Hump Day!

Or more importantly, one more day until the season premier of LOST and four more days until the Super Bowl!

So, in Bangor there's a law that you can't smoke in a car with minors in it. The theory being that the smoke is confined to the vehicle so you're exposing the kids to second hand smoke. And by the sounds of things, it seems like the state of Maine is going to adopt the same law..

Why is it that a woman can say that she wants to marry a man who's handy around the house and can fix things, but if a man says he wants to marry a woman who can cook and clean, he gets in all sorts of trouble?

When we were living in Boston, while at work I would listen to the local country music station. Every day at noon, they would stop what they were doing and would play the nation anthem. Peculiar right? Well apparently all country music stations do this because the three I listen to up here all do the same thing. And its never the same version either..

I got my hair cut today and it got me thinking. Ever wonder who the first person was that decided we need to get our hair cuts in certain styles? I mean, I can understand cutting it so its not in your eyes while you're hunting back in olden times or whatever, but who decided that getting people to pay for hair cuts would be a great idea? After spending $15-20 every two or three weeks, I wish he hadn't...or better yet, I wish I had been the guy to think of it. Or better yet, why is it that all barber shops/hair salons have those pictures of people with different hair cuts on the wall? Maybe they should number them, like McDonalds or something, so when you walk in you can just say you want a number 2 or whatever.

We hit Sam's Club (there are no Costco's or BJ's around here) tonight to get provisions for the Super Bowl. Everything in bulk for the 7 people or so that may or may not be coming over. Yes, I have a tendency of buying too much. While there, I tried to convince the wife to purchase a pallet of Bacardi, but after a quick moments thought, she begrudgingly said no.

Both Edwards and Guiliani dropped out of the presidential race today. I never really thought Guiliani had a shot, but I can totally see John Edwards as the vice president though. Clinton and Obama hate each other and are both northeners, and Edwards is a nice southern guy which will help procure the needed southern vote that republicans might otherwise tend to get. But what the heck do I know. I don't really start to pay attention until after the primaries and the candidates are established.
Don't forget to watch LOST tomorrow night...

Ramblings..

• So apparently after high school games (hockey and basketball, which are broadcast on the radio, sometimes preempting Celtics games) they interview the "star" of the game. Highest of high comedy. Its basically a series of "ahhs", "ya know", and "umms" followed by as many sports cliche's as you can possibly fit into one long run on sentence.
• You know that guy on tv who hocks all the "as seen on tv products"? Like the industrial cleaners, the random knife sharpeners and other items you'd never buy otherwise. The short guy with the beard who basically yells at the camera.. well he makes me want to buy stuff. I don't know what it is, but he has some sort of Force like hold on me, making me want purchase whatever it is he's selling. White gloves and a ketchup popsicle? Fire it up! Knife that can cut your car in half, I'll take two. Thankfully my wife has a stronger hold on my wallet...
• Amusing story to me, gross to my wife... So I come home from work today and put leftovers in the microwave for lunch. While its spinning for the required 2 minutes, I use the bathroom which is off the kitchen. I put the seat up (like i've been trained), do my thing and finish up. As I open the door, Lucy (our insane six month old cat ) comes trotting in and hops up on the side of the bowl. She does this cuz she loves to watch the water spin in circles down the drain. Now here's where it gets amusing/gross.. she then begins to lick the toilet bowl! Now as my wife and mother can attest, I don't always have the best of aim, so sometimes a drop or 7 might find their way onto the rim of the bowl. As I shoo her away, all I can think is, geez, she licks the wife's hands all the time, and I seriously doubt she brushes her teeth between bowl lickings... hence the amusing for me, not so much for the lovely wife...
• Everyone ready for LOST Thursday night? We just finished rewatching Season 1. Just a fantastic show. Those of you who bailed after a less than perfect second season really don't know what you're missing out on. The writers have recovered and gave us a completely 100% engaging Season 3. The story has taken numerous paths, but they always come back into their wheelhouse, which is dealing with the original group of main characters.
• Anyone else heard the new Garth Brooks/Huey Lewis duet? Working for a Living. Fantastic song. It brings two of my favorite people together too. For my money, Huey Lewis Sports is one of the 10 best albums ever..
• Fun point: the ringtone on my phone is Toby Keith, As good as I once was. Problem is, whenever the song comes on the radio or on my iTunes I think my phone is ringing. The lesson as always, I'm an idiot.
• Is it wrong that watching The Biggest Loser makes me hungry?

6 Days and Counting..

So remember the other day I mentioned how the wife was tearing apart our bedroom walls? Well, here's the proof..
See the nice ugly wallpaper? It's gotta go right. And yes, we need a better tv stand, and again, those are indian shutters, which are the best thing ever. They keep the cold out, and on those mornings you want to sleep in, they keep all the light out.
That, my friends, is whats underneath. The part on the left is original horsehair plaster, and you can actually see all the horsehair. The blue is a layer that was put on before the outside wallpaper and it really has no interest in coming down. We've got a pretty big bedroom, so this should be fun to say the least..

