I Suck At Buying Furniture

since the new addition of the second floor to our house, karen and i have not gotten any furniture. thus, the second floor has been mainly devoid of anything for quite some time... that is... until saturday.

on saturday, karen and i finally got some new furniture for the addition. in general, we always have a hard time deciding on things like furniture. the only time we seem to agree on furniture is when the piece of furniture is ridiculously expensive. (i guess we both have expensive tastes.) anyway, the practical side in us can't justify paying for expensive furniture. thus, we generally have a hard time deciding on things like furniture. so i guess you could say... i suck at buying furniture.

anyway, a while ago we had decided to go to bernie and phyl's located in braintree. as luck would have it, we agreed on some items of furniture in the store. (karen had done some earlier browsing of the inventory online. plus, she found an online coupon to use at the store which also made her very excited.)

needless to say, we purchased the items that day. we had to wait, however, until saturday to actually pick the items up. (pictured below are the pieces of furniture sitting in the room.)



so, these new pieces of furniture are going to sit in the workout/office area. the original intent is to have these items face the television in that room. unfortunately, there is currently no television in that room. so, the chairs and table are facing a blank wall right now. sure, it may seem odd right now... but when that television is there, it'll probably make more sense.

I Suck At Having A Dog

friday night, i got to see my favorite sister-in-law (janine).

janine has been looking for a dog for some time. she has visited many dog breeders in her quest for a labrador retriever. luckily, she finally settled on one. on friday, she was able to take home the labrador retriever from the breeder.

as the labrador retriever was born on st. patrick's day, janine decided to call her "clover". clover is very cute. (pictured below is clover sitting on janine's lap.)



clover did not do much when karen and i were there except sleep. i guess puppies sleep a lot when they are newborn. my niece (kaleigh) was pretty funny around clover. she wanted clover to fetch a toy and so threw the toy and told clover to fetch it. well, clover just slept. when clover seemed to wake from his slumber, kaleigh would get excited because she thought clover was going to fetch the toy... only problem was... clover went back to sleep. it was cute.

needless to say, i love dogs. the only problem is... i suck at having a dog. i think if i actually had a dog, the dog would die because i'm not home enough. lucky for me, i can just visit janine and play with clover at any time. hopefully, clover will be as good as ben and jerry, which belong to my friend (hot amy). ben and jerry are my benchmark as far as dogs go. they (ben and jerry) are very well behaved and equally adorable. so we'll see how clover ranks up.

I Suck At The Falafel King

today, i had the opportunity to go out for lunch during work. of course, i chose the best day to of the week to go out for lunch (with the dark and dreary sky and the drizzling rain and all). and naturally, i did not have an umbrella today. i actually didn't even have a jacket on when i went out for lunch. you'd think i'd learn my lesson by now.

anyway, i decided to go to the falafel king. now i suck at the falafel king. the falafel king is a tiny take out place located on winter street on the way to downtown crossing in boston. while you wait in line to place your order, the "king" gives you a falafel to eat. he's such a nice guy. i usually order the falafel sandwich. in fact, i have only ever ordered a falafel sandwich every time i have been there... which is a testament to how good the falafel sandwich is. (the place is not called "the falafel king" for nothing.)

i was first introduced to the falafel king by my former boss (brian). he had always raved about the place during lunch time. in fact, i never even knew what a falafel was when i first heard of the place. when i first heard the word "falafel", i thought it was a waffle-like item of food... for no reason other than the fact that the words sounded similar. i have come to find out in my wise years that a falafel is a fried patty of chickpeas.

according to my friend wikipedia, the word falafel is the plural of the arabic word meaning pepper.

"Falafel is generally served in pita bread, either inside the pita, which acts as a pocket, or wrapped in a flat pita. In many countries, falafel is a popular street food or fast food. The falafel balls, whole or crushed, may be topped with salads, pickled vegetables and hot sauce, and drizzled with tehina (tahini). Falafel balls may also be eaten alone as a snack or served as part of a mezze. During Ramadan, they are sometimes eaten as part of an iftar, the meal which breaks the daily fast after sunset.

Falafel has been part of the diet of Arabs and Mizrahi Jews for centuries. It is also considered a national food in Israel where it has become a common part of the Israeli diet. Now a popular street food in many countries around the world, it is sometimes offered as a vegetarian alternative to Doner kebab."

speaking of jews, the falafel king is also the first place i had ever had lunch in town with my friend (hot amy). we were running an errand for my other friend (andrea) by taking pictures of cows. (for anyone curious, hot amy is not jewish... but she is apparently revered by the jewish community.)

anyway, i had a good lunch today by myself. going to the falafel king allowed me to get out of the office and enjoy the dreary drizzly day. i got to be all pensive and stuff... which is sometimes trouble as i like to reminisce.

