out of the room. Speaking of which, anyone know what I do with it? I can't just throw it out, the trash guys won't be able to lift it. Sell it for scrap? Anyone know how that works?
Bed time, have to rest up for the late World Series nights ahead of me...

Monday, October 22, 2007

Random Thoughts

  • So Sarah and I were watching a movie on CBC the other night (Canadian Broadcasting Company) and we noticed that Canadian ads are weird. First off, there was like 50 ads for the Honda Civic. Apparently it's the most sold car in Canada ten years running. One would think, with the cold and snow and what not that a bigger car would sell more. Also, an ad came on for aspirin... named Aspirin. That was the name of the drug. Not Bayer, not Tylenol, not Advil, just Aspirin. Boy, the marketing team must have spent some long nights in the office dreaming that name up...
  • Red Sox are in the World Series!!!! I only have one complaint. The start times for all the games are 8:30pm east coast time. Are you kidding me? Does Major League Baseball have some sinister plan to deprive the nation of sleep before taking over or something? They're doing a wonderful job of not allowing an entire generation of baseball fans, kids, to stay up and watch the games. I'm falling asleep on the couch at 10:30 (4th inning), never mind some kid who has a book report due the next morning. Good job MLB. Your sport is already behind the NFL and NBA, lets go for the trifecta and come in forth place behind the NHL. Ok, so that might be exaggerating a bit, but you get my point.
  • As my friends have noticed, I love to text message. Does that make me a 14 year old girl? Thankfully I was smart enough to get the unlimited texting plan on my phone. I also got two phone calls tonight. TWO! My phone hasn't rung twice in one day in.. well.. forever I guess. Life is good.
  • And lastly, Vince Vaughn has a new movie coming out in November, Fred Clause. This worries me for a couple of reasons. Usually I love Vince Vaughn movies, but there are two kinds. The Wedding Crashers, where you know he's thinking, "I love making movies and I'm hilarious and care about the effort I put into making this movie", and Dodgeball. The "I'm getting paid in cash, right?" kind of movies. Now don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Dodgeball, but not nearly as much as I like The Wedding Crashers. Also, the movie is rated PG. Its sad to say, but comedies that are rated PG usually aren't that funny. I'll still probably end up seeing it though.

My sad little life.. in cartoon form

(there is sound)

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!

Actually, our Sunday wasn't nearly that exciting. But I did finish priming all the trim and the walls on the third floor, so this week we can paint it, so we can sand the floors next weekend. Exciting stuff euh. As you can see from the pictures below, the floor is in HORRIBLE shape.
A nice random pieces of painted floor. Just that one spot is painted gray. Weird.
Notice the piece of rug in the top left corner. Yeah I can't move it. There's an old radiator on it, and the thing must weight 200 lbs. I'm going to need to call in uncle reinforcements on this on I think.
That's the landing at the top of the stairs. Nice huh. That was all under the carpet. You should see the stairs. Painted brown, with pieces of vinyl still attached. Its going to take a lot of elbow grease to clean these up.
In other news, we got confirmation that Sarah's parents are coming up to visit in November. Our first returning visitors! See! Its not so bad up here hahaha. I think maybe they're just coming up to check on us though, make sure I haven't become an alcoholic, as I do write about beer an awful lot.
So I went grocery shopping today.. that's not the important part. Ya know how there's always girl scouts or some charity hanging outside the supermarket, asking for money? I never carry cash on my anymore, so when they ask me for money and I say I don't have any, they always look at me like I'm the lying antichrist. But more to the point, who pays with cash at the grocery store anymore? Whens the last time you saw someone buy groceries and count out the bills to pay. 1993? I sure can't remember the last time. I think those charities or whatever need to start setting up shop outside banks and ATM's. That's where the money's at.
Steak for dinner tonight. Cooked on top of the stove, in a little olive oil with assorted spices. If I didn't over cook it, it would have been excellent. I love to cook, but I always seem to overcook things. Like that innate 6th sense internal cooking timer, I wasn't born with it. Ohh well.
I'm officially a Mainer now! I received my Maine license in the mail yesterday. We didn't check the mail until today, hence me not being able to buy beer last night. I have my license now, so I can go buy all the beer, porn, lottery tickets and cigarettes I want!
Earlier today, Sarah asked me if I had seen Minnie (one of the cats) recently. I said that I hadn't, so she went upstairs to look for her. She yells down to me that she can hear her, but can't find her anywhere.. Just as I get upstairs, Sarah yells from the bathroom, and I see her half hanging out the window. Turns out, Minnie had pushed the bathroom screen out and jumped out the window! About 4 feet below the window is the roof above part of the dining room, so Minnie was just on top of the roof (about 15 feet off the ground) meowing away, looking for help. So Sarah reached out the window and plucked her up and off the roof. Needless to say, that window is never getting opened again. Here's the window, and the loose screen. The screen needs to be fixed/replaced as the little latch on one side is missing apparently.
Now for the most important part of my Sunday... Game 7!!!

