today started off with a surprise visit from my parents.
my mother was laid off from her work not too long ago. my mother was initially excited because she absolutely disliked her job. nevertheless, she continued working at the company because my parents needed the income. (for anyone curious, my father is disabled and has been for quite some time.)
i'm quite proud of my mother. in addition to raising my brother and i, she has had to endure the hardships of working a non-skilled job for her entire life. unfortunately, being a minority with very little education and fluency in english does not open a lot of opportunities in... the land of opportunities. nevertheless, my mom perservered... making sure my brother and i could live the american dream that she could never have.
needless to say, i love my parents. so when my mother unexpectedly asked to stop by, i knew something was on her mind. as it turned out, my mother was all concerned about... well... her layoff... and how it affects her health insurance. again, with the being of a minority and little education and little fluency in english, she simply did not know what to do about her health insurance, which is a pretty important factor considering that she has a health issue that needs routine medical visits. the feeling of uncertainty had overwhelmed my mother, and she simply broke down and cried.
watching your parents cry is never a good thing. for me, it's one of those things where you want your parents to live happily ever after... but you just don't know what to do because it's beyond your knowledge... and it's frustrating because i would give my parents the world if i could. after all, for all that my parents have sacrificed for my brother and i, it's the least i could do. unfortunately, all i could do today was give my mother a hug.
after collecting herself, my mother decided to visit the hospital where she had her appointment and ask the staff there about her situation. hopefully, things will work out and the hospital staff can help her. aside from c.o.b.r.a, i'm not sure what plan b will be.
needless to say, my day has been a little rough. luckily, i got to spend the rest of the day with my friends (marc and kelley), who almost always can cheer me up... probably because kelley is my drinking buddy and booze always numbs the pain... just kidding. (although... the martini kelley made was quite delicious.)
after picking up karen at the subway station, we picked up dinner at the falafel king in quincy. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) the falafel king is great. i love their food. as an added bonus today... the falafel king (or prince) was working. i'm not exactly sure if he is any relation to the falafel king in downtown boston... but when i used to work in town, i would see him working at the falafel king in town. so it was good to see a familiar face again at the falafel king in quincy. and like any falafel royalty is known to do, he gave me a falafel dipped in hummus while i waited for the food to be cooked. yum... falafels!
anyway, while we ate dinner, the four of us watched the latest episode of lost. without spoiling too much, i will just say that the episode was simply awesome. the rumors about how a main character was going to die on the show... was sadly true. unfortunately, that character was not kate...
having finished the episode, the four of us decided to go out for some dessert. so, we decided to go to frozen freddies. now, i suck at frozen freddies. frozen freddies is a seasonal ice cream shop located in quincy. the place is practically a hole in the wall... or on the corner as it may be. the ice cream is pretty good too. i had a chocolate peanut butter thing... (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound... again.) i love ice cream. i was practically shivering as i polished off my ice cream cone outside. all in all... with the falafel king and frozen freddies... how can someone not feel better?
from there, we headed back to marc and kelley's to catch a couple of episodes of angel. the episodes we watched were: "hero" about nazi-like pure blooded demons hunting and killing half-breeded demons; and "parting gifts" about cordelia's new found power... the ability to see visions.
it's tough to say which of the two episodes i enjoyed the most. "hero" was great because of doyle, who unfortunately died on the show... and unfortunately the actor who played him passed away in real life as well. and "parting gifts" introduced wesley... rogue demon hunter... to the cast. plus, "parting gits" was a cordelia episode. interestingly enough... cordelia has a "tramp stamp".
speaking of "tramp stamps", the topic of tattoos was brought up. we thought it would be funny to have "tramp" tattooed like a stamp... on the tramp stamp location (the lower back area). that was just a random thought.
anyway, it was an interesting day to say the least. i hope things work out for my parents.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
I Suck At Chauffeuring
wednesday nights are my usual nights to pick up the two miss daisies (karen and hot amy) from simmons college and chauffeur their sorry butts home. now, i suck at chauffeuring. yesterday, however, was quite the occasion because last night marked the end of my driving duties for the year. karen and hot amy are done teaching at simmons college for the semester . yay!
to prepare for the final ride, i donned on my yellow and blue simmons t-shirt. in case you are curious, the only reason why i even have a yellow and blue simmons t-shirt is because the t-shirt used to belong to karen. karen ran cross country for the simmons "sharks" and ended up receiving a t-shirt for her efforts. sadly, the t-shirt was too large for her. hence, i ended up showing my solidarity with simmons college by being able to fit into the t-shirt.
as well, i tidied up the car for the final ride of the season. okay, so maybe i did not really tidy up the car for the final ride. by "tidying up", i mean i moved my little stuffed animal in the back seat... up to the front. i have a red stuffed animal of a lobster, who i call "rock". karen had given me the lobster when we were in college. the reason why i moved "rock": hot amy.
awhile ago, i kidnapped hot amy's stuffed animal (wally) from the back seat of her car to see if she would even notice the disappearance. well, as it turned out, she did not notice the disappearance of wally until i posted a message about it on this blog... which was over a week after the actual kidnapping. i am still holding wally hostage, but it's okay. wally appears to enjoy being detained... evident from the big happy smile on his face.
anyway, in my stuffed animal's (rock) usual place, was a container of armorall cleaning wipes. for anyone curious, i don't own any armorall cleaning wipes. the cleaning wipes actually belonged to... you guessed it... hot amy. i happened to steal those from the backseat of her car too. and the funny thing... she didn't notice that the cleaning wipes were gone either until she saw them in the backseat of my car.
needless to say, it was a good thing that i moved my little stuffed lobster because hot amy immediately inquired about his whereabouts when she got into the car. i had a hunch that she would attempt to kidnap him in retaliation and i think i may have been right. (it pays to be one step ahead...)
regardless, the ride home was fun. no accidents is always a good sign. as it was karen and hot amy's last day teaching at simmons, we decided to celebrate. the place we chose to celebrate: blue-22.
(pictured below are hot amy and karen celebrating their last day of teaching for the semester.)
we were hoping to see my friend (garv) at blue 22 because he is usually there on wednesdays. sadly, the very intellectual garv... as hot amy would have you believe... was "slacking" according to his cousin (steph). garv was out playing hockey.
so instead, we enjoyed ourselves to dinner and... some trivia. (for anyone curious, i had a burger... and also for those who do not know: wednesday nights are trivia nights at blue 22) trivia was actually pretty fun. the three of us did not actually play. but, we did help out garv's wife (leeann) and her friends (neluka and patti). (we had noticed patti from afar, as she was in her scrubs.)
anyway, it was a good time to say the least... especially since my chauffeuring duties are over.
to prepare for the final ride, i donned on my yellow and blue simmons t-shirt. in case you are curious, the only reason why i even have a yellow and blue simmons t-shirt is because the t-shirt used to belong to karen. karen ran cross country for the simmons "sharks" and ended up receiving a t-shirt for her efforts. sadly, the t-shirt was too large for her. hence, i ended up showing my solidarity with simmons college by being able to fit into the t-shirt.
as well, i tidied up the car for the final ride of the season. okay, so maybe i did not really tidy up the car for the final ride. by "tidying up", i mean i moved my little stuffed animal in the back seat... up to the front. i have a red stuffed animal of a lobster, who i call "rock". karen had given me the lobster when we were in college. the reason why i moved "rock": hot amy.
awhile ago, i kidnapped hot amy's stuffed animal (wally) from the back seat of her car to see if she would even notice the disappearance. well, as it turned out, she did not notice the disappearance of wally until i posted a message about it on this blog... which was over a week after the actual kidnapping. i am still holding wally hostage, but it's okay. wally appears to enjoy being detained... evident from the big happy smile on his face.
anyway, in my stuffed animal's (rock) usual place, was a container of armorall cleaning wipes. for anyone curious, i don't own any armorall cleaning wipes. the cleaning wipes actually belonged to... you guessed it... hot amy. i happened to steal those from the backseat of her car too. and the funny thing... she didn't notice that the cleaning wipes were gone either until she saw them in the backseat of my car.
needless to say, it was a good thing that i moved my little stuffed lobster because hot amy immediately inquired about his whereabouts when she got into the car. i had a hunch that she would attempt to kidnap him in retaliation and i think i may have been right. (it pays to be one step ahead...)
regardless, the ride home was fun. no accidents is always a good sign. as it was karen and hot amy's last day teaching at simmons, we decided to celebrate. the place we chose to celebrate: blue-22.
(pictured below are hot amy and karen celebrating their last day of teaching for the semester.)
we were hoping to see my friend (garv) at blue 22 because he is usually there on wednesdays. sadly, the very intellectual garv... as hot amy would have you believe... was "slacking" according to his cousin (steph). garv was out playing hockey.
so instead, we enjoyed ourselves to dinner and... some trivia. (for anyone curious, i had a burger... and also for those who do not know: wednesday nights are trivia nights at blue 22) trivia was actually pretty fun. the three of us did not actually play. but, we did help out garv's wife (leeann) and her friends (neluka and patti). (we had noticed patti from afar, as she was in her scrubs.)
anyway, it was a good time to say the least... especially since my chauffeuring duties are over.
Monday, April 27, 2009
I Suck At The Pinkalicious Pajama Party
yesterday, my niece (kaleigh) turned 5.
well, technically, she turned 5 a few days ago. her birthday party just so happened to be on sunday. and what better way to celebrate my niece's birthday than to have a pinkalicious pajama party. (it was kaleigh's idea.) now, i suck at the pinkalicious pajama party.
as evident from the name, the theme for the party was to wear pajamas... preferably pink... to her celebration. unfortunately, i don't wear pajamas to bed. and for those who are curious, no... i do not sleep in the buff either. i generally wear t-shirt and shorts to bed... much like what i wear during the day, i guess.
(pictured below is kaleigh twirling a rope like a lasso.)
anyway, the party was fun. good thing the party was not a dress up party like last year. (yes, kaleigh likes to make us work for her parties.) imagine... i would have died in the winnie the pooh costume yesterday due to the warm weather. as it was, it was hot wearing sleeping attire. it got so hot at one point, that the air conditioning had to be turned on.
regardless, my favorite sister-in-law (janine) did a great job as usual planning the event. kaleigh seemed to enjoy herself. karen's grandfather was pretty funny too... showing up in his yankees pajamas.
i actually had a moment where i almost lost my composure during the party, which probably would not have been good. there was some unrelated talk about the upcoming mother's day and plans with all of that.
karen and i had talked about the upcoming months and how mother/father's day were probably going to be rough on us... having lost our son (braden) just last year. i realize it's life and that's how things are. nonetheless, i did start to let my mind drift during kaleigh's party and think of what things could have been like... which is always a bad thing. sadly, i find that for me, it is sometimes hard not to think about braden especially at a child's birthday party.
the feeling always puts me in a pickle because i feel and know it's unfair to my niece, or nephew, or whoever's child i am there to celebrate with. i'm not even catholic and i have guilt issues... sad. anyway, i was lucky enough to pull myself together in janine's bathroom. so, i didn't let my mind drift too much yesterday.
regardless, it was great party and it was fun. happy birthay kaleigh!
well, technically, she turned 5 a few days ago. her birthday party just so happened to be on sunday. and what better way to celebrate my niece's birthday than to have a pinkalicious pajama party. (it was kaleigh's idea.) now, i suck at the pinkalicious pajama party.
as evident from the name, the theme for the party was to wear pajamas... preferably pink... to her celebration. unfortunately, i don't wear pajamas to bed. and for those who are curious, no... i do not sleep in the buff either. i generally wear t-shirt and shorts to bed... much like what i wear during the day, i guess.
(pictured below is kaleigh twirling a rope like a lasso.)
anyway, the party was fun. good thing the party was not a dress up party like last year. (yes, kaleigh likes to make us work for her parties.) imagine... i would have died in the winnie the pooh costume yesterday due to the warm weather. as it was, it was hot wearing sleeping attire. it got so hot at one point, that the air conditioning had to be turned on.
regardless, my favorite sister-in-law (janine) did a great job as usual planning the event. kaleigh seemed to enjoy herself. karen's grandfather was pretty funny too... showing up in his yankees pajamas.
i actually had a moment where i almost lost my composure during the party, which probably would not have been good. there was some unrelated talk about the upcoming mother's day and plans with all of that.
karen and i had talked about the upcoming months and how mother/father's day were probably going to be rough on us... having lost our son (braden) just last year. i realize it's life and that's how things are. nonetheless, i did start to let my mind drift during kaleigh's party and think of what things could have been like... which is always a bad thing. sadly, i find that for me, it is sometimes hard not to think about braden especially at a child's birthday party.
the feeling always puts me in a pickle because i feel and know it's unfair to my niece, or nephew, or whoever's child i am there to celebrate with. i'm not even catholic and i have guilt issues... sad. anyway, i was lucky enough to pull myself together in janine's bathroom. so, i didn't let my mind drift too much yesterday.
regardless, it was great party and it was fun. happy birthay kaleigh!
I Suck At The Hancock Tavern
following our little picnic at wollaston beach, karen, my friend (jen), and i met up with my friends (marc and kelley). a while ago, jen had wanted to get together with marc and kelley for drinks. as everyone was around on saturday, all of us decided to just go out. the place that we ended up going to: the hancock tavern in quincy. now, i suck at the hancock tavern.
we chose the hancock tavern because the place was going to be centrally located for our other friends (andrea and carlos)who were going to meet us there. andrea was coming from her place; carlos was coming from the red sox game.
needless to say, the hancock tavern was interesting. in fact, i learned something interesting at the tavern... that interesting thing being the video about "2 girls 1 cup". i won't explain the video any further because the video is rated m for mature. should you attempt to google the video... be warned, it's not for the faint of heart. (when they say "curiosity killed the cat"... yes, it did...)
also while at the hancock tavern, carlos ran into some people he knew. carlos seems to know a lot of people, so it really was not surprising that he ran into some people there. (plus, carlos frequents the hancock tavern a lot.) the interesting thing about that was the fact that i recognized one of the people carlos knew. at the time, my mind was drawing a blank on her name.
as it turns out... (at least, if my assumption is correct and it is her...) the woman that was in the group that carlos knew used to work with me... and carlos for that matter. i found it funny that carlos forgot to mention that part to me when i asked him why she (erin) looked so familiar. anyway, i believe erin had just started working at my old company when i was leaving the company. the reason i remember her was because she told me that she loved my giggle and thought that i should electronically record my laughter and send it to my company so that they would always remember my laugh. needless to say, as much as i enjoyed the idea, i never did record my giggle for my old company.
anyway, the seven of us shortly left the hancock tavern after the alarm system started going off. the ear-deafening alarm simply blared... non-stop... for quite some time... for no reason what the waitress told us. it was a peculiar way to end the dinner portion of our night.
from there, carlos told us that he was too tired and decided to head home. so, the rest of us headed to friendly's... for a quick visit of the take out window (we never purchased anything) and subsequently ended at the alumni cafe. needless to say, the alumni is always an interesting experience.
while at the alumni, my friend (hot amy) joined us. in addition to hot amy, a group of other young women entered the alumni... dressed and ready to party. the group of looked like they were 12. okay, so maybe i was exaggerating about the age. they were young... and none too pretty. one of them, in particular, looked like rachel dratch from saturday night live fame. some of them ended up dancing with this older guy... to old songs. it was very interesting. his beer goggles may have been on at the time.
anyway, amidst the excitement of the overly dressed young women at the alumni cafe, we decided on one last pit stop for the night. that pit stop: murphy's bar in quincy. apparently, carlos had sent us a text message that he was there and that his friend, known only as "ventulo", was with him.
the interesting thing about ventulo is that i have only heard stories about him through carlos. i have never met the person. apparently, everyone else was interested in meeting ventulo as well. so off we went to murphy's. marc and kelley, unfortunately, did not join us for the murphy's portion of the night.
needless to say, we did not stay long at murphy's. carlos was already inebriated with that glazed over look. (so much for being tired and going home after the hancock tavern.) the sad thing is... i still never got to meet ventulo because carlos was not really all there. oh well. perhaps the next time...
all in all, it was quite the interesting night. i was not sure how the night was going to unfold, especially with the mixing of friends. i hope marc and kelley had a good time. i know i did. it was fun to hang out with everyone at once. i'd like to do it again some time.
we chose the hancock tavern because the place was going to be centrally located for our other friends (andrea and carlos)who were going to meet us there. andrea was coming from her place; carlos was coming from the red sox game.
needless to say, the hancock tavern was interesting. in fact, i learned something interesting at the tavern... that interesting thing being the video about "2 girls 1 cup". i won't explain the video any further because the video is rated m for mature. should you attempt to google the video... be warned, it's not for the faint of heart. (when they say "curiosity killed the cat"... yes, it did...)
also while at the hancock tavern, carlos ran into some people he knew. carlos seems to know a lot of people, so it really was not surprising that he ran into some people there. (plus, carlos frequents the hancock tavern a lot.) the interesting thing about that was the fact that i recognized one of the people carlos knew. at the time, my mind was drawing a blank on her name.
as it turns out... (at least, if my assumption is correct and it is her...) the woman that was in the group that carlos knew used to work with me... and carlos for that matter. i found it funny that carlos forgot to mention that part to me when i asked him why she (erin) looked so familiar. anyway, i believe erin had just started working at my old company when i was leaving the company. the reason i remember her was because she told me that she loved my giggle and thought that i should electronically record my laughter and send it to my company so that they would always remember my laugh. needless to say, as much as i enjoyed the idea, i never did record my giggle for my old company.
anyway, the seven of us shortly left the hancock tavern after the alarm system started going off. the ear-deafening alarm simply blared... non-stop... for quite some time... for no reason what the waitress told us. it was a peculiar way to end the dinner portion of our night.
from there, carlos told us that he was too tired and decided to head home. so, the rest of us headed to friendly's... for a quick visit of the take out window (we never purchased anything) and subsequently ended at the alumni cafe. needless to say, the alumni is always an interesting experience.
while at the alumni, my friend (hot amy) joined us. in addition to hot amy, a group of other young women entered the alumni... dressed and ready to party. the group of looked like they were 12. okay, so maybe i was exaggerating about the age. they were young... and none too pretty. one of them, in particular, looked like rachel dratch from saturday night live fame. some of them ended up dancing with this older guy... to old songs. it was very interesting. his beer goggles may have been on at the time.
anyway, amidst the excitement of the overly dressed young women at the alumni cafe, we decided on one last pit stop for the night. that pit stop: murphy's bar in quincy. apparently, carlos had sent us a text message that he was there and that his friend, known only as "ventulo", was with him.
the interesting thing about ventulo is that i have only heard stories about him through carlos. i have never met the person. apparently, everyone else was interested in meeting ventulo as well. so off we went to murphy's. marc and kelley, unfortunately, did not join us for the murphy's portion of the night.
needless to say, we did not stay long at murphy's. carlos was already inebriated with that glazed over look. (so much for being tired and going home after the hancock tavern.) the sad thing is... i still never got to meet ventulo because carlos was not really all there. oh well. perhaps the next time...
all in all, it was quite the interesting night. i was not sure how the night was going to unfold, especially with the mixing of friends. i hope marc and kelley had a good time. i know i did. it was fun to hang out with everyone at once. i'd like to do it again some time.
