last night, karen and i went to my friends' (marc and kelley) place.
for dinner, we decided to order from the falafel king in quincy (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound). yummy falafels! anway, while marc went to pick up the food, he asked that i complete a personality test.
like me, marc is psychology major. unlike me, he is more into the field of psychology. i just majored in psychology and sociology (and minored in philosophy and anthropology... just to get all the "ology"'s covered) to graduate at the time. plus, it didn't hurt that all the good looking women were pscyhology majors. just kidding. needless to say, marc is into psychology. he is even thinking about getting a doctorate in the field. i'll probably have to call him "doctor marc" once he gets his degree.
anyway, the personality test is not the standard myers briggs test. the last time i took a myers briggs test, the results told me i would be a good firefighter or actor. (what could have been... perhaps it would have made me enjoy the "fireproof" movie more...) the personality test that marc asked me to take was a test that emphasized the positives. the test is known as the via survey. the via institute on character is an organization devoted to... well... understanding character.
basically, the test shows a user his/her 5 greatest strengths. or, if you were to ask kelley, my 5 greatest strengths were: strength, strength, strength, strength, and strength. (yes, i'm exceptionally strong, even though i have not lifted weights in quite some time. kelley was just confused on reading the results page.)
too bad i suck at remembering the results of the test. i thought that i could log into the site to review my results, but my only option currently seems to be to retake the test. oh well. perhaps marc has a copy of the results. but it was a fun test. marc seems to think the results described me correctly.
after the test, we watched the latest episode of heroes again... before delving deeper into season 2 of buffy the vampire slayer. yes, i still suck at buffy the vampire slayer.
we were only able to watch a couple of episodes, but the episodes we did watch introduced us to the vampire, spike... and the guitarist, oz. the episode with oz ("inca mummy girl") made me think of karen... not that karen is an inca mummy girl or anything like that. in the episode, buffy's friend (willow) dresses up as an eskimo. i can totally see karen dressing up as an eskimo. as karen is cold a lot... it would be a beneficial costume.
needless to say, it was a fun night... go buffy!
UPDATE:
here were the results of the personality test, as provided to me by marc:
"Your Top Character Strength
Industry, diligence, and perseverance
You work hard to finish what you start. No matter the project, you "get it out the door" in timely fashion. You do not get distracted when you work, and you take satisfaction in completing tasks.
Your Second Character Strength
Modesty and humility
You do not seek the spotlight, preferring to let your accomplishments speak for themselves. You do not regard yourself as special, and others recognize and value your modesty.
Your Third Character Strength
Honesty, authenticity, and genuineness
You are an honest person, not only by speaking the truth but by living your life in a genuine and authentic way. You are down to earth and without pretense; you are a "real" person.
Your Fourth Character Strength
Fairness, equity, and justice
Treating all people fairly is one of your abiding principles. You do not let your personal feelings bias your decisions about other people. You give everyone a chance.
Your Fifth Character Strength
Perspective (wisdom)
Although you may not think of yourself as wise, your friends hold this view of you. They value your perspective on matters and turn to you for advice. You have a way of looking at the world that makes sense to others and to yourself."
Friday, October 31, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
I Suck At Fireproof
one of the things that karen wanted to do on her birthday yesterday was to see a movie... not just any movie... she wanted to see the movie "fireproof". now i suck at fireproof.
karen has been dying to see this movie ever since she heard about it. the movie stars kirk cameron as a firefighter named caleb. caleb's marriage is in shambles. in an effort to save his marriage, caleb agrees to do the "love dare". the love dare is a book. each chapter represents a day in which he is supposed to do something to strengthen his relationship. there are 40 days to the love dare.
(the video below is the trailer for fireproof.)
needless to say, i took karen to see the movie. the only place around us that was playing the movie was the cameo located in weymouth. it was the first time i've ever seen a movie in the cameo. the cameo is nice. it's a quaint throwback to the good o' days when stadium seating didn't exist. too bad the seats are so uncomfortable.
i don't know if i was shifting in my seat due to the uncomfortable chair or the agony of watching the movie. the movie reminded me of those commercials that were on tv when i was growing. the commercials were from "the church of jesus christ of latter day saints... the mormons!". the movie was like those commercials mixed with an after school special.
the acting was not particularly good. the script dialogue was awful. i'm surprised there were actually about 30 people in the theater watching the movie with us.
aside from that, i would say the movie did actually have potential. the premise of a firefighter trying to save his marriage by following this "love dare" book is not a bad concept. it's just everything else that made the movie bad.
i also felt that the movie was preaching to the choir. like kirk cameron (which is probably why he starred in the movie), the movie is very "yay jesus!" now, i have nothing against jesus. i have issues when people say their religion is the right religion and all other religions are wrong. after all, who are we to say who is right and who is wrong? but that's probably a discussion for another day. i realize wars have been started over religion.
needless to say, i thought the movie was terrible on a whole, but it did have its moments. i think karen would agree with me as well in that the movie was not the greatest and could have been better.
i will say that afterwards... karen and i had the quickest dinner at the abington alehouse. we were seated, had dinner and dessert... all in 30 minutes. it was amazingly fast. for anyone curious, i had the baked haddock (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound) and it was delicious.
karen has been dying to see this movie ever since she heard about it. the movie stars kirk cameron as a firefighter named caleb. caleb's marriage is in shambles. in an effort to save his marriage, caleb agrees to do the "love dare". the love dare is a book. each chapter represents a day in which he is supposed to do something to strengthen his relationship. there are 40 days to the love dare.
(the video below is the trailer for fireproof.)
needless to say, i took karen to see the movie. the only place around us that was playing the movie was the cameo located in weymouth. it was the first time i've ever seen a movie in the cameo. the cameo is nice. it's a quaint throwback to the good o' days when stadium seating didn't exist. too bad the seats are so uncomfortable.
i don't know if i was shifting in my seat due to the uncomfortable chair or the agony of watching the movie. the movie reminded me of those commercials that were on tv when i was growing. the commercials were from "the church of jesus christ of latter day saints... the mormons!". the movie was like those commercials mixed with an after school special.
the acting was not particularly good. the script dialogue was awful. i'm surprised there were actually about 30 people in the theater watching the movie with us.
aside from that, i would say the movie did actually have potential. the premise of a firefighter trying to save his marriage by following this "love dare" book is not a bad concept. it's just everything else that made the movie bad.
i also felt that the movie was preaching to the choir. like kirk cameron (which is probably why he starred in the movie), the movie is very "yay jesus!" now, i have nothing against jesus. i have issues when people say their religion is the right religion and all other religions are wrong. after all, who are we to say who is right and who is wrong? but that's probably a discussion for another day. i realize wars have been started over religion.
needless to say, i thought the movie was terrible on a whole, but it did have its moments. i think karen would agree with me as well in that the movie was not the greatest and could have been better.
i will say that afterwards... karen and i had the quickest dinner at the abington alehouse. we were seated, had dinner and dessert... all in 30 minutes. it was amazingly fast. for anyone curious, i had the baked haddock (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound) and it was delicious.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
I Still Suck At Celebrating Karen's Birthday
today is my wife's (karen) birthday. happy birthday karen! too bad i still suck at celebrating karen's birthday.
i've known karen for over twenty years, which is way more than half of my life. the first time i met her was at quincy track club, which is a summer program where kids of all ages learned about track and field. karen was entering high school that year and i was entering my second year of high school. the person running the quincy track club at the time was my high school track coach (geoff), so he recruited a bunch of us to help out that year. being only a track runner for one year, i volunteered to help out at quincy track club.
it's probably a good thing that i volunteered because i met karen as she was learning how to throw the discus. (for anyone curious, karen can't throw a discus.) i have vague memories (which is weird because i don't remember many things) of watching her trying to throw the discus. i also remember being fascinated with her eyes at the time.
granted, since then there has been a joke around my circle of friends about the color of karen's eyes. when we were young, a bunch of my friends and i were joking about what type of guy we were when it came to women. i made the claim that i was an eye-guy, meaning i was attracted to women with nice eyes. obviously, none of my friends believed me, so they asked me what color karen's eyes were. (karen's eyes are blue.) thinking that hazel was a form of blue, i said hazel. i got grief for that answer. since then, i have been conditioned to answer any eye color question... blue. (a police officer even asked me once what the color of my eyes were... and i said blue. my eyes are nowhere close to being blue.)
anyway, karen still ended up marrying me even though i didn't know what color her eyes were. so, i consider myself pretty lucky in that regards.
so when it comes to her birthday, i usually try to do something special for her. the only problem: i can never think of anything for her. i generally find getting presents for karen very difficult because she never seems to want anything.
this year, especially, has been quite difficult. karen and i were expecting our first child due at the beginning of next year. our son (braden) was born extremely premature at 23 weeks. braden was able to survive for a week before finally passing a month ago. obviously, his passing has been difficult for us. both karen and i, however, are blessed to have such great family and friends to help support us during these times. but needless to say, karen has not really been in a celebratory mood lately. the only thing that karen really wants... i'm afraid i cannot get her. if i could, i would... no doubt.
before i forget, i want to thank everyone who gave me suggestions on what to get karen. thank you... all of you. i really do appreciate it. in the end, i decided to name a star for braden as proposed by my new friend from wisconsin (alex) and my friend (hot amy).
the idea of naming a star really intrigued me. the mere thought that i could look up into the sky and see a ray of light known as braden is very comforting. it is almost metaphorical.
needless to say, i did some research on the naming of stars. according to wired magazine (which any tech geek knows... rocks), the "International Astronomical Union is the only scientific body authorized to name astronomical bodies." there are a lot of companies like the international star registry that are misleading consumers into thinking that their names for stars are universally accepted... when in reality the names are accepted only within the company database. so what one person calls "braden", may not be called "braden" by another company unless the international astronomical union says it is called "braden".
unfortunately, i have no connections to the international astronomical union. so, i ended up naming a star via www.freenameastar.com. the "braden michael" star is located in the house of libra. for anyone curious, the picture of the star is here.
anyway, karen really enjoyed the present. happy birthday karen! and hi there little b (braden)... i can now look up at you and see you twinkling! daddy loves you both!
i've known karen for over twenty years, which is way more than half of my life. the first time i met her was at quincy track club, which is a summer program where kids of all ages learned about track and field. karen was entering high school that year and i was entering my second year of high school. the person running the quincy track club at the time was my high school track coach (geoff), so he recruited a bunch of us to help out that year. being only a track runner for one year, i volunteered to help out at quincy track club.
it's probably a good thing that i volunteered because i met karen as she was learning how to throw the discus. (for anyone curious, karen can't throw a discus.) i have vague memories (which is weird because i don't remember many things) of watching her trying to throw the discus. i also remember being fascinated with her eyes at the time.
granted, since then there has been a joke around my circle of friends about the color of karen's eyes. when we were young, a bunch of my friends and i were joking about what type of guy we were when it came to women. i made the claim that i was an eye-guy, meaning i was attracted to women with nice eyes. obviously, none of my friends believed me, so they asked me what color karen's eyes were. (karen's eyes are blue.) thinking that hazel was a form of blue, i said hazel. i got grief for that answer. since then, i have been conditioned to answer any eye color question... blue. (a police officer even asked me once what the color of my eyes were... and i said blue. my eyes are nowhere close to being blue.)
anyway, karen still ended up marrying me even though i didn't know what color her eyes were. so, i consider myself pretty lucky in that regards.
so when it comes to her birthday, i usually try to do something special for her. the only problem: i can never think of anything for her. i generally find getting presents for karen very difficult because she never seems to want anything.
this year, especially, has been quite difficult. karen and i were expecting our first child due at the beginning of next year. our son (braden) was born extremely premature at 23 weeks. braden was able to survive for a week before finally passing a month ago. obviously, his passing has been difficult for us. both karen and i, however, are blessed to have such great family and friends to help support us during these times. but needless to say, karen has not really been in a celebratory mood lately. the only thing that karen really wants... i'm afraid i cannot get her. if i could, i would... no doubt.
before i forget, i want to thank everyone who gave me suggestions on what to get karen. thank you... all of you. i really do appreciate it. in the end, i decided to name a star for braden as proposed by my new friend from wisconsin (alex) and my friend (hot amy).
the idea of naming a star really intrigued me. the mere thought that i could look up into the sky and see a ray of light known as braden is very comforting. it is almost metaphorical.
needless to say, i did some research on the naming of stars. according to wired magazine (which any tech geek knows... rocks), the "International Astronomical Union is the only scientific body authorized to name astronomical bodies." there are a lot of companies like the international star registry that are misleading consumers into thinking that their names for stars are universally accepted... when in reality the names are accepted only within the company database. so what one person calls "braden", may not be called "braden" by another company unless the international astronomical union says it is called "braden".
unfortunately, i have no connections to the international astronomical union. so, i ended up naming a star via www.freenameastar.com. the "braden michael" star is located in the house of libra. for anyone curious, the picture of the star is here.
anyway, karen really enjoyed the present. happy birthday karen! and hi there little b (braden)... i can now look up at you and see you twinkling! daddy loves you both!
I Suck At Eating Liver And Onions
last night, i had dinner with karen's parents (and with karen of course).
every year, karen's parents cook her one of her favorite (if not favorite) meals on her birthday. that meal: liver and onions. now, i suck at eating liver and onions.
karen is a dietitian. i find it interesting that karen likes liver so much, although i probably should not be that surprised. dietitians seem to have the oddest taste in food. (some people would probably call those "food issues".) i analogously think that dietitians are like psychiatrists... that the person with the most mental problems ends up being a shrink (although in this case, the person with the most food issues end up being a dietitian).
actually, karen is not that bad in terms of having food issues. sure, she dissects her steak and all that... but a large number of my other friends have way more food issues than her. at least karen is willing to try food.
luckily, i have no problems eating... as evident by my rotund body. my general philosophy when it comes to eating (or imbibing, i suppose) is that as long as the food will stay down, i will consume it. i think that general philosophy is a result of being raised in an asian household. after all, i have seen (and eaten) a lot of asian cuisine that has not necessarily been that appealing. i think a lot of people have problems getting past the visual aspect of food... or even the mental aspect of it when they hear that a certain meal is made up of x, y or z. (just ask my friends...)
anyway, karen's parents made liver and onions last night. the meal was actually quite delicious. (i would normally cue the rachael ray "yum-o" sound... but i am guessing a lot of people would disagree with me on that one.) don't get me wrong, i would not eat liver every night... and nutritionally speaking, not that i am a dietitian or anything, but eating liver every night would not exactly be the healthiest since liver is high in cholesterol... but, in moderation liver is not bad.
all in all, the liver and onions was good. since i have no idea on how to cook liver and onions, i'm glad karen's parents prepared her favorite meal for her. it probably would have been disastrous otherwise.
every year, karen's parents cook her one of her favorite (if not favorite) meals on her birthday. that meal: liver and onions. now, i suck at eating liver and onions.
karen is a dietitian. i find it interesting that karen likes liver so much, although i probably should not be that surprised. dietitians seem to have the oddest taste in food. (some people would probably call those "food issues".) i analogously think that dietitians are like psychiatrists... that the person with the most mental problems ends up being a shrink (although in this case, the person with the most food issues end up being a dietitian).
actually, karen is not that bad in terms of having food issues. sure, she dissects her steak and all that... but a large number of my other friends have way more food issues than her. at least karen is willing to try food.
luckily, i have no problems eating... as evident by my rotund body. my general philosophy when it comes to eating (or imbibing, i suppose) is that as long as the food will stay down, i will consume it. i think that general philosophy is a result of being raised in an asian household. after all, i have seen (and eaten) a lot of asian cuisine that has not necessarily been that appealing. i think a lot of people have problems getting past the visual aspect of food... or even the mental aspect of it when they hear that a certain meal is made up of x, y or z. (just ask my friends...)
anyway, karen's parents made liver and onions last night. the meal was actually quite delicious. (i would normally cue the rachael ray "yum-o" sound... but i am guessing a lot of people would disagree with me on that one.) don't get me wrong, i would not eat liver every night... and nutritionally speaking, not that i am a dietitian or anything, but eating liver every night would not exactly be the healthiest since liver is high in cholesterol... but, in moderation liver is not bad.
all in all, the liver and onions was good. since i have no idea on how to cook liver and onions, i'm glad karen's parents prepared her favorite meal for her. it probably would have been disastrous otherwise.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
I Suck At Shopping For A Present
i seem to be in a pickle.
karen's birthday is this wednesday. yesterday, karen was going to work late at her job. so, i had ample time to kill. more importantly, i had ample time to look for a birthday present for karen as i get out of work fairly early in the day. in fact, it was the first day that i actually had time to go looking for a present for her.
unfortunately... the problem: i can't find any good gifts for her.
i find karen extremely hard to purchase gifts for. adding to the difficult nature of gift purchasing for karen is the fact that this year, karen has not exactly been in the celebratory mood with the passing of our son (braden) a month ago. karen has never really been the "yay me" type anyway. and this year, she really hasn't wanted anything outside of the obvious (that being a different outcome for braden).
i wish i had the power to give her that, but unfortunately that is out of my control. so instead, i'm relegated to looking for a present that, in the grand scheme of things, might not even mean much to karen.
anyway, i went to the south shore plaza in braintree yesterday to find a gift for karen. i'm surprised people still go to the south shore plaza because... to me, there are no good stores at the south shore plaza. there even isn't really any good places to eat at the plaza outside of the cheesecake factory.