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Game 7 Baby!!!

Couple of quick hits as I finish off my Killians..
  • Tried a new pizza place, Amato's. Very good. Excellent breadsticks, above average pizza and didn't have too wait too long. Only downside is that they don't deliver.
  • I have a new nemesis. The man who invented the carpet staple. There's nothing worse than pulling up carpet and having to go around and pick those darn little staples out of the floor afterwards. KILLS my back. If I ever meet that guy, I'm totally going to challenge him to a duel.
  • Maine hockey up here is HUGE. How huge is it you ask. Well its so big that their games are broadcast on the local CBS affiliate and preempt the shows that are scheduled to be on at that time. Which means my lovely wife didn't get to watch Ghost Whisperer last night.
  • So every morning, I get up before Sarah. When I brush my teeth, I always put my toothbrush back on the bottom shelf of the medicine cabinet and the toothpaste back on the middle shelf. Every night, after she's brushed her teeth at least once that day, I find the toothpaste on the bottom shelf, not on the middle shelf where I left it and where it belongs. I put it one place, she puts it in another... its like some silent power struggle between the two of us...
  • So I tried to buy some beer today, but couldn't. I only have a temporary ID as I recently went to the DMV to get a Maine license. Because I don't have a picture ID, the woman at the store wouldn't sell to me. She said it was obvious I was over 21 (should I be insulted?), but couldn't sell to me unless I had a picture ID. She asked if I had one on me, and I responded that I didn't as my new license hadn't arrived yet, hence the temporary license. So she askes me in a very incredulous tone, "you have no other picture ID's". Umm, no. My only other pic ID is my passport, and I really don't carry that around with me. Besides your license, who has a secondary pic ID with your birthday on it??? So I had to have Sarah buy it for me at another store. How sad is that..
  • Huge win, great game, for the Sox tonight. Uncle D came over to watch. Before the game, and during the first 3 innings, my cousin David had his Pop Warner football championship game. I was rockin' the walkman, so I could watch his game and listen to the Sox game at the same time. 730 start under the lights, but unfortunately they lost. Great game though, and it was really great to see his improvement week to week.
  • Did some more work on the 3rd floor. We're going to have to rent a floor sander as the hand sander and belt sander just weren't cutting it. I'll have more pics later this week after we paint some more..

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Happy Birthday!!!

Quick points;
  • A big happy 0 birthday to little Emma Marie, born to my friends Jimmy & Stacey at 5:40am this morning. Happy to report that both mom and baby are doing very well. She was a little late (due a couple of days ago) but she's here and we can't wait to meet her. Hopefully she got her mom's looks.
  • A second happy birthday to Sarah's brother Andrew. That came out wrong. Its not his second birthday.. just add 30 or so years to that and you'll be in the neighborhood. Happy Birthday sir.
  • Speaking of birthdays, does anyone else out there remember the Zoom birthday song. Remember, you'd buy the little 45 with the one song on it, and you'd buy the one that had your name.. My name is Zoom, and I come from the moon...c'mon, anyone else remember that song?
  • Tried a new beer. Sebago Boathouse Brown Ale. It was just ok. 4.8%abv, with a deep brown color. Almost too malty for my tastes though. I'm a huge fan of the Sam Adams Brown ale, but this was much stronger in flavor. I didn't have anything to eat with it, but I have a feeling that it would have tasted better with something to eat, rather than just on its own. If you like the darker beers, I'd recommend trying it, but if you're like me and stick to the light to medium stuff, pass on it for now.
  • I also tried another new drink. V8 Splash. This stuff is great. For years now my mother, and now my wife, have been on me to eat more vegetables. This is the solution to all my problems. I don't like broccoli, I don't like asparagus and now I don't have to eat them! A couple servings of this is equal to a daily serving of vegetables. So just a couple of glasses of this yummy concoction and I'm good to go.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Isn't she studious?

Isn't it great. While Sarah is distracted with school work, I can sit and watch the Sox game in piece..
Anyway, earlier tonight we put a second coat of primer on the 3rd floor. Who knew that fake wood paneling was actually made from sponges? Its just soaking up the paint. We'll probably do one more coat, then paint the walls and trim. After that comes the fun part, sanding the floors and attempting to refinish them. (they're in HORRIBLE shape, but its worth a shot) We need to sand the trim before repainting it, so Maine uncles I'll be by at some point to borrow your hand sanders!
Couple of quick points..
  • Heard Poison, by Bel Biv Devoe on the radio today, and it made me think of Scrubs.
  • Tried another beer tonight. Geary's Autumn Ale. Euh, it was alright. Geary's is a Maine brewed beer, out of Portland. I tend to like their lighter beers better. This one is 5.8%abv, with a darker copper color. They're website said it was supposed to be brown ale, but you could have fooled me. I'll take a Sam Adams any day over this one. Once again though, it probably tastes better out of the tap, but since I haven't convinced Sarah to let me buy a kegerator yet, I can't tell you for sure. (btw, you can find kegerators cheaper than the one I linked too, I just picked that one cuz google had it at the top of their list)
  • I've been dealing with a lot of contractors lately at work (plumbers, contractors, etc.) and I always have this question in the back of my mind.. is this guy trying to rip me off? He can tell me what the solution to my problem is, but because I'm not a plumber, how the heck do I know if its the best way to fix the problem? I ask the guy for the best fix, and of course I get the.."well I can't guarantee anything but.." for an answer. The trick is to read the person to try to figure out if they're lying or not, but its not always easy to do.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Slow day

