tonight, karen and i hung out with my friends (jen and bill). too bad i suck at hanging out with jen and bill. it seems like it has been quite some time since the four of us just hung out together. it was definitely nice to hang out again.
the entire plans for today actually started earlier in the week. jen had asked karen and i if we were available some time this week because she wanted to get together... laugh... drink... be silly... and think of some ideas for a photo scavenger hunt. (i had previously asked past participants for some ideas on what they would like to see on this year's photo scavenger hunt list. jen is always chock full of good ideas. i probably could have just asked her to brainstorm all of the items for the scavenger hunt list... and she would have.)
anyway, jen, bill, and karen came up with a bunch of possible ideas for the photo scavenger hunt. depending on how things go, bill might even participate this year. i have toyed with the idea about opening up the photo scavenger hunt to all of my friends. unfortunately, i sometimes worry about how all of my friends will interact with one another because the formation of the four-member team is randomly created. it's the whole mixing of the circle of friends that i am afraid of. the other alternative would be to have everyone decide on their own teams beforehand... i don't know. i'll have to give it some more thought. so, we'll see.
in addition, jen and bill tried to convince us to go to new orleans with them for st. patrick's day. unlike me, karen has never wanted to go to new orleans. tonight, however, i think karen was actually considering the trip. traveling with a group is simply difficult... not because of the group. for karen and i... or at least me anyway... i know that since our son (braden) passed away in september, my moods have changed from high to low... not just on a daily basis but sometimes hourly. for me, it's frustrating because i know my mood swing is happening, yet i can't control its fickleness. if it's frustrating me, i can only imagine what it must seem like to my friends. so, i imagine traveling with a group now is difficult.
i was quite surprised that karen was interested. of course, it could have been the alcohol talking. by the way, i tried a "hand grenade"... or three... for the first time today courtesy of bill and jen... it's very good. but we'll see about new orleans. i always wanted to go to new orleans, not for the rampant flashing of naked breasts although i'm sure that helps, but more for the cajun cuisine. (surprise... food.)
speaking of which, the four of us went to the 99 restaurant in quincy tonight as well. one of the things that i like about the 99 restaurant in quincy is that there are pictures of high school sports teams in there that decorate the wall. karen is actually in one of those pictures. i want to go once and have them sit us at a table beneath that picture of karen. i just think it would be funny.
anyway, tonight was a good time. i'm glad jen invited us to go out tonight because it does seem like it has been a while since all of us hung out together.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
I Suck At Taking The Census Test
today, my friend (hot amy) and i took our first steps in performing our civic duty... we took the census test. too bad i suck at taking the census test.
the census test was to be administered at the thomas crane public library in quincy. ever since the library was renovated, i love going there. i never knew that the library even had a "meeting room" on the first floor.
the meeting room was nice. there is a big mural of quincy and all quincy-related items on the back wall. the only reason why i know this is because i sat at the very back of the room and had ample time to look at the mural during the census appointment. and yes, i chose to sit at the very back of the room because that is where all the "cool" kids sit... as i told hot amy, only intellectuals sit in the front of the class. (i actually like to watch people, so sitting in the back provides me a great view of everyone.)
anyway, hot amy and i had signed up to take the census test at the same time. so the both of us were at the back of the meeting room. i did my darnest to get hot amy to place a wager on who would get the better score on the test today. unfortunately, she would not agree to it. nonetheless, i think i was in her head because she did seem a little nervous... with her foot nervously tapping under the table and all.
it was probably just as well that hot amy did not wager anything. when the test was over, the person giving the test called me up to the front so that i could get my score. i looked at the score and shrugged. curious, hot amy asked what i had scored. the stinker that i am, i obviously didn't tell her. i said i'd tell her after she got her score. soon after, hot amy received her score. hot amy did very well. she only got one question incorrect. even though that was a very good score, i simply grinned... and she knew that i had beaten her score.
if only i could have gotten her to put a wager on the test... perhaps next time. so needless to say, hot amy and i have a good chance to work for the 2010 census. to celebrate our achievement, we went out for lunch... (naturally, because all i do now is go out to eat...)
the destination for our lunch: rock bottom located in braintree. it actually took us awhile to get there because 1) i did not know nordstrom was being built behind macy's so i had to loop all around the mall parking lot; 2) the parking lot for rock bottom was hard to get into; and 3) when i figured out how to get into the rock bottom parking lot, the lot was full because the lot only holds like 7 cars.
(pictured below is hot amy at rock bottom.)
as it turns out, rock bottom... has hit rock bottom... at least the one in braintree. while we were having lunch, the waitperson told us that the braintree location of rock bottom was closing. not only was the location closing, it was closing this weekend. so, i guess it's good that we ate there just in time before it closed.
for anyone curious, the food there is pretty good. hot amy and i had this huge pretzel to start... (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound) and then i had a burger. it's too bad that the rock bottom is closing. that pretzel thing was good... as were the raspberry apple martinis...
needless to say, i had a good time. i don't think i've had lunch with hot amy in quite some time. it almost reminded me of those days when i used to work in town and have the occasional lunch with her. sadly, i have now been replaced by my old coworkers during her work lunch hours.
the census test was to be administered at the thomas crane public library in quincy. ever since the library was renovated, i love going there. i never knew that the library even had a "meeting room" on the first floor.
the meeting room was nice. there is a big mural of quincy and all quincy-related items on the back wall. the only reason why i know this is because i sat at the very back of the room and had ample time to look at the mural during the census appointment. and yes, i chose to sit at the very back of the room because that is where all the "cool" kids sit... as i told hot amy, only intellectuals sit in the front of the class. (i actually like to watch people, so sitting in the back provides me a great view of everyone.)
anyway, hot amy and i had signed up to take the census test at the same time. so the both of us were at the back of the meeting room. i did my darnest to get hot amy to place a wager on who would get the better score on the test today. unfortunately, she would not agree to it. nonetheless, i think i was in her head because she did seem a little nervous... with her foot nervously tapping under the table and all.
it was probably just as well that hot amy did not wager anything. when the test was over, the person giving the test called me up to the front so that i could get my score. i looked at the score and shrugged. curious, hot amy asked what i had scored. the stinker that i am, i obviously didn't tell her. i said i'd tell her after she got her score. soon after, hot amy received her score. hot amy did very well. she only got one question incorrect. even though that was a very good score, i simply grinned... and she knew that i had beaten her score.
if only i could have gotten her to put a wager on the test... perhaps next time. so needless to say, hot amy and i have a good chance to work for the 2010 census. to celebrate our achievement, we went out for lunch... (naturally, because all i do now is go out to eat...)
the destination for our lunch: rock bottom located in braintree. it actually took us awhile to get there because 1) i did not know nordstrom was being built behind macy's so i had to loop all around the mall parking lot; 2) the parking lot for rock bottom was hard to get into; and 3) when i figured out how to get into the rock bottom parking lot, the lot was full because the lot only holds like 7 cars.
(pictured below is hot amy at rock bottom.)
as it turns out, rock bottom... has hit rock bottom... at least the one in braintree. while we were having lunch, the waitperson told us that the braintree location of rock bottom was closing. not only was the location closing, it was closing this weekend. so, i guess it's good that we ate there just in time before it closed.
for anyone curious, the food there is pretty good. hot amy and i had this huge pretzel to start... (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound) and then i had a burger. it's too bad that the rock bottom is closing. that pretzel thing was good... as were the raspberry apple martinis...
needless to say, i had a good time. i don't think i've had lunch with hot amy in quite some time. it almost reminded me of those days when i used to work in town and have the occasional lunch with her. sadly, i have now been replaced by my old coworkers during her work lunch hours.
Friday, January 30, 2009
I Suck At Lost
last night, karen and i hung out with my friends (marc and kelley). i was definitely looking forward to hanging out with marc and kelley because we had planned to watch the second part of the "lost" premiere, as well as the episode that recently aired the night before. unfortunately, i suck at lost.
i must say, i love the show. in my opinion, lost is currently the best show on television right now. the writing for the show keeps viewers interested with its unique twists and never ending questions. so needless to say, i was quite excited to watch the episodes with marc and kelley.
before watching "lost", the four of us decided to grab dinner at the falafel king located in quincy. as usual, the falafel king was delicious. for anyone curious, i had the lamb kabob plate. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) marc was craving the falafel king... and as we had not been there in quite some time, we decided to pick up dinner there.
as usual, it was a good time. unfortunately, i learned that i missed an opportunity to hang out with my friend (scott) who lives in new york. scott was back in massachusetts on tuesday and had left a voice mail message for me asking how things were. when i returned his call, i similarly left a message for him seeing how things were. it turns out that scott wanted to get everyone together for dinner at my friend's (garv) restaurant... blue-22 in quincy. sadly, i did not get that message until after the fact. bummer. it would have been great to see scott again.
anyway, marc and kelley hung out with scott at blue-22. one of the things that they were discussing was the super bowl... and whether my friend (ron) will host the event this year. in the past, ron has always hosted the super bowl. he throws a great party, whether it be a super bowl party or a pool party... or whatever. ron just knows how to party and have fun... and make sure that his guests have a great time. (for anyone curious, ron was the reason why scott and i got home at 5 in the morning after garv's wedding. and yes, ron was covered in the wedding cake.)
unfortunately, none of us have heard about whether ron will be hosting the super bowl this year. my friend (cass), however, did suggest to have all of us over should ron decide not to host the superbowl this year. so, we'll see how things pan out this weekend.
regardless, last night... with "lost"... was great.
i must say, i love the show. in my opinion, lost is currently the best show on television right now. the writing for the show keeps viewers interested with its unique twists and never ending questions. so needless to say, i was quite excited to watch the episodes with marc and kelley.
before watching "lost", the four of us decided to grab dinner at the falafel king located in quincy. as usual, the falafel king was delicious. for anyone curious, i had the lamb kabob plate. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) marc was craving the falafel king... and as we had not been there in quite some time, we decided to pick up dinner there.
as usual, it was a good time. unfortunately, i learned that i missed an opportunity to hang out with my friend (scott) who lives in new york. scott was back in massachusetts on tuesday and had left a voice mail message for me asking how things were. when i returned his call, i similarly left a message for him seeing how things were. it turns out that scott wanted to get everyone together for dinner at my friend's (garv) restaurant... blue-22 in quincy. sadly, i did not get that message until after the fact. bummer. it would have been great to see scott again.
anyway, marc and kelley hung out with scott at blue-22. one of the things that they were discussing was the super bowl... and whether my friend (ron) will host the event this year. in the past, ron has always hosted the super bowl. he throws a great party, whether it be a super bowl party or a pool party... or whatever. ron just knows how to party and have fun... and make sure that his guests have a great time. (for anyone curious, ron was the reason why scott and i got home at 5 in the morning after garv's wedding. and yes, ron was covered in the wedding cake.)
unfortunately, none of us have heard about whether ron will be hosting the super bowl this year. my friend (cass), however, did suggest to have all of us over should ron decide not to host the superbowl this year. so, we'll see how things pan out this weekend.
regardless, last night... with "lost"... was great.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
I Suck At Coop's
tonight was supposed to be the start of my chauffeuring services for the year. by chauffeuring services, i mean i was going to be doing my best driving miss daisy impersonation shuttling my friend (hot amy) and karen home from simmons college. hot amy and karen are teaching a nutrition course wednesday nights at simmons.
due to inclement weather consisting of snow and slush, however, my chauffeuring services were not needed. simmons college canceled classes for the night. thus, i was off the hook in terms of driving the two miss daisies.
before the cancellation of the class, my original plan was to meet up with my friend (carlos) for a quick dinner at one of his favorite restaurants... the hancock tavern located in quincy... before heading into town to pick up hot amy and karen. carlos has been wanting to hang out for some time with me.
needless to say, with the cancellation of classes at simmons college, hot amy and karen were able to join us for dinner. it's probably just as well because i'm sure carlos would rather hang out with company other than just myself. instead of going to the hancock tavern, we decided to go to coop's located in quincy. i probably should clarify that. hot amy decided to go to coop's located in quincy. coop's should probably come as no surprise to anyone who knows hot amy. after all, it is one of the few places that she likes to go to (predictable?).
too bad i suck at coop's. don't get me wrong. the food at coop's is good. i just fail to see the constant allure of the place, much like i fail to see the constant allure of the bar formerly known as sarsfields in quincy. but that is just my opinion.
anyway, i had coop's cheese pizza for dinner. apparently, on mondays, tuesdays, and wednesdays from 5pm to 9pm, the 10" cheese pizza is two dollars. (here is where i inject the line "i want my two dollars" from one of the best movies from the 1980s... "better off dead".) for two dollars, why not try it? what a deal, especially considering the fact that i didn't have anything to drink with the meal other than water.
and with what has become commonplace when dining with karen and hot amy, i got to sample some of their meals too. so all in all, it was good. i even have lunch for tomorrow thanks to hot amy who thought her meatball sub smelled funny. for anyone curious, the meatball sub smelled like... a meatball sub. i think her nose must be stuffed up or something.
regardless, it was an interesting time. i sometimes wonder if carlos (and hot amy) think that karen and i are fairly odd. after all, we told carlos the story about how karen and i ended up together (because carlos asked). i always like to tell the story that in high school karen broke my heart and dumped me for my friend (garv), who happens to be quite the intellectual according to hot amy. karen, obviously, tells the story a different way.
among the other things that we talked about were my ex-girlfriend, who i loving refer to as the "scourge of evil"... hot amy's latin debating club... carlos's "d" in spanish (yes, carlos is fluent in spanish)... and whether or not hot amy and i were in the same class in college. oh... for anyone curious, carlos actually graduated the same year... from the same college... as my friend (andrea) and myself. the interesting thing is... none of us knew each other back then. small world.
another tidbit of information that i found interesting is that hot amy is having lunch tomorrow with my friend (dave), who i used to work with in town. (carlos will be at the lunch too.) the reason i find this funny is because hot amy is now hanging out with my old work friends. it is like... in order to defeat me, she must become me. or i suppose in a bizarro world she could simply be stalking me. personally, i can think of a lot more people who are more interesting to stalk. but i guess i should be flattered. (heck, i'm flattered that dave finds me attractive.)
anyway, i had a good time tonight. it was interesting to say the least...
due to inclement weather consisting of snow and slush, however, my chauffeuring services were not needed. simmons college canceled classes for the night. thus, i was off the hook in terms of driving the two miss daisies.
before the cancellation of the class, my original plan was to meet up with my friend (carlos) for a quick dinner at one of his favorite restaurants... the hancock tavern located in quincy... before heading into town to pick up hot amy and karen. carlos has been wanting to hang out for some time with me.
needless to say, with the cancellation of classes at simmons college, hot amy and karen were able to join us for dinner. it's probably just as well because i'm sure carlos would rather hang out with company other than just myself. instead of going to the hancock tavern, we decided to go to coop's located in quincy. i probably should clarify that. hot amy decided to go to coop's located in quincy. coop's should probably come as no surprise to anyone who knows hot amy. after all, it is one of the few places that she likes to go to (predictable?).
too bad i suck at coop's. don't get me wrong. the food at coop's is good. i just fail to see the constant allure of the place, much like i fail to see the constant allure of the bar formerly known as sarsfields in quincy. but that is just my opinion.
anyway, i had coop's cheese pizza for dinner. apparently, on mondays, tuesdays, and wednesdays from 5pm to 9pm, the 10" cheese pizza is two dollars. (here is where i inject the line "i want my two dollars" from one of the best movies from the 1980s... "better off dead".) for two dollars, why not try it? what a deal, especially considering the fact that i didn't have anything to drink with the meal other than water.
and with what has become commonplace when dining with karen and hot amy, i got to sample some of their meals too. so all in all, it was good. i even have lunch for tomorrow thanks to hot amy who thought her meatball sub smelled funny. for anyone curious, the meatball sub smelled like... a meatball sub. i think her nose must be stuffed up or something.
regardless, it was an interesting time. i sometimes wonder if carlos (and hot amy) think that karen and i are fairly odd. after all, we told carlos the story about how karen and i ended up together (because carlos asked). i always like to tell the story that in high school karen broke my heart and dumped me for my friend (garv), who happens to be quite the intellectual according to hot amy. karen, obviously, tells the story a different way.
among the other things that we talked about were my ex-girlfriend, who i loving refer to as the "scourge of evil"... hot amy's latin debating club... carlos's "d" in spanish (yes, carlos is fluent in spanish)... and whether or not hot amy and i were in the same class in college. oh... for anyone curious, carlos actually graduated the same year... from the same college... as my friend (andrea) and myself. the interesting thing is... none of us knew each other back then. small world.
another tidbit of information that i found interesting is that hot amy is having lunch tomorrow with my friend (dave), who i used to work with in town. (carlos will be at the lunch too.) the reason i find this funny is because hot amy is now hanging out with my old work friends. it is like... in order to defeat me, she must become me. or i suppose in a bizarro world she could simply be stalking me. personally, i can think of a lot more people who are more interesting to stalk. but i guess i should be flattered. (heck, i'm flattered that dave finds me attractive.)
anyway, i had a good time tonight. it was interesting to say the least...
