I Suck At The Celtics Game

yesterday, i went to the celtics game with my friends (cass and marc). earlier in the nba season, cass and marc took me to the celtics game for my birthday. it was a very touching present... and one that i will probably always remember because it meant a lot to me back then following the passing of my son (braden).

anyway, as the three of us had a great time back then, we decided to try to go to another game this year. as it turns out, one of cass's friends has season tickets to the celtics. cass's friend was not going to be using the three tickets for the game yesterday, so he sold them to us. needless to say, i suck at the celtics game.

prior to the game, marc and my friend (kelley) picked me up as karen had our only car. karen was going to salem with my friend (jen) to meet up with my bff (kerry). it was fun to hang out with marc and kelley before the game because i got to watch kelley play resident evil 5. nothing puts a smile on my face like watching zombies getting shot in the head.

from there, cass came and picked both marc and myself up. our plan was to drive into town, grab a bite for dinner, and then head off to the game. so off we went. our first stop: dinner.

originally, we had thought about going to the fours for dinner. unfortunately, the place was absolutely packed and there was quite a long wait. so, the three of us decided to venture next door to hurricane o'reilly's for dinner. we basically snacked on some appetizers... which consisted of wings, nachos, and ravioli... and drinks for a while.

one of the things that we discussed was the fact that cass is going to south africa later this year. i thought that was pretty exciting. i can't say that south africa is on my list of places to see, but i would not be opposed to visiting there. apparently, cass is meeting a friend there who will be receiving an award in south africa. the award is for some article on internal auditing... and it turns out that the award is... well... awarded in south africa. it's very neat. i never even knew internal auditing could be so award-winning... who knew?

the other thing we briefly discussed was coachella. coachella, located in california, is a three day event featuring numerous bands. one of the local radio stations is having a contest whereby they will send a listener to coachella. the only rules of the contest is that the listener needs to submit a video as to why that person should go to coachella. as it turns out, marc wants to go to coachella. so, we did a little brainstorming of what marc could submit for his video.

following dinner, we headed to the game. the celtics were playing the oklahoma city thunder (the who?). for anyone curious, the oklahoma city thunder used to be the seattle supersonics. in fact, the celtics have the thunder/sonics to thank because that is how the organization acquired ray allen.

needless to say, the seattle franchise had to relocate... so it ended up in oklahoma city. the team's colors, by the way, are not so pretty... baby blue.

(pictured below are the celtics playing against the thunder.)


the game itself was fun. aside from knowing that the thunder used to be the sonics, i knew nothing else about the team. the thunder, after all, play in the large market of oklahoma city. there are no superstars on the team... just a couple of bright prospects. so by all accounts, the celtics should have had little trouble beating the team.

the celtics actually looked pretty awful in the beginning of the game. but like most games, the celtics were able to get it in gear with a flick of a switch. the celtics did not start pulling away until the second half. in fact, in the fourth quarter, the game pretty much became the glen "big baby" davis show.

glen "big baby" davis, is a forward who is built like a tank. he received his nick name because he was bigger than the other kids his age and consequently would play with older kids. as he would whine at times, the older kids called him "big baby" and the name stuck... it also happens to be the case that the celtics have the thunder/sonics to thank again because glen davis was also part of the ray allen trade.

anyway, during the game glen "big baby" davis received a cut on his head while going for a rebound. there was a brief stoppage of the game as there was blood on the court. glen davis temporarily left the game... only to return in the fourth quarter to score a lot of baskets.

needless to say, the celtics won the game 103-84. game aside, it was great to just hang out with cass and marc.

I Suck At Stars

last night, karen and i had plans to go to stars located in hingham. apparently, my friend (hot amy) wanted some of her friends to meet the new man in her life. so, she thought that we could meet him over dinner at stars. now i suck at stars.

i do enjoy the food at stars. sadly, i was not too hungry during dinner. a few hours before dinner, karen and i were experimenting with creating spring rolls. karen's family and i had learned how to make spring rolls courtesy of my mom a few weeks ago. as i was thinking about making spring rolls for the photo scavenger hunt that i am planning for next week, i decided to have a quick test run this weekend. it so happened that the test run was a few hours before dinner.

needless to say, the spring rolls were not as good as my mother's. since speaking to my mother on the phone, my mother has reassured me that they will get better the more and more i practice making them. that is not to say the spring rolls were terrible. the spring rolls were actually pretty good. my friend (andrea), who was in the neighborhood of the derby shoppes in hingham stopped by to give us a ride to stars. andrea actually had a spring roll and liked it.

in fact, andrea must have liked the spring roll enough to have ordered it as her meal at stars. i had the chicken salad wrap with cranberries and walnuts. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.)

anyway, the three of us met hot amy's new man over dinner. in an effort to get to know him even further, karen invited everyone back to our place to hang out. we didn't exactly do much at our place.

the thrilling night consisted of playing ddr (dance dance revolution) to which i might add... was quite interesting. for anyone curious, andrea is not a big dancer. of course, having her not know how to play ddr may also make her dislike dancing that much more. she did, however, finally realize how to play the game... and from there here natural competitive nature took over.

speaking of andrea's competitive nature, we played a few rounds of the game "boggle" following ddr. i have not played boggle in quite some time. i have played "scramble" on facebook many times... although i have not played that recently. i probably should do more on facebook. anyway, boggle was also interesting... especially with andrea's new found vocabulary. apparently, "ted" is actually a word.

from there, we finished off the night with some carvel ice cream cake. andrea and i stopped off at the local stop and shop near our house to pick up the easter bunny carvel ice cream cake. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound... again.) i love ice cream. i could eat ice cream all day. i once ate a whole quart of ice cream for lunch when i worked at state street bank... ah the good o' days.

while we ate the ice cream, we hung out and watched ice skating. fun. it was actually funny when one of the ice skaters fell down. i should clarify that. it was not funny that the ice skater fell down. it was funny that everyone's reaction in the room was basically "oooooooh!".

anyway, i hope we didn't scare off hot amy's new man too badly. i guess we'll see.

I Suck At Visiting The Cemetery

yesterday, i was still feeling a little down in the dumps. for some reason, i have been having constant thoughts about my son (braden) who passed away in september of last year. truth be told, my wild mood swings irk me. i know when my mood is changing, yet i can't seem to do anything about reversing the feeling.

i just hope my mood improves next week when the photo scavenger hunt that i am organizing finally takes place. i have been planning a photo scavenger hunt with a bunch of friends. needless to say, the planning has stressed me out at times because i simply want everything to go without and hitch and hope everyone has fun.

anyway, karen went to correct case studies at my friend's (hot amy) place for the class that both of them are teaching at simmons college. so while karen was out, i decided to take my mind off things by working on the house. for anyone curious, i was installing molding around the sliding door on our first floor. the installation actually went quicker than expected (probably because i was only installing the inside molding). sure, i had the frustration of noticing our cracked walls... but it was nothing a little tape and joint compound couldn't take care of.

having finished pretty early, i decided to get out and enjoy the nice weather. so, i did what any normal person who has not exercised in quite some time done: i went running. sadly, i only ran one mile... as my stomach began to cramp... proof that i should have been a little more hydrated before deciding to run.

needless to say, i thought the running would clear my mind. it didn't. so, i decided to walk to the cemetery where braden is buried. now i suck visiting the cemetery. lucky for me, braden is buried not too far from where i live so i can visit him at any time with ease.

when i went to the cemetery, i had the pleasure of meeting a relative (sheila) to one of braden's neighbors. sheila had just arrived at the cemetery as well (although she drove). perhaps it was coincidence that we were both there at the same time... or maybe there was a reason for it. but, it was nice meeting with sheila.

i actually started to break down talking to sheila because she had asked who i was visiting. as it turned out, sheila also lost a son named michael. it still amazes me how many people i find who have lost children. anyway, shiela told me a story about how her husband, a state trooper, was in a high speed car accident that sent him flying 60 feet. by all logical accounts, he should not have made it out alive. yet, he remarkably was all right. sheila attributed his survival to the fact that her son michael was watching over her husband.

needless to say, it was a nice comforting story. after telling me that things would get better for me, sheila left. i thanked her of course. as she drove away, i basically sat at the foot of braden's flat marker. i actually sat there for quite some time just thinking about my son.

I Suck At El Sarape

on friday, karen and i decided to grab a bite to eat after work. both of us have been trying to budget our expenses so that we can work toward our goal of becoming millionaires. in general, it's probably a good idea just to know where all the money that we work so hard to earn goes to.

unfortunately, this month has not exactly been great for our budget. we have already gone over our allotted budget for dining out and the month is not even finished yet. naturally with that in mind, i suggested to karen that we... of all things... go out for dinner after work. as we already had gone over our budget, i figured... what was a few dollars more? and truth be told, karen and i had a bad week.

in particular, i had an emotional week just thinking about my son (braden) who passed away in september of last year. nothing in particular triggered my thoughts this week about braden. there was no anniversary or anything. i simply just woke up a few days thinking about my little angel. even as i type this now, i have in the back of my mind the "what if" thought about what if braden is the only child karen and i will ever have... and how it's a pretty cruel joke to be parents for only a week. so needless to say, i thought it would be nice to treat ourselves to dinner... budget or no budget.

anyway, karen and i went to el sarape located in weymouth. now, i suck at el sarape. karen and i have not been there in quite some time. my favorite sister-in-law (janine) had been there recently, which is what sort of put the idea in karen's head. plus, karen was craving mexican food that night. so... el sarape it was.

the food was quite delicious at el sarape. in case anyone is curious, el sarape is in zagat's... as evident from all the framed zagat reviews hanging on one of the walls. karen and i each had a combination plate. my plate consisted of a beef burrito with green tomato sauce and the enchiladas rojas... yes, i was craving beef. needless to say, the meal was great. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.)

all in all, it was a good night. it was nice to not have to worry for a little while.