needless to say, i searched and searched numerous stores in my allotted time for a present... zip zero nada nothing. there was simply nothing that caught my eye. as i was shopping, i started to think about my last year... because last year, i had a similar problem.
last year, as karen's birthday was drawing closer, i did not have a present for her. (i may be sensing a trend here.) one day after work (when i still worked in town)... my friend (hot amy) with her infinite wisdom asked if i wanted her to accompany me as i looked for a present for karen. naturally, i agreed.
and so, we embarked on a shopping excursion... of all places... to the south shore plaza. we looked at a few things before i remembered that karen wanted a right hand ring at the time. from there, hot amy and i went to jewelry store after jewelry store looking at rings. (in case anyone is curious, hot amy loves jewelry.) if i didn't know any better, i would say hot amy just wanted to try rings on.
it was an interesting experience to say the least. i got to learn about a particular jewelry designer by the name of david yurman who i never heard of (not that i would have heard of him anyway because i know nothing about jewelry.) david yurman apparently is famous for a twisted cable design or something like that. some of the jewelry associates even thought i was looking at rings for hot amy, probably because she was trying a lot of the rings on. it was quite comical. (the rings did look nicer with hot amy, the hand model.) i ended up not purchasing anything that day, but it was a fun experience. hot amy probably will never go shopping with me again, that's for sure. and for anyone curious, i did eventually get karen a right hand ring for christmas and not her birthday. for her birthday, i ended up getting her a bosu ball which was on her wish list. (so no, i was not implying she needed to get in shape or anything with that gift.)
anyway, that was last year. this year seems to be almost a repeat of last year in that i don't have a present again... with the exception of the shopping excursion with hot amy. although, my friend (andrea) did offer to go shopping with me for karen's birthday present this year. i wonder if andrea likes rings. just kidding.
with karen's birthday tomorrow, i don't think i'll have a present for her in time. unlike last year, i still don't really have any ideas for her. i thought about the jewelry route this year, but karen already has a necklace with braden's name on it. as well, she is getting another ring with braden's footprints around the band as soon as we order it.
i seem to be out of ideas... and out of time. man, i suck at shopping for a present.
karen's birthday is this wednesday. yesterday, karen was going to work late at her job. so, i had ample time to kill. more importantly, i had ample time to look for a birthday present for karen as i get out of work fairly early in the day. in fact, it was the first day that i actually had time to go looking for a present for her.
unfortunately... the problem: i can't find any good gifts for her.
i find karen extremely hard to purchase gifts for. adding to the difficult nature of gift purchasing for karen is the fact that this year, karen has not exactly been in the celebratory mood with the passing of our son (braden) a month ago. karen has never really been the "yay me" type anyway. and this year, she really hasn't wanted anything outside of the obvious (that being a different outcome for braden).
i wish i had the power to give her that, but unfortunately that is out of my control. so instead, i'm relegated to looking for a present that, in the grand scheme of things, might not even mean much to karen.
anyway, i went to the south shore plaza in braintree yesterday to find a gift for karen. i'm surprised people still go to the south shore plaza because... to me, there are no good stores at the south shore plaza. there even isn't really any good places to eat at the plaza outside of the cheesecake factory.
needless to say, i searched and searched numerous stores in my allotted time for a present... zip zero nada nothing. there was simply nothing that caught my eye. as i was shopping, i started to think about my last year... because last year, i had a similar problem.
last year, as karen's birthday was drawing closer, i did not have a present for her. (i may be sensing a trend here.) one day after work (when i still worked in town)... my friend (hot amy) with her infinite wisdom asked if i wanted her to accompany me as i looked for a present for karen. naturally, i agreed.
and so, we embarked on a shopping excursion... of all places... to the south shore plaza. we looked at a few things before i remembered that karen wanted a right hand ring at the time. from there, hot amy and i went to jewelry store after jewelry store looking at rings. (in case anyone is curious, hot amy loves jewelry.) if i didn't know any better, i would say hot amy just wanted to try rings on.
it was an interesting experience to say the least. i got to learn about a particular jewelry designer by the name of david yurman who i never heard of (not that i would have heard of him anyway because i know nothing about jewelry.) david yurman apparently is famous for a twisted cable design or something like that. some of the jewelry associates even thought i was looking at rings for hot amy, probably because she was trying a lot of the rings on. it was quite comical. (the rings did look nicer with hot amy, the hand model.) i ended up not purchasing anything that day, but it was a fun experience. hot amy probably will never go shopping with me again, that's for sure. and for anyone curious, i did eventually get karen a right hand ring for christmas and not her birthday. for her birthday, i ended up getting her a bosu ball which was on her wish list. (so no, i was not implying she needed to get in shape or anything with that gift.)
anyway, that was last year. this year seems to be almost a repeat of last year in that i don't have a present again... with the exception of the shopping excursion with hot amy. although, my friend (andrea) did offer to go shopping with me for karen's birthday present this year. i wonder if andrea likes rings. just kidding.
with karen's birthday tomorrow, i don't think i'll have a present for her in time. unlike last year, i still don't really have any ideas for her. i thought about the jewelry route this year, but karen already has a necklace with braden's name on it. as well, she is getting another ring with braden's footprints around the band as soon as we order it.
i seem to be out of ideas... and out of time. man, i suck at shopping for a present.
Monday, October 27, 2008
I Suck At Celebrating Karen's Birthday
in continuing karen's birthday celebration... my parents wanted to do something for karen for her birthday. as my mom loves to cook, she thought it would be nice to cook a meal for karen. so, yesterday, my parents celebrated karen's birthday. too bad i suck at celebrating karen's birthday.
my parents, especially my mom, loves to cook chinese food. many people have commented on how great her cooking is. some have even suggested that she open her own restaurant. i think it has always been my mother's dream to open her own restaurant. (she would be absolutely thrilled to own her own restaurant.) i guess i sometimes take my mom's cooking for granted. growing up, i never realized how delicious her chinese meals actually were.
anyway, my parents came over yesterday with chinese food that they made for everyone. my parents had asked if karen and i could also invite karen's parents over to enjoy the meal. apparently, my aunt who also came, wanted to meet karen's parents as she had never met them before. (my aunt is from hong kong.) in addition, my mom's friend (jan) was there too. so yesterday inevitably became a family day with everyone enjoying my parents' cooking.
(pictured below is a family picture taken on our front porch. from left to right: karen's mom, karen's dad, my aunt, karen, my dad, my mom, and jan.)
karen's parents brought dessert... which, in keeping with the chinese food theme, was a cake from a chinese bakery complete with fruits.
when all was said and done, it was a good time. (which for me... was a pleasant surprise because i normally get all nervous whenever my parents and karen's parents get together... this time, however, i didn't feel nervous at all, so it was nice.) i think karen enjoyed the time as well as it allowed her to simply relax and not have to plan or think about what to eat or anything like that.
my parents, especially my mom, loves to cook chinese food. many people have commented on how great her cooking is. some have even suggested that she open her own restaurant. i think it has always been my mother's dream to open her own restaurant. (she would be absolutely thrilled to own her own restaurant.) i guess i sometimes take my mom's cooking for granted. growing up, i never realized how delicious her chinese meals actually were.
anyway, my parents came over yesterday with chinese food that they made for everyone. my parents had asked if karen and i could also invite karen's parents over to enjoy the meal. apparently, my aunt who also came, wanted to meet karen's parents as she had never met them before. (my aunt is from hong kong.) in addition, my mom's friend (jan) was there too. so yesterday inevitably became a family day with everyone enjoying my parents' cooking.
(pictured below is a family picture taken on our front porch. from left to right: karen's mom, karen's dad, my aunt, karen, my dad, my mom, and jan.)
karen's parents brought dessert... which, in keeping with the chinese food theme, was a cake from a chinese bakery complete with fruits.
when all was said and done, it was a good time. (which for me... was a pleasant surprise because i normally get all nervous whenever my parents and karen's parents get together... this time, however, i didn't feel nervous at all, so it was nice.) i think karen enjoyed the time as well as it allowed her to simply relax and not have to plan or think about what to eat or anything like that.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
I Suck At Not Your Average Joes
after going leaf peeping (yes, it sounds a little dirty), my friends (jen, bill, and andrea) met up with karen and i before going out for dinner. as it was going to be karen's birthday this wednesday, a bunch of us were going to celebrate her birthday at not your average joes located in norwell. at the restaurant, my bff (kerry) and my friend (carlos) were to join us.
but beforehand, jen, bill, andrea, karen and i were making a pit stop at the local liquor store (marsh's) because the store was having a jameson tasting. marsh's liquor store had two other wine tastings going on in addition to the jameson tasting... but we were primarily there for the jameson. for anyone curious... jameson is irish whiskey. since i'm all about the irish... i couldn't pass up the tasting... and neither could bill.
bill and i ended up getting an absolutely huge bottle of jameson whiskey. the bottle came with this neat contraption that allowed you to tilt and pour the whiskey from the bottle. for our generous purchase, we got free hats. what a deal! karen thinks that the cute jameson girl may have had something to do with our purchasing the huge bottles of jameson. i, of course, disagree.
anyway, from there we headed to not your average joes for dinner to celebrate karen's birthday. too bad i suck at not your average joes. as it turns out, it was the first time bill had ever been to not your average joes. andrea also ran into her aunt there... small world. (for anyone curious... andrea's aunt... looks a lot like andrea.)
i think karen enjoyed her dinner. i know i always enjoy the food there. i had a burger like my bff (kerry)... it was very good (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound).
after dinner, all of us headed back to our place for some ice cream cake. kerry apparently worked her mojo at the supermarket (stop and shop) to score some free food itmes... those food items being a carvel football ice cream cake and diet soda. karen loves the carvel football ice cream cake because the cake is covered in chocolate crunchies. my favorite sister-in-law (janine) was also able to attend the festivities afterwards.
all in all, i think karen enjoyed her celebratory night. she hasn't exactly been in the celebratory mood since our son (braden) passed away. so, it was good that she was able to enjoy herself with our friends.
but beforehand, jen, bill, andrea, karen and i were making a pit stop at the local liquor store (marsh's) because the store was having a jameson tasting. marsh's liquor store had two other wine tastings going on in addition to the jameson tasting... but we were primarily there for the jameson. for anyone curious... jameson is irish whiskey. since i'm all about the irish... i couldn't pass up the tasting... and neither could bill.
bill and i ended up getting an absolutely huge bottle of jameson whiskey. the bottle came with this neat contraption that allowed you to tilt and pour the whiskey from the bottle. for our generous purchase, we got free hats. what a deal! karen thinks that the cute jameson girl may have had something to do with our purchasing the huge bottles of jameson. i, of course, disagree.
anyway, from there we headed to not your average joes for dinner to celebrate karen's birthday. too bad i suck at not your average joes. as it turns out, it was the first time bill had ever been to not your average joes. andrea also ran into her aunt there... small world. (for anyone curious... andrea's aunt... looks a lot like andrea.)
i think karen enjoyed her dinner. i know i always enjoy the food there. i had a burger like my bff (kerry)... it was very good (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound).
after dinner, all of us headed back to our place for some ice cream cake. kerry apparently worked her mojo at the supermarket (stop and shop) to score some free food itmes... those food items being a carvel football ice cream cake and diet soda. karen loves the carvel football ice cream cake because the cake is covered in chocolate crunchies. my favorite sister-in-law (janine) was also able to attend the festivities afterwards.
all in all, i think karen enjoyed her celebratory night. she hasn't exactly been in the celebratory mood since our son (braden) passed away. so, it was good that she was able to enjoy herself with our friends.
I Suck At Leaf Peeping
on saturday, i did something i have never done before... i went leaf peeping with some of my friends. yes, i suck at leaf peeping.
it was a day of firsts for me. not only had i never gone leaf peeping, i had never known there were trails leading to the blue hills from the ice skating rink known as shea rink in quincy where all of us met for the hike.
as well, i believe it was the first time (that i can recall... which doesn't say much because i can't remember a lot of things) that my friend (andrea) hung out in a group setting without her bff (hot amy). i've hung out individually with andrea before when we attempted to run together... most notably the high intensity interval training. i don't think, however, that i've ever seen andrea without hot amy when it was a group outing. (hot amy was away on official dietitic business.) needless to say, it was nice hanging with just andrea.
anyway, leaf peeping was absolutely fun. my friend (jen and bill... and their dog pugsley) met andrea, karen and i at shea rink. from there, we embarked on our little excursion through the blue hills. taking the blue path, we saw a lot of beautiful sights... fall foliage... ducks... rocks... ponds... and a deer!
(pictured below is the deer that came near us.)
the deer was amazing... so beautiful... so majestic. perhaps the deer was my patronus. just kidding. that was a harry potter reference for anyone curious.
anyway, we had to turn back after a while. as it turns out, the trail is about 9 miles and we were no where near completing it on saturday. some day, i think it would be cool to hike the entire trail. in fact, we talked about periodically doing various trails through the blue hills to warm up for the 9 mile hike... that was how much we enjoyed it.
i am looking forward to more hikes through the blue hills. and now that i know that a trail starts from shea rink, i'm hoping to do more hiking. needless to say, it was definitely a fun time to spend with my friends. thanks andrea for organizing it.
it was a day of firsts for me. not only had i never gone leaf peeping, i had never known there were trails leading to the blue hills from the ice skating rink known as shea rink in quincy where all of us met for the hike.
as well, i believe it was the first time (that i can recall... which doesn't say much because i can't remember a lot of things) that my friend (andrea) hung out in a group setting without her bff (hot amy). i've hung out individually with andrea before when we attempted to run together... most notably the high intensity interval training. i don't think, however, that i've ever seen andrea without hot amy when it was a group outing. (hot amy was away on official dietitic business.) needless to say, it was nice hanging with just andrea.
anyway, leaf peeping was absolutely fun. my friend (jen and bill... and their dog pugsley) met andrea, karen and i at shea rink. from there, we embarked on our little excursion through the blue hills. taking the blue path, we saw a lot of beautiful sights... fall foliage... ducks... rocks... ponds... and a deer!
(pictured below is the deer that came near us.)
the deer was amazing... so beautiful... so majestic. perhaps the deer was my patronus. just kidding. that was a harry potter reference for anyone curious.
anyway, we had to turn back after a while. as it turns out, the trail is about 9 miles and we were no where near completing it on saturday. some day, i think it would be cool to hike the entire trail. in fact, we talked about periodically doing various trails through the blue hills to warm up for the 9 mile hike... that was how much we enjoyed it.
i am looking forward to more hikes through the blue hills. and now that i know that a trail starts from shea rink, i'm hoping to do more hiking. needless to say, it was definitely a fun time to spend with my friends. thanks andrea for organizing it.
I Suck At Iron Man
after having dinner with my favorite sister-in-law (janine) and my favorite brother-in-law (pj), karen and i had a quiet night to ourselves.
we ended up going back home for movie night. movie night is something that i had thought about doing ever since my friend (de) had mentioned that one of her friends has a ginormous television and invites people over to watch a given movie on friday night. liking the idea (and getting a ginormous television of my own), i wanted to try something similar. even if people don't like the movie, it's always fun to get together.
this week, however, i did not have enough time to plan things. so, karen and i had movie night to ourselves... sort of a date night/movie night. the movie that we watched: iron man. now i suck at iron man.
i had actually seen the movie before in the theaters with my friends (marc and kelley). at the time, karen was also interested in seeing the movie, but i believe she had prior plans on that day. i think she was correcting papers or something like that with my friend (hot amy) who she was teaching a class with at simmons college.
anyway, because i liked the movie so much, karen and i decided to watch iron man friday night. karen actually did enjoy the movie. i'm now trying to get her to watch the hulk, as that movie also leads into the upcoming "avengers" movie. we'll see how that goes. yeah, i know... i'm a comic book geek.
we ended up going back home for movie night. movie night is something that i had thought about doing ever since my friend (de) had mentioned that one of her friends has a ginormous television and invites people over to watch a given movie on friday night. liking the idea (and getting a ginormous television of my own), i wanted to try something similar. even if people don't like the movie, it's always fun to get together.
this week, however, i did not have enough time to plan things. so, karen and i had movie night to ourselves... sort of a date night/movie night. the movie that we watched: iron man. now i suck at iron man.
i had actually seen the movie before in the theaters with my friends (marc and kelley). at the time, karen was also interested in seeing the movie, but i believe she had prior plans on that day. i think she was correcting papers or something like that with my friend (hot amy) who she was teaching a class with at simmons college.
anyway, because i liked the movie so much, karen and i decided to watch iron man friday night. karen actually did enjoy the movie. i'm now trying to get her to watch the hulk, as that movie also leads into the upcoming "avengers" movie. we'll see how that goes. yeah, i know... i'm a comic book geek.
