Tuesday, November 30, 2010

On Call

You know what?

I hate being on call.



Yesterday the Light Bent

Of course my camera phone wasn't quite up to the challenge, but here is a bit of rainbow popping out of a cloud. We saw this out of the office window yesterday.




Monday, November 29, 2010

Rush 2011 Tour Dates!

Last night Rush officially announced a US leg to their 2011 tour. I don't see any specific dates in the announcement, nor do I see any links to an lists of official dates.

I did, however, stumble across this list at this site. I'm not sure if it's 100% accurate or not, but the best bet for Robbie and Jenny is Madison Square Garden in New York, NY on April 10th.

muahahahaha!

Mar 30/11 Ft. Lauderdale, FL Bank Atlantic Center
April 1/11 Greensboro, NC Coliseum
April 3/11 Nashville, TN Bridgestone Arena
April 5/11 Louisville, KY KFC Yum! Center
April 6/11 Toledo, OH Huntington Center
April 8/11 Hershey, PA Giant Center
April 10/11 New York, NY Madison Square Garden
April 12/11 Chicago, IL United Center
April 15/11 Cleveland, OH Quickens Loans Arena
April 17/11 Detroit, MI Palace of Auburn Hills
April 19/11 Hamilton, ON Copps Coliseum
April 20/11 Montreal, PQ Bell Centre
April 22/11 Baltimore, MD 1st Mariner Arena
May 4 Helsinki, Finland Hartwall Arena
May 6 Stockholm, Sweden Globe
May 8 Malmo, Sweden Malmo Arena
May 12 Dublin, Ireland O2
May 14 Glasgow, Scotland SECC
May 16 Sheffield, UK Motorpoint Arena
May 19 Manchester, UK MEN Arena
May 21 Newcastle, UK Metro Radio Arena
May 22 Birmingham, UK LG Arena
May 25 London, UK O2
May 27 Rotterdam, Holland Ahoy Arena
May 29 Frankfurt, Germany Festhalle

The Horror

Crud... Wintery.




This Sucks

So on Tuesday I started feeling wrong.
On Wednesday it was 50/50 between calling in sick and going to work. I went to work and made it through without dying.
Thursday was the start of the four day weekend and I was sick. Thanksgiving plans needed a last minute rewrite.
Friday I was sick. We had movie date plans but had to scrap them.
Saturday I was sick. We had to miss the Dead Relatives Tour. I was better in the late afternoon and we went to a movie and to dinner. I thought I was improving.
Sunday I was sick. Again. I developed a five alarm cough that felt like it was ripping my chest open with each instance. Jen starts a new job today (woohoo! Go get 'em babie, you're the best!) and needed a good night sleep. She wasn't getting that due to my coughing so I went down cellar to try to sleep. I didn't.
Today is Monday, the first day back after the long weekend. I'm still coughing and sniffling a little, but I am well enough to go to work.

Figures, huh?

I need to wish the best of luck to my wife who is starting a new job today.
I also need for you, me, and everyone else to direct all of your happy thoughts (red head vibes from me) to a certain short person. He knows who he is. Best of luck to him today as well. Everything will go perfectly.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

The Subtleties of Beerfest

Have you seen the movie Beerfest?

Did you notice that in the scene that takes place in the men's room near the end when Fink figures out the answer to Das Boot that all of their faces are turning yellow?

Brilliant.

Absolutely brilliant.

Still Sick (and an in depth Deathly Hallows review)

We are now entering day number 123586723413 of this particular cold.

I might have exaggerated, but only slightly.

I felt a lot better yesterday afternoon. Well enough to try sneaking out to see the new Harry Potter movie. Here is my Deathly Hallows Part 1 review:

AAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!! Now I have to wait until summer to see the rest of this awesome story? FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There. That sums up my response to the entire movie. There were a few minor discrepancies from the book. Hedwig is much much nobler in her big scene. The whole Harry and Hermione dancing scene seems to have a lot of book>movie purists up in arms, but I thought it was a nice way to show them trying (and failing) to break the tension when things were at their darkest. It was definitely slicker than some retarded montage would have been. I think the scene at the Ministry was done perfectly. I think the second visit to the Malfoy's was also done perfectly... especially the way it ended... if you've read the book you know what I mean, right? They way the Malfoy scene ends? Get it? I also think they split the story at the perfect spot. Things are impossibly dark for our heroes, and things are looking bright indeed for our villains.