I Suck At Lost

last night, karen and i hung out with my friends (marc and kelley). as karen was not working late at her regular job, the four of us could watch the latest episode of lost much earlier than expected. now i suck at lost. needless to say, the episode was fantastic. the writing for the show is great. i will probably be sad when the series eventually ends.

anyway, after watching lost, we started on disc 2 of season 4 of the greatest television show ever: buffy the vampire slayer. we only watch a couple of episodes: "beer bad" about... well... beer and how it made its consumption turned a bunch of guys into cavemen (literally); and "wild at heart" about the oz character, who is werewolf, and how he is drawn to another werewolf.

one of the more interesting things about the episodes was that kal penn, of harold and kumar fame, was in the "beer bad" episode. for anyone curious, kal penn is kumar. also one of the best lines of the same episode, in my opinion, came from xander. that line: "nothing can defeat the penis!" oh how true it is. just kidding.

all in all it was a great night. marc and kelley made nachos and tacos for dinner. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) karen and i provided dessert. i basically slaved away in the kitchen... and brought a berry crumble pie... compliments of trader joe's. (also "yum-o".) trader joe's is so good. i don't think there is anything that trader joe's makes that i have disliked yet.

as well, we discussed the upcoming scavenger hunt that i am organizing for next week. in my quest to find enough participants to have equal teams of four, i had contacted my friend (garv). i was quite surprised that garv was all into the idea. he seemed more excited about the photo scavenger hunt than i did. anyway, i was explaining to marc and kelley (who will be new to the hunt this year) about how the scoring for the event is done and all that. as well, i told them if garv and his wife (leeann) did participate, that i would probably make the four of them a team seeing as how leeann does not know everyone else who is participating.

needless to say, i hope garv and leeann do participate... and not just because it would reduce my stress and solve the problem of finding enough participants this year. i really have not seen garv and leeann in a while. so it would be nice to hang out with them again.

I Suck At Stealing A Car

last night was my usual night to drive the two miss daisies (karen and hot amy) home after their long hard day of teaching at simmons college. it was a rather uneventful drive... filled with bumps, potholes, and some country music. for anyone curious, i do not regularly listen to country music. i usually change the radio station to a country music station whenever i pick karen up because i know she enjoys country music.

anyway, karen and hot amy spent much of the ride home talking about hot amy's new boy toy. hot amy's relationship is progressing very nicely as she now wants to do the "meet the friends" thing. for some strange reason, karen is particularly excited to have actually learned the age of hot amy's new man. for anyone curious, hot amy's new man is much closer to hot amy's age than her previous two encounters. in fact, hot amy is no longer bordering on cougar-like status. just kidding.

after dropping hot amy off, karen and i headed to karen's grandmother's house. karen's uncle (richie) and his wife (vicky), as well as her other uncle (billy) and his wife (sandy) have been up to do some things around nana's house in preparation for putting the house on the market. karen's uncles live south of the mason-dixon line... way south... tennessee and georgia respectively.

as richie was leaving thursday morning, he wanted to make sure that he received a copy of all the pictures that karen and her cousin (karlene) have been so diligently scanning for all of the relatives to enjoy. thus, karen and i stopped on by to copy the images from the laptop hard drive onto his flash drive.

when we pulled into nana's driveway, i immediately noticed nana's car. richie had purchased the car and was planning on driving the car back to tennessee. unfortunately, his plans had slightly changed whereby he was taking a lot more than just the car back to tennesee. so, he had rented a truck in addition to the car to drive back down to tennessee. sure, it's a convoluted story.

anyway, a couple of days ago, a bunch of us had planned on stealing nana's car as a joke. the entire joke stemmed from an incident... ages ago... that involved richie and bikes belonging to karlene and my favorite sister-in-law (janine). long story short, richie hid the bikes to teach karlene and janine a lesson. well, needless to say, with the rental truck, nana's car was apparently hitched to the truck. only the rear tires of the car were on the ground.

now, i suck at stealing a car. i have never stolen a car, but i would imagine stealing the car off of the hitch would have been quite difficult, quite time consuming, and very noticeably loud. for anyone curious, i would like to learn how to steal a car for no reason other than just knowing how to do so. television makes the act look so easy... from shimmying a little bar through the door mechanism... to pulling out a couple of wires underneath the steering column.

anyway, we never did end up stealing the car as a joke. instead, karen and i simply hung out with her uncles, aunt sandy, and vicky for a little while. karen transferred the scanned images as requested, while i polished off the remaining pizza that they had ordered for dinner... not bad for simply stopping by. but all in all, it was good. (i still want to learn how to steal a car. perhaps youtube will have a video.)

I Suck At Working On The House

for anyone who is curious... karen loves the television show, the golden girls. that show... and probably the cosby show... are possibly her favorite shows of all time. i suppose you could say that the golden girls are to her, what buffy the vampire slayer is to me.

what generally happens during most of our days is that karen will come home from work and unwind for a little while before going to bed. she will either watch the cosby show on the tvland station before going to bed, or she will watch a few episodes of the golden girls complements of the fios dvr.

as it turns out, she actually did both tonight. while she was watching the cosby show in bed tonight, i decided to write a post or two for my blog. in fact, this is generally when i have time to do other things... like work on a website for my favorite sister-in-law (janine) or take out the garbage or whatever. it's not like i dislike watching the cosby show or anything. i just feel like i can be more productive doing other things. plus, to quote my favorite niece (kaleigh)... "i'm not tired".

actually, one of the reasons why i am still awake now is because i am somewhat afraid to go to bed tonight. by afraid, i don't mean i have some type of phobia or anything. i'm actually just a little anal because i did not want to get my pillow case dirty with blood. for you see... i suck at working on the house.

before karen went to bed to watch the cosby show, she decided to watch a couple of episodes of the golden girls... complements of the verizon fios dvr. the golden girls is on all throughout the day... so there are always at least a handful of episodes recorded daily by the dvr.

anyway, while she was watching the golden girls, i decided to finish one of my projects around the house. the project involved adding sheets of plywood to our attic. the sheets of wood would function as a platform, or floor, whereby we could store things... like rubbermaid containers of clothes... or christmas ornaments... or even our fake christmas tree. without the plywood, there would just be the wood joists in the attic... and well... storing anything on a joist would not be good... particularly because if something happened, the weight of the item could cause it to go through your ceiling. (i actually slipped on the joist and stepped through our ceiling once when our house was just one floor... it wasn't pretty.)

regardless, there already existed one sheet of plywood in the attic which was done by the contractors who added our second floor addition. it turns out, that one sheet of plywood was not enough for our storage needs. so, with the additional area in the attic, we decided to add more sheets of plywood on top of the joists. as i had already added the additional sheets of plywood earlier, all i would have to do while karen was watching the golden girls was to attach the plywood to the joists.

so with a corded drill that my favorite brother-in-law (pj) lent me (because my cordless drill battery had died... completely), i climbed into the attic and started screwing the plywood to the joists. everything went fine until i was trying to attach a sheet of plywood near the edge of the roof. the angle of where the roof meets the joist creates a very tight spot. to get near the edge of the roof, i had to actually crawl face first toward the edge.

lying on my stomach near the edge of the roof, i looked to see if it was even worth attempting to attach screws to that side of the plywood sheet. it wasn't. i did not think there was going to be enough room to maneuver the drill anyway. so i shuffled backwards to what i thought was far enough and then sat up. thump!

i've hit my head numerous times. the number of times that i have hit my head sort of explains why i am the way i am, i guess. sadly, i knew this time was a little different. i felt the warm feel of blood on the top of my head... a result of hitting my head on a roofing nail that penetrated the shingles... and the roof. just to be sure, i even touched the top of my head only to see blood on my finger tips.

needless to say, i muttered "this is not good" under my breath. although i can't really see the wound, karen tells me the gash looks pretty good. perhaps i can try to impress people now and say i received it in a bar fight. karen did her best to clean the wound up for me because i could not see it.

so anyway, with the newly created gash on my head, i was afraid to go to bed and get my pillow case all covered in blood. plus, i may be somewhat paranoid now with the whole natasha richardson story about how her skiing accident led to her death. i figured i would wait a couple of hours to see if i get any headaches or whatnot as a result of my little accident. i don't know. perhaps i am paranoid. i may have to learn to sleep on my stomach tonight. we'll see.