I Still Suck At Strawberry Fair
friday, karen and i went out to dinner with my favorite sister-in-law (janine) and my favorite brother-in-law (pj).
the previous nights, both karen and i helped janine as she prepared for her first craft fair at the south shore vocational technical high school in hanover. karen helped janine with the basket creation and preparation, while i worked on the creation of the website for janine. (for anyone curious, the link to janine's new craft is www.myprettypresent.com.)
anyway, on friday janine and pj had plans to attend a fundraiser for the rockland public schools. the fundraiser involved going to abington to watch jimmy plunkett. (i am not sure why the fundraiser was in abington because the proceeds were for rockland. for that matter, i'm not sure why anyone would want to see jimmy plunkett. i have never seen jimmy plunkett myself. i have always envisioned jimmy plunkett as someone who old people go to see. i could be wrong about that.) nonetheless, janine and pj asked us if we wanted to have dinner beforehand. and so, we went out for dinner. the location: strawberry fair.
too bad i still suck at strawberry fair. as usual, the food was delicious. i had the "special ravioli" which consisted of pumpkin. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) whoever thinks ravioli must contain meat inside... moron. just kidding.
needless to say, the four of us had a good night. we celebrated janine's new business. hopefully, the hours she spent this week in preparing for the craft fair were worth it for her. i really hope janine enjoys it. i actually think karen enjoys the whole craft idea with janine as well because karen likes making crafts. karen's current crafting kick is making photo album... things. i know my description of the item doesn't really do it any justice. the photo album thing looks cooler in person.
and although i did not explicitly mention it at dinner, i thought the dinner was a little celebration for my son (braden) too. earlier in the day, karen and i visited with a high risk doctor to plan a course of action in the event karen and i are lucky enough to conceive again. the outlook looked promising, which was good.
i think what stuck in my mind was the fact that the doctor mentioned that braden sacrificed himself to let us know that there was a high risk involved in the pregnancy and any future pregnancies. i know it is a little odd to remember that. i think the reason why i remember it so much is because i had thought about that reason myself at one time after braden had passed... and just hearing the doctor say the same thing made me reflect upon it some more.
with any tragedy, i think a lot of people always wonder why. it's a normal thing and i'm no different. i think knowing why, or at least some reason, gives people more closure as they try to make sense out of the tragedy... where there may not be any sense to it whatsoever.
when i was thinking about why my son had to pass, i had actually thought at one time that the reason was because braden decided to make the biggest sacrifice (that being his life) so that his future siblings could live. you couldn't ask for a better older brother, i guess. whether that really is the reason or not, i'm not sure. but having the doctor mention something similar only made me reaffirm that possible reason why.
thus, having dinner that night... i thought i would celebrate my son who i believe was heroic to the end.
the previous nights, both karen and i helped janine as she prepared for her first craft fair at the south shore vocational technical high school in hanover. karen helped janine with the basket creation and preparation, while i worked on the creation of the website for janine. (for anyone curious, the link to janine's new craft is www.myprettypresent.com.)
anyway, on friday janine and pj had plans to attend a fundraiser for the rockland public schools. the fundraiser involved going to abington to watch jimmy plunkett. (i am not sure why the fundraiser was in abington because the proceeds were for rockland. for that matter, i'm not sure why anyone would want to see jimmy plunkett. i have never seen jimmy plunkett myself. i have always envisioned jimmy plunkett as someone who old people go to see. i could be wrong about that.) nonetheless, janine and pj asked us if we wanted to have dinner beforehand. and so, we went out for dinner. the location: strawberry fair.
too bad i still suck at strawberry fair. as usual, the food was delicious. i had the "special ravioli" which consisted of pumpkin. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) whoever thinks ravioli must contain meat inside... moron. just kidding.
needless to say, the four of us had a good night. we celebrated janine's new business. hopefully, the hours she spent this week in preparing for the craft fair were worth it for her. i really hope janine enjoys it. i actually think karen enjoys the whole craft idea with janine as well because karen likes making crafts. karen's current crafting kick is making photo album... things. i know my description of the item doesn't really do it any justice. the photo album thing looks cooler in person.
and although i did not explicitly mention it at dinner, i thought the dinner was a little celebration for my son (braden) too. earlier in the day, karen and i visited with a high risk doctor to plan a course of action in the event karen and i are lucky enough to conceive again. the outlook looked promising, which was good.
i think what stuck in my mind was the fact that the doctor mentioned that braden sacrificed himself to let us know that there was a high risk involved in the pregnancy and any future pregnancies. i know it is a little odd to remember that. i think the reason why i remember it so much is because i had thought about that reason myself at one time after braden had passed... and just hearing the doctor say the same thing made me reflect upon it some more.
with any tragedy, i think a lot of people always wonder why. it's a normal thing and i'm no different. i think knowing why, or at least some reason, gives people more closure as they try to make sense out of the tragedy... where there may not be any sense to it whatsoever.
when i was thinking about why my son had to pass, i had actually thought at one time that the reason was because braden decided to make the biggest sacrifice (that being his life) so that his future siblings could live. you couldn't ask for a better older brother, i guess. whether that really is the reason or not, i'm not sure. but having the doctor mention something similar only made me reaffirm that possible reason why.
thus, having dinner that night... i thought i would celebrate my son who i believe was heroic to the end.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
I Suck At Renewing My License
the other day, i received an official letter from the commonwealth of massachusetts.
the contents of that letter: an invoice to renew my license. too bad i suck at renewing my license.
for those who do not know, i am licensed to sell real estate within the state of massachusetts. that is one of those little known facts about me... like the fact that i exude awesomeness... and the fact that i skipped second grade because me is smart... just kidding. (i did skip second grade though.) another little known fact: i kick my friend's (hot amy) butt in every challenge imaginable. wait, everyone knows that fact. i guess there is that one little known fact that hot amy did win a challenge once... just once. she bet me that she couldn't drink her martini within ten minutes.
now, i figured that she could drink a martini in ten minutes. after all, who couldn't? nonetheless, i agreed to the challenge... probably because i had that one moment of mercy and felt bad for always beating her. plus, i was curious if she would throw up afterwards. (she did not.)
anyway, that is another story. i am licensed to sell real estate in massachusetts. the current problem: i am on inactive status... and probably the main problem... i don't work for a real estate agency. in order to become active, i have to work for a real estate agency (for liability issues) and i have to do some continuing education classes.
real estate has always interested me. i like looking at houses and seeing what could be as opposed to what is already there. the reason why i even have a license is because my friend (jenny) wanted to get her license as well. jenny, not to be confused with my friend (jen) is married to my friend (hugh) who was the best man at my wedding.
at the time (this was years and years ago) both jenny and i were not exactly working. i think jenny was doing odd jobs and i was looking for a job as a result of the "dot bomb" era in u.s. history.
well, jenny came up with the brilliant idea to sell real estate... so we both ended up signing up for the real estate class offered by century 21. at the end of the class, we both took the exam. from there... we both got our licenses to sell real estate.
jenny briefly tried her hand at selling real estate. she has her own daycare now. as for me, i never tried... but i always thought it was fun to be able to if i had to. instead, i found a job doing what i do best: computer stuff. (although, if i listened to my personality test in college, i should have been a firefighter or actor.)
needless to say, i have been renewing my license for no reason other than the fact that i could potentially sell real estate. with the housing market in this country currently in the dumps (and the fact that i probably will never attempt to sell real estate in the upcoming years), i am contemplating letting the license expire. i have a better chance of being a firefighter than selling real estate. i don't know. i have not decided yet on what i should in terms of my license.
another reason not to renew my license: my picture is awful on the license. i guess we'll see...
the contents of that letter: an invoice to renew my license. too bad i suck at renewing my license.
for those who do not know, i am licensed to sell real estate within the state of massachusetts. that is one of those little known facts about me... like the fact that i exude awesomeness... and the fact that i skipped second grade because me is smart... just kidding. (i did skip second grade though.) another little known fact: i kick my friend's (hot amy) butt in every challenge imaginable. wait, everyone knows that fact. i guess there is that one little known fact that hot amy did win a challenge once... just once. she bet me that she couldn't drink her martini within ten minutes.
now, i figured that she could drink a martini in ten minutes. after all, who couldn't? nonetheless, i agreed to the challenge... probably because i had that one moment of mercy and felt bad for always beating her. plus, i was curious if she would throw up afterwards. (she did not.)
anyway, that is another story. i am licensed to sell real estate in massachusetts. the current problem: i am on inactive status... and probably the main problem... i don't work for a real estate agency. in order to become active, i have to work for a real estate agency (for liability issues) and i have to do some continuing education classes.
real estate has always interested me. i like looking at houses and seeing what could be as opposed to what is already there. the reason why i even have a license is because my friend (jenny) wanted to get her license as well. jenny, not to be confused with my friend (jen) is married to my friend (hugh) who was the best man at my wedding.
at the time (this was years and years ago) both jenny and i were not exactly working. i think jenny was doing odd jobs and i was looking for a job as a result of the "dot bomb" era in u.s. history.
well, jenny came up with the brilliant idea to sell real estate... so we both ended up signing up for the real estate class offered by century 21. at the end of the class, we both took the exam. from there... we both got our licenses to sell real estate.
jenny briefly tried her hand at selling real estate. she has her own daycare now. as for me, i never tried... but i always thought it was fun to be able to if i had to. instead, i found a job doing what i do best: computer stuff. (although, if i listened to my personality test in college, i should have been a firefighter or actor.)
needless to say, i have been renewing my license for no reason other than the fact that i could potentially sell real estate. with the housing market in this country currently in the dumps (and the fact that i probably will never attempt to sell real estate in the upcoming years), i am contemplating letting the license expire. i have a better chance of being a firefighter than selling real estate. i don't know. i have not decided yet on what i should in terms of my license.
another reason not to renew my license: my picture is awful on the license. i guess we'll see...
I Still Suck At Celebrating My Friend's Birthday
i am completely absentminded. my friend's (aimee) birthday was a while ago. happy birthday aimee! and by a long while ago... i mean... a while ago... beginning of october awhile ago... yep, i still suck at celebrating my friend's birthday.
apparently, my friend aimee got a huge bag of nothing from me this year. i normally reserve that special present for people like hot amy, who i first came up with the idea for. (it must be the name.) oh well.
with any luck, i will remember aimee's birthday next year... thanks to this blog... except that hopefully i can remember to say happy birthday on her actual birthday instead of being well over two weeks late.
anyway, aimee's birthday is october 6. you'd think i'd remember her birthday because i have known aimee for over twenty years. yep, we've known each other for quite some time. she is practically like a sister to me. heck, i used to call pretending i was dr. ruth, for no reason other than pure silliness. but that is a different story.
i also have aimee to credit for one of my favorite sayings: "the cure is god". for anyone who knows me, they would know that i'm not exactly a religious person. so the saying has absolutely nothing to do with religion. the saying actually came about because at the time, aimee was a diehard fan of the musical group, the cure.
according to my friend wikipedia, "The Cure are an English rock band that formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976. The band has experienced several lineup changes, with frontman, guitarist and main songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member."
aimee loved the cure. the instigator that i am, i used to joke about how awful the cure were. (i actually like the cure, but it was fun to joke about how bad they were with aimee... proof that my instigating ways started early.) naturally, aimee would defend the do-no-wrong band known as the cure. eventually, that led to the saying... "the cure is god". aimee has since become a diehard pearl jam fan. unfortunatley, "jam is god" just doesn't have the same feel to it.
now things haven't always been rosy between aimee and me. as pseudo-siblings are prone to do... we have had our disagreements. naturally, the instigator that i am (do you see a possible trend?), i was probably the cause of many of those arguments. we used to have summers where we would not talk to one another. those were long summers... real long. you'd think that i would learn to not get on aimee's bad side.
hopefully aimee won't hold a grudge over my forgetting her birthday, especially now since she is learning the brazilian martial arts known as capoeira. she's liable to take my kneecaps out. just kidding. seriously though, have a happy birthday aimee! i'm sorry i forgot.
apparently, my friend aimee got a huge bag of nothing from me this year. i normally reserve that special present for people like hot amy, who i first came up with the idea for. (it must be the name.) oh well.
with any luck, i will remember aimee's birthday next year... thanks to this blog... except that hopefully i can remember to say happy birthday on her actual birthday instead of being well over two weeks late.
anyway, aimee's birthday is october 6. you'd think i'd remember her birthday because i have known aimee for over twenty years. yep, we've known each other for quite some time. she is practically like a sister to me. heck, i used to call pretending i was dr. ruth, for no reason other than pure silliness. but that is a different story.
i also have aimee to credit for one of my favorite sayings: "the cure is god". for anyone who knows me, they would know that i'm not exactly a religious person. so the saying has absolutely nothing to do with religion. the saying actually came about because at the time, aimee was a diehard fan of the musical group, the cure.
according to my friend wikipedia, "The Cure are an English rock band that formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976. The band has experienced several lineup changes, with frontman, guitarist and main songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member."
aimee loved the cure. the instigator that i am, i used to joke about how awful the cure were. (i actually like the cure, but it was fun to joke about how bad they were with aimee... proof that my instigating ways started early.) naturally, aimee would defend the do-no-wrong band known as the cure. eventually, that led to the saying... "the cure is god". aimee has since become a diehard pearl jam fan. unfortunatley, "jam is god" just doesn't have the same feel to it.
now things haven't always been rosy between aimee and me. as pseudo-siblings are prone to do... we have had our disagreements. naturally, the instigator that i am (do you see a possible trend?), i was probably the cause of many of those arguments. we used to have summers where we would not talk to one another. those were long summers... real long. you'd think that i would learn to not get on aimee's bad side.
hopefully aimee won't hold a grudge over my forgetting her birthday, especially now since she is learning the brazilian martial arts known as capoeira. she's liable to take my kneecaps out. just kidding. seriously though, have a happy birthday aimee! i'm sorry i forgot.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
I Still Suck At Buffy The Vampire Slayer
yesterday, i hung out with my friends (marc and kelley). for anyone curious... wednesdays (not tuesdays) are usually the days i hang out with marc and kelley. obviously, yesterday was an exception because i have a corporate meeting on wednesday.
needless to say, i had fun at marc and kelley's. interested in trying something different, karen and i bought some frozen pizza complements of paul newman. paul newman has a new line of frozen pizza. it's too bad paul newman passed away. the idea that all of the newman's own profits go to charity is very commendable. it sometimes makes you think why other celebrities or famous athletes cannot do the same with their exorbitant income. after all, i'm sure after a point money becomes just a number to them and no longer a means for survival... unless of course you eat gold nuggets with fries for lunch.
anyway, newman's own frozen pizza... very good. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) shortly after trying the pizzas, the four of us did our usual watching of the tv show, heroes. heroes... such a good show! it's no buffy the vampire slayer (and really what can compare to that show?), but it is very good. i won't reveal anything about the episode in case people have yet to watch the show.
in addition to heroes, my friend (scott) stopped by for a visit as well. scott, who lives in new york, was up for a corporate meeting as well. it seems like corporate meetings are the rave... everyone's doing it. just kidding. but it was great seeing scott again. the five of us hung out for a while before his work contacted him. once work contacted him, scott was not too happy. scott did, however, provide a memorable quote for the night. as he was talking to his coworker, scott mentioned that someone "got fingered".
the 5 year old that i am, i turned to kelley and said "someone got fingered!" kelley astutely replied "freddy?" and then had to leave the room as she burst out in a hyperventilated laughter. yes, we are silly. (that was a reference to the awful movie starring tom green.)
needless to say, scott had to leave to re-attend his corporate meeting. but, it was good to see him. i'm glad he stopped by. from there... we started season 2 of buffy the vampire slayer.
now, i still suck at buffy the vampire slayer. we were only able to watch the first two episodes: "when she was bad" and "some assembly required". the former episode featured a sexy dance from buffy (not that i am jealous) as buffy deals with her issues with season 1 nemesis, the master. the latter episode was the frankenstein-ish episode where someone attempts to create a new woman from dead bodies. ah... good episodes... good episodes.
in high school, if i were to create a new woman... hmm... i'll stop there. i'll probably get in trouble for whatever i'd say to complete that sentence.
anyway, it was a fun night... as usual.
oh yes, marc is supposed to send me a non myers-briggs personality test, but he has yet to do so as of this writing. i'd be curious to see the results of that test when i take it. i enjoy taking personality tests. the last time i took a personality test was in college. i believe the results said i would enjoy being a firefighter and an actor. sadly, i am in neither profession.
i should be an acting firefighter... oh what could have been...
needless to say, i had fun at marc and kelley's. interested in trying something different, karen and i bought some frozen pizza complements of paul newman. paul newman has a new line of frozen pizza. it's too bad paul newman passed away. the idea that all of the newman's own profits go to charity is very commendable. it sometimes makes you think why other celebrities or famous athletes cannot do the same with their exorbitant income. after all, i'm sure after a point money becomes just a number to them and no longer a means for survival... unless of course you eat gold nuggets with fries for lunch.
anyway, newman's own frozen pizza... very good. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) shortly after trying the pizzas, the four of us did our usual watching of the tv show, heroes. heroes... such a good show! it's no buffy the vampire slayer (and really what can compare to that show?), but it is very good. i won't reveal anything about the episode in case people have yet to watch the show.
in addition to heroes, my friend (scott) stopped by for a visit as well. scott, who lives in new york, was up for a corporate meeting as well. it seems like corporate meetings are the rave... everyone's doing it. just kidding. but it was great seeing scott again. the five of us hung out for a while before his work contacted him. once work contacted him, scott was not too happy. scott did, however, provide a memorable quote for the night. as he was talking to his coworker, scott mentioned that someone "got fingered".
the 5 year old that i am, i turned to kelley and said "someone got fingered!" kelley astutely replied "freddy?" and then had to leave the room as she burst out in a hyperventilated laughter. yes, we are silly. (that was a reference to the awful movie starring tom green.)
needless to say, scott had to leave to re-attend his corporate meeting. but, it was good to see him. i'm glad he stopped by. from there... we started season 2 of buffy the vampire slayer.
now, i still suck at buffy the vampire slayer. we were only able to watch the first two episodes: "when she was bad" and "some assembly required". the former episode featured a sexy dance from buffy (not that i am jealous) as buffy deals with her issues with season 1 nemesis, the master. the latter episode was the frankenstein-ish episode where someone attempts to create a new woman from dead bodies. ah... good episodes... good episodes.
in high school, if i were to create a new woman... hmm... i'll stop there. i'll probably get in trouble for whatever i'd say to complete that sentence.
anyway, it was a fun night... as usual.
oh yes, marc is supposed to send me a non myers-briggs personality test, but he has yet to do so as of this writing. i'd be curious to see the results of that test when i take it. i enjoy taking personality tests. the last time i took a personality test was in college. i believe the results said i would enjoy being a firefighter and an actor. sadly, i am in neither profession.
i should be an acting firefighter... oh what could have been...