Not much to report on today. But I did try two new beers. (I just discovered that the beer store near my house allows you to split up six packs. So instead of buying a six pack of one beer, I can buy six different ones and try them all. And for someone in my situation, quality over quantity, that's a good thing)
First one is a Weyerbacher AutumnFest Ale. Excellent beer. Strong malt taste, which I like and copper in color. 5.4%abv, just a great transition between the lighter beers of summer and the dark winter brews. I've had three different Weyerbacher products, and so far all three have been quite good. Not sure why I haven't seen them in more stores,(they're out of PA) but I highly recommend them.
Second one was a Mount Desert Island Ginger. Its a local beer, out of Bar Harbor and Portland. Not a huge fan. Its a wheat beer (5.2abv), which I like, but they're not usually my first choice. The ginger is almost overwhelming in flavor. Golden brown in color, this beer wasn't really up to par. Not something I'd buy in the bottle again, but I would try it on tap at a restaurant, as most beers taste better out of the tap.
A question for my Framingham peeps. Has John Harvard's discontinued the Harvest Spice? I checked the website and it doesn't mention it...I was really looking forward to purchasing a growler next time I was in MA.
Anyway, that's all for now, not looking good for the Sox...

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Words to live by..

Who would have thought Kenneth was so bad arse??
(careful opening at work, there's a couple of bad words in there)

You asked for it, here it is.

So the little pep talk about my boring life (see previous post) was just the kick in the arse I needed. Quick weekend rundown followed pics of my newest endeavor into home improvement.
Ok, so Friday night, we tried TriCity Pizza. Supposed to be a great pizza place. Yet when I called, no delivery, no side orders (onion rings, chicken fingers, salads, etc) and it would be 45 minutes before I could come get it. So there's three strikes right there. The pizza itself was so-so. Besides Domino's, we really haven't found any good pizza up here yet. There's a new place that just opened up, so we're going to try that next.
Yesterday we went to a, well, I really don't know what it was. Fall Festival maybe? It was a farmer who had this fair-like thing set up and they were giving hay rides, had a petting zoo, selling apple cider, and had a maze made out of corn shaped like a sheep. Not the corn, they were shaped like corn, but the maze itself was sheep like. Here's a picture of the map at the entrance.
You entered at the head, like food, and exited between the legs, like drink. It probably took us about 15 minutes to navigate our way thru it. Technically you were supposed to find 5 trivia questions thruout the maze, answer the question and punch a little card they gave you with your answer. Sarah and I seemed to have missed this part and didn't see any questions at all. Uncle's B and M did do this part, so we all of course made fun of them for taking so long in the maze.
We then hit the Texas Roadhouse for dinner last night. There were 11 of us in total, so we called ahead for seating. This of course did nothing as we still had to wait forever for a table. The place was absolutely packed too! And not worth the wait. Food was decent,(fried steak for me. thankfully Sarah had the portable defibrillator handy) but there is never ever evah any reason to wait that long for decent food. Plus, it was so crowded we had to wait outside and it was pretty darn chilly out. The only good part was the free peanuts, and I love me some peanuts...
So today I finally started working on the 3rd floor. It has the UGLIEST brown carpeting up there (see below). The carpet is shag. Instead of pulling it up, I could have taken the lawn mower up there and gone to town on it. The walls are just your run of the mill cheapo fake wood paneling..
















I'm not sure who that guy is, but man is he good looking..

















And industrious!














After a couple of hours of work, (no radio up there, so I had my iPod on. My "singing" was so loud that Sarah could hear it 2 floors below. Aren't you glad you don't live with me too) I finished up. There's probably about 12 bags of carpet/carpet pads up there. There's a half arse coat of primer on the wall too. I need to put a more thorough coat on this week.















Sorry that the picture is so dark. I took it tonight and there's only one bulb in the overhead light.
I think we're going to try to sand and refinish the floor, but we'll see. Its in pretty tough shape. Paint (not mine) spilled everywhere, pieces of a laminate floor still stuck down, and carpet staples EVERYWHERE. But its a lot cheaper than recarpeting it or putting down a new floor entirely.
I gotta say though, pulling up carpet is never fun. Its the type of job you get some friends to help you out with, but all my friends are 250 miles away, so that wasn't going to happen. Once its done though, we're going to make it into another guest bedroom, cat free of course.
Stay tuned for more pictures this week, as I finish priming, then paint it. Hopefully next weekend we'll tackle the floor, but we'll see.