Nicely done.

Now that I've said all of that, I will return to my box of Puffs Plus tissues, and my bag of Cherry Halls cough drops.

Good day.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

DRT

Today is our annual Dead Relatives Tour. That is a very insensitive way to describe a family event where a whole slew of us get together to visit the graves of my mother's parents, and my father's mother, brother, aunts and uncles. After paying our respects at the grave sites we all go out to lunch together and spend the better part of a day just being a big extended family.

The festivities are well underway, and Jen and I are sitting on the couch missing it. Damn you, cold virus! I am so disappointing in my immune system right now. We had plans for the first three days of our four day weekend and my cold has 86'd them all.

It's not that bad though, I have spent the whole weekend with my lovely wife, and a big chunk of it with her amazing kids. I wouldn't trade that for anything.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Question

Question: how does the PSP compare to the Nintendo DS? Which is better?



Nap Time

What was that I was saying about cutting down on kitty pictures?



If she starts snoring I'm going to laugh my ass off.

Black Friday

Jenny and Patches do some Black Friday shopping online while Robbie blows his nose and eats Halls cough drops.



The Christmas season is officially underway.

Hohoho, happy merry.

REM on Letterman

Just saving this for later...


and...

Kitty Jail

I really need to stop posting pictures of the cat.


Still Sick

We have cancelled the whole weekend's plans. No movie today. No DRT tomorrow.

This sucks out loud, but my sweet Jen is doing an amazing job taking care of her big baby of a husband. I love her so much.

Smart Kitty!

Patches takes a bath... In the bathroom! She's the smartest kitty ever! Next she'll be peeing in the toilet!


Thursday, November 25, 2010

Kitty Kandid

I'm sick but kitty still loves me.

Turkey

I don't know exactly what it was. There were a number of circumstances working together to make it happen...

Was it the last minute nature of the thing? Was it a recipe that Jen decided to try out this morning?

I don't know. What I do know, is that Jen made the best turkey I've ever had. Bar none, hands down, that was the best turkey dinner I've ever had. I'm not saying that because Jen put together a full Thanksgiving dinner with less than one day's preparation and I want to make her feel good for doing so much for me. I'm not saying it just to be nice, or any crap like that. I'm saying it because it is the plain, simple truth.

The turkey that my beloved wife Jennifer cooked today was the best tasting turkey I've ever had.

We say down at the table, wished each other a happy Thanksgiving, and then we each took a bite of turkey. We both made yummy/delicious sounds and said it was the best turkey we've ever had. It was awesome turkey. Just... Just... Wow, was that good turkey!

Thank you, Jen. On top of all of the wonderful things you do for me on a daily basis, you went above and beyond to give my fat, sick, dumb ass a perfect Thanksgiving.

Thank you, my Jenny. I love you so much.

iPhone Weirdness

My phone has been acting strange today. I took the iOS4.2 update the other day but I don't think that's related to all of it.

First, and this has nothing to do with the iPhone itself, but it's still slightly odd, I got three wrong numbers in a 60 second span. Really. The first one had a caller ID that was 8 numbers. The second had a different caller ID that was 12 numbers. The third was blocked. I answered the second one and it was just some numb-brain saying, "hello?" a few times. Strange.

The next strange iPhone thing probably is related to the recent update. I turned on the iPod function and there was nothing there. I know there's music there though, as I keep it filled almost to the rim with music. I plugged into my desktop and the files showed up in iTunes, but still nothing in the phone itself. I dragged in a playlist (Palmdale. Both EPs), waited for it to load in, and then checked the phone again. Everything was there. Strange.

Anyone else out there in apple fandom/iPhone using land have any weird stuff happen after installing the latest update? Just curious.

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving.

A Very Bond Thanksgiving

Yes it happened. Right on queue my bad sore throat became a bad cold. No family Thanksgiving for me.