Monday, January 26, 2009
I Suck At The Dentist
this morning, i had my semi-annual dentist appointment. like my dentist recommends, i have a dental cleaning every six months. so today happened to be one of those days.
too bad i suck at the dentist. don't get me wrong, i like my dentist. my friend (jen) loves her dentist. i think jen would go every day to the dentist if she could. the thing i dislike about going to the dentist is wondering if i did enough in those six months to prevent cavities.
aside from that, my dental experience is always great. my dental hygienist (joan) usually tells me stories about things happening in her life. currently, her car is leaking oil. so, she had to take it to the mechanics this morning which caused her to run a little late.
joan is funny. she told me that for christmas, her present to her daughters was the removal of their wisdom teeth. nothing says merry christmas like the extraction of wisdom teeth, anesthesia, blood, and gauze.
among the other things i learned about while at the dentist was that there is a dental convention this friday... and that there is a sucking machine located in the basement of the office. the sucking machine is like a vacuum in that it sucks everything downstairs and empties out into the drain/sewer system. apparently, there used to be a trap for the "solids" that had to be emptied out ever so often by the staff. fortunately, that has been done away with thanks to modern technology. i was told that i would probably find out about the sucking machine because it is used during the filling of cavities.
speaking of which, i unfortunately have a cavity. i almost escaped scott free thinking that i did not have a cavity. after joan cleaned my teeth, she didn't notice anything. she then asked to take x-rays just in case. (it has been two years since my last x-rays. apparently, x-rays should be taken every two years. so joan quickly took my x-rays.) when my dentist came in, he checked my teeth... everything looked good... and then he looked at the x-ray.
as it turned out, there was a cavity forming between two of my teeth. both my dentist and joan were surprised because the location of the cavity was somewhat peculiar. (for some reason, my dentist and joan seem to think that i have very good strong teeth.) unfortunately, my dentist believes that my teeth are curved in such a way that plaque got trapped between the teeth... and hence caused the cavity. damn those x-rays.
anyway, i sadly have to get a filling... albeit a little filling as my dentist put it. but he said it definitely needed to be done. go figure...
too bad i suck at the dentist. don't get me wrong, i like my dentist. my friend (jen) loves her dentist. i think jen would go every day to the dentist if she could. the thing i dislike about going to the dentist is wondering if i did enough in those six months to prevent cavities.
aside from that, my dental experience is always great. my dental hygienist (joan) usually tells me stories about things happening in her life. currently, her car is leaking oil. so, she had to take it to the mechanics this morning which caused her to run a little late.
joan is funny. she told me that for christmas, her present to her daughters was the removal of their wisdom teeth. nothing says merry christmas like the extraction of wisdom teeth, anesthesia, blood, and gauze.
among the other things i learned about while at the dentist was that there is a dental convention this friday... and that there is a sucking machine located in the basement of the office. the sucking machine is like a vacuum in that it sucks everything downstairs and empties out into the drain/sewer system. apparently, there used to be a trap for the "solids" that had to be emptied out ever so often by the staff. fortunately, that has been done away with thanks to modern technology. i was told that i would probably find out about the sucking machine because it is used during the filling of cavities.
speaking of which, i unfortunately have a cavity. i almost escaped scott free thinking that i did not have a cavity. after joan cleaned my teeth, she didn't notice anything. she then asked to take x-rays just in case. (it has been two years since my last x-rays. apparently, x-rays should be taken every two years. so joan quickly took my x-rays.) when my dentist came in, he checked my teeth... everything looked good... and then he looked at the x-ray.
as it turned out, there was a cavity forming between two of my teeth. both my dentist and joan were surprised because the location of the cavity was somewhat peculiar. (for some reason, my dentist and joan seem to think that i have very good strong teeth.) unfortunately, my dentist believes that my teeth are curved in such a way that plaque got trapped between the teeth... and hence caused the cavity. damn those x-rays.
anyway, i sadly have to get a filling... albeit a little filling as my dentist put it. but he said it definitely needed to be done. go figure...
Sunday, January 25, 2009
I Suck At Being Productive
today, karen thought we should have a productive day. generally speaking, "productive" either translates to working on the house... or at least doing a bunch of checklisted items. karen has been feeling the urge to be productive ever since she spent most of yesterday sitting on the couch... watching one of her favorite tv shows: the golden girls. truth be told, ever since our son (braden) passed away, keeping motivated has been tough at times.
unfortunately, i suck at being productive. i would like nothing more than to spend an entire day watching television... or playing video games... or doing something all by myself. sadly, i haven't done something by my lonesome in a long while.
needless to say, today was a productive day. while karen went shopping with my favorite sister-in-law (janine), i worked on the house. (karen went looking for curtains and curtain hardware for our living room. she was not exactly window shopping.)
i had the distinct pleasure of demolishing our bathroom on the first floor. for anyone curious, i think demolition is one of the best ways to relieve stress. rock stars have it right... it is simply fun to destroy things. i highly recommend demolition. so if anyone wants to relieve any stress... let me know. i will gladly offer the services of my first floor bathroom. after all, there is a lot more demolition to do to our bathroom.
the demolition i performed today was the removal of the tiles. our bathroom is covered with tiles. with my crowbar and hammer, i went to town on the tiles. for the most part, the tiles came down quite easily. when all was said and done, there was nothing left but tile rubble... and me standing victoriously over the rubble with a crowbar in one hand and a hammer raised in the other hand... like luke skywalker in the star wars poster. okay, so maybe that was an exaggeration.
truth be told, there was a bunch of rubble... just no victorious pose. after cleaning up the rubble, karen returned from her shopping excursion with the curtains that she purchased. (the curtains look nice. although to me, curtains are curtains.)
from there karen and i also did some rearranging of furniture. we decided to switch the furniture from the first floor to the second floor and vice versa. so as of right now, our couch is on the second floor and our two chairs are on the first floor. the moving of the furniture took some time, but we were able to do it.
one of the reasons we decided to move the furniture was because lately we have been entertaining guests on the second floor. like my favorite brother-in-law (pj) is known to ask... "where will all the people sit?" with the couch now on the second floor, there will be more room for people to sit and hang out if they want to watch our ginormous television. the other reason for the move, of course, is because the curtains karen purchased did not match our blue couch.
anyway, karen and i figured that we would keep the couch on the second floor for at least a week... just in time for the superbowl. so we'll see how it goes.
unfortunately, i suck at being productive. i would like nothing more than to spend an entire day watching television... or playing video games... or doing something all by myself. sadly, i haven't done something by my lonesome in a long while.
needless to say, today was a productive day. while karen went shopping with my favorite sister-in-law (janine), i worked on the house. (karen went looking for curtains and curtain hardware for our living room. she was not exactly window shopping.)
i had the distinct pleasure of demolishing our bathroom on the first floor. for anyone curious, i think demolition is one of the best ways to relieve stress. rock stars have it right... it is simply fun to destroy things. i highly recommend demolition. so if anyone wants to relieve any stress... let me know. i will gladly offer the services of my first floor bathroom. after all, there is a lot more demolition to do to our bathroom.
the demolition i performed today was the removal of the tiles. our bathroom is covered with tiles. with my crowbar and hammer, i went to town on the tiles. for the most part, the tiles came down quite easily. when all was said and done, there was nothing left but tile rubble... and me standing victoriously over the rubble with a crowbar in one hand and a hammer raised in the other hand... like luke skywalker in the star wars poster. okay, so maybe that was an exaggeration.
truth be told, there was a bunch of rubble... just no victorious pose. after cleaning up the rubble, karen returned from her shopping excursion with the curtains that she purchased. (the curtains look nice. although to me, curtains are curtains.)
from there karen and i also did some rearranging of furniture. we decided to switch the furniture from the first floor to the second floor and vice versa. so as of right now, our couch is on the second floor and our two chairs are on the first floor. the moving of the furniture took some time, but we were able to do it.
one of the reasons we decided to move the furniture was because lately we have been entertaining guests on the second floor. like my favorite brother-in-law (pj) is known to ask... "where will all the people sit?" with the couch now on the second floor, there will be more room for people to sit and hang out if they want to watch our ginormous television. the other reason for the move, of course, is because the curtains karen purchased did not match our blue couch.
anyway, karen and i figured that we would keep the couch on the second floor for at least a week... just in time for the superbowl. so we'll see how it goes.
I Suck At Murphy's Twin Shamrocks
after our dinner last night at stars with my friends (jen, hot amy, and andrea), my friends, karen and i went to meet my bff (kerry) at murphy's twin shamrocks located in quincy for a few drinks. too bad i suck at murphy's twin shamrocks.
i haven't been to murphy's twin shamrocks in quite some time. in fact, i don't think i have gone to a bar with all of them in a long while. generally speaking, karen and i are usually not invited whenever the opportunity arises to go to a bar. perhaps that is a good thing because the people at the bars that my friends generally frequent look considerably younger than we do. murphy's seemed to have a good mix of people last night. i must admit that i did derive some pleasure in seeing a group of young'uns get turned away at the door.
anyway, it was a great time at murphy's. my friend (carlos) also stopped by to meet all of us. apparently, hot amy had sent him a text message that we were going to be there. like i told everyone, carlos is always good for a drink... or ten. as it also turned out, carlos knew the musician (stu) playing at the bar. carlos is well connected that way.
speaking of which, i had an interesting conversation with kerry about social epidemics. kerry is reading a book called "the tipping point" by malcolm gladwell. according to my friend wikipedia, gladwell believes that the "success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social skills". those individuals are called: mavens, connectors, and salesmen. kerry happens to think carlos is a connector because he knows so many people... the musician at murphy's being one of them. hot amy has also since corroborated the fact that carlos is well connected because people always come up to him at the train station when they commute home.
in addition to the social epidemic discussion, kerry was also kind enough to show me some basics in sign language. for any curious, she is taking a sign language course. hopefully i can remember the phrases she taught me in sign language.
murphy's wasn't all serious though. we did have a bunch of laughs, including jen's impersonation of my lip balm application technique. (yes, i have trouble putting on lip balm. i generally tend to smudge the lip balm everywhere.) as well, karen had a question about stu... and whether the constant strumming with the guitar made his arm strong. there was a visual that she used in conjunction with the question that made all of us laugh.
needless to say, it was a good time at murphy's. sadly, i didn't get to have a chance to chat with andrea, hot amy, and carlos (and eventually stu). they were at the other end of the rectangular table... which is yet again another reason i like circular tables. as it turned out, andrea left right before stu sang her "wahoooo" song. the song is actually called "got you (where i want you)" by the flys. andrea does a great rendition of the song. perhaps next time...
i haven't been to murphy's twin shamrocks in quite some time. in fact, i don't think i have gone to a bar with all of them in a long while. generally speaking, karen and i are usually not invited whenever the opportunity arises to go to a bar. perhaps that is a good thing because the people at the bars that my friends generally frequent look considerably younger than we do. murphy's seemed to have a good mix of people last night. i must admit that i did derive some pleasure in seeing a group of young'uns get turned away at the door.
anyway, it was a great time at murphy's. my friend (carlos) also stopped by to meet all of us. apparently, hot amy had sent him a text message that we were going to be there. like i told everyone, carlos is always good for a drink... or ten. as it also turned out, carlos knew the musician (stu) playing at the bar. carlos is well connected that way.
speaking of which, i had an interesting conversation with kerry about social epidemics. kerry is reading a book called "the tipping point" by malcolm gladwell. according to my friend wikipedia, gladwell believes that the "success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social skills". those individuals are called: mavens, connectors, and salesmen. kerry happens to think carlos is a connector because he knows so many people... the musician at murphy's being one of them. hot amy has also since corroborated the fact that carlos is well connected because people always come up to him at the train station when they commute home.
in addition to the social epidemic discussion, kerry was also kind enough to show me some basics in sign language. for any curious, she is taking a sign language course. hopefully i can remember the phrases she taught me in sign language.
murphy's wasn't all serious though. we did have a bunch of laughs, including jen's impersonation of my lip balm application technique. (yes, i have trouble putting on lip balm. i generally tend to smudge the lip balm everywhere.) as well, karen had a question about stu... and whether the constant strumming with the guitar made his arm strong. there was a visual that she used in conjunction with the question that made all of us laugh.
needless to say, it was a good time at murphy's. sadly, i didn't get to have a chance to chat with andrea, hot amy, and carlos (and eventually stu). they were at the other end of the rectangular table... which is yet again another reason i like circular tables. as it turned out, andrea left right before stu sang her "wahoooo" song. the song is actually called "got you (where i want you)" by the flys. andrea does a great rendition of the song. perhaps next time...
I Suck At Stars
last night, karen and i went out for dinner with my friends (jen, hot amy and andrea). the place that we ate at: stars located in hingham. now, i suck at stars.
earlier in the day, jen had sent out a text message asking if any of us were around. for awhile, everyone has had busy schedules. so finding a night and getting everyone together has been difficult. for example, one night would work for some, but not all... etc. as it so happens, the stars (no pun intended) were aligned last night.
none of us had any plans last night, except my bff (kerry) who was meeting her friend (becky) in town for a late lunch/early dinner. kerry told us that she would meet up with us afterwards if we were still interested.
so, jen, hot amy, andrea, karen and i had dinner at stars without kerry. i have not had dinner at stars in quite some time. i believe the last time i had dinner at stars was the time jen, kerry, karen, and my friend (joanna) went there on christmas eve as we could not make it there for our usual breakfast.
needless to say, the food at stars was delicious. i had the tuna melt. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) one of the benefits of having dinner with a group of women is that i inevitably get to eat some of everyone else's food. i had some of karen's cranberry chicken salad wrap, some of hot amy's sweet potato fries, and some of andrea's chocolate brownie. i'm not complaining of course.
in addition to the extra food, i imbibed on a "20-ni" and a "very berry martini", both of which are very manly with their bright looking colors (red and blue respectively). for anyone curious, the "20-ni" is a martini in celebration of the fact that stars has been in business for 20 years. i did not realize that fact, even though the number 20 was posted everywhere in the restaurant... on the staff shirts... everywhere.
anyway, it was a good time at stars. all of us were seated at a circular table for dinner... so the stars must have been aligned.
earlier in the day, jen had sent out a text message asking if any of us were around. for awhile, everyone has had busy schedules. so finding a night and getting everyone together has been difficult. for example, one night would work for some, but not all... etc. as it so happens, the stars (no pun intended) were aligned last night.
none of us had any plans last night, except my bff (kerry) who was meeting her friend (becky) in town for a late lunch/early dinner. kerry told us that she would meet up with us afterwards if we were still interested.
so, jen, hot amy, andrea, karen and i had dinner at stars without kerry. i have not had dinner at stars in quite some time. i believe the last time i had dinner at stars was the time jen, kerry, karen, and my friend (joanna) went there on christmas eve as we could not make it there for our usual breakfast.
needless to say, the food at stars was delicious. i had the tuna melt. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) one of the benefits of having dinner with a group of women is that i inevitably get to eat some of everyone else's food. i had some of karen's cranberry chicken salad wrap, some of hot amy's sweet potato fries, and some of andrea's chocolate brownie. i'm not complaining of course.
in addition to the extra food, i imbibed on a "20-ni" and a "very berry martini", both of which are very manly with their bright looking colors (red and blue respectively). for anyone curious, the "20-ni" is a martini in celebration of the fact that stars has been in business for 20 years. i did not realize that fact, even though the number 20 was posted everywhere in the restaurant... on the staff shirts... everywhere.
anyway, it was a good time at stars. all of us were seated at a circular table for dinner... so the stars must have been aligned.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
I Suck At The British Beer Company
last night, karen and i went out for dinner. i am beginning to think my waistline is hating me right now because it seems like i eat out... a lot. oh well. if i could say something to my waistline, i'd do my best kelly lebrock impersonation and say "don't hate me because i'm beautiful".
anyway, karen and i went to the british beer company in pembroke. now, i suck at the british beer company. i have not been there in quite some time. after picking up karen after work... or her second work (that being the south shore ymca in quincy where she had a nutrition counseling meeting with a client), i rattled off a bunch of places that we could go out for dinner. the british beer company sounded good to karen, so off we went.
before we left quincy, however, we actually had to double check that some of my friends were not going out for dinner themselves. earlier in the day, i had contacted my friend (andrea) about going out for some the liquid yumminess also known as alcohol. andrea and i had previously gone to the union brew house in weymouth one night at the spur of the moment. as i had not seen andrea in awhile, i figured i'd see if she were interested in spontaneously going out again.
as it turned out, andrea already had plans with her bff (hot amy). their plan was to go to rock bottom in braintree. when i asked her about going out for some drinks, she invited karen and i to join them at rock bottom.
unfortunately, andrea had to cancel her plans with hot amy because of her work. so, rock bottom was off the table for the night. long story short, karen and i just had to make sure that hot amy was still not looking to hang out before we decided going elsewhere for dinner. (for anyone curious, she was not.)
anyway, the british beer company was good as usual. i had their steak tips... with panko crusted green beans and mash potatoes... (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound). part of the reason why the meal was so good was that i had not had beef in some time. beef... it's what's for dinner. needless to say, i enjoyed the steak tips very much. i even made sure to cut the steak into very thin strips... lest i have a repeat of my choking incident from that fateful black friday.
all in all, it was nice having dinner with just karen. sure, it was not exactly a romantic date or anything like that, but it was good quality time. i think karen has been feeling a little down lately.
on an unrelated note, after speaking with my bff (kerry) last night... i found out that her fish (jose) is now literally swimming with the fishes. it's very sad. jose was so close to getting a new fish bowl too.
anyway, karen and i went to the british beer company in pembroke. now, i suck at the british beer company. i have not been there in quite some time. after picking up karen after work... or her second work (that being the south shore ymca in quincy where she had a nutrition counseling meeting with a client), i rattled off a bunch of places that we could go out for dinner. the british beer company sounded good to karen, so off we went.
before we left quincy, however, we actually had to double check that some of my friends were not going out for dinner themselves. earlier in the day, i had contacted my friend (andrea) about going out for some the liquid yumminess also known as alcohol. andrea and i had previously gone to the union brew house in weymouth one night at the spur of the moment. as i had not seen andrea in awhile, i figured i'd see if she were interested in spontaneously going out again.
as it turned out, andrea already had plans with her bff (hot amy). their plan was to go to rock bottom in braintree. when i asked her about going out for some drinks, she invited karen and i to join them at rock bottom.
unfortunately, andrea had to cancel her plans with hot amy because of her work. so, rock bottom was off the table for the night. long story short, karen and i just had to make sure that hot amy was still not looking to hang out before we decided going elsewhere for dinner. (for anyone curious, she was not.)
anyway, the british beer company was good as usual. i had their steak tips... with panko crusted green beans and mash potatoes... (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound). part of the reason why the meal was so good was that i had not had beef in some time. beef... it's what's for dinner. needless to say, i enjoyed the steak tips very much. i even made sure to cut the steak into very thin strips... lest i have a repeat of my choking incident from that fateful black friday.
all in all, it was nice having dinner with just karen. sure, it was not exactly a romantic date or anything like that, but it was good quality time. i think karen has been feeling a little down lately.
on an unrelated note, after speaking with my bff (kerry) last night... i found out that her fish (jose) is now literally swimming with the fishes. it's very sad. jose was so close to getting a new fish bowl too.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
I Suck At Neurobics
okay, today may be a slow day.
i just finished reading a book. yes, i have been known to read a book or two... something other than a comic book... or a piece of fiction. my reading preference is fiction because it allows me envision crazy things in my head. the more fantastic... the better. unless of course, the book is "twilight". for some reason, i was not too impressed with that book. the book, which i borrowed from my friend (andrea) is a simple love story between a young woman and a vampire. the gist of the book can be summed up as follows: "i love you... but i shouldn't... you're a vampire" "i love you.. but always remember... i'm a vampire!" mind you, the young woman has never had a boyfriend... ever... so i find the dialogue a little silly. but i digress.