I Suck At Wollaston Beach
saturday was quite the eventful day.
the day started off with a little visit to my friend's (hot amy) house in quincy. while karen and my friend (hot amy) corrected papers for their class together, i got to take hot amy's dogs (ben and jerry) for a little stroll around the neighborhood.
ben and jerry are my benchmark for dogs. they are the cutest little weiner dogs. i guess it does not hurt that they like to lick my face to death as well. anyway, it was quite the interesting stroll around the neighborhood... probably because ben unexpectedly pooped on the walk. as i was not prepared for the bathroom break, i had to leave the poop sitting in the middle of the street. i'm not sure if one of hot amy's neighbors saw the whole pooping incident... but i hurried the dogs and vacated the scene as quickly as possible.
as a side note, karen and i recently watched a program called "stuff happens" which stars bill nye, the science guy... and apparently pet waste is an ever increasing environmental hazard as more people want pets... more pets poop... the poop infiltrates the ground/water... bacteria levels rise, etc. add to that the plastic bags used to collect and dispose of pet poop... and well... you can imagine how bad the environment actually suffers when all is said and done. for anyone curious, bill nye recommends using bags that can break down easier when collecting poop.
anyway, following our brief visit with hot amy, karen and i then visited our friend (jen). with the absolutely gorgeous weather, jen had suggested grabbing some food and having a little picnic at wollaston beach. now i suck at wollaston beach. i have never been a hanging out at the beach type of person. i think it's because i like to be active and do something. whenever i think of the beach, i envision a bunch of people lying around on the sand... quietly basking in the sun. so to me, the beach has never been a fun idea. the picnic idea, however, i could get behind because that sounded cool.
(pictured below is jen at wollaston beach.)
anyway, karen, jen and i wheeled a little cooler to the beach with a big beach towel that we placed atop the sand at wollaston beach. surprisingly, i enjoyed myself at wollaston beach. don't get me wrong, i still will not swim at wollaston beach... but that's just me... not that i know too many people who would actually swim at wollaston beach...
regardless, i think the enjoyable part was simply hanging around with friends... eating our dinner from mister sub in quincy. (for anyone curious, i had the steak bomb... it was good.) the picnic on the beach was relaxing and fun at the same time. needless to say, i was pleasantly surprised. i may have to rethink my whole dislike of the beach thing.
the day started off with a little visit to my friend's (hot amy) house in quincy. while karen and my friend (hot amy) corrected papers for their class together, i got to take hot amy's dogs (ben and jerry) for a little stroll around the neighborhood.
ben and jerry are my benchmark for dogs. they are the cutest little weiner dogs. i guess it does not hurt that they like to lick my face to death as well. anyway, it was quite the interesting stroll around the neighborhood... probably because ben unexpectedly pooped on the walk. as i was not prepared for the bathroom break, i had to leave the poop sitting in the middle of the street. i'm not sure if one of hot amy's neighbors saw the whole pooping incident... but i hurried the dogs and vacated the scene as quickly as possible.
as a side note, karen and i recently watched a program called "stuff happens" which stars bill nye, the science guy... and apparently pet waste is an ever increasing environmental hazard as more people want pets... more pets poop... the poop infiltrates the ground/water... bacteria levels rise, etc. add to that the plastic bags used to collect and dispose of pet poop... and well... you can imagine how bad the environment actually suffers when all is said and done. for anyone curious, bill nye recommends using bags that can break down easier when collecting poop.
anyway, following our brief visit with hot amy, karen and i then visited our friend (jen). with the absolutely gorgeous weather, jen had suggested grabbing some food and having a little picnic at wollaston beach. now i suck at wollaston beach. i have never been a hanging out at the beach type of person. i think it's because i like to be active and do something. whenever i think of the beach, i envision a bunch of people lying around on the sand... quietly basking in the sun. so to me, the beach has never been a fun idea. the picnic idea, however, i could get behind because that sounded cool.
(pictured below is jen at wollaston beach.)
anyway, karen, jen and i wheeled a little cooler to the beach with a big beach towel that we placed atop the sand at wollaston beach. surprisingly, i enjoyed myself at wollaston beach. don't get me wrong, i still will not swim at wollaston beach... but that's just me... not that i know too many people who would actually swim at wollaston beach...
regardless, i think the enjoyable part was simply hanging around with friends... eating our dinner from mister sub in quincy. (for anyone curious, i had the steak bomb... it was good.) the picnic on the beach was relaxing and fun at the same time. needless to say, i was pleasantly surprised. i may have to rethink my whole dislike of the beach thing.
Friday, April 24, 2009
I Suck At Bloodrayne
as proof that i will watch just about any bad movie... today i decided to watch the movie, bloodrayne after dropping karen off at the train station this morning. (i had time to kill before work.) now i suck at bloodrayne.
bloodrayne is a movie based on the video game of the same name. i remember playing the video game... both the original and its sequel... and enjoying the games rather immensely. of course, this was back in the day when i used to play a lot of video games. someday i'll get back into the gaming world.
and if there is anything i have learned from hollywood... it's that movie adaptations of video games are definitely awful. hollywood has produced such awful movies based on video games like... house of the dead, alone in the dark, hitman, max payne, tomb raider, mortal kombat, street fighter, super mario brothers... and the list goes on and on. for a better list of movies, please see my friend, wikipedia.
(below is the trailer for the movie.)
needless to say, bloodrayne... does not disappoint. the movie is pretty bad. surprisingly, bloodrayne has stars like michael madsen, michelle rodriguez, and ben kingsley in the film. yes... ben kingsley... of ghandi fame. billy zane (of titanic) and meat loaf also have a guest appearance. if only meat loaf actually took his own advice of "i will do anything for love.. but i won't do that". it should also come as no surprise to anyone that michelle rodriguez plays a tough mean woman. no, she's not typecasted at all...
anyway, the movie was definitely terrible. surprisingly, the movie has two sequels. and since i like completing things, like a series, i almost feel compelled to watch those seemingly terrible movies too. so we'll see...
bloodrayne is a movie based on the video game of the same name. i remember playing the video game... both the original and its sequel... and enjoying the games rather immensely. of course, this was back in the day when i used to play a lot of video games. someday i'll get back into the gaming world.
and if there is anything i have learned from hollywood... it's that movie adaptations of video games are definitely awful. hollywood has produced such awful movies based on video games like... house of the dead, alone in the dark, hitman, max payne, tomb raider, mortal kombat, street fighter, super mario brothers... and the list goes on and on. for a better list of movies, please see my friend, wikipedia.
(below is the trailer for the movie.)
needless to say, bloodrayne... does not disappoint. the movie is pretty bad. surprisingly, bloodrayne has stars like michael madsen, michelle rodriguez, and ben kingsley in the film. yes... ben kingsley... of ghandi fame. billy zane (of titanic) and meat loaf also have a guest appearance. if only meat loaf actually took his own advice of "i will do anything for love.. but i won't do that". it should also come as no surprise to anyone that michelle rodriguez plays a tough mean woman. no, she's not typecasted at all...
anyway, the movie was definitely terrible. surprisingly, the movie has two sequels. and since i like completing things, like a series, i almost feel compelled to watch those seemingly terrible movies too. so we'll see...
I Suck At Buffy The Vampire Slayer
last night, my friends (marc and kelley) came over. with lost being a clip show (as opposed to a new episode) we figured that we would switch things up a little for the week.
anyway, it was a great time as usual. while marc and kelley picked up karen after work, i made my legendary mac 'n cheese for dinner. surprisingly, the mac 'n cheese dinner came out okay even with my little spice incident. for anyone curious, while i was trying to open one of the spice containers, i accidentally ripped off the lid a little too vigorously and spice went flying... everywhere. so needless to say, there was a lot of paprika in the mac 'n cheese dinner last night. luckily for me, i have no idea what paprika in and of itself tastes like... so i personally didn't notice anything with the dinner.
following dinner, the four of us watched the final episode of angel season 1 on disc 2. the episode "sense and sensitivity" was about a sensitivity training class gone awry. it was a silly episode, but fun nonetheless. after all, the episode produced one of the silliest quotes ever uttered by angel: "you could be a rainbow and not a "painbow".
perhaps i enjoyed the line so much because of the wine. my drinking buddy: kelley and i imbibed a little last night on some wine. in fact, we finished off a 1.5 liter bottle between us. i don't think i have had wine since my last and only hangover ever... in which i drank an entire bottle of wine only to be curled up in bed the day after. luckily, no ill effects today. so, i'm back to my normal non-hangover self. (i think it was the type of wine that did me in last time.) yay!
anyway, in addition to angel, the four of us were able to complete disc 3 of season 4 of the world's greatest television show ever: buffy the vampire slayer. now i suck at buffy the vampire slayer. good thing there were only three episodes on the disc.
the episodes included:"something blue" about how whatever willow wills magically comes true; "hush" about how everyone's voices in sunnydale are captured by demons known as the gentlemen; and "doomed" about the aftermath of buffy and riley discovering each other's secret identity.
of the three buffy episodes, "hush" is easily my favorite. after all, the episode earned the show its first emmy nomination for best original writing. sadly, the show did not win the emmy. interestingly enough, marc enlightened me about the episode as well... saying the episode was written in response to criticism about how the show was dialogue heavy. (for anyone curious, the episode goes through a stretch where there is no dialogue whatsoever... because everyone's voice is gone.)
as well, the episode was the first appearance of tara. according to my friend imdb, amber benson, the actress who played tara in the series, was actually originally passed over for the role because she did not fit joss whedon's image of tara.
another interesting fact about the episode... andy hallett, the actor who would eventually play lorne on angel is actually in the episode. he appears in the top left corner of the classroom.
anyway, it was a great night as usual... hanging out with marc and kelley.
anyway, it was a great time as usual. while marc and kelley picked up karen after work, i made my legendary mac 'n cheese for dinner. surprisingly, the mac 'n cheese dinner came out okay even with my little spice incident. for anyone curious, while i was trying to open one of the spice containers, i accidentally ripped off the lid a little too vigorously and spice went flying... everywhere. so needless to say, there was a lot of paprika in the mac 'n cheese dinner last night. luckily for me, i have no idea what paprika in and of itself tastes like... so i personally didn't notice anything with the dinner.
following dinner, the four of us watched the final episode of angel season 1 on disc 2. the episode "sense and sensitivity" was about a sensitivity training class gone awry. it was a silly episode, but fun nonetheless. after all, the episode produced one of the silliest quotes ever uttered by angel: "you could be a rainbow and not a "painbow".
perhaps i enjoyed the line so much because of the wine. my drinking buddy: kelley and i imbibed a little last night on some wine. in fact, we finished off a 1.5 liter bottle between us. i don't think i have had wine since my last and only hangover ever... in which i drank an entire bottle of wine only to be curled up in bed the day after. luckily, no ill effects today. so, i'm back to my normal non-hangover self. (i think it was the type of wine that did me in last time.) yay!
anyway, in addition to angel, the four of us were able to complete disc 3 of season 4 of the world's greatest television show ever: buffy the vampire slayer. now i suck at buffy the vampire slayer. good thing there were only three episodes on the disc.
the episodes included:"something blue" about how whatever willow wills magically comes true; "hush" about how everyone's voices in sunnydale are captured by demons known as the gentlemen; and "doomed" about the aftermath of buffy and riley discovering each other's secret identity.
of the three buffy episodes, "hush" is easily my favorite. after all, the episode earned the show its first emmy nomination for best original writing. sadly, the show did not win the emmy. interestingly enough, marc enlightened me about the episode as well... saying the episode was written in response to criticism about how the show was dialogue heavy. (for anyone curious, the episode goes through a stretch where there is no dialogue whatsoever... because everyone's voice is gone.)
as well, the episode was the first appearance of tara. according to my friend imdb, amber benson, the actress who played tara in the series, was actually originally passed over for the role because she did not fit joss whedon's image of tara.
another interesting fact about the episode... andy hallett, the actor who would eventually play lorne on angel is actually in the episode. he appears in the top left corner of the classroom.
anyway, it was a great night as usual... hanging out with marc and kelley.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
I Suck At Kidnapping
wednesday nights are my typical nights to pick up karen and my friend (hot amy) at simmons college. as it turns out, my chauffeuring services were not needed yesterday because neither of them were not teaching a class last night. yay!
so with the night off, karen and i went out for dinner at bertucci's. i like bertucci's. the restaurant may be my favorite place for pizza. bertucci's pizza is always so good... and their rolls are equally delicious. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) i believe hot amy, on the hand, celebrated her sister's (terri) birthday. before i forget... happy birthday terri! i hope you had a great day.
speaking of hot amy, the instigator that i am... i conducted a little test. generally, hot amy parks her car in the garage at the quincy center train station. for awhile now, karen has been concerned whenever hot amy walks to her car late at night. after all, what can be more enticing to the criminal mind than a lone, helpless, woman... like hot amy... in the dark garage?
and then if you consider the fact that hot amy is parked in quincy... then the danger increases even more. after all, quincy has recently become the hellmouth... just without the whole supernatural stuff. (for anyone curious, the hellmouth is a reference to the greatest tv show ever: buffy the vampire slayer.) quincy has recently been in the news for such things as illegal housing fires, the meat cleaving of a grandchild, the killing of another child (and an unborn) over a husband... and most recently the home of the craigslist murderer.
so, i can understand why karen would be somewhat concerned over the safety of hot amy. nevertheless, i wanted to see how observant hot amy is... should there ever be a vicious attacker lurking in the darkness of the quincy center train station garage.
as tempting as it sounded, i decided against hiding in the shadows myself and attacking hot amy as she approached her car late at night in the garage. as fun as that would be, i figured i would conduct a test that would not get me arrested. so instead, i resorted to kidnapping. now i suck at kidnapping. (and for anyone curious, no i did not kidnap hot amy.)
i actually kidnapped her stuffed animal, wally, to see if she would be observant enough of the criminal element. wally generally is buckled into the back seat of her car.
