last night, karen and i decided to go out for dinner. we ended up going to bertucci's in hingham (at the derby shoppes). (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) bertucci's pizza is so good. i do thoroughly enjoy the pizza there.
anyway, following dinner we decided to take a little stroll around the derby shoppes. with my friend's (meredith) upcoming wedding this fourth of july weekend, karen figured she'd browse around for some dresses. she actually had purchased a dress the day before with my friend (kelley). but, i guess in an effort to keep her options open, karen decided to look around some more at dresses... just in case. (i believe this is what is called... a woman's prerogative.)
while we were walking around the derby shoppes, we ran into my favorite sister-in-law (janine) and her friend (gretchen). janine and gretchen were on their way to the apple store because gretchen was ready to make a big purchase: a new computer. thus, karen and i tagged along.
now, i suck at the apple store. truth be told, i have never purchased a computer from the apple store. it's not that i dislike apple computers. quite the contrary, i think apple computers are great. in terms of quality and ease of use, apple computers are very good. perhaps that is why their computers are also costlier.
given the choice between microsoft and apple, i would go with apple. (justin long fans unite! just kidding.) before anyone starts accusing me of being pro-apple (or pro-justin long)... i'm actually not. i just happen to have a huge dislike for microsoft because microsoft's software is proprietary and generally full of bugs. (hence, you'll notice that a computer using a microsoft operating system... left on its own... will need to be routinely rebooted.)
interestingly enough, our computers at work are setup to use microsoft applications. (i have no say on our architecture at work.) so unfortunately, i'm stuck using "the evil empire" for the time being.
anyway, gretchen was quite nervous about purchasing her computer. apparently, she gets very nervous with large purchases. so, i can only imagine how she must have felt when she purchased her condo in hingham.
as it turns out, teachers get a discount the apple store. and luckily for gretchen, she is a teacher in the hingham school system. it also turns out that if she were to purchase a new computer, she would be receiving a free apple itouch and a $100 discount off a printer. not bad for a deal. plus, she would be purchasing the computer just in time before the big 25% sales tax hike next month in massachusetts. (truth be told, i think gretchen was more about the free apple itouch than the new computer itself.)
all in all, it was an interesting time at the apple store. we were actually in the apple store for quite some time because there was a long wait... with very little employees around to offer assistance. i find the way the apple store functions in terms of its inventory and employees... a little bit bizarre, but that's just me. for instance, the store did not know if it would ever get a particular piece of inventory in because... they just don't know what will arrive or when a piece of merchandise will come in... if it even does. that just seemed odd to me.
nevertheless, it was fun to hang out with janine and gretchen. incidentally, i think gretchen wants to meet men with all of our other single female friends now. she seemed quite interested in one of the apple employees... which was interesting because not too long ago, there was a report that the apple store was a good place to meet men.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
I Suck At Buffy The Vampire Slayer
on sunday, i finished demolishing our first floor bathroom. everything, including the electrical, in the bathroom has been torn down to the studs. so now the renovation can actually begin! (well... once plans are drawn up and all.)
following the demolition of the bathroom, karen and i hung out with my friends (marc and kelley). in an attempt to progress through the series, marc and kelley wanted to see if we were interested in watching more episodes of the greatest television show ever: buffy the vampire slayer. i suck at buffy the vampire slayer... so of course i was all in for watching more episodes.
after ordering takeout from the imperial terrace in quincy, the four of us watched the remaining episodes from season four of buffy the vampire slayer. the episodes included: "the yoko factor" about spike breaking up the group of friends a la yoko and the beatles; "primeval" about the conclusion and final battle with adam; and "restless" about the very first slayer and the groundwork for the arrival of buffy's sister, dawn.
one of the puzzling questions that came about in regards to buffy... is the cheese man who appears in the "restless" episode. for anyone curious, the cheese man has actually been a topic of debate in the buffy world.
according to joss whedon:
"The cheese man means nothing. He is the only thing in the show that means nothing. I needed something like that, something that couldn't be explained, because dreams always have that one element that is just RIDICULOUS. Thus, man of cheese. Plus funny. (to me)"
nevertheless, fans will be fans and they will be undeterred in finding a meaning for the cheese man.
anyway, as usual it was a great time hanging out with marc and kelley. up next: the season finale for angel!
following the demolition of the bathroom, karen and i hung out with my friends (marc and kelley). in an attempt to progress through the series, marc and kelley wanted to see if we were interested in watching more episodes of the greatest television show ever: buffy the vampire slayer. i suck at buffy the vampire slayer... so of course i was all in for watching more episodes.
after ordering takeout from the imperial terrace in quincy, the four of us watched the remaining episodes from season four of buffy the vampire slayer. the episodes included: "the yoko factor" about spike breaking up the group of friends a la yoko and the beatles; "primeval" about the conclusion and final battle with adam; and "restless" about the very first slayer and the groundwork for the arrival of buffy's sister, dawn.
one of the puzzling questions that came about in regards to buffy... is the cheese man who appears in the "restless" episode. for anyone curious, the cheese man has actually been a topic of debate in the buffy world.
according to joss whedon:
"The cheese man means nothing. He is the only thing in the show that means nothing. I needed something like that, something that couldn't be explained, because dreams always have that one element that is just RIDICULOUS. Thus, man of cheese. Plus funny. (to me)"
nevertheless, fans will be fans and they will be undeterred in finding a meaning for the cheese man.
anyway, as usual it was a great time hanging out with marc and kelley. up next: the season finale for angel!
Monday, June 29, 2009
I Suck At The Birthday Cookout I Always Wanted
on saturday, karen and i were invited by my (bff) to attend her cookout in salem. kerry's cookout was termed "the birthday cookout i (kerry) always wanted".
for anyone curious, kerry's birthday is in december. in fact, a few of my friends (including myself) have birthdays in the month of december. obviously (with winter and all), december is not exactly known as prime grilling season. hence, kerry devised the "the birthday cookout i always wanted".
now, i suck at the birthday cookout i always wanted. i'm sure none of my friends would disagree with that fact after the ride up to salem. karen and i, as well as my friends (marc and kelley) were able to hitch a ride with my friend (andrea).
seeing as how i am a frequenter of the salem area (thanks to working for a company in the nearby town of marblehead), everyone decided to have me sit up front as andrea's navigator and co-pilot on the ride up. big mistake for them!
the ride up would not have been so bad if i were not distracted by a certain electronic gadget known as andrea's ipod. for anyone curious, andrea's ipod is chock full of 80s tunes... and i'm a sucker for 80s tunes. needless to say, i seemed to have missed a few exits and turns while scrolling through andrea's list of songs on her ipod.
eventually, the five of us reached kerry's. we were the first ones to arrive at the birthday cookout that kerry always wanted. and thus, that is where my memory soon started to fade... a result of my friend, boozy... and kelley. (mental note: eat something before imbibing.)
from what i remember, the cookout was good. i do remember that the night ended with a certain game being played... that game being "flip cup". i felt i had to represent the older people at the party... taking on kerry's youngster cousin (melissa) and her friend (jessica).
aside from that, i have bits and pieces of other memories. i remember attempting to trade wally back to my friend (hot amy) for karen's stuffed pig. for some reason, i think hot amy declined... yet again. i get the feeling that hot amy doesn't really want wally back. (insert "poor wally".) oh well.
anyway, i hope kerry enjoyed the birthday cookout that she always wanted. it was good.
for anyone curious, kerry's birthday is in december. in fact, a few of my friends (including myself) have birthdays in the month of december. obviously (with winter and all), december is not exactly known as prime grilling season. hence, kerry devised the "the birthday cookout i always wanted".
now, i suck at the birthday cookout i always wanted. i'm sure none of my friends would disagree with that fact after the ride up to salem. karen and i, as well as my friends (marc and kelley) were able to hitch a ride with my friend (andrea).
seeing as how i am a frequenter of the salem area (thanks to working for a company in the nearby town of marblehead), everyone decided to have me sit up front as andrea's navigator and co-pilot on the ride up. big mistake for them!
the ride up would not have been so bad if i were not distracted by a certain electronic gadget known as andrea's ipod. for anyone curious, andrea's ipod is chock full of 80s tunes... and i'm a sucker for 80s tunes. needless to say, i seemed to have missed a few exits and turns while scrolling through andrea's list of songs on her ipod.
eventually, the five of us reached kerry's. we were the first ones to arrive at the birthday cookout that kerry always wanted. and thus, that is where my memory soon started to fade... a result of my friend, boozy... and kelley. (mental note: eat something before imbibing.)
from what i remember, the cookout was good. i do remember that the night ended with a certain game being played... that game being "flip cup". i felt i had to represent the older people at the party... taking on kerry's youngster cousin (melissa) and her friend (jessica).
aside from that, i have bits and pieces of other memories. i remember attempting to trade wally back to my friend (hot amy) for karen's stuffed pig. for some reason, i think hot amy declined... yet again. i get the feeling that hot amy doesn't really want wally back. (insert "poor wally".) oh well.
anyway, i hope kerry enjoyed the birthday cookout that she always wanted. it was good.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
I Still Suck At Trivia Night
in terms of fun, last night was a blast.
karen and i began the night hanging out with my friends (marc and kelley). after all, it was a wednesday... and wednesdays (in addition to being prince spaghetti night) are the nights we generally hang out with marc and kelley.
the four of us decided to watch "dr. horrible's sing-along blog". i don't know about karen, but i was quite excited to watch "dr. horrible's sing-along blog" because the movie was created by buffy the vampire slayer/angel's own... joss whedon.
for those who are curious, according to my friend wikipedia:
"Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is a 43-minute musical film, initially produced exclusively for Internet distribution. It tells the story of Dr. Horrible, an aspiring supervillain; Captain Hammer, his nemesis; and Penny, their mutual love interest.
The movie was written by writer/director Joss Whedon, his brothers Zack Whedon (a television writer) and Jed Whedon (a composer), and actress Maurissa Tancharoen. The writing team penned the musical during the WGA writers' strike. The idea was to create something small and inexpensive, yet professionally done, in a way that would circumvent the issues that were being protested during the strike."
(the video below is the trailer for "dr. horrible's sing-along blog".)
needless to say, the film was awesome. joss whedon simply rocks. i really can't say enough good things about the film. it was... without a doubt... hilarious. neil patrick harris, who is dr. horrible, was awesome. i would definitely recommend this movie to anyone. and for anyone curious, one of the best lines from the whole film: "the hammer is my penis". classic!
anyway, the movie was a great way to start the night off. following "dr. horrible's sing-along blog", the four of us went to my friend's (garv) restaurant, blue 22, in quincy for trivia night. now, i still suck at trivia night. after our second place finish last week (in which we scored some cool jamison glasses), marc decided to organize another group for a crack at trivia dominance.
interestingly enough... our team did dominate trivia night. joining us for trivia were my friend (andrea) and my bff (kerry). kerry actually showed up midway through the trivia festivities because she had prior dinner plans with one of her friends (rebecca). rebecca, who i also know from my high school days, also joined us for the fun.
(pictured below is wally with garv... at trivia night.)
truth be told, i did not really do much to help the trivia team. i think andrea had her "a" game going on because she knew who the bobbsey twins were... as well as how tolstoy's anna karenina committed suicide. last night, andrea was a literary genius. it's too bad i'm illiterate. even when i do read, i end up reading awful literary classics like "the secret" or "twilight"...
the only thing that i helped our trivia team with last night was the horror movie identification section. apparently kelley and i were the only horror buffs at the table. we managed to get 8 of the 10 horror movies, which was not bad.
as it turned out, after the horror movie section, our team pulled away from the other teams and never looked back. in fact, our team ran the table on the last set of trivia questions for the fourth quarter. to me, that was amazing.
needless to say, our trivia team finished in first place with over 100 points last night. we even got our picture taken for finishing in first place. for anyone curious, our team name was "garv still sucks"... so if you go to blue 22, look for our team picture.
in addition to the group photo, we scored some sweet drinking glasses again... complete with another pitcher of beer. this time, the glasses were for sam adams. i still think the jamison glasses were cooler, but that's just me. don't get me wrong, i'm still happy with the sam adams glasses.
those other teams can have the monetary discounts (chumps!), we are all about the drinking glasses. yes, we know where our priorities lie. besides, i have to party like a rock star while i can... before i experiment with my alcohol free challenge. (for those who are curious, i have decided to give up the yummy goodiness known as booze starting july 5th.)
anyway, it was a fun night last night... with dr. horrible and the trivia dominance. and truth be told, in terms of trivia... i'd be happy to go out on top. but we'll see whether or not everyone wants to defend the first place finish or not. if anything, it would just be fun to hang out together. so we'll see.
karen and i began the night hanging out with my friends (marc and kelley). after all, it was a wednesday... and wednesdays (in addition to being prince spaghetti night) are the nights we generally hang out with marc and kelley.
the four of us decided to watch "dr. horrible's sing-along blog". i don't know about karen, but i was quite excited to watch "dr. horrible's sing-along blog" because the movie was created by buffy the vampire slayer/angel's own... joss whedon.
for those who are curious, according to my friend wikipedia:
"Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is a 43-minute musical film, initially produced exclusively for Internet distribution. It tells the story of Dr. Horrible, an aspiring supervillain; Captain Hammer, his nemesis; and Penny, their mutual love interest.
The movie was written by writer/director Joss Whedon, his brothers Zack Whedon (a television writer) and Jed Whedon (a composer), and actress Maurissa Tancharoen. The writing team penned the musical during the WGA writers' strike. The idea was to create something small and inexpensive, yet professionally done, in a way that would circumvent the issues that were being protested during the strike."
(the video below is the trailer for "dr. horrible's sing-along blog".)
needless to say, the film was awesome. joss whedon simply rocks. i really can't say enough good things about the film. it was... without a doubt... hilarious. neil patrick harris, who is dr. horrible, was awesome. i would definitely recommend this movie to anyone. and for anyone curious, one of the best lines from the whole film: "the hammer is my penis". classic!
anyway, the movie was a great way to start the night off. following "dr. horrible's sing-along blog", the four of us went to my friend's (garv) restaurant, blue 22, in quincy for trivia night. now, i still suck at trivia night. after our second place finish last week (in which we scored some cool jamison glasses), marc decided to organize another group for a crack at trivia dominance.
interestingly enough... our team did dominate trivia night. joining us for trivia were my friend (andrea) and my bff (kerry). kerry actually showed up midway through the trivia festivities because she had prior dinner plans with one of her friends (rebecca). rebecca, who i also know from my high school days, also joined us for the fun.