• So I'm driving home from work today for lunch and this SUV takes a right on red out of a parking lot cutting me off. As it heads toward the next light, it begins swerving back and forth in and out of both lanes. I'm thinking, ok he's hammered, not good, but at least its noon. When they finally settle into one lane, I see what it is.. it's a lady on a cell phone trying desperately to light her cigarette.
  Now one of the many benefits of moving to Maine is that my road rage has dissipated to a degree where it is nonexistent. No more yelling at other drivers, while my poor, yet tolerant wife rolls her eyes at me. Well I'll tell you, it's a good thing the rage is gone. I couldn't believe this lady. Its like she had no idea that there are other cars on the road.. amazing really.
• Tough loss by the Celtics yesterday. Fun game to watch, they played hard, but just seemed to run out of steam at the end. Any time a team beats you with a fall away 3-pointer all you can do is give them their props and move on.
• I got confirmation today that my youngest brother will be coming up with my parents to visit. I couldn't be more excited, and its weird, because I've never really been excited to see my brothers before. I suppose the last time I was, was at my wedding. Them cracking jokes and making fun of me really helped me relax , because everyone knows that making nervous jokes really doesn't make the minister or bride to be all that happy (one of them also dispensed the most crucial advice of the night, don't lock your knees while standing. Apparently it prohibits blood flow, which you kinda need if you want to remain standing. So thanks for that Matt). It's weird not seeing them all that often now that I've moved. I talk to all my friends a lot on email, but they all have jobs where they can email during the day. My brothers don't play on email nearly as much as me (then again, who does), and I'm not really a phone guy, so I don't get to talk to them all that often. So it'll be nice to see whomever comes up.
• 3 hour snow mobile rides are fun and all.. but my jacket still smells like exhaust. I'm gonna have to Frebreeze the heck out of it tonight. Speaking of Frebreeze, what a great product. I remember years ago spraying Lysol out of the aerosol can and it was so strong you couldn't get the taste out of your mouth for days. You'd walk into a room and it would be like walking into a mountain mist scented wall. No more. Our friends at Frebreeze figured out that aerosol wasn't the way to go and put it in a spray bottle. And to top it off, their product actually works! But I digress...
• Two book reviews:
  1. Marketing Your Dreams by Pat Williams. What a book. A friend sent it to me, and I plowed thru it in no time, and I highly recommend it to you too. The book is about finding a job that you love. I know, I know, sounds impossible right, but apparently its not. Here's the thing though, the author uses his mentor Bill Veeck as the examples. Bill Veeck was a great baseball man, owned a bunch of teams in the 60's-70's-80's. LOVED baseball. Worked his way up thru the ranks to eventually own teams, major league and minor league. So there's a lot of baseball in the book, but for someone like me, thats a good thing. Its basically all sorts of tips on living life and working, and being successful. Very well written and almost depressing and uplifting at the same time because his case study is a man who loved his life and work which is great, yet most of us will never be as happy in work as he was...
  
  2. Born Standing Up by Steve Martin. The book is all about his life from age 20 or so up until he started making movies 15 or so years later. Quick easy read, but a lot of fun, lots of laugh out loud moments. Again, if you're looking for a fun read I definitely recommend it.
  
  Next up, Triumph by Jeremy Schaap. Its the story of Jesse Owens and Hitler Olympics...

Good day..

So we didn't do much last night, just went to dinner and spent the rest of the night watching TLC and the Celtics game. Sad huh, but it works for us.
Today, I went for a 2 hour, 28 mile, snowmobile ride with my uncle and cousin. Good times all around. I love being outside, out on the sled. You totally lose yourself in your thoughts. Its like when I was younger, I'd go to church just so I could have those 45 minutes to think and relax without interruption (besides all that sitting/standing kneeling of course). Now, I go snowmobiling.
This is just a view down part of the trail. As you can tell, they're really well groomed so its a very smooth ride. It some parts the trail is probably 20 feet across, in others its wide enough for a sled, maybe two.
Me and my new best friend.. ooh and my cousin D. :)
Great news, we have our next visitors scheduled to come up! My parents are coming up the wknd after the Super Bowl. Now we just need to guilt my brothers into coming up too. Although one will say he's coming, then bail at the last minute, and the other will say he has to work even though he doesn't. That's how they roll :) Whatever though, if they don't love their big brother enough to come up and visit once, its cool... no really, it is.. I'll get over it..
And for anyone else thinking of visiting, I have a tip. Come up in the winter when we can do snow related activities, or wait until the summer to come up. Spring is just cold and rainy, so we'll be stuck in the house the entire time. Now that's just a tip, you're always welcome to come up whenever you'd like though and we'd love to have you up.
I came home from work the other day and the wife had made the executive decision to switch her office with the spare bedroom. Fair enough. Even though she just painted her office... I come home today from snowmobiling, and 1/3 of the wallpaper is ripped off our bedroom walls. Yay! Now I get to look at tattered walls for the next six weeks, until we pick a paint color. And by we, I mean she, as I'm not allowed to pick paint colors. I've picked too many horrible ones in the past. Although its probably a good thing that she started peeling the wall paper, otherwise we would have just kept putting it off and never done it.