(pictured below is wally being held hostage.)
anyway, i kidnapped wally a while ago. he is currently being detained in a highly secured location until the ransom demands are met. what those ransom demands are? i have no idea... yet... but i'm sure i can think of something... a car wash sounds very good right now.
as of this post, i have still yet to hear from hot amy... not even the slightest "have you seen wally?" nothing. nada. zip. i actually do not think she has even noticed wally's disappearance from her very own car and i kidnapped him over a week ago now. interesting. so based on my little kidnapping test, it seems that perhaps karen is correct in worrying over the safety of hot amy... poor wally...
so with the night off, karen and i went out for dinner at bertucci's. i like bertucci's. the restaurant may be my favorite place for pizza. bertucci's pizza is always so good... and their rolls are equally delicious. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) i believe hot amy, on the hand, celebrated her sister's (terri) birthday. before i forget... happy birthday terri! i hope you had a great day.
speaking of hot amy, the instigator that i am... i conducted a little test. generally, hot amy parks her car in the garage at the quincy center train station. for awhile now, karen has been concerned whenever hot amy walks to her car late at night. after all, what can be more enticing to the criminal mind than a lone, helpless, woman... like hot amy... in the dark garage?
and then if you consider the fact that hot amy is parked in quincy... then the danger increases even more. after all, quincy has recently become the hellmouth... just without the whole supernatural stuff. (for anyone curious, the hellmouth is a reference to the greatest tv show ever: buffy the vampire slayer.) quincy has recently been in the news for such things as illegal housing fires, the meat cleaving of a grandchild, the killing of another child (and an unborn) over a husband... and most recently the home of the craigslist murderer.
so, i can understand why karen would be somewhat concerned over the safety of hot amy. nevertheless, i wanted to see how observant hot amy is... should there ever be a vicious attacker lurking in the darkness of the quincy center train station garage.
as tempting as it sounded, i decided against hiding in the shadows myself and attacking hot amy as she approached her car late at night in the garage. as fun as that would be, i figured i would conduct a test that would not get me arrested. so instead, i resorted to kidnapping. now i suck at kidnapping. (and for anyone curious, no i did not kidnap hot amy.)
i actually kidnapped her stuffed animal, wally, to see if she would be observant enough of the criminal element. wally generally is buckled into the back seat of her car.
(pictured below is wally being held hostage.)
anyway, i kidnapped wally a while ago. he is currently being detained in a highly secured location until the ransom demands are met. what those ransom demands are? i have no idea... yet... but i'm sure i can think of something... a car wash sounds very good right now.
as of this post, i have still yet to hear from hot amy... not even the slightest "have you seen wally?" nothing. nada. zip. i actually do not think she has even noticed wally's disappearance from her very own car and i kidnapped him over a week ago now. interesting. so based on my little kidnapping test, it seems that perhaps karen is correct in worrying over the safety of hot amy... poor wally...
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
I Suck At New Moon
i'm a glutton for punishment. i'll watch bad movies... just because. and believe me, i've seen a lot of bad movies. similarly, i'll read awful books... just because.
the latest book that i just finished is "new moon". now, i suck at new moon. new moon is the second book in the twilight series. for anyone curious, the twilight series is supposed to be the next big thing... if you're an adolescent girl. the twilight series is basically a vampire romance series.
when i read the first book... twilight... i absolutely thought the book was awful. in my post about twilight, i basically summarized the entire story as "i shouldn't love you because you're a vampire... but i love you..." or something like that because those lines are repeated quite frequently in the novel. (the other perspective is "remember.. i'm a vampire. i'm bad for you. you shouldn't love me... but i love you.")
anyway, as luck (or misfortune) would have it, my friend (andrea) lent me the second book in the series. and like the sucker that i am, i decided to read it. after all, i feel compelled to complete the awful series just because it's a series.
needless to say, new moon was equally awful. for a while, i actually liked the book better than twilight because the main character stopped doing the whole "i shouldn't love you because you're a vampire... but i love you..." thing. unfortunately, the main character ended up doing the "woes me. i can't live without you. i want to die. turn me into a vampire..." thing in the second book. awful.
the part of the book that i thought was even remotely interesting was the antagonist who wanted to hunt the main character down and kill her. the reason why that probably was so interesting to me was because the main character absolutely drives me nuts. so maybe it was just wishful thinking that the main character would die and quit her whining about her vampire lover.
i think the worst part about the novel, aside from the ridiculous werewolf that gets introduced as one of her friends, is that the book simply ends with a "to be continued" feeling. in essence, the novel is not even a real novel. the book almost reminded me of the second pirates of the caribbean movie. for anyone curious, the second pirates of the caribbean movie basically had no plot other than lead up to the third movie. similarly, new moon felt like that.
the storyline basically is about how a certain vampire is hunting the main character... the main character's friend becomes a werewolf, sworn to protect the land against vampires... and then out of the blue... the main character flies to italy to reunite with her vampire boyfriend. that's it. that's the book. i can't believe that the twilight series novels were the best-selling books of the year in 2008. so far, the entire series is awful. needless to say, i'm not impressed.
harry potter... much more interesting...
the latest book that i just finished is "new moon". now, i suck at new moon. new moon is the second book in the twilight series. for anyone curious, the twilight series is supposed to be the next big thing... if you're an adolescent girl. the twilight series is basically a vampire romance series.
when i read the first book... twilight... i absolutely thought the book was awful. in my post about twilight, i basically summarized the entire story as "i shouldn't love you because you're a vampire... but i love you..." or something like that because those lines are repeated quite frequently in the novel. (the other perspective is "remember.. i'm a vampire. i'm bad for you. you shouldn't love me... but i love you.")
anyway, as luck (or misfortune) would have it, my friend (andrea) lent me the second book in the series. and like the sucker that i am, i decided to read it. after all, i feel compelled to complete the awful series just because it's a series.
needless to say, new moon was equally awful. for a while, i actually liked the book better than twilight because the main character stopped doing the whole "i shouldn't love you because you're a vampire... but i love you..." thing. unfortunately, the main character ended up doing the "woes me. i can't live without you. i want to die. turn me into a vampire..." thing in the second book. awful.
the part of the book that i thought was even remotely interesting was the antagonist who wanted to hunt the main character down and kill her. the reason why that probably was so interesting to me was because the main character absolutely drives me nuts. so maybe it was just wishful thinking that the main character would die and quit her whining about her vampire lover.
i think the worst part about the novel, aside from the ridiculous werewolf that gets introduced as one of her friends, is that the book simply ends with a "to be continued" feeling. in essence, the novel is not even a real novel. the book almost reminded me of the second pirates of the caribbean movie. for anyone curious, the second pirates of the caribbean movie basically had no plot other than lead up to the third movie. similarly, new moon felt like that.
the storyline basically is about how a certain vampire is hunting the main character... the main character's friend becomes a werewolf, sworn to protect the land against vampires... and then out of the blue... the main character flies to italy to reunite with her vampire boyfriend. that's it. that's the book. i can't believe that the twilight series novels were the best-selling books of the year in 2008. so far, the entire series is awful. needless to say, i'm not impressed.
harry potter... much more interesting...
I Suck At Running WIth Jen
today, i started the day off on the right foot. (the day would eventually get worse as the day progressed... but at least i started off on the right foot.)
i began my morning by visiting my friend (jen) in quincy. i feel like i have not hung out with jen in quite some time. i may have seen her once or twice recently, but it was just for something quick (like at the train station yesterday when i picked up karen).
anyway, jen had asked awhile ago if i would be interested in running with her in the morning on her day off from work after dropping karen off at the train station. naturally, i agreed. unfortunately, i suck at running with jen.
i almost did not get to run with jen today. after all, the weather was not exactly cooperating as the clouds absolutely poured yesterday. luckily, the morning proved to be much better. the only problem this morning: traffic. driving karen to the train station took quite some time. there was an unusual amount of traffic this morning on the roads. i have no idea why, but it was quite frustrating. i can understand why my favorite brother-in-law (pj) dislikes traffic so much.
eventually, i dropped karen off at the train station and made my way to jen's place. after a brief greeting from her dog (pugsley), the both of us went for our run. i wish i ran more consistently. the last time i ran was friday of last week... and that was just on a whim because i was waiting for some people to show up at the ymca in quincy. (the people never showed up.)
nonetheless, jen and i ran at wollaston beach. jen has a routine where she runs between light posts along the beach. when all was said and done, jen and i ended up running three miles together. it was quite fun. we just talked about random and silly things along the way. surprisingly, there were not even that many people running along the beach this morning... probably because it was still early in the morning.
i think jen wants to get a running club going again... which i think would be fun. after all, i do enjoy the social aspect of running (as well as the physical aspect). in fact, i was talking to jen today about how runners always seem to say hi to other runners while they are running... even though they might not even know each other. it's like a secret brotherhood or something.
anyway, i had a great time running with jen today. perhaps we can run again on her next day off.
i began my morning by visiting my friend (jen) in quincy. i feel like i have not hung out with jen in quite some time. i may have seen her once or twice recently, but it was just for something quick (like at the train station yesterday when i picked up karen).
anyway, jen had asked awhile ago if i would be interested in running with her in the morning on her day off from work after dropping karen off at the train station. naturally, i agreed. unfortunately, i suck at running with jen.
i almost did not get to run with jen today. after all, the weather was not exactly cooperating as the clouds absolutely poured yesterday. luckily, the morning proved to be much better. the only problem this morning: traffic. driving karen to the train station took quite some time. there was an unusual amount of traffic this morning on the roads. i have no idea why, but it was quite frustrating. i can understand why my favorite brother-in-law (pj) dislikes traffic so much.
eventually, i dropped karen off at the train station and made my way to jen's place. after a brief greeting from her dog (pugsley), the both of us went for our run. i wish i ran more consistently. the last time i ran was friday of last week... and that was just on a whim because i was waiting for some people to show up at the ymca in quincy. (the people never showed up.)
nonetheless, jen and i ran at wollaston beach. jen has a routine where she runs between light posts along the beach. when all was said and done, jen and i ended up running three miles together. it was quite fun. we just talked about random and silly things along the way. surprisingly, there were not even that many people running along the beach this morning... probably because it was still early in the morning.
i think jen wants to get a running club going again... which i think would be fun. after all, i do enjoy the social aspect of running (as well as the physical aspect). in fact, i was talking to jen today about how runners always seem to say hi to other runners while they are running... even though they might not even know each other. it's like a secret brotherhood or something.
anyway, i had a great time running with jen today. perhaps we can run again on her next day off.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
I Suck At Patriots' Day
yesterday was patriots' day. according to my friend wikipedia:
"Patriots' Day (sometimes incorrectly spelled Patriot's Day or Patriots Day) is a civic holiday commemorating the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first battles of the American Revolutionary War. It is observed in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and state of Maine (once part of Massachusetts), and is a public school observance day in Wisconsin. Observances and re-enactments of these first battles of the American Revolution occur annually at Lexington Green in Lexington, Massachusetts, (around 6am) and The Old North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts (around 9am). In the morning, a mounted reenactor with State Police escort retraces Paul Revere's ride, calling out warnings the whole way."
sadly, i suck at patriots' day. i did not have the quasi-real holiday off from work. and probably even sadder... i spent the remainder of patriots' day after work at karen's grandmother's house... twice in the last two days.
apparently, karen's cousin (karlene) from lowell and her husband (tommy) spent the previous night at nana's. their original plan was to head into town to watch the boston marathon on patriots' day. from what i have been told, karlene and tommy used to head into town to watch the boston marathon quite frequently. and since karlene is one for traditions, they thought they would try it again this year. (if you were to ask me, i think karlene was more into the idea of going into town to watch the boston marathon as opposed to actually physically going into town because the idea brought back memories of her experiences with nana.)
nevertheless, it turned out that karlene and tommy did not go into town to watch the boston marathon. instead, they spent the day cleaning up nana's house and preparing the house to be sold on the market. fun... i know.
with karlene and tommy still at nana's, karen and i stopped on over to lend a hand. as an interesting side note, when i picked up karen at the train station, i saw my friends (jen and bill). it was a nice surprise because i have not seen either of them in quite some time. jen and bill were heading to coop's located in quincy for a family celebration. they were celebrating jen and bill's father's birthday at coop's.
anyway, karen, karlene, tommy and i spent much of the night at nana's house doing odds and ends. i looked into the possibility of dismantling nana's television console. nana's old television console is like a piece of furniture. the console is a large box on wheels... that just so happens to have an antique television (with knobs) inside. my recommendation... recycle the television and toss the entire console.
we did, however, stop for dinner. we ordered an eggplant pizza and some other pizza with chunks of chicken on it from mister sub in quincy. the pizza was quite delicious. of course, i may have been biased because i was so famished. i ate so much of the pizza is such a short amount of time... it wasn't pretty.
all in all, nana's house is getting closer and closer to being ready to be placed on the market. karlene and tommy were actually going to spend another night to tidy up a few more things. (at this rate, they may be there all week.)
"Patriots' Day (sometimes incorrectly spelled Patriot's Day or Patriots Day) is a civic holiday commemorating the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first battles of the American Revolutionary War. It is observed in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and state of Maine (once part of Massachusetts), and is a public school observance day in Wisconsin. Observances and re-enactments of these first battles of the American Revolution occur annually at Lexington Green in Lexington, Massachusetts, (around 6am) and The Old North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts (around 9am). In the morning, a mounted reenactor with State Police escort retraces Paul Revere's ride, calling out warnings the whole way."
sadly, i suck at patriots' day. i did not have the quasi-real holiday off from work. and probably even sadder... i spent the remainder of patriots' day after work at karen's grandmother's house... twice in the last two days.
apparently, karen's cousin (karlene) from lowell and her husband (tommy) spent the previous night at nana's. their original plan was to head into town to watch the boston marathon on patriots' day. from what i have been told, karlene and tommy used to head into town to watch the boston marathon quite frequently. and since karlene is one for traditions, they thought they would try it again this year. (if you were to ask me, i think karlene was more into the idea of going into town to watch the boston marathon as opposed to actually physically going into town because the idea brought back memories of her experiences with nana.)
nevertheless, it turned out that karlene and tommy did not go into town to watch the boston marathon. instead, they spent the day cleaning up nana's house and preparing the house to be sold on the market. fun... i know.
with karlene and tommy still at nana's, karen and i stopped on over to lend a hand. as an interesting side note, when i picked up karen at the train station, i saw my friends (jen and bill). it was a nice surprise because i have not seen either of them in quite some time. jen and bill were heading to coop's located in quincy for a family celebration. they were celebrating jen and bill's father's birthday at coop's.
anyway, karen, karlene, tommy and i spent much of the night at nana's house doing odds and ends. i looked into the possibility of dismantling nana's television console. nana's old television console is like a piece of furniture. the console is a large box on wheels... that just so happens to have an antique television (with knobs) inside. my recommendation... recycle the television and toss the entire console.
we did, however, stop for dinner. we ordered an eggplant pizza and some other pizza with chunks of chicken on it from mister sub in quincy. the pizza was quite delicious. of course, i may have been biased because i was so famished. i ate so much of the pizza is such a short amount of time... it wasn't pretty.
all in all, nana's house is getting closer and closer to being ready to be placed on the market. karlene and tommy were actually going to spend another night to tidy up a few more things. (at this rate, they may be there all week.)
Monday, April 20, 2009
I Suck At Nana's
yesterday was an interesting day.
while karen was out shopping with her cousins at the wrentham premium outlets, i worked on the house. having already finished the lip to the stairs above the carpet, i decided to have fun with the nail gun. playing with a nail gun... always fun.
a while back, i had borrowed a nail gun from my favorite brother-in-law (pj) with the intent of installing the baseboard along the bottom of the wall and the casings around the doorways and windows. sadly, i never really used the nail gun because i never got around to actually installing the pieces of wood. sheer laziness and a busy schedule seemed to have always took precedence over working on the house.
anyway, i went wild with the nail gun... or as wild one can go with a nail gun. i installed the molding in our changing room/closet area and also in the second floor guest bathroom. for the longest time, the molding was just sitting in place against the wall. at least now, the molding is actually attached to the walls.
and from there, i spent the rest of the day filling the nail holes with wood filler and staining the filler itself... fun i know. it was a bunch of small projects that needed to be done. i'm glad that i was finally able to complete those projects.
regardless, karen contacted me and mentioned that her parents wanted to have us over for dinner with her cousin (karlene) from lowell and her husband (tommy). apparently, the cousins were done with their shopping excursion. karen's cousin (sj) was heading back to georgia; my favorite sister-in-law (janine) was heading back to her family; and tommy was coming down to join karlene at nana's house because they were thinking about heading into town for the boston marathon.
thus, i headed over to my in-laws for dinner. dinner was good. interestingly enough, it was the first time that karlene and tommy had even gone to karen's parents' place.
after dinner, karen, karlene, tommy and i headed back to karen's grandmother's place. apparently, karen and karlene had to sort through some of their nana's craft items to determine which stuff was trash and whatnot. sadly, i suck at nana's. spending the rest of last night at nana's was definitely not what i was expecting. nonetheless, it turned out to be as such because there were a lot of items to go through.
in my opinion, karen and karlene have gone above and beyond in terms of helping out with nana's situation... from spending countless weekends and hours scanning pictures for everyone else to cleaning the house to sorting through things. say what you will, but none of nana's other grand children have even come close to helping out as much as karen and karlene. kudos to them because i have a feeling that all of their hard work and personal sacrifice is not exactly recognized by others.
anyway, it was fun to hang out with karlene and tommy. i had a good time with them. hopefully they make it to the boston marathon today.
while karen was out shopping with her cousins at the wrentham premium outlets, i worked on the house. having already finished the lip to the stairs above the carpet, i decided to have fun with the nail gun. playing with a nail gun... always fun.
a while back, i had borrowed a nail gun from my favorite brother-in-law (pj) with the intent of installing the baseboard along the bottom of the wall and the casings around the doorways and windows. sadly, i never really used the nail gun because i never got around to actually installing the pieces of wood. sheer laziness and a busy schedule seemed to have always took precedence over working on the house.
anyway, i went wild with the nail gun... or as wild one can go with a nail gun. i installed the molding in our changing room/closet area and also in the second floor guest bathroom. for the longest time, the molding was just sitting in place against the wall. at least now, the molding is actually attached to the walls.
and from there, i spent the rest of the day filling the nail holes with wood filler and staining the filler itself... fun i know. it was a bunch of small projects that needed to be done. i'm glad that i was finally able to complete those projects.
regardless, karen contacted me and mentioned that her parents wanted to have us over for dinner with her cousin (karlene) from lowell and her husband (tommy). apparently, the cousins were done with their shopping excursion. karen's cousin (sj) was heading back to georgia; my favorite sister-in-law (janine) was heading back to her family; and tommy was coming down to join karlene at nana's house because they were thinking about heading into town for the boston marathon.
thus, i headed over to my in-laws for dinner. dinner was good. interestingly enough, it was the first time that karlene and tommy had even gone to karen's parents' place.
after dinner, karen, karlene, tommy and i headed back to karen's grandmother's place. apparently, karen and karlene had to sort through some of their nana's craft items to determine which stuff was trash and whatnot. sadly, i suck at nana's. spending the rest of last night at nana's was definitely not what i was expecting. nonetheless, it turned out to be as such because there were a lot of items to go through.
in my opinion, karen and karlene have gone above and beyond in terms of helping out with nana's situation... from spending countless weekends and hours scanning pictures for everyone else to cleaning the house to sorting through things. say what you will, but none of nana's other grand children have even come close to helping out as much as karen and karlene. kudos to them because i have a feeling that all of their hard work and personal sacrifice is not exactly recognized by others.
anyway, it was fun to hang out with karlene and tommy. i had a good time with them. hopefully they make it to the boston marathon today.