"twilight" is not the book i finished reading today. i actually finished a non-fiction book today... and no, the book is not "the secret". my friend (jen)... and apparently oprah... have been touting "the secret". from what i have heard about the book, "the secret" sounds like it should be called "the crap"... but i will give it a fair reading...
the book i actually finished today is titled "keep your brain alive". basically, the book is about neurobics and provides 83 exercises to help prevent memory loss and increase mental fitness. too bad i suck at neurobics. obviously, i could use something like this. i'm lucky that i have a blog to even remind me about what i did a few days ago. neurobics are a bunch of brain exercises designed to involve the five senses in such a way as to create associations between types of information.
according to the book, most of the information we use to associate is through sight. say we meet someone and are introduced to them by sight. we can easily forget that person's name because we are only using one of our senses. if we involve the other senses like touch, hearing, smelling, etc. we have a better chance of remembering the person's name because the other senses are associated with that piece of information. so if one of those associations forgets the information, it has another association to retrieve that information... whereas with only one sense (sight)... once that information is lost... you have to think really, really hard...
i guess that was the premise that karen was mentioning at the cheesecake factory, to which i jokingly warned to not be surprised if i put your hand in my mouth the next time i see you. needless to say, after reading the book... karen seems to make more sense. (heck, i'm sure the book makes a lot more sense than "the secret" too.)
anyway, here are some of the exercises to help "keep your brain alive" (it should be noted that not all of these exercises should be done at one time... but here and there to throw your normal routine off.):
for the beginning/end of the day
1) change the usual morning olfactory association
2) shower with your eyes closed
3) brushing with your nondominant hand
4) choose clothes without looking
5) wear earplugs at breakfast
6) introduce novelty
7) a warm bath with various stimuli
8) reading aloud to someone
9) sex... yes!
for commuting
1) start the car without looking
2) take a different route to work
3) put new textures on all the car controls
4) open the window for smells and sounds
5) wear heavy mittens while driving
6) smell different aromas at different locations
7) smell different aromas while listening to music
8) determine the denomination of coins without looking
9) be social
10) car pool
11) leave someone else drive
for work
1) change the location of things at your desk
2) put different color filters on your lamp
3) make tasks odorous
4) learn braille
5) take someone to work
6) brainstorm
7) take brain breaks
8) random chess game with no specific players
9) turn pictures upside down
10) adapt, adopt or ad lib
at the market
1) visit a farmer's market
2) shop at an ethnic market (or some place different)
3) go to a butcher, baker, fishmonger
4) practice neurobics inside the supermarket
5) shop without a list and pick what looks good for that day
6) have someone give you a shopping list of the food description, not the name
7) no more one stop shopping
during mealtimes
1) make it social
2) share a meal in silence
3) sit in different spots
4) hold your nose while eating
5) have everyone choose a menu item to prepare for dinner
6) recreate meals that are associated with a significant memory
7) introduce novelty
8) enhance the sensory environment
9) try a new cuisine... like my bff's (kerry) original plan!
10) identify food only by smell, taste, and touch
11) blind wine tasting
12) cook from scratch
13) have a sexy meal
for leisure
1) go to new place and see new faces
2) go camping
3) community project... like the census!
4) do something you normally do not do on vacation
5) be creative
6) random joy ride
7) art project... like jen's vision board!
8) improv
9) learn sign language... like kerry!
10) play the "10 things" game (10 things you can do with an object)
11) play "name that sound"
12) vary exercise by doing it outdoors
13) go to a park
14) start a new hobby
15) grow a garden
all right, so some of these ideas are peculiar and lame. nonetheless, i need all the help i can to remember things. hopefully i will remember to incorporate a few of the suggestions ever so often.
i just finished reading a book. yes, i have been known to read a book or two... something other than a comic book... or a piece of fiction. my reading preference is fiction because it allows me envision crazy things in my head. the more fantastic... the better. unless of course, the book is "twilight". for some reason, i was not too impressed with that book. the book, which i borrowed from my friend (andrea) is a simple love story between a young woman and a vampire. the gist of the book can be summed up as follows: "i love you... but i shouldn't... you're a vampire" "i love you.. but always remember... i'm a vampire!" mind you, the young woman has never had a boyfriend... ever... so i find the dialogue a little silly. but i digress.
"twilight" is not the book i finished reading today. i actually finished a non-fiction book today... and no, the book is not "the secret". my friend (jen)... and apparently oprah... have been touting "the secret". from what i have heard about the book, "the secret" sounds like it should be called "the crap"... but i will give it a fair reading...
the book i actually finished today is titled "keep your brain alive". basically, the book is about neurobics and provides 83 exercises to help prevent memory loss and increase mental fitness. too bad i suck at neurobics. obviously, i could use something like this. i'm lucky that i have a blog to even remind me about what i did a few days ago. neurobics are a bunch of brain exercises designed to involve the five senses in such a way as to create associations between types of information.
according to the book, most of the information we use to associate is through sight. say we meet someone and are introduced to them by sight. we can easily forget that person's name because we are only using one of our senses. if we involve the other senses like touch, hearing, smelling, etc. we have a better chance of remembering the person's name because the other senses are associated with that piece of information. so if one of those associations forgets the information, it has another association to retrieve that information... whereas with only one sense (sight)... once that information is lost... you have to think really, really hard...
i guess that was the premise that karen was mentioning at the cheesecake factory, to which i jokingly warned to not be surprised if i put your hand in my mouth the next time i see you. needless to say, after reading the book... karen seems to make more sense. (heck, i'm sure the book makes a lot more sense than "the secret" too.)
anyway, here are some of the exercises to help "keep your brain alive" (it should be noted that not all of these exercises should be done at one time... but here and there to throw your normal routine off.):
for the beginning/end of the day
1) change the usual morning olfactory association
2) shower with your eyes closed
3) brushing with your nondominant hand
4) choose clothes without looking
5) wear earplugs at breakfast
6) introduce novelty
7) a warm bath with various stimuli
8) reading aloud to someone
9) sex... yes!
for commuting
1) start the car without looking
2) take a different route to work
3) put new textures on all the car controls
4) open the window for smells and sounds
5) wear heavy mittens while driving
6) smell different aromas at different locations
7) smell different aromas while listening to music
8) determine the denomination of coins without looking
9) be social
10) car pool
11) leave someone else drive
for work
1) change the location of things at your desk
2) put different color filters on your lamp
3) make tasks odorous
4) learn braille
5) take someone to work
6) brainstorm
7) take brain breaks
8) random chess game with no specific players
9) turn pictures upside down
10) adapt, adopt or ad lib
at the market
1) visit a farmer's market
2) shop at an ethnic market (or some place different)
3) go to a butcher, baker, fishmonger
4) practice neurobics inside the supermarket
5) shop without a list and pick what looks good for that day
6) have someone give you a shopping list of the food description, not the name
7) no more one stop shopping
during mealtimes
1) make it social
2) share a meal in silence
3) sit in different spots
4) hold your nose while eating
5) have everyone choose a menu item to prepare for dinner
6) recreate meals that are associated with a significant memory
7) introduce novelty
8) enhance the sensory environment
9) try a new cuisine... like my bff's (kerry) original plan!
10) identify food only by smell, taste, and touch
11) blind wine tasting
12) cook from scratch
13) have a sexy meal
for leisure
1) go to new place and see new faces
2) go camping
3) community project... like the census!
4) do something you normally do not do on vacation
5) be creative
6) random joy ride
7) art project... like jen's vision board!
8) improv
9) learn sign language... like kerry!
10) play the "10 things" game (10 things you can do with an object)
11) play "name that sound"
12) vary exercise by doing it outdoors
13) go to a park
14) start a new hobby
15) grow a garden
all right, so some of these ideas are peculiar and lame. nonetheless, i need all the help i can to remember things. hopefully i will remember to incorporate a few of the suggestions ever so often.
I Suck At Scheduling A Census Employment Test
a few days ago, my friend (hot amy) first notified me about a possible part-time gig for the upcoming 2010 census. basically, the gig is a census taker. according to the job description, the community serving census taker visits residences with a small hand held computing device to verify address lists. the job sounds easy, right?
now, i was not looking for a part-time job or anything. hot amy seemed to be promoting the opportunity and naturally i humored her by agreeing to partake in the census fun. plus, i figured the census would be something similar to the time hot amy and i trekked all over boston taking pictures of cows during the cow parade for my friend (andrea)... because at the time, hot amy and i both worked in town.
needless to say, the cow parade excursion was fun. hot amy and i did not kill each other after the excursion, so i would say it was a success. incidentally, the cow parade was the first time i really got to know hot amy. before then, i simply knew her as karen's "fringe oddball friend" who i would occasionally see and who would not say much to me at all. i think her boyfriend at the time said more to me than she did. interestingly enough, i believe she had the "hot" moniker back then because i think my friend (garv) had already met her by then.
for anyone curious, the cow parade is an event whereby local artists create cow statues and randomly scatter them throughout boston. afterwards, the cows are auctioned off for charity. andrea simply wanted pictures of all the cows.
regardless, i figured this census gig would be like the cow parade... except this time we'd get paid for keeping each other company and hanging out. the first step, however, in the application process was to schedule a census employment test.
now, i suck at scheduling a census employment test. apparently, the test is supposed to make sure you have the mad skills to be a census taker. (i am already sensing another possible wagered competition on who gets the better score on the test.) as hot amy and i wanted to take the test at the same time, i contacted the census to set it up so that we could take the employment test together.
the exam scheduler (lydell) at the census office in new bedford must have thought i was crazy because i kept having to call him back to tell him if a particular date for the exam he suggested worked for both hot amy and i. lydell even gave me some ribbing about how many women's phone numbers i have in my cell phone because i took quite a while to scroll through my cell phone's address book to get hot amy's phone number. (i needed to provide lydell with her phone number for scheduling purposes.) for anyone curious, hot amy is under "h" in my cell phone... which i had forgotten when i was scrolling down the list.
when all was said and done, lydell was kind enough to schedule the exam for both hot amy and i in quincy... at the thomas crane public library. so finally... 2010 census... here we come!
now, i was not looking for a part-time job or anything. hot amy seemed to be promoting the opportunity and naturally i humored her by agreeing to partake in the census fun. plus, i figured the census would be something similar to the time hot amy and i trekked all over boston taking pictures of cows during the cow parade for my friend (andrea)... because at the time, hot amy and i both worked in town.
needless to say, the cow parade excursion was fun. hot amy and i did not kill each other after the excursion, so i would say it was a success. incidentally, the cow parade was the first time i really got to know hot amy. before then, i simply knew her as karen's "fringe oddball friend" who i would occasionally see and who would not say much to me at all. i think her boyfriend at the time said more to me than she did. interestingly enough, i believe she had the "hot" moniker back then because i think my friend (garv) had already met her by then.
for anyone curious, the cow parade is an event whereby local artists create cow statues and randomly scatter them throughout boston. afterwards, the cows are auctioned off for charity. andrea simply wanted pictures of all the cows.
regardless, i figured this census gig would be like the cow parade... except this time we'd get paid for keeping each other company and hanging out. the first step, however, in the application process was to schedule a census employment test.
now, i suck at scheduling a census employment test. apparently, the test is supposed to make sure you have the mad skills to be a census taker. (i am already sensing another possible wagered competition on who gets the better score on the test.) as hot amy and i wanted to take the test at the same time, i contacted the census to set it up so that we could take the employment test together.
the exam scheduler (lydell) at the census office in new bedford must have thought i was crazy because i kept having to call him back to tell him if a particular date for the exam he suggested worked for both hot amy and i. lydell even gave me some ribbing about how many women's phone numbers i have in my cell phone because i took quite a while to scroll through my cell phone's address book to get hot amy's phone number. (i needed to provide lydell with her phone number for scheduling purposes.) for anyone curious, hot amy is under "h" in my cell phone... which i had forgotten when i was scrolling down the list.
when all was said and done, lydell was kind enough to schedule the exam for both hot amy and i in quincy... at the thomas crane public library. so finally... 2010 census... here we come!
I Suck At Lost
tonight was the debut of one of the best shows currently on television: lost. unfortunately, i suck at lost. last season (season 4) seems like a blur to me, so remembering intriguing plot lines and whatnot may be a little difficult. luckily, i was able to watch lost with my friends (marc and kelley). after all, in addition to being the debut of lost, tonight happens to be prince spaghetti wednesday... my normal day for hanging out with marc and kelley.
sadly, this will be our last wednesday get-together for awhile. karen will be teaching a course at simmons with my friend (hot amy) on wednesdays starting next week. as well, marc will be taking classes... also on wednesdays. so instead of prince spaghetti wednesdays, we will now be having prince spaghetti thursdays for the time being. (prince spaghetti thursdays just does not have the same ring to it. perhaps i will need to rename that.) as much as i like the wednesday get-togethers because it breaks up the week up, it probably is just as well that we meet on thursdays because lost is on late wednesday nights. so karen and i wouldn't be getting home till much later... and karen unfortunately requires a lot of sleep. i, on the other hand, can function fairly well with little sleep. heck, i'm up right now blogging.
anyway, tonight marc made a chicken bean chili dish. i believe the recipe came from cooking light. the meal, as usual, was very delicious. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) i felt bad that marc and kelley had us over tonight because marc was not feeling too well. hopefully he will get well soon.
in addition to the great meal... and the debut of lost... we were also able to watch a couple of episodes of the world's greatest tv show: buffy the vampire slayer. we watched "amends" about angel, his past, and the first evil; and "gingerbread" about a hansel and gretel demon. sadly, i forgot about the gingerbread episode. i remember bits and pieces, like amy turning into a mouse and the gingerbread demon getting skewered, but other bits and pieces i forgot about... like willow's mom. so i guess you could say that of the two episodes, "amends" was my favorite. and really, what's not to like about the episode... except seeing angel with an awful looking mustache and long hair.
needless to say, i had a good time tonight. good food. buffy. lost. we even figured out tonight that all of us can sound like the desmond character from lost. for anyone curious, desmond is the survivor who was in the scottish army... and the monkhood for awhile. in addition to using the term "brother" a lot (think scottish accent... like "brutha"), he refers to the constant love of his life "penny" (or "pennay"... again think scottish accent).
so in true silliness with our bad scottish accents... kelley became "kellay"... i became "mikay"... marc became "markay"... and karen became "karenay". and the meal we had for the night... "chil-ay". yes, it was silly... but fun nonetheless.
sadly, this will be our last wednesday get-together for awhile. karen will be teaching a course at simmons with my friend (hot amy) on wednesdays starting next week. as well, marc will be taking classes... also on wednesdays. so instead of prince spaghetti wednesdays, we will now be having prince spaghetti thursdays for the time being. (prince spaghetti thursdays just does not have the same ring to it. perhaps i will need to rename that.) as much as i like the wednesday get-togethers because it breaks up the week up, it probably is just as well that we meet on thursdays because lost is on late wednesday nights. so karen and i wouldn't be getting home till much later... and karen unfortunately requires a lot of sleep. i, on the other hand, can function fairly well with little sleep. heck, i'm up right now blogging.
anyway, tonight marc made a chicken bean chili dish. i believe the recipe came from cooking light. the meal, as usual, was very delicious. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) i felt bad that marc and kelley had us over tonight because marc was not feeling too well. hopefully he will get well soon.
in addition to the great meal... and the debut of lost... we were also able to watch a couple of episodes of the world's greatest tv show: buffy the vampire slayer. we watched "amends" about angel, his past, and the first evil; and "gingerbread" about a hansel and gretel demon. sadly, i forgot about the gingerbread episode. i remember bits and pieces, like amy turning into a mouse and the gingerbread demon getting skewered, but other bits and pieces i forgot about... like willow's mom. so i guess you could say that of the two episodes, "amends" was my favorite. and really, what's not to like about the episode... except seeing angel with an awful looking mustache and long hair.