Constructive Critism. I love it, I need it.

So those of you who read my sometimes fun, sometimes boring ramblings know I tend to talk about the same things. I also ask for reader suggestions/feedback. Well, I've finally received some feedback and its great. I'm going to cut and paste his suggestions right here, with my own thoughts thrown in after in italics...
10. Buy a camera - seriously, there are no pictures on this thing.Carry a camera wherever you go. We are living in a visual world(HDTV, IPHONES etc) You're no Hemingway (it's true), we don't want to read about 3 feet high walls of sh*t, we want to see it. Very valid point. And its true, every time we go somewhere I always forget my camera. My camera phone does the trick sometimes, but its not good enough. Be prepared to see more pics now.
9. Get a Hobby or Hobbies - you need to do some more exciting stuff.Sue loved the before and after pics (see pictures, it sells trust me)of the renovations to the house. You have hobbies or had hobbies you just need to do them. Brew beer (in the cat free room though, it's"hair of the dog" not hair of the cat), go to wine tastings,breweries, train for a triathlon something. Hobbies, excellent suggestion. The problem is finding something interesting enough to write about. I'll do some thinking on this one and get back to you.
8. Ingratiate yourself in the Maine lifestyle - I am guessing many of your readers are not from Maine, so you need to go out and do as the Mainiacs do. Join a militia, go to county fairs, join a gun club, do stuff you can't do in Milton or Framingham. Gun club is on the radar, and we hit our 3rd "fair" yesterday. (see previous post)
7. Wean yourself off TV - seriously we get it, you love TV, you haveTIVOs, but it seems this is all you do. Aren't TIVO's supposed to allow you to live a life away from the couch? This is supposed to be your "life as the newest residents of the Atlantic Northeast" but all I am getting is you sitting on the same couch staring at the same TV from Framingham. Truthfully I sometimes think I can skip ahead inyour blog by just reading TV guide. BUT, if you're going to write about TV, maybe keep a weekly running blog about a favorite show like Lost, 24, Heroes or American Idol. I know, I watch too much tv. Its a life long addiction. I blame society and the pressures it puts on me to watch. I need to read more...
6. Another Cat? Really? - Dude sack up and get a dog. CATS are friends to no one but old ladies and who wants to hang with old ladies, right? DOGS are fun, everyone loves dogs. No one loves cats,let's examine this further:CATS:Siamese Cats from Lady & The Tramp, Sylvester of Sylvester & Tweety Bird fame, Tom of Tom & Jerry, Heathcliff "Heathcliff, Heathcliff no one should, terrorize the neighborhood",Garfield - lazy bas tard DOGS:Goofy, Pluto, Snoopy, Odie (yeah I said Odie,what of it?)Lady & The Tramp. Cats aren't mine! They're Sarah's I swear. And as for a dog, we're just too lazy to have one. Having Cody for a weekend made us realize that a dog isn't for us, with all the walking and picking up poop and all that.
5. Fell Free to NOT post - hey if nothing happened that day, don't feel the need to post. It's like you have an addiction to post stuff everyday. Sometimes I think you rival Spenser and Heidi from "The Hills" (for non Hills Fans substitute KFED or Paris) as the most written about person for actually doing nothing. This is a tough one. I like posting every night, its become part of my routine!
4. You need an entourage or a sidekick- we all need an entourage, but still. Seriously, there are no other people appearing in your blog.You could have murdered Sarah weeks ago and gone all Norman Bates onus and we wouldn't know. ("All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy"). Without other stars of the blog, you might as well as writing to Mr. Henshaw. I tell Sarah to write all the time, but like most normal people, she really has no interest. As for the sidekick, that's a toughie. I really haven't found any friends yet, never mind one willing to play second fiddle to me.
3. Avoid recurring themes - your readers want excitement not the same old stuff unless the same ol stuff is awesome. An adage to live by,if someone can making a drinking game out of your blog, you need to start switching things up. Sorry brother, that's my life right now, same old same old. Soon there will be more though, I promise.
2. You need to nail down that ranking system - I am not sure how to doit, I'll leave that up to you. But if you are ranking a beer I think all rankings should kind of have the same setup, here's what I am thinking:Harpoon Winter Warmer Style: Spiced Ale Orig. Gravity: 14.5 PColor: Dark CopperABV: 5.5%***** out of 5 stars. This cinamony winter ale is the best beer on earth. This is a tougher one. I'm still working on the details of my system. Stay tuned though.
1. Sex Sells- now before you get too personal here. Here is what I mean. Next time you get invited to a FRAT party, you go to the Fing frat party. My school didn't have FRATs. The pics alone from that party would make the blog. Ok there are 10 suggestions, just my opinion. But I think definitely more pictures. This will definitely happen. I wanted to go, the misses didn't, so you can blame her for that one!