I Suck At Resident Evil 5
while karen was spending the night at her grandmother's house with her cousins, i began my weekend of debauchery on saturday. and of course, nothing says debauchery more than killing zombies.
after spending the majority of the day working on the house (interspersed with a visit from my parental units), i headed over to my friends (marc and kelley) who had contacted me about watching the bruins and red sox. for anyone curious, i was working on the lip portion of our second floor stairs between the carpet and the floor.
for the longest time, the floor near the stairs simply ended in rough cuts of laminate and the carpet began beneath the lip. karen and i had a solution to cover up the rough cuts to finish off the lip and make it seem less unsightly. unfortunately, i never got around to installing it... that is until saturday. (the solution involved cutting back part of the laminate floor and installing a strip of wood to allow the nails to attach to.)
anyway, with the lip completed, i headed over to marc and kelley's. it would be the third time in four days that i hung out with them. i hope they haven't gotten sick of me yet.
as usual, it was a fun time. i got to play resident evil 5. too bad i suck at resident evil 5. nonetheless, killing zombies is a blast... especially in the co-op mercenaries mode where you can play with a friend. kelley had recently unlocked the mercenaries mode and we figured that we'd give it a try... we weren't that good together. but, we did end up unlocking some of the other places to kill zombies.
shortly thereafter, we hung out... had dinner and watched the bruins and the red sox. for anyone curious, the boston bruins are in the nhl playoffs. after many numerous years of being awful, i had practically given up hope on the bruins. luckily, the bruins are actually a great team this year. needless to say, the game was great. the boston bruins were playing against their arch-rivals: the montreal canadiens. the bruins ended up winning 5-1 and now lead the series 2-0 (in the best of 7 series).
we also watched the red sox as well. it was a good day for boston sports (with the exception of the celtics from what i hear.) the red sox ended up beating the baltimore orioles as well by a score of 6-4.
anyway, as usual it was fun hanging out with marc and kelley. i had a great time.
after spending the majority of the day working on the house (interspersed with a visit from my parental units), i headed over to my friends (marc and kelley) who had contacted me about watching the bruins and red sox. for anyone curious, i was working on the lip portion of our second floor stairs between the carpet and the floor.
for the longest time, the floor near the stairs simply ended in rough cuts of laminate and the carpet began beneath the lip. karen and i had a solution to cover up the rough cuts to finish off the lip and make it seem less unsightly. unfortunately, i never got around to installing it... that is until saturday. (the solution involved cutting back part of the laminate floor and installing a strip of wood to allow the nails to attach to.)
anyway, with the lip completed, i headed over to marc and kelley's. it would be the third time in four days that i hung out with them. i hope they haven't gotten sick of me yet.
as usual, it was a fun time. i got to play resident evil 5. too bad i suck at resident evil 5. nonetheless, killing zombies is a blast... especially in the co-op mercenaries mode where you can play with a friend. kelley had recently unlocked the mercenaries mode and we figured that we'd give it a try... we weren't that good together. but, we did end up unlocking some of the other places to kill zombies.
shortly thereafter, we hung out... had dinner and watched the bruins and the red sox. for anyone curious, the boston bruins are in the nhl playoffs. after many numerous years of being awful, i had practically given up hope on the bruins. luckily, the bruins are actually a great team this year. needless to say, the game was great. the boston bruins were playing against their arch-rivals: the montreal canadiens. the bruins ended up winning 5-1 and now lead the series 2-0 (in the best of 7 series).
we also watched the red sox as well. it was a good day for boston sports (with the exception of the celtics from what i hear.) the red sox ended up beating the baltimore orioles as well by a score of 6-4.
anyway, as usual it was fun hanging out with marc and kelley. i had a great time.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
I Suck At Hanging Out With Karen's Cousins
last night began the big grandchild weekend for karen's nana. with the upcoming sale of karen's grandmother's house, a bunch of the grandchildren thought it would be a nice idea to spend one last night at the house together so that they could reminisce and whatnot about the old times with nana, grandpa, the house, etc. (karen's family is quite sentimental that way.)
anyway, only grand children were allowed to stay over during the weekend. so for me, this weekend is great because i get to have a man-weekend full of carousing, booze, and debauchery... not necessarily in that order. just kidding.
as karen was working late at her regular full-time job, she needed someone to fill in for her at her part-time job at the south shore ymca in quincy that she works at on friday nights. since i am a substitute at the south shore ymca, i naturally agreed to work for her.
not working regularly at the south shore ymca can be difficult because i don't feel as connected with the program participants and whatnot. i simply am not there enough to get to know the participants. truth be told, it's actually one of the things that i do miss about working regularly at the south shore ymca: being involved with the participants and helping them achieve their fitness goals, whatever that may be.
regardless, yesterday was probably the easiest substitution work that i had to do for the ymca because... well... none of the participants showed up for the class. so i did what any normal person would do while waiting for the participants to show up: i ran 3 miles. that was a big mistake. aside from the fact that i have not run 3 miles in quite some time, i did not factor in the whole "sweat" factor.
luckily for me, i do not perspire that badly. by no means was my clothes drenched or anything. my clothes just had that "sweat" feel to them, which would have been bad if any program participants actually showed up after my run. needless to say, no one ever showed up.
so karen met up with me at the ymca after her work and we both headed to my favorite sister-in-law's (janine). as it turned out, karen's cousins (billy and sj) were up for the grandchildren weekend. too bad i suck at hanging out with karen's cousins.
not all of karen's cousins could make the weekend sleepover. i think of the 11 grandchildren (i think there are 11), only 4 were going to be sleeping over this weekend. billy, who works for general mills, flew in from the midwest for the weekend but was actually not sleeping over. he was just here for a visit.
the four that were sleeping over karen's grandmother's house included karen, janine, sj, and karen's cousin from lowell (karlene).
anyway, it was an interesting time at janine's. when karen and i arrived, i believe the topic of discussion was some person who worked for fedex that sj had been dating. needless to say, the relationship did not last long due to some unfortunate circumstances.
in addition to the usual hanging around, telling stories and all the other general silliness, my favorite brother-in-law (pj) busted out the cigars. pj and billy hopped into the hot tub while the gummy bear song was playing. (for anyone curious, the gummy bear song... is somewhat catchy.) oh yes, we also got to see the wild turkey that sj and billy's brother (kirk) hunted and killed. it was an interesting picture to say the least. kirk was all decked out in camouflage, standing in front of a silver rv with a turkey in his hand. (they're southern... from georgia.)
all in all, it was good to see sj and billy. i hope they have a great weekend.
anyway, only grand children were allowed to stay over during the weekend. so for me, this weekend is great because i get to have a man-weekend full of carousing, booze, and debauchery... not necessarily in that order. just kidding.
as karen was working late at her regular full-time job, she needed someone to fill in for her at her part-time job at the south shore ymca in quincy that she works at on friday nights. since i am a substitute at the south shore ymca, i naturally agreed to work for her.
not working regularly at the south shore ymca can be difficult because i don't feel as connected with the program participants and whatnot. i simply am not there enough to get to know the participants. truth be told, it's actually one of the things that i do miss about working regularly at the south shore ymca: being involved with the participants and helping them achieve their fitness goals, whatever that may be.
regardless, yesterday was probably the easiest substitution work that i had to do for the ymca because... well... none of the participants showed up for the class. so i did what any normal person would do while waiting for the participants to show up: i ran 3 miles. that was a big mistake. aside from the fact that i have not run 3 miles in quite some time, i did not factor in the whole "sweat" factor.
luckily for me, i do not perspire that badly. by no means was my clothes drenched or anything. my clothes just had that "sweat" feel to them, which would have been bad if any program participants actually showed up after my run. needless to say, no one ever showed up.
so karen met up with me at the ymca after her work and we both headed to my favorite sister-in-law's (janine). as it turned out, karen's cousins (billy and sj) were up for the grandchildren weekend. too bad i suck at hanging out with karen's cousins.
not all of karen's cousins could make the weekend sleepover. i think of the 11 grandchildren (i think there are 11), only 4 were going to be sleeping over this weekend. billy, who works for general mills, flew in from the midwest for the weekend but was actually not sleeping over. he was just here for a visit.
the four that were sleeping over karen's grandmother's house included karen, janine, sj, and karen's cousin from lowell (karlene).
anyway, it was an interesting time at janine's. when karen and i arrived, i believe the topic of discussion was some person who worked for fedex that sj had been dating. needless to say, the relationship did not last long due to some unfortunate circumstances.
in addition to the usual hanging around, telling stories and all the other general silliness, my favorite brother-in-law (pj) busted out the cigars. pj and billy hopped into the hot tub while the gummy bear song was playing. (for anyone curious, the gummy bear song... is somewhat catchy.) oh yes, we also got to see the wild turkey that sj and billy's brother (kirk) hunted and killed. it was an interesting picture to say the least. kirk was all decked out in camouflage, standing in front of a silver rv with a turkey in his hand. (they're southern... from georgia.)
all in all, it was good to see sj and billy. i hope they have a great weekend.
Friday, April 17, 2009
I Suck At Angel
last night, karen and i hung out with my friends (marc and kelley). interestingly enough, i think it has been quite some time since karen and i hung out with marc and kelley on back to back days. hopefully, they haven't gotten sick of us just yet.
anyway, as karen was working late at her regular job, i arrived at marc and kelley's place a little early. we ended up watching an episode of "it's always sunny in philadelphia" and an episode of south park while we waited for karen.
for some reason, marc had erasure's "take a chance on me" song stuck in his head.
(the video below is erasure's "take a chance on me".)
gotta love erasure. for anyone curious, the song is a cover of the abba song by the same name. i still find it funny that marc likes erasure. for the longest time, i thought the only people i knew who liked erasure were my friend (garv) and i... and maybe my friend (aimee).
anyway, karen arrived shortly thereafter and we dove right into the next episode of lost. the episode of lost was fantastic. the only drawback of the episode: the character known as kate. oh well. needless to say, the episode was great. too bad the next episode is not until two weeks. bummer.
from there, we watched a couple of episodes of angel. now, i suck at angel. in fact, i suck at angel so much that i did not realize we skipped over an episode until just now. we watched the episodes "the bachelor party" about... well... a bachelor party involving doyle's ex-wife, and "i will remember you" about buffy's visit to los angeles and how angel becomes mortal... for a day. (for anyone curious, we accidentally skipped the episode called "sense and sensitivity", but i'm sure we'll see it next week anyway.)
of the two angel episodes, i liked the "i will remember you" episode over "the bachelor party" episode... probably because the episode had buffy in it. although... "the bachelor party" episode did have an actor that played a villain on the buffy series... carlos jacott.
carlos jacott played ken in the first episode ("anne") of season 3 where buffy in waitressing in los angeles. ken turned out to be a demon enslaving lost souls to do some hard labor. in "the bachelor party", carlos jacott is a demon who wants to marry doyle's ex-wife... and consequently wants to eat doyle's brains as part of the demon ritual of marrying someone who has already been married.
needless to say, the "i will remember you" episode... no carlos jacott... just buffy. it was a touching episode.
i forgot to mention, one of the funniest things of the night... at least, i thought it was funny... was when one of marc and kelley's cats started licking... my head. their cat (samatha) was sitting on the back of couch behind me. she leaned over and started licking the hair on the side of my head... and not just once. it was cute and funny at the same time.
it's weird how marc and kelley's cats like me, considering how allergic i am to cats. i think it may be part of the cat master plan: cuddle up with the ones who are allergic... eliminate them first... and then rule the world.
anyway, as karen was working late at her regular job, i arrived at marc and kelley's place a little early. we ended up watching an episode of "it's always sunny in philadelphia" and an episode of south park while we waited for karen.
for some reason, marc had erasure's "take a chance on me" song stuck in his head.
(the video below is erasure's "take a chance on me".)
gotta love erasure. for anyone curious, the song is a cover of the abba song by the same name. i still find it funny that marc likes erasure. for the longest time, i thought the only people i knew who liked erasure were my friend (garv) and i... and maybe my friend (aimee).
anyway, karen arrived shortly thereafter and we dove right into the next episode of lost. the episode of lost was fantastic. the only drawback of the episode: the character known as kate. oh well. needless to say, the episode was great. too bad the next episode is not until two weeks. bummer.
from there, we watched a couple of episodes of angel. now, i suck at angel. in fact, i suck at angel so much that i did not realize we skipped over an episode until just now. we watched the episodes "the bachelor party" about... well... a bachelor party involving doyle's ex-wife, and "i will remember you" about buffy's visit to los angeles and how angel becomes mortal... for a day. (for anyone curious, we accidentally skipped the episode called "sense and sensitivity", but i'm sure we'll see it next week anyway.)
of the two angel episodes, i liked the "i will remember you" episode over "the bachelor party" episode... probably because the episode had buffy in it. although... "the bachelor party" episode did have an actor that played a villain on the buffy series... carlos jacott.
carlos jacott played ken in the first episode ("anne") of season 3 where buffy in waitressing in los angeles. ken turned out to be a demon enslaving lost souls to do some hard labor. in "the bachelor party", carlos jacott is a demon who wants to marry doyle's ex-wife... and consequently wants to eat doyle's brains as part of the demon ritual of marrying someone who has already been married.
needless to say, the "i will remember you" episode... no carlos jacott... just buffy. it was a touching episode.
i forgot to mention, one of the funniest things of the night... at least, i thought it was funny... was when one of marc and kelley's cats started licking... my head. their cat (samatha) was sitting on the back of couch behind me. she leaned over and started licking the hair on the side of my head... and not just once. it was cute and funny at the same time.
it's weird how marc and kelley's cats like me, considering how allergic i am to cats. i think it may be part of the cat master plan: cuddle up with the ones who are allergic... eliminate them first... and then rule the world.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
I Still Suck At Blue 22
yesterday was my normal night to drive the two miss daisies home. by the term, "the two miss daisies", i am referring to karen and my friend (hot amy) who both teach a course at simmons college.
karen had expected the two of them to finish rather late with their teaching. luckily for them, my chauffeuring services tend to arrive rather early. (i like to be early, if not punctual for things.)
anyway, as i was driving in to pick karen and hot amy up, i noticed a truck that was a couple of blocks ahead of me. naturally, i got pretty excited when i saw the truck because it had the name of my favorite brother-in-law (pj) on it. so like any good driver who should be focusing on the road when driving, i pulled out my camera and drove as fast as i could to get next to the truck. luckily for me, i caught up with the truck at an intersection with a stop light.