needless to say, i had a good time tonight. good food. buffy. lost. we even figured out tonight that all of us can sound like the desmond character from lost. for anyone curious, desmond is the survivor who was in the scottish army... and the monkhood for awhile. in addition to using the term "brother" a lot (think scottish accent... like "brutha"), he refers to the constant love of his life "penny" (or "pennay"... again think scottish accent).
so in true silliness with our bad scottish accents... kelley became "kellay"... i became "mikay"... marc became "markay"... and karen became "karenay". and the meal we had for the night... "chil-ay". yes, it was silly... but fun nonetheless.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
I Suck At Presidential Inaugurations
wherever you go today, the big news around the united states is the presidential inauguration of this country's 44th president, barack obama. too bad i suck at presidential inaugurations.
i have never watched any presidential inauguration. the closest thing i have ever seen of a presidential inauguration is a snippet from john f kennedy telling americans to "ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country". today was no exception.
the historical significance of barack obama becoming this country's first african-american president is not lost on me. this country has definitely come a long way in terms of racial equality.
today, it seems like everyone i know (including everyone at work) was tuning in to watch the inaugural address. i almost feel bad for barack obama because everyone is expecting him to turn things around for this country after years and years of turmoil left behind from the previous administration. it is as though barack obama is america's savior. hopefully, his plans to lead this country will work out. they don't say the presidential position is full of pressure for nothing.
i almost wish i had watched the inauguration... not because of the address... more for seeing aretha franklin sing "my country 'tis of thee". aretha franklin may be the queen of soul, but i heard she may well be the pauper of fashion with her bow-shaped hat. apparently, the hat is customized with swarovski crystals and is created by mr. song millinery in detroit.
anyway, hopefully the fervor of the inauguration was worth it. for the life of me, i still don't understand why some people are hysterically crying over the inauguration. i sometimes wonder if those are the same people at the concerts who are crying hysterically, thinking the song is about them. oh well... i guess that is why i suck at presidential inaugurations.
i have never watched any presidential inauguration. the closest thing i have ever seen of a presidential inauguration is a snippet from john f kennedy telling americans to "ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country". today was no exception.
the historical significance of barack obama becoming this country's first african-american president is not lost on me. this country has definitely come a long way in terms of racial equality.
today, it seems like everyone i know (including everyone at work) was tuning in to watch the inaugural address. i almost feel bad for barack obama because everyone is expecting him to turn things around for this country after years and years of turmoil left behind from the previous administration. it is as though barack obama is america's savior. hopefully, his plans to lead this country will work out. they don't say the presidential position is full of pressure for nothing.
i almost wish i had watched the inauguration... not because of the address... more for seeing aretha franklin sing "my country 'tis of thee". aretha franklin may be the queen of soul, but i heard she may well be the pauper of fashion with her bow-shaped hat. apparently, the hat is customized with swarovski crystals and is created by mr. song millinery in detroit.
anyway, hopefully the fervor of the inauguration was worth it. for the life of me, i still don't understand why some people are hysterically crying over the inauguration. i sometimes wonder if those are the same people at the concerts who are crying hysterically, thinking the song is about them. oh well... i guess that is why i suck at presidential inaugurations.
Monday, January 19, 2009
I Suck At Losing Electricity
today we honor one of the greatest (if not the greatest) civil rights leaders in the united states... martin luther king jr... and what better way to kick off the day than to lose electricity. i definitely suck at losing electricity.
due to the snow storm, karen and i woke up this morning with no electricity in the house. i suppose waking up with no power beats waking up to the sounds of gushing water from a broken water pipe. so i guess that's a positive.
the power, however, thankfully resumed just in time for me to start working... and also thankfully before the battery in our security system died... and also thankfully before the battery in our smoke and carbon monoxide alarms died. (the low battery warnings were starting to worry me at one point.)
when i was in bed waiting for the power to come back on... i started to think about last year. it was one year ago on this very day that i organized a photo scavenger hunt with some of my friends (jen, kerry, hot amy, andrea, and terri), my favorite sister-in-law (janine), my favorite brother-in-law (pj) and karen. the only reason why i happen to remember this date is because at the time, i purposely selected january 19th as it was one month after my birthday.
(pictured below are karen, andrea, janine, and pj crossing the street duckling style.)
for anyone curious, the team above (called didgi's devils... as led by team captain, andrea) won the photo scavenger hunt. of course, given that the other team (known as 2-pt muffins... as led by jen) had hot amy who is genetically predisposed to losing, as well as her sister, terri... the chances were stacked against the 2-pt muffin team.
anyway, i think everyone enjoyed the event. at the time, the photo scavenger hunt was something new and different. since that event, i have thought about organizing another photo scavenger hunt... just this time with a few more enhancements to make things go smoother. (tallying up the points at the end took quite some time.) i sometimes get torn between trying to duplicate the success of the event again or simply letting last year be a one-time thing. like most things these days since my son (braden) passed away, my desire and motivation for organizing a scavenger hunt again generally changes with my moods.
needless to say, one year ago today was definitely a simpler time. as i was still lacking any motivation tonight, karen and i went out for dinner at "not your average joes" located in norwell.
as usual, the food there was delicious. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) i had the special cranberry glazed chicken. the only drawback of "not your average joes" is that the portions are smaller now. i remember the last time i ordered the same dish: the pieces of chicken were huge; there were a ton of butternut squash; and there were plenty of asparagus. (and yes, my urine did smell afterwards.) in comparison, the meal tonight looked tiny, but still delicious. i attribute the smaller portion to our flailing economy.
regardless, not having to make dinner was probably what i needed today. plus, going to not your average joes allowed karen and i to use the free gift card that we received for... oddly enough... getting ourselves a gift card to the restaurant during the holidays. so all in all, it was a good meal.
due to the snow storm, karen and i woke up this morning with no electricity in the house. i suppose waking up with no power beats waking up to the sounds of gushing water from a broken water pipe. so i guess that's a positive.
the power, however, thankfully resumed just in time for me to start working... and also thankfully before the battery in our security system died... and also thankfully before the battery in our smoke and carbon monoxide alarms died. (the low battery warnings were starting to worry me at one point.)
when i was in bed waiting for the power to come back on... i started to think about last year. it was one year ago on this very day that i organized a photo scavenger hunt with some of my friends (jen, kerry, hot amy, andrea, and terri), my favorite sister-in-law (janine), my favorite brother-in-law (pj) and karen. the only reason why i happen to remember this date is because at the time, i purposely selected january 19th as it was one month after my birthday.
(pictured below are karen, andrea, janine, and pj crossing the street duckling style.)
for anyone curious, the team above (called didgi's devils... as led by team captain, andrea) won the photo scavenger hunt. of course, given that the other team (known as 2-pt muffins... as led by jen) had hot amy who is genetically predisposed to losing, as well as her sister, terri... the chances were stacked against the 2-pt muffin team.
anyway, i think everyone enjoyed the event. at the time, the photo scavenger hunt was something new and different. since that event, i have thought about organizing another photo scavenger hunt... just this time with a few more enhancements to make things go smoother. (tallying up the points at the end took quite some time.) i sometimes get torn between trying to duplicate the success of the event again or simply letting last year be a one-time thing. like most things these days since my son (braden) passed away, my desire and motivation for organizing a scavenger hunt again generally changes with my moods.
needless to say, one year ago today was definitely a simpler time. as i was still lacking any motivation tonight, karen and i went out for dinner at "not your average joes" located in norwell.
as usual, the food there was delicious. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) i had the special cranberry glazed chicken. the only drawback of "not your average joes" is that the portions are smaller now. i remember the last time i ordered the same dish: the pieces of chicken were huge; there were a ton of butternut squash; and there were plenty of asparagus. (and yes, my urine did smell afterwards.) in comparison, the meal tonight looked tiny, but still delicious. i attribute the smaller portion to our flailing economy.
regardless, not having to make dinner was probably what i needed today. plus, going to not your average joes allowed karen and i to use the free gift card that we received for... oddly enough... getting ourselves a gift card to the restaurant during the holidays. so all in all, it was a good meal.
I Suck At Chinese New Year
it's good to know that some things haven't changed in 2009. after a victorious night of wii bowling against my friend (hot amy), karen and i woke up yesterday morning to the sound of running water. the problem: the running water was coming from our crawl space.
needless to say, either a water pipe burst or one of the joints to the water pipe broke overnight. i really could not diagnose the problem as everything in the crawlspace was simply wet. the broken water pipes, however, seem to be coming from the bathroom on our first floor. sadly, this may expedite our first floor bathroom renovation.
the only good news, however, is that i was anal enough during the times i was working on the plumbing of the house to install shut off valves at every room. so rather than having to shut off the water to the entire house, i simply shut off the water to the first floor bathroom. (and for anyone curious, the pipe that burst... i did not work on because karen and i had always envisioned redoing that bathroom. so rather than change the plumbing way back when for that bathroom, i figured i'd change the plumbing when i worked on renovating the bathroom.)
anyway, the broken pipe is obviously another headache to worry about. luckily, i can put off worrying about it until karen and i figure out exactly what we want to do with the bathroom layout.
speaking of luck, last night karen and i went to my parents for chinese new year. too bad i suck at chinese new year. (for anyone curious, i believe this year is the year of the ox.) in addition to karen and i, my parents invited my cousin (betty), her son (marvin), and her friend (jane) over for a pre-chinese new year dinner. chinese new year actually falls on the 26th of this month this year.
needless to say, my parents made a lot of food as usual. the food was actually very good. typically, the pre-chinese new year dinner that my parents have is more chinese in that the food is a lot more... different (involving things like tofu, seaweed, bamboo, etc.). my parents generally make food that is less different for when they invite karen's family over.
(pictured below is my dad... doing his kojak impersonation as he told us.)
anyway, it was a nice night. marvin and i got to hear stories about my dad. apparently, my dad claims that he used to be referred to as "the king of dog racing" in chinatown during his younger days because he could pick the dog race winners with ease. i believe the story went along the lines that when my father was first exposed to dog racing, my dad asked some guy to make a bet whereby the second place finisher in a particular race was dog #7. he apparently told his friend that he thought dogs #8 and #3 would finish first and third respectively, but he did not care if his friend placed those bets. apparently, those three dogs finished as my father had predicted. had my father placed bets on those three finishes, he supposedly would have won a lot of money because the winning dog was a long shot. i guess ever since then, my father was consulted for dog racing.
whether the story is true or not, i do not know. my dad believed that he was always lucky... in that he would always find random money, pick horse or dog racing winners, win at mahjong or whatever. as he was telling the story, i actually started to think about my friend (aimee) who for some reason always thought that i was lucky. perhaps aimee sees something in me that i do not. if i were anything like my father, i guess i could also be "the king of dog racing". if my father's stories are true, i sometimes wish his luck would rub off on me... especially now since my son (braden) passed away. things just haven't seemed to go according to plan since braden left.
who knows? maybe with the chinese new year my luck will change for the better. i can only hope.
needless to say, either a water pipe burst or one of the joints to the water pipe broke overnight. i really could not diagnose the problem as everything in the crawlspace was simply wet. the broken water pipes, however, seem to be coming from the bathroom on our first floor. sadly, this may expedite our first floor bathroom renovation.
the only good news, however, is that i was anal enough during the times i was working on the plumbing of the house to install shut off valves at every room. so rather than having to shut off the water to the entire house, i simply shut off the water to the first floor bathroom. (and for anyone curious, the pipe that burst... i did not work on because karen and i had always envisioned redoing that bathroom. so rather than change the plumbing way back when for that bathroom, i figured i'd change the plumbing when i worked on renovating the bathroom.)
anyway, the broken pipe is obviously another headache to worry about. luckily, i can put off worrying about it until karen and i figure out exactly what we want to do with the bathroom layout.
speaking of luck, last night karen and i went to my parents for chinese new year. too bad i suck at chinese new year. (for anyone curious, i believe this year is the year of the ox.) in addition to karen and i, my parents invited my cousin (betty), her son (marvin), and her friend (jane) over for a pre-chinese new year dinner. chinese new year actually falls on the 26th of this month this year.
needless to say, my parents made a lot of food as usual. the food was actually very good. typically, the pre-chinese new year dinner that my parents have is more chinese in that the food is a lot more... different (involving things like tofu, seaweed, bamboo, etc.). my parents generally make food that is less different for when they invite karen's family over.
(pictured below is my dad... doing his kojak impersonation as he told us.)
anyway, it was a nice night. marvin and i got to hear stories about my dad. apparently, my dad claims that he used to be referred to as "the king of dog racing" in chinatown during his younger days because he could pick the dog race winners with ease. i believe the story went along the lines that when my father was first exposed to dog racing, my dad asked some guy to make a bet whereby the second place finisher in a particular race was dog #7. he apparently told his friend that he thought dogs #8 and #3 would finish first and third respectively, but he did not care if his friend placed those bets. apparently, those three dogs finished as my father had predicted. had my father placed bets on those three finishes, he supposedly would have won a lot of money because the winning dog was a long shot. i guess ever since then, my father was consulted for dog racing.
whether the story is true or not, i do not know. my dad believed that he was always lucky... in that he would always find random money, pick horse or dog racing winners, win at mahjong or whatever. as he was telling the story, i actually started to think about my friend (aimee) who for some reason always thought that i was lucky. perhaps aimee sees something in me that i do not. if i were anything like my father, i guess i could also be "the king of dog racing". if my father's stories are true, i sometimes wish his luck would rub off on me... especially now since my son (braden) passed away. things just haven't seemed to go according to plan since braden left.
who knows? maybe with the chinese new year my luck will change for the better. i can only hope.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
I Suck At Wii Bowling
saturday night was my big showdown with my friend (hot amy). for anyone curious, hot amy and i have been having competitive wagers against one another. it all started with the tennis challenge in which i defeated her in the sport she played in high school... tennis. (i had never played competitive tennis... unless you consider that one time i played with my ex-girlfriend who i lovingly call "the scourge of evil".)
anyway, this time the challenge was wii bowling. hot amy received the wii for christmas. naturally, she challenged me to wii bowling as it was a game that she was very good at. of course, i don't own a wii. i still have the gamer mentality that the wii is not really a gaming console, and has thus refused to get one. nonetheless, i agreed to the challenge. the wager: homemade pizza.
in all honesty, i figured this would be the challenge that i would finally lose to hot amy. after all, i don't own the wii and i am terrible at real bowling. so things were looking pretty good in 2009 for hot amy. even my friend (jen) thought that this would be the challenge that i would lose because jen has seen hot amy play wii bowling and knows how good she is at it. jen, by the way, apparently knows "the secret" to wii bowling.
well, karen and i invited a bunch of our friends (jen, kerry, carlos, and hot amy), my favorite sister-in-law (janine), my favorite brother-in-law (pj) and my nephew (pj) over to witness the inevitable triumph of hot amy.
(the video below is of hot amy wii bowling while karen and jen watch.)
unfortunately for hot amy, things didn't go quite according to plan. whether it was the sensei-student training that i had with hot amy's father earlier or the home field advantage of having the bowling challenge at our place... the stars were simply aligned in my favor on saturday night. hot amy probably had her worst bowling string while i had a fairly decent one. in the end, i was victorious.
it simply was not a good night for hot amy. she subsequently lost the other games against me as well that night. carlos, on the other hand, whupped my butt in boxing. (i still think it would be cool to have a wii boxing tournament... but that's just me. boxing on wii, by the way... very tiring and difficult.)
anyway, looking back... i almost feel guilty for defeating hot amy... again. i'm sure i'll get over the guilt though, because i'm sure the homemade pizza will taste really good. better luck next time, hot amy!
anyway, this time the challenge was wii bowling. hot amy received the wii for christmas. naturally, she challenged me to wii bowling as it was a game that she was very good at. of course, i don't own a wii. i still have the gamer mentality that the wii is not really a gaming console, and has thus refused to get one. nonetheless, i agreed to the challenge. the wager: homemade pizza.
in all honesty, i figured this would be the challenge that i would finally lose to hot amy. after all, i don't own the wii and i am terrible at real bowling. so things were looking pretty good in 2009 for hot amy. even my friend (jen) thought that this would be the challenge that i would lose because jen has seen hot amy play wii bowling and knows how good she is at it. jen, by the way, apparently knows "the secret" to wii bowling.
well, karen and i invited a bunch of our friends (jen, kerry, carlos, and hot amy), my favorite sister-in-law (janine), my favorite brother-in-law (pj) and my nephew (pj) over to witness the inevitable triumph of hot amy.
(the video below is of hot amy wii bowling while karen and jen watch.)
unfortunately for hot amy, things didn't go quite according to plan. whether it was the sensei-student training that i had with hot amy's father earlier or the home field advantage of having the bowling challenge at our place... the stars were simply aligned in my favor on saturday night. hot amy probably had her worst bowling string while i had a fairly decent one. in the end, i was victorious.
it simply was not a good night for hot amy. she subsequently lost the other games against me as well that night. carlos, on the other hand, whupped my butt in boxing. (i still think it would be cool to have a wii boxing tournament... but that's just me. boxing on wii, by the way... very tiring and difficult.)
anyway, looking back... i almost feel guilty for defeating hot amy... again. i'm sure i'll get over the guilt though, because i'm sure the homemade pizza will taste really good. better luck next time, hot amy!