My wife anticipated this and has begun preparing the Thanksgiving dinner she bought yesterday.

My wife is amazing. Pure and simple.

To ease the pain I was searching through the channels and discovered James Bond Thunderball staring Sir Sean Connery on Syfy.

Thanks, Syfy.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!



Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Disney Surprises

The kids are watching Wizards of Waverley place and they just name dropped J Geils.

While sitting in awe I noticed that the episode was directed by Fred Savage.

Wow.

Crazy.



Ill (continued)

Well I knew it was going to happen, but I'm still pretty pissed off.

I have the bug that laid out Jen and my step daughter.
Day 1: Sore throat
Day 2: Bad sore throat and a little congestion
Day 3-5: Seriously nasty cold.

I am on day two. Right on schedule. My throat is so sore it hurts to breathe.

I am going to miss my family's Thanksgiving tomorrow. I am seriously bummed out. Jen is already proving herself a super hero by making last minute alternate plans. She's getting a small turkey that we can have at home tomorrow while I burn through box after box of tissues. She really is an angel. She's the best thing that's ever happened to me. If I haven't stated it publicly recently, allow me to state it now: I love my wife. More than I ever thought I could ever love anything or anyone. I love Jen that much.

So if you need me tomorrow you'll find me on the couch. Maybe I'll stop on the way home tonight and pick up the two Harry Potter movies that are some how mysteriously missing from our collection and Jen and I can celebrate one of my favorite holidays by watching them all in order.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

ILL

I've been so looking forward to the upcoming Thanksgiving, four day weekend. It's been like a beacon of hope in dark times.

Two weeks ago, Jen had a really bad cold. It started with a sore throat.

The Thanksgiving weekend is, to me, a break from the hectic craziness that work has become recently. It's like a vacation to a tropical island... metaphorically speaking.

Last week my step daughter had a really bad cold. It started with a sore throat.

We are planning a big Thanksgiving, a viewing of the new Harry Potter, a trip to visit the graves of my grandparents and some of my aunts and uncles. Generally speaking, it's just going to be a treasure trove of fun things to do with my family.

I woke up with a sore throat today.

Shite.

Hungry Kitty

She meows like crazy when she's hungry. It sometimes sounds like a police siren


Monday, November 22, 2010

Come to the Dark Side

We have turned to the dark side...

We dumped Comcast in favor of FiOS.

Wait... did we join the dark side or leave the dark side? Or are they both the dark side? I can never keep them straight.

Philosophical Drivel

I was pondering the pros and cons of the three day work week we have this week. (Thursday is Thanksgiving, and Friday is a company holiday)

The upsides are many. The holiday itself being a major one, and having what amounts to a double weekend is a close second. (I love that moment, just before bed, when you realize it is not Sunday night, but Friday night, and the standard weekend still awaits.)

There is, however, one obvious, glaring downside to the three day work week. It is, of course, the three days of work.

Think we can do something about fixing that for 2011?



Sunday, November 21, 2010

Random

Disney Channel shows are so poorly written they are a little frightening.

I mean... Really. Aweful.



Sunday Dinner

Jenny is making a roast today. Another Sunday dinner spectacle.

We have a new hand-me-down couch in the cellar. It was donated by my sister's husband. We'll be napping on it often. It's one of "those" couches. Thanks Ken.

The real bonus was that I got to see my niece and both nephews. Can you say, bonus?

Awesome.

This is an A+ kinda Sunday.



Saturday, November 20, 2010

Things and Stuff

The Bruins are down by one in the third to the Kings. They are playing out of their minds, but L.A. Has been able to hold on.

I'm not going to buy NHL 2011 for the playstation this year. At least I don't plan too. I just bought NHL2K11 for the iPhone though. That'll hold me for a while at least.

The Bruins tie the game at three!! At one point they trailed 3-0.

We are trying to decide if our cat Patches is a Jedi Knight or not. I sometimes feel like she's using the Jedi mind trick on me to get me to pet her. I will continue to research this.






Not Ruined

They didn't screw up so bad this time.