(the picture below is of the truck.)
for anyone curious, pj does not own the truck. the name was just one of those coincidences. i thought it was pretty neat. yes, it's the little things that i get excited about.
anyway, i arrived to pick up karen and hot amy. nothing too exciting happened on the ride home. hot amy polished off the peanut butter and jelly sandwich that i made for her. the both of them also ate most of the strawberries i brought too. (the strawberries smelled good... cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.)
on the way home, my friend (marc) had called. apparently, my other friend (scott) was up from new york and wanted to get together... that night. seeing as how we haven't seen scott in a while, we naturally agreed. the place that he wanted to go: blue 22 in quincy.
as it turned out, we were heading in the direction of blue 22 anyway because hot amy had parked her car at the quincy center train station. and because karen is a worry-wart, we walked hot amy to her car... because a person with a knife or gun would never attack three people in a dark garage... but it was all good because hot amy ended up giving us a ride to the front of blue 22.
anyway, i still suck at blue 22. interestingly enough, it was the second time in six days that we have been to blue 22. prior to that, i can't remember the last time i have been there... possibly on my friend's (garv) birthday... which is in january.
it also happens that garv was working last night. so, basically scott, garv, marc, my friend (kelley), karen and i got to hang out together... amid the trivia night that was going on. (as a side note, i dislike it when a team playing trivia night has more than the allotted number of players... that's just cheating. okay, so maybe i'm a stickler for rules.)
it was great seeing scott. scott seems to be in good spirits, considering him and his family have recently been flooded out of their house in new york. as scott told us, there was water flowing out of the windows on his second floor. for anyone curious, scott and his family went on a trip to the dominican republic only to return to a flooded house. the furnace died while they were away and one of the pipes burst. that's a major bummer.
i enjoy scott's stories. scott told us about how his son (xavier) tells himself jokes and just cracks up laughing. xavier also points at things with his middle finger... all interesting facts, i know.
anyway, it was a great time last night... hanging out with friends. it was even great to see garv's cousin (steph) who waited our table. steph is great. oh, and for anyone curious, i had the beer-basted burger last night. it was good. needless to say, it was a fun night.
karen had expected the two of them to finish rather late with their teaching. luckily for them, my chauffeuring services tend to arrive rather early. (i like to be early, if not punctual for things.)
anyway, as i was driving in to pick karen and hot amy up, i noticed a truck that was a couple of blocks ahead of me. naturally, i got pretty excited when i saw the truck because it had the name of my favorite brother-in-law (pj) on it. so like any good driver who should be focusing on the road when driving, i pulled out my camera and drove as fast as i could to get next to the truck. luckily for me, i caught up with the truck at an intersection with a stop light.
(the picture below is of the truck.)
for anyone curious, pj does not own the truck. the name was just one of those coincidences. i thought it was pretty neat. yes, it's the little things that i get excited about.
anyway, i arrived to pick up karen and hot amy. nothing too exciting happened on the ride home. hot amy polished off the peanut butter and jelly sandwich that i made for her. the both of them also ate most of the strawberries i brought too. (the strawberries smelled good... cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.)
on the way home, my friend (marc) had called. apparently, my other friend (scott) was up from new york and wanted to get together... that night. seeing as how we haven't seen scott in a while, we naturally agreed. the place that he wanted to go: blue 22 in quincy.
as it turned out, we were heading in the direction of blue 22 anyway because hot amy had parked her car at the quincy center train station. and because karen is a worry-wart, we walked hot amy to her car... because a person with a knife or gun would never attack three people in a dark garage... but it was all good because hot amy ended up giving us a ride to the front of blue 22.
anyway, i still suck at blue 22. interestingly enough, it was the second time in six days that we have been to blue 22. prior to that, i can't remember the last time i have been there... possibly on my friend's (garv) birthday... which is in january.
it also happens that garv was working last night. so, basically scott, garv, marc, my friend (kelley), karen and i got to hang out together... amid the trivia night that was going on. (as a side note, i dislike it when a team playing trivia night has more than the allotted number of players... that's just cheating. okay, so maybe i'm a stickler for rules.)
it was great seeing scott. scott seems to be in good spirits, considering him and his family have recently been flooded out of their house in new york. as scott told us, there was water flowing out of the windows on his second floor. for anyone curious, scott and his family went on a trip to the dominican republic only to return to a flooded house. the furnace died while they were away and one of the pipes burst. that's a major bummer.
i enjoy scott's stories. scott told us about how his son (xavier) tells himself jokes and just cracks up laughing. xavier also points at things with his middle finger... all interesting facts, i know.
anyway, it was a great time last night... hanging out with friends. it was even great to see garv's cousin (steph) who waited our table. steph is great. oh, and for anyone curious, i had the beer-basted burger last night. it was good. needless to say, it was a fun night.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
I Suck At Not Your Average Joe's
today, my friends (marc and kelley) and i went to lunch. the place that we went to for lunch: not your average joe's located in norwell... of course. now i suck at not your average joe's.
it was definitely great to do something different for lunch. i generally have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch because it's easy: bread, peanut butter, jelly... done. as much as i enjoy peanut butter and jelly (and i really do), the routine does get a little boring after awhile.
luckily for me, it just so happens that kelley is on vacation this week. and as marc was done with class early... very early... the three of us went out for lunch. needless to say, lunch was delicious.
the bread at not your average joe's is aways very good. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) i could probably eat just their bread and be happy. nonetheless, i decided on having the veggie burger. once upon a time, karen had ordered the veggie burger there and was surprised to find the veggie burger patty made with beets. wondering if it were still the case, i ordered the veggie burger.
for anyone curious, there were no beets in the veggie burger patty today. from what i remember from karen's veggie burger experience, today's veggie burger suffered from the same ailment: lack of a good binding agent. (and by binding agent, i am not referring to the effects on the intestines.) i was referring to the patty's ability to stay together. the patty was a little soft and mushy... seemingly consisting of just brown rice.
anyway, the veggie burger was good... but a little messy. i even tried the monthly special on the beer menu: "the green monsta"... in hopes of jump starting the anemic boston red sox this year. (thus far in the early season, the red sox have been terrible. but, it's early...)
all in all, i had a great time with marc and kelley. we basically just hung out and had fun. kelley recently finished the resident evil 5 video game, which we discussed. gotta love zombies... speaking of video games, we also discussed something called "architect" for the city of heroes online game. the architect update allows user created content for the game. so now users of the game can create their own missions. the update seems like a totally interesting concept. perhaps someday, i'll start gaming...
it was definitely great to do something different for lunch. i generally have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch because it's easy: bread, peanut butter, jelly... done. as much as i enjoy peanut butter and jelly (and i really do), the routine does get a little boring after awhile.
luckily for me, it just so happens that kelley is on vacation this week. and as marc was done with class early... very early... the three of us went out for lunch. needless to say, lunch was delicious.
the bread at not your average joe's is aways very good. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) i could probably eat just their bread and be happy. nonetheless, i decided on having the veggie burger. once upon a time, karen had ordered the veggie burger there and was surprised to find the veggie burger patty made with beets. wondering if it were still the case, i ordered the veggie burger.
for anyone curious, there were no beets in the veggie burger patty today. from what i remember from karen's veggie burger experience, today's veggie burger suffered from the same ailment: lack of a good binding agent. (and by binding agent, i am not referring to the effects on the intestines.) i was referring to the patty's ability to stay together. the patty was a little soft and mushy... seemingly consisting of just brown rice.
anyway, the veggie burger was good... but a little messy. i even tried the monthly special on the beer menu: "the green monsta"... in hopes of jump starting the anemic boston red sox this year. (thus far in the early season, the red sox have been terrible. but, it's early...)
all in all, i had a great time with marc and kelley. we basically just hung out and had fun. kelley recently finished the resident evil 5 video game, which we discussed. gotta love zombies... speaking of video games, we also discussed something called "architect" for the city of heroes online game. the architect update allows user created content for the game. so now users of the game can create their own missions. the update seems like a totally interesting concept. perhaps someday, i'll start gaming...
Monday, April 13, 2009
I Suck At The Sound Of Music
today, i stumbled upon a little video that made me smile.
obviously, the video is staged... but the seemingly spontaneity of the entire thing would have been fun to have witnessed live at the train station in belgium.
(the video below is the sound of music video.)
one of the reasons why i enjoyed the video, aside from the fact that i think the video was a brilliant concept, is that it reminded me about my childhood. no, i did not grow up in train station.
growing up, my mother would always watch the movie, the sound of music with my brother and i. now, i suck at the sound of music. nevertheless, i must have seen the movie many times growing up. (for anyone curious, my favorite scene of the movie is when sister margaretta and sister berthe confess to the reverend mother that they have sinned. when mother abbess inquires about the sin, the two nuns look at each other and reveal from their robes the automotive parts that they took from the german cars which allow the von trapp family time to escape. classic.)
anyway, the sound of music movie was practically on every year when i was growing up and i remember the "do-re-mi" song pretty well. i also remember a lot of the other songs too like "the lonely goatherd". needless to say, the video brought back a brief memory about my childhood when things were definitely simpler in my life.
of course, my reminiscing about the past may have been brought on by a surprise visit from my parents today who were in the neighborhood. my mother and father, after visiting my son (braden) in the cemetery stopped by to say hi. my father uncharacteristically gave me a kiss on the cheek after the visit. my parents... not exactly the hugging and kissing type... which is probably where i get my seemingly standoffish appearance (unless i'm inebriated of course). nonetheless, it was a nice sign of affection.
i love my parents.
obviously, the video is staged... but the seemingly spontaneity of the entire thing would have been fun to have witnessed live at the train station in belgium.
(the video below is the sound of music video.)
one of the reasons why i enjoyed the video, aside from the fact that i think the video was a brilliant concept, is that it reminded me about my childhood. no, i did not grow up in train station.
growing up, my mother would always watch the movie, the sound of music with my brother and i. now, i suck at the sound of music. nevertheless, i must have seen the movie many times growing up. (for anyone curious, my favorite scene of the movie is when sister margaretta and sister berthe confess to the reverend mother that they have sinned. when mother abbess inquires about the sin, the two nuns look at each other and reveal from their robes the automotive parts that they took from the german cars which allow the von trapp family time to escape. classic.)
anyway, the sound of music movie was practically on every year when i was growing up and i remember the "do-re-mi" song pretty well. i also remember a lot of the other songs too like "the lonely goatherd". needless to say, the video brought back a brief memory about my childhood when things were definitely simpler in my life.
of course, my reminiscing about the past may have been brought on by a surprise visit from my parents today who were in the neighborhood. my mother and father, after visiting my son (braden) in the cemetery stopped by to say hi. my father uncharacteristically gave me a kiss on the cheek after the visit. my parents... not exactly the hugging and kissing type... which is probably where i get my seemingly standoffish appearance (unless i'm inebriated of course). nonetheless, it was a nice sign of affection.
i love my parents.
I Suck At Easter
depending on who you ask, yesterday was the all important religious day known as easter. in the christian faith, the day signifies the day jesus was resurrected. for those who less apt to believe in zombies, easter is actually another pagan holiday that has been converted to another christian holiday much like christmas. yes, i suck at eater.
for anyone curious, easter is derived from the festival for the goddess, eostre (or ostara). according to my friend wikipedia, the godess eostre is celebrated in april during the vernal equinox (also known as spring). naturally, with the coming of spring... things like fertile lands are hoped for. and what are better signs of fertility than rabbits and eggs? hence, the association now of rabbits and eggs with "easter". (as blasphemous as this may sound, i don't think jesus has anything to do with rabbits or eggs.)
anyway, this was a first for karen and i this year. yesterday was the first time we went to her cousin's for easter. and by cousins... i do not mean the ones in lowell... even though there used to be a lot to like about lowell (lowell has since removed that saying). nope, this was the first time that karen and i spent easter, let alone any holiday, with her cousins on her father's side.
karen's cousins (doreen, leann, and kathy) are the daughters of karen's father's sister. kathy, the youngest, lives in whitman and was having everyone over for easter. i have a feeling that doreen, leann, and kathy realize how much they never see karen and my favorite sister-in-law (janine)... and vice versa.
(pictured below from left to right are "bubba", doreen, kathy, leann, karen, and janine. i'm not sure why "bubba" is known as "bubba".)
anyway, my favorite brother-in-law (pj) was looking forward to celebrating easter with doreen, kathy, and leann. one of the reasons: booze. karen's three cousins are known to be quite the party animals. i am thinking that any one of them could out-drink a lot of people i know... which actually sounds like an interesting challenge. hmm...
truth be told, i was not exactly looking forward to the event. don't get me wrong, i enjoy hanging out with doreen, leann and kathy and their family. i just knew that the topic of the scavenger hunt would come up during the inebriation... and not by my own hands of course.
a long while ago, janine and pj had mentioned the scavenger hunt to them and they were totally interested in participating this year from what i was told. needless to say, i did not ask the three of them to participate this year because i did not think they were serious. after all, from all accounts, they were inebriated during the discussion.
sure enough, bus... me. the topic of the scavenger hunt was brought up by someone. in fact, a certain picture about me in a shower with my teammates was also brought up to the attention of my father-in-law. needless to say, my father-in-law... not too happy. so basically, the reason i was not looking forward to going turned out exactly as i had thought. (and for the record, the picture of me in the shower was not that bad.)
aside from that, everything else was good. i think everyone had fun. it was definitely a long day, that's for sure.
true to my genetics, i was asked to look at a laptop to get it to connect to the wireless router. unfortunately, i could not get it to work because the network is password protected... and well... no one knew the password.
karen and i got to visit an antique house next door to see all the renovations that kathy's husband (brian) was doing. brian is a carpenter. in fact, i got to talk to brian a lot... mostly about the red sox. brian is a quite the fan of the red sox who had some interesting stories. he even mentioned a story about his visit to fenway, carlos quintana... and pot... very interesting.
all in all, it was a good time. i think karen enjoyed herself which is important. i know pj definitely had a blast.
for anyone curious, easter is derived from the festival for the goddess, eostre (or ostara). according to my friend wikipedia, the godess eostre is celebrated in april during the vernal equinox (also known as spring). naturally, with the coming of spring... things like fertile lands are hoped for. and what are better signs of fertility than rabbits and eggs? hence, the association now of rabbits and eggs with "easter". (as blasphemous as this may sound, i don't think jesus has anything to do with rabbits or eggs.)
anyway, this was a first for karen and i this year. yesterday was the first time we went to her cousin's for easter. and by cousins... i do not mean the ones in lowell... even though there used to be a lot to like about lowell (lowell has since removed that saying). nope, this was the first time that karen and i spent easter, let alone any holiday, with her cousins on her father's side.
karen's cousins (doreen, leann, and kathy) are the daughters of karen's father's sister. kathy, the youngest, lives in whitman and was having everyone over for easter. i have a feeling that doreen, leann, and kathy realize how much they never see karen and my favorite sister-in-law (janine)... and vice versa.
(pictured below from left to right are "bubba", doreen, kathy, leann, karen, and janine. i'm not sure why "bubba" is known as "bubba".)
anyway, my favorite brother-in-law (pj) was looking forward to celebrating easter with doreen, kathy, and leann. one of the reasons: booze. karen's three cousins are known to be quite the party animals. i am thinking that any one of them could out-drink a lot of people i know... which actually sounds like an interesting challenge. hmm...
truth be told, i was not exactly looking forward to the event. don't get me wrong, i enjoy hanging out with doreen, leann and kathy and their family. i just knew that the topic of the scavenger hunt would come up during the inebriation... and not by my own hands of course.
a long while ago, janine and pj had mentioned the scavenger hunt to them and they were totally interested in participating this year from what i was told. needless to say, i did not ask the three of them to participate this year because i did not think they were serious. after all, from all accounts, they were inebriated during the discussion.
sure enough, bus... me. the topic of the scavenger hunt was brought up by someone. in fact, a certain picture about me in a shower with my teammates was also brought up to the attention of my father-in-law. needless to say, my father-in-law... not too happy. so basically, the reason i was not looking forward to going turned out exactly as i had thought. (and for the record, the picture of me in the shower was not that bad.)
aside from that, everything else was good. i think everyone had fun. it was definitely a long day, that's for sure.
true to my genetics, i was asked to look at a laptop to get it to connect to the wireless router. unfortunately, i could not get it to work because the network is password protected... and well... no one knew the password.
karen and i got to visit an antique house next door to see all the renovations that kathy's husband (brian) was doing. brian is a carpenter. in fact, i got to talk to brian a lot... mostly about the red sox. brian is a quite the fan of the red sox who had some interesting stories. he even mentioned a story about his visit to fenway, carlos quintana... and pot... very interesting.
all in all, it was a good time. i think karen enjoyed herself which is important. i know pj definitely had a blast.