Top Songs of the 90's

So VH1 is running a show where they count down the top 100 songs of the 90's. The wife and I caught the top 40 or so, and around 30 I started to keep track.. So here are our thoughts..
29. Ice Ice Baby - Vanilla Ice: This song is borderline iconic. No way it should be this far down the list, top 10 definitely.
28. Ricky Martin - Livin La Vida Loca: At the time, everyone loved it. Now, not so much. Although he did single handily usher in the short lived era of latin music in the U.S.
27. Counting Crows - Mrs. Jones: Who didn't own this cd. I think its our generations version of Peter Frampton Comes Alive. It was basically issued to you if you lived in the suburbs. And another thing, how did the lead singer (Adam Duritz) end up dating so many hot women? The man looks like Side Show Bob..
26. Eminem - Slim Shady: Where did he disappear to?
25. Sound Garden - Black Hole Sun: This song has no business being in the top 25. The wife had never even heard it before.
24. House of Pain - Jump Around: this song got me dancing at high school dances. I couldn't dance, so wouldn't dance, but then this came out. All you have to do is jump, how easy is that. Its about this point I realized that girls like guys that are willing to make fools of themselves trying to dance.
23. Salt n' Pepa - What a man: I used to know all the words to it. Perhaps the first song ever by a girl band praising a guy, and not ripping him a new one.
22. Beck - Loser: loved it when it came out. could only understand one out of every 10 words, and he's now apparently a devote Scientologist (crazy).
21. Celine Dion- My heart will go on: That song from Titanic. Nobody likes Celine Dion, and this song just made our hatred worse. Although it is the best ballad written about drowning.
20. Hanson - Mmm Bop: C'mon, you know you loved it. Admit it, its a catchy tune. And until you found out they were 3 brothers and not sisters, you kinda thought the middle one was cute..wait, never mind..
19. Beastie Boys - Sabotage: One of the best video's of the decade.
18. Metalica - Enter Sandman: Good song, great entrance music for your local 9's closer.
17. Destinys Child - Say my name: There were 4 girls in the group at the time, 2 left, one more joined. Do you think the 2 that left are still kicking themselves?
16. MC Hammer - Can't touch this: Again, everyone loved this song, and you still know all the words.
15. Red Hot Chilly Peppers - Under the Bridge: Not much to say on this one. Liked the song, top 15 of the decade... not in my book.
14. Mariah Carey - Vision of Love: I admit it, at the time I owned like 7 Mariah cd's. I dont know what was wrong with me, but i've since been fixed. But of all her songs, this is the one that makes the top 15?
13. Dr.Dre & Snoop -Ain't Nothing but a G thing: Ahh, remember those good times, sitting around playing Sega (NHL 94 preferably), listening to The Chronic, thinking we were all cool as white kids in the suburbs? good times..
12. Alanis Morrisette -You outta know: This song still scares me. it made all girls angry, and thats never a good thing.
11. Pearl Jam - Jeremy: GREAT song. loved it, although they went seriously down hill fast after this album.
10. Sinead O'Connor -Nothing Compares to you: can't stand her, not a fan of the song really
9. REM - Losing My Religion: I remember being over my friend Mike's house when this video came on MTV. His mom came into the room and said that she really liked this song. After watching the video, she decided that she didn't like it anymore. Still its catching, and everyone knows the words.
8. TLC - Waterfalls: this song was huge the summer of my senior year, 1995. It was on the radio every 10 minutes, and i did in fact have the cd. Everytime I hear it, it makes me think of that summer, good times.
7. Britney Spears - Hit me baby one more time: I remember coming home and my brother Steve telling me I had to watch TRL to see this video when it came on. She was only 16 at the time, so it was kinda wrong, but once she turned 18 (and was still sane) it wasn't so wrong. Now, its just sad...
6. Sir Mix Alot - Baby got back: EVERYONE knows this song. It even made its way into an episode of Friends. The best was the video though, with him just dancing and singing on a giant ass.
5. Madonna - Vogue: The only thing memorable about this was the dance (lots of hand motions framing your face) and the cone bra. One was cool, one not so much.
4. Whitney Houston - I will always love you: See #7. Amazing voice, snorted it all away.. sad.
3. Backstreet Boys - I want it that way. Yes, I'll admit it, I loved this song, and whenever it comes on the radio, I turn it all the way up. If you were man enough (or woman enough) you'd admit it too.
2. U2 - One: Great great song, though Bono really gets on my nerves now. He seems to be everywhere.
1. Nirvana - Smells like teen spirit: Until they said what #1 was, I had completely forgotten about this song. Wasn't a huge Nirvana fan, but they did single handily usher out the hair band era...

How do college students survive??

I know I don't often have much to post, but in my brief (an hour and a half) time on campus yesterday I saw two examples of extreme stupidity and it makes me wonder how anyone survives being a college student.
I have finally learned to check the temperature before I leave the house because otherwise I end up too bundled up, or not bundled enough. According to the thermometer it was 12- therefore longer coat, hat, gloves, and tights under the jeans- it's a decent walk from the parking lot to class. On that trek, I was walking past the Student Union and a very tan (which looks odd in the winter) girl wearing a little hoodie, shorts and ugg boots hops out of her car and trots into the building. Well at least she had boots on so she was warm below the knee...
Then after class I am hurrying back to the car because it is pretty late in the afternoon and starting to feel colder (ah the windchill!) and I see a kid walking around with a t-shirt on (pants too) nothing else. Now I understand you think it's going to be 60 and it's 50 maybe you make the T-shirt mistake, or it is supposed to warm up so you dress for later... But there is no possible way that this was the mistake he made. And he looked COLD. If I was his professor I would take away points for stupidity.
I know dressing warm isn't cool- although with all the hat, glove, matching sets out there and Ugg-type boots being a fashion statement it has gotten better- but given the choice between frostbite and looking dorky, is it really a tough choice to make? (this coming from someone who usually believe fashion before function!)

One More Day

Thursday, one more day until the wknd.
Busy day at work. Conf calls, revolving office door, just generally busy. Around 3 o'clock I realized that I hadn't had anything to eat yet today. Not good.
So the wife chastised me yesterday. Said it was wrong of me to use a spoon in the morning to feed the cats, leave it in the sink, then reuse that same spoon that evening to feed them again. She said it was "gross" leaving it in the sink all day. Now keep in mind, these are the same animals that lick each others arses, eat their own mess when they get sick and lick their naughty bits on a regular basis.. but reusing a spoon is gross? Ahhh I don't think so lady :)
Anyone else out there use their iTunes on a regular basis? Is it me or does there seem to be a new version update once a week? One would think that the smart people at iTunes would roll out an update once every 6 months or whatever, not once every six days.
So what do you think about this tax rebate plan Congress is going to roll out? $600 for single people and $1200 for married folks. The extra money would be nice (if anyone wants to start sending my lovely wife subliminal messages to spend the money on a pair of new recliners, I would be much obliged), but I don't believe I'll see a penny until that check is actually in my hand. One report says the checks will come out in June, another said in 60 days, so April or so. Either way, free money is free money.
Tough loss for the Celtics last night, but when the opposing team shoots 58% from the field and 71% from three point range, there's really nothing you can about it. They played well, but Toronto just had one of those all time nights. It didn't seem to matter how well the C's played defense, every Raptor shot fell. Just one of those nights I guess. Al Jefferson and the Timberwolves come to town tomorrow night. Jefferson is averaging 20/12 (with a huge 39/15 dropped on Amare Stoudamire the other night) and Ryan Gomes is throwing up a 12/5 every night too. Good to see these guys doing well, although I'm still glad the trade was made.
No real big plans for the wknd, just things to do around the house, maybe go see a movie. I'm trying to convince the wife to go see Cloverfield, so we'll see. If she had it her way, we'd be seeing Alvin and the Chipmunks. Otherwise, nothing to do but hope for nice-ish weather to do some snowmobiling...

Just another day..