I Suck At Scramble

yay! it's friday!

as i arrived to work early today, i decided to check my facebook account. i had a quick chuckle because on my profile page, there was a mini-feed that said i had just "dominated" a scramble board. for anyone curious, i had just finished a game with my friend (andrea).

needless to say, the mini-feed made me chuckle because i suck at scramble. okay, maybe i don't really suck at scramble. chalk up another item to add to my list of things that make me "exude awesomeness". first, i'm mr. walsh's favorite (second to ed of course)... and now scramble... just kidding.

anyway, for anyone who does not know, scramble is a facebook application that is pretty much the game of boggle. and for those who do not know what boggle is, boggle is game where you make words of at least three letters or more from a random board of letters within a given time frame.

i used to play boggle a lot growing up. boggle was one of the few games that my family had. i remember playing boggle a lot with my brother (back when my brother and i were pretty close). i remember how we had to shake the board with its hard plastic cover on top... the clanking noise of the cubes with the letters on them as they fell into the board... tapping the sides of the plastic cover to get all the cubes to fall neatly into the board. ah... the memories.

needless to say, playing scramble on facebook reminded me a lot of playing boggle when i was growing up. sadly, i'm still addicted to the game. i started playing when my coworker (sean) challenged me to a game. (yes, we were at work. it made the time go by much quicker.) it was the first game of scramble i had ever played and i lost handedly to him.

since that first and only defeat, i have gone on a rampage... leaving unsuspecting scramblers in a trail of word making dust. just kidding. i haven't lost since that first game. i was even tempted to issue an open challenge to my close friends and family... such that if anyone of them could beat me in a game of scramble, i'd get them lunch or something. i might even make lunch... that's how confident i am in my scramble abilities.

i'm really not that confident in my scramble abilities, but i was thinking the challenge could be fun for my friends and family by giving them some extra motivation or something. (because i know if i could score a free meal, i'd be all over that.) anyway, we'll see how it goes...

I Suck At Sod-Busting

i hate gardening projects. i would rather do carpentry work, electrical work, or plumbing work. i'd even do masonry work if given the option instead of working on a gardening project.

you'd think that working on a gardening project would be fun. gardening is outside. the weather can be sunny. the project itself can relaxing. unfortunately, this project that i'm currently working on is known as sod-busting. i suck at sod-busting.

sod-busting is the removal of turf (or in my case, the existing front lawn).

according to the diy network, you can use a flat square shovel.

"Begin by digging down to a depth of 2" to 4" to get all the grass roots. Push and pull the shovel horizontally, keeping the blade as level with the ground as possible. Work in small sections: soil and sod are very heavy."

sounds simple enough, right? well, needless to say... i hate it. in the span of about two hours after i got home, i only managed to bust a strip of sod approximately 6 inches by 35 feet. at this pace, i will probably finish sod-busting the front lawn by the time my vacation ends next week.

what makes it worse is the fact that the delivery of loam (soil) is happening tomorrow in the pouring rain. if i didn't know any better, i would say that this is a sign that i should not work on any gardening projects... ever.

i wonder if hot amy would be willing to make a wager with me whereby she'll do the sod-busting if i win some challenge. right now, i am hoping the answer is yes.

I Suck At Emma's Pub & Pizza

last night, i hung out with my friends (marc and kelley).

after watching last week's episode of "lost" on their tivo (might i add... love the show!), we decided to go out for dinner. marc had suggested going to this place called "emma's pub and pizza". too bad i suck at emma's pub and pizza.

anyway, marc had seen commercials for the place on the phantom gourmet food show. marc, being a connoisseur of food, was naturally interested in trying the place out. so, marc, kelley, karen and i took a little trip to emma's pub and pizza, which is located off of route 24 (exit 15) in bridgewater. it was a fun ride because kelley almost plowed into a police car when she was pulling into the parking lot of emma's pub and pizza. (the cop car was exiting the parking lot.) that would have been interesting to explain. luckily, she didn't hit the car.

needless to say, the place was an interesting place to eat. there was supposed to be a magician last night... but we didn't see him. apparently, the magician is very good at doing his disappearing trick. (there was also supposed to be 99 cent cheese pizzas, but we didn't have any.) the place itself reminds me of those old diners (except this place was fairly big). there were two claw vending machines in the waiting area, a huge picture of some chef on wall, and other pictures of their menu items on the walls.

despite the decor, the food was very good. i had the "maverick" burger, which was a one pound hamburger (that's a lot of beef). in addition, i had an oatmeal cookie martini... which was very delicious (in the immortal words of rachael ray... yum-o.)

all in all, it was actually a pretty good experience. (for anyone curious, their lobster roll was rated by the phantom gourmet.) i'd go back again... and hopefully the next time i can see the magician.

I Suck At Hanging Out With Meredith

last night, i ran into my friend (meredith).

meredith and i go way back. i've known meredith since middle school. we used to chat on the phone all the time. we used to laugh, joke, and just be silly. in fact, i pretty much still laugh, joke and be silly... so it's good to know i haven't changed that much.

anyway, the last time i saw meredith was at her then-new house in weymouth for a fourth of july celebration a few years ago. so, it was nice to see her again albeit the circumstances surrounding my seeing of her again were not the greatest. we were attending a wake for the uncle of my friend (ellen). ellen happens to be married to my other friend (cass). it's somewhat odd how most of my friends have met their significant others while in high school. i guess my high school graduating class was very tight-knit. but, that's beside the point.

needless to say, i got to talk to meredith while at the wake. when we left, it naturally got me thinking how i suck at hanging out with meredith. meredith is one of the nicest people i have known and have ever met. she has recently lost some weight too and looks good. she recounted a story about how when she first moved to her grandmother's house in quincy, my other friend (hugh), who incidentally was the best man at my wedding, had rode his bike all the way down to the house and gave her a stuffed animal. he had given it to her because she was concerned that she didn't know anyone in the neighborhood. thus, with the stuffed animal, she would at least know one person. i don't really do the story justice (meredith did a much better retelling of the story). she laughed and thought it was funny how that was one of the things she remembered about the past.

anyway, i'm glad i saw meredith again. seeing childhood friends always cheer me up. some might even say it makes me all sappy, which is why come christmas time... i get a little thankful for all of my friends. regardless, i hope to see meredith again in the upcoming months.