(pictured below is wally with garv... at trivia night.)
truth be told, i did not really do much to help the trivia team. i think andrea had her "a" game going on because she knew who the bobbsey twins were... as well as how tolstoy's anna karenina committed suicide. last night, andrea was a literary genius. it's too bad i'm illiterate. even when i do read, i end up reading awful literary classics like "the secret" or "twilight"...
the only thing that i helped our trivia team with last night was the horror movie identification section. apparently kelley and i were the only horror buffs at the table. we managed to get 8 of the 10 horror movies, which was not bad.
as it turned out, after the horror movie section, our team pulled away from the other teams and never looked back. in fact, our team ran the table on the last set of trivia questions for the fourth quarter. to me, that was amazing.
needless to say, our trivia team finished in first place with over 100 points last night. we even got our picture taken for finishing in first place. for anyone curious, our team name was "garv still sucks"... so if you go to blue 22, look for our team picture.
in addition to the group photo, we scored some sweet drinking glasses again... complete with another pitcher of beer. this time, the glasses were for sam adams. i still think the jamison glasses were cooler, but that's just me. don't get me wrong, i'm still happy with the sam adams glasses.
those other teams can have the monetary discounts (chumps!), we are all about the drinking glasses. yes, we know where our priorities lie. besides, i have to party like a rock star while i can... before i experiment with my alcohol free challenge. (for those who are curious, i have decided to give up the yummy goodiness known as booze starting july 5th.)
anyway, it was a fun night last night... with dr. horrible and the trivia dominance. and truth be told, in terms of trivia... i'd be happy to go out on top. but we'll see whether or not everyone wants to defend the first place finish or not. if anything, it would just be fun to hang out together. so we'll see.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
I Suck At Waitress
last night, karen wanted to watch a chick flick. always one to please, i of course acquiesced to karen's wishes. the movie that we watched: waitress.
now, i suck at waitress. neither karen nor i have seen the movie. i have heard of the movie, but the only thing i heard about the movie was that keri russell (famous for her role as felicity) starred in it. as it turns out, nathan fillion of buffy and serenity fame also appears in the movie. interestingly enough, i think the only thing that karen knew about the movie was that andy griffith appeared in the movie.
according to the back of the dvd, the movie is about the following:
"Jenna (Russell), a small-town waitress with big dreams, has an uncanny gift for baking out-of-this-world pies. Her secret ambition is to win a $25,000 contest, so she can leave her obnoxious husband, open her own pie shop and transform her life. A chance meeting with a handsome newcomer to town just might supply the right ingredients to help Jenna find true happiness."
for some reason, the movie description reminded me of my bff (kerry). i even joked with karen that the movie was about kerry... just without julia stiles (although keri russell would not be a terrible choice to play kerry in the movie)... the whole waitressing thing... and the obnoxious husband thing.
so basically, the only part of the movie description that actually reminded me of kerry was the ambition to own her own pie shop... and even that is not true because kerry would rather bake more than just pies. so maybe the movie description really had nothing to do with kerry...
(the video below is the trailer for waitress.)
regardless, the movie was okay. there were some funny parts, but on a whole the movie was rather predictable. given a choice, i probably would not watch the movie again because it's not my type of movie. nevertheless, it was good to just hang out on the couch and watch a movie with karen.
now, i suck at waitress. neither karen nor i have seen the movie. i have heard of the movie, but the only thing i heard about the movie was that keri russell (famous for her role as felicity) starred in it. as it turns out, nathan fillion of buffy and serenity fame also appears in the movie. interestingly enough, i think the only thing that karen knew about the movie was that andy griffith appeared in the movie.
according to the back of the dvd, the movie is about the following:
"Jenna (Russell), a small-town waitress with big dreams, has an uncanny gift for baking out-of-this-world pies. Her secret ambition is to win a $25,000 contest, so she can leave her obnoxious husband, open her own pie shop and transform her life. A chance meeting with a handsome newcomer to town just might supply the right ingredients to help Jenna find true happiness."
for some reason, the movie description reminded me of my bff (kerry). i even joked with karen that the movie was about kerry... just without julia stiles (although keri russell would not be a terrible choice to play kerry in the movie)... the whole waitressing thing... and the obnoxious husband thing.
so basically, the only part of the movie description that actually reminded me of kerry was the ambition to own her own pie shop... and even that is not true because kerry would rather bake more than just pies. so maybe the movie description really had nothing to do with kerry...
(the video below is the trailer for waitress.)
regardless, the movie was okay. there were some funny parts, but on a whole the movie was rather predictable. given a choice, i probably would not watch the movie again because it's not my type of movie. nevertheless, it was good to just hang out on the couch and watch a movie with karen.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
I Suck At Working On The House
tonight, karen wanted to work on the house and demolish more of our bathroom. too bad i suck at working on the house. on the agenda tonight: the 1970s psychedelic green bath tub.
besides the the equally ugly 1970s light fixture that is providing light to the room and the many half-demolished glazed tiled wallboards, the bath tub is the only large remnant left to demolish in the first floor bathroom. the only problem of course: the copper piping that supplies water to the tub and the tub drain.
the copper pipes for the bath tub run through the floor. now obviously, before i cut these pipes in half, i had to make sure there was no water flowing to the bath tub. unfortunately, that meant a friendly visit down to the crawlspace to check the plumbing lines.
in general, karen thinks i'm crazy. in fact, karen thinks i'm looney enough to make her create her own blog and title it "living with mike". (for anyone curious, karen does not have a blog yet... because she does not know how to set up a blog... but she has threatened to have a blog about "living with mike".) that said, tonight is one of those nights where my craziness paid off.
a long time ago, when we first got our house, i decided to work on the house's plumbing system. now, i suck at plumbing too. i've never been a big fan of plumbing because plumbing is simply... dirty. and for those who know me, they know that i am not a big fan of getting dirty. (there's a snicker somewhere in there.)
nonetheless, when we first got our house, the house only had one shut off valve for the water... and that was the main shut off valve. thus, in order to work on any plumbing projects, the water for the entire house had to be shut off. needless to say, that did not sit well with me because i knew we would be working on our house quite frequently.
so in my crazed state, i went into our crawlspace and started soldering new copper pipes with shut off valves to every part of the house that required hot and cold water. sure, the plumbing project took a while... but it was worth it.
in fact, it was particularly worth it today because i realized that i could simply cut the copper pipes to the bath tub without having to worry about the water supply. (for anyone curious, the water supply to the old toilet and sink has also been shut off as well... and yet, the rest of the house still has water! yay!)
anyway, i did a little happy dance (or shuffle) when i emerged from our crawlspace because it was so easy to shut off water to only those parts of the house, without affecting the rest of the house. so from there, we began cutting the copper pipes in half.
the 1970s psychedelic green bath tub actually took some time to remove. the hardest part was figuring out how the drain was attached to the floor. every book i read said that i could simply twist the tub strainer off. little did the books know... this 1970s psychedelic green tub was way before tub strainers had that cross pattern inside. so, i did what any normal person would do... i took a hammer to it.
i probably should clarify: i took a hammer and screwdriver to it... chiseling around the entire circumference of the tub strainer. i must say... a hammer is a great way to relieve stress. after creating a hole around the tub strainer, the entire 1970s psychedelic green bath tub easily came out.
with the bath tub removed, the first floor bathroom project is moving along. fantastic.
besides the the equally ugly 1970s light fixture that is providing light to the room and the many half-demolished glazed tiled wallboards, the bath tub is the only large remnant left to demolish in the first floor bathroom. the only problem of course: the copper piping that supplies water to the tub and the tub drain.
the copper pipes for the bath tub run through the floor. now obviously, before i cut these pipes in half, i had to make sure there was no water flowing to the bath tub. unfortunately, that meant a friendly visit down to the crawlspace to check the plumbing lines.
in general, karen thinks i'm crazy. in fact, karen thinks i'm looney enough to make her create her own blog and title it "living with mike". (for anyone curious, karen does not have a blog yet... because she does not know how to set up a blog... but she has threatened to have a blog about "living with mike".) that said, tonight is one of those nights where my craziness paid off.
a long time ago, when we first got our house, i decided to work on the house's plumbing system. now, i suck at plumbing too. i've never been a big fan of plumbing because plumbing is simply... dirty. and for those who know me, they know that i am not a big fan of getting dirty. (there's a snicker somewhere in there.)
nonetheless, when we first got our house, the house only had one shut off valve for the water... and that was the main shut off valve. thus, in order to work on any plumbing projects, the water for the entire house had to be shut off. needless to say, that did not sit well with me because i knew we would be working on our house quite frequently.
so in my crazed state, i went into our crawlspace and started soldering new copper pipes with shut off valves to every part of the house that required hot and cold water. sure, the plumbing project took a while... but it was worth it.
in fact, it was particularly worth it today because i realized that i could simply cut the copper pipes to the bath tub without having to worry about the water supply. (for anyone curious, the water supply to the old toilet and sink has also been shut off as well... and yet, the rest of the house still has water! yay!)
anyway, i did a little happy dance (or shuffle) when i emerged from our crawlspace because it was so easy to shut off water to only those parts of the house, without affecting the rest of the house. so from there, we began cutting the copper pipes in half.
the 1970s psychedelic green bath tub actually took some time to remove. the hardest part was figuring out how the drain was attached to the floor. every book i read said that i could simply twist the tub strainer off. little did the books know... this 1970s psychedelic green tub was way before tub strainers had that cross pattern inside. so, i did what any normal person would do... i took a hammer to it.
i probably should clarify: i took a hammer and screwdriver to it... chiseling around the entire circumference of the tub strainer. i must say... a hammer is a great way to relieve stress. after creating a hole around the tub strainer, the entire 1970s psychedelic green bath tub easily came out.
with the bath tub removed, the first floor bathroom project is moving along. fantastic.
Monday, June 22, 2009
I Suck At Father's Day
yesterday was the commercial holiday known as father's day. (and here is my sarcastic "yay": yay.)
for anyone curious, karen and i lost our son (braden) in september of last year. braden was born prematurely and only lived for a week. i still remember his cute angelic little face. truth be told, the nurses said braden had my charming debonair good looks... one fact that always seems to make me smile.
anyway, it was actually very nice to receive some sentiments from my friends for father's day. so thank you everyone for your kind thoughts and wishes. i really had appreciated the support.
surprisingly, father's day was not as bad as i had thought it would be. the days leading up to father's day were worse because i had visions that i was just going to have a meltdown. okay, sure, i may have had one meltdown earlier in the morning. i had gotten a very touching card from karen... and we had visited the cemetery. it was very nice. interestingly enough, i'm tearing as i write this paragraph.
sometimes i think that my fear of forgetting my son is coming true... and it kills me. the other day, i was talking with someone who i had not seen in quite some time. as with the usual conversation piece of getting reacquainted, there is the question about "do you have any kids?" when i was asked that question, i said no without even thinking.
quickly realizing my mistake, i actually explained that i had lost braden. i was actually upset with myself for part of the night because i felt like i had let braden down... like i had denied his existence... and that pains me.
i think for me, i am still trying to wrap my head around the feeling i have about being a father... yet, not having a living breathing son. in the technical sense, yes i have a son. his name is braden and he was born september 5, 2009. in the sense when people generally ask about "do you have kids?", no i do not have a son because he is no longer living... having passed away a week after birth. it's one of those things i struggle with: do i tell people what they want to hear or do i tell people the truth?
i know... it's odd that i even have this dilemma because i am generally unfiltered in what i say. after all, i didn't get my "instigator" reputation for saying what people want to hear.
anyway, the actual day of father's day was actually not as bad as i expected it to be. the day started off with a visit to my parents... so that i could celebrate father's day with my father... and then a visit to karen's parents. my favorite sister-in-law (janine), my favorite brother-in-law (pj), my niece (kaleigh), and my nephew (pj) were also there.
apparently, kaleigh and pj had watched the movie "ghostbusters" that day. they loved the movie... drawing pictures of slimer. the pictures were interesting.
karen and i ended father's day hanging out with my bff (kerry). kerry happened to be in the neighborhood. so we watched a few more episodes of veronica mars. it was a good way to end the day.
for anyone curious, karen and i lost our son (braden) in september of last year. braden was born prematurely and only lived for a week. i still remember his cute angelic little face. truth be told, the nurses said braden had my charming debonair good looks... one fact that always seems to make me smile.
anyway, it was actually very nice to receive some sentiments from my friends for father's day. so thank you everyone for your kind thoughts and wishes. i really had appreciated the support.
surprisingly, father's day was not as bad as i had thought it would be. the days leading up to father's day were worse because i had visions that i was just going to have a meltdown. okay, sure, i may have had one meltdown earlier in the morning. i had gotten a very touching card from karen... and we had visited the cemetery. it was very nice. interestingly enough, i'm tearing as i write this paragraph.
sometimes i think that my fear of forgetting my son is coming true... and it kills me. the other day, i was talking with someone who i had not seen in quite some time. as with the usual conversation piece of getting reacquainted, there is the question about "do you have any kids?" when i was asked that question, i said no without even thinking.
quickly realizing my mistake, i actually explained that i had lost braden. i was actually upset with myself for part of the night because i felt like i had let braden down... like i had denied his existence... and that pains me.
i think for me, i am still trying to wrap my head around the feeling i have about being a father... yet, not having a living breathing son. in the technical sense, yes i have a son. his name is braden and he was born september 5, 2009. in the sense when people generally ask about "do you have kids?", no i do not have a son because he is no longer living... having passed away a week after birth. it's one of those things i struggle with: do i tell people what they want to hear or do i tell people the truth?
i know... it's odd that i even have this dilemma because i am generally unfiltered in what i say. after all, i didn't get my "instigator" reputation for saying what people want to hear.
anyway, the actual day of father's day was actually not as bad as i expected it to be. the day started off with a visit to my parents... so that i could celebrate father's day with my father... and then a visit to karen's parents. my favorite sister-in-law (janine), my favorite brother-in-law (pj), my niece (kaleigh), and my nephew (pj) were also there.
apparently, kaleigh and pj had watched the movie "ghostbusters" that day. they loved the movie... drawing pictures of slimer. the pictures were interesting.
karen and i ended father's day hanging out with my bff (kerry). kerry happened to be in the neighborhood. so we watched a few more episodes of veronica mars. it was a good way to end the day.
I Suck At Home Improvement
saturday was actually a very slow day for karen and i.
a long while ago, my bff (kerry) had asked us if we would be around on saturday because she was planning on a mid-year birthday party celebration for all of our friends who have birthdays in december (me included). well, it turns out that the party celebration had to be moved to the following weekend to include more birthday celebrants.
unfortunately, as karen and i had already committed to the plan for this weekend, the change in dates provided us with a whole day with nothing to do. so, we did what anyone would do: we worked on a home improvement project.
now, i suck at home improvement. our big home improvement project right now is our first floor bathroom. for quite some time, our first floor bathroom has been inoperable. the supply line to the toilet broke. the copper pipes to the bathroom area also burst. needless to say, the bathroom needed work.
we began demolition of the bathroom some time ago by removing some of the tiles that adorned the bathroom walls. unfortunately, we had to halt the project due to our busy schedule. as well, we had give us enough time to dispose of the construction material, rather than let the debris collect to ungodly amounts in our 1970s psychedelic green tub that came with the house.
on saturday, my favorite brother-in-law (pj) helped us out by bringing his trailer over. let me tell you, pj's trailer holds a lot more debris than a 1970s psychedelic green tub. needless to say, karen and i were thrilled to have the use of pj's trailer.
in fact, i was so thrilled that i decided to visit my friend (ron) who lives up the street in nearby pembroke. it turns out that on saturday, ron needed help with one of his home improvement projects as well. ron is having a fourth of july party at his house. (for anyone curious, his house is gorgeous.) in preparation for the party, he needed help with his outdoor shower.
as karen was feeling confident that she could demolish the bathroom on her own, i went over to help out ron for a little while. i didn't know if i were going to be more help than hindrance to ron. it was, however, nice to just hang out with ron because i haven't really hung out with him in awhile.
ron and i ended up building some walls for his outdoor shower. we also started to attach cedar to the outside of the walls. this was the first time i have ever worked on a home improvement project with ron. it was a little comical because... well, like me... ron likes to stare at walls. when it comes to my own home improvement projects, i am the same way because i like to thoroughly think things through before building something. i'm a little different when it comes to working on other people's home improvement projects.
anyway, i left ron's shortly after finishing the exterior of two walls. when i got home, i was surprised to see all the work that karen had accomplished on our bathroom. she ripped down a whole bunch of walls... down to the studs. (yes... stud... like me... just kidding.) she even ripped down the non-supporting wall that divided the room up. i was totally impressed.
as i was still in full work-on-the-house mode, i decided to continue with the home improvement theme. so i tackled the fun part: removal of the toilet. luckily, there was nothing in the toilet. i must say... i don't like to touch a toilet when it's clean... let alone one that has been nonfunctional for many months. anyway, i dismantled the toilet pretty easily. (of course, after removing the toilet, the water damaged subfloor became all the more noticeable... something that will also need to be addressed later on...)