Monday, October 20, 2008
I Suck At Blue-22
yesterday, a bunch of us celebrated my friend's (kelley) birthday.
we ended up celebrating kelley's birthday at blue-22. my friend (hot amy) would have been proud. too bad i suck at blue-22
anyway, blue-22 subscribes to the nfl sunday ticket. so, any football game can be broadcast within the bar. in addition, they usually have specials on certain things on sundays... like wings... which incidentally are one of my friend's (garv) favorite food items. garv also happens to be a part owner of blue-22, so it only seems fitting about the wings.
in addition to the food specials, blue-22 had wbcn and crash clark there yesterday. crash is a big miami fan, evident from his reggie roby punter jersey. i'm not exactly sure how garv got wbcn to come, but it made for an entertaining birthday celebration for kelley.
naturally, because wbcn was giving away free schwag, i attempted to do what i could to score kelley some items. it was, after all, her birthday celebration. the main item that wbcn was giving away... bret michael's tickets! for anyone curious, bret michaels was the lead singer in the band, poison. he has since had a reality tv show called "rock of love" where he tries to find his soul mate. truth be told, i did not even know he was touring.
crash would have given us the tickets because... well... really, who wants bret michaels tickets? i didn't even want the tickets, but i thought it would have been funny to get them for kelley. unfortunately, there was one woman (jane) at the bar who wanted the tickets. not to give up without a fight, i told crash i wanted the tickets too. or more appropriately, everyone at the table (marc, karen, garv, leeann, kelley, de, and carol) told crash that i wanted the tickets.
so crash concocted a competition for the bret michael's tickets. that competition... karaoke. the song... "every rose has its thorn". the winner is decided by the patrons of blue-22.
first up... me. as the song started playing, i started to hum. i had no idea what the words were. while humming, i started to sway like axl rose... in hopes that i could remember the lyrics. and then... "every rose has its thorn... just like every night... has its dawn... just like every cowboy sings a sad sad song... every rose has its thorn... yeah it does..."
next up... jane. if you thought i didn't know the lyrics, jane knew considerably less lyrics than i did about the song. she was even a little off key when she did attempt to sing.
when all was said and done... the patrons voted and the winner was... jane.
not that i am a sore loser or anything, but i was totally robbed. i don't think anyone in the bar would argue that my rendition of "every rose has its thorn" was much better than jane's. jane, unfortunately, happens to be better shaped than i am... subsequently, she is much more easier on the eyes than me. hell, i even voted for jane.
truth be told, had i really won the competition, i probably would have given jane the tickets anyway. after all, what am i going to do with bret michaels tickets? kelley didn't even want them. so the tickets might as well be put to good use. hm... perhaps my friend (hot amy) and i should have a karaoke competition at blue-22. she'd actually have a better chance of winning against me. we could even wager apple crisp!
as a consolation prize, i received for my efforts the speed racer dvd. exciting i know. kelley didn't want that dvd either. she did, however, get a free wbcn t-shirt. so at least kelley got some schwag yesterday.
anyway, i hope kelley had a good time yesterday. happy birthday again!
we ended up celebrating kelley's birthday at blue-22. my friend (hot amy) would have been proud. too bad i suck at blue-22
anyway, blue-22 subscribes to the nfl sunday ticket. so, any football game can be broadcast within the bar. in addition, they usually have specials on certain things on sundays... like wings... which incidentally are one of my friend's (garv) favorite food items. garv also happens to be a part owner of blue-22, so it only seems fitting about the wings.
in addition to the food specials, blue-22 had wbcn and crash clark there yesterday. crash is a big miami fan, evident from his reggie roby punter jersey. i'm not exactly sure how garv got wbcn to come, but it made for an entertaining birthday celebration for kelley.
naturally, because wbcn was giving away free schwag, i attempted to do what i could to score kelley some items. it was, after all, her birthday celebration. the main item that wbcn was giving away... bret michael's tickets! for anyone curious, bret michaels was the lead singer in the band, poison. he has since had a reality tv show called "rock of love" where he tries to find his soul mate. truth be told, i did not even know he was touring.
crash would have given us the tickets because... well... really, who wants bret michaels tickets? i didn't even want the tickets, but i thought it would have been funny to get them for kelley. unfortunately, there was one woman (jane) at the bar who wanted the tickets. not to give up without a fight, i told crash i wanted the tickets too. or more appropriately, everyone at the table (marc, karen, garv, leeann, kelley, de, and carol) told crash that i wanted the tickets.
so crash concocted a competition for the bret michael's tickets. that competition... karaoke. the song... "every rose has its thorn". the winner is decided by the patrons of blue-22.
first up... me. as the song started playing, i started to hum. i had no idea what the words were. while humming, i started to sway like axl rose... in hopes that i could remember the lyrics. and then... "every rose has its thorn... just like every night... has its dawn... just like every cowboy sings a sad sad song... every rose has its thorn... yeah it does..."
next up... jane. if you thought i didn't know the lyrics, jane knew considerably less lyrics than i did about the song. she was even a little off key when she did attempt to sing.
when all was said and done... the patrons voted and the winner was... jane.
not that i am a sore loser or anything, but i was totally robbed. i don't think anyone in the bar would argue that my rendition of "every rose has its thorn" was much better than jane's. jane, unfortunately, happens to be better shaped than i am... subsequently, she is much more easier on the eyes than me. hell, i even voted for jane.
truth be told, had i really won the competition, i probably would have given jane the tickets anyway. after all, what am i going to do with bret michaels tickets? kelley didn't even want them. so the tickets might as well be put to good use. hm... perhaps my friend (hot amy) and i should have a karaoke competition at blue-22. she'd actually have a better chance of winning against me. we could even wager apple crisp!
as a consolation prize, i received for my efforts the speed racer dvd. exciting i know. kelley didn't want that dvd either. she did, however, get a free wbcn t-shirt. so at least kelley got some schwag yesterday.
anyway, i hope kelley had a good time yesterday. happy birthday again!
Sunday, October 19, 2008
I Suck At Watching The Red Sox
i must say... watching a sporting event with a bunch of women... can be quite entertaining.
following our day out with my nephew (pj), karen and i were invited to watch the red sox game at my friend's (andrea) place. too bad i suck at watching the red sox.
anyway, andrea was nice enough to invite all of us who were at coop's the day before to her place to watch game 6 of the american league championship between the red sox and the rays. as andrea was with my friends (hot amy and jen) in town to watch the lighting of a bunch of jack-o-lanterns, it made getting together that much easier. sadly, my friend (bill) could not make the shindig because he was bitten by the cold bug after coop's... proof that making out with hot amy... never a good thing.
before any of you think that i hang out with a very close knit group where everyone makes out with one another... or in general... the always sick hot amy... i am only kidding. there is no actual making out with hot amy (to my knowledge... much like andrea's knowledge of smoking pot). i simply like to use that phrase whenever germs are spread and people get sick.
regardless, it was too bad bill could not attend. in bill's place, however, was my friend (carlos).
anyway, it was a fun night filled with bagel bites and the red sox. andrea seems to now fully understand the meaning of the top and bottom of the inning... as it turns out, all of us even learned about the type of guy andrea is looking for: blue eyes, brown hair... within the age range of 30-38. so if any of you know of anyone who fits that description, please let andrea know.
andrea's other option is to solicit herself to the recently divorced jason varitek, whom she thinks has a great butt... a result from his great squatting ability i presume. hot amy, on the other hand, was a little upset that her man (jacoby ellsbury) was not playing. ellsbury had been benched in favor of coco crisp because he has gone ice cold at the plate. by ice cold... i mean ellsbury has not been hitting... at all.
so, you can imagine what it is like to watch a red sox game within my group of friends... who seem to enjoy the game more for the players in their uniforms than the actual game itself.
anyway, the sox ended up winning... so it's off to the final decisive game 7. the red sox won in part to varitek, who amazing hit a home run in the game. i gave andrea grief about varitek because... well... varitek can't hit this year. she of course, defended him... on what basis... i don't remember... possibly because he looked cute or something. maybe if i give her more grief about varitek, he'll turn into a one man wrecking machine for the final game of the alcs. we'll see... go sox!
oh yes... i am not sure if this happened or not, but jen was hoping to meet siamese twins upon leaving andrea's house. so hopefully she did...
following our day out with my nephew (pj), karen and i were invited to watch the red sox game at my friend's (andrea) place. too bad i suck at watching the red sox.
anyway, andrea was nice enough to invite all of us who were at coop's the day before to her place to watch game 6 of the american league championship between the red sox and the rays. as andrea was with my friends (hot amy and jen) in town to watch the lighting of a bunch of jack-o-lanterns, it made getting together that much easier. sadly, my friend (bill) could not make the shindig because he was bitten by the cold bug after coop's... proof that making out with hot amy... never a good thing.
before any of you think that i hang out with a very close knit group where everyone makes out with one another... or in general... the always sick hot amy... i am only kidding. there is no actual making out with hot amy (to my knowledge... much like andrea's knowledge of smoking pot). i simply like to use that phrase whenever germs are spread and people get sick.
regardless, it was too bad bill could not attend. in bill's place, however, was my friend (carlos).
anyway, it was a fun night filled with bagel bites and the red sox. andrea seems to now fully understand the meaning of the top and bottom of the inning... as it turns out, all of us even learned about the type of guy andrea is looking for: blue eyes, brown hair... within the age range of 30-38. so if any of you know of anyone who fits that description, please let andrea know.
andrea's other option is to solicit herself to the recently divorced jason varitek, whom she thinks has a great butt... a result from his great squatting ability i presume. hot amy, on the other hand, was a little upset that her man (jacoby ellsbury) was not playing. ellsbury had been benched in favor of coco crisp because he has gone ice cold at the plate. by ice cold... i mean ellsbury has not been hitting... at all.
so, you can imagine what it is like to watch a red sox game within my group of friends... who seem to enjoy the game more for the players in their uniforms than the actual game itself.
anyway, the sox ended up winning... so it's off to the final decisive game 7. the red sox won in part to varitek, who amazing hit a home run in the game. i gave andrea grief about varitek because... well... varitek can't hit this year. she of course, defended him... on what basis... i don't remember... possibly because he looked cute or something. maybe if i give her more grief about varitek, he'll turn into a one man wrecking machine for the final game of the alcs. we'll see... go sox!
oh yes... i am not sure if this happened or not, but jen was hoping to meet siamese twins upon leaving andrea's house. so hopefully she did...
I Suck At The Children's Museum
for my niece and nephew's birthday, karen and i usually take them out for some type of activity rather than get them a gift. i'm sure eventually, my niece and nephew will want to receive a gift instead of hanging out with their auntie and uncle mike. but for now, they will have to hang out with us.
this year, my nephew (pj) turned seven. so for his birthday, he wanted to go to the children's museum. now, i suck at the children's museum. i have not been to the children's museum in quite some time. from what my mother told me, i used to go to the children's museum a lot when i was young.
the last time i was in the children's museum was when i briefly worked at a company located above the children's museum shortly after the "dot bomb" days. i had simply cut through the museum to get to work. i didn't last long at that company above the children's museum (two weeks maybe) because another position had opened up elsewhere in downtown boston which provided more opportunities. in addition to the opportunities, i got to strengthen my relationships with my friends (kelley, aimee, bill and hot amy) during the five plus years i ended up working at that downtown boston company. so it was definitely worth it.
anyway, before going to the children's museum, pj wanted to have lunch first. his pick for lunch... mcdonald's. karen and i have not gone to a mcdonald's since... my friend (pam) had a christening for her daughter at the end of april. it was also the day that my other friend (hot amy) got to test drive a prius... and also the day pam's brother-in-law basically asked "are we done yet?" on the altar of the christening. i remember the day well because my stomach did not feel so great shortly after consuming the mcdonald's meal.
similarly, after my meal with pj... my stomach did not feel that great. but unlike the christening, the feeling of nausea went away... probably because i chose to eat a chicken sandwich this time as opposed to a burger the last time.
so from there, the three of us headed into town to visit the children's museum.
(the video below is of pj playing with a "power launcher".)
i must say... the children's museum is totally different from what i remember. the place is huge. as well, i would say the children's museum is more like an organized playground as opposed to a museum. kids are running around left and right playing with things. i'm not sure they are interested in reading some of the things that are written to help them learn about things. but, it was all good.
with all the children running around and having fun, i had a brief moment where i had thought about my son (braden) and how nice it would have been to be able to bring him there. i naturally resisted the urge to break down and cry.
i think pj had a good time which is really what matters since it was for his birthday. the three of us ending up spending about three hours at the children's museum. we went to every room on every floor. some rooms we had revisited. for anyone curious, pj said he liked the "water" room the best. the "water" room is basically a room where kids can play with... water.
anyway, happy birthday again pj. i hope you had a great time.
this year, my nephew (pj) turned seven. so for his birthday, he wanted to go to the children's museum. now, i suck at the children's museum. i have not been to the children's museum in quite some time. from what my mother told me, i used to go to the children's museum a lot when i was young.
the last time i was in the children's museum was when i briefly worked at a company located above the children's museum shortly after the "dot bomb" days. i had simply cut through the museum to get to work. i didn't last long at that company above the children's museum (two weeks maybe) because another position had opened up elsewhere in downtown boston which provided more opportunities. in addition to the opportunities, i got to strengthen my relationships with my friends (kelley, aimee, bill and hot amy) during the five plus years i ended up working at that downtown boston company. so it was definitely worth it.
anyway, before going to the children's museum, pj wanted to have lunch first. his pick for lunch... mcdonald's. karen and i have not gone to a mcdonald's since... my friend (pam) had a christening for her daughter at the end of april. it was also the day that my other friend (hot amy) got to test drive a prius... and also the day pam's brother-in-law basically asked "are we done yet?" on the altar of the christening. i remember the day well because my stomach did not feel so great shortly after consuming the mcdonald's meal.
similarly, after my meal with pj... my stomach did not feel that great. but unlike the christening, the feeling of nausea went away... probably because i chose to eat a chicken sandwich this time as opposed to a burger the last time.
so from there, the three of us headed into town to visit the children's museum.
(the video below is of pj playing with a "power launcher".)
i must say... the children's museum is totally different from what i remember. the place is huge. as well, i would say the children's museum is more like an organized playground as opposed to a museum. kids are running around left and right playing with things. i'm not sure they are interested in reading some of the things that are written to help them learn about things. but, it was all good.
with all the children running around and having fun, i had a brief moment where i had thought about my son (braden) and how nice it would have been to be able to bring him there. i naturally resisted the urge to break down and cry.
i think pj had a good time which is really what matters since it was for his birthday. the three of us ending up spending about three hours at the children's museum. we went to every room on every floor. some rooms we had revisited. for anyone curious, pj said he liked the "water" room the best. the "water" room is basically a room where kids can play with... water.
anyway, happy birthday again pj. i hope you had a great time.