Nothing all that exciting to report on. Work's work, home is home.. Although for all of you out there who care, I bought a new surround sound system today. Nothing all that fancy or high tech, just basic for what I need for our smallish living room. I think I might try to sell my old system (that still works fine, but doesn't want to talk with my tv) on ebay. I'm going to run the wires this weekend to connect the two rear speakers. Gotta go thru the wall, down into the basement and back up on the otherside of the room. Hopefully I won't make too many holes in the wall..
Anyone out there see the Jerry O'Connell video spoof of Tom Cruise? I highly recommend you take five minutes to watch it. Hilarious stuff..
Remember the town in Texas that saw all the UFO's last week? Well the Air Force solved the mystery for us! A week after saying there were no planes in the air that night, they're now saying there was. How nice of them to change their story to fit their needs. I'm not saying that UFO's were hanging around Texas, but I seriously doubt it was F-16's or whatever.
So every day, I find myself turning a little more into my dad. Not that that's a bad thing (I just hope I don't go quite as gray though, sorry dad), but it just means I'm progressing in age. I say things he used to say (when wrestling, "no neck! no neck!" or "man o' man alive" when in awe of something) but now I'm pulling a truly original Mr. Morrissey trait. Wearing not one, but two sweatshirts at a time cuz I'm too cheap to turn up the heat. (we keep the house between 58 and 62). Like I said, its not a bad thing at all, my dad's a great man, but its scary cuz I don't want to get old like him!
So there was an article in the Bangor Daily News today about how a local landfill is having methane powered engines installed, so that they can produce electricity. They say that the gas will produce enough power to light 3000 or so homes. I don't understand why more landfills don't take advantage of this. Sounds like easy money for them, and an effective way of avoiding pollution while producing electricity.
I use the word "so" a lot when starting a new paragraph huh. I also use the "..." a lot too. I think I need to tighten up my writing style some.
Sad to hear about Heath Ledger huh. I liked most of the movies he was in, and am really looking forward to the new Batman movie this summer. I hope it wasn't suicide or an overdose, maybe he was just sick, had a heart issue that went undetected, who knows...

Weekend Roundup

So the rest of the weekend was good. Nothing all that crazy, just relaxing and productive. Of course we watched the Pats game on Sunday. Neither team played particularly well, but I'll take the win. Can't wait for the Super Bowl. I think that the Giants will put up quite the fight, but I don't think it'll be an outcome they're happy with.
As you can see from the pictures below, I painted my bookshelves. Originally, I just stained the wood, but it didn't quite look right in the room..
Looks nice enough, but with all the white trim, it wasn't quite right.

As you can see, the white makes it look much cleaner and it matches the trim etc. That was my last project I've been putting off. Now I need to build a wine rack (or should I say, attempt to build a wine rack which will also hold my new wine cooler), finish the 3rd floor stairs, build a second set of shelves for the above pictured room (that ones obviously full) and pick paint colors for our bedroom. Speaking of which, does anyone out there have any ideas on how to reseal wallpaper to the wall? The wallpaper is peeling at the seems in our bedroom and I don't want to pull it down due to the fact that its plaster and not drywall behind it. So I think we're just going to paint over the wallpaper. Any tips on how to fix the seems?

• The wife and I began watching season 1 of LOST, in anticipation of the new season starting in a couple of weeks. Its fun going back and noticing all the little things that add up to what we know about the characters now..
• Sad new, I had to retire my favorite pair of swishy(aka, running/nylon) pants from public use. They just have too much paint/dirt/stain/whatever on them, so they're now my "work around the house" pants. Thankfully I bought a new pair to replace them.
• Good news! Looks like we have potential for two sets of visitors in February. My parents are thinking of coming up and some of the wife's friends are too. Can't wait! You know how much I love people visiting :) Plus, knowing people are coming, motivates me to finish up stuff around the house.
• Tried two new beers: 1. St.Louis Premium Framboise. Its a raspberry Belgian Lambic Ale. A lot of you out there aren't into the fruit flavored beers, but I recommend trying this one. Its only 2.8 abv, but that's not the point. Its very tasty. Its sweet, like a sparkling cider, only its beer. The wife loves the stuff, so that's gotta count for something right? Overall, I'd give it 6.5, with points taken away for the lack of alcohol. 2. St. Bernardus Prior 8. As you can tell, I'm a big fan of the Belgium ales. This one was also very tasty, but obviously more beer like and less fruity. It was darker than I expected, but still went down very smooth. A slight hint of chocolate, but I really only tasted it on the first sip. I'd give this one a sold 8, and would highly recommend giving it a whirl.
• Ok, time to get back to Dirty Jobs...
  
  

The Best Birthday Ever, and Then Some!

Ok, before we get to the birthday business, first a proud moment or two for me. Remember when we first moved in, I posted pictures of the 3rd floor and how nasty we said it was. Ugly, two inch high shag carpeting that had been there for 20 plus years...
And it didn't smell all that nice either...
And all the hard work it took to take up the carpet. As I type this, carpet staples are still my mortal enemy. There was paint spilled all over the floor and glue from a couple different carpets, never mind the 1,000,000 staples that were there and the 200 lbs radiator that needed to be moved off the carpet and into the hall.
Then instead of paying someone to finish the floors, we did them ourselves. Well here you go, the final product. I've gotta say, I'm really thrilled by the way everything came out. The floors are by no means perfect, but they never would have been. They've been really beat up over the past 100 years or so...

Can you believe that? Look how amazing that looks. I'm sorry, I've gotta brag about this one. Its a complete 180 from before. We're either going to make this into another spare bedroom, or make it the wife's office, we'll see (it has its own thermostat, so it would be easier to heat as its just one room). It still needs a new ceiling light, but we're going to wait for Lowe's to open in the next couple of weeks before buying one. Home Depot just doesn't have a very good selection.

I have another project I worked on too, but I'll wait until tomorrow to show you those pictures (see kids, that's what they call a tease in the business)

Today, what a day, my birthday!