Christmas List Research

Can Santa bring this?





Friday, November 19, 2010

WoW

I'm watching Mythbusters while Jen plays World of Warcraft.

It's nerd love at it's best.



Never in your life have you been as jealous of anything as you are of us right now.

Potter Preparation

We might be seeing the new Harry Potter tomorrow... Possible for the first of two viewings.

Just warming up.


Moon Over Salem/Methuen

Salem, NH:



Methuen, MA:


Car Line

My sick step daughter and I drove to pick up my step son at school. We got here almost 30 minutes early and there were still five people in line ahead of us.




Out of Work

My step daughter has been sick for a few days. She stayed out of school and I took the day off to stay with her. She's playing games on Jen's laptop while we sit in the living room watching Harry Potter #6. We won't be seeing #7 this week. Jen and I want to clear it first and we won't get a chance for a few days.

Can I just say the whole burning down the Weasley house was just a dumb idea? What point does that serve? Stupid freakin' hollywood.

Too bad we don't have a Bruins, or Red Sox, or... or... Lock Monsters game to watch this afternoon.

Happy Early Weekend.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Bruins Win!

In between DVR'd episodes of Wizards of Waverly Place, I managed to check the score of the Bruins vs Florida game. There was nine minutes left in the first period and the game was scoreless. I told my step daughter that when playing Florida, the Bruins should have scored at least five goals in the first 11 minutes.

They did not score that many, obviously. But I'll settle for a three goal outburst in a stretch of less than two minutes in the third to salt away a 4-0 win. Tuukka Rask gets his first win of the season (finally) and Milan Lucic scores a hat trick.

(pardon me while I mute that horrible steven tyler commercial)

anyway, the Bruins win again. Next up is Los Angeles. That should be a great game.

Go Bruins!

Canadian Bribery

One of the customers I support is located in British Columbia. Our consultant just came back from a site visit. Apparently they want to bribe me to work on their issues faster by giving me authentic Canadian hockey work-desk swag.



The Bruins are beating the Panthers 1-0 after the first period, and I have authentic Vancouver stuff.

Go Bruins! Go Canucks, too... But I'm not going to get to their tasks any faster. I couldn't do that even if they gave me tickets.

Saturn Milestone

Wooohoooo! Look what happened on the bloggie's birthday!




Happy 100k to the Saturn!

Happy 2nd Anniversary, You Blogger Using Nerd

November 18, 2010. This stupid site's 2nd birthday. We've reached the terrible twos!

In the last 365 days there have been 954 public posts and 156 private posts, for a grand total of 1,110 insipid wastes of time and blogger.com server space. That's an average of 3.04 per day.

I knew I was a nerd but... but... I had no idea how bad it was!

Here's the crazy part: It's probably going to get worse! Oh No!

Welcome to year three, and thanks for reading... all three of you! WOOHOO!

Orkut Scraps - Happy Birthday

(found the image here)

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Bruins vs Rangers

The Bruins are playing the Rangers. There is 4:45 left in the third period. The Bruins are up 3-2. Chara and Ference are both in the penalty box for Boston. There is 42 seconds left on the five on three power play.

It's November... November games aren't supposed to be this stressful.

Ahhh, the B's killed both penalties. Tim Thomas is the king of the hockey universe.

Two minutes left and the Rangers are buzzing. The Bruins are barely hanging on and Blake Wheeler gets a break away. Unsuccessful. Still three to two. The Bruins weather another tough shift but turn it around to put some pressure back on New York.

One minute left and Lundquist is on the bench. Empty net. A huge blocked shot by one of the Bruins, I couldn't see who.

Final seconds.

The buzzer sounds. The Bruins have made me a happy red head by beating New York. I don't care what game I'm watching, I just love it when New York teams lose.

I especially love it when its a Boston team who beats them.

The Bruins looked good today. Seguin's goal is one that I hope we'll be seeing a lot of for many years go come. He just turned on the jets and blew past everyone.

I really like watching this team.

Go Bruins!

Route 2 Blues

2 East, backed up as far as the eye can see.

Glad I'm going West.