I Suck At Headstones
yesterday, karen and i went to finally get a headstone for our son (braden). it's definitely a weird feeling to not only choose something to mark the resting place of your own son, but also choose something to mark the final resting place of yourself and your spouse. making plans for my son's demise, or karen's demise, or even my demise was not something that i had expected to do at this age. thus, i suck at headstones.
when braden passed away, the funeral service (keonhane's) that we used had recommended a place for headstones. the place was called quincy memorials which is located in quincy on williard street. keohane's had said that everyone whom they had referred to quincy memorials never had a problem with them. so, i contacted quincy memorials to make an appointment to discuss headstones for braden. as it turned out, karen and i did not have to make any appointments. all we had to do was show up at their office.
as usual, when it comes to braden, things never really seem to go according to plan. karen and i arrived at the office bright and early when the office was supposed to be open. and we waited... and we waited... we even walked around the office to look at headstones outside.
eventually (over half an hour later), an associate (jeff) from quincy memorials finally showed up. he apologized because he had to wait for "joe plumber" to arrive... man that joe plumber gets around. if joe plumber weren't busy on the obama/mccain political tour, he could have showed up at jeff's place on time and therefore not have delayed karen and i. just kidding.
i actually did not mind waiting for jeff. i would much rather have jeff have heat (the plumbing was connected to the heating) because it was a little chilly yesterday. plus, the delay gave me more time to think about the headstone for braden. like any parent, i want the best for my son... and in this case, i wanted braden's marker to look nice and represent him well.
karen and i decided upon a flat marker for braden made from black granite. the marker would contain the standard information of braden's name, the date of his birth, and the date of his passing. karen and i also included an epitaph on the marker, saying "our son, little b". as well, there would be a picture of winnie the pooh engraved along the border around his information.
had braden survived, karen and i were going to decorate his room with a winnie the pooh theme. unfortunately, we never got around to it with his premature birth. so the least we could do is decorate his flat marker the way we would have decorated his room... with winnie the pooh. the picture on his flat marker is of winnie the pooh holding three balloons as he flies away. aside from the fact that it was winnie the pooh, both karen and i thought the picture would be nice because... like the three balloons... there would be the three of us... and with pooh flying away, it would be like braden is ascending to the clouds where he is finally resting.
as strange as this sounds, i am quite excited to see what the finished product will look like and have it installed at the cemetery. quincy memorials estimates that the marker will probably be done near the end of the year.
as for karen and i, we both got a headstone that simply says our last name on it. like the flat marker for braden, the family headstone will be made of black granite. there will simply be a border around the name... nothing fancy. that headstone... i'm not too excited to see. both karen and i will get individualized flat markers too, but i am hoping that someone else can plan that part for us.
when braden passed away, the funeral service (keonhane's) that we used had recommended a place for headstones. the place was called quincy memorials which is located in quincy on williard street. keohane's had said that everyone whom they had referred to quincy memorials never had a problem with them. so, i contacted quincy memorials to make an appointment to discuss headstones for braden. as it turned out, karen and i did not have to make any appointments. all we had to do was show up at their office.
as usual, when it comes to braden, things never really seem to go according to plan. karen and i arrived at the office bright and early when the office was supposed to be open. and we waited... and we waited... we even walked around the office to look at headstones outside.
eventually (over half an hour later), an associate (jeff) from quincy memorials finally showed up. he apologized because he had to wait for "joe plumber" to arrive... man that joe plumber gets around. if joe plumber weren't busy on the obama/mccain political tour, he could have showed up at jeff's place on time and therefore not have delayed karen and i. just kidding.
i actually did not mind waiting for jeff. i would much rather have jeff have heat (the plumbing was connected to the heating) because it was a little chilly yesterday. plus, the delay gave me more time to think about the headstone for braden. like any parent, i want the best for my son... and in this case, i wanted braden's marker to look nice and represent him well.
karen and i decided upon a flat marker for braden made from black granite. the marker would contain the standard information of braden's name, the date of his birth, and the date of his passing. karen and i also included an epitaph on the marker, saying "our son, little b". as well, there would be a picture of winnie the pooh engraved along the border around his information.
had braden survived, karen and i were going to decorate his room with a winnie the pooh theme. unfortunately, we never got around to it with his premature birth. so the least we could do is decorate his flat marker the way we would have decorated his room... with winnie the pooh. the picture on his flat marker is of winnie the pooh holding three balloons as he flies away. aside from the fact that it was winnie the pooh, both karen and i thought the picture would be nice because... like the three balloons... there would be the three of us... and with pooh flying away, it would be like braden is ascending to the clouds where he is finally resting.
as strange as this sounds, i am quite excited to see what the finished product will look like and have it installed at the cemetery. quincy memorials estimates that the marker will probably be done near the end of the year.
as for karen and i, we both got a headstone that simply says our last name on it. like the flat marker for braden, the family headstone will be made of black granite. there will simply be a border around the name... nothing fancy. that headstone... i'm not too excited to see. both karen and i will get individualized flat markers too, but i am hoping that someone else can plan that part for us.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
I Suck At Coop's
yesterday, karen and i met a bunch of our friends for dinner. to no one's surprise, the restaurant that was selected for dinner was coop's in quincy. too bad i suck at coop's. i was not surprised by the selection of coop's, because the plan originated from my predictable friend (hot amy) who seemingly only likes coop's or blue-22 as places to eat.
i'm not exactly sure what it is about coop's that hot amy enjoys so much. perhaps it is the owner (who i refer to as mr. coop). don't get me wrong. i have nothing against coop's. the food is quite good. i had chicken broccoli and ziti (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound). coop's also had this delicious pumpkin dessert too that was made by the bartender... the dessert was very good. and apparently... as hot amy would like to have you believe, the drinks are very strong there.
anyway, hot amy contacted my friend (jen) who organized the rest of the plans for dinner, which involved inviting karen and myself.
it was good to hang out with my friends. it almost seemed like old times, reminding me of my ireland trip as everyone who was at coop's last night (jen, bill, hot amy, and andrea) were also in ireland with me and karen last november. it's amazing how time flies because i can't believe it has almost been a year since i went to ireland with all of them. ireland was a great time... and lately, that familiarity of seeing all of my friends felt nice again.
up until yesterday, i had not really hung out with andrea in some time... or hot amy for that matter. both have been a little preoccupied with other things and other people. so, it was nice to be able to see them and hang out at the same time.
for me, the absolute highlight of the night came courtesy of andrea. we had been discussing politics, which is always a bad idea when it comes to topics of conversation... because you never know how emotionally charged people can be when it comes to politics. in particular, we were talking about the upcoming questions to vote on. one of the questions this year happens to deal with the marijuana.
like the instigator that i am, i asked andrea if she ever smoked marijuana before (which is totally unrelated to the voting question, i know). i was certainly not ready for her answer. her answer... "i don't know." the answer struck me as funny, because for anyone who has been around marijuana... there is a pungent smell when it is smoked. so, i would normally imagine someone would know whether they have smoked it or not... unless of course, you are a politician. (for anyone curious, i have never smoked marijuana. my body is a temple... as evident from my round belly and the large amounts of food i consume...) needless to say, whether she has or not, i will probably joke around with andrea about that for some time.
the other funny highlight of the night was our discussion about cup sizes for women's undergarments. yes, it was a thrilling night... food, marijuana, and bra sizes.... what could be better? making the discussion interesting was the fact that mr. coop (the owner of coop's) walked in during our discussion of double d's. mr. coop must have thought we were crazy.
as it turns out, the largest bra size is a size j according to my friend (pam) who we had contacted via the cell phone. it was like one of those game show moments where you could "phone a friend" for the answer. pam is quite knowledgeable about women's intimate apparel because she is currently working in an intimate apparel store. so no... pam was not contacted because she had the largest biggest bra size of everyone we knew. that may be the case, but that was not why she was contacted. pam is not a size j.
interestingly enough, pam has become karen and hot amy's phone-a-friend for many things... a result of parochial schools... and no cable television. sad.
all in all, it was a fun time at coop's...
oh yes... jen recently had her hair cut, too... and it looked very good.
i'm not exactly sure what it is about coop's that hot amy enjoys so much. perhaps it is the owner (who i refer to as mr. coop). don't get me wrong. i have nothing against coop's. the food is quite good. i had chicken broccoli and ziti (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound). coop's also had this delicious pumpkin dessert too that was made by the bartender... the dessert was very good. and apparently... as hot amy would like to have you believe, the drinks are very strong there.
anyway, hot amy contacted my friend (jen) who organized the rest of the plans for dinner, which involved inviting karen and myself.
it was good to hang out with my friends. it almost seemed like old times, reminding me of my ireland trip as everyone who was at coop's last night (jen, bill, hot amy, and andrea) were also in ireland with me and karen last november. it's amazing how time flies because i can't believe it has almost been a year since i went to ireland with all of them. ireland was a great time... and lately, that familiarity of seeing all of my friends felt nice again.
up until yesterday, i had not really hung out with andrea in some time... or hot amy for that matter. both have been a little preoccupied with other things and other people. so, it was nice to be able to see them and hang out at the same time.
for me, the absolute highlight of the night came courtesy of andrea. we had been discussing politics, which is always a bad idea when it comes to topics of conversation... because you never know how emotionally charged people can be when it comes to politics. in particular, we were talking about the upcoming questions to vote on. one of the questions this year happens to deal with the marijuana.
like the instigator that i am, i asked andrea if she ever smoked marijuana before (which is totally unrelated to the voting question, i know). i was certainly not ready for her answer. her answer... "i don't know." the answer struck me as funny, because for anyone who has been around marijuana... there is a pungent smell when it is smoked. so, i would normally imagine someone would know whether they have smoked it or not... unless of course, you are a politician. (for anyone curious, i have never smoked marijuana. my body is a temple... as evident from my round belly and the large amounts of food i consume...) needless to say, whether she has or not, i will probably joke around with andrea about that for some time.
the other funny highlight of the night was our discussion about cup sizes for women's undergarments. yes, it was a thrilling night... food, marijuana, and bra sizes.... what could be better? making the discussion interesting was the fact that mr. coop (the owner of coop's) walked in during our discussion of double d's. mr. coop must have thought we were crazy.
as it turns out, the largest bra size is a size j according to my friend (pam) who we had contacted via the cell phone. it was like one of those game show moments where you could "phone a friend" for the answer. pam is quite knowledgeable about women's intimate apparel because she is currently working in an intimate apparel store. so no... pam was not contacted because she had the largest biggest bra size of everyone we knew. that may be the case, but that was not why she was contacted. pam is not a size j.
interestingly enough, pam has become karen and hot amy's phone-a-friend for many things... a result of parochial schools... and no cable television. sad.
all in all, it was a fun time at coop's...
oh yes... jen recently had her hair cut, too... and it looked very good.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
I Suck At Celebrating My Friend's Birthday
today is my friend's (kelley) birthday. too bad i suck at celebrating my friend's birthday. happy birthday kelley!
out of all of my friends who i see regularly, i have known kelley the longest. i attended the same elementary school with kelley. in fact, i believe i was in her third grade class... maybe. my memory is a little foggy when it comes to details about the past. hence, that is why my friends joke about my selective memory. my memory, or lack thereof, is also one of the reasons why i sometimes fear that i will forget about my son (braden).
anyway, i didn't really get to know kelley until she started dating my friend (marc). up until then, she was simply someone i knew who hung out with so-and-so. i never really talked to her much. i just knew of her.
marc and kelley eventually got married... and now both karen and i see them quite regularly now. hence, wednesday nights are usually dedicated marc and kelley nights... unless of course something comes up to alter the schedule.
since i started hanging out with kelley, we have done a lot of silly things together... all in the name of alcohol. in fact, marc likes to refer to kelley and me as drinking buddies. kelley has a reputation for drinking a lot, and when she does... she gets silly. since i'm likewise a goof when i'm inebriated, combining the two of us is probably not a good thing.
one of my fondest memories of kelley takes place in town. both kelley and i worked in boston at the time. i think we both convinced each other to leave work early for the day and meet at a restaurant in town for a late lunch. the restaurant was the now defunct peking tom's, which closed june 16, 2007. i think the restaurant that is there now is called kingston station or something like that.
so, we ate our lunch. naturally, as we are prone to do when we are together, we decided to get drinks. after our first round of drinks (which were mai tais), kelley said that she would stop so that we could both leave and get home at a good time. then came round two. then came round three... eventually, we both got a little silly. in fact, it got so silly... that we had to call marc to come pick us up.
(the following video was quite popular at the time, and i may have repeated a few lines from the video out loud while inebriated.)
needless to say, it was not a good day for marc. marc came to pick us up... no problem. the only problem was... marc went to pf chang's to pick us up. we were at peking tom's. so while marc was waiting and waiting and wondering where we were (and getting more annoyed by the minute), kelley and i were being silly with booze. for some reason, the cellular reception was not that great so we could not communicate with marc after we initially called him. of course, that may have been due to the booze too.
eventually, marc found us. he was not happy. making matters worse, of course, was that i had to pick up karen later on as well. as i was in no shape to be operating huge machinery, marc also picked up karen so that she could drive my sorry butt home.
ah... good times... things seemed so much simpler back in the day.
needless to say, kelley and i don't imbibe as much as we used to these days. but those were some fun times.
anyway, happy birthday kelley!
out of all of my friends who i see regularly, i have known kelley the longest. i attended the same elementary school with kelley. in fact, i believe i was in her third grade class... maybe. my memory is a little foggy when it comes to details about the past. hence, that is why my friends joke about my selective memory. my memory, or lack thereof, is also one of the reasons why i sometimes fear that i will forget about my son (braden).
anyway, i didn't really get to know kelley until she started dating my friend (marc). up until then, she was simply someone i knew who hung out with so-and-so. i never really talked to her much. i just knew of her.
marc and kelley eventually got married... and now both karen and i see them quite regularly now. hence, wednesday nights are usually dedicated marc and kelley nights... unless of course something comes up to alter the schedule.
since i started hanging out with kelley, we have done a lot of silly things together... all in the name of alcohol. in fact, marc likes to refer to kelley and me as drinking buddies. kelley has a reputation for drinking a lot, and when she does... she gets silly. since i'm likewise a goof when i'm inebriated, combining the two of us is probably not a good thing.
one of my fondest memories of kelley takes place in town. both kelley and i worked in boston at the time. i think we both convinced each other to leave work early for the day and meet at a restaurant in town for a late lunch. the restaurant was the now defunct peking tom's, which closed june 16, 2007. i think the restaurant that is there now is called kingston station or something like that.
so, we ate our lunch. naturally, as we are prone to do when we are together, we decided to get drinks. after our first round of drinks (which were mai tais), kelley said that she would stop so that we could both leave and get home at a good time. then came round two. then came round three... eventually, we both got a little silly. in fact, it got so silly... that we had to call marc to come pick us up.
(the following video was quite popular at the time, and i may have repeated a few lines from the video out loud while inebriated.)
needless to say, it was not a good day for marc. marc came to pick us up... no problem. the only problem was... marc went to pf chang's to pick us up. we were at peking tom's. so while marc was waiting and waiting and wondering where we were (and getting more annoyed by the minute), kelley and i were being silly with booze. for some reason, the cellular reception was not that great so we could not communicate with marc after we initially called him. of course, that may have been due to the booze too.
eventually, marc found us. he was not happy. making matters worse, of course, was that i had to pick up karen later on as well. as i was in no shape to be operating huge machinery, marc also picked up karen so that she could drive my sorry butt home.
ah... good times... things seemed so much simpler back in the day.
needless to say, kelley and i don't imbibe as much as we used to these days. but those were some fun times.
anyway, happy birthday kelley!
I Suck At Building Websites
last night, karen attended the support group meeting to help her during this time of need. as i am still somewhat hesitant to attend a meeting (because denial is the first stage and i'm still in denial), i decided to stay at home. i actually had a legitimate reason. i was working on building a website. it's too bad i suck at building websites.
the site that i am building is for my favorite sister-in-law (janine). janine has recently decided to try her hand at running a business. that business... gift baskets... and wrapping. janine does an amazing job of wrapping presents and stuff like that. in fact, people have paid her to wrap presents in the past.
normally, the process to build a website takes a good amount of time. in addition to reviewing the source code, things like a database sometimes need to be created. as well, possible administrative tools to interact with the database have to be flushed out and programmed for. unfortunately, i only have a little over a week to complete the website.
janine is attending a craft fair saturday october 25th at the south shore vocational school in hanover. i'm not sure, but i think it's her first craft fair. she plans on having business cards available to hand out to any interested parties. on those business cards is the url for her website. hence, that is why i have a little over a week to build her website. in my opinion, it wouldn't be too professional to have a "coming soon" page on a website that is to be viewed by customers. like the saying goes... you never get a second chance to make a first impression. it may be a harsh saying, but it is unfortunately true... especially when it comes to business.
after a quick brainstorming session on what to call the business (i threw out the name "take the wrap"), janine eventually decided upon "my pretty present". so, for anyone who wants to follow the rapid development of janine's site, the url is www.myprettypresent.com. right now, there is not a whole lot there on her site. rather than have the usual "hello world" message, i have something saying "janine rocks" or something like that.
anyway, i hope to complete the main portions of her site well before the craft fair deadline. that way, there will be one less thing for her to worry about and she can focus on making baskets for the fair. i just hope that she enjoys the site when all is said and done.
good luck janine! keep making baskets! i hope you do well at the craft fair and with the business.
the site that i am building is for my favorite sister-in-law (janine). janine has recently decided to try her hand at running a business. that business... gift baskets... and wrapping. janine does an amazing job of wrapping presents and stuff like that. in fact, people have paid her to wrap presents in the past.
normally, the process to build a website takes a good amount of time. in addition to reviewing the source code, things like a database sometimes need to be created. as well, possible administrative tools to interact with the database have to be flushed out and programmed for. unfortunately, i only have a little over a week to complete the website.
janine is attending a craft fair saturday october 25th at the south shore vocational school in hanover. i'm not sure, but i think it's her first craft fair. she plans on having business cards available to hand out to any interested parties. on those business cards is the url for her website. hence, that is why i have a little over a week to build her website. in my opinion, it wouldn't be too professional to have a "coming soon" page on a website that is to be viewed by customers. like the saying goes... you never get a second chance to make a first impression. it may be a harsh saying, but it is unfortunately true... especially when it comes to business.
after a quick brainstorming session on what to call the business (i threw out the name "take the wrap"), janine eventually decided upon "my pretty present". so, for anyone who wants to follow the rapid development of janine's site, the url is www.myprettypresent.com. right now, there is not a whole lot there on her site. rather than have the usual "hello world" message, i have something saying "janine rocks" or something like that.
anyway, i hope to complete the main portions of her site well before the craft fair deadline. that way, there will be one less thing for her to worry about and she can focus on making baskets for the fair. i just hope that she enjoys the site when all is said and done.
good luck janine! keep making baskets! i hope you do well at the craft fair and with the business.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
I Still Suck At Buffy The Vampire Slayer
last night, karen and i hung out with my friends (marc and kelley). yes, yesterday was tuesday... and normally wednesdays are the nights i hang out with marc and kelley. this week, however, happens to be a support group week. so we did tuesday instead.
i have a great time when i see marc and kelley. we just talk and do silly things. in fact, one of the silly things included the following.