I Suck At Hanging Out With Hugh And Jenny

tonight, karen and i did something that we have not done in quite some time: visit my friends (hugh and jenny). now, i suck at hanging out with hugh and jenny. i really have not seen both of them in quite some time.

for anyone curious, hugh was the best man at my wedding. from what i have been told, hugh and jenny were instrumental in notifying the rest of my friends when karen and i went through the unexpected early birth of our son (braden). truth be told, that time was quite the whirlwind... with braden's birth... his fight for survival... and his unfortunate passing. whether that fact about hugh and jenny was true or not, i will probably always remember them for that. (so as to not overlook anyone, i actually remember what a lot of my friends and family did during that time with braden to help support us. i am grateful for everyone's support. i only mentioned hugh and jenny's support during that time because it was one of my more recent memories of them... proof that i have not seen them in quite some time.)

anyway, jenny had contacted karen one day to invite us over for dinner. the plan was to order pizza (from papa gino's) and just hang out at their place. it was actually quite fun. hugh and jenny have a daughter (allison) and a son (hugh jr.). i basically spent the entire time playing with allison and hugh jr. and by playing with allison and hugh jr., i mean whipping their butts in nintendo wii.

nothing boosts an ego like pulverizing a little kid in a video game. just kidding. and in case anyone was curious, i won at wii bowling. my friend (hot amy) should probably beware of my mad wii bowling skills now. all right, so maybe my wii bowling skills are not that great. allison and hugh jr. are actually quite good at playing with the wii.

there is a star wars game that was actually quite fun on the wii. you basically wield your control like a light saber. hugh jr., by the way, seems to be quite the fan of star wars. he had a ton of star wars toys. needless to say, he wanted to play star wars with me... and all of his toys. allison, on the other hand, wanted to race up and down the hallway against me... and talk about the jonas brothers. decisions decisions.

anyway, it made for an interesting night. i think i probably hung out more with allison and hugh jr. than i did with hugh and jenny. so sadly, i did not really get to catch up with everything that was going on in hugh and jenny's lives. i suppose karen will just have to fill me in on what i missed.

but yeah, things were good tonight.

I Suck At Grumpy White's

on sunday, karen and her cousin (karlene) from lowell went to their grandmother's house in the morning to finish scanning all of the old pictures. as karlene was going to be there back to back days, she actually spent the night at our place on saturday. for anyone curious, she spent the night in braden's/my bff's (kerry) room.

karlene's husband (tommy) was taking a workshop this weekend, which actually made her staying over make more sense. tommy, by the way, had apparently gotten me a surprise present. that present: a t-shirt... and not just any t-shirt. written across the t-shirt: "there is a lot to like about lowell". the slogan, which i generally poke fun of, is a nice little plug for lowell. it seems however, that the city of lowell is actually changing their slogan from that to something different... so there apparently will not be a lot to like about lowell any longer. how sad.

anyway, while karen and karlene were gone, i decided to continue my little wood project. i applied the first coat of polyurethane on the pieces of wood. while that was drying, i decided to be productive again and wage my war on the "holly vine thing" that is plaguing the back yard... or more accurately, the conservation land behind the back yard.

with my sheers and my lopper, i went out to attack the "holly vine thing". it would have been more visually appealing had i a machete in my hand... but sadly, i don't own a machete. needless to say, i made some headway. i think i actually was able to remove much of the vines that were clinging and pulling down the nearby tree behind the shed. i was so excited when the vines dropped to the ground. i almost felt like i had saved the big tree.

as i am apt to do when i have a full head of steam on a particular project, i had forgotten to eat. before i knew it, hours had passed. the only reason i had even stopped was because my favorite sister-in-law (janine), my favorite brother-in-law (pj), my niece (kaleigh) and my nephew (pj) walked out of my house and onto the back deck. apparently, they had been trying to reach me because there were plans to go out to eat for dinner. the restaurant: grumpy white's located in quincy.

now i suck at grumpy white's. i have not been to grumpy white's in quite some time. from what i have been told, karlene has eaten there the past couple of times that she has been down this way and has raved about it to tommy. thus, tommy wanted to try the place out.

so following a brief stop at karen's grandmother's place... where i got to meet and greet some of the southern relatives... the eight of us headed off for dinner. grumpy white's was pretty good. i had the baked scallops which were good. of course, anything would probably have been good yesterday because i was so hungry.. having missed lunch and all. truth be told, the quad burger was looking pretty good. that's how hungry i was. for anyone curious, the quad burger is... well... a burger with 4 4 ounce patties. heck, it sounds good right now.

anyway, probably the funniest thing at the restaurant was the moment a member of the wait staff (sue) approached our table to ask us how we were doing and my nephew (pj) blurted out that we were planning to steal uncle richie's car. mental note, don't include pj on any secretive plans.

taken out of context, motor vehicular theft sounds thrilling and all. there actually is a back story to the stealing of the car. uncle richie is karen, janine and karlene's uncle who currently lives in tennessee. growing up, richie asked janine and karlene to remember to put their bikes away. needless to say, janine and karlene forgot to put their bikes away. so, in an effort to teach them a lesson, richie took their bikes and hid them from them. naturally, janine and karlene were surprised to discover their bikes missing... even though richie reminded to put their bikes away. suffice to say, they were freaking out... as much as a couple of 10 year olds could freak out. eventually, richie gave them their bikes back... but it was a lesson they would probably never forget.

as it so happens, richie fly up this weekend from tennessee. he purchased nana's car and is actually driving the car back to tennessee. thus, in what would be a prime practical joke, the idea to steal his car before he could drive the car down was floated around.

anyway, it was rather comical when little pj blurted out to the wait staff about our clandestine plans. it was definitely the best part about dinner because the prevailing topic of conversation consisted of... well... the mind numbing discussion about nana and how things were going to be divided amongst the relatives.... and who wants what... who should get what... the fairness of who take what... etc.

personally, i cannot wait for this entire thing to be over because i get a headache constantly hearing about this topic.

I Suck At Staining

on saturday, karen had plans to meet up with her cousin (karlene) at their grandmother's house. their plan was to continue scanning the oodles and oodles of old pictures from nana's photo albums in order to distribute them to every interested relative.

so needless to say, i had the house all to myself. in order to feel somewhat productive, i decided to work on the house. in particular, i wanted to stain a few pieces of molding. unfortunately, i suck at staining.

before i could even really begin my staining project, my mother called asking if my father and her could stop by. my mom wanted to use my computer so that she could... of all things... check her email.

my mom has an old basic dell computer that my brother got for her for christmas many years ago. neither of my parents use the computer often. because they do not use the computer that much, having high speed internet did not make sense. so instead, they opted for the free dial-up modem. the problem: dial-up... very slow. it's like that comcast commercial with the talking turtles (the slowskys).

anyway, my mom had spoke with some of my relatives in hong kong and learned that pictures had been sent to her email address. viewing the pictures, however, would have taken forever on her computer with the dial-up modem. knowing that i had fios internet, she asked to stop by for a visit.

after visiting my son (braden) at the cemetery, my parents arrived. the first thing i noticed when they arrived was that my father had a bucket with him. my father wanted to take some rocks with him to use at their place for some unknown project. (my dad gets these projects in his head some times.) for anyone curious, i currently have a huge mound of rocks sitting in my driveway. i also have a huge mound of dirt sitting next to the huge mound of rocks in my driveway. both piles were remnants of a late summer project that never really got finished. so needless to say, i was quite thrilled to be able to get rid of some of the rocks.

needless to say, i had to show my mother how to use my computer because connecting to the internet through my computer is much different than connecting to the internet through a dial-up modem. from there, i had to walk her through the basics again of... well... web browsers and how the little finger icon generally means that the text can be clicked on and whatnot.

my mother generally forgets things on the computer. she will write down the instructions on how to do something (like check her email)... only to never look at the instructions again. it's very frustrating because i have to repeat myself... many times. perhaps that is why i tend to lose my patience with my mom whenever it comes to teaching her things on the computer.

anyway, while my mom was looking at the pictures sent to her email account, my father shoveled some rocks into his little bucket. not wanting to interrupt my plans for the day, both of my parents urged me to continue with my staining project as though they were not there.

so, i quickly threw on the pre-stain... waited for some time to elapse... and then threw on the stain. to say i get my anal nature from my father is an understatement. as i was staining the pieces of wood... my father was watching behind me, pointed to a point on the wood and told me "you missed a spot".

following my quick and terrible staining job, i went back to helping my mom on the computer... because apparently she forgot how to do something on the computer. when all was said and done, it was practically dinner time. thinking nothing of it, i asked if my parents wanted to stay for dinner. after all, i would have been eating alone otherwise.

naturally, my parents agreed to stay for dinner. so, i cut up a few vegetables and made an indian curried rice... complements of trader joe's frozen food section. my mom was excited. she had that silly grin on her face and basically said "wow, you cook? how come you never cooked when you were growing up?" i told her that reheating frozen food really isn't cooking. as it turns out, both her and my dad enjoyed the indian curried rice. thanks trader joe!

my mom enjoyed the indian curried rice so much that she wanted to know how to make it from scratch. in fact, my parents went to trader joe's on their way home after dinner to pick up a few bags of the rice to see what the ingredients were.

hours later, my mom called saying that she figured out how to make the indian rice from scratch. she was quite excited when she called. my mom likes to do things like that... figure out how to make certain dishes from scratch. we'll see if her indian curried rice is as good as trader joe's.