I Suck At Celebrating Karen's Grandfather's Birthday
after my mac n' cheese meal courtesy of my friend (hot amy), karen and i went to karen's cousin's (kathy) place located in whitman.
kathy was hosting a party to celebrate karen's grandfather's 96th birthday. too bad i suck at celebrating karen's grandfather's birthday. the party was originally scheduled for sunday of last week. due to the snow, the party was then rescheduled for this sunday. with the upcoming snow again, the party was quickly changed to saturday at the last moment (the last minute being on saturday morning when we were visiting them).
needless to say, the quick change in plans stressed karen out immensely because we were having people over for the wii bowling challenge that night. nonetheless, we were able to shift things around to be able to attend the birthday party for her grandfather.
(pictured below are karen's grandmother and grandfather.)
karen's grandfather is amazing. aside from being 96, he vividly remembers and tells stories about his world war 2 days (and his days of working on the fish pier too). i think one of his keys to living to 96 is whiskey. karen's grandfather likes the highball, which is whiskey and ginger ale. karen's grandfather is also stubborn too, so that may help. he is predicting that he will live at least another ten years.
anyway, this is karen's father's father. it is unfortunate that we do not see that side of the family that often. they are quite fun and boisterous... and they do enjoy a good party. i sometimes even get my bottom smacked by one of the cousins. (okay, so maybe it was once.)
although we could not stay long, i think karen enjoyed herself. i think the fact that we had visited her grandparents in the morning that day also helped her feel a little better. her grandparents asked if we could come over to help them out with a few things in the morning. they had a list of seven items, which included hooking up two televisions... and naturally, since i have the asian gene... i get called in for those type of electronic duties.
all in all, i think karen's grandfather had a good birthday. happy birthday! if i had a highball in my hand, i would toast to another ten years.
kathy was hosting a party to celebrate karen's grandfather's 96th birthday. too bad i suck at celebrating karen's grandfather's birthday. the party was originally scheduled for sunday of last week. due to the snow, the party was then rescheduled for this sunday. with the upcoming snow again, the party was quickly changed to saturday at the last moment (the last minute being on saturday morning when we were visiting them).
needless to say, the quick change in plans stressed karen out immensely because we were having people over for the wii bowling challenge that night. nonetheless, we were able to shift things around to be able to attend the birthday party for her grandfather.
(pictured below are karen's grandmother and grandfather.)
karen's grandfather is amazing. aside from being 96, he vividly remembers and tells stories about his world war 2 days (and his days of working on the fish pier too). i think one of his keys to living to 96 is whiskey. karen's grandfather likes the highball, which is whiskey and ginger ale. karen's grandfather is also stubborn too, so that may help. he is predicting that he will live at least another ten years.
anyway, this is karen's father's father. it is unfortunate that we do not see that side of the family that often. they are quite fun and boisterous... and they do enjoy a good party. i sometimes even get my bottom smacked by one of the cousins. (okay, so maybe it was once.)
although we could not stay long, i think karen enjoyed herself. i think the fact that we had visited her grandparents in the morning that day also helped her feel a little better. her grandparents asked if we could come over to help them out with a few things in the morning. they had a list of seven items, which included hooking up two televisions... and naturally, since i have the asian gene... i get called in for those type of electronic duties.
all in all, i think karen's grandfather had a good birthday. happy birthday! if i had a highball in my hand, i would toast to another ten years.
I Suck At Making Apple Crisp
yesterday, i did something that i hardly ever do... bake.
my friend (hot amy) asked if i would be willing to make some apple crisp. apparently, hot amy is a big fan of apple crisp... and really, what is there not to like about all that sugary goodness? too bad i suck at making apple crisp.
anyway, hot amy was finally making the mac 'n cheese meal that was wagered during my billiards challenge back in august. for anyone curious, that was the challenge where i had to compete against her champion (carlos) in a game of billiards. i don't think carlos got anything out of the deal, other than the $150 that i paid him to lose. just kidding.
needless to say, hot amy thought the apple crisp would go well with the mac 'n cheese meal. out of the kindness of my heart, i figured making the apple crisp is the least i could do... since she is genetically predisposed to losing wagers. (perhaps my guilt of constantly winning is finally getting to me.)
i have never made apple crisp. surprisingly, the apple crisp was not that hard to make. the hardest part (aside from finding a recipe that sounded good) is peeling the apples. the recipe i used is called "olga's giant apple crisp" and it comes from emeril lagasse... bam!
(pictured below is hot amy with a bowl of apple crisp.)
anyway, i think everyone (hot amy, hot amy's parents, karen and i) enjoyed the apple crisp. little did hot amy know, i placed laxatives in the apple crisp so that she would lose at the upcoming wii bowling wager that night. just kidding.
if anyone is curious, hot amy makes good mac 'n cheese. the mac n' cheese was worth the five month wait. although i suppose if you asked her dad, the mac 'n cheese was just ok. her father likes mac 'n cheese with a little more cheese. (also for anyone curious, hot amy's father... very good at wii bowling. i got a little sensei-student training in the ways of wii bowling while karen and hot amy worked on their upcoming course that they are teaching at simmons.)
needless to say, the mac 'n cheese meal and the wii bowling training were great. i hope everyone liked the apple crisp too.
my friend (hot amy) asked if i would be willing to make some apple crisp. apparently, hot amy is a big fan of apple crisp... and really, what is there not to like about all that sugary goodness? too bad i suck at making apple crisp.
anyway, hot amy was finally making the mac 'n cheese meal that was wagered during my billiards challenge back in august. for anyone curious, that was the challenge where i had to compete against her champion (carlos) in a game of billiards. i don't think carlos got anything out of the deal, other than the $150 that i paid him to lose. just kidding.
needless to say, hot amy thought the apple crisp would go well with the mac 'n cheese meal. out of the kindness of my heart, i figured making the apple crisp is the least i could do... since she is genetically predisposed to losing wagers. (perhaps my guilt of constantly winning is finally getting to me.)
i have never made apple crisp. surprisingly, the apple crisp was not that hard to make. the hardest part (aside from finding a recipe that sounded good) is peeling the apples. the recipe i used is called "olga's giant apple crisp" and it comes from emeril lagasse... bam!
(pictured below is hot amy with a bowl of apple crisp.)
anyway, i think everyone (hot amy, hot amy's parents, karen and i) enjoyed the apple crisp. little did hot amy know, i placed laxatives in the apple crisp so that she would lose at the upcoming wii bowling wager that night. just kidding.
if anyone is curious, hot amy makes good mac 'n cheese. the mac n' cheese was worth the five month wait. although i suppose if you asked her dad, the mac 'n cheese was just ok. her father likes mac 'n cheese with a little more cheese. (also for anyone curious, hot amy's father... very good at wii bowling. i got a little sensei-student training in the ways of wii bowling while karen and hot amy worked on their upcoming course that they are teaching at simmons.)
needless to say, the mac 'n cheese meal and the wii bowling training were great. i hope everyone liked the apple crisp too.
I Suck At Donating
friday night, karen and i hung out with our friends (cass, ellen, marc, kelley, garv, and leeann). we gathered at cass and ellen's to finish exchanging birthday presents as some of the presents to be exchanged did not arrive before our dinner outing at vinny t's in dedham. (for anyone curious, i got veronica mars season 3... yay!)
in addition to exchanging the birthday presents, the eight of us were to choose a worthy cause to donate to this year. this actually was the first year that all of us were going to make a donation as a group.
i am not sure about when we started doing this... but in the past, rather than getting a present for each and every person in our circle of friends, we decided to have a secret santa. that way, each of us would only have to get one present for one other person. the present would generally be a nicer present as well because the secret santa would only have to focus on getting presents for that one person rather than getting presents for multiple people. the secret santa proved to be more cost-efffective way of exchanging presents among my circle of friends... and i think people generally enjoyed it.
over the years, some other friends participated in the secret santa (some other friends didn't). the core, however, always remained the same. the secret santa was a good tool that allowed karen and i to hang out with our friends and watch as they enjoy the holiday season.
this year... for 2008... we decided to mix things up a little. i think marc proposed the original idea of donating to a worthy cause because he already had too much stuff and didn't need any more... stuff. naturally, all of us figured we'd give it a try.
for me, i was somewhat glad that marc proposed the idea to forgo the secret santa in favor of making a donation this year. having lost my son (braden) a little over four months ago, i really was not in the holiday spirit to receive gifts. don't get me wrong. i am thankful to have received presents from all my friends and family. i was just a little lackluster this holiday season (and if i appeared so, i do apologize). i will use the common phrase used after getting dumped: "it's not you, it's me."
needless to say, everyone was on board for donating. unfortunately, i suck at donating. technically, all of us suck at donating because we forgot to make the donation on friday. cass and ellen were looking into having their employers make a matching contribution with our donation. so, we never really chose a specific cause to donate to. but, it's still in the works.
plus, we were somewhat distracted by the game "apples to apples"... takeout from "the schoolhouse pizza" in quincy... and perhaps a few shots made by my drinking buddy (kelley). for anyone curious, the schoolhouse was good. (i had what was called a "bully" which was a steak sandwich. if they had it, i would have preferred a guidance counselor... hold the nuts... just kidding.)
anyway, it was a good to hang out with everyone again.
in addition to exchanging the birthday presents, the eight of us were to choose a worthy cause to donate to this year. this actually was the first year that all of us were going to make a donation as a group.
i am not sure about when we started doing this... but in the past, rather than getting a present for each and every person in our circle of friends, we decided to have a secret santa. that way, each of us would only have to get one present for one other person. the present would generally be a nicer present as well because the secret santa would only have to focus on getting presents for that one person rather than getting presents for multiple people. the secret santa proved to be more cost-efffective way of exchanging presents among my circle of friends... and i think people generally enjoyed it.
over the years, some other friends participated in the secret santa (some other friends didn't). the core, however, always remained the same. the secret santa was a good tool that allowed karen and i to hang out with our friends and watch as they enjoy the holiday season.
this year... for 2008... we decided to mix things up a little. i think marc proposed the original idea of donating to a worthy cause because he already had too much stuff and didn't need any more... stuff. naturally, all of us figured we'd give it a try.
for me, i was somewhat glad that marc proposed the idea to forgo the secret santa in favor of making a donation this year. having lost my son (braden) a little over four months ago, i really was not in the holiday spirit to receive gifts. don't get me wrong. i am thankful to have received presents from all my friends and family. i was just a little lackluster this holiday season (and if i appeared so, i do apologize). i will use the common phrase used after getting dumped: "it's not you, it's me."
needless to say, everyone was on board for donating. unfortunately, i suck at donating. technically, all of us suck at donating because we forgot to make the donation on friday. cass and ellen were looking into having their employers make a matching contribution with our donation. so, we never really chose a specific cause to donate to. but, it's still in the works.
plus, we were somewhat distracted by the game "apples to apples"... takeout from "the schoolhouse pizza" in quincy... and perhaps a few shots made by my drinking buddy (kelley). for anyone curious, the schoolhouse was good. (i had what was called a "bully" which was a steak sandwich. if they had it, i would have preferred a guidance counselor... hold the nuts... just kidding.)
anyway, it was a good to hang out with everyone again.
Friday, January 16, 2009
I Suck At Casting
i keep meaning to post the actress i would cast to play my friend (dolores)... should there ever be a movie about dolores and the rest of us. since i keep forgetting, i guess you could say that i suck at casting.
for my choice, i am going with drew barrymore of "e.t." fame... and "charlie's angels"... and "the wedding singer" too. in my opinion, "the wedding singer" revived drew barrymore's career... lest anyone remembers the movie "poison ivy"? i sure do, and boy was it a terrible movie. (for anyone curious, alyssa milano starred in the equally awful sequel. and as another tidbit of trivia... alyssa milano has my birthday.)
(pictured below is drew barrymore as dolores.)
anyway, i actually think one of drew barrymore's greatest roles was in the movie "scream". of course, i may be biased because i enjoy the horror genre. "scream" was a great movie because it poked fun at classic horror mistakes made in horror films... while being a horror film itself. and as my bff (kerry) would be happy to hear, "scream" is somewhat responsible for the tv show: "dawson's creek". the writer of "scream" (kevin williamson) created "dawson's creek".
needless to say, i would cast drew barrymore as dolores.
for my choice, i am going with drew barrymore of "e.t." fame... and "charlie's angels"... and "the wedding singer" too. in my opinion, "the wedding singer" revived drew barrymore's career... lest anyone remembers the movie "poison ivy"? i sure do, and boy was it a terrible movie. (for anyone curious, alyssa milano starred in the equally awful sequel. and as another tidbit of trivia... alyssa milano has my birthday.)
(pictured below is drew barrymore as dolores.)
anyway, i actually think one of drew barrymore's greatest roles was in the movie "scream". of course, i may be biased because i enjoy the horror genre. "scream" was a great movie because it poked fun at classic horror mistakes made in horror films... while being a horror film itself. and as my bff (kerry) would be happy to hear, "scream" is somewhat responsible for the tv show: "dawson's creek". the writer of "scream" (kevin williamson) created "dawson's creek".
needless to say, i would cast drew barrymore as dolores.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
I Suck At The Cheesecake Factory
tonight, karen and i met up with our friends (hot amy, dolores, and loser tom) for dinner at the cheesecake factory located in braintree. too bad i suck at the cheesecake factory. i have not been to the cheesecake factory in quite some time (since august). in fact, i think the last time i was at the cheesecake factory was after my friend's (garv) wedding... the very wedding where i was out and about till the wee hours of early morning getting my inebriated friend (ron) home.
coincidentally, the last time i was at the cheesecake factory was also with dolores and hot amy... and the "yay breastfeeding" rally cry. apparently, the cheesecake factory seems to be the meeting place for dietitians (karen, hot amy, and dolores). (i have since found out that the reason the dietitians meet at the cheesecake factory is because hot amy loves the restaurant. all this time, i figured the restaurant was chosen because it was centrally located between the three of them.)
anyway, all of us were meeting to exchange christmas presents... as well as celebrate dolores's birthday. dolores's birthday is not until the 27th of this month... so before i forget... happy birthday dolores!
as usual, the food at the cheesecake factory was delicious. for anyone curious, i had the kobe burger... and i don't mean kobe in the "no means no" kobe bryant sense. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.)
it was good to see loser tom as well. loser tom is dolores's boyfriend. he's not really a loser. the moniker just stuck... in part because dolores had feared that all of us would think he was a loser when we first met him. dolores is funny that way. she tends to overthink a lot of things... like teaching. (she will also be teaching at simmons this semester.) i assume the overthinking is one of her quirks for being intelligent.
all in all, it was a good dinner. i think dolores had a good time, which is good considering the dinner was partly a celebration of her birthday. in fact, she mentioned that she always has a good laugh whenever she is with all of us.
among the topics of conversation: dolores's intimidating presence, turtle sex, tom going back to school, a genius, the reason why cities do not have a "j street", and hawaii... not necessarily in that order. so, it was a wide variety of topics. there were probably a bunch of other topics that i forgot to. i can only remember so many things... which reminds me... coincidentally, one of the other topics of conversation was memory and how babies learn things from all of their senses.
so naturally, in my attempt to help with my own memory, please do not be alarmed the next time i see you and i a) put your hand in my mouth and/or b) sniff all around you. apparently, the tactile and olfactory sense is supposed to help with memory... or so i have been told. i will have to put that to the test.
as a side note, in addition to dinner, i was able to get new lenses for my glasses. my other lenses were cracked (due to too many beer goggles i suppose). luckily, the lenscrafters in the south shore mall was not too far from the cheesecake factory. so maybe vision will help with my memory too...
coincidentally, the last time i was at the cheesecake factory was also with dolores and hot amy... and the "yay breastfeeding" rally cry. apparently, the cheesecake factory seems to be the meeting place for dietitians (karen, hot amy, and dolores). (i have since found out that the reason the dietitians meet at the cheesecake factory is because hot amy loves the restaurant. all this time, i figured the restaurant was chosen because it was centrally located between the three of them.)
anyway, all of us were meeting to exchange christmas presents... as well as celebrate dolores's birthday. dolores's birthday is not until the 27th of this month... so before i forget... happy birthday dolores!
as usual, the food at the cheesecake factory was delicious. for anyone curious, i had the kobe burger... and i don't mean kobe in the "no means no" kobe bryant sense. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.)
it was good to see loser tom as well. loser tom is dolores's boyfriend. he's not really a loser. the moniker just stuck... in part because dolores had feared that all of us would think he was a loser when we first met him. dolores is funny that way. she tends to overthink a lot of things... like teaching. (she will also be teaching at simmons this semester.) i assume the overthinking is one of her quirks for being intelligent.
all in all, it was a good dinner. i think dolores had a good time, which is good considering the dinner was partly a celebration of her birthday. in fact, she mentioned that she always has a good laugh whenever she is with all of us.
among the topics of conversation: dolores's intimidating presence, turtle sex, tom going back to school, a genius, the reason why cities do not have a "j street", and hawaii... not necessarily in that order. so, it was a wide variety of topics. there were probably a bunch of other topics that i forgot to. i can only remember so many things... which reminds me... coincidentally, one of the other topics of conversation was memory and how babies learn things from all of their senses.
so naturally, in my attempt to help with my own memory, please do not be alarmed the next time i see you and i a) put your hand in my mouth and/or b) sniff all around you. apparently, the tactile and olfactory sense is supposed to help with memory... or so i have been told. i will have to put that to the test.
as a side note, in addition to dinner, i was able to get new lenses for my glasses. my other lenses were cracked (due to too many beer goggles i suppose). luckily, the lenscrafters in the south shore mall was not too far from the cheesecake factory. so maybe vision will help with my memory too...