following the toilet, i removed the light fixture above the area where the toilet used to be. i definitely do not recommend doing this, but i removed the light fixture from the junction box without shutting power off to the junction box. i know. i know. never break rule #1: turn off all power to the area where you will be doing electrical work. what can i say? i like to live dangerously. my sheer laziness and my self-confidence with electricity took the better part of me. (for anyone curious, nothing happened to me... so don't worry.)
and from there, i continued to remove some more of the wallboard within the bathroom. when all was said and done, karen and i did a lot of demolition in the bathroom. you should see pj's trailer right now. it's chock full of debris. and sadly... there's more to come.
a long while ago, my bff (kerry) had asked us if we would be around on saturday because she was planning on a mid-year birthday party celebration for all of our friends who have birthdays in december (me included). well, it turns out that the party celebration had to be moved to the following weekend to include more birthday celebrants.
unfortunately, as karen and i had already committed to the plan for this weekend, the change in dates provided us with a whole day with nothing to do. so, we did what anyone would do: we worked on a home improvement project.
now, i suck at home improvement. our big home improvement project right now is our first floor bathroom. for quite some time, our first floor bathroom has been inoperable. the supply line to the toilet broke. the copper pipes to the bathroom area also burst. needless to say, the bathroom needed work.
we began demolition of the bathroom some time ago by removing some of the tiles that adorned the bathroom walls. unfortunately, we had to halt the project due to our busy schedule. as well, we had give us enough time to dispose of the construction material, rather than let the debris collect to ungodly amounts in our 1970s psychedelic green tub that came with the house.
on saturday, my favorite brother-in-law (pj) helped us out by bringing his trailer over. let me tell you, pj's trailer holds a lot more debris than a 1970s psychedelic green tub. needless to say, karen and i were thrilled to have the use of pj's trailer.
in fact, i was so thrilled that i decided to visit my friend (ron) who lives up the street in nearby pembroke. it turns out that on saturday, ron needed help with one of his home improvement projects as well. ron is having a fourth of july party at his house. (for anyone curious, his house is gorgeous.) in preparation for the party, he needed help with his outdoor shower.
as karen was feeling confident that she could demolish the bathroom on her own, i went over to help out ron for a little while. i didn't know if i were going to be more help than hindrance to ron. it was, however, nice to just hang out with ron because i haven't really hung out with him in awhile.
ron and i ended up building some walls for his outdoor shower. we also started to attach cedar to the outside of the walls. this was the first time i have ever worked on a home improvement project with ron. it was a little comical because... well, like me... ron likes to stare at walls. when it comes to my own home improvement projects, i am the same way because i like to thoroughly think things through before building something. i'm a little different when it comes to working on other people's home improvement projects.
anyway, i left ron's shortly after finishing the exterior of two walls. when i got home, i was surprised to see all the work that karen had accomplished on our bathroom. she ripped down a whole bunch of walls... down to the studs. (yes... stud... like me... just kidding.) she even ripped down the non-supporting wall that divided the room up. i was totally impressed.
as i was still in full work-on-the-house mode, i decided to continue with the home improvement theme. so i tackled the fun part: removal of the toilet. luckily, there was nothing in the toilet. i must say... i don't like to touch a toilet when it's clean... let alone one that has been nonfunctional for many months. anyway, i dismantled the toilet pretty easily. (of course, after removing the toilet, the water damaged subfloor became all the more noticeable... something that will also need to be addressed later on...)
following the toilet, i removed the light fixture above the area where the toilet used to be. i definitely do not recommend doing this, but i removed the light fixture from the junction box without shutting power off to the junction box. i know. i know. never break rule #1: turn off all power to the area where you will be doing electrical work. what can i say? i like to live dangerously. my sheer laziness and my self-confidence with electricity took the better part of me. (for anyone curious, nothing happened to me... so don't worry.)
and from there, i continued to remove some more of the wallboard within the bathroom. when all was said and done, karen and i did a lot of demolition in the bathroom. you should see pj's trailer right now. it's chock full of debris. and sadly... there's more to come.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
I Suck At Trivia Night
last night, karen and i met up with my friends (marc and kelley) and my bff (kerry). the five of us attended the wake for my friend's (aimee) mother who passed away over the weekend.
one of the interesting things about the wake... aside from the fact that i got to see some old familiar faces in which i probably would not have seen under every day circumstances... was the chinese tradition involving candy and money. sadly, i know very little about chinese customs. (growing up, my parents tried to do everything american with my brother and i because they believed in the american dream. unfortunately in doing so, i never got to really partake in many of the traditional chinese customs. or it could be that i just never paid attention... which could also be the case.)
as it turns out, there is a chinese tradition whereby guests attending a funeral are given a white envelope containing a piece of candy and a coin. apparently, the envelope, which symbolically is a gift from the deceased, is called "bak gim" or "white gold". the piece of candy is supposed to sweeten the memory of the event; and the coin is supposed to be spent on something to bring happiness to the event.
of course, i had to learn about the details from my friend (trinh). trinh knows a lot about chinese customs. so i defer to her when it comes to knowing things that are chinese-related. my friend (jen), who was also curious about the significance of the candy and coin, actually googled the tradition as well.
following the wake, karen, marc, kelley, kerry and i went to blue 22 located in quincy. on the agenda: trivia night. now, i suck at trivia night. the last time a bunch of us got together for trivia, we were completely awful at trivia.
meeting us at blue 22 for trivia was my friend (andrea). as well, my friend (cass) also stopped by to join us. the last time we got together for trivia, cass was curious as to why we didn't invite him. (in case anyone was curious, marc figured cass was working... because cass is usually a workaholic... and consequently marc figured cass would be busy. and true enough, cass was working the last time we did trivia night.)
regardless, all of us were determined to perform better than last time. truth be told, it really was not that hard to be better than last time because we were absolutely terrible the last time we played. this time, however, we were better prepared... and we had our good luck charms: kerry and cass.
needless to say, it was a good night. i really didn't know many of the answers, but it was just fun to hang out with my friends and be silly. i had fun. of course, the watermelon martinis may have also helped. we ended up naming our trivia team "garvin sucks" after my friend (garv) who owns blue 22. i think garv, who was working that night, got a kick out of it. the person (vicki) running the trivia night even poked fun of garv and his musical taste.
incidentally, we also saw my friend (carlos) at trivia night. carlos had walked in... and ordered some wings after his workout. it was a rather random encounter, particularly since the gym that carlos goes to is not even near blue 22. but it was good to see him. i'm not sure, but i think it was the first time that carlos met cass. speaking of which, yesterday was also the first time cass and andrea met.
the highlight of night was probably karen's excitement for knowing the answer to a fruit question. (i guess it pays to be a registered dietitian.) i don't exactly remember what the question was, but the answer was the tropical fruit known as a loofah. to be honest, i don't even know what a loofah is... the fruit or sponge version. karen was pretty stoked about knowing the answer.
anyway, our team actually was on a roll for quite a while. we did remarkably well until the end. we ended up finishing in second place, which is definitely an improvement over the last time. i'd be happy to go out finishing second, but i think some of my fellow team members want to keep playing until we finish first.
regardless of our finish, we ended up winning what we wanted: the jamison glasses! the first place team can have their cheesy $20 off voucher. we were all about the jamison glasses. incidentally, we were supposed to get a pitcher of beer to go with the glasses, but we never did. (proof that "garvin sucks"... just kidding.) i would have been happy with the other consolation prize, a round of shots, as well... yes, i'm easy to please.
surprisingly, karen really liked the jamison glasses. karen was pumped: first with the whole loofah thing, and then getting the jamison glasses. i don't think i have ever seen karen get excited over glasses, especially considering the fact that she told me that she thought we had too many useless glasses around the house.
truth be told, the jamison glasses are cool. (and what can i say, i'm a sucker for all things irish.) i'm glad our team won the glasses. hopefully we can keep the trivia momentum going. we'll see.
one of the interesting things about the wake... aside from the fact that i got to see some old familiar faces in which i probably would not have seen under every day circumstances... was the chinese tradition involving candy and money. sadly, i know very little about chinese customs. (growing up, my parents tried to do everything american with my brother and i because they believed in the american dream. unfortunately in doing so, i never got to really partake in many of the traditional chinese customs. or it could be that i just never paid attention... which could also be the case.)
as it turns out, there is a chinese tradition whereby guests attending a funeral are given a white envelope containing a piece of candy and a coin. apparently, the envelope, which symbolically is a gift from the deceased, is called "bak gim" or "white gold". the piece of candy is supposed to sweeten the memory of the event; and the coin is supposed to be spent on something to bring happiness to the event.
of course, i had to learn about the details from my friend (trinh). trinh knows a lot about chinese customs. so i defer to her when it comes to knowing things that are chinese-related. my friend (jen), who was also curious about the significance of the candy and coin, actually googled the tradition as well.
following the wake, karen, marc, kelley, kerry and i went to blue 22 located in quincy. on the agenda: trivia night. now, i suck at trivia night. the last time a bunch of us got together for trivia, we were completely awful at trivia.
meeting us at blue 22 for trivia was my friend (andrea). as well, my friend (cass) also stopped by to join us. the last time we got together for trivia, cass was curious as to why we didn't invite him. (in case anyone was curious, marc figured cass was working... because cass is usually a workaholic... and consequently marc figured cass would be busy. and true enough, cass was working the last time we did trivia night.)
regardless, all of us were determined to perform better than last time. truth be told, it really was not that hard to be better than last time because we were absolutely terrible the last time we played. this time, however, we were better prepared... and we had our good luck charms: kerry and cass.
needless to say, it was a good night. i really didn't know many of the answers, but it was just fun to hang out with my friends and be silly. i had fun. of course, the watermelon martinis may have also helped. we ended up naming our trivia team "garvin sucks" after my friend (garv) who owns blue 22. i think garv, who was working that night, got a kick out of it. the person (vicki) running the trivia night even poked fun of garv and his musical taste.
incidentally, we also saw my friend (carlos) at trivia night. carlos had walked in... and ordered some wings after his workout. it was a rather random encounter, particularly since the gym that carlos goes to is not even near blue 22. but it was good to see him. i'm not sure, but i think it was the first time that carlos met cass. speaking of which, yesterday was also the first time cass and andrea met.
the highlight of night was probably karen's excitement for knowing the answer to a fruit question. (i guess it pays to be a registered dietitian.) i don't exactly remember what the question was, but the answer was the tropical fruit known as a loofah. to be honest, i don't even know what a loofah is... the fruit or sponge version. karen was pretty stoked about knowing the answer.
anyway, our team actually was on a roll for quite a while. we did remarkably well until the end. we ended up finishing in second place, which is definitely an improvement over the last time. i'd be happy to go out finishing second, but i think some of my fellow team members want to keep playing until we finish first.
regardless of our finish, we ended up winning what we wanted: the jamison glasses! the first place team can have their cheesy $20 off voucher. we were all about the jamison glasses. incidentally, we were supposed to get a pitcher of beer to go with the glasses, but we never did. (proof that "garvin sucks"... just kidding.) i would have been happy with the other consolation prize, a round of shots, as well... yes, i'm easy to please.
surprisingly, karen really liked the jamison glasses. karen was pumped: first with the whole loofah thing, and then getting the jamison glasses. i don't think i have ever seen karen get excited over glasses, especially considering the fact that she told me that she thought we had too many useless glasses around the house.
truth be told, the jamison glasses are cool. (and what can i say, i'm a sucker for all things irish.) i'm glad our team won the glasses. hopefully we can keep the trivia momentum going. we'll see.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
I Suck At Friends Of The Norwell Public Library
tonight was meeting night.
our first meeting took place at the south shore ymca in quincy. the next session of classes offered by the ymca is beginning soon. so naturally, there was a group meeting to discuss the latest protocols for the class.
the highlight from the ymca meeting (aside from the interesting tomato-flavored popcorn snack): the research area is going green! by going green, i mean the research area will be using non-toxic cleaners to clean the strength training equipment. also interesting... this non-toxic cleaner will be stored alongside an insecticide. oh, the irony.
immediately after the ymca meeting, karen and i made a beeline to the norwell public library for our next meeting. awhile ago, karen had joined the friends of the norwell public library as a means to give back to the community. unfortunately, i suck at friends of the norwell public library. i only attended the meeting out of sheer curiosity.
needless to say, the friends of the norwell public library meeting was quite insightful. aside from electing the group officials, the meeting provided information about the library in general.
one of the main topics of discussion was funding. it turns out that with the recent economy, funding is scarce for various services. among those services is the public library. the elected officials of the town (all of whom do not use the public library) obviously are not in favor of funding the library and want to do what is called "regionalizaton".
regionalization is basically having a service peformed for an entire region. in this case, the region would be towns like hingham and hanover or something like that. so residents of norwell would have to go to hingham or hanover for their library services. the problem: neither hingham nor hanover want to do regionalization (probably because their libraries are like palaces).
it also turns out that overdue fees do not go back to the library. in fact, the overdue fees go to the general fund for the town. so what is a public library in need of funding to do? that is the dilemma of the friends of the norwell public library. the group wants to bring awareness to the importance of the library as it relates to the community and town of norwell. and with the awareness, they hope to receive the necessary funding.
without proper funding, the library can become decertified as a library. thus, the act of using library cards at other member branches becomes obsolete. not only will library cards be affected, but services such as resume writing courses for those who are unemployed will be gone, services for activities geared toward children will be gone, other community services will be gone, etc.
to me, the information was quite interesting and insightful. i never knew there was so much to a public library. there were definitely more services than i was originally aware of. anyway, i hope things work out for the best with the library. after all, i do thoroughly enjoy our public library.
our first meeting took place at the south shore ymca in quincy. the next session of classes offered by the ymca is beginning soon. so naturally, there was a group meeting to discuss the latest protocols for the class.
the highlight from the ymca meeting (aside from the interesting tomato-flavored popcorn snack): the research area is going green! by going green, i mean the research area will be using non-toxic cleaners to clean the strength training equipment. also interesting... this non-toxic cleaner will be stored alongside an insecticide. oh, the irony.
immediately after the ymca meeting, karen and i made a beeline to the norwell public library for our next meeting. awhile ago, karen had joined the friends of the norwell public library as a means to give back to the community. unfortunately, i suck at friends of the norwell public library. i only attended the meeting out of sheer curiosity.
needless to say, the friends of the norwell public library meeting was quite insightful. aside from electing the group officials, the meeting provided information about the library in general.
one of the main topics of discussion was funding. it turns out that with the recent economy, funding is scarce for various services. among those services is the public library. the elected officials of the town (all of whom do not use the public library) obviously are not in favor of funding the library and want to do what is called "regionalizaton".
regionalization is basically having a service peformed for an entire region. in this case, the region would be towns like hingham and hanover or something like that. so residents of norwell would have to go to hingham or hanover for their library services. the problem: neither hingham nor hanover want to do regionalization (probably because their libraries are like palaces).
it also turns out that overdue fees do not go back to the library. in fact, the overdue fees go to the general fund for the town. so what is a public library in need of funding to do? that is the dilemma of the friends of the norwell public library. the group wants to bring awareness to the importance of the library as it relates to the community and town of norwell. and with the awareness, they hope to receive the necessary funding.
without proper funding, the library can become decertified as a library. thus, the act of using library cards at other member branches becomes obsolete. not only will library cards be affected, but services such as resume writing courses for those who are unemployed will be gone, services for activities geared toward children will be gone, other community services will be gone, etc.
to me, the information was quite interesting and insightful. i never knew there was so much to a public library. there were definitely more services than i was originally aware of. anyway, i hope things work out for the best with the library. after all, i do thoroughly enjoy our public library.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
I Suck At The Cedar Cafe
yesterday, karen and i met up with my friend (aimee).