All the suggestions are great and of course made me laugh. In the coming weeks, stay tuned for a better, more exciting jay..

Thursday, October 11, 2007

When the sh*t hits the fan..

Well, not really the fan, but just like 3 feet off the floor. See, I got home a little after 9 tonight, why you ask, well because the pipe that takes all the water/sewer to the main line outside in the street decided to back up. So when someone flushed their toilet, a geyser of poop shot out of the bathtub drain. I'll tell ya, you really haven't lived until you've seen poop and garbage disposal debris shot 3 feet in the air. Amazing really..
Besides that, not much went on today, although I did finally open up a bank account here in Maine. We have Sovereign bank accounts, but there are no Sovereigns up here. When I opened the account, I got a digital clock/indoor-outdoor thermometer. Pretty sweet huh. I always thought that was funny. You open a bank account with a bank and they give you a lousy gift. Last time I opened an account I got this crappy backpack/picnic basket thingy. It came with sporks and everything! Needless to say, it got the old heave hoe...
Also, Monday is Drew Carey's first day hosting The Price is Right. For those of you who don't have jobs out there, don't forget to tune in!
Alright time for bed. The plumbers are coming back at 730 tomorrow morning to tackle the problem again. Tonight was just a band-aid solution, tomorrow the real fun begins..

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Just another day I guess

So besides the three fire alarms that went off today, the sewerage coming up out of a residents bathtub and the first death of a tenant since I've been there, it was just another day in my life..

On a much happier note though, there's a rumor going around that we might have our first return visitors! (even though my parents have already come up twice, they only stayed with us once, and in a hotel on the second visit, so they weren't technically our guests) Sarah's parents are talking about coming back up in the next month or so. How great is that! Apparently it's not so bad up here huh.
I've just about finished up the last of my 6 pack of the Shipyard Pumpkinhead ale. I really can't say enough about it. Truly a tasty drink. I think, with the exception of Harpoon Winter Warmer, fall beers are my favorite. Dark, but not too dark and packed with flavor.

Did anyone else know that Garth Brooks is holding 9 concerts in November in Kansas City? We just found out today. The reason this is relevant is because my wife is a HUGE Garth fan. Tickets are obviously sold out, but there are a bunch on ebay. Don't think we'll be going.. ooh well.
And the Celtics won again today, for those of you who care. I obviously still do. The game was in London (preseason) and aired at 3pm. Thankfully it was replayed tonight, so I got to watch a lot of it.
I've been watching a lot of Countdown with Keith Olberman. Does watching a political themed show make me old? Although there is quite a bit of comedy thrown in there, so that makes it less bad. I put the blame on the tv networks though as there really is nothing on Wednesday nights. (we've tivo'd Pushing Daisies, just haven't got around to watching the first episode yet)

On a semi related note, it's recently been brought to my attention that I watch too much tv. What's that you say, not possible? I agree, but others seem to think differently. So I'm asking you, my faithful reader, for suggestions for a new hobby. Something that can take the place of some tv watching. I could start brewing beer again, but this is an activity that takes 3 hours to do, once every other week. I could go to the gym more often, but this is from like 5-6 after work. With my classes not starting until January I have some time to kill, so fire away with your suggestions.
Good to see Bob Saget getting work. (there's some bad language here)

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Taste great! Less filling!

Take two.. sorta..
Did you hear that Miller and Coors are merging to form a super beer company that'll still be smaller than Budweiser? Interesting on a couple of levels, but hopefully they won't downsize and get rid of some of the beers I actually drink. Otherwise though, I couldn't care less as I'm more of a namby-pamby microbrew kinda guy.

Not much to report on today. Yet another insane day at work, but that's just the way work is. Quiet around the house. Sarah came back tonight, which was nice. I can only talk to myself so often yaknow. Made a meatloaf, or more specifically two individual meatloaves for dinner. One covered in cheese for Sarah and the other in bbq sauce for me. Firefly's has started selling their bbq sauce in stores, and I picked some up the other day at Shaws. Memphis flavor. Great stuff. If you haven't been to any of their restaurants, I recommend stopping in. One of our favorite dishes of theirs are their fried pickles. I think I'll try frying some up tomorrow night, we'll see what happens.
Sorry I'm not more exciting today. Its Tuesday, how exciting can life be?