I Suck At Hanging Out With Cass And Ellen
following our grocery adventure, karen and i went to my friends (hugh and jenny) to celebrate a birthday. hugh and jenny have a son also named hugh. it so happens that karen is hugh's godparent... and it also happens that hugh is turning 4. the theme for the party: legos.
anyway, it was an interesting party. my friends (cass and ellen) also attended the party because cass is the godparent of hugh and jenny's daughter (allison). while at the party, cass asked karen and i if we were around to hang out later that night. cass and ellen were celebrating easter with his family after hugh's birthday party. thinking that there would be a lot of food left over, cass wanted to have people over later in the night. and interestingly enough, my friend (marc) sent me a text message asking about going over to cass's while cass and ellen were still there at the birthday party.
now i suck at hanging out with cass and ellen. i definitely feel like i don't hang out with them enough. cass and ellen even gave karen and i a little easter present while we were at the birthday party. the present was a little stuffed animal of a frog that squeaked when pressed. cass didn't have to explain why he gave us the present because i understood. the present was for our son (braden) who passed away this past september. the present was a very nice and touching. (i'm actually tearing up right now thinking about it.)
anyway, it was quite the interesting night. apparently, ellen was having quite the bad day. thus, she was determined to drink herself silly that night. the last time i remember seeing ellen inebriated was in the dominican republic for my friends' (scott and ofelia) wedding. there is an infamous picture of ellen with a cigar and an el presidente floating around somewhere.
needless to say, ellen was a riot. she kept trying to pour wine into her glass with the cap still on the bottle. it also turns out that ellen is not a big fan of the same type of music that my friend (marc) listens to. every time marc played a song on cass's itunes, ellen would change the song shortly thereafter. ellen even told karen that she loved her, to which cass joked that ellen turns into me when i am drinking. (although truth be told, i don't hug as much now when i am inebriated... a result of a more conscious effort of mine to be less "huggy" to the dismay of many i'm sure.)
anyway, it was fun. i suppose in ellen's defense, pouring wine with a cap in the bottle is an easy mistake. my friend (kelley) also attempted the same thing. of course, kelley also had a "who's right moment" with marc over choline. according to my friend wikipedia:
"Choline is an organic compound, classified as a water-soluble essential nutrient and usually grouped within the Vitamin B complex. This natural amine is found in the lipids that make up cell membranes and in the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Adequate intakes (AI) for this micronutrient of between 425 to 550 milligrams daily, for adults, have been established by the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences."
for anyone curious, the topic came about because choline is in the gatorade product: propel.
all in all, it was a fun time. i'm sure ellen was hurting the next day. nonetheless, i enjoyed hanging out with everyone.
anyway, it was an interesting party. my friends (cass and ellen) also attended the party because cass is the godparent of hugh and jenny's daughter (allison). while at the party, cass asked karen and i if we were around to hang out later that night. cass and ellen were celebrating easter with his family after hugh's birthday party. thinking that there would be a lot of food left over, cass wanted to have people over later in the night. and interestingly enough, my friend (marc) sent me a text message asking about going over to cass's while cass and ellen were still there at the birthday party.
now i suck at hanging out with cass and ellen. i definitely feel like i don't hang out with them enough. cass and ellen even gave karen and i a little easter present while we were at the birthday party. the present was a little stuffed animal of a frog that squeaked when pressed. cass didn't have to explain why he gave us the present because i understood. the present was for our son (braden) who passed away this past september. the present was a very nice and touching. (i'm actually tearing up right now thinking about it.)
anyway, it was quite the interesting night. apparently, ellen was having quite the bad day. thus, she was determined to drink herself silly that night. the last time i remember seeing ellen inebriated was in the dominican republic for my friends' (scott and ofelia) wedding. there is an infamous picture of ellen with a cigar and an el presidente floating around somewhere.
needless to say, ellen was a riot. she kept trying to pour wine into her glass with the cap still on the bottle. it also turns out that ellen is not a big fan of the same type of music that my friend (marc) listens to. every time marc played a song on cass's itunes, ellen would change the song shortly thereafter. ellen even told karen that she loved her, to which cass joked that ellen turns into me when i am drinking. (although truth be told, i don't hug as much now when i am inebriated... a result of a more conscious effort of mine to be less "huggy" to the dismay of many i'm sure.)
anyway, it was fun. i suppose in ellen's defense, pouring wine with a cap in the bottle is an easy mistake. my friend (kelley) also attempted the same thing. of course, kelley also had a "who's right moment" with marc over choline. according to my friend wikipedia:
"Choline is an organic compound, classified as a water-soluble essential nutrient and usually grouped within the Vitamin B complex. This natural amine is found in the lipids that make up cell membranes and in the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Adequate intakes (AI) for this micronutrient of between 425 to 550 milligrams daily, for adults, have been established by the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences."
for anyone curious, the topic came about because choline is in the gatorade product: propel.
all in all, it was a fun time. i'm sure ellen was hurting the next day. nonetheless, i enjoyed hanging out with everyone.
I Suck At Shaw's
saturday was quite the interesting day.
the day began with a trip to the local grocery store (shaw's). now, i suck at shaw's. i must say, going grocery shopping on the day before easter... crazy. have you ever gotten annoyed with people because they were holding up the checkout aisle? well, karen and i actually became those people holding up the checkout aisles because the card reader was not reading the gift card that we had for the grocery store. employee after employee tried to get the card reader to work... i think a total of three employees tried. sadly, none of them could get the card reader working.
normally, karen and i would probably feel bad about holding up the line. on saturday, however, we actually derived a little pleasure in holding up the line because the person behind us in the line was this woman who attempted to cut us in line moments earlier.
karen and i were patiently in line at one of the checkout aisles. we were just standing there... grocery cart and all... waiting. well, the line started to move. out of nowhere, this other grocery carriage comes cutting in front of us. so karen and i looked at the woman... to which she then asked if we were waiting in line. now, as much as i like to just hang out in the grocery store by the checkout area with a bunch of items in a shopping cart... i thought it was an odd question to ask.
nonetheless, the woman withdrew her cart and entered the line behind us. as the checkout area was getting busy, one of the managers came to our checkout aisle and told the woman behind us that she could go to the new register that was opening up. the manager then retracted her statement and told karen and i to go to the new register because we were next in line.
so not only did the woman have to get behind us once... but she had to do it another time too because she followed us to the new register. needless to say, i noticed the woman seething as she waited behind karen and i during our little card reader problem. the look on her face... priceless.
anyway, the entire card reader problem was soon solved... and by solved, i mean we had to go to customer service instead of the normal checkout aisle. the resolution took quite a while, but one of the cool things was that there was a food demo by the customer service area. the demonstration was some chicken and mushroom thing. it smelled very good as it was being cooked. needless to say, the samples tasted good as well.
the day began with a trip to the local grocery store (shaw's). now, i suck at shaw's. i must say, going grocery shopping on the day before easter... crazy. have you ever gotten annoyed with people because they were holding up the checkout aisle? well, karen and i actually became those people holding up the checkout aisles because the card reader was not reading the gift card that we had for the grocery store. employee after employee tried to get the card reader to work... i think a total of three employees tried. sadly, none of them could get the card reader working.
normally, karen and i would probably feel bad about holding up the line. on saturday, however, we actually derived a little pleasure in holding up the line because the person behind us in the line was this woman who attempted to cut us in line moments earlier.
karen and i were patiently in line at one of the checkout aisles. we were just standing there... grocery cart and all... waiting. well, the line started to move. out of nowhere, this other grocery carriage comes cutting in front of us. so karen and i looked at the woman... to which she then asked if we were waiting in line. now, as much as i like to just hang out in the grocery store by the checkout area with a bunch of items in a shopping cart... i thought it was an odd question to ask.
nonetheless, the woman withdrew her cart and entered the line behind us. as the checkout area was getting busy, one of the managers came to our checkout aisle and told the woman behind us that she could go to the new register that was opening up. the manager then retracted her statement and told karen and i to go to the new register because we were next in line.
so not only did the woman have to get behind us once... but she had to do it another time too because she followed us to the new register. needless to say, i noticed the woman seething as she waited behind karen and i during our little card reader problem. the look on her face... priceless.
anyway, the entire card reader problem was soon solved... and by solved, i mean we had to go to customer service instead of the normal checkout aisle. the resolution took quite a while, but one of the cool things was that there was a food demo by the customer service area. the demonstration was some chicken and mushroom thing. it smelled very good as it was being cooked. needless to say, the samples tasted good as well.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
I Suck At Blue 22
friday night, karen and i went to blue 22. now i suck at blue 22. despite the fact that my friend (hot amy) used to love going to blue 22 for certain reasons, neither karen nor i have been to blue 22 in quite some time with a bunch of friends... that is... until friday.
my friend (cass) organized a little get together at blue 22 because his good friend (jim) whom he met in college was in town. jim, his wife (monica), and his daughter (grace) live in san diego.
i first met jim a long time ago when cass and i took a weekend trip to chicago... in december. yes, chicago is very cold in december. they don't call chicago the windy city for nothing. anyway, we actually stayed with jim on our trip because jim was already living out there for his work. (and for anyone curious, it was probably the first and last time i was allowed to use jim's bathroom... a result of the veggie burger that i ate prior to arriving in chicago.)
anyway, cass thought it would be a fun to get everyone together to hang out with jim. apparently, jim had not gone out with his friends in about a year... most likely the result of not knowing anyone in san diego. after friday night, jim may not want to ever go out again with friends. just kidding.
when my friends (marc and kelley), karen, and i first arrived at blue 22, we saw my friend (garv) sitting in the corner... by himself... reading a newspaper. i actually thought it was a picture moment, not because garv was reading... but because the headline of the newspaper was about a union. i just thought it was funny to see garv reading an article about the union, especially since he almost had an altercation over the same union mentioned in the article.
everyone else shortly arrived thereafter: garv's wife (leeann), cass's wife (ellen), cass and jim, cass's brother (bj), and a couple of bj's other friends... one of which gave me a hug at the end of the night. i have no idea who she was... other than the fact that her name sounded familiar. if i didn't know any better, i would say she was trying to cop a feel. just kidding.
needless to say, it was fun. kelley and i imbibed on a couple of starburst martinis each. there may have been some beer drinking as well. apparently, kelley knocked over her drink during the course of the night. i didn't remember that incident. i did, however, remember feeling beer envy over garv's bottle of beer. garv's bottle of beer looked impressive compared to mine. damn garv... just kidding.
oh... and there were lots and lots of wings. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) everyone at the table, particularly me, devoured the asian flavored wings. they were quite good... and i may have been quite hungry due to the liquids. karen even enjoys the wings from blue 22 as well. karen, however, has yet to learn the ancient chinese secret of eating wings. (by secret, i mean the ability to stick a chicken wing in the mouth... and then remove just the bone of the wing when pulling the wing out.)
all in all, i don't think we scared off the waitperson... so that's good. for anyone curious, it was her second day on the job according to garv. but, i think jim had a good time hanging out with everyone. at least, i hope he did.
my friend (cass) organized a little get together at blue 22 because his good friend (jim) whom he met in college was in town. jim, his wife (monica), and his daughter (grace) live in san diego.
i first met jim a long time ago when cass and i took a weekend trip to chicago... in december. yes, chicago is very cold in december. they don't call chicago the windy city for nothing. anyway, we actually stayed with jim on our trip because jim was already living out there for his work. (and for anyone curious, it was probably the first and last time i was allowed to use jim's bathroom... a result of the veggie burger that i ate prior to arriving in chicago.)
anyway, cass thought it would be a fun to get everyone together to hang out with jim. apparently, jim had not gone out with his friends in about a year... most likely the result of not knowing anyone in san diego. after friday night, jim may not want to ever go out again with friends. just kidding.
when my friends (marc and kelley), karen, and i first arrived at blue 22, we saw my friend (garv) sitting in the corner... by himself... reading a newspaper. i actually thought it was a picture moment, not because garv was reading... but because the headline of the newspaper was about a union. i just thought it was funny to see garv reading an article about the union, especially since he almost had an altercation over the same union mentioned in the article.
everyone else shortly arrived thereafter: garv's wife (leeann), cass's wife (ellen), cass and jim, cass's brother (bj), and a couple of bj's other friends... one of which gave me a hug at the end of the night. i have no idea who she was... other than the fact that her name sounded familiar. if i didn't know any better, i would say she was trying to cop a feel. just kidding.
needless to say, it was fun. kelley and i imbibed on a couple of starburst martinis each. there may have been some beer drinking as well. apparently, kelley knocked over her drink during the course of the night. i didn't remember that incident. i did, however, remember feeling beer envy over garv's bottle of beer. garv's bottle of beer looked impressive compared to mine. damn garv... just kidding.
oh... and there were lots and lots of wings. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) everyone at the table, particularly me, devoured the asian flavored wings. they were quite good... and i may have been quite hungry due to the liquids. karen even enjoys the wings from blue 22 as well. karen, however, has yet to learn the ancient chinese secret of eating wings. (by secret, i mean the ability to stick a chicken wing in the mouth... and then remove just the bone of the wing when pulling the wing out.)
all in all, i don't think we scared off the waitperson... so that's good. for anyone curious, it was her second day on the job according to garv. but, i think jim had a good time hanging out with everyone. at least, i hope he did.
Friday, April 10, 2009
I Suck At It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia
last night, karen and i hung out with my friends (marc and kelley).
both karen and i were running a little late yesterday. karen was scheduled to work later than her normal time, while i got caught up in a little project for work. i simply lost track of time while working on the project.
anyway, i arrived at marc and kelley's before karen. marc and kelley have become fans of the show "it's always sunny in philadelphia". they had recently got one of the seasons on dvd and were watching the show when i arrived. now, i suck at it's always sunny in philadelphia. i have never seen the show. the commercials that i have seen for the show never made me interested in watching the show. nonetheless, i figured i'd give the show a try. marc said the show is like seinfeld... only funnier. even though i did not know who the characters were and whatnot, the show was good.
karen shortly arrived afterwards and we dove right in to the latest episode of lost. compared to last week's episode, this episode was much better. without giving away too much, there were some surprising moments involving people getting shot. if only the character, kate, were one of those people... just kidding. lost is such a good show. without a doubt, it definitely is the best show on television right now.
following lost, we watched another episode of the greatest television show ever: buffy the vampire slayer. the episode was the last episode on the second disc. it was the thanksgiving episode known as "pangs" about a native american spirit taking revenge for the extinction of his race. as well, guest starring in the episode was angel. it was a great episode.
and since we have been alternating between buffy and angel after completing discs, we switched over to watch the next episode of angel, which featured the character known as cordelia. the episode called "rm w/a vu" was about cordelia's attempt to find a new apartment, only to find an apartment that is inhabited by a ghost. as well, that episode was great... and not just because the episode featured cordelia.
speaking of which, it so happens that karen thinks one of the characters on angel is quite attractive. karen thinks glenn quinn, the actor who played doyle is cute. (karen also thinks damian lewis of the show "life" is attractive.) unfortunately, glenn quinn passed away in december of 2002 from a heroin overdose.
thanks to my friend imdb:
"Quinn was born in Dublin, Ireland, and moved to the United States with his mother and two sisters in 1988. His first role was as a pool shark in the Richard Marx video Satisfied. He later landed a major role in the John Travolta film Shout (1991), where he shared a screen kiss with Gwyneth Paltrow. He went on to have roles in a number of other movies and television series. His most notable roles were as Becky's husband, Mark, on "Roseanne" (1988) and half-demon Doyle on the WB's "Angel" (1999). He died of a heroin overdose in 2002."
it's too bad about glenn quinn.
anyway, it was great night as usual. there was also some discussion about the scavenger hunt that i organized last weekend too. it seems like marc and kelley really enjoyed the event... which is fantastic because i tend to worry over whether people will enjoy themselves and whatnot for these things. marc was theoretically talking about getting a team together for next year... and his team may be quite formidable... just from seeing the shameless pictures of him over the weekend. regardless, i'm happy to know that kelley and him... and everyone else who was involved... had a great time.
both karen and i were running a little late yesterday. karen was scheduled to work later than her normal time, while i got caught up in a little project for work. i simply lost track of time while working on the project.
anyway, i arrived at marc and kelley's before karen. marc and kelley have become fans of the show "it's always sunny in philadelphia". they had recently got one of the seasons on dvd and were watching the show when i arrived. now, i suck at it's always sunny in philadelphia. i have never seen the show. the commercials that i have seen for the show never made me interested in watching the show. nonetheless, i figured i'd give the show a try. marc said the show is like seinfeld... only funnier. even though i did not know who the characters were and whatnot, the show was good.
karen shortly arrived afterwards and we dove right in to the latest episode of lost. compared to last week's episode, this episode was much better. without giving away too much, there were some surprising moments involving people getting shot. if only the character, kate, were one of those people... just kidding. lost is such a good show. without a doubt, it definitely is the best show on television right now.
following lost, we watched another episode of the greatest television show ever: buffy the vampire slayer. the episode was the last episode on the second disc. it was the thanksgiving episode known as "pangs" about a native american spirit taking revenge for the extinction of his race. as well, guest starring in the episode was angel. it was a great episode.
and since we have been alternating between buffy and angel after completing discs, we switched over to watch the next episode of angel, which featured the character known as cordelia. the episode called "rm w/a vu" was about cordelia's attempt to find a new apartment, only to find an apartment that is inhabited by a ghost. as well, that episode was great... and not just because the episode featured cordelia.