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
I Still Suck At Buffy The Vampire Slayer
tonight, karen and i hung out with my friends (marc and kelley). after all, wednesdays are prince spaghetti nights and we all know what happens on prince spaghetti nights. sadly, we will be needing to move our usual wednesday get together as karen will be teaching a course at simmons college with my friend (hot amy). as well, marc will be taking a course of his own on wednesdays. so, it all works out in the end.
anyway, marc was gracious enough to cook dinner tonight. he wanted to try out a new recipe... that recipe: sweet and sour chicken. i must say, the dish was good. i'm not a big fan of chinese food (probably because i have been spoiled by my mother), so for me to say the sweet and sour chicken was good... is good. besides, i typically enjoy everything marc makes. he will probably take offense to this comment, but marc is like the rachael ray within my circle of friends in that he can make a good meal within 30 minutes... just without the e.v.o.o. (marc would probably prefer tyler florence... his man-crush.)
regardless, the sweet and sour chicken was delicious. and as usual, we watched three more episodes of the greatest show ever: buffy the vampire slayer. (yes, i still suck at buffy the vampire slayer.) the three episodes from season 3 that we watched were: "revelations", "lovers walk", and "the wish".
all three episodes were great. "revelations" started the downward spiral for faith; "lovers walk" featured the return of a heartbroken spike; and "the wish" introduced the character anya, as well as the bizarro world featuring willow and xander as vampires.
of the three, my favorite episode was "lovers walk". what can i say... i sometimes enjoy the romantic aspect of certain shows. and as the character spike says: "I may be love's bitch, but at least I'm man enough to admit it." of course, spike also had a bunch of other great lines too... like "She wouldn't even kill me. She just left. She didn't even care enough to cut off my head or set me on fire. I mean, is that too much to ask? You know, some little sign that she cared?"
granted, the show came well after my ex-girlfriend whom i lovingly refer to as "the scourge of evil", but i remember feeling the same way when that relationship ended. perhaps my empathy with spike is why i enjoy that episode so much. who knows?
anyway, as usual it was great to hang out with marc and kelley. i had a lot of fun, especially when kelley had to shuffle to the dvd player to change discs. her foot apparently fell asleep. consequently, she had to shuffle herself to the dvd player like an old person who pooped in their pants. it was entertaining to watch... if only i had my camera.
speaking of kell, apparently she forgot to stir some cells or something. hopefully, tomorrow, the cells will be okay. those crazy scientists...
anyway, marc was gracious enough to cook dinner tonight. he wanted to try out a new recipe... that recipe: sweet and sour chicken. i must say, the dish was good. i'm not a big fan of chinese food (probably because i have been spoiled by my mother), so for me to say the sweet and sour chicken was good... is good. besides, i typically enjoy everything marc makes. he will probably take offense to this comment, but marc is like the rachael ray within my circle of friends in that he can make a good meal within 30 minutes... just without the e.v.o.o. (marc would probably prefer tyler florence... his man-crush.)
regardless, the sweet and sour chicken was delicious. and as usual, we watched three more episodes of the greatest show ever: buffy the vampire slayer. (yes, i still suck at buffy the vampire slayer.) the three episodes from season 3 that we watched were: "revelations", "lovers walk", and "the wish".
all three episodes were great. "revelations" started the downward spiral for faith; "lovers walk" featured the return of a heartbroken spike; and "the wish" introduced the character anya, as well as the bizarro world featuring willow and xander as vampires.
of the three, my favorite episode was "lovers walk". what can i say... i sometimes enjoy the romantic aspect of certain shows. and as the character spike says: "I may be love's bitch, but at least I'm man enough to admit it." of course, spike also had a bunch of other great lines too... like "She wouldn't even kill me. She just left. She didn't even care enough to cut off my head or set me on fire. I mean, is that too much to ask? You know, some little sign that she cared?"
granted, the show came well after my ex-girlfriend whom i lovingly refer to as "the scourge of evil", but i remember feeling the same way when that relationship ended. perhaps my empathy with spike is why i enjoy that episode so much. who knows?
anyway, as usual it was great to hang out with marc and kelley. i had a lot of fun, especially when kelley had to shuffle to the dvd player to change discs. her foot apparently fell asleep. consequently, she had to shuffle herself to the dvd player like an old person who pooped in their pants. it was entertaining to watch... if only i had my camera.
speaking of kell, apparently she forgot to stir some cells or something. hopefully, tomorrow, the cells will be okay. those crazy scientists...
I Suck At Eye Appointments
today, i had an eye appointment. now, i suck at eye appointments. according to my records, i have not had an eye appointment since 2006. (i believe the recommended time frame for eye appointments is every two years according to my optometrist.) it being 2009, i was due for an eye appointment. plus, karen has been nudging me to get an eye exam. awhile ago, the lenses in my glasses started to crack. (it must be the heat from my piercing eyes... or possibly the multiple hits to my head from working on the house.) concerned, karen wanted me to get an eye exam so that i could get a prescription for new lenses.
because it has been awhile since my last eye appointment, the only thing i vaguely remember about an eye exam is sitting with my face in a contraption that blew a puff of air into my eyes. for anyone curious, that was a glaucoma test and the machine used is called a tonometer. the tonometer calculates the intraocular pressure based on the eye's resistance to the puff of air.
anyway, i always thought the tonometer was an odd machine. lucky for me, i didn't have air blown into my eyes this time around. the glaucoma test this time around involved the application of a yellow eye drop and a blue glowing instrument in front of each eye to measure the pressure. it was neat.
probably, the only thing that i did not like about the eye exam today was the slit-lamp examination, which involves the shining of a bright light into your eye while you sit with your face in the contraption. the slit-lamp is basically a microscope that allows the doctor to see a highly magnified image of your eye. the light is so blinding. i actually started to tear. lucky for me, both my eyes have working tear ducts... unlike my friend (hot amy).
all in all, i'm happy with the eye exam. the doctor (dr. hopkins) told me that all i needed was a slight tweak to my prescription, which is not bad. i was fearing that my vision had gotten worse. among the other things dr. hopkins mentioned was that lasik is not a good option for me because my vision is not that bad yet. (i believe she used the term "borderline"... so maybe in a few more years...) so i guess that is good news.
dr. hopkins also suggested that i avoid contacts too... in part because i told her that i have trouble sticking things into my eyes. i have trouble putting eye drops into my eyes. i can only imagine how hard it would be to put contacts into my eyes. but give me a video of an eye surgery, and i'll be there watching it... with popcorn. i sure would love to see the video of my favorite sister-in-law's (janine) eye surgery again. that would be good entertainment.
because it has been awhile since my last eye appointment, the only thing i vaguely remember about an eye exam is sitting with my face in a contraption that blew a puff of air into my eyes. for anyone curious, that was a glaucoma test and the machine used is called a tonometer. the tonometer calculates the intraocular pressure based on the eye's resistance to the puff of air.
anyway, i always thought the tonometer was an odd machine. lucky for me, i didn't have air blown into my eyes this time around. the glaucoma test this time around involved the application of a yellow eye drop and a blue glowing instrument in front of each eye to measure the pressure. it was neat.
probably, the only thing that i did not like about the eye exam today was the slit-lamp examination, which involves the shining of a bright light into your eye while you sit with your face in the contraption. the slit-lamp is basically a microscope that allows the doctor to see a highly magnified image of your eye. the light is so blinding. i actually started to tear. lucky for me, both my eyes have working tear ducts... unlike my friend (hot amy).
all in all, i'm happy with the eye exam. the doctor (dr. hopkins) told me that all i needed was a slight tweak to my prescription, which is not bad. i was fearing that my vision had gotten worse. among the other things dr. hopkins mentioned was that lasik is not a good option for me because my vision is not that bad yet. (i believe she used the term "borderline"... so maybe in a few more years...) so i guess that is good news.
dr. hopkins also suggested that i avoid contacts too... in part because i told her that i have trouble sticking things into my eyes. i have trouble putting eye drops into my eyes. i can only imagine how hard it would be to put contacts into my eyes. but give me a video of an eye surgery, and i'll be there watching it... with popcorn. i sure would love to see the video of my favorite sister-in-law's (janine) eye surgery again. that would be good entertainment.
Monday, January 12, 2009
I Suck At Hanging Out With My Parents
tonight, karen and i had dinner with my parents. since we returned from our vacation to the bahamas near the beginning of the new year, we have not had the opportunity to see my parents to tell them how our trip was and all that. yes... i suck at hanging out with my parents.
perhaps it is a maternal thing, but my mother has a way of making me feel guilty... especially when she asks about when i can come over for a visit. her asking is like one of those "i miss you, please come visit" type of requests. and naturally, since i'm the prodigal son, i must... return.
as much as i love my parents, they stress me out sometimes. perhaps the stress comes from the fact that my parents do not believe they comprehend english that well and subsequently asks me to do everything for them: read mail, complete any and all applications, figure out some annuity they purchased a long time ago, look into social security benefits... whatever, you name it... i have to do it. sometimes, i don't think they even try to read or comprehend things and simply ask me to do it for them. (maybe that is why my brother moved away to texas.)
i probably should not complain. my parents are great. it's just that currently, i feel like there are a lot of "to-do's" currently on my plate. so adding more to that list of "to-do's" only stresses me out more. it's funny how my vacation to the bahamas was over a week ago and already, i feel like there is a huge weight on my shoulders again. sad.
anyway, dinner with my parents was good. as usual, my parents made way too much food for dinner. and you wonder why i'm shaped the way i am... years and years of being fed tons of food while being a member of the clean-plate club. making it worse... the food is delicious. i was spoiled growing up because my parents cooked such good chinese food. karen's family can attest to the deliciousness of their cooking now... as well as some of my friends (like marc, jen and bill). (for anyone curious, my parents made scallion pancakes, some dumpling thing, some noodle dish, and some chicken dish for dinner... all of which i'm not sure about how to describe or name.)
afterwards, karen and i hung out with my parents. my parents actually gave us a lucky money envelope (the red envelope) to give to karen's grandfather for his 96th birthday. we were asked to tell karen's grandfather to use the lucky money to purchase a drink. the red envelope was funny. and of course, my parents presented me with some other additional "to-do" items.
all in all, it was nice having dinner and seeing my parents. i love my parents.
perhaps it is a maternal thing, but my mother has a way of making me feel guilty... especially when she asks about when i can come over for a visit. her asking is like one of those "i miss you, please come visit" type of requests. and naturally, since i'm the prodigal son, i must... return.
as much as i love my parents, they stress me out sometimes. perhaps the stress comes from the fact that my parents do not believe they comprehend english that well and subsequently asks me to do everything for them: read mail, complete any and all applications, figure out some annuity they purchased a long time ago, look into social security benefits... whatever, you name it... i have to do it. sometimes, i don't think they even try to read or comprehend things and simply ask me to do it for them. (maybe that is why my brother moved away to texas.)
i probably should not complain. my parents are great. it's just that currently, i feel like there are a lot of "to-do's" currently on my plate. so adding more to that list of "to-do's" only stresses me out more. it's funny how my vacation to the bahamas was over a week ago and already, i feel like there is a huge weight on my shoulders again. sad.
anyway, dinner with my parents was good. as usual, my parents made way too much food for dinner. and you wonder why i'm shaped the way i am... years and years of being fed tons of food while being a member of the clean-plate club. making it worse... the food is delicious. i was spoiled growing up because my parents cooked such good chinese food. karen's family can attest to the deliciousness of their cooking now... as well as some of my friends (like marc, jen and bill). (for anyone curious, my parents made scallion pancakes, some dumpling thing, some noodle dish, and some chicken dish for dinner... all of which i'm not sure about how to describe or name.)
afterwards, karen and i hung out with my parents. my parents actually gave us a lucky money envelope (the red envelope) to give to karen's grandfather for his 96th birthday. we were asked to tell karen's grandfather to use the lucky money to purchase a drink. the red envelope was funny. and of course, my parents presented me with some other additional "to-do" items.
all in all, it was nice having dinner and seeing my parents. i love my parents.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
I Suck At Hanging Out With Karlene And Tommy
after celebrating the in-law tradition known as pseudo-christmas, i got to hang out with karen's cousins (karlene and tommy) from lowell. now, i suck at hanging out with karlene and tommy. it has been a while since karen and i hung out with karlene and tommy.
our schedules have been a little busy... even with the city of lowell telling you that there is a lot to like about lowell. luckily, karlene and tommy spent the night at our place after pseudo-christmas. so we were able to spend some more time together.
i don't remember the last time karlene and tommy spent the night at our place. of course, i have a terrible memory so that is not saying much. karlene, who remembers everything, remembers spending the night at our place before we even moved into the house. one of the things that i remember about their visits to our house was tommy spilling ceiling paint everywhere. i wonder if that was the same day. oh well.
anyway, hanging out with karlene and tommy was fun. in general, whenever we hang out with karlene and tommy, we go shopping and end up making a big purchase of some kind. this time was no different as karen and i purchased a storage bench from kohl's. (we subsequently had to return the bench because the bench was damaged and defective, which i did not learn until after most of the bench was assembled.)
we also did some shopping at the hanover mall... particularly ac moore (and bath and body works... and kb toys which apparently is going out of business). karlene is similar to karen in that she likes to create crafts. so, we generally spend a good chunk of time in crafty stores... which if you can imagine... makes me thrilled. i might just have to learn a craft so that i can better pass the time away whenever i'm in one of those stores waiting for them to finish shopping. i'm sensing... jewelry making... a la my friend's (hot amy) craft... it'll be my own "mike's originals". imagine that... a jewelry making competition... oh the possibilities.
in addition to shopping, we also ate at the omelet factory located in pembroke for breakfast. (yes, i could have titled this post, "i suck at the omelet factory"... but i didn't.) tommy was quite curious about the omelet factory. we also ate at uno's in hanover the previous night for dinner. the interesting fact about eating at both places was that the bill came out to be the same exact thing at both eating establishments. too bad we didn't play the lottery with those lucky numbers.
all in all, it was a good time. i'm glad karlene and tommy were able to come down and visit with us. i might just have a new goal now... to run a road race on the fourth of july. we'll see how that goes...
our schedules have been a little busy... even with the city of lowell telling you that there is a lot to like about lowell. luckily, karlene and tommy spent the night at our place after pseudo-christmas. so we were able to spend some more time together.
i don't remember the last time karlene and tommy spent the night at our place. of course, i have a terrible memory so that is not saying much. karlene, who remembers everything, remembers spending the night at our place before we even moved into the house. one of the things that i remember about their visits to our house was tommy spilling ceiling paint everywhere. i wonder if that was the same day. oh well.
anyway, hanging out with karlene and tommy was fun. in general, whenever we hang out with karlene and tommy, we go shopping and end up making a big purchase of some kind. this time was no different as karen and i purchased a storage bench from kohl's. (we subsequently had to return the bench because the bench was damaged and defective, which i did not learn until after most of the bench was assembled.)
we also did some shopping at the hanover mall... particularly ac moore (and bath and body works... and kb toys which apparently is going out of business). karlene is similar to karen in that she likes to create crafts. so, we generally spend a good chunk of time in crafty stores... which if you can imagine... makes me thrilled. i might just have to learn a craft so that i can better pass the time away whenever i'm in one of those stores waiting for them to finish shopping. i'm sensing... jewelry making... a la my friend's (hot amy) craft... it'll be my own "mike's originals". imagine that... a jewelry making competition... oh the possibilities.
in addition to shopping, we also ate at the omelet factory located in pembroke for breakfast. (yes, i could have titled this post, "i suck at the omelet factory"... but i didn't.) tommy was quite curious about the omelet factory. we also ate at uno's in hanover the previous night for dinner. the interesting fact about eating at both places was that the bill came out to be the same exact thing at both eating establishments. too bad we didn't play the lottery with those lucky numbers.
all in all, it was a good time. i'm glad karlene and tommy were able to come down and visit with us. i might just have a new goal now... to run a road race on the fourth of july. we'll see how that goes...
I Suck At Pseudo-Christmas
yesterday began with a surprise visit from my friends (jen and bill). jen and bill were out and about in the morning. as they were in the neighborhood (the neighborhood being the derby shoppes in hingham), they wondered if both karen and i were around for a quick visit.
in the past, jen and bill would stop over in the morning whenever they were around on the weekends. due to recent events like the passing of our son (braden), however, we haven't really seen them in the mornings on the weekends. so, it was definitely nice to have jen and bill visit again.
as a token of my appreciation for stopping by, i tried to poison jen and bill with my cooking. i don't particularly consider myself a good cook... hence... the poison. my cooking skills are probably why i also rely on whupping my friend's (hot amy) butt in wagered competitions... so that i can get free stuff like a meal. as it was the morning, i prepared french toast for jen, bill, karen and myself. (for anyone curious, neither jen nor bill had seconds... so maybe my french toast really was poisonous.) needless to say, it was fun to hang out with jen and bill again in the morning.
shortly thereafter, karen and i headed off to celebrate pseudo-christmas. now, i suck at pseudo-christmas. for anyone curious, pseudo-christmas is a celebration of christmas with the family... just not on christmas day. in general, christmas day is a tough day to gather everyone together. add to that stress the fact that people need to leave early or arrive late after visiting other families... celebrating christmas on christmas day can be quite hectic and people never really get to enjoy the company of each other.
so, it was devised by members of karen's family to celebrate "pseudo-christmas"... which is basically christmas, just not on christmas day. and with many things in karen's family, pseudo-christmas has since become a tradition.
anyway, pseudo-christmas this year was originally to be held the weekend of my birthday. as the weather was not cooperating (because it snowed for three days straight) that weekend, pseudo-christmas had to be rescheduled... for yesterday.
this year was definitely an interesting pseudo-christmas. not a lot of karen's family were able to attend pseudo-christmas yesterday. (aside from karen's immediate family, there were her relatives from lowell: aunt denise, karlene, and tommy; and a surprise visit from karen's uncle charlie and aunt frieda.) most importantly, karen's grandmother (whom we refer to as "nana") was not able to attend. that fact is probably the most important because pseudo-christmas is held at nana's house... due to tradition. (i fear that yesterday will be the last pseudo-christmas because nana's house will be put up for sale some time later this year.)