Supercuts Made Me Emo





Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Mexico

I know Mexico looks exactly like this:






Booze

I don't drink, but if work doesn't calm down I might start.


Margarita's

Jenny wanted Mexican food tonight so we went to Margarita's, where she had a margarita.

Sadly someone with exceptionally poor taste just paid money to hear a Cher song from the 80's.

Shame.



He Missed the Irish

This commercial is amazing. He apparently is using his mattress store to try and offend as many ethnic groups as possible. Being of Irish descent, I am a little offended that he let us off the hook.

Monday, November 15, 2010

80's

Not all music from the 80's makes me want to vomit.

Just most of it.



The Bruins Win!

The Bruins just completed yet another shut out victory with Tim Thomas in goal. Ryder, Wheeler, and Horton all scored. Tim Thomas was good. He didn't need to be any better than good because tonight they played the pathetic New Jersey Devils. Hey Jersey, this is what you get for moving your AHL team out of Lowell. Screw you and your little Albany Devils too!

Today was insane. Right off the stupid wall insane. I have rarely been so happy to see 5:30pm arrive. I got to go home to the love of my life. Perfect. We ate left over turkey, watch the Bruins, and played WoW. Boring yes, but awesome as well. Hey, is there any butterscotch pie left?

(oh, and you thought I was going to go a day without posting? No way, kids. Never)

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Bad Kitty

The cat took a swipe at my step son tonight. He tried to pet her after she made it clear that she wanted to be left alone, and it earned him a scratch on the hand.

No excuse. The cat cannot be scratching us. She's an extremely bad kitty and I am so mad at her.



Thanksgiving Practice

Today we are having a Thanksgiving warm up. Jen is cooking a turkey and her folks are coming over.

My step son was working on a school project on the Sioux. I suggested he just use a picture of former Deep Purple and James Gang guitarist Tommy Bolin. That suggestion was turned down.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Save Us

New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys are going to tour together under the name of NKOTBSB.

New kids on the back street boys.

Heaven help us.

Oh and the Bruins just got shut out by the Ottawa Senators. Double suck, to say the least. Why don't you just kick my cat while you're at it?



Fall!

The kids are riding bikes today. My step son is flying solo for the first time...

...and he just fell off for the first time. There were tears, and a nasty little cut on his hand. He did the right thing though, he went back out right away and rode some more.

Nice job!



Window Kitty

Music Room

Larry's piano has been set up. Robbie's guitar has been plugged into the amp and played.

Yes kids, we do have a music room... Or music corner.



Friday, November 12, 2010

Zilla

Jen was just telling me about the legendary hogzilla.

This is catzilla.




Why yes, I do need a nap. How did you know?

495

495 was a parking lot in both directions.



Yippee.

Public Statement

I just have to share this with the public at large:

Cat puke is grossssssss.

Eeeewwwwww

I am Patches' owner and I approved this message.



Thursday, November 11, 2010

Hockey Kitty

Patches is hanging out, watching the Bruins play the Canadiens.



The Bruins are tied at one but they are playing well.

I have had two on call, calls since the game started. I'm paranoid as well as annoyed.

Moon Over Salem

Hipstamatic iPhone astrophotography? A first.


Naps

What is it about naps anyway? We decided to take a short nap at about 2:00. Jen is sick and I'm just tired and lazy.

We planned on an hour. Here we are two hours later, still barely awake.

Naps are wonderful, but super greedy as well.



Break Time

The Warcraft playing is paused for lunch, but the South Park continues.


Random Pointless Drivel

Just some pointless random stuff.

Now that the cold weather is coming I want to go back to San Diego. Hey Jen, wanna go back to San Diego?

101B3080
101B3600
100B5914
the final day point loma 124

Second pointless thing. I am still really happy about the way the Bruins bitch slapped the Penguins last night. Especially because Sidney Crosby got a bunch of points for my stupid, lame, free yahoo fantasy hockey team. Crosby getting a ton of points in a loss to the Bruins is just about the best case scenario.