the three of us decided to go out for a quick bite to eat at this place in hanover that aimee had heard of. that place: the cedar cafe.
now, i suck at the cedar cafe. i have never been to the cedar cafe. i have only seen the place in the food court area of what is known as merchant's row (the area where joe's american bar and grill is located).
apparently, aimee's friend (voula) knew the family that owns the cedar cafe. consequently, aimee met the family once or something like that. i must say... the food there is quite delicious. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) i had the lamb gyro with the yogurt dressing. it was good.
anyway, it was good to see aimee. in my opinion, aimee was doing remarkably well with all things considered. she said she hasn't gotten much sleep, but that is understandable. i was just glad that i was able to be of some help to her.
yesterday turned out to be quite an interesting night. aimee asked for some assistance with the preparations for her mother's service. she had asked me because she knew i was handy with this thing called photoshop. (i'm really not that good with photoshop. the graphic designers who i know would put me to shame.)
needless to say, aimee brought over a printed document that she wanted to incorporate into the service. the problem: i don't own a scanner. so unfortunately, i could not scan the document into an electronic file.
the three of us ended up making a visit to my favorite sister-in-law (janine). there's a reason why she's my favorite. as it turned out, janine had a scanner. the next problem to arise, however, was that she never used the scanner. so basically what ensued was a mad scramble as we tried to figure out a way to scan the document. it took us quite some time to figure it out... and the only reason why we figured it out was because my favorite brother-in-law (pj) told us how to do it. (there's also a reason why he is my favorite.)
anyway, it was fun being at janine's. my niece (kaleigh) and nephew (pj) got to meet aimee for the first time. after finally figuring out how to use the scanner, the three of us headed back to our house... to which we did some image and text manipulation. hopefully, the finished product will turn out okay.
the three of us decided to go out for a quick bite to eat at this place in hanover that aimee had heard of. that place: the cedar cafe.
now, i suck at the cedar cafe. i have never been to the cedar cafe. i have only seen the place in the food court area of what is known as merchant's row (the area where joe's american bar and grill is located).
apparently, aimee's friend (voula) knew the family that owns the cedar cafe. consequently, aimee met the family once or something like that. i must say... the food there is quite delicious. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) i had the lamb gyro with the yogurt dressing. it was good.
anyway, it was good to see aimee. in my opinion, aimee was doing remarkably well with all things considered. she said she hasn't gotten much sleep, but that is understandable. i was just glad that i was able to be of some help to her.
yesterday turned out to be quite an interesting night. aimee asked for some assistance with the preparations for her mother's service. she had asked me because she knew i was handy with this thing called photoshop. (i'm really not that good with photoshop. the graphic designers who i know would put me to shame.)
needless to say, aimee brought over a printed document that she wanted to incorporate into the service. the problem: i don't own a scanner. so unfortunately, i could not scan the document into an electronic file.
the three of us ended up making a visit to my favorite sister-in-law (janine). there's a reason why she's my favorite. as it turned out, janine had a scanner. the next problem to arise, however, was that she never used the scanner. so basically what ensued was a mad scramble as we tried to figure out a way to scan the document. it took us quite some time to figure it out... and the only reason why we figured it out was because my favorite brother-in-law (pj) told us how to do it. (there's also a reason why he is my favorite.)
anyway, it was fun being at janine's. my niece (kaleigh) and nephew (pj) got to meet aimee for the first time. after finally figuring out how to use the scanner, the three of us headed back to our house... to which we did some image and text manipulation. hopefully, the finished product will turn out okay.
I Suck At Energy Audits
yesterday, karen and i had our first ever energy audit. now, i suck at energy audits.
when karen and i purchased our digital programmable thermostat from a while back, there was an accompanying rebate. the rebate made the somewhat expensive purchase more palatable... well as palatable as purchasing a thermostat can be. unfortunately, the rebate was only good for nstar customers. it so happens that karen and i are national grid customers.
not to be undeterred from getting the elusive rebate, i went to masssave, which was the company behind the rebate for nstar. i simply wanted to see if masssave had a similar rebate for national grid customers. lo' and behold, they did!
the catch, however, was that our house had to have an energy audit performed. naturally, when there is a catch, one normally thinks "oh no!". in fact, i thought the worst when i heard about having an energy audit for a rebate. it turns out, the energy audit is free!
of course, i inquired how this could be true: a free energy audit and a rebate. it turns out that on every customer's bill, there is a small charge for "conservation". it is this small charge that pays for the energy audit. and as the representative told me, i'm already paying for it (even if i don't know about it), so i might as well use it.
so needless to say, the energy audit was yesterday. i was quite interested in seeing what the audit would reveal about the house. to sum things up: the house that karen and i live at is doing well. the attic is great; the crawlspace basement... not so good; the hot water heater on the first floor... also not good. and the best part of the whole experience: the free schwag.
the auditor basically switched out about 18 flood light bulbs and replaced them with their compact fluorescent equivalents. the auditor also switched out 3 shower heads for more water saving shower heads. it was great... especially since everything was free.
needless to say, i would definitely recommend to anyone that they have this energy audit performed on their house... just for the free light bulbs alone. i can't wait for two more years, which is when the auditor suggested having another energy audit performed. it was great.
when karen and i purchased our digital programmable thermostat from a while back, there was an accompanying rebate. the rebate made the somewhat expensive purchase more palatable... well as palatable as purchasing a thermostat can be. unfortunately, the rebate was only good for nstar customers. it so happens that karen and i are national grid customers.
not to be undeterred from getting the elusive rebate, i went to masssave, which was the company behind the rebate for nstar. i simply wanted to see if masssave had a similar rebate for national grid customers. lo' and behold, they did!
the catch, however, was that our house had to have an energy audit performed. naturally, when there is a catch, one normally thinks "oh no!". in fact, i thought the worst when i heard about having an energy audit for a rebate. it turns out, the energy audit is free!
of course, i inquired how this could be true: a free energy audit and a rebate. it turns out that on every customer's bill, there is a small charge for "conservation". it is this small charge that pays for the energy audit. and as the representative told me, i'm already paying for it (even if i don't know about it), so i might as well use it.
so needless to say, the energy audit was yesterday. i was quite interested in seeing what the audit would reveal about the house. to sum things up: the house that karen and i live at is doing well. the attic is great; the crawlspace basement... not so good; the hot water heater on the first floor... also not good. and the best part of the whole experience: the free schwag.
the auditor basically switched out about 18 flood light bulbs and replaced them with their compact fluorescent equivalents. the auditor also switched out 3 shower heads for more water saving shower heads. it was great... especially since everything was free.
needless to say, i would definitely recommend to anyone that they have this energy audit performed on their house... just for the free light bulbs alone. i can't wait for two more years, which is when the auditor suggested having another energy audit performed. it was great.
I Suck At Nana's
on sunday, karen and i went to karen's nana's house in quincy. now, i suck at nana's. i have not been to nana's in some time. in fact, i don't think i have been there since the decision was made to place nana's house on the housing market.
nevertheless, karen and i had plans to meet up with karen's cousins (karlene and tommy) from lowell. (insert "there is a lot to like about lowell" shameless plug.) apparently, karen and karlene had to finish sorting the pictures that they so diligently scanned and divy up the actual pictures so that they could deliver them to each of the relatives. it was yet another long, arduous and thankless task undertaken by karen and karlene in regards to the family pictures.
and naturally, because things are always a "rigamarole", karen's parents and karlene's parents also showed up at nana's. for a while, it was a crowded house. karen's parents and karlene's parents came over to prepare the house for the upcoming home inspection for the potential buyers of the house.
as part of the prep work, i got to do some electrical work. and by electrical work, i mean hold a flashlight while my father-in-law attempted to do remove a switch. my father in-law actually forgot the basic rule about electrical work: turn off all the power to the outlet before performing any electrical work. luckily, karen's uncle reminded him before he attempted anything. needless to say, i finished by putting the cover over the removed switch.
aside from that, i really did not do much at nana's. in fact, i almost passed out on the bed (like tommy) after lunch. (for anyone curious, we ate at the clam box in quincy. the food was good.)
nevertheless, karen and i had plans to meet up with karen's cousins (karlene and tommy) from lowell. (insert "there is a lot to like about lowell" shameless plug.) apparently, karen and karlene had to finish sorting the pictures that they so diligently scanned and divy up the actual pictures so that they could deliver them to each of the relatives. it was yet another long, arduous and thankless task undertaken by karen and karlene in regards to the family pictures.
and naturally, because things are always a "rigamarole", karen's parents and karlene's parents also showed up at nana's. for a while, it was a crowded house. karen's parents and karlene's parents came over to prepare the house for the upcoming home inspection for the potential buyers of the house.
as part of the prep work, i got to do some electrical work. and by electrical work, i mean hold a flashlight while my father-in-law attempted to do remove a switch. my father in-law actually forgot the basic rule about electrical work: turn off all the power to the outlet before performing any electrical work. luckily, karen's uncle reminded him before he attempted anything. needless to say, i finished by putting the cover over the removed switch.
aside from that, i really did not do much at nana's. in fact, i almost passed out on the bed (like tommy) after lunch. (for anyone curious, we ate at the clam box in quincy. the food was good.)
Monday, June 15, 2009
I Suck At Flag Day
saturday was quite the interesting day.
in what has almost become a tradition with my friends, quincy held the flag day parade on saturday. now, i suck at flag day. according to my friend, wikipedia, quincy has the longest running flag day parade. for anyone curious, quincy began the flag day parade in 1952. in fact, on this 57th year of the annual parade, the flag from the world trade center was supposed to be featured.
anyway, to follow the annual tradition in lockstep, my friend (jen) usually organizes a get together with a bunch of friends. she has been doing this gathering for quite some time now... as far back as i can remember.
needless to say, i tend to cringe whenever flag day comes. sadly, i have never been a fan of parades. watching people go by has never been my thing.
as well, i was not really looking forward to flag day this year because at this time last year, karen and i were joyfully telling a bunch of our friends (who gathered together for the annual flag day tradition) about karen's pregnancy. granted, it's not flag day's fault that the day is a general reminder about my son (braden) who passed away. it's just one of those unfortunate associations.
as if one bad thing weren't enough for flag day (assuming you don't include the parade itself), i learned my friend's (aimee) mother passed away. so right now, flag day is looking more like black saturday if you ask me.
that said, i feel a little annoyed with myself for thinking that way. after all, jen looks forward to this and she always does a great job organizing the event. and in fact, the flag day event was very good. jen did a great job. i had fun.
a bunch of us gathered at jen's parents' house for a cookout. all of us had fun hanging out, eating burgers and hot dogs. probably the highlight of flag day for me was when my friend (hot amy) got angry with me about a certain publication.
hot amy came up to me asking about my involvement with a certain publication. at the time, i had no idea what she was referring to. it turns out, the publication she was referring to was the "hough's neck bulletin", which is a local community paper for residents of quincy who live in the hough's neck area. upon learning about the hough's neck bulletin, i immediately cracked up because i then realized what she was referring to.
for anyone curious, i stole hot amy's stuffed animal, wally, from her car to see if she would notice his disappearance awhile ago. even though i had wally for quite some time, i planned on returning him to his rightful owner. and so, the day came when i was going to return wally.
naturally, i had to take one more jab at hot amy (because that's what i do... i instigate). thus, i contacted the hough's neck bulletin knowing full well that she had previously warned me to never contact them.
to be honest, i was quite surprised that the hough's neck bulletin even printed my announcement. (the hough's neck community council does not have the current issue on its website yet, so i can't link to it.) basically the gist of the announcement was a congratulatory statement that hot amy was being reunited with her beloved stuffed animal, wally.
when i had contacted the hough's neck bulletin, i had inquired if they would even print a silly announcement about a stuffed animal reunion. granted i may have exaggerated the truth a bit by saying that hot amy really really loved her stuffed animal. nonetheless, i never heard back from the hough's neck bulletin about whether they would print it or not.
as it turned out... they did! it was fantastic! just the look on hot amy's face was priceless. and the funny thing is... i never returned wally. i still have the stuffed animal.
anyway, i spent the rest of the flag day celebration partying with my drinking buddy (kelley). it was good because we got to skip out on the actual parade portion of the night.
in what has almost become a tradition with my friends, quincy held the flag day parade on saturday. now, i suck at flag day. according to my friend, wikipedia, quincy has the longest running flag day parade. for anyone curious, quincy began the flag day parade in 1952. in fact, on this 57th year of the annual parade, the flag from the world trade center was supposed to be featured.
anyway, to follow the annual tradition in lockstep, my friend (jen) usually organizes a get together with a bunch of friends. she has been doing this gathering for quite some time now... as far back as i can remember.
needless to say, i tend to cringe whenever flag day comes. sadly, i have never been a fan of parades. watching people go by has never been my thing.
as well, i was not really looking forward to flag day this year because at this time last year, karen and i were joyfully telling a bunch of our friends (who gathered together for the annual flag day tradition) about karen's pregnancy. granted, it's not flag day's fault that the day is a general reminder about my son (braden) who passed away. it's just one of those unfortunate associations.
as if one bad thing weren't enough for flag day (assuming you don't include the parade itself), i learned my friend's (aimee) mother passed away. so right now, flag day is looking more like black saturday if you ask me.
that said, i feel a little annoyed with myself for thinking that way. after all, jen looks forward to this and she always does a great job organizing the event. and in fact, the flag day event was very good. jen did a great job. i had fun.
a bunch of us gathered at jen's parents' house for a cookout. all of us had fun hanging out, eating burgers and hot dogs. probably the highlight of flag day for me was when my friend (hot amy) got angry with me about a certain publication.
hot amy came up to me asking about my involvement with a certain publication. at the time, i had no idea what she was referring to. it turns out, the publication she was referring to was the "hough's neck bulletin", which is a local community paper for residents of quincy who live in the hough's neck area. upon learning about the hough's neck bulletin, i immediately cracked up because i then realized what she was referring to.
for anyone curious, i stole hot amy's stuffed animal, wally, from her car to see if she would notice his disappearance awhile ago. even though i had wally for quite some time, i planned on returning him to his rightful owner. and so, the day came when i was going to return wally.
naturally, i had to take one more jab at hot amy (because that's what i do... i instigate). thus, i contacted the hough's neck bulletin knowing full well that she had previously warned me to never contact them.
to be honest, i was quite surprised that the hough's neck bulletin even printed my announcement. (the hough's neck community council does not have the current issue on its website yet, so i can't link to it.) basically the gist of the announcement was a congratulatory statement that hot amy was being reunited with her beloved stuffed animal, wally.
when i had contacted the hough's neck bulletin, i had inquired if they would even print a silly announcement about a stuffed animal reunion. granted i may have exaggerated the truth a bit by saying that hot amy really really loved her stuffed animal. nonetheless, i never heard back from the hough's neck bulletin about whether they would print it or not.
as it turned out... they did! it was fantastic! just the look on hot amy's face was priceless. and the funny thing is... i never returned wally. i still have the stuffed animal.
anyway, i spent the rest of the flag day celebration partying with my drinking buddy (kelley). it was good because we got to skip out on the actual parade portion of the night.