So today was the 31st anniversary of my birth, why its not a national holiday, I'll never know. Anyway, the day started off great with presents! And who doesn't love presents. The wife got me two books (one on brewing and the other on the guys that founded DogFish Head beer(you have no idea how excited I am for this book as these guys are my idols), can't wait to read them) and two dvd seasons (season 2 of LOST and season 1 of Jericho). Really the perfect gifts for me as I love to read, I love to brew my beer and I love those two tv shows. She also got me a years renewal to xbox live, which I really needed as mine ran out so I couldn't play online until I reuppped.
Next, I opened the gift from my brother's-in-law and sister-in-law (they all chipped in on one fantastic gift), Guitar Hero III. I've played this game exactly once in a my life, and loved it. Great stuff. Oh, and Friday I got a gift from my parents. They sent me four of those new Sam Adams glasses. They're really cool, and you could taste the difference in the beer. It almost makes a bottled beer taste like it came from the tap. (beer on tap is almost always better than out of the bottle/can)

After working around the house most of the day, I got the call to go snowmobiling...Perfect day, about 25-30 degrees, all the trails perfectly groomed

That's me on my uncle's sled. Its a little bigger as its designed for two people. I hit about 55 today, and that's fast enough for me. It literally feels like you're flying when you're going that fast.
After a couple hours sledding, (btw sledding in Mainerese means snowmobiling) we went with all the family for Chinese food. There is nothing better than a Chinese food buffet on your birthday. I only made 4 trips up, but I think I got my $10 worth :)
Dinner was followed by cake and ice cream at our place. Normally I would show you a picture of the wonderfully decorated cake (courtesy of my lovely wife), but we forgot to take a picture before diving in, and by we I mean me. More gifts now! Uncles B&M got me a scorpion bowl! How cool is that! And if you look really close, there are naked ladies on the side. Bonus! Although I do have to provide my own alcohol. Uncle D, Aunt S and co. got me a crock pot. I've been talking about getting one for forever, and now its here. So many yummy things to cook, I can't wait to try it out. It might sound lame, but trust me I've been itching to get one for the past couple of months now. (how old am I, for xmas I got a wine fridge and a deep fryer, and now I get a crock pot. hey, what can I say, it makes me happy)
The evening was concluded with the wife and I testing our skills at Guitar Hero.

She tried, but... well... lets just say its not her best game. How about we say that her hands are too small to play effectively as her fingers don't reach all the keys. Yeah, we'll go with that.. (nota bene: the wife says this picture makes her look fat, but c'mon, we all know she isn't. In fact, we've both managed to lose weight since we moved. Her to the point were half her closes don't fit anymore. go figure. and yes, she'll probably kill me for saying any of this)
I, on the other hand, am a rock god! Well, at least on the "easy" level.. Its a lot of fun, and I can see myself playing a lot over the winter.

So overall, just a perfect perfect day. I really couldn't have asked for anything better. But the best part it, its a long weekend, so there's still two more days to go!

The Weekend!

Well for me it is at least. I took tomorrow off (my first vacation day since I started this new job back in July), so I'm very excited. I have tons of plans to be productive around the house, so I really hope I don't end up spending the entire day on the couch.

• So while listening to ESPN radio todayI learned something new.. did you know that male reporters are not allowed in the WNBA locker rooms, but female reporters are allowed in the NBA locker rooms. Not that I care one way or the other, I just thought it was an interesting point.
• I wore my corduroy pants the other day. I don't wear them that often because I always feel like I'm 6 when I have them on. Does anyone else feel this way when wearing their corduroy pants?
• I'm not ashamed to admit it, but I'm not really proud of it either, but I downloaded the new Billy Ray/Miley Cyrus song from iTunes. I can't help it, I'm a big country music fan...
• And finally, I'd like to throw a huge congratulations out there to my father. No, not for finally breaking down and buying a new hdtv, but for finally learning how to use call waiting! Welcome to the 90's dad, hopefully you can come join us in the 21st century sometime soon :)
• Good win by the Celtics last night too. It was nice to see the jumpers falling again. Although if you noticed, Ray Allen started taking the ball to the hoop (layups) before the jump shot started clicking. Just like you learned when you were a kid, if you're jump shot isn't falling, take it to the rim. I was also impressed with Gabe Pruitt. He didn't play a whole lot, but he was a real pest on defense, which is what I like to see. The absence of a true backup point guard is really starting to bite this team. Eddie House is a shooter, not a point guard. Hopefully they'll dig someone up in a trade soon..

Randomness

• So do you think its cold in our house? Normally the cats huddle under the light for warmth (you wouldn't think it, but those lamps give off a decent amount of heat), but it was too cold tonight, so they decided to sit on each other... The fourth and thankfully final cat is smarter than these three and she sits as close to the heater as she can..
• Anyone else been watching the Celtics lately? For the most part, the defense has been there, but they're not rebounding well enough (frequently its only Garnett going for the ball, with the other 4 guys hanging around the 3-point line) and they're settling for too many jumpers..
• Have you seen those new "productivity enhancer" commercials from Southwest Airlines? Great stuff. Whom ever thought up that ad is a genius.
• CNN.com had this story today. Its about a couple of towns in Texas where people have been seeing weird objects in the sky lately. I love how one of the military guys says, no its not a UFO, its just that they saw two airplanes at the same time and got confused. Um, what? That's almost as funny as the "swamp gas" excuse used back in the '60's (people weren't seeing lights in the sky, it was the gas from a nearby swamp in the air, which the light was then reflecting off of creating the illusion of floating objects, etc.)
• Busted out the new deep fryer last night. WOW. I make a pretty decent fried chicken, usually just by frying it on top of the stove, but last night, we made perfection. This chicken came out absolutely perfect. So thanks Jessie, thank you very much for the perfect xmas gift :)
• If you haven't seen this video, I highly recommend it. This Australian kid throws a huge party (parents out of town, lots of damage to the neighborhood, 500 people show up, cops show up) and for some reason they interview him live on the news. The interview is really priceless. And you can tell that the woman interviewing him detests him...
• I'm pretty sure this guy, loves Tom Brady a little too much.. pretty funny stuff though.
• So the wife and I had to run up to school so she could buy her books. On the way home, we decided to stop for dinner at Margarita's (Mexican place, its a chain restaurant and I think there's one in Watertown for you MA peeps). Drinks, great; apps, looked tasty but didn't have one; chips and salsa, warm and spicy; dinner, completely tasteless. How does one make Mexican food tasteless. You have to go out of your way to do that. We agreed that we might go back, but only for the drinks, chips and trivia night.

Let it Snow!