I Suck At The Union Brew House

tonight i did something rather spontaneous: i went to the union brew house located in weymouth. now, i suck at the union brew house. i have not been to the union brew house in quite some time. the last time i went, i went with my friend (andrea) and we saw an old friend (kevin).

needless to say, tonight i went to the union brew house... again with andrea. earlier in the day, andrea and i had conversed with each other via instant messenger. she had just recently sent off her final car payment and with work being such a stressful situation, she wanted to celebrate of sorts. as i had no plans for the night, i decided to celebrate andrea's achievement with her.

so, we decided to go to the union brew house. for me, it was my second time ever going there. one of the draws about going to the union brew house is that... as andrea put it... the brew house is like quincy... only not really. that may or may not be true. for me, i just wanted to sample the alcohol because there is a lot of variety in terms of beer that is offered at the union brew house. the union brew house offers this challenge of sorts whereby if a patron drinks all of the 99 bottled beers that they offer, they will receive a plaque with their name on it and a free t-shirt. as i am a sucker for free t-shirts, i (and andrea) decided to take up the challenge.

with a scorecard to keep track of all the beers, andrea and i had a nice dinner accompanied with a variety of bottled beers. i had a mushroom swiss burger with spicy fries. the meal was very good... and the plethora of fries were actually spicy. the beers i had imbibed when the night was done were: hoegaarden (i loved the name), julius echter hefe-weissbier, long tail seasonal, negro modelo, newcastle brown ale, old speckled hen, and wachusett seasonal.

making things more interesting was the fact that my favorite brother-in-law (pj) showed up as well. pj absolutely chuckled when i had called him during our dinner. the last time i had called him, i was face down in my front lawn... a result of a little too much scotch. using the same lines i said during that fateful incident, i convinced him to meet us at the union brew house.

consequently, pj showed up at the union brew house and the three of us hung out together. it was actually pj's first time at the union brew house. in fact, for a place he has never been to, pj actually enjoyed the union brew house. anyway, the three of us hung out... imbibing on a few drinks or so... laughing and whatnot as we enjoyed each other's company.

partly through the night, a woman and a man approached our table. i was actually amazed because the woman happened to be pj's cousin (tiffany). tiffany looked so different with her glasses and her different hair style. even pj did not recognize tiffany until she took off her glasses. tiffany was with her new boyfriend (darren) whom she actually met at the union brew house.

anyway, tiffany and darren joined us at our table. apparently, there has been a big to-do with tiffany's new boyfriend because darren had to pass the "pj test". darren had already met tiffany's parents, yet for some reason... pj was next on the list to meet him. luckily, we just happened to be at the union brew house when they were at the union brew house. (i have been told that tiffany and darren frequent the union brew house a lot since they both live not too far from the place.)

truth be told, darren seems like a nice guy. in fact, he seems a whole lot better than tiffany's ex-husband... whom i refer to as the alaskan assassin (because he came from alaska).

for the rest of the night, the five of us sat around the table... hanging out... laughing and being silly. it was quite the fun time. i may have been sillier than the rest because i tend to laugh a lot more when inebriated... not that i was inebriated or anything. (i think darren would like to take me home because i laughed at all of his... and tiffany's jokes.)

darren, by the way, is the youngest of 14 children. he apparently seems to know everyone... much like my friend (carlos). in fact, darren used to work at the union brew house, so he knew a lot about the beers that the place offered... and the waitstaff.

unfortunately, the night of silliness had to come to end. after all, my hugging ways can only last so long. nonetheless, i had a fun time tonight with andrea and pj... and tiffany and darren. it was definitely a fun night. and with 7 bottled beers down, i have 92 on the list to go. hopefully, i can complete the remaining task of drinking the other bottled beers and get that t-shirt. i don't even know what the t-shirt looks like, but i hope it's worth it.

let's see... 99 bottles of beer... each priced to be at least $5 or more... that would be close to $500 or so... i'm guessing a $500 t-shirt should be worth it. the t-shirt better be laced with gold. perhaps someday i'll find out.

interestingly enough, i learned tonight that a man has earned about 7 plaques and t-shirts... by himself. that's quite the motivation... either that or quite the drinking problem.

regardless, i had a fun time tonight. i probably don't spend as much time with pj and andrea as i should. it was definitely fun tonight.

I Still Suck At Angel

last night, karen and i hung out with my friends (marc and kelley). as karen was working late at her regular full-time job, i stopped over a little early at marc and kelley's.

marc and kelley recently got the resident evil 5 video game. being a big fan of the entire resident evil video game series (the movies themselves were not that good), i was rather excited to see the game play. needless to say, i watched kelley kill a few zombies. shooting zombies in the head never gets old.

anyway, karen eventually showed up. marc was kind enough to make dinner for the night: pasta, meatballs, and garlic bread... (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound). while we ate, we watched the latest episode of "lost". as usual, the episode was fantastic. i think marc shares my sentiments in that the show, if the writers decide to kill off a main character as the current gossip seems to be, should kill off the kate character. for anyone curious, kate did not really have anything to do with the latest episode of "lost"... it's just that the other characters are that much better than kate.

following lost, we were able to watch a couple of episodes and complete the first disc of angel season one. now, i still suck at angel. the episodes we watched were "in the dark", which was a follow up episode from the greatest television show ever: buffy the vampire slayer, in which a ring that makes a vampire unkillable is brought to angel; and "i fall to pieces" about a stalking doctor who can detach his body parts.

of the two episodes, i enjoyed "in the dark" the best... probably because it had the spike character in the episode. i think the best part of the episode was in the very beginning of the episode, where spike stood on the rooftop looking down below at angel and the woman whom angel had just rescued. spike was simply adlibbing what angel and the woman were saying to one another. it was pretty comical.

anyway, as usual it was a great time hanging out with marc and kelley. plus, it turns out that i found out a new fun fact about marc last night. apparently, marc likes the euro-pop band, erasure. marc used to rib myself and my friend (garv) for being fans of erasure... because erasure was gay... (figuratively... and literally). so, i was quite surprised to find out that marc admitted to liking the band himself. for anyone curious, erasure is probably known most for their song "a little respect". the band also did a cover of abba songs... proof that they are indeed gay.

the reason erasure even came up in conversation in the first place is that the band recently released a greatest hits album called "Total Pop! - the First 40 Hits". i find the title of the album pretty funny because i have one of their earlier greatest hits album, "Pop! The First 20 Hits".

"that you give me no
that you give me no
that you give me no
that you give me no

soul, i hear you calling
oh baby please give a little respect to me..."

such a good song...

I Still Suck At Chauffeuring

in terms of driving, tonight has been a weird night. that doesn't bode well for me because i still suck at chauffeuring. after all, tonight is my usual night to pick up karen and my friend (hot amy) from simmons college and chauffeur their sorry bums home. i like to refer to karen and hot amy as miss daisies.

anyway, i should have known it was going to be a weird night with the traffic i encountered on my way in to simmons college. when it comes to punctuality, i am generally early for things. like most wednesdays, i give myself a considerable amount of time when picking karen and hot amy up at simmons college.

for some reason, there was stop and go traffic on my way in to tonight. there usually isn't that much traffic heading into town on a wednesday night. had my favorite brother-in-law (pj) been with me, he probably would have gone insane with the traffic. pj is not a big fan of traffic.

needless to say, the traffic actually made me a little late. with the pedal to the metal, i managed to get to simmons college... two minutes over. sure, two minutes over is not really that late, but it's just late enough to annoy me because i am generally early and punctual.

interestingly enough, my tardiness was not even the strangest thing about my drive tonight. tonight, i caught the tail end of a biker getting hit by a car.

on my way to simmons college, i drove by the police station that is near the ruggles subway station. the ruggles station is not too far from northeastern university... my almost alma mater... had i enough money to continue paying the tuition. there is actually an intersection with a set of lights near ruggles station that allows buses to exit the station.

anyway, i was patiently waiting for the light to turn green at that intersection. distracted by my tardiness due to the traffic on the way in, i glanced over at the time display on the car stereo. the next thing i hear is a loud crash.

looking out my window, i see a bike rider kneeling on the ground. the actual bike is smashed and on the ground. jumping out of the black car that hit the biker... a police officer in uniform. the black car was apparently an unmarked police car.

as i watched the aftermath unfold, i saw the biker just kneeling on the ground holding his back. and then after a very long delay, he started crying in pain. it was as though the shock finally wore off and he realized that he had just gotten hit by a car.

the biker's reaction almost reminded me of the time karen was reaching for a canned good stored high up in one of our kitchen cabinets. with the canned good in her hand, karen apparently had a phalanges malfunction and the canned good caught karen on the chin. stunned for a prolonged moment, karen soon started to cry uncontrollably.

obviously, the biker's situation is a lot more dire and tragic. i just think it's amazing how the body functions with the whole delay of pain thing. needless to say, i hope all is well with the biker. he seemed okay, aside from the tears of course. thankfully, the car was not going faster.