(the video below is of our neice, kaleigh... our nephew, pj... and tommy... dancing during pseudo-christmas.)
personally, pseudo-christmas yesterday seemed more like a family gathering rather than a celebration of christmas. of course, i could be biased because i have not been feeling much holiday spirit since braden passed away. to me, it just seemed like everyone was going through the motions... ghetto swap and all. (part of the tradition of pseudo-christmas is the "ghetto" swap... which has been renamed to be more swapper-friendly because there are young impressionable children in the family now. the basic gist is a yankee swap of old junk.)
thankfully, i was able to get rid of my "kkk santa" in the swap. interestingly enough, i ended up with a cookbook. perhaps the cookbook is a sign that my cooking is indeed awful. karen was also able to get rid of our shrinky dink oven (much to the joy of kaleigh) that we won at a chinese new year party... which my friend (aimee) reminded me that was another time we actually won something.
all in all, pseudo-christmas was an interesting time. i wonder what pseudo-christmas will be like this year. i can only imagine...
in the past, jen and bill would stop over in the morning whenever they were around on the weekends. due to recent events like the passing of our son (braden), however, we haven't really seen them in the mornings on the weekends. so, it was definitely nice to have jen and bill visit again.
as a token of my appreciation for stopping by, i tried to poison jen and bill with my cooking. i don't particularly consider myself a good cook... hence... the poison. my cooking skills are probably why i also rely on whupping my friend's (hot amy) butt in wagered competitions... so that i can get free stuff like a meal. as it was the morning, i prepared french toast for jen, bill, karen and myself. (for anyone curious, neither jen nor bill had seconds... so maybe my french toast really was poisonous.) needless to say, it was fun to hang out with jen and bill again in the morning.
shortly thereafter, karen and i headed off to celebrate pseudo-christmas. now, i suck at pseudo-christmas. for anyone curious, pseudo-christmas is a celebration of christmas with the family... just not on christmas day. in general, christmas day is a tough day to gather everyone together. add to that stress the fact that people need to leave early or arrive late after visiting other families... celebrating christmas on christmas day can be quite hectic and people never really get to enjoy the company of each other.
so, it was devised by members of karen's family to celebrate "pseudo-christmas"... which is basically christmas, just not on christmas day. and with many things in karen's family, pseudo-christmas has since become a tradition.
anyway, pseudo-christmas this year was originally to be held the weekend of my birthday. as the weather was not cooperating (because it snowed for three days straight) that weekend, pseudo-christmas had to be rescheduled... for yesterday.
this year was definitely an interesting pseudo-christmas. not a lot of karen's family were able to attend pseudo-christmas yesterday. (aside from karen's immediate family, there were her relatives from lowell: aunt denise, karlene, and tommy; and a surprise visit from karen's uncle charlie and aunt frieda.) most importantly, karen's grandmother (whom we refer to as "nana") was not able to attend. that fact is probably the most important because pseudo-christmas is held at nana's house... due to tradition. (i fear that yesterday will be the last pseudo-christmas because nana's house will be put up for sale some time later this year.)
(the video below is of our neice, kaleigh... our nephew, pj... and tommy... dancing during pseudo-christmas.)
personally, pseudo-christmas yesterday seemed more like a family gathering rather than a celebration of christmas. of course, i could be biased because i have not been feeling much holiday spirit since braden passed away. to me, it just seemed like everyone was going through the motions... ghetto swap and all. (part of the tradition of pseudo-christmas is the "ghetto" swap... which has been renamed to be more swapper-friendly because there are young impressionable children in the family now. the basic gist is a yankee swap of old junk.)
thankfully, i was able to get rid of my "kkk santa" in the swap. interestingly enough, i ended up with a cookbook. perhaps the cookbook is a sign that my cooking is indeed awful. karen was also able to get rid of our shrinky dink oven (much to the joy of kaleigh) that we won at a chinese new year party... which my friend (aimee) reminded me that was another time we actually won something.
all in all, pseudo-christmas was an interesting time. i wonder what pseudo-christmas will be like this year. i can only imagine...
Thursday, January 8, 2009
I Suck At Christina's Restaurant
tonight, karen and i did something a little spontaneous... we ate dinner at christina's restaurant located in pembroke. now i suck at christina's restaurant. i have never been there (or even heard of the restaurant) until tonight. i must say... the food was very good.
for those of you wondering how we ended up in pembroke on route 53... my friends (ron and trinh) live in pembroke. earlier in the week, i had contacted trinh to see if she would be around so that karen and i could pop over and deliver a little present to them. karen had created an artsy crafty thing that held pictures of ron and trinh's adorable children. the crafty thing can best be described as a photo book thing in the shape of a square... that opened up to reveal scrapbook photos.
ron and trinh generally use holiday pictures of their children as their christmas cards. as recipients of their cards, karen and i amassed a little collection of those pictures over the years. so one day, karen decided to try her hand at creating this artsy crafty thing using those christmas card photos.
anyway, as trinh was around tonight, karen and i stopped on over after work. ron and trinh have three girls... all of them are adorable. i don't know how trinh does it. i wish i could have taken the picture of trinh shuffling around with two of her daughters wrapped around her legs. it was cute.
as karen and i were leaving, we debated about whether to go home to make a meal... or go out for dinner. obviously, laziness won and we chose the latter... only because trinh recommended that we try this place called christina's restaurant which was just up the street on route 53. (plus, we were both pretty hungry.)
thus, karen and i gave christina's restaurant a try. christina's restaurant is a quaint little italian restaurant. the food was quite delicious. karen and i had butternut squash ravioli for an appetizer. i ended up getting eggplant parm while karen got the scallops. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) i have a feeling that christina's makes their own pasta.
needless to say, trinh was correct. christina's restaurant was definitely a good recommendation. unfortunately, karen and i were too full to sample any desserts, but the list of desserts did sound quite appealing. karen also wants to go back and try their pizza... which i am all for.
for those of you wondering how we ended up in pembroke on route 53... my friends (ron and trinh) live in pembroke. earlier in the week, i had contacted trinh to see if she would be around so that karen and i could pop over and deliver a little present to them. karen had created an artsy crafty thing that held pictures of ron and trinh's adorable children. the crafty thing can best be described as a photo book thing in the shape of a square... that opened up to reveal scrapbook photos.
ron and trinh generally use holiday pictures of their children as their christmas cards. as recipients of their cards, karen and i amassed a little collection of those pictures over the years. so one day, karen decided to try her hand at creating this artsy crafty thing using those christmas card photos.
anyway, as trinh was around tonight, karen and i stopped on over after work. ron and trinh have three girls... all of them are adorable. i don't know how trinh does it. i wish i could have taken the picture of trinh shuffling around with two of her daughters wrapped around her legs. it was cute.
as karen and i were leaving, we debated about whether to go home to make a meal... or go out for dinner. obviously, laziness won and we chose the latter... only because trinh recommended that we try this place called christina's restaurant which was just up the street on route 53. (plus, we were both pretty hungry.)
thus, karen and i gave christina's restaurant a try. christina's restaurant is a quaint little italian restaurant. the food was quite delicious. karen and i had butternut squash ravioli for an appetizer. i ended up getting eggplant parm while karen got the scallops. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) i have a feeling that christina's makes their own pasta.
needless to say, trinh was correct. christina's restaurant was definitely a good recommendation. unfortunately, karen and i were too full to sample any desserts, but the list of desserts did sound quite appealing. karen also wants to go back and try their pizza... which i am all for.
I Suck At Buffy The Vampire Slayer
last night, karen and i hung out with my friends (marc and kelley). it was, after all, a wednesday night and wednesday nights are prince spaghetti night. the four of us ate pizza... marc was gracious enough to make pizza for all of us. by the way, the pizza was very good.
anyway, as the four of us ate pizza, we watched a few more episodes from season three of the greatest show ever: buffy the vampire slayer. now, i suck at buffy the vampire slayer. sadly, we were only able to watch three episodes: "beauty and the beasts", "homecoming", and "band candy". i'd obviously watch more episodes if i could. come to think of it, having a buffy marathon of all seven seasons would be an awesome task to attempt. sure, the marathon of non-stop buffy episodes would take about a week (as there are seven seasons)... but it would be cool.
of the episodes last night, my favorite was "homecoming". the episode is about buffy and cordelia battling for the homecoming crown while being hunted during "slayerfest 98". ah, 1998... so long ago. one of the reasons why i liked that episode was because willow and xander finally kiss in that episode. i had always wanted the two of them to get together since the beginning of the show. sure, things turn out differently for them in the seasons following... but it was fun to watch. after all, the willow character is a cutey.
needless to say, it was another enjoyable night hanging out with marc and kelley. in addition to lending karen and i the movie "spinal tap", marc and kelley also gave me my birthday present. truth be told, i really wasn't expecting a present. after all, marc and my friend (cass)... who i think would make a great mayor of quincy... already took me to a celtics game for my birthday. so it was a pleasantly nice surprise. it's moments like that which again make me think about how great my friends truly are.
i'm sure my friend (andrea) would also appreciate my birthday present last night. (the present was season 4 of lost on dvd.) andrea has been trying to catch up on lost before the new season starts.
anyway, as usual... i had a good time last night... hanging out with my friends and enjoying the greatest tv show ever: buffy the vampire slayer.
anyway, as the four of us ate pizza, we watched a few more episodes from season three of the greatest show ever: buffy the vampire slayer. now, i suck at buffy the vampire slayer. sadly, we were only able to watch three episodes: "beauty and the beasts", "homecoming", and "band candy". i'd obviously watch more episodes if i could. come to think of it, having a buffy marathon of all seven seasons would be an awesome task to attempt. sure, the marathon of non-stop buffy episodes would take about a week (as there are seven seasons)... but it would be cool.
of the episodes last night, my favorite was "homecoming". the episode is about buffy and cordelia battling for the homecoming crown while being hunted during "slayerfest 98". ah, 1998... so long ago. one of the reasons why i liked that episode was because willow and xander finally kiss in that episode. i had always wanted the two of them to get together since the beginning of the show. sure, things turn out differently for them in the seasons following... but it was fun to watch. after all, the willow character is a cutey.
needless to say, it was another enjoyable night hanging out with marc and kelley. in addition to lending karen and i the movie "spinal tap", marc and kelley also gave me my birthday present. truth be told, i really wasn't expecting a present. after all, marc and my friend (cass)... who i think would make a great mayor of quincy... already took me to a celtics game for my birthday. so it was a pleasantly nice surprise. it's moments like that which again make me think about how great my friends truly are.
i'm sure my friend (andrea) would also appreciate my birthday present last night. (the present was season 4 of lost on dvd.) andrea has been trying to catch up on lost before the new season starts.
anyway, as usual... i had a good time last night... hanging out with my friends and enjoying the greatest tv show ever: buffy the vampire slayer.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
I Suck At The 99 Restaurant
tonight, karen and i went to the 99 restaurant. now, i suck at the 99 restaurant. i think the last time i was at the 99 was either with my favorite brother-in-law (pj) after one of those helping the family days or with karen after one of those let's go out to eat days. i can't remember. you'd think having a blog would help my memory...
anyway, i think the 99 is the restaurant of choice for pj. it seems like pj, my favorite sister-in-law (janine), my niece (kaleigh), and my nephew (pj) go there quite often. i guess it doesn't hurt that one of their neighbors also works there too. tonight was no different.
on a whim, we decided to see what janine and pj were doing. after all, we had not seen all of them since we returned from our vacation. (we also have not seen my parents or karen's parents... so they will most likely be on the visiting soon list too.)
as it turned out, all of them were at the 99 restaurant located in rockland. so, karen and i met up with them for dinner. the 99 was serving a special involving tortellini stuffed with butternut squash. it was very good. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) if only my friend (hot amy) knew how to make pasta stuffed with butternut squash... i would so wager that because i know i'd win in any competition against her. but oh well.
kaleigh made a bracelet for our son (braden) out of... i believe it's called a wicky stick... but the more i think about it right now, the more i'm not so sure that the thing is really called that. for anyone curious, "wicky stick" is a term used for marijuana. so it seems odd that my niece would make a bracelet from cannabis... unless maybe that waxy stringy thing is where the slang term came from... whatever the item is actually called, kaleigh made a bracelet for braden. kaleigh was cute because she asked us if the bracelet would fit braden's arm... if only she knew how tiny braden's arm really was.
needless to say, it was a very enjoyable dinner. as usual, karen and i had a good time with janine, pj and the kids.
UPDATE: i happen to stumble upon the thing that kaleigh was playing with... it's called "wikki stix"... so it is not exactly the marijuana based toy.
anyway, i think the 99 is the restaurant of choice for pj. it seems like pj, my favorite sister-in-law (janine), my niece (kaleigh), and my nephew (pj) go there quite often. i guess it doesn't hurt that one of their neighbors also works there too. tonight was no different.
on a whim, we decided to see what janine and pj were doing. after all, we had not seen all of them since we returned from our vacation. (we also have not seen my parents or karen's parents... so they will most likely be on the visiting soon list too.)
as it turned out, all of them were at the 99 restaurant located in rockland. so, karen and i met up with them for dinner. the 99 was serving a special involving tortellini stuffed with butternut squash. it was very good. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) if only my friend (hot amy) knew how to make pasta stuffed with butternut squash... i would so wager that because i know i'd win in any competition against her. but oh well.
kaleigh made a bracelet for our son (braden) out of... i believe it's called a wicky stick... but the more i think about it right now, the more i'm not so sure that the thing is really called that. for anyone curious, "wicky stick" is a term used for marijuana. so it seems odd that my niece would make a bracelet from cannabis... unless maybe that waxy stringy thing is where the slang term came from... whatever the item is actually called, kaleigh made a bracelet for braden. kaleigh was cute because she asked us if the bracelet would fit braden's arm... if only she knew how tiny braden's arm really was.
needless to say, it was a very enjoyable dinner. as usual, karen and i had a good time with janine, pj and the kids.
UPDATE: i happen to stumble upon the thing that kaleigh was playing with... it's called "wikki stix"... so it is not exactly the marijuana based toy.
Monday, January 5, 2009
I Suck At New Year's Resolutions
okay, so maybe i'm a little late with making a new year's resolution. yes, it's true...i suck at new year's resolutions. after all, today is way past the beginning of the new year. in my defense, i was on a cruise during the start of the new year.
anyway, i generally do not make any resolutions when the new year starts. this year, however, i figured i would join the masses and make a resolution for 2009. my resolution is very simple: to have a better year than 2008. i figure this resolution should be easy enough to obtain. (famous last words as i jinx things by saying this resolution should be easy to obtain...) after all, this year can't possibly be as bad as 2008... and not that 2008 was completely bad... just the latter portion of the year which my son (braden) being born and then subsequently passing away shortly after. that was almost four months ago... (braden would have been four months old to this day.) needless to say, i'm still trying my best to resume some sense of normalcy after that shocking turn of events.
hopefully, things will turn out better in 2009. if they don't, then i suppose i can always turn to my friend, mr. booze. i will then toast like homer simpson and say "To alcohol! The cause of... and solution to... all of life's problems." i'm just kidding. but here's to a good year...
anyway, i generally do not make any resolutions when the new year starts. this year, however, i figured i would join the masses and make a resolution for 2009. my resolution is very simple: to have a better year than 2008. i figure this resolution should be easy enough to obtain. (famous last words as i jinx things by saying this resolution should be easy to obtain...) after all, this year can't possibly be as bad as 2008... and not that 2008 was completely bad... just the latter portion of the year which my son (braden) being born and then subsequently passing away shortly after. that was almost four months ago... (braden would have been four months old to this day.) needless to say, i'm still trying my best to resume some sense of normalcy after that shocking turn of events.
hopefully, things will turn out better in 2009. if they don't, then i suppose i can always turn to my friend, mr. booze. i will then toast like homer simpson and say "To alcohol! The cause of... and solution to... all of life's problems." i'm just kidding. but here's to a good year...
I Suck At Celebrating My Friend's Birthday
as my friend (hot amy) would tell you a little gleam in her eyes... yesterday was my friend's (garv) birthday. happy birthday garv! i hope you enjoyed your day. too bad i suck at celebrating my friend's birthday.
i suppose that is not totally true. a bunch of us (marc, kelley, cass, ellen, garv, leean, karen and myself) did actually celebrate garv's birthday yesterday... as well as leeann's... and ellen's... and mine too. yes, it was quite a day for birthday celebrations.
my circle of friends have had a long tradition of celebrating birthdays. typically, the celebration cycle starts from august to january... and then there is a lull until august again... to which the cycle repeats. seemingly, each month during that time one of our friends is celebrating a birthday. currently, november is the only month without a birthday among my circle of friends... the month originally had a birthday celebrant, but people grow apart... it happens.
anyway, this year was the first time that we had ever combined four birthdays into one celebratory day. the holidays are usually a tough time to get together... so it only made sense to combine the four. so, that is what we did...
we decided to stick with tradition and celebrate at vinny t's in dedham. it just so happens that the day we decided to celebrate the four birthdays... was actually on garv's birthday. (for anyone curious... vinny t's has round tables, which is one of the reasons why the restaurant was originally chosen way back when... that and the heaping piles of food...)
needless to say, the food was good. i think everyone enjoyed their birthday presents as well. i know i did... proof yet again that i am lucky to have such great friends.
yesterday was also the first time we did a yankee swap of sorts. traditionally, after the birthday celebration in december for ellen and myself, all of us would exchange secret santa presents. this year, we actually did away with the secret santa... instead opting to donate our money to a worthy cause... which in our current economy is probably much needed.
in keeping with the holiday fun, however, we decided to have a yankee swap of regifted presents.