Its snowing, although its the light and fluffy stuff, we still got about a foot and its still coming down. You know what that means! Less productivity around the house this weekend and more SNOWMOBILING!
For those of you who took a peak out the window today, and thought, "oy, more snow", I have someone for you to hate. A softball buddy of mine moved (along with his wife and puppy) to Hawaii recently. Yes you read that right, Hawaii. If you're looking for a new point of animosity during our wonderful white winter, here you go...
And thank you Rob, for getting me on facebook. I've reconnected with a couple of old friends, and its kinda cool catching up. At first you feel a little weird randomly emailing someone, but then I thought, hey we were good friends for all those years, why not. I guess its the technological version of bumping into an old classmate years later in the grocery store, or wherever. I also get to keep tabs on my brothers which is nice too, since neither of them have been up to visit their older brother yet.
I didn't come home for lunch today, so I didn't get a chance to take any pics of the newly refinished floors on the 3rd floor(the sun was down by the time I got home). I'll have some tomorrow though, along with pics from the wife's newly painted office..
So my boy Brad Paisley has a song on his new album entitled "Letter to Me", and its all about him writing a letter to his 17 year old self. Now how great would it be if you could actually do this? I would have never been caught sneaking in past curfew, or any of the other stupid things I did back then, or maybe I would have given up baseball for lacrosse (if I knew I wasn't going to play much senior year, why not). Just something fun to think about. Mostly I think I would have made myself out to be as cool as I thought I was, as opposed to how cool I really was (not very). I wouldn't change any of my friends or who I hung with or anything, but I would have liked to have been a little less nervous around girls, or maybe even studied more! (go figure huh, it only took my 14 years to figure that out)
Ok enough babbling on, time to get back to the Celtics game now..

Da Weekend..

Very good weekend overall. Got to hang with the family, big Patriots win, and we were very productive.
Lets see, Saturday was a good day. I finally took the lights and other assorted decorations down around the house (we haven't turned them on in a while, the snow was just too deep to get to everything). It actually took a lot longer than I thought it would. The wife stayed in the house, painting what is now her office (although that will probably change at some point and time). I'll have pics tomorrow (our camera really stinks and takes horrible pictures if the sun isn't shining thru the window and every light ever isn't on in the room). While she was doing this, I got the bright idea to take the tree out (ornaments were taken down a week or two ago, but our backdoor was snowed in and I didn't feel like shoveling it out). Now I could have just opened the window and pushed it right out onto the porch. But noooo I take it out of the library, thru the dining room, thru the kitchen and out the back door. I'd say about 75% of the needles fell off along the way, and that's probably a conservative estimate.
That pile was like 3 inches high, but 6 inches across..and I'm still finding needles around the house.
Saturday night we went to dinner with Uncles B & M. We actually tried a new place (new to the wife and I, not to them) and it was fantastic. It was the Perri House in Bangor. Definitely not the type of place I'd take kids as their menu really doesn't have anything they would eat and its kind of fancy. I got the pan seared scallops with rice and veggies in a horseradish cream sauce. WOW. Fantastic stuff. Nobody had any complaints with their dinner and we all got very different dishes. The deserts were equally as tasty, although Uncle M's was a little weird. We also tried a new kind of wine, Hazard Hill Shiraz. Its an Australian wine, and I highly recommend it. Went down real smooth without the bite at the end normally associated with a red wine.
Afterwards, Uncle D and the kids came over for the Pats game of course. When the Jags scored, I made cousin D switch seats with me (he was sitting in my usual Patriots seat). He thought I was insane, but obviously it worked as they ended up winning big...
Sunday was a day of labor. The wife spent the morning/early afternoon finishing up painting her office, while I finally attempted to finish the attic. Usually I close the door behind me, not letting the cats up while I'm working up there. Today, for some reason, I let them come up. Dumb Dumb Dumb Dumb. I figured I'd put another coat of paint on the trim, then poly the floor. Well wouldn't you know it, as soon as I painted one window sill Lucy thought it would be a great idea to jump up and look out the window. Needless to say, shortly thereafter I had a trail of white kitten footprints going across my newly stained floor, down the stairs and out the door. I yelled to the misses who grabbed the kitten and washed her paws...stupid cat. I even told her not to jump on the window sill, but apparently she just didn't listen.
So after carefully cleaning up the paint, I put off doing more trim and poly'd the floor. Looks fantastic if I do say so myself (picture tomorrow for the same reason as above) It needs a couple more coats of paint on the trim and it'll be done.

The misses helping me scrape the stairs. There used to be that horrendous 70's shag brown and orange carpeting, but I pulled it up. As you can see, the stairs are in horrible shape. They're painted, and there's tons of white paint spilled all over them. So I think we're going to repaint them and just put a runner on. It could be tricky with all the turns, but I think we can handle it.

Overall, a great weekend, can't wait for the next one now, as the wife and I have a lot more projects to tend to. We pulled up a corner of the carpet in her office to see what was underneath and were surprised by what we found. Its the four (or so) inch wide pine boards, so I think we're going to try to sand and refinish them. If it comes out like crap, we'll just recarpet, that's all. I really can't wait for Eileen, Ern and all the relatives who've visited to make a return visit so they can see everything we've done since they last came up. A before and after yaknow.
Randomness:

• like millions of other people out there, I use Head and Shoulders shampoo. But I got to thinking while in the shower today.. remember that commercial where the guy would have H&S on one side of his head and the "other leading brand shampoo" on the other side, and he would say "ooh I can tell its working because it tingles". Well I've never noticed it tingling. Does this mean I'm improperly shampooing? Have I managed to buy every faulty bottle of H&S ever? I don't understand..
• so after much prodding, I finally joined facebook.com. Doesn't really do much for me, but I can see how it might be cool in reconnecting with people you haven't talked to in years or whatever.
• great news! we're supposed to get 10 or so inches of snow tomorrow!!! and besides the shoveling, you know what that means? SNOWMOBILING!!! after a wknd off, hopefully there will be enough snow to get back to it next wknd. Good times.
• Lowes is finally opening up here February first. Finally, some competition for Home Depot. I'm hoping there will be some good opening sales and maybe drive HD prices down some.
• My friend Eileen had a really good idea. Start an online book club. She put up a list of 4-5 books on her website and if you want in, just vote on the book. Once one is picked (friday) then you'll have a couple of weeks or whatever to read it, followed by some online discussion. I think its a fabulous idea. None of the books look all that great to me, so I'll just read whatever is picked and hope for the best. I'd start one here, but my World War I & II books, autobiography's, and sports books are really only interesting to me. The other books I read are usually the minimal thought mystery's, which are fun to read, but don't really stimulate an abundance of conversation topics.
• and yes, I'm still annoyed that we didn't get Kenny Chesney tickets for this summer. Stupid scalpers buying them all up. Sure we can get upper upper upper deck tickets for twice the actual price, but thats ridiculous... ooh well. Have a great week everyone, and good luck on midterms Breezy!
  