I Still Suck At Nana's

following my spring roll cooking lesson yesterday, my mom and i went to visit my aunt in quincy. a couple of years ago, my aunt was in a freak accident where she was hit by a mbta bus at quincy center station. my aunt thankfully survived, but she lost one of her legs in the accident.

since that time, she has gone to physical therapy and is now confined to a wheelchair. she appears to be doing fine. in fact, just last month she, along with my uncle, moved into a senior citizens home across from the cvs in quincy. my mom told me that she had asked about me, which consequently led to my visit.

it was probably a good thing that my mom and i visited my aunt when we did. when we arrived, both of us could smell smoke in the hallway. i thought it was a neighbor, until my aunt opened the door. she didn't realize that the food she made was burning on the stove. my aunt was boiling potatoes and didn't realize that all of the water had evaporated. needless to say, my mom quickly threw the pot in the sink.

anyway, it was an interesting visit to say the least. my aunt... can't speak a lick of english. every time i see her, she always asks me the same question... which translates to "can you understand what we're saying?" i always respond with the same answer: a little. this happens repeatedly... every time i see her.

regardless, my aunt is doing well. following the visit, i went to pick up karen and her nana's in quincy. karen, her cousin (karlene) and karlene's husband (tommy) were at nana's scanning yet more pictures from nana's photo albums. now, i still suck at nana's. i wasn't even going to write about my visit to nana's yesterday, but it was just too good to pass up.

while karen and karlene were going through old pictures, karlene came upon a box with old christmas cards. the christmas cards were home made, created by members of the family. anyway, karlene was flipping through each card... opening them and reading them aloud at the table where the four of us were seated.

there was one christmas card in particular that simply left us in stitches. i am afraid i don't remember all the particular details of the card. if i did, the card would seemingly make more sense. the card had simply listed a bunch of items for christmas. karlene simply read each item aloud... and then the last item... 26 ejaculations... or something like that.

naturally, i started cracking up... because i have the mentality of a two year old. the expressions on everyone's face was classic. karlene then went through another card... and there it was again... ejaculations! my laughter grew louder and louder.

i can only imagine someone wanting 26 ejaculations in today's world. while i was dying from laughter, tommy decided to look up the word in nana's 1952 dictionary. the word as it was intended to mean in 1952 was a sudden short exclamation... to which... i snickered and said... like "oh god! oh god! oh god!" (snicker. snicker.)

anyway, the whole thing was classic. it was a great way to end the day. it still cracks me up thinking about it. the next christmas card i send out... i'm going to mention ejaculations. just kidding.

I Suck At Making Spring Rolls

yesterday was quite the entertaining experience. for quite some time, i have wanted to learn how to cook chinese food like my parents. after all, it would be a shame not to pass on that information from generation to generation, especially since a lot of family and friends consider my parents great cooks.

needless to say, i asked my mom if she would be willing to show me, karen, and karen's family how to make something. in paticular, i asked if she would be willing to show us how she made her spring rolls. now, i suck at making spring rolls. growing up, i have always watched her make them. i just have never actually asked her what she puts in them, how much she puts in them, etc. all i knew was that... well... the spring rolls were delicious. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.)

anyway, my mom's face lit up with excitement when i asked. both of my parents love to entertain. so whenever they get the chance, they totally enjoy having people over their place. i think my parents were also excited because i took an active role in learning how to cook... something i normally don't do... or haven't done when i was growing up. and as my mom can tell any of you, i didn't take an active role in cleaning the house, taking out the garbage, or any of that other stuff as well when i was growing up. my mom, whenever she sees me cleaning my house these days, laughs and always asks why i never did that way back when.

regardless, it just so happens that my parents were available yesterday for the spring roll lesson. so karen, karen's parents, my favorite sister-in-law (janine), my niece (kaleigh), and karen's cousin (karlene) and her husband (tommy) attended the little cooking class.

so there we were... all gathered around the circular table as my parents demonstrated how to make egg rolls while a whole slew of appetizers floated around for everyone to eat.

my dad began by showing off... the cleaver. he took a head of chinese cabbage and started chopping away. each chop from the cleaver landed with a thud against the chopping block. THUD THUD THUD. i think the cleaver scared everyone, including kaleigh. my mom simply rolled her eyes at my dad and his cleaver. we soon switched to something less scary: a regular knife for chopping cabbage.

from there, we shredded carrots into the mix.

(the picture below is of my mom helping kaleigh shred some carrots while tommy looks on.)


that was basically it. my parents then threw the cabbage and carrot mixture into the wok and added some sea salt, pepper, sugar, sesame oil, vermicelli, corn starch and water to it... and lo and behold... the spring roll ingredients were ready.

after letting the ingredients cool down, everyone tried their hand at rolling the spring rolls. that was when things got a little messy. my parents purchased a bag that contained 50 sheets spring roll pastry dough. well, needless to say, of the 50, only about 25 came out okay. luckily, my parents purchased an extra bag of 50 spring roll pastries... just for the occasion. the second time around turned out much better... 50 for 50... proof that practice makes perfect.

when all the spring rolls were complete, my dad threw them in the wok to fry. when the spring rolls were a nice golden brown, he threw them on a plate and all of us enjoyed the fruits of our labor. my parents also made some other pork dish to go with the spring rolls too.

all in all, it was fun... and messy. i think my parents, and hopefully everyone else, had a great time. i love my parents. if they could, they would probably have everyone over all of the time. they seem to immensely enjoy company. so hopefully i can convince them again for another cooking lesson. and truth be told, i can't wait for the next lesson.

I Suck At Twilight

saturday night, karen and i got to hang out with my friend (andrea). it just so happens that this past weekend is st. patrick's day weekend. in the past, karen and a bunch of other friends (including andrea) would venture down to newport, rhode island for the st. patrick's day parade. i'm not sure how many years they have gone down to newport for the parade.

this year, however, the tradition was broken. this year, my friend (jen) organized a trip down to new orleans, louisiana for the st. patrick's day parade. jen and her brother (bill) have recently become big fans of new orleans... and really, what is there not to be a fan of... with all the cajun cuisine... and the boobies. just kidding.

i have always wanted to go to new orleans, particularly for the cajun food... and maybe the boobies. sadly, i've never been to new orleans. in retrospect, i probably should have taken advantage of the fact that my friend (hugh) went to college down in new orleans many years ago. as a poor college student myself at the time, i could never justify flying down to new orleans for a visit.

as much as i would have liked to, this year karen and i couldn't make the organized trip to new orleans for st. patrick's day. as well, neither could andrea this year. so while they were away this weekend, karen and i got to do something that we don't do too often: hang out with just andrea.

hanging out with andrea is fun... i am not just saying that because she brought us cookies, bailey's and a book... although i suppose that helps. just kidding. speaking of the book, andrea lent me the next book in the twilight series, called "new moon". she had originally lent me the first book as i was curious about the whole twilight buzz.

unfortunately, i suck at twilight. i was not a big fan of the book because i thought the dialogue and the plot of the book was simply awful and silly. to summarize the entire book: "i shouldn't love you because you're a vampire... but i love you..." or something like that... throughout the entire book. i guess it didn't help that i was not the target audience of the book either... that target: teeny bopper girls. nonetheless, i read the book.

when i was reading the book, i remember andrea wanting to watch the movie... because unlike me, she enjoyed the book. sadly, she never got to watch the movie... until saturday night. thanks to my trusty computer, the three of us decided to have a twilight night.

(the video below is the twilight trailer.)


after having a grilled chicken dinner, complete with broccoli and couscous... (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound) the three of us got cozy on the couch and watched the movie, twilight, on our ginormous television.

in all honesty, i thought the movie was better than the book... probably because the movie took some much needed creative licensing and added some plotlines not in the book to make a more interesting story.

anyway, it was fun. karen even enjoyed the movie. i am now even tempted to read the second book called "new moon" just to begin my quest to complete the series. yes, i'm like that. i'm anal enough to complete a series that i don't like even though i have read only one book. it probably should come as no surprise to anyone because i watch a ton of awful movies... so reading awful books is no different... for example: star wars episode 1... awful... yet i watched episode 2 and 3 (which were equally awful) to complete the series.

so, we'll see how it goes. hopefully the twilight series will get better.

I Suck At The South Shore Country Club

yesterday, our final painting that we got on our cruise to the bahamas at the beginning of the year arrived. the painting is a type of art known as "kinetic" art. karen really enjoyed that particular work of art... and the frame that it came in. so hopefully some day soon, we can have a little unveiling party.

to celebrate, karen and i went to the south shore country club located in hingham. okay, so maybe we weren't celebrating the arrival of the painting. we were actually celebrating the birthday of my friend's (pam) daughter (keira) who had just turned the ripe old age of one year.

pam, who lives in bon jovi's home state of new jersey, was back in massachusetts this weekend to celebrate keira's birthday with her family and friends. the party was to be held at the south shore country club, particularly the bowling alley of the country club. unfortunately, i suck at the south shore country club.

(pictured below is pam's husband and the birthday girl.)


i have not been to the south shore country club in quite some time. i think the last time i was there was for my nephew's (pj) school fundraiser, which was a few years ago. and as luck would have it, i was there today at the south shore country club with the same people: my favorite sister-in-law (janine), my favorite brother-in-law (pj), pj, and my niece (kaleigh). truth be told, i never even knew the south shore country club had a bowling alley up until keira's birthday party... although i probably should have figured they would because after all... it's hingham. just kidding.

anyway, the party was interesting. for the most part, all the kids bowled while the adults hung out. watching pj and kaleigh bowl was rather amusing. kaleigh even attempted to show the daughter (emma) of one of pam's friends (kim) how to bowl. emma simply dropped the bowling ball...

all in all, i think all the kids who attended had a great time. i sometimes wonder if this is what parenting is supposed to feel or be like... a bunch of parents gathering together, swapping baby stories, and enjoying time with everyone's children. my son (braden) passed away last year at the age of one week. sadly, i'll never know what it feels like to bring him to a bowling party, swap stories, and all of that. all i can do is simply watch other parents enjoy themselves with their children and think what if...

perhaps some day i'll know what it feels like. right now, i sort of feel like i'm in a holding pattern... a father without a child to raise... it's an empty feeling inside that i sometimes don't know if i'll ever shake or feel right again. but the whole experience definitely makes me appreciate everyone and everything that i do have in my life.

oh yes, before i forget, here is the shameless plug for the bowling party as promised to pam: the pizza was "yum-o". pam's father ordered pizza from... i think the place is called "the express" in weymouth. the pizza was good. i think i actually may have eaten an entire pizza all by myself.

anyway, it was a good time. happy birthday keira! i hope you enjoyed the day... and i hope you enjoyed pj feeding you too.