(the video below is a dedication to rick astley, compliments of barack obama.)
for anyone curious, there is a thing called rickrolling... which according to my friend (wikipedia) is "an Internet meme involving the music video for the 1987 Rick Astley song 'Never Gonna Give You Up'. The meme is a bait and switch: a person provides a Web link they claim is relevant to the topic at hand, but the link actually takes the user to the Astley video."
the above is just the song with barack instead.
anyway, in addition to the youtube hijinx... and dinner... which was very good (thank you marc and kelley for dinner)... all of us watched the next exciting episode of heroes... such a good show. from there, we watched the rest of buffy the vampire slayer season 1.
too bad i still suck at buffy the vampire slayer. without a doubt, it is the best show ever. i think karen is actually enjoying it as well. sure, she gets frightened by the suspenseful music ever so often, but she likes the story and characters. in fact, since we just finished off the first season, karen is already asking about buffy season 2.
i can't wait to watch buffy again. (for anyone curious, my favorite buffy season was the third one... with faith... the character. yay, massachusetts own... eliza dushku!) needless to say, we had a good time yesterday at marc and kelley's as always.
i have a great time when i see marc and kelley. we just talk and do silly things. in fact, one of the silly things included the following.
(the video below is a dedication to rick astley, compliments of barack obama.)
for anyone curious, there is a thing called rickrolling... which according to my friend (wikipedia) is "an Internet meme involving the music video for the 1987 Rick Astley song 'Never Gonna Give You Up'. The meme is a bait and switch: a person provides a Web link they claim is relevant to the topic at hand, but the link actually takes the user to the Astley video."
the above is just the song with barack instead.
anyway, in addition to the youtube hijinx... and dinner... which was very good (thank you marc and kelley for dinner)... all of us watched the next exciting episode of heroes... such a good show. from there, we watched the rest of buffy the vampire slayer season 1.
too bad i still suck at buffy the vampire slayer. without a doubt, it is the best show ever. i think karen is actually enjoying it as well. sure, she gets frightened by the suspenseful music ever so often, but she likes the story and characters. in fact, since we just finished off the first season, karen is already asking about buffy season 2.
i can't wait to watch buffy again. (for anyone curious, my favorite buffy season was the third one... with faith... the character. yay, massachusetts own... eliza dushku!) needless to say, we had a good time yesterday at marc and kelley's as always.
I Still Suck At Searching For A Bracelet
monday, karen and i visited the funeral home (keohane's) that we used for braden's service. like christopher columbus (it being columbus day and all, i figured i'd work him into the post), we made a happy discovery.
in my quest for a bracelet to remmeber my son (braden), both karen and i wondered about the possibility of acquiring the scanned image that keohane's took of braden. keohane's had scanned braden's footprints when he passed. they attempted to get his handprints as well, but braden's hands were too small (like the rest of him).
anyway, keohane's was kind enough to print out braden's footprints for us. as well, they even offered to send us the scanned image electronically. karen and i were quite excited about receiving the scanned image because we were not sure if they would offer it to us or not. it was nice to finally get some good news.
while we were at keohane's, we also got to view some of the sample jewelry that keohane's offered as a service. keohane's offers a service whereby they send scanned images (like a handprint or footprint) to another company called thumbies. from there, thumbies can create things like charms, rings, key fobs (i think that word is funny), tie tacks, etc. using the scanned image.
keohane's had earlier given us the website url so that we could see what thumbies offered. viewing the image on the website, however, is different from seeing them in person. hence, that was why we visited keohane's... to actually see samples of the items that thumbies can create.
needless to say, it was nice to see the charm. the charm definitely looked better at keohane's than it did on the website. in fact, i think i may simply have a charm created to remember braden as opposed to a bracelet. yes... i still suck at searching for a bracelet.
i currently wear a charm that my parents gave me. it has a tiger engraved on one side, with a chinese character on the other side. the chinese character is "fook", which means fortune/happy/lucky. (i sometimes wonder why i still wear the charm, because the chinese character has not exactly brought me any fortune, happiness, or luckiness the past month or so...) i will probably just attach braden's charm in addition to the existing one i have.
anyway, it was nice to see the sample jewelry offered by thumbies and keohane's. plus, it was good to know that keohane's will be sending the scanned image electronically to us via email. it definitely made it a good columbus day. throw in the fact that karen and i had dinner at her parents afterwards... and it definitely made monday a good day.
in my quest for a bracelet to remmeber my son (braden), both karen and i wondered about the possibility of acquiring the scanned image that keohane's took of braden. keohane's had scanned braden's footprints when he passed. they attempted to get his handprints as well, but braden's hands were too small (like the rest of him).
anyway, keohane's was kind enough to print out braden's footprints for us. as well, they even offered to send us the scanned image electronically. karen and i were quite excited about receiving the scanned image because we were not sure if they would offer it to us or not. it was nice to finally get some good news.
while we were at keohane's, we also got to view some of the sample jewelry that keohane's offered as a service. keohane's offers a service whereby they send scanned images (like a handprint or footprint) to another company called thumbies. from there, thumbies can create things like charms, rings, key fobs (i think that word is funny), tie tacks, etc. using the scanned image.
keohane's had earlier given us the website url so that we could see what thumbies offered. viewing the image on the website, however, is different from seeing them in person. hence, that was why we visited keohane's... to actually see samples of the items that thumbies can create.
needless to say, it was nice to see the charm. the charm definitely looked better at keohane's than it did on the website. in fact, i think i may simply have a charm created to remember braden as opposed to a bracelet. yes... i still suck at searching for a bracelet.
i currently wear a charm that my parents gave me. it has a tiger engraved on one side, with a chinese character on the other side. the chinese character is "fook", which means fortune/happy/lucky. (i sometimes wonder why i still wear the charm, because the chinese character has not exactly brought me any fortune, happiness, or luckiness the past month or so...) i will probably just attach braden's charm in addition to the existing one i have.
anyway, it was nice to see the sample jewelry offered by thumbies and keohane's. plus, it was good to know that keohane's will be sending the scanned image electronically to us via email. it definitely made it a good columbus day. throw in the fact that karen and i had dinner at her parents afterwards... and it definitely made monday a good day.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
I Suck At Celebrating My Nephew's Birthday
today is my nephew's (pj) birthday. unfortunately, i suck at celebrating my nephew's birthday.
pj turned 7 this past week and so, his birthday celebration was today. the theme for the birthday party... star wars. it's amazing how time flies. i remember when he was born. i love pj. when i say i suck at celebrating my nephew's birthday... i really mean i suck at celebrating my nephew's birthday.
i actually had a moment today where i almost did not attend pj's birthday party. this morning, my parents stopped on by. they were at the cemetery visiting my son (braden). in fact, my parents got him a little pumpkin (or gourd) and two potted plants. the plants were very beautiful. anyway, i was not really surprised to see my parents today. after all, it was one month ago today that braden passed away.
needless to say, karen and i also visited braden before going to pj's party. as i sat there at his burial site, i placed my hand on the grass... thinking that he was touching my hand back. from there, i just started crying... trying to still make sense of it all and trying to figure out what i should do to get things back on track. i don't think there has been a time yet that i have not cried when visiting braden in the cemetery.
anyway, i had considered not attending pj's party after that moment because i really didn't compose myself until i was literally at the front door of my favorite sister-in-law's (janine) house. so needless to say, i was mentally not all there for my nephew today and i feel terrible for saying that.
add to that, the fact that i felt disrespected by some people attending the party... and well... you can imagine that i was not having a good day... although, truth be told, i'm probably not having a good month or so... i've been so rundown with lack of sleep... and then add being sick on top of that weakened constitution, thanks to my friend (snot amy), and you can tell i'm probably not in the best frame of mind.
for those of you who know me, honoring my son is particularly important to me right now. in fact, i'm sure some people probably think i'm a little too maniacal when it comes to that. up until today, there has been only person who i felt did not show the respect that my son deserves by not acknowledging that braden was born and then passed away. after pj's party, i can now add two more people to that list.
again, i'm not going to name names because i told myself that i would instigate things through my blog. i will say, however, that i have lost respect for these two individuals who did not say a peep to either karen or i... about anything. these two people happen to be the significant others of two people who did attend braden's service. thus, i expected a little better behavior from them. perhaps i was expecting too much.
it's all about expectations i guess. i don't think i'm being that unreasonable in expecting these individuals to at least approach karen or i and say something like "how are you guys doing?" or "i'm sorry for your loss". sadly... nothing. and so, i lose respect for them... which i'm sure they themselves could care less. and to think, i used to defend one of them whenever that person's name came up. oh well.
don't get me wrong. i am not expecting everyone that i see from now on to say "i'm sorry" or anything like that to me or karen. i don't expect everyone to know about braden's loss. there are, however, some people who i do expect to know about it and have yet to see... so when i do see them... i would hope that they would at least acknowledge that my son, braden, passed away.
i don't know. i'm getting a little too worked up over this issue. i was actually going to call this post "i suck at getting better" because lately, i have thought that... and that thought scares me. i'm run-down. i have a cold i can't shake. i have no control over my emotions. i have no idea what i am going to do. i can't imagine this being normal... but perhaps it is. i sometimes wonder if i am fooling myself into thinking that writing this blog will help me cope. i simply don't know.
needless to say, i suck at celebrating my nephew's birthday. little pj deserved better from his uncle today. i didn't even take any pictures at the party. i'm sorry i couldn't be there for you today, pj. i'll try to make it up to you.
pj turned 7 this past week and so, his birthday celebration was today. the theme for the birthday party... star wars. it's amazing how time flies. i remember when he was born. i love pj. when i say i suck at celebrating my nephew's birthday... i really mean i suck at celebrating my nephew's birthday.
i actually had a moment today where i almost did not attend pj's birthday party. this morning, my parents stopped on by. they were at the cemetery visiting my son (braden). in fact, my parents got him a little pumpkin (or gourd) and two potted plants. the plants were very beautiful. anyway, i was not really surprised to see my parents today. after all, it was one month ago today that braden passed away.
needless to say, karen and i also visited braden before going to pj's party. as i sat there at his burial site, i placed my hand on the grass... thinking that he was touching my hand back. from there, i just started crying... trying to still make sense of it all and trying to figure out what i should do to get things back on track. i don't think there has been a time yet that i have not cried when visiting braden in the cemetery.
anyway, i had considered not attending pj's party after that moment because i really didn't compose myself until i was literally at the front door of my favorite sister-in-law's (janine) house. so needless to say, i was mentally not all there for my nephew today and i feel terrible for saying that.
add to that, the fact that i felt disrespected by some people attending the party... and well... you can imagine that i was not having a good day... although, truth be told, i'm probably not having a good month or so... i've been so rundown with lack of sleep... and then add being sick on top of that weakened constitution, thanks to my friend (snot amy), and you can tell i'm probably not in the best frame of mind.
for those of you who know me, honoring my son is particularly important to me right now. in fact, i'm sure some people probably think i'm a little too maniacal when it comes to that. up until today, there has been only person who i felt did not show the respect that my son deserves by not acknowledging that braden was born and then passed away. after pj's party, i can now add two more people to that list.
again, i'm not going to name names because i told myself that i would instigate things through my blog. i will say, however, that i have lost respect for these two individuals who did not say a peep to either karen or i... about anything. these two people happen to be the significant others of two people who did attend braden's service. thus, i expected a little better behavior from them. perhaps i was expecting too much.
it's all about expectations i guess. i don't think i'm being that unreasonable in expecting these individuals to at least approach karen or i and say something like "how are you guys doing?" or "i'm sorry for your loss". sadly... nothing. and so, i lose respect for them... which i'm sure they themselves could care less. and to think, i used to defend one of them whenever that person's name came up. oh well.
don't get me wrong. i am not expecting everyone that i see from now on to say "i'm sorry" or anything like that to me or karen. i don't expect everyone to know about braden's loss. there are, however, some people who i do expect to know about it and have yet to see... so when i do see them... i would hope that they would at least acknowledge that my son, braden, passed away.
i don't know. i'm getting a little too worked up over this issue. i was actually going to call this post "i suck at getting better" because lately, i have thought that... and that thought scares me. i'm run-down. i have a cold i can't shake. i have no control over my emotions. i have no idea what i am going to do. i can't imagine this being normal... but perhaps it is. i sometimes wonder if i am fooling myself into thinking that writing this blog will help me cope. i simply don't know.
needless to say, i suck at celebrating my nephew's birthday. little pj deserved better from his uncle today. i didn't even take any pictures at the party. i'm sorry i couldn't be there for you today, pj. i'll try to make it up to you.
I Suck At Hanging Out With Cass
after visiting my friends (jen and bill) at their new apartment, karen and i visited my friend (cass). too bad i suck at hanging out with cass.
cass had invited a group of us over for an autumn dinner. he was going to prepare a meal consisting of butternut squash fries, clam chowder, stuffed peppers, chocolate-dipped apples, pears, etc. etc. there was a huge list of food items for the night.
add to that the other items brought by everyone else... and you can imagine how much food there really was. (additional foods included chili, bruschetta, meatballs, blue 22 chicken wings, etc.)
probably the highlight of the meal... was the dessert prepared by my friend (kelley). kelley (of marc and kelley wednesday night fame) created a dessert called a litter box. it is basically dessert designed to look like... a litter box... complete with cat poop (or also known as tasty tootsie rolls). the litter box was funny. it tasted good too. actually, everything on the menu was delicious. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.)
as an added bonus, there was no choking incident. the last time cass had a get together... yours truly had to have abdominal thrusts (or more commonly referred to as the heimlich) performed... thanks to an extra chewy piece of steak. sure, the piece of steak may have been a bit too large when i swallowed... but that's beside the point. luckily, i can look back and laugh.
needless to say, i had a good time. i think karen did as well. it was good to see my friends (cass, ellen, marc, kelley, garv, leeann, meredith, doug, and scott). all of us just hung out, told stories, laughed, joked... it was fun.
it definitely provided a slight distraction for me. so thank you cass for organizing the dinner. i probably don't say it enough, but both karen and i are lucky to have great friends... not just the ones at dinner tonight... we are lucky in general. they say in adversity, you realize who your friends are... and i am lucky to have a whole bunch of friends who care so deeply for both karen and i.
thanks again everyone.
cass had invited a group of us over for an autumn dinner. he was going to prepare a meal consisting of butternut squash fries, clam chowder, stuffed peppers, chocolate-dipped apples, pears, etc. etc. there was a huge list of food items for the night.
add to that the other items brought by everyone else... and you can imagine how much food there really was. (additional foods included chili, bruschetta, meatballs, blue 22 chicken wings, etc.)
probably the highlight of the meal... was the dessert prepared by my friend (kelley). kelley (of marc and kelley wednesday night fame) created a dessert called a litter box. it is basically dessert designed to look like... a litter box... complete with cat poop (or also known as tasty tootsie rolls). the litter box was funny. it tasted good too. actually, everything on the menu was delicious. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.)
as an added bonus, there was no choking incident. the last time cass had a get together... yours truly had to have abdominal thrusts (or more commonly referred to as the heimlich) performed... thanks to an extra chewy piece of steak. sure, the piece of steak may have been a bit too large when i swallowed... but that's beside the point. luckily, i can look back and laugh.
needless to say, i had a good time. i think karen did as well. it was good to see my friends (cass, ellen, marc, kelley, garv, leeann, meredith, doug, and scott). all of us just hung out, told stories, laughed, joked... it was fun.
it definitely provided a slight distraction for me. so thank you cass for organizing the dinner. i probably don't say it enough, but both karen and i are lucky to have great friends... not just the ones at dinner tonight... we are lucky in general. they say in adversity, you realize who your friends are... and i am lucky to have a whole bunch of friends who care so deeply for both karen and i.
thanks again everyone.
I Suck At Hanging Out With Jen
this has been one eventful day.
not only have karen and i attended the pumpkin drop and searched for a bracelet, we visited my friend (jen). it's too bad i suck at hanging out with jen.
jen and her brother (bill) recently moved into a new apartment. the apartment is actually a few blocks from their old apartment. i think jen was excited to have us over. in hindsight, it seems like this weekend is "visit friend's new apartment" weekend... since karen and i visited my bff's (kerry) place yesterday... and now jen's today.
i feel somewhat terrible that i was not able to help jen and bill move into their new apartment. i have been fighting off a cold... thanks to my friend (snot amy). yes, i still blame her for my sickness. so needless to say, my weakened constitution prevented me from helping them.
jen's place is very nice and cozy. it was nice to hang out with jen and bill by the fireplace. they are attempting to get me into spinning. unfortunately, i am not exactly a big fan of spinning. one of the main reasons i am not a big fan of spinning... crotch numbness. perhaps that is a sign that i'm not riding the bike correctly. oh well.
anyway, we'll see how that goes. the idea is tempting... mainly because it's a means for me to hang out with jen and bill. i don't know if it is worth numbing my crotch over... there must be better ways to hang out i'm sure.
not only have karen and i attended the pumpkin drop and searched for a bracelet, we visited my friend (jen). it's too bad i suck at hanging out with jen.
jen and her brother (bill) recently moved into a new apartment. the apartment is actually a few blocks from their old apartment. i think jen was excited to have us over. in hindsight, it seems like this weekend is "visit friend's new apartment" weekend... since karen and i visited my bff's (kerry) place yesterday... and now jen's today.
i feel somewhat terrible that i was not able to help jen and bill move into their new apartment. i have been fighting off a cold... thanks to my friend (snot amy). yes, i still blame her for my sickness. so needless to say, my weakened constitution prevented me from helping them.
jen's place is very nice and cozy. it was nice to hang out with jen and bill by the fireplace. they are attempting to get me into spinning. unfortunately, i am not exactly a big fan of spinning. one of the main reasons i am not a big fan of spinning... crotch numbness. perhaps that is a sign that i'm not riding the bike correctly. oh well.
anyway, we'll see how that goes. the idea is tempting... mainly because it's a means for me to hang out with jen and bill. i don't know if it is worth numbing my crotch over... there must be better ways to hang out i'm sure.