speaking of which, it so happens that karen thinks one of the characters on angel is quite attractive. karen thinks glenn quinn, the actor who played doyle is cute. (karen also thinks damian lewis of the show "life" is attractive.) unfortunately, glenn quinn passed away in december of 2002 from a heroin overdose.
thanks to my friend imdb:
"Quinn was born in Dublin, Ireland, and moved to the United States with his mother and two sisters in 1988. His first role was as a pool shark in the Richard Marx video Satisfied. He later landed a major role in the John Travolta film Shout (1991), where he shared a screen kiss with Gwyneth Paltrow. He went on to have roles in a number of other movies and television series. His most notable roles were as Becky's husband, Mark, on "Roseanne" (1988) and half-demon Doyle on the WB's "Angel" (1999). He died of a heroin overdose in 2002."
it's too bad about glenn quinn.
anyway, it was great night as usual. there was also some discussion about the scavenger hunt that i organized last weekend too. it seems like marc and kelley really enjoyed the event... which is fantastic because i tend to worry over whether people will enjoy themselves and whatnot for these things. marc was theoretically talking about getting a team together for next year... and his team may be quite formidable... just from seeing the shameless pictures of him over the weekend. regardless, i'm happy to know that kelley and him... and everyone else who was involved... had a great time.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
I Suck At Chauffeuring
last night was my usual night to drive karen and my friend (hot amy) home from simmons college. karen and hot amy teach a course together at simmons college. as there was a red sox game starting around the time karen and hot amy would be finishing with their teaching, i figured traffic would probably be a little congested. luckily, i suck at chauffeuring.
in preparation of the traffic, i quickly threw together a sandwich for hot amy. the sandwich was the usual peanut butter and jelly sandwich... and sadly, the jelly was not monk-created, so it probably tasted a little different than normal to hot amy. i'm afraid i already devoured all of the trappist jam... it just tastes so good.
karen, however, did not want anything because she still had her peanut butter and jelly sandwich from lunch. (you may be noticing a peanut butter and jelly theme...)
needless to say, i actually left an hour and half before the designated rendezvous time. i was concerned with traffic after all. i can see why my favorite brother-in-law (pj) gets obsessed with traffic. traffic is such an annoyance, especially when there is no one else in the car to chat with. on an semi-unrelated note... if i could complain about my job, it would be the long commute home from work with traffic and no one to chat with... that alone drives me crazy at times.
anyway, it took me close to an hour to arrive in town... which is not bad considering i live about half an hour away from town. and as luck would have it, there were plenty of parking spaces available on the street near simmons college. being a half hour early, i decided to read a little. (as surprising as it sounds, i do occasionally read.)
i'm currently reading a book that my friend (andrea) lent me. it's the sequel to "twilight". the sequel is called "new moon". granted, i was not exactly a big fan of the first book. sadly, since i like to complete things... and sequels being one of them... i figured that i might as well continue with the next installment of the twilight series. i do this with movies as well.
and surprisingly... so far... the second book in the series... much more enjoyable than the first book... probably because there is less of the "i know i shouldn't love you because you're a vampire, but i do" thing.
anyway, i didn't get too far into the book because karen and hot amy had finished teaching earlier than expected. so off we went... to do my little chauffeuring task. nothing too exciting happened on the ride home. hot amy asked if i were less stressed now that the scavenger hunt that i had organized was over. (i may have been somewhat on edge... mostly because i tend to worry about people having a good time, having the right amount of people to participate, and all of that stuff.) for anyone curious, with the event now over... yes, it does feel like there is less weight on my shoulders.
karen tried to get me to spill the beans for some of the other ideas that i have been hatching as possible items for next year's scavenger hunt... should i decide to plan another hunt. obviously, i didn't reveal a thing. but we did briefly discuss the potential craziness for a scavenger hunt next year with more people wanting to join in on the fun. i suppose we'll see how i feel next year. maybe i can switch things up and do an "amazing race" type of event or something. we'll see.
needless to say, that was pretty much my night of chauffeuring. on the way back to our house, however, there was one new interesting encounter. a police car had blocked off route 53 a little before the stop and shop as we were heading home. apparently, the police officer blocked the street because there was a fire nearby and he had to re-route everyone so that the fire trucks could get to the fire. as karen and i lived just up past the stop and shop, the officer was kind enough to let us drive on home. seeing route 53 blocked off is not something you notice every day. for anyone curious, the fire was not in our neighborhood... so we were safe.
all in all, it was an interesting night.
in preparation of the traffic, i quickly threw together a sandwich for hot amy. the sandwich was the usual peanut butter and jelly sandwich... and sadly, the jelly was not monk-created, so it probably tasted a little different than normal to hot amy. i'm afraid i already devoured all of the trappist jam... it just tastes so good.
karen, however, did not want anything because she still had her peanut butter and jelly sandwich from lunch. (you may be noticing a peanut butter and jelly theme...)
needless to say, i actually left an hour and half before the designated rendezvous time. i was concerned with traffic after all. i can see why my favorite brother-in-law (pj) gets obsessed with traffic. traffic is such an annoyance, especially when there is no one else in the car to chat with. on an semi-unrelated note... if i could complain about my job, it would be the long commute home from work with traffic and no one to chat with... that alone drives me crazy at times.
anyway, it took me close to an hour to arrive in town... which is not bad considering i live about half an hour away from town. and as luck would have it, there were plenty of parking spaces available on the street near simmons college. being a half hour early, i decided to read a little. (as surprising as it sounds, i do occasionally read.)
i'm currently reading a book that my friend (andrea) lent me. it's the sequel to "twilight". the sequel is called "new moon". granted, i was not exactly a big fan of the first book. sadly, since i like to complete things... and sequels being one of them... i figured that i might as well continue with the next installment of the twilight series. i do this with movies as well.
and surprisingly... so far... the second book in the series... much more enjoyable than the first book... probably because there is less of the "i know i shouldn't love you because you're a vampire, but i do" thing.
anyway, i didn't get too far into the book because karen and hot amy had finished teaching earlier than expected. so off we went... to do my little chauffeuring task. nothing too exciting happened on the ride home. hot amy asked if i were less stressed now that the scavenger hunt that i had organized was over. (i may have been somewhat on edge... mostly because i tend to worry about people having a good time, having the right amount of people to participate, and all of that stuff.) for anyone curious, with the event now over... yes, it does feel like there is less weight on my shoulders.
karen tried to get me to spill the beans for some of the other ideas that i have been hatching as possible items for next year's scavenger hunt... should i decide to plan another hunt. obviously, i didn't reveal a thing. but we did briefly discuss the potential craziness for a scavenger hunt next year with more people wanting to join in on the fun. i suppose we'll see how i feel next year. maybe i can switch things up and do an "amazing race" type of event or something. we'll see.
needless to say, that was pretty much my night of chauffeuring. on the way back to our house, however, there was one new interesting encounter. a police car had blocked off route 53 a little before the stop and shop as we were heading home. apparently, the police officer blocked the street because there was a fire nearby and he had to re-route everyone so that the fire trucks could get to the fire. as karen and i lived just up past the stop and shop, the officer was kind enough to let us drive on home. seeing route 53 blocked off is not something you notice every day. for anyone curious, the fire was not in our neighborhood... so we were safe.
all in all, it was an interesting night.
Monday, April 6, 2009
I Suck At Marathon Sports
we are all getting old.
my bff (kerry) had spent the night following the scavenger hunt on saturday (as it was a long day). anyway, kerry had mentioned how one of her butt cheeks was a little sore. karen soon added that her abdominal muscles were sore. as for me, i actually felt fine... probably because i didn't do much on the scavenger hunt. but as i went to sit down, my right butt cheek cramped up... proof that i also am getting old.
anyway, yesterday was quite the busy day considering how sore and tired all of us were from the scavenger hunt. karen and kerry mentioned that our house was like grand central station yesterday as people were stopping by to visit.
my friend... and fellow scavenger hunt teammate (andrea)... was stopping by in the morning because she had accidentally left her makeup in our bathroom following the scavenger hunt. as well, my friend (hot amy) was stopping by to correct case studies with karen because they are teaching a class at simmons college together. in addition, karen's parents were stopping by for a quick visit. karen's parents were going to be in the neighborhood as they were bringing flowers to the cemetery for my son (braden).
needless to say, kerry departed "grand central station" to visit her family. soon after andrea arrived at "grand central station". apparently, andrea's head is still a little sore from our handstand incident for the photo scavenger hunt. add another to the list of sore scavenger hunt participants. (see... we are getting old...)
when andrea left, hot amy arrived. while karen and hot amy were correcting their case studies, karen's parents arrived. as it turns out, my father-in-law brought us a corded drill. my father-in-law had heard that the battery to my cordless drill had died and that i was looking to get a new corded drill so that i would not have to worry about dead batteries and all that. for some reason, he decided that he would get a corded drill for me. it was very nice of my father-in-law. i'm lucky to have great in-laws.
anyway, my in-laws soon departed "grand central station", and i hung out with karen and hot amy for a little while. plus, it was almost lunch time by that point. karen and hot amy were on the same team for the scavenger hunt. their team scored the most points for the scavenger hunt and consequently won. needless to say, hot amy was beaming from the victory. i'll let her savor the thrill of winning until the next scavenger hunt... for now... after all, it will only be a matter of time before she loses another challenge against me.
after visiting her family, kerry soon returned to "grand central station" whereby i could get out of karen and hot amy's hair and let them finish their grading of case studies. kerry and i went to buy kerry new sneakers. the place that we ended up: marathon sports located on route 53.
now, i suck at marathon sports. i haven't been to marathon sports in quite some time. it was definitely an interesting visit to say the least. when kerry and i arrived at the store, we noticed a bus from suffield. the suffield tigers were apparently visiting marathon sports as well. for anyone curious, suffied is located in connecticut. marathon sports was packed as the entire suffield running team was all in the store.
anyway, kerry was looking to get new sneakers because she is interested in running again. the store employee who helped her was very nice. the employee had recommended a few sneakers to kerry. so while kerry was trying the sneakers out, i got to hang out with the store employee.
it turns out, the store employee is a track coach for braintree high school. in addition, to being the track coach, the store employee is also a physical education teacher at the high school. she is also getting her masters soon. the only reason why i even found out this information is because she had mentioned that one of her runners was in the store. as the store employee looked like she was 20, i had inquired about her statement.
needless to say, i learned quite a lot in marathon sports... and i did not even purchase any sneakers. apparently, when buying running sneakers, you want a thumbnail's length between your toe and the front of the sneaker. running sneakers last about 4000 miles. and, there is a neat way to tie shoelaces by creating loops with the sneaker shoelace.
all in all, it was an interesting time. for anyone curious, kerry ended up purchasing new running sneakers. we headed back to "grand central station" afterwards and hung out for a little while before kerry departed the station for the day.
my bff (kerry) had spent the night following the scavenger hunt on saturday (as it was a long day). anyway, kerry had mentioned how one of her butt cheeks was a little sore. karen soon added that her abdominal muscles were sore. as for me, i actually felt fine... probably because i didn't do much on the scavenger hunt. but as i went to sit down, my right butt cheek cramped up... proof that i also am getting old.
anyway, yesterday was quite the busy day considering how sore and tired all of us were from the scavenger hunt. karen and kerry mentioned that our house was like grand central station yesterday as people were stopping by to visit.
my friend... and fellow scavenger hunt teammate (andrea)... was stopping by in the morning because she had accidentally left her makeup in our bathroom following the scavenger hunt. as well, my friend (hot amy) was stopping by to correct case studies with karen because they are teaching a class at simmons college together. in addition, karen's parents were stopping by for a quick visit. karen's parents were going to be in the neighborhood as they were bringing flowers to the cemetery for my son (braden).
needless to say, kerry departed "grand central station" to visit her family. soon after andrea arrived at "grand central station". apparently, andrea's head is still a little sore from our handstand incident for the photo scavenger hunt. add another to the list of sore scavenger hunt participants. (see... we are getting old...)
when andrea left, hot amy arrived. while karen and hot amy were correcting their case studies, karen's parents arrived. as it turns out, my father-in-law brought us a corded drill. my father-in-law had heard that the battery to my cordless drill had died and that i was looking to get a new corded drill so that i would not have to worry about dead batteries and all that. for some reason, he decided that he would get a corded drill for me. it was very nice of my father-in-law. i'm lucky to have great in-laws.
anyway, my in-laws soon departed "grand central station", and i hung out with karen and hot amy for a little while. plus, it was almost lunch time by that point. karen and hot amy were on the same team for the scavenger hunt. their team scored the most points for the scavenger hunt and consequently won. needless to say, hot amy was beaming from the victory. i'll let her savor the thrill of winning until the next scavenger hunt... for now... after all, it will only be a matter of time before she loses another challenge against me.
after visiting her family, kerry soon returned to "grand central station" whereby i could get out of karen and hot amy's hair and let them finish their grading of case studies. kerry and i went to buy kerry new sneakers. the place that we ended up: marathon sports located on route 53.
now, i suck at marathon sports. i haven't been to marathon sports in quite some time. it was definitely an interesting visit to say the least. when kerry and i arrived at the store, we noticed a bus from suffield. the suffield tigers were apparently visiting marathon sports as well. for anyone curious, suffied is located in connecticut. marathon sports was packed as the entire suffield running team was all in the store.
anyway, kerry was looking to get new sneakers because she is interested in running again. the store employee who helped her was very nice. the employee had recommended a few sneakers to kerry. so while kerry was trying the sneakers out, i got to hang out with the store employee.
it turns out, the store employee is a track coach for braintree high school. in addition, to being the track coach, the store employee is also a physical education teacher at the high school. she is also getting her masters soon. the only reason why i even found out this information is because she had mentioned that one of her runners was in the store. as the store employee looked like she was 20, i had inquired about her statement.
needless to say, i learned quite a lot in marathon sports... and i did not even purchase any sneakers. apparently, when buying running sneakers, you want a thumbnail's length between your toe and the front of the sneaker. running sneakers last about 4000 miles. and, there is a neat way to tie shoelaces by creating loops with the sneaker shoelace.
all in all, it was an interesting time. for anyone curious, kerry ended up purchasing new running sneakers. we headed back to "grand central station" afterwards and hung out for a little while before kerry departed the station for the day.
I Suck At Scavenger Hunts
on saturday, the event that i have been planning for the past few months finally came to fruition. that event: the photo scavenger hunt. now i suck at scavenger hunts.
the photo scavenger hunt was the second one that i had planned within the past 2 years. so, it has almost become an annual tradition.
the entire idea started in december of 2007. for anyone curious, my birthday is in december. getting together with friends in the month of december has always been difficult because that time of year is simply hectic. and rather than having the usual celebratory birthday party with some friends, i decided that i wanted my friends to participate in something different... which turned out to be the photo scavenger hunt. so, in january of 2008... exactly one month after my birthday... i had some friends participate in the first photo scavenger hunt.
as everyone seemed to have enjoyed the first scavenger hunt, i decided to organize another one for this year. thus, saturday was the second annual photo scavenger hunt for my birthday.
(pictured below is the winning team from this year's scavenger hunt.)
anyway, one of the nuances for this year's scavenger hunt was my participation. last year, i had simply organized the scavenger hunt and enjoyed the quiet time to myself while everyone else ran around taking pictures. as my friends wanted me to actually participate in the picture taking, i decided to actually play this year.
of course, with my participation in the hunt, i consequently had to think about the fairness of things because i was creating the actual scavenger hunt list. hence, i would know what was on the list before anyone else, not that i really would stock up on items or anything else to help my team in advance. (and in retrospect, there simply are too many items on the list to even remember. so i don't think my knowing of the list beforehand would even help.)
nonetheless, to make things fair... and i'm all about fairness... i decided to have members of the other teams score the pictures from the other teams. that was also one of the nuances for this year's hunt. of course, the problem then became... i needed more than two teams because potentially one team would vote for their own picture and the other team would vote against, in which case there would be a deadlock.
thus, to remedy that potential problem i decided to add additional teams because there would be more "judges" for the scoring. i was actually quite happy with the results. four teams consisting of four members each were able to participate this year in the scavenger hunt (16 people total).
the two teams i added were great. my friend (marc), who was on one of those two teams, definitely went above and beyond for the hunt, for which i am extremely grateful. of course, at the same time, my eyes are burning from seeing the images of marc in all sorts of poses.
as for me, i had a fun time participating in my first photo scavenger hunt. i had been on one of the randomly created teams. unfortunately, the team i was on did not win. i did, after all, say that i suck at scavenger hunts.
anyway, i hope everyone who participated... and everyone else who actually helped out the teams in the scavenger hunt... had a good time and enjoyed themselves. it was definitely stressful at times to organize the scavenger hunt, but i think it was worth it because i think all of my friends had fun... which is all i really cared about. and now that the hunt is over, i can relax again... until next year.
the photo scavenger hunt was the second one that i had planned within the past 2 years. so, it has almost become an annual tradition.
the entire idea started in december of 2007. for anyone curious, my birthday is in december. getting together with friends in the month of december has always been difficult because that time of year is simply hectic. and rather than having the usual celebratory birthday party with some friends, i decided that i wanted my friends to participate in something different... which turned out to be the photo scavenger hunt. so, in january of 2008... exactly one month after my birthday... i had some friends participate in the first photo scavenger hunt.
as everyone seemed to have enjoyed the first scavenger hunt, i decided to organize another one for this year. thus, saturday was the second annual photo scavenger hunt for my birthday.