I Suck At Yard Work

with the nice weather yesterday, i decided to do something outside. that something: yard work. now, i suck at yard work. in fact, of all the possible chores to do, yard work is my least favorite.

there are many reasons as to why i dislike yard work so much:

reason #1) it's dirty and i hate getting dirty. sure, call me a primadonna, but i'd rather be covered in saw dust than in dirt. plus saw dust washes out of clothes... dirt... seems to wash out some of the time. not to mention... when you start sweating... sweat and dirt = disgusting.

reason #2) blisters and soreness. inevitably, yard work seems to consume a lot of time. because yard projects take a lot of time, i end up wielding some type of tool for a long period of time. and even with gloves, i always seem to get blisters. (okay, so perhaps i have delicate hands.) in addition to blisters, i generally end up feeling very sore hours later... also because i end up wielding some type of tool for a long period of time.

reason #3) depending on the time of day, i tan... and not just any tan... i generally get the ever stylish farmer's tan. granted, i suppose i could do yard work in the buff to get the well rounded tan, but i'd rather spare my neighbors the unsightly vision.

anyway, in an attempt to be somewhat productive during the nice weather, i decided to do some yard work. behind our back yard is conservation land. technically, i am not supposed to do anything to the land behind our back yard. there are, however, things growing on the conservation land and hanging over into our back yard.

the thing that is hanging over is some type of holly vine thing. if i were a horticulturalist, i could probably be a little more descriptive than "holly vine thing". basically, if you have seen any of those holiday wreaths made from twisted vines with little red berries sprinkled throughout the wreath, you probably have seen the "holly vine thing". sure, the "holly vine thing" may look pretty. unfortunately, it tends to kill other trees and plants.

behind our backyard are trees that are absolutely covered by these "holly vine things". the "holly vine things" grow from the ground... weave up and all around the trunk and any branches of a nearby tree... take all the sunlight away from the tree... and inevitably kills the tree.

thinking i would do something nice for the environment, i figured i would try to free some of the trees from the nasty grip of the "holly vine thing". well, let's just say that the project may have been over my head.

i chose a random tree near the border of our back yard and started shearing away. a little snip snip here. a little snip snip there. a blister (reason #2 as to why i dislike yard work) and a couple of hours later... i managed to free the single tree from the "holly vine thing". interestingly enough, it was pretty neat to watch the tree shoot straight up after cutting the vines from the "holly vine thing".

as exciting as it was to see the tree stand up again, there was just too many vines. i would have loved to continue my assault on the "holly vine thing", but i was simply too fatigued... which is sad seeing as how i just worked on one tree. there are a lot more trees behind my backyard.

nonetheless, i will try my hand again at defeating the "holly vine thing"... just not in the near future because my body is extremely sore right now... (again, reason #2 on why i dislike yard work).

I Suck At Angel

tonight, karen and i hung out with my friends (marc and kelley). our original plans were slightly delayed today due to karen's busy schedule. nonetheless, we were able to still get together and watch another episode of the greatest television show ever: buffy the vampire slayer and its spin-off series, angel. now, i suck at angel.

in comparison, i have not watched angel as many times as i have watched buffy the vampire slayer. that is not to say i did not enjoy the show as much. in fact, i loved the angel series. there was a time when i used to think the angel series was better than buffy because the storylines were just simply more interesting.

anyway, as we were running behind schedule today, i picked up dinner at the falafel king located in quincy on my way to pick up karen. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) the falafel king is so good. granted, all of us generally get the same thing all the time. the food, however, is just so delicious. nobody beats the king. that's my shameless plug for the night.

as there was no new episode of lost this week, the four of us dove right into watching the last episode of the first disc of the fourth season: "fear itself". (we had actually watched the previous two episodes last friday before our watchmen excursion.) "fear itself" is the halloween episode that takes place at a fraternity party. it's also the episode where we find out that the anya character is afraid of bunnies... as evident from her halloween bunny costume.

from there, we quickly jumped to the first disc of the first season of angel. we only were able to watch the first two episodes: "city of" which sets up the series and introduces the character, doyle; and "lonely hearts" about a serial killing demon that hits the singles bars.

interestingly enough, the four of us were pleasantly surprised within the first few minutes of the angel series. making a guest appearance within the first few minutes was none other than josh holloway, the actor better known for his role as sawyer in lost. josh holloway opens the series as a vampire. it was quite the surprise to see him... clean shaven and all... at the very beginning of the series.

anyway, as usual it was a fun night. and really, what's not fun about the undead? heck, i even got to watch the trailer for the upcoming resident evil 5 video game. for anyone curious, resident evil is a survival horror video game... complete with zombies.

(the video below is a trailer for the resident evil 5 video game.)


needless to say, buffy... angel... resident evil... all very exciting!

I Suck At The Celtic Bells

tonight, karen and i did something new: we attended a family performance at the local library. the performance was presented by the celtic bells. now, i suck at the celtic bells. apparently, the celtic bells are a family from leominster. they sing. they dance. they perform a whole slew of instruments. and most importantly, they are irish.

karen and i randomly stumbled upon the promotion for the performance one day when we were visiting our local library. the promotion just mentioned that they were an irish family that performed irish things. as i love all things irish... including my wife karen... karen and i decided to attend the family performance. so, naturally we signed up to attend the event. (i must say, i love our local library. the librarians are nice... and now they have these special events... who knew?)

needless to say, the family performance was very enjoyable. interestingly enough, we saw a member of the cemetery committee (gertrude) at the performance. in addition to helping us determine our cemetery plots for our son (braden), gertrude attended our braden's service. she recognized us as well... probably because i stick out in our town of norwell... and asked how both of us were doing since the service. it was nice that she remembered us.

in addition to gertrude, we also happened to see my bff's (kerry) aunt (fran). for anyone who has been inside our house, fran is the artist who painted a picture of our house when the house was just an itty bitty cottage... and she also painted a picture of our house when the house was renovated to have a second floor. the two pictures are hanging side by side near one of our doors.

fran lives in hull. it just so happens that fran's cousin, who lives in norwell, happened to also see the promotion for the celtic bells and decided to sign them both up.

all in all, it was a fun... and informative night. karen and i learned about the difference between scottish and irish bag pipes; how the scottish and irish imitated deer in their dance; how the church did not want people to dance with movements above the waist, which consequently led to irish step dancing; a wooden toy called a dancing man; appalachia spoons based on the shipping instrument known as bones; and probably most interesting: the name kayleigh is derived from the word for party... it explains a lot about my niece.

i am hoping the local library has other fun performances in the future. for anyone curious, the celtic bells came highly recommended from other libraries. i can't wait.

I Suck At The Villa Rosa

tonight, i celebrated registered dietitian day. sure, the celebration was a little early. according to the american dietitic association, registered dietitian day is actually tomorrow (march 11). in fact, this quasi-real holiday will be the second annual registered dietitian day this year.

anyway, in celebration of registered dietitian day, karen and i met up with a few friends (dolores, hot amy, and tom) at the villa rosa in quincy. now, i suck at the villa rosa. i don't think i have been there since karen and i took karen's nana there for dinner last year... before her incident.

regardless, karen thoroughly enjoys the eggplant pizza from the villa rosa. she was very excited to meet up with dolores and hot amy, both of whom are also dietitians, at the villa rosa. tom... or loser tom... as i sometimes have been known to refer to him as... and i were just tagging along as eye candy. for anyone curious, tom is not a loser. when a bunch of us first met him, tom was concerned that we would think he was a loser. the name "loser tom" sort of just stuck after that.

needless to say, karen and i had the eggplant pizza. (by the way, the eggplant pizza is very good. "yum-o"!) anyway, it was a fun night. adding to the enjoyable atmosphere was the 80s music that was playing at the villa rosa. my friend (andrea) would be happy to know that the theme to st. elmo's fire was played.

(the video below is the theme from st. elmo's fire.)

there were a bunch of other classic songs from the 80s that were played too. "man in motion" just stuck out because i knew it was one of andrea's all time favorites... if not the favorite.

anyway, as usual i had a good time. dolores always cracks me up... probably because we have similar interests like being fans of the greatest television show ever: buffy the vampire slayer. plus, i can constantly pick on her... all in good fun of course.

throughout the night, we talked about things like home improvement projects; the latest show on television that karen and i are addicted to... called "renovation realities" on the diy network; the wahlbergs; the new kids on the block; sebastian bach... who dolores totally adores; and a bunch of other topics like how men do not listen to women. i would probably list more topics of our discussion... had i in fact been listening throughout the night. just kidding.

eventually, the discussion turned toward the newly smitten hot amy. primarily, curious minds were wondering how old the person was that she had been dating under the guise of "being friends". with all the other questions surrounding this mysterious fellow, it almost seemed like an inquisition for hot amy.

interestingly enough, the whole thing reminded about a picture i remember seeing of hot amy sitting in a chair. the picture was taken when karen, hot amy, and my friend (jen) went to visit my other friend (pam) in bon jovi's home state of new jersey. at the time of that visit, they were likewise interrogating hot amy about her then newfound crush... and apparently decided to take a picture of the interrogation.

it's funny how that works. you would never see, at least to my knowledge, a bunch of guys clamoring together asking another guy about the details of his new found date. and if you did, i would probably say that was odd. and even if there were details, i am guessing that most of the details would be of the sordid kind. nonetheless, the whole interrogation thing was very interesting to watch and be a part of.

needless to say, i think everyone is pretty excited to meet this mystery man.