Third pointless thing. I think I need to officially add Pearl Jam to my you-have-to-see-them-live-before-you(they)-die list. The official list really only includes Jeff Beck these days. It might also have Steve Hackett too, but his solo records are sort of hit or miss. There are a few bands that would have to reunite to get onto the list, and a few others that would have to come back from the dead. Like, I would love to see The Beatles, even if 50% of the band were actually zombies.

Fourth pointless thing. South Park is still the best show on television. Just saying.

Veteran's Day

Happy Veteran's Day. The day the war to end all wars ended.

I have today off, but I'm on call. Jen does not have today off but for the second day in a row she is calling in sick. My poor babie has a cold.

The kids have today off from school but they have a field trip with their after school program.

Please, iPhone, no ringing today.



Wednesday, November 10, 2010

The Bruins Win

The Bruins scored seven goals against the Penguins tonight, including FIVE (5) in the third period.

Tim Thomas wasn't quite the goalie god tonight, giving up four goals to the Penns, so what does the team missing three of it's top six forwards do?

Score a touchdown, babie. That's what they do.



Inspiration and Stuff

See this book?
photo

That book inspired me to take this picture:
DSC_0013

And this picture:
DSC_0046

And this picture:
DSC_0087

And this picture:
2010-02-28 - spicket flood level 015

And maybe even this picture:
2009-09-02 - Spicket River Walk - Downtown Methuen

Now, that book combined with this link and these coordinates will hopefully, maybe, produce a couple more pictures.

We'll see.

Success!

The car radio let me reset it's clock using all of the same obvious steps that haven't worked the last 100 times I've tried them!

Our car radio is neurotic, I guess.




Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Stop Lights are Boring

Thankfully I have 5000 camera apps.

No flash:



Flash:


Watch the Birdie

This is the view out of my window at work right now.

Clocks

Anyone know how to change the clock on one of these babies?








Monday, November 8, 2010

Googlebot Humor

Today at 5:15 a googlebot spent 17 minutes and 59 seconds on two of this blog's pages.

From sitemeter:

Domain NameVisit TimeViewsVisit Length
googlebot.com5:15:55217:59

(oh like that classy crappy bit of formatting is going to hold)

I wonder what a googlebot was doing on my stupid page for almost 18 minutes. It must have been stuck in a lame loop.

IThankYa

(addendum: The formatting did not hold. Fortunately your humble blogger knows a little tiny bit of HTML and made a table. I couldn't remember the attribute to show the grid lines though so I had to ask the woman of my dreams. It's border="1")

WoW

My wife is a long time World of Warcraft player. She keeps asking me to play with her. We'll play it together for a few weeks and then lose interest for a while, and a couple of months will go by and then she'll ask to play again.

She asked to play again last week. We started from scratch with new characters. Something happened this time that never happened before...

One day this past weekend... I played it without her.

It's like a gateway drug for gamers. Any day now I'll be skipping work to join a guild or something.

hehehe

November 8th?

No... it can't be November 8th. Wasn't it just New Year's Day about a month ago? What the hell happened to 2010? I have entries on my work calendar for 2011 and when I see them I think, well that's a long way off... then I realize it's only two months away!

I know exactly why 2010 flew by so fast. I turn 40 in 2011, that's why. Oh no!

We had guests last night. My brother, his wife, and their two beautiful kids came and had dinner with us. We are seeing a trend. Sunday comes along and Jen gets a burning desire to cook a huge Sunday dinner. On kid weekends there are four of us to eat these big Sunday dinners, but on non-kid weekends we have to call other people up and ask for help eating everything.

Jen cooked a roast last night. It was goooood.

My niece snuggled up against me on the couch. I was the happiest Uncle in the world. On the way out the door she yelled that she loved our new house. She's two and she knows exactly what to say. She's brilliant! Her baby brother is adorable. He did what four week olds do. He slept, he cried, he ate. In other words, he was perfect.

It was a really good weekend.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

What We Did Yesterday

Jen had a spur of the moment idea yesterday. Here is what it lead to...












She is just a walking great idea, that wife of mine.

Today though, she felt like cooking a roast and that lead to my brother's family coming over for dinner. That means a two year old and a four week old will be visiting us tonight.

Another great idea.