Weekend!

We finally went to the DMV today to register the other car in Maine. So I guess we're officially mainers now huh. Nice.
I forgot to mention that thanks to a xmas gift from my father in law (amazon gift card of course) I bought the Simpsons movie and the wife and I watched it the other day. Fantastically funny movie, can't wait to watch it again as a matter of fact.
Friday night, not much going on besides the Celtics game for me and Ghost Whisperer for the wife, followed by some Dance Revolution after! Lame I know, but its who we are...
So a buddy of mine sent me a book. Marketing Your Dreams: Business and Life Lessons from Bill Veeck Baseball's Marketing Genius. Already read the first 50 pages, great book so far. Anyway, my buddy picked the book randomly off some site from a second hand book seller. So I open the book up and on the first page there's an inscription. It says, "To Bob Lobel, Warm Wishes, Pat Williams." Pat Williams is the author, and we all know who Bob Lobel is right.. Yep he's everybodys favorite drunk Boston local sportscaster! So somehow I ended up with his copy. Great stuff.. I'll cherish it always haha

Randomness

• I'm a forgiving man. If you fail me once, I'll give you a second chance at redemption. Everyone deserves a second chance right? Well I'll tell you someone that doesn't... Papa John. About a month or so ago, the wife and I decided to try the new Papa John's pizza place that opened up down the street. The commercials are on every 30 seconds and make me crave pizza every time I see one. Apparently their marketing firm is the best out there, cuz their advertising worked. Well, they should have had their ad people make the pizza, as the pizza was definitely not good. We later found out that my uncle and his family tried the pizza that same night, and didn't like it either. So tonight on the way back from Target, the wife and I figured we'd give them a second shot... ya know, maybe they worked the kinks out. Nope. Still not good, not good at all. So Papa John's, you're out of the rotation!!!
• My friend Eileen got to go to the Celtics game last night. Not fair (even though they lost and it wasn't a very well played game). I haven't been to a game yet this year! That needs to change. Maybe sometime in February/March I'll try to dig up some tickets.
• Speaking of the Celtics, remember Al Jefferson. Well his team (Minnesota) is horrible, but he's averaging 20/12 a night. Not too shabby huh. I'm still glad the trade was made, but he's turning into a pretty solid offensive player (still softer than Cottonelle on defense though)
• I love my wife, but I think she may have a problem. She's been drinking a lot lately...and whenever I go to the store, she has me pick up more. I'm finding orange soda cans all over the house. In the kitchen, in the bedroom, three in the bathroom! I think we need to stage an intervention or something. I don't know if I can handle this on my own, but I'm strong, and if I can get her to admit that she has a problem, then that's the first step towards recovery..
• Making fun of Roger Clemens is so fun...
• All the rain washed away all the snow, so its official, no more snow mobiling for a while. Anyway know any snow dances? Although they are saying maybe Monday/Tuesday it'll snow.

Bye Bye Snow..

So the snow is all going away!!! Normally I love a nice warm spell in the middle of winter, but this year, NO GOOD!!! How am I supposed to take advantage of my uncles generosity (and toys) and go snowmobiling when all the snow is melting?!!? This is like a big "eff you" from Mother Nature to me... ooh well, its Maine, it'll snow again soon enough, hopefully.
There's a new show on TLC, something about Miss America getting a makeover. Sounds dumb right? Wrong! Its hysterical. All these contestants think they're all hot and stuff, with their overdone hair and caked on hooker make-up and the "judges" put them right in their places. Considering that there is nothing else on tv these days, I'd recommend giving this show a shot...
So do you remember that Chris Farley skit from Saturday Night Live, where he interviews celebrities and all he says is how much he loves their movies? (i.e. interviewing Patrick Swayze about Point Break and he says stuff like.. "remember that scene where you jump out of the plane?" Swayze answers, "yeah", Farley counters with, "yeah, that was awesome!" and that's how the interview goes, back and forth back and forth) Well anyway, there was a guy who called in today to the local sports radio show, and he sounded just like that. "did you guys watch the Celtics game the other night" answers "yeah" responds "yeah wasn't it awesome" or, "did you see that pass so and so made, it was awesome". For a while, I couldn't tell well it was a joke or actually serious, and it was in fact serious...
As of 8pm, Clinton and Obama are neck and neck in the New Hampshire primary. I can't put my finger on what it is exactly, but something about Clinton just rubs me the wrong way. I don't know, maybe I'm just a sheep and I'm drawn to Obama's charisma and speeches, but the thought of Clinton in the White House doesn't sit well with me. Although the thought of four more years of Bill would be fantastic. I think its about time we catch up to the rest of the world and elect a female president, but I just don't think Hillary is the way to go. I could see an Obama/Edwards ticket doing very well. They've got the north/south thing covered, they're both young guys who preach change and best of all, they're not republicans. Think about this though, Idaho and New Hampshire make up less than 2% of the total population of the United States, yet these two primaries (or caucuses, whichever) will decide who drops out and who stays in the race. Not that they're not lovely states, but Idaho and NH? C'mon now, I think the system needs to be tweaked a little there. I don't really have a better idea, but there are a lot of people smarter than me out there who can figure it out.
Ok time to go watch the Biggest Loser.. (see what the writers strike is making me do!!!)

Hello Again..

So apparently I've been slacking and haven't been writing as much lately. That's mostly due to the fact that I haven't had anything all that interesting to write about. I don't know if you'll find any of the following interesting, but I'll try to spice it up as much as possible to make it seem interesting...