(pictured below is the yankee swap present i received.)
i ended up with what was termed... the kkk santa... or the grand wizard santa. after all, the "tree" in his hand does almost look like a cross. if only i could light the "tree" on fire and put the santa on our front lawn... just kidding.
anyway, it was a fun time last night. i hope garv enjoyed his day. after all, his birthday celebration could not have been worse than last year's... that is for sure. (last year's celebration for garv turned out to be quite the fiasco involving possible fisticuffs over a disagreement in beliefs... yes, very odd...) so.. happy birthday garv! you deserve a good day.
i suppose that is not totally true. a bunch of us (marc, kelley, cass, ellen, garv, leean, karen and myself) did actually celebrate garv's birthday yesterday... as well as leeann's... and ellen's... and mine too. yes, it was quite a day for birthday celebrations.
my circle of friends have had a long tradition of celebrating birthdays. typically, the celebration cycle starts from august to january... and then there is a lull until august again... to which the cycle repeats. seemingly, each month during that time one of our friends is celebrating a birthday. currently, november is the only month without a birthday among my circle of friends... the month originally had a birthday celebrant, but people grow apart... it happens.
anyway, this year was the first time that we had ever combined four birthdays into one celebratory day. the holidays are usually a tough time to get together... so it only made sense to combine the four. so, that is what we did...
we decided to stick with tradition and celebrate at vinny t's in dedham. it just so happens that the day we decided to celebrate the four birthdays... was actually on garv's birthday. (for anyone curious... vinny t's has round tables, which is one of the reasons why the restaurant was originally chosen way back when... that and the heaping piles of food...)
needless to say, the food was good. i think everyone enjoyed their birthday presents as well. i know i did... proof yet again that i am lucky to have such great friends.
yesterday was also the first time we did a yankee swap of sorts. traditionally, after the birthday celebration in december for ellen and myself, all of us would exchange secret santa presents. this year, we actually did away with the secret santa... instead opting to donate our money to a worthy cause... which in our current economy is probably much needed.
in keeping with the holiday fun, however, we decided to have a yankee swap of regifted presents.
(pictured below is the yankee swap present i received.)
i ended up with what was termed... the kkk santa... or the grand wizard santa. after all, the "tree" in his hand does almost look like a cross. if only i could light the "tree" on fire and put the santa on our front lawn... just kidding.
anyway, it was a fun time last night. i hope garv enjoyed his day. after all, his birthday celebration could not have been worse than last year's... that is for sure. (last year's celebration for garv turned out to be quite the fiasco involving possible fisticuffs over a disagreement in beliefs... yes, very odd...) so.. happy birthday garv! you deserve a good day.
I Suck At Veronica Mars
yesterday, my bff (kerry), karen, and i were able to do something that we had not done for quite some time... watch veronica mars. now, i suck at veronica mars.
i had gotten the first season on dvd a while ago. as kerry was also interested in the show, we decided to watch the entire first season together. kerry and i initially began watching the show the weekend that karen went down to see my friend (pam) who lives in bon jovi's home state of new jersey. that... was a long while ago... in august.
since that time, we thought karen would also be interested in watching the show... so we waited for her to catch up to where kerry and i left off. as kerry and i really were not too far into the season, it did not take karen long to catch up at all.
anyway, things got a little busy... and the three of us never were in sync with our schedules to simply watch any more episodes... until yesterday. and it was a blast. i must say... i love the show.
granted, the show is not as good as the greatest show ever: buffy the vampire slayer... but it's close. karen, kerry and i were able to watch two complete discs out of the six disc season one set. eight episodes... not bad for one day...
as an added bonus, we may have also roped my favorite sister-in-law (janine) into the show. janine was over to use our dryer as her dryer recently crapped the bed. she did purchase a new dryer, but it has not been delivered yet. so in the meantime, janine asked to use our dryer.
needless to say, while janine was over using the dryer... she watched a few episodes with us. and now i think janine is hooked onto the show. yay veronica mars! i can't wait to watch the remaining episodes. we are so close to finishing the first season. hopefully all of our schedules will be in sync... so that we can finish the season.
i had gotten the first season on dvd a while ago. as kerry was also interested in the show, we decided to watch the entire first season together. kerry and i initially began watching the show the weekend that karen went down to see my friend (pam) who lives in bon jovi's home state of new jersey. that... was a long while ago... in august.
since that time, we thought karen would also be interested in watching the show... so we waited for her to catch up to where kerry and i left off. as kerry and i really were not too far into the season, it did not take karen long to catch up at all.
anyway, things got a little busy... and the three of us never were in sync with our schedules to simply watch any more episodes... until yesterday. and it was a blast. i must say... i love the show.
granted, the show is not as good as the greatest show ever: buffy the vampire slayer... but it's close. karen, kerry and i were able to watch two complete discs out of the six disc season one set. eight episodes... not bad for one day...
as an added bonus, we may have also roped my favorite sister-in-law (janine) into the show. janine was over to use our dryer as her dryer recently crapped the bed. she did purchase a new dryer, but it has not been delivered yet. so in the meantime, janine asked to use our dryer.
needless to say, while janine was over using the dryer... she watched a few episodes with us. and now i think janine is hooked onto the show. yay veronica mars! i can't wait to watch the remaining episodes. we are so close to finishing the first season. hopefully all of our schedules will be in sync... so that we can finish the season.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
I Suck At J.J. Mulligans
last night, karen and i hung out with my bff (kerry) and my friends (hot amy and jen). the five of us ending up going to j.j. mulligans located in braintree. now i suck at j.j. mulligans. i don't think i have been back to j.j. mulligans since jen's friend from her cruise ship days was in town and my friend (carlos) had tried to find him a job. needless to say, for being spur of the moment... in which the five of us were all available and had no set plans... it was a fun time.
we were simply able to laugh and be silly on a night where we had no plans. topics of conversation included kerry's favorite: poop and other bowel related topics... and "the secret". for anyone curious, i was being sarcastic in that poop is one of kerry's favorite topics. kerry is not so much a big fan of poop talk. in fact, i think she has already told us that she will not introduce any of her friends to us anymore because of the seemingly reoccurring poop topic of discussion.
as for "the secret", apparently that topic is the brainchild of jen... and oprah. it seems like "the secret" is a book that has been featured on oprah... many times. jen seems to be a big fan of the book. in fact, jen is trying to get all of us to read the book... sort of like... in a book club type of way. the basic gist of "the secret", from what i am told, is that when people visually create a representation of their dreams or goals, they will achieve it. that's "the secret"...
if you were to ask me, the secret sounds more like "the crap". but if it's good enough for oprah... it's got to be good enough for the rest of the world, right? truth be told, the whole premise sounds more like basic psychology 101... or simple common sense for that matter... that if you really want something... you need to work toward it. i can't believe someone wrote a book about that and is making millions off of it... the power of oprah... (this is where i would shake my head in disbelief.)
nonetheless, i do enjoy partaking in silly exercises. the plan, once everyone has a chance to read "the secret", is to create storyboards of our goals. so, some time in the near future... all of us will be getting together again to visually represent our goals. this should be interesting.
i think what was most peculiar about the whole "secret" thing was that my friend (carlos) actually has read the book. carlos (or any guy for that matter) is not someone who i thought would have read that book. heck, i did not even know what the book was up until the discussion last night.
anyway, it was comical to find out that carlos had read the book. (to put things in context... carlos was not with us last night... he had been texting hot amy and she asked him about "the secret"... to which he replied that the book was basically garbage.) it also turns out... "the secret" was in hot amy's back seat. (snicker snicker.)
all in all, it was a fun time at j.j. mulligans... story boarding "the secret" should be fun... i can't wait...
we were simply able to laugh and be silly on a night where we had no plans. topics of conversation included kerry's favorite: poop and other bowel related topics... and "the secret". for anyone curious, i was being sarcastic in that poop is one of kerry's favorite topics. kerry is not so much a big fan of poop talk. in fact, i think she has already told us that she will not introduce any of her friends to us anymore because of the seemingly reoccurring poop topic of discussion.
as for "the secret", apparently that topic is the brainchild of jen... and oprah. it seems like "the secret" is a book that has been featured on oprah... many times. jen seems to be a big fan of the book. in fact, jen is trying to get all of us to read the book... sort of like... in a book club type of way. the basic gist of "the secret", from what i am told, is that when people visually create a representation of their dreams or goals, they will achieve it. that's "the secret"...
if you were to ask me, the secret sounds more like "the crap". but if it's good enough for oprah... it's got to be good enough for the rest of the world, right? truth be told, the whole premise sounds more like basic psychology 101... or simple common sense for that matter... that if you really want something... you need to work toward it. i can't believe someone wrote a book about that and is making millions off of it... the power of oprah... (this is where i would shake my head in disbelief.)
nonetheless, i do enjoy partaking in silly exercises. the plan, once everyone has a chance to read "the secret", is to create storyboards of our goals. so, some time in the near future... all of us will be getting together again to visually represent our goals. this should be interesting.
i think what was most peculiar about the whole "secret" thing was that my friend (carlos) actually has read the book. carlos (or any guy for that matter) is not someone who i thought would have read that book. heck, i did not even know what the book was up until the discussion last night.
anyway, it was comical to find out that carlos had read the book. (to put things in context... carlos was not with us last night... he had been texting hot amy and she asked him about "the secret"... to which he replied that the book was basically garbage.) it also turns out... "the secret" was in hot amy's back seat. (snicker snicker.)
all in all, it was a fun time at j.j. mulligans... story boarding "the secret" should be fun... i can't wait...
Saturday, January 3, 2009
I Suck At Cruising
last night, karen and i returned from our little vacation during the holiday break. karen and i took a cruise to the bahamas. now, i suck at cruising. neither karen nor i have ever been to the bahamas, so going there was a new experience.
one of the reasons why we decided to go on our vacation when we did was because it definitely has been rough the past three months. aside from having almost every high priced item break down and needing repair within these three months, karen and i also lost our first son (braden). braden was born extremely premature. unfortunately, the neonatal intensive care doctors could only do so much because braden's body was just too tiny. we were fortunate, however, to have been with braden for that one week that he had survived. needless to say, the cruise was more of a simple get away from reality... than an actual vacation. in fact, we purposely chose the cruise for the week of the new year because yesterday was the original due date for braden.
anyway, the cruise was good. the cruise definitely took my mind off of things. i'm afraid i had only one moment... that being yesterday... when i broke down in the shower thinking that braden would have been born on the day had he not been born so extremely premature.
for me, one of the highlights of the cruise... aside the sight-seeing of things like the atlantis in nassau, oprah's house in nassau, nicholas cage's house in nassau, or even the fun karen and i had being on waverunners for the first time... was receiving a special note in our cruise cabin from a mysterious benefactor. (by the way, waverunners... awesome... i want one now.)
when karen and i first got to our cabin, there was a little note that said we had some credit complements of our "friends". there were no names listed as to who these friends were... just the word "friends". we have since come to find out who those friends were... so thank you friends (jen, kerry, hot amy, andrea, and pam... and anyone else who my detective skills forgot.) the note was very nice... not because of the cruise credit... but because it made me think about how lucky karen and i are to have such great friends in our lives. for me, it was touching.
(the video below is of a ray at the atlantis in nassau.)
among the other highlights (aside from the waverunner... yes, in case you could not tell... i loved the waverunner... i would get a waverunner if i ever had a use for one. i even had it all planned out that i would keep it docked at hot amy's. after all, using a waverunner on the pond outside my house would not be too enjoyable...) were the fact that karen and i actually won things on the cruise. too bad we did not win a waverunner... just kidding.
as much as my friend (aimee) likes to think that i am lucky, i never win things. i believe the last time i won something was in college... and it was not even at my own college. i was visiting my friend (cass) at his college where he was running a casino themed night at his dormitory. (cass was an ra at the time.) that night must have seemed rigged because all of cass's friends won a lot of the prizes that night. (i ended up with a television... which i gave to my mother.)
anyway, on our cruise both karen and i won things. karen won a snorkeling package from the cruise which we could use on the day we were at the cruise company's private island. it was funny because we had borrowed snorkeling gear from my friends (marc and kelley) already. but oh well. i won free art... apparently, not just any art... five huge pieces of art.
there was a raffle to guess the amount of a picasso print. thinking nothing of it, i entered. my guess was not even close to the amount of the print. (i was about $9,500 off.) as it turned out, i was actually the fourth closest guess. in order to win the raffle, however, you had to be present at the art auction. lucky for me... the closest three guesses were not present. so, i ended up winning the raffle.
i did not realize what i had won until afterwards when the works of art were shown to karen and i. apparently, the works of art included things from linda kinff (the official world cup artist), itzchak tarkay (a holocaust survivor whose works of art always have women with their eyes closed), and a few others. as lame as this sounds, i actually enjoyed learning the history of the artist more than the art itself... probably because the history gives context to the work of art. i have never really been into art... but since winning the raffle, art has become... somewhat interesting.
as well, karen may have been bitten by the art bug. in addition to the art that we won, karen wanted to splurge on a piece of "kinetic" art created by yaacov agam. it was the first time, actually, that we ever splurged on a piece of art. so it was neat. we may have to have an unveiling party for the work of art. just kidding.
all in all, the cruise was a good time. as lame as this sounds, i felt like little braden was with us during the cruise... watching over our shoulder like an angel... helping us we win raffle prizes... which we normally don't do. it was as though braden wanted us to enjoy ourselves on our vacation. so thank you, little b.
one of the reasons why we decided to go on our vacation when we did was because it definitely has been rough the past three months. aside from having almost every high priced item break down and needing repair within these three months, karen and i also lost our first son (braden). braden was born extremely premature. unfortunately, the neonatal intensive care doctors could only do so much because braden's body was just too tiny. we were fortunate, however, to have been with braden for that one week that he had survived. needless to say, the cruise was more of a simple get away from reality... than an actual vacation. in fact, we purposely chose the cruise for the week of the new year because yesterday was the original due date for braden.
anyway, the cruise was good. the cruise definitely took my mind off of things. i'm afraid i had only one moment... that being yesterday... when i broke down in the shower thinking that braden would have been born on the day had he not been born so extremely premature.
for me, one of the highlights of the cruise... aside the sight-seeing of things like the atlantis in nassau, oprah's house in nassau, nicholas cage's house in nassau, or even the fun karen and i had being on waverunners for the first time... was receiving a special note in our cruise cabin from a mysterious benefactor. (by the way, waverunners... awesome... i want one now.)
when karen and i first got to our cabin, there was a little note that said we had some credit complements of our "friends". there were no names listed as to who these friends were... just the word "friends". we have since come to find out who those friends were... so thank you friends (jen, kerry, hot amy, andrea, and pam... and anyone else who my detective skills forgot.) the note was very nice... not because of the cruise credit... but because it made me think about how lucky karen and i are to have such great friends in our lives. for me, it was touching.
(the video below is of a ray at the atlantis in nassau.)
among the other highlights (aside from the waverunner... yes, in case you could not tell... i loved the waverunner... i would get a waverunner if i ever had a use for one. i even had it all planned out that i would keep it docked at hot amy's. after all, using a waverunner on the pond outside my house would not be too enjoyable...) were the fact that karen and i actually won things on the cruise. too bad we did not win a waverunner... just kidding.
as much as my friend (aimee) likes to think that i am lucky, i never win things. i believe the last time i won something was in college... and it was not even at my own college. i was visiting my friend (cass) at his college where he was running a casino themed night at his dormitory. (cass was an ra at the time.) that night must have seemed rigged because all of cass's friends won a lot of the prizes that night. (i ended up with a television... which i gave to my mother.)
anyway, on our cruise both karen and i won things. karen won a snorkeling package from the cruise which we could use on the day we were at the cruise company's private island. it was funny because we had borrowed snorkeling gear from my friends (marc and kelley) already. but oh well. i won free art... apparently, not just any art... five huge pieces of art.
there was a raffle to guess the amount of a picasso print. thinking nothing of it, i entered. my guess was not even close to the amount of the print. (i was about $9,500 off.) as it turned out, i was actually the fourth closest guess. in order to win the raffle, however, you had to be present at the art auction. lucky for me... the closest three guesses were not present. so, i ended up winning the raffle.
i did not realize what i had won until afterwards when the works of art were shown to karen and i. apparently, the works of art included things from linda kinff (the official world cup artist), itzchak tarkay (a holocaust survivor whose works of art always have women with their eyes closed), and a few others. as lame as this sounds, i actually enjoyed learning the history of the artist more than the art itself... probably because the history gives context to the work of art. i have never really been into art... but since winning the raffle, art has become... somewhat interesting.
as well, karen may have been bitten by the art bug. in addition to the art that we won, karen wanted to splurge on a piece of "kinetic" art created by yaacov agam. it was the first time, actually, that we ever splurged on a piece of art. so it was neat. we may have to have an unveiling party for the work of art. just kidding.
all in all, the cruise was a good time. as lame as this sounds, i felt like little braden was with us during the cruise... watching over our shoulder like an angel... helping us we win raffle prizes... which we normally don't do. it was as though braden wanted us to enjoy ourselves on our vacation. so thank you, little b.
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