I Suck At Searching For A Bracelet
if there is one thing that my son (braden) has taught me, it's that nothing ever seems to go according to plan. that definitely is the case because i suck at searching for a bracelet.
when braden passed, i had been wearing the medical bracelet that was put on my wrist when karen gave birth to braden. unfortunately, that medical bracelet snapped the other day. thus, began my search to replace the bracelet and continue honoring my son.
my original plan was to have a bracelet with braden's name and hand print on it. that way, it would be like i was holding my son's hand forever... something that i currently will never be able to do. i had figured that i could use the scanned image of braden's hand because when we met with the funeral service, the funeral service had mentioned that they would scan the hands and feet of braden.
as it turns out, the funeral service could not scan braden's hand. braden's hand was just too small like the rest of him. luckily, his feet were able to be scanned.
anyway, i obviously had to come up with another option. so i began my quest to find something to honor my son... before i seriously think about getting a tattoo as suggested by my friends (jen and kerry).
karen and i began by searching the store "things remembered". unfortunately, the store didn't have anything that caught my eye. plus, they would only engrave text and a select number of items... nothing like a scanned image of braden.
from there, we decided to check out the jewelry stores. as it turned out, we were directed by one of sales associates to the jewelry store next door because they knew that there was a sales associate there who had recently had a picture of her son engraved on a necklace. they thought she would be more than happy to help us. the only problem... this sales associate with the engraved picture of her son did not start work until later.
so karen and i killed some time and returned to speak with the sales associate. it was a very touching encounter. the sales associate (donna) lost her son of 23 years. to honor him, she had a necklace created with his image on it. she also has a tattoo of him on her back. i think what was most touching was that she told us that "it will get better"... to which i started to tear. donna even gave us both hugs. that must have looked odd... karen and i in tears, being hugged by a sales associate in a jewelry store.
needless to say, whether i use the store that donna recommended to get a picture engraved of braden or not, i am thankful that i got to meet donna. it is situations like these that make me think about how we are all amazingly connected. it's a nice feeling.
when braden passed, i had been wearing the medical bracelet that was put on my wrist when karen gave birth to braden. unfortunately, that medical bracelet snapped the other day. thus, began my search to replace the bracelet and continue honoring my son.
my original plan was to have a bracelet with braden's name and hand print on it. that way, it would be like i was holding my son's hand forever... something that i currently will never be able to do. i had figured that i could use the scanned image of braden's hand because when we met with the funeral service, the funeral service had mentioned that they would scan the hands and feet of braden.
as it turns out, the funeral service could not scan braden's hand. braden's hand was just too small like the rest of him. luckily, his feet were able to be scanned.
anyway, i obviously had to come up with another option. so i began my quest to find something to honor my son... before i seriously think about getting a tattoo as suggested by my friends (jen and kerry).
karen and i began by searching the store "things remembered". unfortunately, the store didn't have anything that caught my eye. plus, they would only engrave text and a select number of items... nothing like a scanned image of braden.
from there, we decided to check out the jewelry stores. as it turned out, we were directed by one of sales associates to the jewelry store next door because they knew that there was a sales associate there who had recently had a picture of her son engraved on a necklace. they thought she would be more than happy to help us. the only problem... this sales associate with the engraved picture of her son did not start work until later.
so karen and i killed some time and returned to speak with the sales associate. it was a very touching encounter. the sales associate (donna) lost her son of 23 years. to honor him, she had a necklace created with his image on it. she also has a tattoo of him on her back. i think what was most touching was that she told us that "it will get better"... to which i started to tear. donna even gave us both hugs. that must have looked odd... karen and i in tears, being hugged by a sales associate in a jewelry store.
needless to say, whether i use the store that donna recommended to get a picture engraved of braden or not, i am thankful that i got to meet donna. it is situations like these that make me think about how we are all amazingly connected. it's a nice feeling.
I Suck At The Pumpkin Drop
last night, on our way home from salem after visiting my bff (kerry), karen and i heard a radio ad about an event that was happening in norwell. that event was known as the pumpkin drop. now, i suck at the pumpkin drop. i have never been to the pumpkin drop, but the premise was intriguing enough that karen and i decided to see what the pumpkin drop was all about.
as we were getting ready this morning, karen and i had a pleasant surprise from my father-in-law. karen's father stopped by after visiting our son (braden) in cemetery. my father-in-law routinely gets scratch tickets to try his luck. as the story goes, he told braden that the scratch ticket he had was going to scratch was for karen and i. as he scratched the ticket, he discovered that he won $200. my father-in-law then credited the winning to his "lucky angel". it was a very nice story... one that actually put a smile on my face when he told it.
anyway, shortly afterwards karen and i headed to see the pumpkin drop.
(the video below is of the pumpkin drop.)
there is a farm, called r and c farms, that has been doing this pumpkin drop annually for about then years. the premise of the pumpkin drop is that there are a handful of pumpkins that get filled up with candy. these pumpkins then get hoisted up (via a crane) and then at the given time, are sent plummeting to the ground. once the pumpkins splatter everywhere, the children at the farm rush in to grab all the candy.
the pumpkin drop... sounds much more thrilling than cow patty bingo... but that is just my opinion.
needless to say, karen and i didn't stay to actually see the pumpkin drop. we just didn't have enough time to stay. someday it'll be nice to attend and actually participate in the pumpkin drop.
instead, karen and i did our first corn maze... ever. it was fun. it took us a little over 14 minutes to find our way out of the maze. it was funny... every corn row seemed the same. but i think karen had fun doing it... which is good.
as we were getting ready this morning, karen and i had a pleasant surprise from my father-in-law. karen's father stopped by after visiting our son (braden) in cemetery. my father-in-law routinely gets scratch tickets to try his luck. as the story goes, he told braden that the scratch ticket he had was going to scratch was for karen and i. as he scratched the ticket, he discovered that he won $200. my father-in-law then credited the winning to his "lucky angel". it was a very nice story... one that actually put a smile on my face when he told it.
anyway, shortly afterwards karen and i headed to see the pumpkin drop.
(the video below is of the pumpkin drop.)
there is a farm, called r and c farms, that has been doing this pumpkin drop annually for about then years. the premise of the pumpkin drop is that there are a handful of pumpkins that get filled up with candy. these pumpkins then get hoisted up (via a crane) and then at the given time, are sent plummeting to the ground. once the pumpkins splatter everywhere, the children at the farm rush in to grab all the candy.
the pumpkin drop... sounds much more thrilling than cow patty bingo... but that is just my opinion.
needless to say, karen and i didn't stay to actually see the pumpkin drop. we just didn't have enough time to stay. someday it'll be nice to attend and actually participate in the pumpkin drop.
instead, karen and i did our first corn maze... ever. it was fun. it took us a little over 14 minutes to find our way out of the maze. it was funny... every corn row seemed the same. but i think karen had fun doing it... which is good.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
I Suck At Salem Beer Works
today, karen and i visited my bff (kerry).
kerry recently moved to salem. she got a great deal on an apartment. as it turns out, karen and i were her first friends to actually visit kerry at her new apartment. i think our visit made kerry extremely happy because i get the feeling that she thinks no one will ever visit her since she lives further up north than most of my other friends. so we visited. that is what bff's are for, right?
i'm actually used to the commute as i drive to neighboring marblehead quite often. in fact, driving to visit kerry actually felt like i was going to work, especially since i drove to marblehead to show karen around and kill some time. karen and i were going to be early in our visit because i picked karen up following her lunch with my friend (hot amy) and her boy wonder. so karen got a quick sight seeing tour of scenic marblehead before going to salem.
in salem, we met up with kerry, who actually lives close to downtown. the three of us hung out a little before walking the mean streets of downtown salem... in october. amazingly, there were not as many people dressed up in costumes yet... aside from some gorilla on a bike. i am guessing that perhaps it is still too early in the month.
after wandering around town (in which i learned salem had an official witch), the three of us decided to grab a bite to eat. we decided to eat at the salem beer works. now, i suck at salem beer works. i have never been to the salem beer works. when i first went in, i thought... how interesting... they make their own beer and all that. sadly, i failed to realize that the salem beer works... is actually the boston beer works... in salem.
(pictured below are karen and kerry.)
the food (and drinks) were delicious at the salem beer works. i had a grilled red snapper sandwich... with blueberry beer... and then a pumpkin beer... (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound). the sandwich was very tasty.
afterwards, we strolled around salem some more before heading back to kerry's apartment. all in all, i would say both karen and i had a good time. i hope kerry likewise enjoyed our company.
kerry recently moved to salem. she got a great deal on an apartment. as it turns out, karen and i were her first friends to actually visit kerry at her new apartment. i think our visit made kerry extremely happy because i get the feeling that she thinks no one will ever visit her since she lives further up north than most of my other friends. so we visited. that is what bff's are for, right?
i'm actually used to the commute as i drive to neighboring marblehead quite often. in fact, driving to visit kerry actually felt like i was going to work, especially since i drove to marblehead to show karen around and kill some time. karen and i were going to be early in our visit because i picked karen up following her lunch with my friend (hot amy) and her boy wonder. so karen got a quick sight seeing tour of scenic marblehead before going to salem.
in salem, we met up with kerry, who actually lives close to downtown. the three of us hung out a little before walking the mean streets of downtown salem... in october. amazingly, there were not as many people dressed up in costumes yet... aside from some gorilla on a bike. i am guessing that perhaps it is still too early in the month.
after wandering around town (in which i learned salem had an official witch), the three of us decided to grab a bite to eat. we decided to eat at the salem beer works. now, i suck at salem beer works. i have never been to the salem beer works. when i first went in, i thought... how interesting... they make their own beer and all that. sadly, i failed to realize that the salem beer works... is actually the boston beer works... in salem.
(pictured below are karen and kerry.)
the food (and drinks) were delicious at the salem beer works. i had a grilled red snapper sandwich... with blueberry beer... and then a pumpkin beer... (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound). the sandwich was very tasty.
afterwards, we strolled around salem some more before heading back to kerry's apartment. all in all, i would say both karen and i had a good time. i hope kerry likewise enjoyed our company.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
I Suck At Buffy The Vampire Slayer
last night, i got to hang out with my friends (marc and kelley).
the support group that karen is attending meets on the first and third wednesday of each month. so this week, there was no support group. had there been a support group meeting this week, i can only imagine how somber it would have been because the woman with whom karen shared experiences with in the support group last week was supposed to deliver her son this past monday. this woman's son unexpectedly passed away before the due date, much like my son (braden), except this woman's son was so close to being full term. and although i do not know this woman, or have ever met her, my thoughts... my condolences... are with her. i'm sorry for her loss.
anyway, it was good to hang out with marc and kelley. we grabbed a quick bite to eat at the falafel king (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound) in quincy. as well, we watched the latest episode of "heroes"... which was pretty good as usual. and actually last night, we got to watch another episode of buffy the vampire slayer.
i suck at buffy the vampire slayer... no not really. the episode from season one that we watched was titled "nightmares" and basically the plot line is that people's nightmares were coming true. (we're almost done with the first season!) there is actually more to the story in that it revolves around a boy (lucky 19) who was beaten and put into a coma.
the gist, however, was that people's nightmares were coming true. as i sat there watching the episode, i started to think about braden and how things have just been rough lately... as though the past month were just a bad nightmare. as much as i would like it to be the case where i can simply wake up and have my son back and have normalcy again, i do realize everything that has happened with braden and his passing is very much not a dream. i still do not understand why braden had to pass. i can only tell myself that everything happens for a reason... and try to convince myself that braden's passing was part of some divine master plan that i am not privy to.
in the meantime, i am not sure how long this nightmare feeling will last. if it's anything like the buffy the vampire slayer show... next week will be a whole new story. i guess we'll see.
one interesting note from last night was that marc asked about the poem that i had read at braden's service. he thought the poem was very touching. marc then quickly apologized for bringing up braden's service. i thought it was interesting that he quickly apologized because it got me thinking about people's reactions to grief and loss. i think marc felt that bringing up the subject of braden's passing would turn karen and i into wrecks.
well... karen and i are already wrecks. there is no getting around that. just kidding. seriously though, i hope none of my friends or family are ever afraid to talk about braden with karen and i. if anything, i would prefer that they do... if only so that i can rave about my son to them like any good soccer mom would.
the support group that karen is attending meets on the first and third wednesday of each month. so this week, there was no support group. had there been a support group meeting this week, i can only imagine how somber it would have been because the woman with whom karen shared experiences with in the support group last week was supposed to deliver her son this past monday. this woman's son unexpectedly passed away before the due date, much like my son (braden), except this woman's son was so close to being full term. and although i do not know this woman, or have ever met her, my thoughts... my condolences... are with her. i'm sorry for her loss.
anyway, it was good to hang out with marc and kelley. we grabbed a quick bite to eat at the falafel king (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound) in quincy. as well, we watched the latest episode of "heroes"... which was pretty good as usual. and actually last night, we got to watch another episode of buffy the vampire slayer.
i suck at buffy the vampire slayer... no not really. the episode from season one that we watched was titled "nightmares" and basically the plot line is that people's nightmares were coming true. (we're almost done with the first season!) there is actually more to the story in that it revolves around a boy (lucky 19) who was beaten and put into a coma.
the gist, however, was that people's nightmares were coming true. as i sat there watching the episode, i started to think about braden and how things have just been rough lately... as though the past month were just a bad nightmare. as much as i would like it to be the case where i can simply wake up and have my son back and have normalcy again, i do realize everything that has happened with braden and his passing is very much not a dream. i still do not understand why braden had to pass. i can only tell myself that everything happens for a reason... and try to convince myself that braden's passing was part of some divine master plan that i am not privy to.
in the meantime, i am not sure how long this nightmare feeling will last. if it's anything like the buffy the vampire slayer show... next week will be a whole new story. i guess we'll see.
one interesting note from last night was that marc asked about the poem that i had read at braden's service. he thought the poem was very touching. marc then quickly apologized for bringing up braden's service. i thought it was interesting that he quickly apologized because it got me thinking about people's reactions to grief and loss. i think marc felt that bringing up the subject of braden's passing would turn karen and i into wrecks.
well... karen and i are already wrecks. there is no getting around that. just kidding. seriously though, i hope none of my friends or family are ever afraid to talk about braden with karen and i. if anything, i would prefer that they do... if only so that i can rave about my son to them like any good soccer mom would.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
I Suck At Septic Systems
today, i can't wait to smell the fresh air.
the problem is... i will probably be waiting a while. if you were at my house right now and inhaled the sweet smelling air, you would know that my house has a septic system. too bad i suck at septic systems.
our septic system service provider routinely checks our system twice a year. the last time the system was checked (which was months and months ago), the blower to the septic system was discovered to be... well... not blowing. (the blower adds air to the "liquids" which in turn creates more bacteria to treat the waste.)
so today, our septic system service provider came by to figure out what was causing the problem. the problem turned out to be the circuit board controlling the blower and not the blower itself... which i suppose is good in terms of the financial aspect of it because replacing the blower itself is more expensive than replacing the board.
anyway, the blower is now working. as a result, it absolutely stinks (literally) here because the blower has not been running for some time... and now it's running. you know the smell is really bad because i can smell it. right now, i have a stuffy nose from being sick... thanks to my friend (snot amy)... so the smell is getting through my sinuses.
the septic system service provider said the smell should be gone by the end of the day. let me tell you, i can't wait...
the problem is... i will probably be waiting a while. if you were at my house right now and inhaled the sweet smelling air, you would know that my house has a septic system. too bad i suck at septic systems.
our septic system service provider routinely checks our system twice a year. the last time the system was checked (which was months and months ago), the blower to the septic system was discovered to be... well... not blowing. (the blower adds air to the "liquids" which in turn creates more bacteria to treat the waste.)
so today, our septic system service provider came by to figure out what was causing the problem. the problem turned out to be the circuit board controlling the blower and not the blower itself... which i suppose is good in terms of the financial aspect of it because replacing the blower itself is more expensive than replacing the board.
anyway, the blower is now working. as a result, it absolutely stinks (literally) here because the blower has not been running for some time... and now it's running. you know the smell is really bad because i can smell it. right now, i have a stuffy nose from being sick... thanks to my friend (snot amy)... so the smell is getting through my sinuses.
the septic system service provider said the smell should be gone by the end of the day. let me tell you, i can't wait...