Monday, October 8, 2007

My favorite day

Monday isn't actually my favorite day, nobody likes Mondays. But Monday night is my favorite night as both How I Met Your Mother (fantastically funny episode yet again) and Hero's (they need to pick up the pace some, but still, great stuff) are on.
Not much to report on really today. Work's work, home is home, the misses comes back from Boston tomorrow. Which means I'll finally have someone to cook and clean for me...
  • Did anyone see that story about the plane full of skydivers that disappeared? I know its wrong to make jokes about death, but doesn't it strike you as odd that this plane could crash and no one survives? I mean, they all have parachutes on. Couldn't you just jump out and float to safety?
  • Celtics, Patriots, Red Sox and BC all looking great this year. Not a bad time to be a Boston sports fan euh. And yes, I did watch the first half the of the Celtics preseason game last Saturday. They're going to be real fun to watch this year.
  • To give you some insight into the level of ineptitude I have to put up with here on sports radio.. the two hosts who do the 4pm to 6pm show picked the Rams and 49ers, respectively, to win the Super Bowl. Um what? Both those teams will most likely finish with losing records. Way to go guys. Then again the big prizes they give away entail such lavish gifts such as $15 gift certificates to the local pizza place and the Ground Round. Wait a minute, I like both pizza and the Ground Round. I need to start calling in more!
  • Big goings on in Bangor this weekend. I actually wanted to go check it out, but forgot. Oh well, maybe next year.
  • I really need to invest in a laptop. Having the tv and the computer in different rooms is really a pain.
  • And lastly, my friend Phil is the king of the Top 10 list. Any list he comes up with is always hysterical, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Turns out mine isn't as funny as his... So without further ado,
    Top 10 Reasons I have a blog:
    10. Peer pressure, everybody's doing it.
    9. Instead of embarrassing myself on a local level, I thought I'd kick it up a notch to the world wide level.
    8. I've always wanted to write a book. This is as close as I'll ever get.
    7. There's not a lot else to do in Maine.
    6. I like to talk to people. Not seeing the friends often enough, this helps keep the phone bill down.
    5. Get to be part of the "blogosphere". (not to be confused with Biosphere)
    4. Wife got sick of listening to me babble on about things that don't interest her. Now I can bore everyone instead of just her.
    3. Gives me an excuse to try new beers, so I can rate them for others to try. It makes drinking alone a little less painful and pathetic
    2. Maybe someone from tvguide.com will read it and hire me to write for them
    1. I think I'm a lot funnier and more interesting than I actually am

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Da weekend

So nothing all that exciting to report on. Yesterday, we just drove to Bar Harbo, hitting some antique stores on the way there. We're looking for an old armoir for our front hall and a dining room table. NO ONE seems to have armoirs that aren't designed for tv's, we just want one to use as a closet as we don't have one by the front door.
As for the table... Sarah and I walked into one place and found the perfect table! Only to find out it was $25,000! Yes you read that correctly, and I'm not exaggerating. $25,000. Granted it was built in the 1880's but still. Do they expect someone to just happen to wander in one day and buy it?
Besides that, Sarah and I just hung out last night. Stopped in Bar Harbor and got some dinner, fried clams and onion rings for me and a lobster roll for her. And as for last night, boring. Just hung out and watched tv.
Didn't do much today either. Lots of yard work, raking etc., for me, followed by grocery shopping for the week. Of course the clicker got quite the work out flipping back and forth between the Pats and the Sox. Both great games, both great wins.
Sarah is down in Boston for the next couple of days, working, so it's just me in the house. I'm thinking I should probably be productive while she's gone, but who am I kidding, I'm really lazy. It'll most likely just be lots of tv watching.. pretty much what I do when she's around, except now I don't have to take into consideration what she wants to watch.
New beer alert: tried Shipyard Pumpkinhead. Highly recommend it for those of you who like the fall ales. Very similar, although not as good, to John Harvard's Harvest Spice (if memory serves, as I haven't had it in a year or so) Pick up a six pack, you won't regret it.
Not much else to report on, hope everyone's weekend was a little more exciting than mine!

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Home Field Advantage

Random thoughts..