I Suck At Goodbyes
on saturday, i learned about the unfortunate news about my friend's (aimee) mother who passed away in the early hours of morning. interestingly enough, it seemed like all my friends knew about the news well before me thanks to the social networking known as facebook. (for anyone curious, i am not a frequent user of facebook.)
needless to say, i was pretty surprised by the news because i had spoken with aimee a few days ago asking about her mom. at the time, aimee mentioned that her mom was doing great. so you can imagine my surprise when i received a text message from aimee with the unfortunate news.
losing someone is always tough. when i actually spoke with aimee on saturday, she seemed to be doing as well as she could... given the turn of unfortunate circumstances. i can not even imagine what it would be like to lose a parent. i have trouble as it is with losing a child.
anyway, i've never been good at saying goodbye. in fact, i suck at goodbyes. one of my fondest memories of aimee's mom is when i was younger. growing up, i used to call and talk on the phone with aimee a lot. we were both young and silly... well, i was silly... aimee was more devishly evil.
i think when we were younger, there may have been a time when aimee's mom hoped that aimee and i would end up together. if aimee and i had gotten together, that would have been weird... like brotherly-sisterly weird. whether aimee's mom did or not, i never really knew for sure. i just got that impression a few times when i was over their house.
regardless, there was this time when i ended up spending the night at aimee's parents. i had come over to hang out... and have some dinner. as it turned out, there was a snow storm. rather than head home in the dangerous driving conditions, i ended up staying over.
aimee's mom was great. she always treated me as though i were one of her own children. consequently, i joked around in return as though she were my mom. the night of the snow storm, i remember aimee's mom trying to dispense some words of wisdom to me.
her words of wisdom had to do with friendship. sadly, i don't remember what she said verbatim. the gist, however, had to do with the circle of friendship. basically, she said that when a person is younger, their circle of friendship is large. but as the person gets older, slowly but surely that circle of friendship gets smaller... whether it is from growing apart, death, whatever.
of course, at the time i was just yessing aimee's mother as she dispensed her words of wisdom. but for some reason, that memory has stuck in my mind probably because there is some truth in her words. hence, i have always been grateful, and still am grateful, to have such a large number of people in my life to call my friends (and i don't mean the facebook term). i actually consider myself quite lucky to have a bunch of friends, considering i instigate things.
naturally, the image of aimee's mother dispensing words of wisdom inevitably led me to joke with aimee a few months back. growing up, i used to joke a lot about aimee's vertically challenged base. well, if you have ever met aimee's mother, you would know that aimee's mother is equally challenged... vertically.
now, aimee's husband (jim) is... among being the deadliest warrior/friend... tall. jim also likes star wars. as a fan of star wars myself, i had joked with aimee that jim should throw aimee's mother on his back and run through the woods of dagobah. i had likened the image to the scene in "star wars: the empire strikes back"... where luke trains to be a jedi with master yoda on his back.
hence in this case, jim would be luke... and aimee's mom would be master yoda. it was a comical image to me, and it had aimee smiling. aimee even joked that she would tell her mom that i called her yoda. but to me, it made somewhat sense because jim was... well... a deadly warrior... and aimee's mom dispensed words of wisdom. plus, aimee's mom was tiny.
i don't know if aimee ever did tell her mom that i likened her to master yoda. i'm sure that is the farthest thing from aimee's mind right now. but if there is anything that i know, it is that friends are important because the circle does not last forever.
anyway, i will probably always remember that tidbit of wisdom. so thank you and goodbye master yoda.
needless to say, i was pretty surprised by the news because i had spoken with aimee a few days ago asking about her mom. at the time, aimee mentioned that her mom was doing great. so you can imagine my surprise when i received a text message from aimee with the unfortunate news.
losing someone is always tough. when i actually spoke with aimee on saturday, she seemed to be doing as well as she could... given the turn of unfortunate circumstances. i can not even imagine what it would be like to lose a parent. i have trouble as it is with losing a child.
anyway, i've never been good at saying goodbye. in fact, i suck at goodbyes. one of my fondest memories of aimee's mom is when i was younger. growing up, i used to call and talk on the phone with aimee a lot. we were both young and silly... well, i was silly... aimee was more devishly evil.
i think when we were younger, there may have been a time when aimee's mom hoped that aimee and i would end up together. if aimee and i had gotten together, that would have been weird... like brotherly-sisterly weird. whether aimee's mom did or not, i never really knew for sure. i just got that impression a few times when i was over their house.
regardless, there was this time when i ended up spending the night at aimee's parents. i had come over to hang out... and have some dinner. as it turned out, there was a snow storm. rather than head home in the dangerous driving conditions, i ended up staying over.
aimee's mom was great. she always treated me as though i were one of her own children. consequently, i joked around in return as though she were my mom. the night of the snow storm, i remember aimee's mom trying to dispense some words of wisdom to me.
her words of wisdom had to do with friendship. sadly, i don't remember what she said verbatim. the gist, however, had to do with the circle of friendship. basically, she said that when a person is younger, their circle of friendship is large. but as the person gets older, slowly but surely that circle of friendship gets smaller... whether it is from growing apart, death, whatever.
of course, at the time i was just yessing aimee's mother as she dispensed her words of wisdom. but for some reason, that memory has stuck in my mind probably because there is some truth in her words. hence, i have always been grateful, and still am grateful, to have such a large number of people in my life to call my friends (and i don't mean the facebook term). i actually consider myself quite lucky to have a bunch of friends, considering i instigate things.
naturally, the image of aimee's mother dispensing words of wisdom inevitably led me to joke with aimee a few months back. growing up, i used to joke a lot about aimee's vertically challenged base. well, if you have ever met aimee's mother, you would know that aimee's mother is equally challenged... vertically.
now, aimee's husband (jim) is... among being the deadliest warrior/friend... tall. jim also likes star wars. as a fan of star wars myself, i had joked with aimee that jim should throw aimee's mother on his back and run through the woods of dagobah. i had likened the image to the scene in "star wars: the empire strikes back"... where luke trains to be a jedi with master yoda on his back.
hence in this case, jim would be luke... and aimee's mom would be master yoda. it was a comical image to me, and it had aimee smiling. aimee even joked that she would tell her mom that i called her yoda. but to me, it made somewhat sense because jim was... well... a deadly warrior... and aimee's mom dispensed words of wisdom. plus, aimee's mom was tiny.
i don't know if aimee ever did tell her mom that i likened her to master yoda. i'm sure that is the farthest thing from aimee's mind right now. but if there is anything that i know, it is that friends are important because the circle does not last forever.
anyway, i will probably always remember that tidbit of wisdom. so thank you and goodbye master yoda.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
I Suck At Television Preview
today is the final day of analog. broadcasting companies all over the country are making the transition to digital. yay! granted, the transition will most likely not affect many people. the last person i know who still had rabbit ears was my friend (hot amy). but luckily for her, she recently joined the 21st century and ordered cable television... and is now addicted to public access television.
nevertheless, in celebration of analog broadcasting's final days, karen and did what any person would do on a friday night: we watched television. now, we didn't watch just any television. no. karen and i got to hang out with my friends (marc and kelley) for a special event known as the "television preview".
yes, we have no life on a friday night. some time last week, i received a special invitation in the mail by television preview. now, i suck at television preview. according to the letter, i had been randomly selected to participate in the viewing of some television pilot episodes, to which i would have to provide valuable feedback on.
a long time ago, karen and i participated in the exact same thing. when we were in college, my friends (marc and kelley), karen and i received an invitation to watch some television pilot episodes and provide feedback on those shows. marc seems to think that my friend (aimee) also joined us for the event. unfortunately, since my memory is pretty much non-existent, i could not remember if she did join us or not.
the only thing that i could remember from the first time was that tom wopat of "the dukes of hazzard" fame starred in one of the television pilot episodes. (for anyone curious, tom wopat is luke duke.) that was pretty much all i remembered from the first time.
anyway, having received an invitation last week, i thought it would be fun to try the television preview thing again with marc and kelley. luckily, marc enjoys market research. so, since we had no life on a friday night, we decided to attend the television preview event.
the television preview event was held at the marriott in quincy. it's definitely quite interesting to see who else has no life on a friday night. quite possibly the most interesting person we saw tonight was this black woman... with what kelley described as a caterpillar on her lip. and by caterpillar, kelley meant a full on mustache. if there were a fight simulation between this woman and a caterpillar, the caterpillar would win... and the caterpillar did win. the mustache was just... awful.
of course, i may be jealous because i can can't grow facial hair myself. when hair does grow on my face, i get the stereotypical asian fu manchu thing going... which is also not attractive. so needless to say, this woman grows better facial hair than i do. it's a good thing i didn't have a wager going on with this woman because i'd definitely lose. needless to say, this woman was but one of the many lucky people that we got to spend the night watching television with.
anyway, aside from the shock and awe of the 'stache, the television preview was not all that it was cracked up to be. sure, the name "television preview" may sound like you are participating in a focus group about television shows. in reality, marc, kelley, karen and i think the whole thing is marketing research sham. (we're on to them.) in fact, we think the entire event isn't even about television research at all.
we began the night by filling in a few questionnaires about some everyday products. a few lucky winners were then selected to win some schwag. and then... the fun began. the first television pilot we watched was called "soul mates", starring that woman from lipstick jungle... kim raver. interestingly enough, there is information about this pilot episode on imdb.
apparently, this pilot episode is from 1997. if i could summarize the episode, i would. unfortunately, the episode was just awful... like that woman's mustache. not only did we have to watch this horrible thing called a pilot episode, we had to sit through the commercials too. although, after watching something as terrible as "soul mates", it makes one think that it can't be too hard to come up with some idea for a television show in hollywood. heck, i bet the "fry it" quincy public access television show idea that my friends and i have would get better ratings than the dribble known as "soul mates".
following "soul mates", we were asked a couple of questions about the show and some more people won some free schwag. obviously, i did not give any good grades for the show. if i think the show is terrible, you know it definitely has to be terrible. i will watch just about anything... yet i could not watch "soul mates". i can only suspend reality for so long before i've had enough. i was actually stunned that there were some people who actually enjoyed the show. that was surprising.
anyway, from there we dove into the next television pilot: "dads". you have to love the internet movie database because there is an entry on that pilot episode as well. apparently "dads" is also from 1997. karen's eyes initially lit up with excitement because it was announced to everyone that rue mcclanahan was in the episode. (for anyone curious, rue mcclanahan plays blanche devereaux in karen's favorite television show: the golden girls.)
needless to say, "dads" was also awful... yet much better than "soul mates". the premise of the pilot was... well... the generic sitcom... only with a fathers. the fathers included steven eckholdt, who i only remember from melrose place as some guy that dated jane; c thomas howell of red dawn (wolverines!) fame; and adam ferrara... who i had no idea as to what he's been in, but he did channel a bad tony danza in the episode.
the funny thing was... karen immediately remembered watching this bad pilot episode before. as proof, she correctly predicted what was going to happen next in the episode. and then after she mentioned it, i started to get that vague notion that i had also seen it before. neither of us know why we remember seeing the episode before. it was weird. i wonder if the episode was used in conjunction with the tom wopat pilot from days of yore.
and again, we had to watch the entire sitcom complete with commercials. from there, we then had to partake in some more questions... although this time the questions were more geared toward actual products and not the television episode itself. after some more thought, all of us started to realize that we were not participating in a "television preview" as the name implies, but product marketing research as some of those products appeared in the commercials to those pilot episodes. (i did say i suck at television preview, right?)
personally, that tactic seems a little shady to me. if the company wanted marketing information about particular products, i would have no problem completing the survey in the comfort of my own home and sending the company data. but to orchestrate a scenario under the pretense of a "television preview"... that is a little cheesy.
anyway, after the "preview", the four of us immediately drank booze. we definitely needed to... after sitting through those god-awful pilot episodes... from 1997. we would have been better off if we had crashed the wedding rehearsal dinner at the marriott like i had suggested earlier.
truth be told, the night was all that bad. the bright spot of the night was hanging out with my friends... and i do always enjoy that.
nevertheless, in celebration of analog broadcasting's final days, karen and did what any person would do on a friday night: we watched television. now, we didn't watch just any television. no. karen and i got to hang out with my friends (marc and kelley) for a special event known as the "television preview".
yes, we have no life on a friday night. some time last week, i received a special invitation in the mail by television preview. now, i suck at television preview. according to the letter, i had been randomly selected to participate in the viewing of some television pilot episodes, to which i would have to provide valuable feedback on.
a long time ago, karen and i participated in the exact same thing. when we were in college, my friends (marc and kelley), karen and i received an invitation to watch some television pilot episodes and provide feedback on those shows. marc seems to think that my friend (aimee) also joined us for the event. unfortunately, since my memory is pretty much non-existent, i could not remember if she did join us or not.
the only thing that i could remember from the first time was that tom wopat of "the dukes of hazzard" fame starred in one of the television pilot episodes. (for anyone curious, tom wopat is luke duke.) that was pretty much all i remembered from the first time.
anyway, having received an invitation last week, i thought it would be fun to try the television preview thing again with marc and kelley. luckily, marc enjoys market research. so, since we had no life on a friday night, we decided to attend the television preview event.
the television preview event was held at the marriott in quincy. it's definitely quite interesting to see who else has no life on a friday night. quite possibly the most interesting person we saw tonight was this black woman... with what kelley described as a caterpillar on her lip. and by caterpillar, kelley meant a full on mustache. if there were a fight simulation between this woman and a caterpillar, the caterpillar would win... and the caterpillar did win. the mustache was just... awful.
of course, i may be jealous because i can can't grow facial hair myself. when hair does grow on my face, i get the stereotypical asian fu manchu thing going... which is also not attractive. so needless to say, this woman grows better facial hair than i do. it's a good thing i didn't have a wager going on with this woman because i'd definitely lose. needless to say, this woman was but one of the many lucky people that we got to spend the night watching television with.
anyway, aside from the shock and awe of the 'stache, the television preview was not all that it was cracked up to be. sure, the name "television preview" may sound like you are participating in a focus group about television shows. in reality, marc, kelley, karen and i think the whole thing is marketing research sham. (we're on to them.) in fact, we think the entire event isn't even about television research at all.
we began the night by filling in a few questionnaires about some everyday products. a few lucky winners were then selected to win some schwag. and then... the fun began. the first television pilot we watched was called "soul mates", starring that woman from lipstick jungle... kim raver. interestingly enough, there is information about this pilot episode on imdb.
apparently, this pilot episode is from 1997. if i could summarize the episode, i would. unfortunately, the episode was just awful... like that woman's mustache. not only did we have to watch this horrible thing called a pilot episode, we had to sit through the commercials too. although, after watching something as terrible as "soul mates", it makes one think that it can't be too hard to come up with some idea for a television show in hollywood. heck, i bet the "fry it" quincy public access television show idea that my friends and i have would get better ratings than the dribble known as "soul mates".
following "soul mates", we were asked a couple of questions about the show and some more people won some free schwag. obviously, i did not give any good grades for the show. if i think the show is terrible, you know it definitely has to be terrible. i will watch just about anything... yet i could not watch "soul mates". i can only suspend reality for so long before i've had enough. i was actually stunned that there were some people who actually enjoyed the show. that was surprising.
anyway, from there we dove into the next television pilot: "dads". you have to love the internet movie database because there is an entry on that pilot episode as well. apparently "dads" is also from 1997. karen's eyes initially lit up with excitement because it was announced to everyone that rue mcclanahan was in the episode. (for anyone curious, rue mcclanahan plays blanche devereaux in karen's favorite television show: the golden girls.)
needless to say, "dads" was also awful... yet much better than "soul mates". the premise of the pilot was... well... the generic sitcom... only with a fathers. the fathers included steven eckholdt, who i only remember from melrose place as some guy that dated jane; c thomas howell of red dawn (wolverines!) fame; and adam ferrara... who i had no idea as to what he's been in, but he did channel a bad tony danza in the episode.
the funny thing was... karen immediately remembered watching this bad pilot episode before. as proof, she correctly predicted what was going to happen next in the episode. and then after she mentioned it, i started to get that vague notion that i had also seen it before. neither of us know why we remember seeing the episode before. it was weird. i wonder if the episode was used in conjunction with the tom wopat pilot from days of yore.
