Is It Just Me?

• Is anyone else still weirded out by a non mustachioed Alex Trebec? He shaved it off forever ago, yet it still doesn't look right every time I watch Jeopardy;
• The wife and I hit Legal Seafood the other night. O-ver-Ra-ted (clap clap clapclapclap) The food was pretty good (her chowdah was good, so I was told, but our pasta was COVERED in butter even though it wasn't listed in the description), the drinks were expensive and the service was decent. For my buck, it's a very overrated place, I'd rather hit Naked Fish. But the best part was paying. Not the amount of course, but the method. Instead of giving the waiter my credit card, he brought over a wireless thingy for us to pay at the table. It even figured out the tip for us (in increments of 15%, 18% and 20%). So the food was alright, but the paying technique was pretty cool;
• Anyone watching any good new shows this year? We started watching Glee, which is very entertaining, but that's really it. Otherwise we've pretty much stuck to the same shows as last year. Any suggestions?
• The weirdest/coolest thing just happened. I'm sitting here writing my blog entry, minding my own business (i'm using my mother in laws laptop while she is in Turkey), when all of a sudden we got a Skype call. It was my brother in law and nephew in California. I've never used Skype before so I hit answer and next thing I know I'm seeing and talking to my CA family. How cool is that? And it's free! I think I might have to look into this Skype thing..
  

The Amazing Race

Anyone else out there catch the season premier tonight?

Good stuff so far, one couple got eliminated immediately, which was fine cuz they were yoga instructors and seemed pretty dumb. The couple (or guy) I can't stand, the lawyer and his wife, are of course from Massachusetts. I would tell you what my lovely wife thought of him, but it's not suitable for print. Also not a huge fan of the poker players. Karma always comes back to get you in this game, and they started out lying, which doesn't bode well for them.

Not sure who my pick is yet though. The two friends (one with autism) are entertaining as all heck, but I don't think they can keep it up for the entire race. Right now I guess my top three would be the dating couple (he has the spikey blond hair), the Globetrotters, and the two friends I mentioned above.

Thoughts?

Little Of This, Little Of That

• Is anyone out there watching the new Jay Leno show? I never watched it before it moved to 10pm, so I really don't see why I'd watch it now. All it's doing is pushing me towards other networks and their 10pm shows. Good job NBC.
• Ever wonder why 90% of the knowledge we have is useless? Or is that just me? I can tell you which Roman emperor built a wall thru England in the first century A.D. (Hadrian), but have no idea how to change the oil in my car. One of these things is useless (unless you're on Jeopardy of course) and the other will save you $40 every 3,000 miles.
• Caught an old episode of Seinfeld tonight (the one where Elaine admits to faking it with Jerry). It was funny as all heck and reminded me what a great show it was. Consistently funny too. Has there been another sitcom that week in and week out was that good? Even the first couple of seasons, when the ratings were horrible, were funny. The Simpsons had a good run there, but it's long past it's prime. Seinfeld went out on top.
• Even wonder why or how salt and pepper got paired up. I'm told that both were used as preservatives before we had artificial preservatives, but why are they on every dining room table in America? Who decided that this needed to be so? Why not salt and cinnamon? Who doesn't like cinnamon? Everybody likes it, so why isn't it on our tables? I'm thinking it's some grand conspiracy by an early version of Crate & Barrel, or the united souvenir sellers of America, to sell shakers. You can buy the things in any shape and size you want, they're their own cottage industry. Sorta like how Hallmark invents holidays so it can sell cards.

Death of a Trusted And Loyal Friend

This is a friend that I've grown very close to over the past five or so years. This friend has always been there for me when I needed him most. Whether I was flying on cloud nine, or down in the dumps and needed a pick me up, this friend has always been there to give me the support I've needed..

Yes, after five years together, my Xbox360 died. We had such good times, lots of late nights killing aliens or talking in my headset to a buddy on the other end while playing Madden. I'll miss you buddy... god speed..

Links: Update From Yesterday!

So remember the video from yesterday, with the little girl throwing the foul ball back her dad caught. Well, a local tv station interviewed her yesterday...

And I just had to post this. This is what every bully (especially those who feel the need to not wear a shirt) deserves.

Off to Maine for the weekend... for a couple of days of eatin', shootin', drinkin' and golfin'. Not necessarily in that order of course...

Links

Could this be the video of the year? And I just know, someday, it'll happen to me...