  • This is what you're supposed to do when you're the home team fans;
  • Huge win by the Sox last night. Two great baseball games on actually with both the Sox and Indians winning in their final atbats. I don't want to take all the credit, but I do feel like some of it should go to me. You see, back in 2004 I purchased a red Manny Ramirez Red Sox t-shirt. I wore it from time to time, but never with a specific purpose. The night of game 4 against the Yankees, I ran upstairs and put it on hoping to bring some luck to the hometown 9. Well obviously it worked and I wore for the rest of the playoffs that year. Since then, I've worn the shirt from time to time, but again, never with a purpose. Last night was different though. With the Sox down 3-2 in the 5th, I ran upstairs, put on the shirt (the misses thinks I'm bat sh*t crazy), and they went on to win. Needless to say, I will be wearing the shirt again Sunday;
  • Coincidentally, I tried a new bottle of wine last night. 3 Blind Moose chardonnay. For the price ($15 a bottle, although I used my Shaw's card and only paid $12.99, how sweet is that. Can't do that in the puritanical state of Massachusetts. Well you can, but only in a limited number of grocery stores, but up here, every grocery store sells liquor. Using a rewards card to buy booze, fantastic. Its one of those things that makes me proud to be an American), it was very good. Fruity flavor, went down very smooth, no biting aftertaste, I'd definitely recommend it. Although it is kinda sad drinking alone. Sarah just has her one glass, half of which sits there unfinished and I drink the rest. I really need to find some friends;
  • For those of you who have been watching the playoffs.. how much do the TBS announces suck? They're horrible! On one play, Garrett Anderson hits a blooper down the right field line, jogs out of the batters box and doesn't start to sprint until he's 3/4 of the way to first. Well the TBS guys were praising him for his hustle on the play. HUH?!?!? Were they not watching the same game I was? Just not good at all;
  • Is it me, or is Dice-k rockin the mullet? Business in the front, party in the back baby;
  • So I was flicking back to the Bruins game on occasion last night. Not good. It seemed that the Stars scored only during Red Sox commercials, which isn't good for the Bruins. Manny Fernandez (their new goalie) has no business wearing Andy Moog's number 35 either;
  • And for all you Pats fans out there... don't forget, while you're cheering for the Patriots every week, to root against the 49ers. Remember, the Patriots have the 49ers first round pick this year, which could be a very very good pick seeing how bad the they are. This means you, San Francisco in-laws! You guys are closest to the 49ers, so if you happen to see Frank Gore walking down the street, don't be afraid to tap him with your car. You don't have to really hurt him, just put him out for a couple of games, that's all;
  • I noticed a bunch of players growing playoff beards. Now I'm all about randomly growing a beard, especially during the playoffs, but if you're going to grow it, you can't shave some of it. Guys are shaving under their chins around the neck. No good! You have to let the whole thing just grow across your face. That's the way its supposed to work;
  • Not much going on this weekend, which is nice. "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." Seriously though, not sure what's on the agenda. Maybe a trip to the unfinished furniture store, maybe a little antiquing, who knows what kind of crazy misadventures we'll get into! Tomorrow is round 3 of leave raking Sundays though, gotta make my yard all nice and pretty. Believe it or not, I love doing all this stuff that goes along with owning a house. I'll probably end up running some new cable wires around the house this weekend too. Good times. (the previous owners just ran the cable from the basement up thru the floor. I hate that, it makes a hole in the perfectly good floor. It takes 10 extra minutes to do it the right way and run the cable into the wall, where it should be);
  • Forgot to mention it during my posting earlier this week, but I read a great book(thanks Phil) while traveling the other day. Committed, by Mark St. Amant. It's this guy who loves fantasy football, so he quits his job (with his wife's permission of course) and goes on a year long quest to learn everything there is to learn on fantasy football and win the league he's in with his buddies. Its nonfiction too, that's the best part. Man, how great would that be. Although I supposed one would need the ability to put together coherent sentences in order to write a book, so I should find a new dream. My style of stream of consciousness doesn't really make the grade in the publishing world. Oh well.
  • I changed my ring (thank you Verizon V-cast) to Toby Keith's "I'm not as good as I once was". For someone like me who peaked in high school, I think its fitting.
  • And for all those crazy Northrup's out there..

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Almost there..

Almost the weekend.. phew. I can't wait.
So I finally got around to watching Monday nights Hero's episode. Loved it. Then again, its probably my favorite show right now on tv. Just finished watching the Office tonight. Another stellar show. Its like a how to and how not to be a boss for me, all rolled into one hour of laughalicious tv.
Not much to report on today. Went to Bugaboo Creek for dinner with my lovely wife (their bbq meatloaf is to die for!), then to my uncle's house for some birthday cake cuz today is my cousins 12th birthday. We of course, bought him the best gift, a Teddy Bruschi jersey, but he's at that age where any clothes you buy him fit him for like 12 minutes before he out grows it. Enjoy it while you can David.
After that we hit Target so I could go buy all the toiletries I had to throw out the past couple of days (see previous post for back story). Quiet night all around though..
Oh I forgot to mention this last week. While my brother was in LA visiting a friend he sent me this picture:
Recognize it? Nakatomi Tower! From Die Hard, the original one. Anyway, I thought it was pretty cool.

Off to bed now..latah..

Happy Birthday!

A big Happy Birthday to Eileen!!!! I won't say how old she is, but I will say that I'm 30 and she's the same now :)

Miss me?