(pictured below is the winning team from this year's scavenger hunt.)
anyway, one of the nuances for this year's scavenger hunt was my participation. last year, i had simply organized the scavenger hunt and enjoyed the quiet time to myself while everyone else ran around taking pictures. as my friends wanted me to actually participate in the picture taking, i decided to actually play this year.
of course, with my participation in the hunt, i consequently had to think about the fairness of things because i was creating the actual scavenger hunt list. hence, i would know what was on the list before anyone else, not that i really would stock up on items or anything else to help my team in advance. (and in retrospect, there simply are too many items on the list to even remember. so i don't think my knowing of the list beforehand would even help.)
nonetheless, to make things fair... and i'm all about fairness... i decided to have members of the other teams score the pictures from the other teams. that was also one of the nuances for this year's hunt. of course, the problem then became... i needed more than two teams because potentially one team would vote for their own picture and the other team would vote against, in which case there would be a deadlock.
thus, to remedy that potential problem i decided to add additional teams because there would be more "judges" for the scoring. i was actually quite happy with the results. four teams consisting of four members each were able to participate this year in the scavenger hunt (16 people total).
the two teams i added were great. my friend (marc), who was on one of those two teams, definitely went above and beyond for the hunt, for which i am extremely grateful. of course, at the same time, my eyes are burning from seeing the images of marc in all sorts of poses.
as for me, i had a fun time participating in my first photo scavenger hunt. i had been on one of the randomly created teams. unfortunately, the team i was on did not win. i did, after all, say that i suck at scavenger hunts.
anyway, i hope everyone who participated... and everyone else who actually helped out the teams in the scavenger hunt... had a good time and enjoyed themselves. it was definitely stressful at times to organize the scavenger hunt, but i think it was worth it because i think all of my friends had fun... which is all i really cared about. and now that the hunt is over, i can relax again... until next year.
Friday, April 3, 2009
I Suck At Lost
last night, karen and i hung out with my friends (marc and kelley).
unfortunately, karen was working late at her regular job. in addition, the subway train... as most subway trains run by the mbta are prone to do... was experiencing delays due to a previously disabled train. thus, karen's commute home from work was not that great.
i, however, arrived at marc and kelley's at the usual time. so while we waited for karen to arrive, i watched kelley play some more of resident evil 5. for anyone curious, i love the resident evil series. killing zombies never gets old. it seems like this installment of the video game involves a tomb raider/indiana jones spin with ruins and whatnot. nonetheless, it was great watching kelley play resident evil. of course, my exhilaration watching zombies getting shot may have been biased due to the apple martini that i was drinking. for anyone curious, kelley and i were celebrating with martinis.
anyway, karen finally arrived and we were able to dive into the latest episode of lost. now, i suck at lost. i love the show. i actually think lost is the best show currently on television. sadly, i'm not a big fan of one of the current lost characters: kate. without revealing anything about the episode, i will just say that the episode was a little disappointing for me, probably because it featured kate in it.
from there, we were able to catch another episode of the greatest television show ever: buffy the vampire slayer. the episode we watched was "the initiative". the episode was the first time the actor who plays the vampire known as spike became featured in the opening credits. needless to say, the episode was about spike escaping from a military facility. the episode also was the first time actor leonard roberts appeared on the show. for anyone curious, leonard roberts is the actor who i would choose to play my friend's (aimee) husband, jim.
it was a good episode of buffy, especially the scene where spike is having trouble feeding on the willow character. too bad the episode also starts the whole romance between buffy and the riley character.
following buffy, we decided to switch things up a little and watch the latest episode of south park. after all, it was getting late and we did not have enough time for another full episode of buffy. needless to say, south park was a riot. for anyone curious, the episode was about the interesting topic of queefing.
and for those of you who are unaware of the term, queefing is vaginal flatulence. according to my friend, wikipedia:
"Vaginal flatulence (flatus vaginalis in Latin) is an emission or expulsion of air from the vagina that may occur during or after sexual intercourse or (less often) during other sexual acts, stretching or exercise. The sound is somewhat comparable to flatulence from the anus but does not involve waste gases and thus often has no specific odor associated."
yes, it was a very interesting episode of south park.
as usual, i had a good time yesterday with marc and kelley. one of the interesting things i learned yesterday (and no, it's not queefing) is that marc is having a "bromance". apparently, his bromance has become public knowledge now as there is a picture of him and one of his friend's boyfriend together on facebook. ever since marc and kelley saw the movie "i love you man", marc has wanted a man-crush. i imagine that marc now has one.
unfortunately, karen was working late at her regular job. in addition, the subway train... as most subway trains run by the mbta are prone to do... was experiencing delays due to a previously disabled train. thus, karen's commute home from work was not that great.
i, however, arrived at marc and kelley's at the usual time. so while we waited for karen to arrive, i watched kelley play some more of resident evil 5. for anyone curious, i love the resident evil series. killing zombies never gets old. it seems like this installment of the video game involves a tomb raider/indiana jones spin with ruins and whatnot. nonetheless, it was great watching kelley play resident evil. of course, my exhilaration watching zombies getting shot may have been biased due to the apple martini that i was drinking. for anyone curious, kelley and i were celebrating with martinis.
anyway, karen finally arrived and we were able to dive into the latest episode of lost. now, i suck at lost. i love the show. i actually think lost is the best show currently on television. sadly, i'm not a big fan of one of the current lost characters: kate. without revealing anything about the episode, i will just say that the episode was a little disappointing for me, probably because it featured kate in it.
from there, we were able to catch another episode of the greatest television show ever: buffy the vampire slayer. the episode we watched was "the initiative". the episode was the first time the actor who plays the vampire known as spike became featured in the opening credits. needless to say, the episode was about spike escaping from a military facility. the episode also was the first time actor leonard roberts appeared on the show. for anyone curious, leonard roberts is the actor who i would choose to play my friend's (aimee) husband, jim.
it was a good episode of buffy, especially the scene where spike is having trouble feeding on the willow character. too bad the episode also starts the whole romance between buffy and the riley character.
following buffy, we decided to switch things up a little and watch the latest episode of south park. after all, it was getting late and we did not have enough time for another full episode of buffy. needless to say, south park was a riot. for anyone curious, the episode was about the interesting topic of queefing.
and for those of you who are unaware of the term, queefing is vaginal flatulence. according to my friend, wikipedia:
"Vaginal flatulence (flatus vaginalis in Latin) is an emission or expulsion of air from the vagina that may occur during or after sexual intercourse or (less often) during other sexual acts, stretching or exercise. The sound is somewhat comparable to flatulence from the anus but does not involve waste gases and thus often has no specific odor associated."
yes, it was a very interesting episode of south park.
as usual, i had a good time yesterday with marc and kelley. one of the interesting things i learned yesterday (and no, it's not queefing) is that marc is having a "bromance". apparently, his bromance has become public knowledge now as there is a picture of him and one of his friend's boyfriend together on facebook. ever since marc and kelley saw the movie "i love you man", marc has wanted a man-crush. i imagine that marc now has one.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
I Suck At Getting An Oil Change
last night, karen and i had a grocery bill come to $0.45. it only seems fitting that today, i get a bill for considerably more. i suppose the term is known as "the law of averages".
this morning, i dropped karen off at the train station so that she could get to work. as i was heading home, i decided to get an oil change. now, i suck at getting an oil change. our car was actually due for an oil change because the mileage had already reached 3000 miles since the last oil change. so i figured that i would get it out of the way.
naturally, i brought the car to firestone located in hingham. firestone offers an environmentally friendly oil for an oil change. as i am a big proponent for the environment, i try to do what i can for mother nature.
in addition to the oil change, i figured i would ask the mechanics at firestone to see if they could find out the cause of a certain rattling that the car has been recently making while driving. silly me. mental note: remember that ignorance is bliss lest you open up a can of worms. i'm just kidding.
it's actually good that i had them look into the car's problems because it would have been a driving hazard otherwise. as it turned out, one of the springs above the wheel had completely snapped off. one of the struts was damaged. a stabilizer bar was damaged. the front wheel bearing was damaged. fluid was leaking out of the axle. and a heat shield was loose.
the mechanics think the cause of the problem was a pot hole... which i tend to agree with because 1) i am technically an asian driver; and 2) every street i seem to drive by on my daily route is littered with potholes... whether it is in marblehead, in boston, in quincy... wherever.
sad to say, the cost for all of the repairs to the car was close to $1600. i am definitely thinking that it is time to start looking for a new car now. needless to say, hearing the cost of the repairs put a little damper on things today. the only thing that was even somewhat of a bright spot was that i had a firestone coupon... or two... that brought the total down to $1450. sure, it's not that great, but $150 is better than nothing.
nonetheless, it was frustrating. the cost of repairs to the car makes the grocery bill of $0.45 from yesterday all that much more enjoyable.
this morning, i dropped karen off at the train station so that she could get to work. as i was heading home, i decided to get an oil change. now, i suck at getting an oil change. our car was actually due for an oil change because the mileage had already reached 3000 miles since the last oil change. so i figured that i would get it out of the way.
naturally, i brought the car to firestone located in hingham. firestone offers an environmentally friendly oil for an oil change. as i am a big proponent for the environment, i try to do what i can for mother nature.
in addition to the oil change, i figured i would ask the mechanics at firestone to see if they could find out the cause of a certain rattling that the car has been recently making while driving. silly me. mental note: remember that ignorance is bliss lest you open up a can of worms. i'm just kidding.
it's actually good that i had them look into the car's problems because it would have been a driving hazard otherwise. as it turned out, one of the springs above the wheel had completely snapped off. one of the struts was damaged. a stabilizer bar was damaged. the front wheel bearing was damaged. fluid was leaking out of the axle. and a heat shield was loose.
the mechanics think the cause of the problem was a pot hole... which i tend to agree with because 1) i am technically an asian driver; and 2) every street i seem to drive by on my daily route is littered with potholes... whether it is in marblehead, in boston, in quincy... wherever.
sad to say, the cost for all of the repairs to the car was close to $1600. i am definitely thinking that it is time to start looking for a new car now. needless to say, hearing the cost of the repairs put a little damper on things today. the only thing that was even somewhat of a bright spot was that i had a firestone coupon... or two... that brought the total down to $1450. sure, it's not that great, but $150 is better than nothing.
nonetheless, it was frustrating. the cost of repairs to the car makes the grocery bill of $0.45 from yesterday all that much more enjoyable.
I Suck At Shaw's
last night, karen and i had an interesting time.
whenever i work in marblehead, i generally leave the office with enough time to account for rush hour traffic. i had dreaded the commute home yesterday because i had a meeting scheduled for the late afternoon, which would consequently make my ride home take place during rush hour traffic. to my surprise, there was not much traffic on my commute home and i was able to pick up karen at the jfk train station.
anyway, from there we made a little pitstop at my favorite sister-in-law's (janine) to pick up a box of items pilfered from karen and janine's grandmother. i'm just kidding about the pilfering. the box contained christmas ornaments that were at nana's house. and luckily for me, karen received the snowman jar with the styrofoam head. for anyone curious, karen loves that snowman jar because of the childhood memories it brings. for lack of a better word, i think the snowman jar is "ghetto".
while at janine's, janine told us a story about my father-in-law. apparently, my father-in-law randomly decided to buy a scratch ticket for my son (braden). lo and behold, he won $200 on the scratch ticket. needless to say, the thought about my little b, braden, being such a good luck charm brought a smile to my face... and a possible tear to my eye as i type this now.
shortly thereafter, karen and i decided to go out for dinner. our choice for dinner: none other than not your average joe's located in norwell. needless to say, the food was delicious as usual. adding to the already interesting day, i ordered something that i generally don't order... ever... the yankee pot roast. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) the meal was very good.
following dinner, we decided to get some groceries for the upcoming scavenger hunt that i am organizing for this saturday. we decided to go to shaw's because karen received a random coupon there. now, i suck at shaw's... but i generally like shaw's better than stop and shop even though stop and shop is right up from my house. where i live, i generally find that the employees at shaw's are much friendlier and happier than at stop and shop. i don't know why that is the case.
while at shaw's, we got our necessary ingredients for the potluck dinner following the scavenger hunt. as well, we received $30 for free! shaw's was offering a promotion where if you got a gift card for $300, you would get an extra $30 added to your gift card. granted, the promotion sounds steep because $300 is a lot of money to put up front. but the way karen and i were looking at it, we would eventually spend that amount on groceries during the year, so why not get the free $30. we would actually come out on top in the long run.
naturally, you would think that the traffic-free commute home, braden's good luck with scratch tickets, the not your average joe's dinner, and the free $30 would be enough excitement for the night. interestingly enough, there was one more surprise for the night that had karen and i giggling.
located at the front desk of shaw's to where we purchased our gift card was a shaw's coupon booklet. apparently, the month of march was frozen food month. contained within the booklet were coupons for some free items of food like bagels, frozen lemonade, etc. the coupons, however, were only good for a few more days. so naturally, we decided to see if those items where at the store while we were there.
as it turned out, a good chunk of those products were in the store. (there was also a good chunk of products already sold out too.) anyway, we picked up what we could and went through the checkout aisle. including the groceries that we purposely went to shaw's for, the total came to about $12. after all the coupons... the final total came to $0.45. karen and i just cracked up. karen thought about using the new gift card, but thought that would simply be too silly.
anyway, it was quite the interesting night.
whenever i work in marblehead, i generally leave the office with enough time to account for rush hour traffic. i had dreaded the commute home yesterday because i had a meeting scheduled for the late afternoon, which would consequently make my ride home take place during rush hour traffic. to my surprise, there was not much traffic on my commute home and i was able to pick up karen at the jfk train station.
anyway, from there we made a little pitstop at my favorite sister-in-law's (janine) to pick up a box of items pilfered from karen and janine's grandmother. i'm just kidding about the pilfering. the box contained christmas ornaments that were at nana's house. and luckily for me, karen received the snowman jar with the styrofoam head. for anyone curious, karen loves that snowman jar because of the childhood memories it brings. for lack of a better word, i think the snowman jar is "ghetto".
while at janine's, janine told us a story about my father-in-law. apparently, my father-in-law randomly decided to buy a scratch ticket for my son (braden). lo and behold, he won $200 on the scratch ticket. needless to say, the thought about my little b, braden, being such a good luck charm brought a smile to my face... and a possible tear to my eye as i type this now.
shortly thereafter, karen and i decided to go out for dinner. our choice for dinner: none other than not your average joe's located in norwell. needless to say, the food was delicious as usual. adding to the already interesting day, i ordered something that i generally don't order... ever... the yankee pot roast. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) the meal was very good.
following dinner, we decided to get some groceries for the upcoming scavenger hunt that i am organizing for this saturday. we decided to go to shaw's because karen received a random coupon there. now, i suck at shaw's... but i generally like shaw's better than stop and shop even though stop and shop is right up from my house. where i live, i generally find that the employees at shaw's are much friendlier and happier than at stop and shop. i don't know why that is the case.
while at shaw's, we got our necessary ingredients for the potluck dinner following the scavenger hunt. as well, we received $30 for free! shaw's was offering a promotion where if you got a gift card for $300, you would get an extra $30 added to your gift card. granted, the promotion sounds steep because $300 is a lot of money to put up front. but the way karen and i were looking at it, we would eventually spend that amount on groceries during the year, so why not get the free $30. we would actually come out on top in the long run.
naturally, you would think that the traffic-free commute home, braden's good luck with scratch tickets, the not your average joe's dinner, and the free $30 would be enough excitement for the night. interestingly enough, there was one more surprise for the night that had karen and i giggling.
located at the front desk of shaw's to where we purchased our gift card was a shaw's coupon booklet. apparently, the month of march was frozen food month. contained within the booklet were coupons for some free items of food like bagels, frozen lemonade, etc. the coupons, however, were only good for a few more days. so naturally, we decided to see if those items where at the store while we were there.
as it turned out, a good chunk of those products were in the store. (there was also a good chunk of products already sold out too.) anyway, we picked up what we could and went through the checkout aisle. including the groceries that we purposely went to shaw's for, the total came to about $12. after all the coupons... the final total came to $0.45. karen and i just cracked up. karen thought about using the new gift card, but thought that would simply be too silly.
anyway, it was quite the interesting night.
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