• Friday night the wife and did the whole dinner and a movie thing, or more precisely, movie and dinner. We saw I Am Legend. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. I was really expecting so much more. The plot was pretty predictable, but there were a couple of "jump out of your seat moments". Overall, I'd spend the the $8 we spent, but I wouldn't spend a penny more. I'd wait for it to come out on dvd. And speaking of the $8, I was the only person in line who didn't pay with cash. I can't remember the last time I saw someone pay cash at a movie and not just use their debit card or whatever. Anyway, after the movie we hit the Texas Roadhouse for some dinner. It was our second visit, and unlike our first visit (where we waited over an hour for a table) we were seated immediately. I think we may have had the nicest waitress ever too, as she was extremely polite, didn't bug us too much and was just generally very friendly. Both food and drink were tasty (the misses says they make great drinks, I stick to the beer). I think the trick with that place is (because its so popular) to go later for dinner, like after say 7:30 or so.
• Saturday, not much to report on. We went to Home Depot (where I have quite a bit in gift cards to use). I was hoping to buy a new toy (read: new tool), but that didn't happen and I ended up buying a new doorbell and more insulation. Exciting stuff huh. That night was spent watching License to Wed and the Celtics game. Great game if you caught it. As for the movie.... those of you who know me, know that I like the occasional chick flick; don't know why, but I just do. The problem is though, that they tend to fire me up. I can't stand it when the people break up for the stupidest little things or clearly someone else is trying to sabotage their relationship and they can't see it. For some reason it gets me yelling at the movie and generally ruining the flick for anyone I watching it with. Just add it to my list of faults :)
• I forgot to mention this the other day... New years eve this year was the anniversary of my first alcoholic drink. Weird that I remember that huh. So I'd like to thank my cousins L&J and the couple of friends that were there for starting me down the road to drunkenness. Thankfully I've changed a little since then and now I really can't even remember the last time I was drunk (and no, its not due to blacking out).
• I think we're addicted to home improvement shows. We're always watching TLC, Discovery, HGTV (which is now in HD too, with different programing than the regular HGTV) DIY Network or Discovery Home. Is there some support group or something out there we can join to get help? "Hi, I'm J, and I'm addicted to home improvement shows." (all) "Hi J."
• So I got a hair cut the other day, and later that night I was brushing my teeth and happen to catch my reflection in the mirror. I'm turning into my father!!(only much better looking of course) GRAY hairs abound! I would just like to thank my gene pool though, for getting my moms hair (not sure which color it is naturally, but its light) and not my dads (dark dark hair) which shows the gray a whole lot more. So instead of having salt and pepper hair, its more like salt and sand.
• The wife and I had a running joke/bet going... we joke that my Aunt S is going to get herself a new snowmobile soon(that would bring the family total to three, which would then be four when I buy one for next year). I said sooner rather than later, and the wife said sometime in February or next winter. Well I won. You'll never see me on it though, as I'm not ready for that much speed/power. I'll stick to cousin D's sled thank you very much. This means though, that I really need to buy my own helmet. I think I'm going to go with something really colorful like orange...
• Speaking of snowmobiles. My phone rang at 9am this morning, but it was upstairs and I was downstairs so I didn't answer it (thankfully my sleeping wife was up there to bring it down to me though). I figured it was cousin D calling to get me to come over to go for a ride. I was half right, wasn't my 12 year old cousin, it was my 45 year old uncle! Good times. So we headed over around noon and went riding. I tried taking some pictures, but our camera just stinks and doesn't zoom very well so they didn't come out all that great... After the first ride thru the fields (me, Aunt S, cousin D and my lovely wife), cousin D, Uncle D and I headed out down the trails. Not sure how long we were gone, but we covered about ten miles. Great time.. I HAVE to get me a sled...

That's Aunt S in the front there, with cousin D and my lovely wife on the sled behind her.
Just a peak down one of the trails we were riding today. The trails are all pretty much the same width, so you have to scootch to the side to let other riders pass in either directions. Everyone is very polite out there though, always a wave thank you or whatever. And all the trails are clearly marked with little signs (stop, arrows marking the trail, things like that)
I tried snapping this pic of Aunt S coming over the hill, but a combination of an extremely fast sled and a slow shutter on the camera produces an out of frame picture. I'll try better next time, promise.

• So next Saturday, Jacksonville at New England. Can't wait. 8pm start, should be a good game. The Pats have trouble stopping the run at times and Jags love to run the ball. Between the Pats and the Celtics, is there a better time to be a Boston sports fan?!?!?

The Sky Opened Up, And Forgot To Close...

• I'm pretty sure its never going to not snow up here. We got another foot or so yesterday, and there's really just no place left to put it. The snowbanks at the bottom of my driveway are easily eight feet high. The entrance to our driveway keeps getting smaller and smaller, so now the cars can barely fit thru. It doesn't help that's its only 5 degrees out now, or that its supposed to get down to a minus 20 wind chill tonight. Its so cold out (how cold is it j?) that I saw a group of polar bears huddled around a barrel fire trying to keep warm. Only 3 more months until spring...
• So we tried making my aunt's blond brownies the other day. Yeah, they didn't come out so good. I don't know what it is, but I have the inability to bake. Every dessert I try to make, comes out like arse, I just don't get it..
• HAPPY BIRTHDAY to cousin B up here in Maine!!!!!
• Can you believe that the wife finally drove the snowmobile? After like five minutes, she decided that she'd rather ride on the back and gave up. Part of the problem though, is the sheer amount of snow on the ground right now. Even the snowmobiles have a tough time cutting thru it. Cousin D got stuck five times today trying to go 3 houses down the street.
• So we watched a lot of Law & Order the past couple of days (TNT was having a marathon). The weird part was though, some of the episodes they showed Monday, they showed again Tuesday. How in the heck can you show repeats during a L&O marathon? There's like a million and one episodes and they pick the same one twice? Someone over at TNT is getting lazy..
• I received a couple of home depot gift cards for xmas, and I'm not sure what I want to use them for. I know I want more tools, I'm just not sure which ones yet. I'm leaning towards a table saw, but I really need a new drill too (mine isn't very strong and the battery seems to die very frequently). Any suggestions?
• Hope everyone had a great 2007, and I know we Mainers are looking forward to an even better 2008..