This site... well this site I wish I had thought of 2-3 years ago. And I really believe I could have made it happen. I dunked a tennis ball twice in high school, so I don't see any reason why I couldn't have gotten back to my former glory. I suppose I'd have to lose 15 pounds first, but it could happen...

I'll Take It...

But there's no way the Patriots deserved to win that game tonight. That's a case of a good team pulling a win out of their arse against a young team that doesn't know how to win yet.

Should be fun listening to TO tomorrow though, complaining that he didn't get the ball enough..

Adoption Update

Well, there's not really a whole lot to update you on. We just sent another batch of profiles to the agency to distribute to potential birth mom's (our agency sends them to other agencies who then presents them to the birth mothers). This makes thirty, yep 3-0, copies we've sent out. Luckily, all costs related to the adoption are tax deductible.

It's funny though, lately the universe has done nothing by mock the wife and I. Everywhere we look, there's adoption. We went over to my uncles house the other night and the King of Queens was on, , and what's the episode about? Adoption.

We turn on the radio and there's adoption commercials running constantly.

Jordan's Furniture is having and adoption/foster care info session, so we keep seeing those ads on tv, etc.

There have been a million of these little things lately and frankly I'm not that happy with the universe. Did we do something to scorn it? Maybe the wife cut him off in traffic? Maybe I led his daughter astray in my single days and this is how he's getting his revenge. Who knows... All I know is I'm sick of it. Maybe we'll sacrifice a goat, or toss a virgin into a volcano or something. That should help right?

Please Don't Fondle Then Guns

I'll get to the meaning behind that phrase in a moment.

After a great dinner with great friends Friday night, the wife and I headed on up to Maine for the weekend. It was good timing by us, as it was "walk around town without a shirt on even though there should be laws against you not wearing a shirt at all times", weekend. I swear, every time we left the house, we'd see guys walking around town without their shirts on. And it wasn't even that hot out, probably in the 60's and low 70's. Not that they were missing much clothing as these were the type of guys that normally only wear wife beaters, so to them it was no biggie. I don't need to see your cheap tattoo's, I don't need to see your beer gut (no i'm not describing me), just put a shirt on and go away. Plus, if it's warm enough to not wear a shirt, then why are you jeans and not shorts?

Saturday night was movie night, outdoors again, and we watched Paul Blart: Mall Cop. Not to say it was horrible, because it had it's funny moments, but it really wasn't very good at all.

Sunday was a very interesting morning. Got a call at 9:30am, waking me up (i never sleep past 730, never mind 930). It was my uncle asking if I wanted to go to the gun show down at the Civic Center. Now, I don't need a gun, but I sure couldn't pass up this opportunity. Plus, I love making gun show jokes, usually while kissing my biceps..

The first thing you see, right before you hit the ticket booth, the NRA booth. Thanks guys, I'm good. Right when you walk in the room, the first thing you see is this bad boy. I'll tell you what, you go huntin' with this little lady, and Bambi better be wearing a whole lot of Kevlar.


This is what most of the show looked like. Just tables and tables of guns and more guns. New, used, from the tiniest .22 to the barely legal assault rifle. And seriously, do we need it to be ok to buy an assault rifle? Last I checked, the Canadians were a peaceful bunch, so we really don't need to lock and load any time soon.
On one of the tables, there was a small sign that read "please don't fondle the guns". How does one fondle a gun? Over the holster, no palm? Buy it dinner and a movie first? For safety sake, I just didn't touch anything. Heck, I was afraid to even snap the two pictures that I did take...

And for the lady in your life.. the tiny pink .22. It might not kill him, but it'll do just enough damage so he won't mess with you again. Plus, you'll look cute shooting him...

Of course we had to follow up our trip to the gun show, with a trip to WalMart. Boston, I've never missed you more...

New Beer

Tried a new beer the other night, and if you're into fall beers, I highly recommend you check it out. You can read my thoughts here... www.beercrusade.com . Enjoy!

I Should Probably Be Watching The President...

But instead I'm blogging. It's a generational thing. I have no attention span, it's not my fault. If I was ten years old now, I'd be on 17 different kinds of meds probably.

Anyway, in my younger days, I was quite the optimist. The glass was always 3/4 full and I always managed to see the silver lining in things. I'm finding though, as I get older that I'm becoming more and more of a pessimist. Ok, maybe not a pessimist, but more likely a realist. Is this something that happens to everyone? Is it just the current state of my life that is driving me down this avenue? Adoption stuck in neutral, wife still unemployed, house won't sell, those are all things that aren't exactly good, but they're not the end of the world either.