and again, we had to watch the entire sitcom complete with commercials. from there, we then had to partake in some more questions... although this time the questions were more geared toward actual products and not the television episode itself. after some more thought, all of us started to realize that we were not participating in a "television preview" as the name implies, but product marketing research as some of those products appeared in the commercials to those pilot episodes. (i did say i suck at television preview, right?)
personally, that tactic seems a little shady to me. if the company wanted marketing information about particular products, i would have no problem completing the survey in the comfort of my own home and sending the company data. but to orchestrate a scenario under the pretense of a "television preview"... that is a little cheesy.
anyway, after the "preview", the four of us immediately drank booze. we definitely needed to... after sitting through those god-awful pilot episodes... from 1997. we would have been better off if we had crashed the wedding rehearsal dinner at the marriott like i had suggested earlier.
truth be told, the night was all that bad. the bright spot of the night was hanging out with my friends... and i do always enjoy that.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
I Suck At Angel
this morning, my friend (marc) sent me an instant message asking for some assistance. it turns out that marc and kelley's refrigerator died. unfortunately, i was in the office today for work (to discuss plans for a project relaunch)... and sadly, the office is located in marblehead which does marc, who resides in quincy, no good.
nevertheless, i offered to do what i could to help after work... whether it was temporarily help him and kelley store their food or whatnot. marc asked for some help in moving the dead refrigerator out of the kitchen. remembering how difficult it was to get the refrigerator into the kitchen in the first place, i definitely offered to help him with that.
for anyone curious, i believe the day we got the refrigerator into their place was the same day that i dressed up in marc's halloween costume out in front of their old place... and also the same day that my friend (garv)... who was decked out in all white with a white cap... showed up just in time for food after missing out on the labor portion of the move itself. in fact, marc's sister (de) thought garv was a woman when he first arrived. how funny. (truth be told, i thought garv was a woman too.)
needless to say, thanks to my friend (jim... who is aimee's husband... and probably "deadliest warrior/friend"), all of us... and there was a good handful of us... were able to get the refrigerator into the place. so, i could only imagine how difficult it must be to remove the refrigerator from the kitchen.
as it turned out, the task of removing the refrigerator was a piece of cake for marc. he single-handedly got rid of the refrigerator. (now who do you think would beat him in a deadliest friend fight simulation?) not only that, he already found temporary storage places for his food. so really, there was not much i could do to help him with by the time karen and i arrived.
nevertheless, we decided to make the most of the night. so we ordered thai from little duck, which was just down the street from them in quincy. and while we ate, we watched a complete disc of angel. now, i suck at angel.
we were able to watch the following episodes: "the ring" about a demon fight club (i bet they wished they had a fight simulation program). the episode also featured the debut of the character, lilah morgan; "eternity" about a stalked hollywood star who ends up wanting to look young forever; "five by five" about the arrival of faith in los angeles, and "sanctuary" about faith's road to redemption.
as it turns out... karen... is still not a big fan of faith. karen does not like faith... and apparently hilary swank. needless to say, i like the character, faith. my favorite episode of the disc was "five by five". i remember when i first watched the episode when in aired that i was drawn by how faith simply attempted to get angel to kill her. perhaps that is still one of the reasons why i like the character so much... faith is a flawed character.
anyway, it was yet another fun night of hanging out and being silly. we even got to watch kelley do her little one-legged shuffle across the room (kelley's foot apparently fell asleep). the shuffle basically had karen laughing with tears streaming down her cheeks.
nevertheless, i offered to do what i could to help after work... whether it was temporarily help him and kelley store their food or whatnot. marc asked for some help in moving the dead refrigerator out of the kitchen. remembering how difficult it was to get the refrigerator into the kitchen in the first place, i definitely offered to help him with that.
for anyone curious, i believe the day we got the refrigerator into their place was the same day that i dressed up in marc's halloween costume out in front of their old place... and also the same day that my friend (garv)... who was decked out in all white with a white cap... showed up just in time for food after missing out on the labor portion of the move itself. in fact, marc's sister (de) thought garv was a woman when he first arrived. how funny. (truth be told, i thought garv was a woman too.)
needless to say, thanks to my friend (jim... who is aimee's husband... and probably "deadliest warrior/friend"), all of us... and there was a good handful of us... were able to get the refrigerator into the place. so, i could only imagine how difficult it must be to remove the refrigerator from the kitchen.
as it turned out, the task of removing the refrigerator was a piece of cake for marc. he single-handedly got rid of the refrigerator. (now who do you think would beat him in a deadliest friend fight simulation?) not only that, he already found temporary storage places for his food. so really, there was not much i could do to help him with by the time karen and i arrived.
nevertheless, we decided to make the most of the night. so we ordered thai from little duck, which was just down the street from them in quincy. and while we ate, we watched a complete disc of angel. now, i suck at angel.
we were able to watch the following episodes: "the ring" about a demon fight club (i bet they wished they had a fight simulation program). the episode also featured the debut of the character, lilah morgan; "eternity" about a stalked hollywood star who ends up wanting to look young forever; "five by five" about the arrival of faith in los angeles, and "sanctuary" about faith's road to redemption.
as it turns out... karen... is still not a big fan of faith. karen does not like faith... and apparently hilary swank. needless to say, i like the character, faith. my favorite episode of the disc was "five by five". i remember when i first watched the episode when in aired that i was drawn by how faith simply attempted to get angel to kill her. perhaps that is still one of the reasons why i like the character so much... faith is a flawed character.
anyway, it was yet another fun night of hanging out and being silly. we even got to watch kelley do her little one-legged shuffle across the room (kelley's foot apparently fell asleep). the shuffle basically had karen laughing with tears streaming down her cheeks.
I Suck At Deadliest Friend
last night actually turned out to be quite a fun night.
wednesdays are generally the days i get to hang out with my friends (marc and kelley). and as usual, karen and i had plans to hang out with them. unfortunately for me, work has been a little hectic of late.
the company that i work for wanted to launch a particular project. normally, launching a project would not be a problem... except that the launch was scheduled last minute for yesterday... after work hours. so there was a lot of haste and stress in preparing the project for the launch. in fact, by the end of the work day, i actually had a headache... which is something that normally doesn't happen.
needless to say, i was a little stressed about this project, particularly with the haste in getting things launched. but the headache pretty much disappeared when my boss told me those lovely words: "the launch is cancelled". of course, the two martinis that kelley made may also have helped with that as well.
anyway, i definitely felt much better and more relieved as the night went on. karen and i were still able to hang out with marc and kelley. in fact, marc made some delicious ribs for dinner. the dinner was very good.
and making the night even better was the fact that we got to watch three episodes of the greatest television show ever: buffy the vampire slayer. the episodes we watched were "superstar" about the lowly, but seemingly fantastic, jonathan; "where the wild things are" about buffy and riley pretty much being hot and heavy and locked up in a room together; and "new moon rising" which had the return of oz... only to see him leave again after finding out about willow's new relationship.
of the three episodes, i actually liked "new moon rising" the best because it centered on willow. and because the episode was not exactly one of the more comical ones, the four of us decided to watch the two hour showing of wipeout after buffy. wipeout is such a silly fun show. you just have to laugh watching it.
needless to say, after dreading the night due to the project launch, the night actually turned out great. it definitely helps to have friends like marc and kelley who can just make you laugh and forget all about the stressful things in life.
after all, where else but among friends can we talk about a silly idea that i call... deadliest friend. now, i suck at deadliest friend. as i am apt to do, i occasionally get an idea stuck in my head and run with it.
inspired by the show, deadliest warrior, and... also somewhat inspired by friends... i have been thinking a lot about a fight simulation program where scientific data is collected on my friends. from there, the data is entered into the program and the computer simulates a battle to the death scenario between my friends.
i started to think of metrics to measure the deadliness of my friends: things like how much force my friends throw when throwing a punch; how many times they can strike within a given time frame; arm reach; leg reach; dexterity; dodging ability; pain treshhold; psychology tests; etc. and to even make it so that one friend would not dominate (like my friend jim), i thought about different arena settings and other variables like alcohol impairment.
needless to say, i may have thought a little too much about my fight simulation program. but, i thought a fight simulation would be a fun thing to have for whenever there is a heated disagreement within my circle of friends... and i have witnessed a few over the years.
for instance, in high school i remember witnessing my bff (kerry) and my friend (jenny) having a heated tirade at the football stadium in quincy. now, wouldn't it be cool to see who would have really won the argument if they battled to the death (or had a simulated battle to the death)? i know i'd be curious about those results.
the matchup possibilities are endless. and quite possibly the best part about the fight simulation: no one actually gets hurt and we can all laugh about the absurdity of it all. how fun would that be? now all i have to do is create the program... and perhaps get scientific equipment to record metrics...
wednesdays are generally the days i get to hang out with my friends (marc and kelley). and as usual, karen and i had plans to hang out with them. unfortunately for me, work has been a little hectic of late.
the company that i work for wanted to launch a particular project. normally, launching a project would not be a problem... except that the launch was scheduled last minute for yesterday... after work hours. so there was a lot of haste and stress in preparing the project for the launch. in fact, by the end of the work day, i actually had a headache... which is something that normally doesn't happen.
needless to say, i was a little stressed about this project, particularly with the haste in getting things launched. but the headache pretty much disappeared when my boss told me those lovely words: "the launch is cancelled". of course, the two martinis that kelley made may also have helped with that as well.
anyway, i definitely felt much better and more relieved as the night went on. karen and i were still able to hang out with marc and kelley. in fact, marc made some delicious ribs for dinner. the dinner was very good.
and making the night even better was the fact that we got to watch three episodes of the greatest television show ever: buffy the vampire slayer. the episodes we watched were "superstar" about the lowly, but seemingly fantastic, jonathan; "where the wild things are" about buffy and riley pretty much being hot and heavy and locked up in a room together; and "new moon rising" which had the return of oz... only to see him leave again after finding out about willow's new relationship.
of the three episodes, i actually liked "new moon rising" the best because it centered on willow. and because the episode was not exactly one of the more comical ones, the four of us decided to watch the two hour showing of wipeout after buffy. wipeout is such a silly fun show. you just have to laugh watching it.
needless to say, after dreading the night due to the project launch, the night actually turned out great. it definitely helps to have friends like marc and kelley who can just make you laugh and forget all about the stressful things in life.
after all, where else but among friends can we talk about a silly idea that i call... deadliest friend. now, i suck at deadliest friend. as i am apt to do, i occasionally get an idea stuck in my head and run with it.
inspired by the show, deadliest warrior, and... also somewhat inspired by friends... i have been thinking a lot about a fight simulation program where scientific data is collected on my friends. from there, the data is entered into the program and the computer simulates a battle to the death scenario between my friends.
i started to think of metrics to measure the deadliness of my friends: things like how much force my friends throw when throwing a punch; how many times they can strike within a given time frame; arm reach; leg reach; dexterity; dodging ability; pain treshhold; psychology tests; etc. and to even make it so that one friend would not dominate (like my friend jim), i thought about different arena settings and other variables like alcohol impairment.
needless to say, i may have thought a little too much about my fight simulation program. but, i thought a fight simulation would be a fun thing to have for whenever there is a heated disagreement within my circle of friends... and i have witnessed a few over the years.
for instance, in high school i remember witnessing my bff (kerry) and my friend (jenny) having a heated tirade at the football stadium in quincy. now, wouldn't it be cool to see who would have really won the argument if they battled to the death (or had a simulated battle to the death)? i know i'd be curious about those results.
the matchup possibilities are endless. and quite possibly the best part about the fight simulation: no one actually gets hurt and we can all laugh about the absurdity of it all. how fun would that be? now all i have to do is create the program... and perhaps get scientific equipment to record metrics...
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
I Suck At Egg Salad
today, i indulged in the world of high cholesterol. i ate two egg salad sandwiches. now, i suck at egg salad.
truth be told, i love egg salad. i think i am but a handful of people whom i know who actually enjoys egg salad... my favorite sister-in-law (janine) being one of them. i have not had egg salad in quite some time.
my most memorable egg salad experience happened during a wedding celebration for my friend (jim). jim has relatives in the booneylands of the north... also known as maine. a bunch of my friends and i were invited to celebrate his then upcoming marriage.
maine is a funny place. the celebration took place in what can best be described as an athletic area/night club/function room. when my friends and i arrived, we (and by we i mean karen and my friend, marc) were approached by some random guy who assured us that he was not a terrorist. the random stranger obviously wasn't a terrorist... he was just some eccentric person with a john deere hat that i would guess is commonplace in maine.
speaking of john deere hats, it seemed like everyone at the wedding celebration wore john deere hats. i think my friends and i were a little overdressed for the occasion with our shirt and ties. who knew?
needless to say, it was an interesting night in general. as it turned out, one of the items on the menu at the wedding celebration was egg salad. as i am apt to do, i inhaled the egg salad finger sandwiches. in fact, i devoured mass quantities of egg salad at the party.
sure, it may have seemed like cholesterol bliss in the beginning. the euphoria, however, did not last long as i was absolutely stuffed by night's end. i was so full of egg salad, that i basically passed out... rubbing my tummy in pain. good times. good times.
anyway, i have eaten egg salad since that time. eating the sandwiches today just reminded of that time in maine... fun times.
truth be told, i love egg salad. i think i am but a handful of people whom i know who actually enjoys egg salad... my favorite sister-in-law (janine) being one of them. i have not had egg salad in quite some time.
my most memorable egg salad experience happened during a wedding celebration for my friend (jim). jim has relatives in the booneylands of the north... also known as maine. a bunch of my friends and i were invited to celebrate his then upcoming marriage.
maine is a funny place. the celebration took place in what can best be described as an athletic area/night club/function room. when my friends and i arrived, we (and by we i mean karen and my friend, marc) were approached by some random guy who assured us that he was not a terrorist. the random stranger obviously wasn't a terrorist... he was just some eccentric person with a john deere hat that i would guess is commonplace in maine.
speaking of john deere hats, it seemed like everyone at the wedding celebration wore john deere hats. i think my friends and i were a little overdressed for the occasion with our shirt and ties. who knew?
needless to say, it was an interesting night in general. as it turned out, one of the items on the menu at the wedding celebration was egg salad. as i am apt to do, i inhaled the egg salad finger sandwiches. in fact, i devoured mass quantities of egg salad at the party.
sure, it may have seemed like cholesterol bliss in the beginning. the euphoria, however, did not last long as i was absolutely stuffed by night's end. i was so full of egg salad, that i basically passed out... rubbing my tummy in pain. good times. good times.
anyway, i have eaten egg salad since that time. eating the sandwiches today just reminded of that time in maine... fun times.
I Suck At P.S. I Love You
last night, karen and i decided to have a movie date night. we haven't had a night to just sit back, relax on our couch together, and watch a movie on our ginormous television in some time. (one of the reasons why i wanted to get a ginormous television in the first place was to watch movies...) so yesterday seemed as good a night as any to watch a movie.
the movie that we watched: ps. i love you. now i suck at p.s. i love you. as it turns out, the movie is based on the book of the same name written by cecilia ahern. although i have not read the book, i would hazard a guess that the book is probably better written than twilight.
anyway, the movie stars hilary swank of "the next karate kid" fame... and "beverly hills 90210" fame... (well, she's probably more known for her academy award winning roles, but i like to think of her as the next karate kid even though it was a terrible movie.) as well, gerard butler of "300" stars as her husband.