I Suck At Eating Low GI Foods
yesterday, i had an interesting lunch.
normally when i work at the office, i bring a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch. peanut butter and jelly was actually what i had for lunch yesterday. the only problem... the bread that the peanut butter and jelly was spread upon was a little different yesterday.
one of the benefits (or curse depending on how you look at things) of being married to a dietitian is that eating is always interesting. luckily, i eat anything. a majority of my friends... not so much.
anyway, sometimes karen has to purchase certain food items for her job. i have had the pleasure of accompanying her on these trips and the items she buys for work are quite interesting to say the least.
karen purchased a european sourdough rye bread a while ago. the bread is rectangular and comes in the size of a christmas card box. the bread retails for close to $4 (for the small christmas card sized box), which i guess adds to that myth that eating healthy is expensive (in general, eating healthy is really not expensive). this particular bread is low on the glycemix index.
for anyone curious, according to my friend wikipedia:
"The Glycemic index (also glycaemic index) or GI is a measure of the effects of carbohydrates on blood glucose levels. Carbohydrates that break down rapidly during digestion releasing glucose rapidly into the bloodstream have a high GI; carbohydrates that break down slowly, releasing glucose gradually into the bloodstream, have a low GI. For most people, foods with a low GI have significant health benefits. The concept was developed by Dr. David J. Jenkins and colleagues in 1980–1981 at the University of Toronto in their research to find out which foods were best for people with diabetes.
A lower glycemic index suggests slower rates of digestion and absorption of the sugars and starches in the foods and may also indicate greater extraction from the liver and periphery of the products of carbohydrate digestion. A lower glycemic response is often thought to equate to a lower insulin demand, better long-term blood glucose control and a reduction in blood lipids. The insulin index may therefore also be useful as it provides a direct measure of the insulin response to a food."
well, needless to say, i suck at eating low gi foods.
normally, i am lucky enough to never have to eat some of the things that karen purchases for her work. she had purchased this bread a while ago and it has been sitting in our freezer because of our unexpected circumstance of having my son (braden) being born, living for a week, and then passing. karen never had the opportunity to bring the bread to work, and now it's a little late for her to do so.
thus, i got eat the low gi bread. peanut butter and jelly never tasted so good. i'm kidding. now, i would not say the bread was awful. the bread takes some getting used to... that's for sure. but the sandwich definitely made me feel fuller. (low gi foods tend to make people feel more fuller.)
i don't know if i would recommend this particular bread to anyone. i would, however, suggest slathering heaps of peanut butter on it though to mask the taste... which is in fact, what i did today because i'm eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich now...
(i'd say cue the rachael ray "yum-o" sound... but well...)
normally when i work at the office, i bring a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch. peanut butter and jelly was actually what i had for lunch yesterday. the only problem... the bread that the peanut butter and jelly was spread upon was a little different yesterday.
one of the benefits (or curse depending on how you look at things) of being married to a dietitian is that eating is always interesting. luckily, i eat anything. a majority of my friends... not so much.
anyway, sometimes karen has to purchase certain food items for her job. i have had the pleasure of accompanying her on these trips and the items she buys for work are quite interesting to say the least.
karen purchased a european sourdough rye bread a while ago. the bread is rectangular and comes in the size of a christmas card box. the bread retails for close to $4 (for the small christmas card sized box), which i guess adds to that myth that eating healthy is expensive (in general, eating healthy is really not expensive). this particular bread is low on the glycemix index.
for anyone curious, according to my friend wikipedia:
"The Glycemic index (also glycaemic index) or GI is a measure of the effects of carbohydrates on blood glucose levels. Carbohydrates that break down rapidly during digestion releasing glucose rapidly into the bloodstream have a high GI; carbohydrates that break down slowly, releasing glucose gradually into the bloodstream, have a low GI. For most people, foods with a low GI have significant health benefits. The concept was developed by Dr. David J. Jenkins and colleagues in 1980–1981 at the University of Toronto in their research to find out which foods were best for people with diabetes.
A lower glycemic index suggests slower rates of digestion and absorption of the sugars and starches in the foods and may also indicate greater extraction from the liver and periphery of the products of carbohydrate digestion. A lower glycemic response is often thought to equate to a lower insulin demand, better long-term blood glucose control and a reduction in blood lipids. The insulin index may therefore also be useful as it provides a direct measure of the insulin response to a food."
well, needless to say, i suck at eating low gi foods.
normally, i am lucky enough to never have to eat some of the things that karen purchases for her work. she had purchased this bread a while ago and it has been sitting in our freezer because of our unexpected circumstance of having my son (braden) being born, living for a week, and then passing. karen never had the opportunity to bring the bread to work, and now it's a little late for her to do so.
thus, i got eat the low gi bread. peanut butter and jelly never tasted so good. i'm kidding. now, i would not say the bread was awful. the bread takes some getting used to... that's for sure. but the sandwich definitely made me feel fuller. (low gi foods tend to make people feel more fuller.)
i don't know if i would recommend this particular bread to anyone. i would, however, suggest slathering heaps of peanut butter on it though to mask the taste... which is in fact, what i did today because i'm eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich now...
(i'd say cue the rachael ray "yum-o" sound... but well...)
Monday, October 6, 2008
I Suck At Medical Bracelets
tonight is dietitian night. it also happens to be ladies night as my friends (dolores and hot amy) are having dinner with karen. dolores and hot amy are dietitians like karen.
their original plan was to watch that movie "the women". well, since that movie thankfully seems to have fallen off the planet, they decided to go try the new thai restaurant in norwell known as "wild ginger". i've never been to the wild ginger. i'm hoping karen will bring me back a doggy bag so that i can at least see if the restaurant is worth going to in the future.
needless to say, while karen is away... i get to party... and by party on a monday night, i mean write my blog. nothing says fun and excitement like writing a blog post... let me tell you.
anyway, today i feel a little alone... and not because karen is out with dolores and hot amy consuming mass quantities of thai cuisine. i feel a little alone because my medical bracelet snapped off and broke today. suffice to say... i suck at medical bracelets. (i was originally going to say that i feel naked, but i didn't want any of you to get that unflattering visual of me.)
the medical bracelet that i have been wearing up until today was first given to me when karen entered the hospital and delivered our son (braden). it was a means for the hospital to identify both karen and i as parents of braden.
unfortunately, braden passed away. i have been wearing the medical bracelet ever since as a means to remember and honor my little dragon, braden. i still miss him. and i still get choked up ever so often thinking about him. one of my fears, whether real or not, is forgetting about my son. i hope that i never forget. for anyone who knows me, my memory is not that great... hence, that is one reason why i take a lot of pictures and videos... and even write this blog, so that i can remember things. my friends like to call my memory... "selective memory".
anyway, i know it's just a silly medical bracelet. the bracelet was bound to break eventually because it's all discolored and brittle now from being in the shower and all that. karen's name has faded from the bracelet, but little braden's number of 34565 is still legible.
my original plan was to wear the bracelet until i could get a new engraved bracelet with braden's name and hand print... so that it would symbolically represent my little son holding my hand and vice versa.
with the bracelet snapping off today, i'll have to speed up the process of getting that engraved one. i just didn't want to feel rushed and possibly miss something in getting the engraved bracelet done... and then have doubts about whether i should have done this instead of that. after all, this bracelet is one of the physical means i have left that i can use to constantly remember and honor my son.
as silly as this sounds, engraving a bracelet is probably the one thing that i can control... and there really hasn't been many things that i have been in control of in regards to the birth, life and passing of braden. thus, i just want everything done right for my son and for me.
their original plan was to watch that movie "the women". well, since that movie thankfully seems to have fallen off the planet, they decided to go try the new thai restaurant in norwell known as "wild ginger". i've never been to the wild ginger. i'm hoping karen will bring me back a doggy bag so that i can at least see if the restaurant is worth going to in the future.
needless to say, while karen is away... i get to party... and by party on a monday night, i mean write my blog. nothing says fun and excitement like writing a blog post... let me tell you.
anyway, today i feel a little alone... and not because karen is out with dolores and hot amy consuming mass quantities of thai cuisine. i feel a little alone because my medical bracelet snapped off and broke today. suffice to say... i suck at medical bracelets. (i was originally going to say that i feel naked, but i didn't want any of you to get that unflattering visual of me.)
the medical bracelet that i have been wearing up until today was first given to me when karen entered the hospital and delivered our son (braden). it was a means for the hospital to identify both karen and i as parents of braden.
unfortunately, braden passed away. i have been wearing the medical bracelet ever since as a means to remember and honor my little dragon, braden. i still miss him. and i still get choked up ever so often thinking about him. one of my fears, whether real or not, is forgetting about my son. i hope that i never forget. for anyone who knows me, my memory is not that great... hence, that is one reason why i take a lot of pictures and videos... and even write this blog, so that i can remember things. my friends like to call my memory... "selective memory".
anyway, i know it's just a silly medical bracelet. the bracelet was bound to break eventually because it's all discolored and brittle now from being in the shower and all that. karen's name has faded from the bracelet, but little braden's number of 34565 is still legible.
my original plan was to wear the bracelet until i could get a new engraved bracelet with braden's name and hand print... so that it would symbolically represent my little son holding my hand and vice versa.
with the bracelet snapping off today, i'll have to speed up the process of getting that engraved one. i just didn't want to feel rushed and possibly miss something in getting the engraved bracelet done... and then have doubts about whether i should have done this instead of that. after all, this bracelet is one of the physical means i have left that i can use to constantly remember and honor my son.
as silly as this sounds, engraving a bracelet is probably the one thing that i can control... and there really hasn't been many things that i have been in control of in regards to the birth, life and passing of braden. thus, i just want everything done right for my son and for me.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
I Suck At Strawberry Fair
my parents came over today.
i think my parents have been keeping track of the days since my son (braden) was born too because my mom mentioned that today braden would have been one month old. of course, my parent's knowing that today braden would have been one month is probably also due to the fact that in chinese tradition... the first month following the birth of a child is a milestone.
needless to say, my parents stopped by the cemetery to see braden before stopping on over to see me. and the funny thing... they brought chinese soup for karen to help her get better. more and more, my parents are starting to perpetuate that stereotype of the "ancient chinese secret" with their soup brews.
luckily for karen, karen was not home to taste the soup. i am sure she will be thrilled to learn that there is more soup for her. i, at least, get out of drinking the soup because according to the ancient chinese secret... it's meant for women who have given birth.
anyway, soup aside, i decided to take my parents out for lunch. because my parents are not that familiar with the area, they let me decide on the place for lunch. they even let me drive their new car (it's a honda civic). the place that i decided upon... strawberry fair. too bad i suck at strawberry fair.
for those who are curious, strawberry fair is located in norwell... on the norwell/hingham border right by the chili's restaurant on route 228. the place was an old farm house that was converted into a restaurant. the restaurant is a charming antique looking place with pretty good food.
my parents have never been to strawberry fair. when we entered the restaurant, my mom's eyes lit up with excitement. she thought the place was so cool with all its antique looking things. also, the table we sat at had the old sewing machine foot pedal, which my mom recognized right away, and she was all smiles with that too.
needless to say, my parents were pretty happy. in honor of braden, i had the salmon burger (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound). for those who are curious, braden basically means salmon in gaelic. hence, there is that story where karen's father thought the name was fitting at the time because braden, like salmon swimming upstream, had to fight for his life.
i think my parents had a good time. my mom is already talking about going back.
after strawberry fair, we went back to the house and i showed my parents the pictures of braden on our ginormous television. even though they were tearful, i know they enjoyed seeing him again.
my father even started to cry, saying that braden should never have been taken from us. for me, it was touching. my father does not cry much... which is probably where i get it from.
anyway, i had a good time with my parents. i hope they enjoyed it as well.
i think my parents have been keeping track of the days since my son (braden) was born too because my mom mentioned that today braden would have been one month old. of course, my parent's knowing that today braden would have been one month is probably also due to the fact that in chinese tradition... the first month following the birth of a child is a milestone.
needless to say, my parents stopped by the cemetery to see braden before stopping on over to see me. and the funny thing... they brought chinese soup for karen to help her get better. more and more, my parents are starting to perpetuate that stereotype of the "ancient chinese secret" with their soup brews.
luckily for karen, karen was not home to taste the soup. i am sure she will be thrilled to learn that there is more soup for her. i, at least, get out of drinking the soup because according to the ancient chinese secret... it's meant for women who have given birth.
anyway, soup aside, i decided to take my parents out for lunch. because my parents are not that familiar with the area, they let me decide on the place for lunch. they even let me drive their new car (it's a honda civic). the place that i decided upon... strawberry fair. too bad i suck at strawberry fair.
for those who are curious, strawberry fair is located in norwell... on the norwell/hingham border right by the chili's restaurant on route 228. the place was an old farm house that was converted into a restaurant. the restaurant is a charming antique looking place with pretty good food.
my parents have never been to strawberry fair. when we entered the restaurant, my mom's eyes lit up with excitement. she thought the place was so cool with all its antique looking things. also, the table we sat at had the old sewing machine foot pedal, which my mom recognized right away, and she was all smiles with that too.
needless to say, my parents were pretty happy. in honor of braden, i had the salmon burger (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound). for those who are curious, braden basically means salmon in gaelic. hence, there is that story where karen's father thought the name was fitting at the time because braden, like salmon swimming upstream, had to fight for his life.
i think my parents had a good time. my mom is already talking about going back.
after strawberry fair, we went back to the house and i showed my parents the pictures of braden on our ginormous television. even though they were tearful, i know they enjoyed seeing him again.
my father even started to cry, saying that braden should never have been taken from us. for me, it was touching. my father does not cry much... which is probably where i get it from.
anyway, i had a good time with my parents. i hope they enjoyed it as well.
I Suck At Remembering My Son
last night, karen and i looked at the pictures and watched the videos that i had taken of my son (braden) while he was in the neonatal intensive care unit.
i had hooked up my computer to the ginormous television, so that we could enjoy the multimedia files on the big screen. it was fantastic to see pictures and videos of braden on the big screen. at the same time, it was heartbreaking because i know i'll never be able to hold him in my arms again or raise him to be an "instigator". being congested and sick, i don't think the crying i did helped with my sinuses any.
anyway, that was last night. today, on this very day, braden would have been one month old had he survived. i hope none of my friends or family think i'm being obsessive by remembering that today is braden's one month anniversary. i remember that when i was younger and some of my single friends at the time were dating... that when when they kept track of their dating anniversary and would mention it to everyone... i thought it was... well... crazy and somewhat annoying. i just didn't want to follow suit with braden. (for anyone curious, i have basically chalked up that dating behavior as part of the honeymoon phase of dating in which everything is like a honeymoon for that person and no matter what anyone says otherwise to that person, the comment will not register with that person however true it may be. and yes, i find that annoying too... which is sometimes how i get this "instigator" reputation.)
regardless, right now i need to remember my son, braden. it's too bad i suck at remembering my son. one of my biggest fears i have is that i will stop counting the days of braden's life and forget about him altogether. i do not want to do that... ever. and so, right now, the only way i can think of remembering him is to count the days and remember how old he would have been had he survived. i love my son and it's the least that i can do for him... to honor him.
and to everyone who has been there for karen and myself, thank you again for honoring braden. each and every one of you have been great. well, there is one person who karen and i have seen since braden's passing who knows about our loss and has yet to do anything... like offer any condolences or thoughts or prayers or anything... and that, i must say, is downright rude if you ask me. i'm not going to name any names obviously... because i told myself that i would not instigate things via this medium... but i would hope common sense would eventually kick in so that this person would do the right thing and at least acknowledge my son.
anyway, i apologize for that rant. obviously, honoring my son is important to me. so anything that i think is disrespectful of that may occasionally throw me into a tizzy. so i'll try to stop thinking about that particular person for now, because today, braden would have been one month old.
enjoy your day, braden! i still remember. i love you.
i had hooked up my computer to the ginormous television, so that we could enjoy the multimedia files on the big screen. it was fantastic to see pictures and videos of braden on the big screen. at the same time, it was heartbreaking because i know i'll never be able to hold him in my arms again or raise him to be an "instigator". being congested and sick, i don't think the crying i did helped with my sinuses any.
anyway, that was last night. today, on this very day, braden would have been one month old had he survived. i hope none of my friends or family think i'm being obsessive by remembering that today is braden's one month anniversary. i remember that when i was younger and some of my single friends at the time were dating... that when when they kept track of their dating anniversary and would mention it to everyone... i thought it was... well... crazy and somewhat annoying. i just didn't want to follow suit with braden. (for anyone curious, i have basically chalked up that dating behavior as part of the honeymoon phase of dating in which everything is like a honeymoon for that person and no matter what anyone says otherwise to that person, the comment will not register with that person however true it may be. and yes, i find that annoying too... which is sometimes how i get this "instigator" reputation.)
regardless, right now i need to remember my son, braden. it's too bad i suck at remembering my son. one of my biggest fears i have is that i will stop counting the days of braden's life and forget about him altogether. i do not want to do that... ever. and so, right now, the only way i can think of remembering him is to count the days and remember how old he would have been had he survived. i love my son and it's the least that i can do for him... to honor him.
and to everyone who has been there for karen and myself, thank you again for honoring braden. each and every one of you have been great. well, there is one person who karen and i have seen since braden's passing who knows about our loss and has yet to do anything... like offer any condolences or thoughts or prayers or anything... and that, i must say, is downright rude if you ask me. i'm not going to name any names obviously... because i told myself that i would not instigate things via this medium... but i would hope common sense would eventually kick in so that this person would do the right thing and at least acknowledge my son.
anyway, i apologize for that rant. obviously, honoring my son is important to me. so anything that i think is disrespectful of that may occasionally throw me into a tizzy. so i'll try to stop thinking about that particular person for now, because today, braden would have been one month old.
enjoy your day, braden! i still remember. i love you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)