I Suck At Cleaning Toilets

today, my friend (hot amy) came over. since teaching at simmons college this semester, karen and hot amy routinely get together every weekend to review and correct case studies.

as both karen and i were feeling under the weather (probably a result of the perpetually germy hot amy), hot amy decided to come over. for anyone curious, hot amy is slightly under the weather as well. so in essence, the three of us pretty much had our own germ-fest today. yay.

anyway, now that we were having company, karen and i frantically cleaned the house. karen is a cleaning nut. plus, we like to have our place looking good for guests. unfortunately, one of the duties i had to do today was clean the toilets. now, i suck at cleaning toilets.

i don't really mind cleaning toilets that much. in addition to the disinfectant spray cleaner, we have a "toilet want" that allows us to clean inside the bowl. the toilet wand is neat because it turns the toilet water a nice foamy blue. it's very fun to watch.

needless to say, i had the bathroom smelling all nice and clean for the day... i love that sanitized smell. i guess the clean toilets turned out to be a good thing too because hot amy actually had to christen the bathroom today... so no germs on her behind.

following karen and my frantic cleaning, i was then tasked with making lunch. that lunch: macaroni and cheese. (don't worry, i washed my hands before making the meal.) karen thought the lunch would be good since hot amy was coming over. unfortunately, the macaroni and cheese came out a little different this time around. (i will need to perfect this macaroni and cheese recipe should hot amy and i have this macaroni and cheese bakeoff.) nonetheless, i think everyone enjoyed the lunch.

for dessert, the three of us polished off a pint of ben and jerry's ice cream that hot amy brought. yum! ice cream!

aside from that, i pretty much left karen and hot amy on their own while they corrected their case studies. it was a thrilling day for me... i know.

although, i did find out some interesting facts today. those facts include: hot amy absolutely refuses to buy any top that has 3/4 sleeves... something about the feel of needing to pull the sleeves up or down. and the other interesting fact is that karen and hot amy are the same size.

excited about being able to borrow hot amy's clothes now, karen told me that she wore hot amy's dress for this valentine's ball that we attended when all of us were in college. i believe the valentine's ball was the first and only time that i was fortunate enough to meet hot amy's one-eyed date. he literally had one eye. and for some reason... the aforementioned one-eyed date... drove all of us to the ball. i don't know why we thought having the person with the worst depth perception among all of us drive... but we did.

needless to say, the drive was a scary experience. luckily, we all made it out alive. but apparently, the dress karen wore to that ball belonged to hot amy. karen was pretty excited to still be able to borrow her clothes after all of these years. the excitement... i know...

I Still Suck At Nana's

yesterday, karen and i spent most of the day at nana's house. unfortunately, i still suck at nana's.

karen and her cousin (karlene) from lowell made plans to continue their quest to scan the numerous photos at nana's house so that they could distribute the pictures among all of the relatives. (shameless plug: there is a lot to like about lowell... as the lowell commercials will have you believe.)

it turns out that karlene's husband (tommy) was also coming down from lowell to get a haircut. there is a barber in quincy that tommy likes going to. so he decided that he would come down for the day and get a haircut.

meanwhile, karen's aunt (denise) was likewise down at nana's. she had spent the night there as she attended karen's great uncle's (bob) funeral service the day before. and rather than drive back to lowell from where the funeral was in the cape, she decided to spend the night at nana's.

so needless to say, with karen, karlene, tommy and aunt denise already at nana's, i likewise decided to join the party. little did i know, i would be put to work. truth be told, i really did not mind doing work around nana's house. i had no other plans that day anyway. and as aunt denise has reminded me... i apparently do a lot stuff for their family. (i so have them fooled.)

i actually found aunt denise's statement a little funny. the whole thing came about because there is a quilt hanging in nana's bedroom. the quilt contains pictures of all the relatives... and at the time... their spouses. because i was not married to karen at the time, i did not "make it " to the quilt.

(pictured below from left to right are karlene, aunt denise, karen and tommy. tommy was looking up the derivation of our names. for me, my name means one who is like god... with a question mark... tommy thought the question mark was amusing.)


it turns out that should nana ever pass away, the aforementioned quilt would be buried with nana. so naturally, i found that proposal to bury nana with the quilt slightly ironic in conjunction with aunt denise's statement that i do stuff for the family. after all, there are people on the quilt who are no longer in the family... yet... will be buried with nana should she pass away. in essence, there will be people who did not do stuff for nana that will be buried with her. i just found that funny.

truth be told, it does not matter to me if a picture of me makes the quilt. i just like to joke and tease karen's family about it. after all... like aunt denise said, i apparently do a lot for the family. i told aunt denise that i would boycott all family things... memorial masses included... until i made the quilt. i obviously am joking.

anyway, i really did not do too much at nana's. while karen and karlene were scanning more pictures, tommy cleaned the ceiling fans and the areas above the windows (because he is tall). (tommy also got his haircut too.) aunt denise cleaned the back porch. my tasks included removing a safety bar at the bottom of the stairs, removing a tupperware lid holder from the wall, and removing other things screwed into the walls. as well, i went through all the paint cans to see which cans were still good to use. there may have been a few other odds and ends like moving stuff and throwing stuff out, too.

all in all, there wasn't that much for me to do yesterday. but, i did what i could... even if i did not make the quilt.

I Suck At Watchmen

on friday, karen and i hung out with my friends (marc and kelley). it was actually the second time this the week that we got to hang out with marc and kelley. our plan for the night was to watch the premier of the movie: the watchmen.

since hearing about the movie, marc has been quite excited about the watchmen. his excitement over the movie was much like my excitement over the first lord of the rings movie when that came out. that is not to say i was not equally excited over the watchmen movie.

for anyone curious, the watchmen movie is based on the 12 issue comic book series. according to my friend, wikipedia:

"Watchmen takes place in an alternate history United States where superheroes emerged in the 1940s and 1960s, helping the United States to win the Vietnam War. The country is edging closer to a nuclear war with the Soviet Union, freelance costumed vigilantes have been outlawed and most costumed superheroes are in retirement or working for the government. The story focuses on the personal development and struggles of the protagonists as an investigation into the murder of a government sponsored superhero pulls them out of retirement and eventually leads them to confront a plot by one of their own to stave off nuclear war by killing millions of innocent people."

(the video below is the trailer for watchmen.)


needless to say, we decided to attend the showing of the movie in natick at the imax theater. lucky for us, marc had pre-ordered the tickets a while ago because the show was sold out. interestingly enough, we arrived a half hour early to the theater... and we were still behind a large number of people in line. madness.

speaking of madness, we had the pleasure of seeing two comic book fans dressed up as watchmen characters. one person dressed up as rorschach, the comic book hero who wears a mask with constantly changing inkblots (hence, the name). (i'm not exactly sure how that person was able to watch the movie with a mask on.) his friend, however, chose to dress up as dr. manhattan, the blue skinned superhero. and truth be told, the dr. manhattan fan... half-assed it. his costume was not that good in comparison to the rorschach fan.

anyway, the watchmen movie was good. for anyone curious, the movie is not the typical hollywood comic book movie. the movie was dark and deep much like what i remember the comic book being. and proof that the movie is just not for the typical male comic book geek/nerd... there was plenty of blue man junk for the ladies. yes, the aformentioned dr. manhattan is naked throughout most of the movie. yes... man junk. i think if i were a superhero, i'd definitely wear clothes... but that's just me.

needless to say, the movie was good. i had a great time watching it with marc, kelley and karen.

I Suck At Fillings

this morning, i paid a visit to my friendly neighborhood dentist. and by friendly neighborhood... i mean quincy. yes, i know... i do not live near quincy anymore. but, i grew up with my dentist in quincy and have thus continued going to him after moving to norwell... almost six years ago. in my defense, karen does the same thing... just with her dentist.

anyway, today's appointment was for a filling. too bad i suck at fillings. when i went for my routine six month cleaning, a cavity was discovered via x-ray. i thought i was cavity-free after the cleaning... until they took the x-rays. bummer. so needless to say, today was my filling day.

new at the dentist office waiting area is the peg board puzzle iq test. the peg board puzzle iq test is that triangular peg board that is filled with pins... with the exception of one hole. jumping over a pin allows you to remove a pin... and the goal is to remove as many pins as you can. i enjoy doing that puzzle... probably because i'm an idiot and can't figure it out.

unfortunately, i did not get to finish the puzzle as it was time for my filling. so there i sat, with my dentist and his assistant... mouth open... numbed from novacaine... the drill buzzing... smoke emanating from my mouth... a vacuum in my mouth... other tools being inserted and stuff. by the way, the smell of drilled teeth... is not that pleasant.

amazingly, my dentist was done in about twenty minutes. everything was quick and painless. i sometimes wonder what it would feel like to not have novacaine. i like my dentist.

when all was done, my dentist told me that the filling was very tiny and that i would probably not be able to see it because... 1) the filling was white and 2) the cavity was very tiny. i think he may have sanded part of my teeth down too.

anyway, when he asked if i wanted to rinse my mouth following the procedure, i said sure. so naturally i took the tiny cup of water that they gave me... and threw it in my mouth. well... let's just say all the water dribbled down the side of my mouth that had been numbed with novacaine. my dentist got a chuckle and told me that the novacaine takes some getting used too.

but at least i can still do a mean billy idol impersonation as i type this.