I'm thinking this transition is more likely something that happens as you age, as you start to see the world in a different light. I wouldn't say I'm a glass half empty guy now, but it's definitely not 3/4 full anymore.

I Saw God Today

Those immortal words were sung by the great George Strait, granted his song is about the birth of his daughter, but that's neither here nor there.

My story, well my story is about the greatest invention ever! Ok, so who out there loves breakfast? I sure do. If I had it my way, I'd have breakfast at least twice a day. Know what else I love? Pancakes. Pancakes, with a side of eggs, bacon and fried potato's. Heaven. At least I thought it was heaven until I had my lunch today.

The wife and I stopped at the Purple Cow House of Pancakes for lunch today (its in fairfield, me, exit 133). We've eaten there before and knew it was good, so we figured why not. Since it's on the sign, I figured I'd get some pancakes for lunch. But not just any pancakes... no sirrrree, these were some special pancakes, or more specifically, bacon pancakes. Yep you read that right, these pancakes had bacon in them! Sooooooo good. I only had one, but it was the size of my plate, so one was plenty and it was absolutely to die for.

That restaurant is 50 miles from Bangor, and 200 from Boston, and I'd be willing to drive from either just to have some more bacon pancakes, they were just that good...

It Was The Best Of Times, It Was The Worst Of Times.

I'll let you figure out which is which...

So this weekend the wife and I were up in Maine. I took Friday off, so we went up Thursday night. Spent the day Friday hanging around the house, doing errands, cleaning, that sort of thing. Friday night though, we went to the Dierks Bentley concert with my uncle and cousin. Normally, I'm a HUGE fan of live music. This should have been the case here, except the acoustics in the arena where the show was were HORRIBLE. Really, it's physically impossible for them to have been any worse. If I hadn't known any of his songs, I would have been clueless as to what the lyrics were, just noise bouncing all over the place. Other than that, it was a great time though. Bentley could have really half-assed it for a show in Maine with 4,000 people there, but he didn't which was cool.

Saturday, we had our yard sale. It was scheduled from 8-3, but people started showing up at 7. I'll tell you this much, yard sales bring out the weirdo's. And after 8 or so hours of standing in the driveway, we walked away with a nice addition to our baby fund.

Now for the bad... my hair is gone, it's essentially at really really short wiffle status. Saturday I thought I'd try to shave it bald. While in the shower, I grabbed my razor and shaved it, but it wasn't cutting it short enough. So when I got out, I put some shaving gell on my head and shaved away. Aside from two cuts (which i didnt even feel) and some razor burn, I was in good shape. Until later...apparently I had a reaction to the gell, and my head starting oozing puss. Nasty stuff, really nasty. Thankfully, it has since stopped... But it can't be a good thing that puss was coming out of my scalp right?

After stacking some wood for my uncle Sunday, we headed back to their house later that night for dinner and a movie. Dinner, smoked pulled pork, smoked ribs and burgers, along with some other non meat products I ignored, was fantastic. I have to get a smoker, everything that comes out of that thing tastes soooo good. And the movie? Pyscho, watched outside using their new projector. Really, does it get any better? I don't think so...

And on the way home today the wife stopped at Douney and Bourke and did some damage while I bought a pair of $15 sunglasses at LL Bean. I finally found a pair that fit my lopsided head!

Hmmm

• Ever wonder why people from Massachusetts have no clue as to how to drive thru a rotary? It's not like they're some new futuristic type of intersection that just confuses everyone. Right outside the Arboretum in Jamaica Plain is the rotary from hell. People coming from one direction don't stop, don't look, they just go, which is scary if you happen to be coming from the opposite direction. Everyday, I go thru it on the way home from work, and I'd say at least twice a week I end up leaning on my horn at someone (those who know me, know I never use the horn on the car, just ask the wife)
• Walking thru Boston today I had a scary moment. The wife and I were walking down Newbury Street, just out for a walk, and we passed the location where I thought Daisy Buchanan's was. Daisy's was a favorite bar of ours in our early 20's. I had a moment of sadness until I realized that it was actually on the next block and still alive and well. Who's up for a night of reliving 23? I just might be...
• Saw a great license plate the other day in Maine... OMG MOVE(!) I put the exclamation point in there obviously. For the old among us, OMG means "oh my god". Just a nice way of asking all those people going 65 in the left lane to get out of the way!