(the video below is a trailer for the movie.)
interestingly enough, the movie actually has a bunch of other actors and actresses like lisa kudrow of "friends", kathy bates, gina gershon, etc., but the one actor that seemed to have gotten little fanfare: james marsters. for anyone curious, james marsters plays the one and only, spike, from the greatest television show ever: buffy the vampire slayer. (although truth be told, seeing james marsters with brown wavy hair... weird.)
anyway, the premise of the movie is that gerard butler's character passes away. before his death, he writes a bunch of letters to hilary swank to help her move on with her life. it's an interesting concept... especially these days when the art of writing has gone by the wayside in favor of text messaging and email. (and i'll admit, i'm guilty of that as well... just look at my failed use of capitalization in this blog.)
but that's another topic altogether. as far as chick flick movies go, "p.s. i love you" was not that bad. for me, i think the saving grace... aside from james marsters who was hardly even in the movie... and the interesting concept of writing letters to your spouse before dying... was ireland. as i seem to enjoy all things irish, the fact that ireland is featured in the movie definitely helped. what can i say? ireland is just so beautiful with its lush greenery. (for anyone curious, gerard butler plays an irish guy. him and hilary swank met in ireland... hence, the connection to ireland.)
as for karen, i think she enjoyed the movie as well. apparently, she was in tears throughout most of the movie. (it was a chick flick after all.) i think one of the other things that i did like about the movie was the notion of individuality. basically, gerard butler wanted hilary swank to discover that which made her... her... so that she could move on.
all too often, i sometimes find that when people get in a relationship, their sense of self is lost and the couple becomes a collective. obviously, the notion of becoming one is instilled into everyone due to marriage traditions and whatnot. and naturally, a couple does have to function together for the greater whole. that said, i do believe that relationships should be more additive than transformative... if that makes sense.
all in all, it was an okay movie. i had a great time watching the movie with karen. of course, i joked with karen that should i pass away soon, i would send her videos instead of letters... telling her to get over it... (which i would hope she would be able to do and move on with her life).
oh yes, i almost forgot. as an interesting side note, it came to my attention yesterday about who should play my friend (bill) if there were ever a movie about bill or the rest of us. my casting choice: randy quaid.
(pictured below is randy quaid... as bill.)
for the record, randy quaid was not in "p.s. i love you". the random thought just happened to come courtesy of a discussion i had with my friend (andrea).
the movie that we watched: ps. i love you. now i suck at p.s. i love you. as it turns out, the movie is based on the book of the same name written by cecilia ahern. although i have not read the book, i would hazard a guess that the book is probably better written than twilight.
anyway, the movie stars hilary swank of "the next karate kid" fame... and "beverly hills 90210" fame... (well, she's probably more known for her academy award winning roles, but i like to think of her as the next karate kid even though it was a terrible movie.) as well, gerard butler of "300" stars as her husband.
(the video below is a trailer for the movie.)
interestingly enough, the movie actually has a bunch of other actors and actresses like lisa kudrow of "friends", kathy bates, gina gershon, etc., but the one actor that seemed to have gotten little fanfare: james marsters. for anyone curious, james marsters plays the one and only, spike, from the greatest television show ever: buffy the vampire slayer. (although truth be told, seeing james marsters with brown wavy hair... weird.)
anyway, the premise of the movie is that gerard butler's character passes away. before his death, he writes a bunch of letters to hilary swank to help her move on with her life. it's an interesting concept... especially these days when the art of writing has gone by the wayside in favor of text messaging and email. (and i'll admit, i'm guilty of that as well... just look at my failed use of capitalization in this blog.)
but that's another topic altogether. as far as chick flick movies go, "p.s. i love you" was not that bad. for me, i think the saving grace... aside from james marsters who was hardly even in the movie... and the interesting concept of writing letters to your spouse before dying... was ireland. as i seem to enjoy all things irish, the fact that ireland is featured in the movie definitely helped. what can i say? ireland is just so beautiful with its lush greenery. (for anyone curious, gerard butler plays an irish guy. him and hilary swank met in ireland... hence, the connection to ireland.)
as for karen, i think she enjoyed the movie as well. apparently, she was in tears throughout most of the movie. (it was a chick flick after all.) i think one of the other things that i did like about the movie was the notion of individuality. basically, gerard butler wanted hilary swank to discover that which made her... her... so that she could move on.
all too often, i sometimes find that when people get in a relationship, their sense of self is lost and the couple becomes a collective. obviously, the notion of becoming one is instilled into everyone due to marriage traditions and whatnot. and naturally, a couple does have to function together for the greater whole. that said, i do believe that relationships should be more additive than transformative... if that makes sense.
all in all, it was an okay movie. i had a great time watching the movie with karen. of course, i joked with karen that should i pass away soon, i would send her videos instead of letters... telling her to get over it... (which i would hope she would be able to do and move on with her life).
oh yes, i almost forgot. as an interesting side note, it came to my attention yesterday about who should play my friend (bill) if there were ever a movie about bill or the rest of us. my casting choice: randy quaid.
(pictured below is randy quaid... as bill.)
for the record, randy quaid was not in "p.s. i love you". the random thought just happened to come courtesy of a discussion i had with my friend (andrea).
Monday, June 8, 2009
I Suck At Hanging Out With Janine And PJ
last night, karen and i did something that we haven't done in quite some time: hung out with my favorite sister-in-law (janine) and my favorite brother-in-law (pj). now, i suck at hanging out with janine and pj.
awhile ago, there was a good stretch where karen and i would see them regularly. every weekend we would stop by to hang out. while at janine and pj's, i would generally get my niece (kaleigh) and nephew (pj) all riled up... before going home. needless to say, with busy schedules and whatnot, karen and i have not seen janine and pj (or our niece and nephew) in some time.
so yesterday, janine and pj invited us over for a cookout dinner. the cookout was definitely a good way to end the day. after all, i spent much of yesterday working on the house.
for me, the day began bright and early with installing shelving in our bathroom closet. recently, karen and i added actual doors to our bathroom closet (the doors were collecting dust within the closet itself because they were not installed for the longest time)... followed by the recent addition of molding around the doors. naturally, the next step was shelving.
as part of our ongoing attempt to reuse and be more environmentally friendly, karen and i decided to use what we could from our old shelving that had been in our itty bitty closet before the second floor addition was done. so in addition to having less waste in our landfills... which is always a plus, our cost of materials would be lower as compared to having to buy all new things.
it was actually quite interesting to reuse the shelving. to fit the shelving around the water heater that sits in our bathroom closet, we needed to cut our old reused shelving. the reused shelving is that bracketed wired shelving from closetmaid. so naturally, i needed to cut into the metal wires.
i've never cut into metal before with a saw. sure, i've made a few cuts into small sheets of metal with my mitre saw (which i don't really recommend because it will wreck your blade if you don't have the proper one installed). regardless, those pieces of metal were thin. the wire shelving was a little bit thicker.
with a newly acquired blade for cutting metal, i started cutting the wire shelving. sparks were flying everywhere. it was awesome! (and scary at the same time because the thought of setting the house on fire... or even setting me on fire... did cross my mind amid the dazzling array of sparks.)
luckily, no harm and no fire. as a mental note, i should remember to cut metal outside... just to be safe. upon completing the cut, the rest of the shelving installed pretty easily in our bathroom closet. and needless to say, karen is quite happy to have a functioning bathroom closet now. (interestingly enough, we have a ton of towels... which is weird because i don't think we have ever purchased any towels.)
anyway, following the shelving project, karen left for a wedding shower. my friend (meredith) is getting married this year on the fourth of july. so while karen was gone, i decided to do what any normal person would do: continue with home improvement projects. after all, i was on a roll.
among the other things that have been sitting in our house and collecting dust is molding for the windows in the garage. i purchased the molding a while ago and just never installed them... something i tend to do quite frequently due to my lack of motivation at times.
needless to say, i figured i would install the molding around the windows in the garage while karen was away at the wedding shower. for anyone curious, the molding karen and i selected for the garage windows were the primed casing type that is ready for painting. thus, the molding did not need our usual treatment of stain, polyurethane, and waxing. (primed casing is also cheaper because it is made of wood pieces joined together... as opposed to one long continuous piece of wood.)
as it was just the garage, it made sense to go with the primed molding. anyway, i labored through the installation. of course, it did not help that my nose started bleeding. (i tend to have frequent nose bleeds... a nasty side effect of cocaine... just kidding.) sadly, i even dripped some blood onto our garage floor.
eventually, i finished installing the molding around the windows in the garage. the installation wasn't pretty... at least in my opinion (and i am a tough critic when it comes to things that i do)... because like most things in our house, the walls were funky.
anyway, having done the bathroom closet and the garage windows, i was absolutely beat. so it was definitely good to unwind at janine and pj's. in addition to karen and i, janine and pj had invited their friend (gretchen) over. as an interesting side note, gretchen is neighbors with my bff's (kerry) mother. small world.
it was fun hanging out. at one point, i think we were all laughing in stitches watching a video that janine put together for my nephew's class. i should clarify... janine did a great job with the video itself. it was the content of the video (or a particular person in the video) that had us laughing so hard.
needless to say, we had a great time.
awhile ago, there was a good stretch where karen and i would see them regularly. every weekend we would stop by to hang out. while at janine and pj's, i would generally get my niece (kaleigh) and nephew (pj) all riled up... before going home. needless to say, with busy schedules and whatnot, karen and i have not seen janine and pj (or our niece and nephew) in some time.
so yesterday, janine and pj invited us over for a cookout dinner. the cookout was definitely a good way to end the day. after all, i spent much of yesterday working on the house.
for me, the day began bright and early with installing shelving in our bathroom closet. recently, karen and i added actual doors to our bathroom closet (the doors were collecting dust within the closet itself because they were not installed for the longest time)... followed by the recent addition of molding around the doors. naturally, the next step was shelving.
as part of our ongoing attempt to reuse and be more environmentally friendly, karen and i decided to use what we could from our old shelving that had been in our itty bitty closet before the second floor addition was done. so in addition to having less waste in our landfills... which is always a plus, our cost of materials would be lower as compared to having to buy all new things.
it was actually quite interesting to reuse the shelving. to fit the shelving around the water heater that sits in our bathroom closet, we needed to cut our old reused shelving. the reused shelving is that bracketed wired shelving from closetmaid. so naturally, i needed to cut into the metal wires.
i've never cut into metal before with a saw. sure, i've made a few cuts into small sheets of metal with my mitre saw (which i don't really recommend because it will wreck your blade if you don't have the proper one installed). regardless, those pieces of metal were thin. the wire shelving was a little bit thicker.
with a newly acquired blade for cutting metal, i started cutting the wire shelving. sparks were flying everywhere. it was awesome! (and scary at the same time because the thought of setting the house on fire... or even setting me on fire... did cross my mind amid the dazzling array of sparks.)
luckily, no harm and no fire. as a mental note, i should remember to cut metal outside... just to be safe. upon completing the cut, the rest of the shelving installed pretty easily in our bathroom closet. and needless to say, karen is quite happy to have a functioning bathroom closet now. (interestingly enough, we have a ton of towels... which is weird because i don't think we have ever purchased any towels.)
anyway, following the shelving project, karen left for a wedding shower. my friend (meredith) is getting married this year on the fourth of july. so while karen was gone, i decided to do what any normal person would do: continue with home improvement projects. after all, i was on a roll.
among the other things that have been sitting in our house and collecting dust is molding for the windows in the garage. i purchased the molding a while ago and just never installed them... something i tend to do quite frequently due to my lack of motivation at times.
needless to say, i figured i would install the molding around the windows in the garage while karen was away at the wedding shower. for anyone curious, the molding karen and i selected for the garage windows were the primed casing type that is ready for painting. thus, the molding did not need our usual treatment of stain, polyurethane, and waxing. (primed casing is also cheaper because it is made of wood pieces joined together... as opposed to one long continuous piece of wood.)
as it was just the garage, it made sense to go with the primed molding. anyway, i labored through the installation. of course, it did not help that my nose started bleeding. (i tend to have frequent nose bleeds... a nasty side effect of cocaine... just kidding.) sadly, i even dripped some blood onto our garage floor.
eventually, i finished installing the molding around the windows in the garage. the installation wasn't pretty... at least in my opinion (and i am a tough critic when it comes to things that i do)... because like most things in our house, the walls were funky.
anyway, having done the bathroom closet and the garage windows, i was absolutely beat. so it was definitely good to unwind at janine and pj's. in addition to karen and i, janine and pj had invited their friend (gretchen) over. as an interesting side note, gretchen is neighbors with my bff's (kerry) mother. small world.
it was fun hanging out. at one point, i think we were all laughing in stitches watching a video that janine put together for my nephew's class. i should clarify... janine did a great job with the video itself. it was the content of the video (or a particular person in the video) that had us laughing so hard.
needless to say, we had a great time.
Friday, June 5, 2009
I Suck At Work
it almost seems fitting that i would have a bad day at work today. after all, i suck at work lately. interestingly enough, it was exactly one year ago today that i left my previous employer in downtown boston... after working for them for over five years.
it's amazing how quickly time flies. in addition to my leaving on this date last year, i was passed out in the backseat of a cab last year... probably with my own vomit all over me... an unfortunate side effect of imbibing too much scotch in a short amount of time. i wish i could say it was a good time... but i can't even remember it. i have since learned my lesson: drink at home... just kidding.
as much as i suck at work right now, i actually do enjoy my current employer. i'm actually liking my employer more right now because the scheduled project launch over this weekend has been postponed. so i can actually have a little weekend.
anyway, amid all the hectic craziness recently at work... i have been listening to a particular song over and over again. this is what i sometimes do while i am working... i'll play songs on a repeated loop. as i get into full work mode (and by work mode, i mean i start hitting some keys on my keyboard), i barely even notice the song repeating... over and over again.
(the video is the song that i have been playing over and over again.)
for some reason, this particular version of the song brings a smile to my face. as i sit here on a friday night... apparently with no life... i started to think about something my friend (aimee) said today. aimee joked about how i was trying to recapture the past. of course, she was simply joking about my new found interest in teeny-bopper music like the new kids on the block... and now recently hannah montana... and i guess you can add the cast of glee to that too.
nevertheless, i wonder if aimee was onto something. perhaps i am trying to recapture the past with things like "glee" and "hannah montana"... things that are set in high school, which for me is a long time ago. maybe it is the reason why i started to think about things from last year like my imbibing incident. quite simply: things were so much easier back in the past.
i didn't have to think about awful things like my son's (braden) passing or anything like that. i don't know. maybe aimee is right. either that, or it is a midlife crisis... much like how my friend (garv) recently got a new motorcycle.
it's amazing how quickly time flies. in addition to my leaving on this date last year, i was passed out in the backseat of a cab last year... probably with my own vomit all over me... an unfortunate side effect of imbibing too much scotch in a short amount of time. i wish i could say it was a good time... but i can't even remember it. i have since learned my lesson: drink at home... just kidding.
as much as i suck at work right now, i actually do enjoy my current employer. i'm actually liking my employer more right now because the scheduled project launch over this weekend has been postponed. so i can actually have a little weekend.
anyway, amid all the hectic craziness recently at work... i have been listening to a particular song over and over again. this is what i sometimes do while i am working... i'll play songs on a repeated loop. as i get into full work mode (and by work mode, i mean i start hitting some keys on my keyboard), i barely even notice the song repeating... over and over again.