I Suck At Buffy The Vampire Slayer

last night, karen and i attended a wake for karen's great uncle, robert griffith at keohane's in quincy. i never really got to know uncle bob. the times that i have met him, he always seemed like a good person. in fact, uncle bob must have touched a lot of lives during his lifetime because keohane's was packed with a full house last night. there was a long line waiting outside the door. (i feel bad for the other family who was having a wake at the same time.) anyway, uncle bob... you were definitely remembered last night.

following the wake, karen and i hung out with my friends (marc and kelley). we watched the latest episode of "lost". lost is such a good show. too bad the next new episode is in two weeks. oh well.

as it turns out, we even had enough time to watch another episode of the greatest television show ever: buffy the vampire slayer. yay! now i suck at buffy the vampire slayer. following the season 3 finale, one of the characters... angel... received his own show. needless to say, the four of us decided to alternate discs of the next season. so, we would watch disc 1 of season 4 of buffy, followed by disc 1 of season 1 of angel. sure, it can get confusing. but with the series crossover episodes and whatnot, it just made more sense.

so anyway, we only watched the first episode of season 4: "freshman" which introduced the new character, riley, as buffy adjusts to life in college. it was a good episode.

the interesting thing about last night was that when i was leaving marc and kelley's, i pulled out our cordless phone from my jacket. it cracked me up because the act was so random. apparently, in my haste last night to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for karen for dinner, putting on dressy attire for the wake, grabbing a change of clothes for after the wake, and bringing the dvds of buffy and angel, i inadvertently placed our cordless phone in my jacket pocket as i waited for karen to call to let me know when she would be arriving at the train station for me to pick her up.

for anyone curious, the phone was out of range. i would have been more amazed had the phone worked. but since the phone was in my jacket, i basically carried the cordless phone with me at the wake and everything. funny. oh well. i thought it was amusing.

I Suck At Not Your Average Joe's

following my chauffeuring gig last night, karen and i went out on a little date. karen seemed thrilled to be going out for dinner. it was rather cute.

when i was driving her and hot amy home after their teaching at simmons college, i told hot amy that there was a sandwich for her. karen then wondered where her sandwich was... to which i reminded her that we were going out for dinner... and then she got all excited. (it's the little things that make her happy.)

anyway, since karen and i have started trying to budget our expenses during this economy and eat out less, we really have not gone out for dinner in quite some time with just the two of us. at least... not to my knowledge. so, we decided to go out last night. the place we decided to go out to: not your average joe's in norwell.

now, i suck at not your average joe's. i'm definitely a big fan of that place. interestingly enough, the place was empty last night. at one time, karen and i were one of two parties sitting in the dining area. very sad.

as usual, the food was delicious. i had the shrimp and artichoke pizza which was a special not listed on the menu. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) the pizza was delicious. it's a shame how some of my friends have food issues because they definitely miss out on a lot of great tasting stuff. after all, who would have thought that shrimp and artichoke on a pizza would be good (aside from not your average joe's)?

anyway, it was a great dinner. karen and i actually spent most of the dinner talking about the upcoming scavenger hunt that i'm organizing. i was bouncing ideas off of her to see what she thought... like a sounding board. it's a funny thing about organizing events. for me, i just want people to enjoy themselves and have fun. and the more and more i think about the upcoming scavenger hunt, the more and more i get excited for it.

unfortunately, what generally happens in large social situations is that you can never appease everyone... and everyone generally has their own ideas about things. this year, one of the dilemmas i am encountering involves the creation of the teams for the hunt.

like most people, karen and i have various circles of friends. intermingling of friends can always be difficult because you can never fully gauge how your friends will interact within other circles because of the uncomfortable social setting. people react differently when in a foreign situation. thus, people gravitate toward things that are more familiar to be at ease.

all i want is for my friends to enjoy the event. sadly, i have concerns that my original plan of creating teams based on a random drawing may not produce an enjoyable experience for everyone, which subsequently produces undue stress... something that i definitely can live without.

anyway, i'm not certain yet on what to do about the creation of teams. right now i am thinking that it would be so much easier if my friends made the teams themselves and let me know who is on which team. it would definitely be one less thing to worry about and consider.

i guess we'll see what i decide upon. i still have a month of planning left.

I Suck At Chauffeuring

yesterday is my driving miss daisy night... although in my case, i get to drive two miss daisies: karen and my friend (hot amy). so needless to say, i went to chauffeur karen and hot amy home after they finished teaching their class at simmons college in boston. it's too bad i suck at chauffeuring.

for a brief moment, i guess you could say i felt like jason statham in the movie, the transporter... just without the physique, the cool accent, or the martial arts... as i sat behind the wheel of the parked car.

basically, i park on louis pasteur avenue whenever i pick up karen and hot amy. technically, a person is not supposed to park on that street. i believe cars get towed for parking on the street. so, i sit and wait in the car for them because i'm usually early... which i guess is what makes me a good chauffeur.

last night, the usual spot that i pick karen and hot amy up was taken... by two tow trucks. my initial thought was to simply park my car behind the two tow trucks to see if they would even notice, but i didn't want to press my luck.

so in my rather clandestine way, i drove further up the street... pulled over... and sat in my car with the lights off... watching and waiting for the two tow trucks to move as though i were staking the tow truck driver out or something. twenty minutes later, the two tow trucks drove away to which i started the car and pulled into my usual spot for picking up karen and hot amy.

oh yeah... i felt all sly. i am thinking i would make a great private investigator or something. just kidding.

needless to say, karen and hot amy shortly arrived. i wish i could have recorded a video of them approaching the car. there are mounds of snow covering the sidewalks. where i usually pull the car in to pick them up, there is a little path. well, due to the snow, this path was rather wet and muddy last night. so watching karen and hot amy maneuver themselves around the muddy puddles of the path was quite interesting.

sure, i suppose i could do my gentlemanly duty and toss my jacket on the ground for them to step on... but where would the fun be in that? chivalry is dead after all. plus, i know i don't want to walk around with a muddy footprint or two on my jacket.

anyway, the ride home itself was pretty uneventful. hot amy chowed down on the peanut butter and jelly sandwich that i made her... complete with trappist monk jam. karen and i were going out afterwards, so i didn't make anything for karen. in addition, i believe hot amy has now joined the 21st century with cable television.

on the ride home, karen had mentioned something about a coworker who uses the bathroom by standing on the toilet seat, which is an amazing feat i would imagine. and by the time we were done discussing the standing on the toilet issue, it was already time for hot amy to jump out of the car and tuck and roll... okay, so hot amy did not really tuck and roll... although i'm sure she could have landed in a snowbank to cushion her jump.

but all in all, it was yet another successful night of chauffeuring.

I Suck At Driving In The Snow

like every morning, i get up to give karen a ride to the train station. unfortunately, this morning traffic was awful due to inclement weather. and by inclement weather, i mean snow. apparently the snow began to fall last night and continued to fall into the early morning. in fact, as i type this blog, it's still snowing.

anyway, i safely drove karen to the train station. after all, i don't chauffeur her sorry butt and my friend's (hot amy) sorry butt on wednesday nights for nothing. like the movie... i'm the transporter... just without the hot looks or the cool accent... or the martial arts... or anything else jason statham for that matter.

on the drive to the station, karen did get a little concerned about the wiper blades clumping up with snow. nonetheless, when i dropped her off at the train station this morning, i made sure that i cleaned the wiper blades... cleared off the windows and mirrors... and brushed off any excess snow.

driving to the station was not that bad. the problem: driving back. there was considerably more snow on the way back... probably because there is less traffic heading south of boston in the early morning.

luckily, the highway driving was okay. the drive was slow as the snow continued to come down. sadly, the wiper blades started to act up. by act up, i mean a big clump of snow got stuck in the blade. so whenever the blades went to clean the windshield... only a part of the windshield would be cleaned. a nice streak of snow was left at eye level on the windshield. naturally, i decided to try my luck then and turn onto route 53.

sadly, route 53 was not any better. there were less cars, but i finally made it to the stop and shop by my house. that was when the fun started. pulling into the side street, i drove the car toward my street. it's too bad i suck at driving in the snow because the car simply could not make the turn up the incline toward my house. the wheels spun and spun.

thinking of a plan b, i decided to throw the car into reverse and try the alternate route to my house because my street is in essence... a big circle and the alternate route is less of an incline. well... the car went into reverse. as i turned the car to head toward the alternate direction... i ended up with the same results: being stuck at the intersection.

thus... plan c! i threw the hazards on in the car, exited the car, and walked home to grab the shovel. i brought the shovel back and then started shoveling out around the car. it just so happens that at that time, two plows came driving into the neighborhood. one of the plows was even nice enough to stop and offer me some sand to place behind the tires. he was very nice. the other plow driver simply passed me by.

after thanking the helpful plow driver, i got into the car and off i went... driving into the newly plowed streets around my house. of course, then i ran into my next obstacle: the newly plowed embankment of snow in front of the driveway to my house.

taking my chances, i floored it and attempted to drive through the embankment toward the driveway. mental note... don't try that again. it did not work. so much for being lazy and wishful thinking. the car got stuck yet again in the snow. so, i got out of the car and shoveled again all around the car. all the while, the plow driver who had passed me before (the unhelpful one) was behind me... watching.

needless to say, after shoveling around my car, i jumped into the car and attempted to get the car into the driveway. with wheels spinning and rubber burning, the car finally made it into the driveway. and naturally, shortly afterwards the plow driver came by to plow the snow back into the driveway.

fun!