You might want to grab a snack or hit the bathroom before you start reading this. This could be a long one, and there's no intermission scheduled... and excuse the worse than usual grammar, I'm very tired...
Let's start at the beginning, Tuesday. I arrive at Bangor International Airport about an hour before my flight, ready to go. I park the car (only $7 a day!), check in (six American Eagle employees hanging out at the desk, just looking for something to do) and head up to security. As I make my way thru the Disneyesque weaving line for security, where i'm the only one in line, a light goes off in my head. Sh*t. I packed all my toiletries. Face wash, shaving gel, moisturizer and after shave (luckily I forgot the toothpaste at home). All of which are bigger than the 3 oz's allowed and all of which are expensive. I try to take good care of my skin, what can I say? So I have to throw everything out. The lesson, as always, I'm an idiot.
It must have been a good day at the airport as the crack staff only set off the master alarm twice in the 30 or so minutes I sat there. No one could figure out how to use the keypad on the door. Anyway, the plane is tiny (3 seats to a row, as were all my planes the past couple of days), and the pilot looks like the flying version of Doogie Howser, all 12 years old of him. Not much I can do but pray, so off to Logan we go.
At Logan I decide to get some lunch. After some careful consideration, McDonald's is the lucky winner. One tiny problem though. NO ONE working there speaks english, so I have to use my fingers to show which value meal I want (#9 chicken nuggets, can't go wrong). I have no problem with people coming to this country and working hard to better their life, but if you're can't speak the language, don't get a job in the service industry!
(side note, ever notice that there are never any clocks in airports? For people like me who don't wear a watch, you have to find one of those little arrive/depart tv's to see what time it is. One would think that having large time pieces in a time based field would be beneficial. Then again, the flights are always delayed anyway, so its tough to miss your flight.)
I arrive in Pittsburgh and take the airport shuttle to my hotel and check in. (Side note #2, working for the cheaparse company I do, they decide that everyone at training will have to share a room. With a complete stranger. Someone I've never met before in my entire life. Weird.)
So I go up to the room, open the door, and what do I see? A room with one bed and a pull out couch.
Being the aforementioned idiot that I am, I decide to be a nice guy and give the bed to my early 60's roommate, who turns out snores like its his job. Once I shared a hotel room in Spokane, WA, with my parents and I ended up sleeping in the bathroom cuz my dad snored so loud. This guy was a close second to that.
Ironically enough, I had a very vivid dream that my back really hurt, and when I woke up, my back hurt! Go figure. You'd think that some scientician out there would invent a pull out couch mattress that wasn't the most uncomfortable thing ever to sleep on.
So I won't bore you with the training details, except the following tid bits:
1. Two of the guys there thought that I looked like Toby from The Office. Huh?? C'mon now! I've been told that I look like Matt Damon ( I love drunken Georgetown girls), which obviously isn't true, and some guy from Ugly Betty, which I've never watched, but Toby! The guy is like 10 years older than me and such a depressing character. Not cool.
2. The guy sitting next to me spent half the class looking on Craigslist.com for girls in Pittsburgh to email to go out that night. Can you say sketchy?

Off to the Pittsburgh airport I go where of course my flight is delayed and of course its one of those tiny 3 seats to a row planes again. This time though, I get a wannabe Goodfella sitting next to me. Overweight, black shoes, black pants, black expensive t shirt, very much balding and a gray goatee, and he decides that he wants to take up as much of my space as possible. So as I'm perusing the Sky Miles catalog (trying to decide which would be more useful. A portable breathalyzer, an electric tie rack, an inspirational poster (yaknow, the ones that have a pick of a man on top of a mountain with the word 'achievement' and some inspirational quote under it) and a toaster that cooks both the hot dog and bun at the same time) and wannabe Tony next to me starts falling asleep, allowing himself to sprawl into my sacred personal space. Not cool. So I take the passive aggressive approach. Cough a little too loud, trying to wake him up, shuffle around in the seat trying to get comfortable occasionally nudging him and after those don't work I decide to start tapping my leg to the beat of my iPod (cuz of course his leg was up against mine) Doesn't work. So I sit pancaked to the window of the plane for the duration of the flight. I hate people.
And finally, I'll end with these snippets:
  • A big "what the heck?" to Mike, Phil, Rob and Jim, none of whom answered their phone last night when I called looking for a Red Sox score. Seriously, I expect better of you guys.
  • And a big thank you to my lovely wife for answering the phone and giving me the score in her own little broken baseball lingo kinda way.

Well, I'm home now, and not flying again for a while, thank god. Although the misses is heading back to Boston for a couple of days this wknd/next week, so I'll be all alone in the house. Do you think its possible to bring the fridge and microwave into the living room for a couple of days? I guess there's only one way to find out...

Monday, October 1, 2007

Is it the weekend yet?

Crazy day at work today, off to Pittsburgh I go tomorrow...
  • So I finally purchased the new Kenny Chesney cd, via iTunes. Very good cd, I've only listened to it once so far, but I'll listen a couple more times when I'm flying the next couple of days. He seems like he's going for that Jimmy Buffet market though. Lots of songs about the Caribbean, same kinda sound. Can you blame him though, Buffet has to retire sooner or later..
  • Three minutes left in the Patriots game as I write this. Big big win
  • So I'm thinking that I need to more to Hollywood. Commercials seem to be full of funny looking guys who can't really act. I'd say I fit that bill pretty darn well. Sarah, start packing!
  • In Pittsburgh, the company is making us share hotel rooms. So I get to room with some dude from NY whom I've never met before. Umm, are you kidding me?? What if he's a clepto and steals all my stuff? What if he sleep walks? What if he doesn't want to watch the tv shows I want to watch!?!?
  • And of all the dumb things to say...ever heard of separation of church and state my friend? Reason number 123,343,634,980 not to vote republican. I used to like McCain, but it seems like once every couple of months he just says something really dumb. Like his inside voice slips out to the outside sometimes.