(the video is the song that i have been playing over and over again.)
for some reason, this particular version of the song brings a smile to my face. as i sit here on a friday night... apparently with no life... i started to think about something my friend (aimee) said today. aimee joked about how i was trying to recapture the past. of course, she was simply joking about my new found interest in teeny-bopper music like the new kids on the block... and now recently hannah montana... and i guess you can add the cast of glee to that too.
nevertheless, i wonder if aimee was onto something. perhaps i am trying to recapture the past with things like "glee" and "hannah montana"... things that are set in high school, which for me is a long time ago. maybe it is the reason why i started to think about things from last year like my imbibing incident. quite simply: things were so much easier back in the past.
i didn't have to think about awful things like my son's (braden) passing or anything like that. i don't know. maybe aimee is right. either that, or it is a midlife crisis... much like how my friend (garv) recently got a new motorcycle.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
I Suck At Deadliest Warrior
with it being wednesday yesterday, karen and i got to hang out with my friends (marc and kelley). karen recently acquired a recipe from one of her coworkers for beer bread. as it turns out, marc and kelley were interested in trying the beer bread. so last night, they came over for some beer bread... and chili to go with the bread. anyway, i think marc and kelley enjoyed the beer bread. (for anyone curious, the beer used in the making of the bread was blue moon.)
following dinner, the four of us watched the season finale of "deadliest warrior". now i suck at deadliest warrior. the show matches historical warriors against one another in a computer simulation based on various pieces of "scientific" data gathered in regards to weapons and all of that. (i use the term "science" loosely because there are inconsistencies in the weapon experiments.)
as a side note, karen and i caught an old "friends" show in which joey and monica were discussing who would win in a fight between some of their friends. "deadliest warrior" reminded me of that... except without the friends part. and for the record, i think my friend's (aimee) husband (jim) would kill every one of my friends. although, if i were to choose a female... i'd probably go with my bff (kerry) because i have seen her angry... really angry... just not at me... yet.
regardless, the matchup for the season finale of deadliest warrior was the ira (irish republican army) versus the taliban. truth be told, either terrorist group is hard to cheer for. i would probably say the least despicable is probably the ira... just because i have an affinity for all things irish. as it turned out, the ira won the computer simulation. naturally, that led all of us to think that the united states should have tried to send the ira over to afghanistan to get osama bin laden. it would have been easier...
as if one episode were not enough, we watched another episode of deadliest warrior afterwards. this matchup pitted a viking versus a samurai. for anyone curious, marc disagreed with the outcome of that battle.
anyway, with all the battling... we decided to watch another episode of television's greatest show: buffy the vampire slayer. the episode was titled "who are you?", and was about buffy and faith in each other's body after some magic had switched them. the episode marked the beginning of faith's road to redemption. (i have yet to ask karen or kelley about their opinions on faith after the episode... because neither of them liked that character too much.) i think one of the reasons why i like faith so much (beside the fact that she's cute) is because she is one of the more complicated characters on the show. she has all this power to do good. unfortunately, she doesn't really have her own identity living in the shadows of buffy. and she's angry with herself for what she has become. i just find the character interesting. but that's just me. and like i said, the cute factor may help too.
to end the night on a cheery note, we decided to also watch the latest episode of "wipeout". i think i may be addicted to wipeout. i can see why my mom and marc enjoy the show so much. the show is just funny to watch. the winner of last night's episode had the show-given moniker "deadbeat daughter" because she was 29 and still living with her parents. the moniker cracked me up.
anyway, it was a fun night... especially at the end when marc attempted to do a push-up on our floor using the push-up bars we have on our yoga mat. it was very amusing. that... and the labeling of his nether region with the word "testicles" that he created with karen's label maker. the label was a bit high for the anatomical area... unless of course the testicles really really did not descend... which made it more amusing.
following dinner, the four of us watched the season finale of "deadliest warrior". now i suck at deadliest warrior. the show matches historical warriors against one another in a computer simulation based on various pieces of "scientific" data gathered in regards to weapons and all of that. (i use the term "science" loosely because there are inconsistencies in the weapon experiments.)
as a side note, karen and i caught an old "friends" show in which joey and monica were discussing who would win in a fight between some of their friends. "deadliest warrior" reminded me of that... except without the friends part. and for the record, i think my friend's (aimee) husband (jim) would kill every one of my friends. although, if i were to choose a female... i'd probably go with my bff (kerry) because i have seen her angry... really angry... just not at me... yet.
regardless, the matchup for the season finale of deadliest warrior was the ira (irish republican army) versus the taliban. truth be told, either terrorist group is hard to cheer for. i would probably say the least despicable is probably the ira... just because i have an affinity for all things irish. as it turned out, the ira won the computer simulation. naturally, that led all of us to think that the united states should have tried to send the ira over to afghanistan to get osama bin laden. it would have been easier...
as if one episode were not enough, we watched another episode of deadliest warrior afterwards. this matchup pitted a viking versus a samurai. for anyone curious, marc disagreed with the outcome of that battle.
anyway, with all the battling... we decided to watch another episode of television's greatest show: buffy the vampire slayer. the episode was titled "who are you?", and was about buffy and faith in each other's body after some magic had switched them. the episode marked the beginning of faith's road to redemption. (i have yet to ask karen or kelley about their opinions on faith after the episode... because neither of them liked that character too much.) i think one of the reasons why i like faith so much (beside the fact that she's cute) is because she is one of the more complicated characters on the show. she has all this power to do good. unfortunately, she doesn't really have her own identity living in the shadows of buffy. and she's angry with herself for what she has become. i just find the character interesting. but that's just me. and like i said, the cute factor may help too.
to end the night on a cheery note, we decided to also watch the latest episode of "wipeout". i think i may be addicted to wipeout. i can see why my mom and marc enjoy the show so much. the show is just funny to watch. the winner of last night's episode had the show-given moniker "deadbeat daughter" because she was 29 and still living with her parents. the moniker cracked me up.
anyway, it was a fun night... especially at the end when marc attempted to do a push-up on our floor using the push-up bars we have on our yoga mat. it was very amusing. that... and the labeling of his nether region with the word "testicles" that he created with karen's label maker. the label was a bit high for the anatomical area... unless of course the testicles really really did not descend... which made it more amusing.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
I Suck At Not Your Average Joes
last night, i was feeling rather lazy and unproductive. the night before, i was all rearing to go with home improvement projects... installing molding around the windows in our changing room and installing molding around our bathroom closet. but last night... i was not so eager.
instead, karen and i decided to go out for dinner. the place: not your average joes located in norwell. now i suck at not your average joes. as much as i enjoy the place, neither karen nor i have actually been there in awhile.
it just so happened that karen received a promotional email from not your average joes not too long ago. the email was about rating their food items. basically, if you order a food item on their survey list... and then complete the survey... you get a 20 percent discount on your bill for that food item. it was not your average joe's way of determining whether or not the food item should stay on their menu or not, which i think is great.
so with the survey in hand, karen and i decided to dine out. after all, the two of us have not really gone out to dinner where it was just the two of us for some time (wedding anniversary aside).
needless to say, dinner was delicious. as usual, i devoured way too much of their bread. it's just so good. regardless, the meals we were rating were the twisted mac 'n cheese and the mango salmon. (karen had the former, i had the latter... but lucky for me, i got have some of the twisted mac n' cheese.) the salmon was very good. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) that is not to say the twisted mac 'n cheese was not good... it was also good. the twisted mac n' cheese was spicy and had bacon and chicken in it. both meals were very good. i'd order both meals again... but then again, i eat practically anything.
anyway, it was good to dine out with karen. following dinner, we went to target located in abington to do some research... and to walk off our meal. having installed molding around our bathroom closet, we were looking to see if they had something for the inside of our bathroom closet in terms of shelving. surprisingly, there were very little options at the store.
we ended up not purchasing anything at target, which may be a surprise to some because i have heard from numerous people about how when they go to target, they end up buying stuff just because. regardless, it was a good night.
instead, karen and i decided to go out for dinner. the place: not your average joes located in norwell. now i suck at not your average joes. as much as i enjoy the place, neither karen nor i have actually been there in awhile.
it just so happened that karen received a promotional email from not your average joes not too long ago. the email was about rating their food items. basically, if you order a food item on their survey list... and then complete the survey... you get a 20 percent discount on your bill for that food item. it was not your average joe's way of determining whether or not the food item should stay on their menu or not, which i think is great.
so with the survey in hand, karen and i decided to dine out. after all, the two of us have not really gone out to dinner where it was just the two of us for some time (wedding anniversary aside).
needless to say, dinner was delicious. as usual, i devoured way too much of their bread. it's just so good. regardless, the meals we were rating were the twisted mac 'n cheese and the mango salmon. (karen had the former, i had the latter... but lucky for me, i got have some of the twisted mac n' cheese.) the salmon was very good. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) that is not to say the twisted mac 'n cheese was not good... it was also good. the twisted mac n' cheese was spicy and had bacon and chicken in it. both meals were very good. i'd order both meals again... but then again, i eat practically anything.
anyway, it was good to dine out with karen. following dinner, we went to target located in abington to do some research... and to walk off our meal. having installed molding around our bathroom closet, we were looking to see if they had something for the inside of our bathroom closet in terms of shelving. surprisingly, there were very little options at the store.
we ended up not purchasing anything at target, which may be a surprise to some because i have heard from numerous people about how when they go to target, they end up buying stuff just because. regardless, it was a good night.
Monday, June 1, 2009
I Suck At Minado
on saturday, karen and i met up with a few friends. my friend (aimee) had organized the little get together with everyone since she has not seen many of us in quite some time. from time to time, aimee will try to get everyone together just to keep everyone in touch. after all, friendship is important... especially when things look glum... so it's good to just hang out now and then with friends. (and i should know.)
anyway, aimee is great. i remember when we were in high school, aimee was in utter tears in our school cafeteria. we had gotten our yearbooks and were signing them like crazy. "have a wicked pissa summer"... "you're a great kid, don't change"... "keep in touch". at the time, i thought aimee was a little too emotional... being in tears because it was "the end" of our high school days. i figured, after all, that we would still keep in touch after high school. and for the most part, we have. and interestingly enough... every one of us have pretty much kept in touch... which is probably unusual for a high school.
needless to say, aimee got a bunch of us together to sample the fine cuisine of minado located in natick. now, i suck at minado. for anyone curious, minado is a japanese seafood buffet restaurant... aka sushi. (well, they have other things beside sushi...)
with the restaurant being located in natick, karen and i were able to car pool with my friends (marc, kelley and cass). the meeting point: cass's house. after getting stuck in line for a funeral procession in quincy literally one block away from cass's house, karen and i still managed to be at cass's on time. (yes, i find it odd that a funeral procession would drive through a residential neighborhood... but that's just me.)
speaking of driving, the car pool ride itself was actually quite comical. it seemed like we had hit every single red light in quincy... and believe me, there are a lot of red lights in quincy. there must be lights at every single intersection in quincy... and we hit them all... or at least it seemed that way. in the past, i've joked with cass before about how he should run for mayor of quincy so that he can abolish all that is unholy about the red lights at every intersection. and saturday definitely proved to be a good example of why the lights should be abolished because we ran late meeting everyone else at minado. (driving through quincy is awful.)
luckily, all of us in the car had a fun time. i sometimes enjoy the car rides more than the actual event because the things we talk about just crack me up. plus, in the car, all of us are a little more unfiltered in what we say. it's just more humorous. i'd divulge the topic of conversations that we have... but what is said in the car stays in the car. that is not to say all of us are filtered in public... after all, for some reason we generally are "that group". but i think we do try to tone it down a little.
anyway, because of quincy traffic, i had to call aimee to let her know we would be running a little late. when i called aimee, i thought aimee sounded a lot like her sister (angela). thinking nothing of it, i continued to tell her that we were running late. it wasn't until angela told me that she'd let aimee know that i chuckled... because it was in fact... angela who i was talking to.
needless to say, we finally arrived at minado... only about 15 minutes late, which is not bad considering. plus, as a whole, all of us are generally punctual if not early... so being late this once was not too bad. in addition to all of us in the car, my friends (garv, leeann) were there with aimee, angela, and aimee's children (rio and amaya).
and then... the feasting began! generally, sushi is not something i crave. don't get me wrong. i'll eat it. i'll eat anything. but as i was starving by the time we arrived, i consumed a few plates of sushi.
i think sushi gets a bad rap... or bad "wrap"... just kidding. like most things, i think people get put off by the idea of the meal, as opposed to actually tasting the meal. after all, the idea of eating raw fish does not sound too appetizing or safe for that matter. there are, however, other types of sushi that do not have raw fish... like california rolls, which are quite good. yet, i think people will swear sushi off all together just because of the idea.
needless to say, i had a good time at minado. it was fun to hang out with everyone... and even do some shopping afterwards... at... of all places, the christmas tree shop. i am generally not a big fan of the christmas tree shop, but being there with a group of friends definitely made the experience fun. garv was a sucker for the sham-wow ripoff: the sham-eze.
anyway, it was fun. i hope aimee and angela enjoyed the time as well.
anyway, aimee is great. i remember when we were in high school, aimee was in utter tears in our school cafeteria. we had gotten our yearbooks and were signing them like crazy. "have a wicked pissa summer"... "you're a great kid, don't change"... "keep in touch". at the time, i thought aimee was a little too emotional... being in tears because it was "the end" of our high school days. i figured, after all, that we would still keep in touch after high school. and for the most part, we have. and interestingly enough... every one of us have pretty much kept in touch... which is probably unusual for a high school.
needless to say, aimee got a bunch of us together to sample the fine cuisine of minado located in natick. now, i suck at minado. for anyone curious, minado is a japanese seafood buffet restaurant... aka sushi. (well, they have other things beside sushi...)
with the restaurant being located in natick, karen and i were able to car pool with my friends (marc, kelley and cass). the meeting point: cass's house. after getting stuck in line for a funeral procession in quincy literally one block away from cass's house, karen and i still managed to be at cass's on time. (yes, i find it odd that a funeral procession would drive through a residential neighborhood... but that's just me.)
speaking of driving, the car pool ride itself was actually quite comical. it seemed like we had hit every single red light in quincy... and believe me, there are a lot of red lights in quincy. there must be lights at every single intersection in quincy... and we hit them all... or at least it seemed that way. in the past, i've joked with cass before about how he should run for mayor of quincy so that he can abolish all that is unholy about the red lights at every intersection. and saturday definitely proved to be a good example of why the lights should be abolished because we ran late meeting everyone else at minado. (driving through quincy is awful.)
luckily, all of us in the car had a fun time. i sometimes enjoy the car rides more than the actual event because the things we talk about just crack me up. plus, in the car, all of us are a little more unfiltered in what we say. it's just more humorous. i'd divulge the topic of conversations that we have... but what is said in the car stays in the car. that is not to say all of us are filtered in public... after all, for some reason we generally are "that group". but i think we do try to tone it down a little.
anyway, because of quincy traffic, i had to call aimee to let her know we would be running a little late. when i called aimee, i thought aimee sounded a lot like her sister (angela). thinking nothing of it, i continued to tell her that we were running late. it wasn't until angela told me that she'd let aimee know that i chuckled... because it was in fact... angela who i was talking to.
needless to say, we finally arrived at minado... only about 15 minutes late, which is not bad considering. plus, as a whole, all of us are generally punctual if not early... so being late this once was not too bad. in addition to all of us in the car, my friends (garv, leeann) were there with aimee, angela, and aimee's children (rio and amaya).
and then... the feasting began! generally, sushi is not something i crave. don't get me wrong. i'll eat it. i'll eat anything. but as i was starving by the time we arrived, i consumed a few plates of sushi.
i think sushi gets a bad rap... or bad "wrap"... just kidding. like most things, i think people get put off by the idea of the meal, as opposed to actually tasting the meal. after all, the idea of eating raw fish does not sound too appetizing or safe for that matter. there are, however, other types of sushi that do not have raw fish... like california rolls, which are quite good. yet, i think people will swear sushi off all together just because of the idea.
needless to say, i had a good time at minado. it was fun to hang out with everyone... and even do some shopping afterwards... at... of all places, the christmas tree shop. i am generally not a big fan of the christmas tree shop, but being there with a group of friends definitely made the experience fun. garv was a sucker for the sham-wow ripoff: the sham-eze.
anyway, it was fun. i hope aimee and angela enjoyed the time as well.
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