Saturday, December 30, 2006

After Christmas Sale!

The Jeanners and I arrived back in Baltimore Thursday night at around 1:30am, and I haven't had a chance to blog because A) I've been busy at work, and B) I'm sick.

I must've picked up something on the plane ride home, or from one of the numerous sick people we encountered in St. Louis, cause I've been feeling crappy and cold-like since Friday morning. Oh well. I don't get a chance to take a break until later this week.

So our trip was good. We got to see a lot people, including the Eric, the Drew, and the Karista. And we got to meet Eric's ladyfriend, who we had not met before. We also got to participate in many family events, and eat lots of holiday food.

Work looks like it could be a pain in the ass for a few days.

Here's some highlights from the visit to the Lou:


My niece and I take our skates off after ice skating.



Ricky checks his cell phone at the Ritz, X-mas Eve. Note the bling on his belt buckle.



Drew and Karista hit the mean streets of the Lou.



Perhaps the worst picture of Drew in existence? I stuck a camera in his face and the flash went off. Sorry, Drew.

Saturday, December 23, 2006

12/23

Hmmm. Today was the busiest day in Towson B&N music department history. And to give you an idea of how busy it was, I will say this: it was goddamn muthafuckin' busy.

Also, today was the wake/viewing (I'm not exactly sure what the difference between a wake/viewing/memorial service is) for Elizabeth's dad. So I'm glad that I was able to get away from work for a little while to attend. Elizabeth is one of the best folks I've met here in Baltimore and I wanted to show props to her and her family.

Tomorrow after a half-day at work the Jeanners and I will board a plane for The Lou. Then tomorrow evening we'll be celebrating X-mas with the Anderson clan. Then, after that, it's drinks at the Ritz with Ricky Elz and friends and family! An annual treat.

I don't know if I'll get to blog from the road, so everybody have a great Christmas. Hopefully I'll get to see some folks that I haven't seen since last year, and I'll be sure to take lots of pictures.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

I am resisting the urge to watch 'The View'...

...and I'm writing in my blog instead.

What a good morning it's been so far. Today's my day off, but I got up early this morning to go into work just to help make sure the day goes nicely for all the suckas that have to go the B&N today, and I headed to the gym and had a nice workout. Then I came home and made myself some bacon n' schmeggs and I've been hanging out with my girlfriend, singing along off-key'ly to Christmas carols and reading OAA's blog. Right now we're listening to a bit from the Nut-racker . I mean, Nutcracker.

Last night after work, the J-dog and I headed over to Aimee's, where we shot the shit and helped her with her large Christmas cookie baking tasks, and I got to satisfy my month-long craving for good ol' delivery pizza. Papa John weaved his magic, and I ate a whole damn pie. It was a good time, and it was good to hang with the A-train, who we don't see nearly as often as we should, and who seems to be enjoying life.

How shall I spend the rest of my day? The only things that are definite at this point are a shit and a shower.

Monday, December 18, 2006

Hangin' Over

I am proud that I didn't make any flagrant spelling or grammar mistakes in last night's post, as I was pretty drunk when I wrote it. I had to concentrate very hard to not screw anything up. And today I was feeling the pain. Not too bad (I didn't make salsa or sleep on the bathroom floor or anything) but 5:45 rolled around pretty early this morning.

This morning at work we had our secret santa gift exchange, and there was also a little luncheon for some of the folks, from which I got to eat some of the leftover scraps, which were very good. A nice ham sandwich with mayo and cheese. Eating it made me remember the 1 or 2 Christmases when I worked at Honeybaked Ham during X-mas break. When I learned the many many uses of ham fat. The best part about HH was that they paid for lunch every day, and laid out an awesome spread of ham, turkey, and other fixin's. Yum. I do not miss the job, though, because it was boring.

One more day closer to being done with the busiest time of year! Woo-Hoo!

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Game and Gin Night

Tonight, after a relatively shit day at work (it actually wasn't too bad, considering that today was December 17th) we had Katie, Elizabeth (not from work) and Chris over for Chipotle, G&T's, and games. The Chipotle wasn't quite as good as the one in Towson (I thought) {I'll give it a couple of months to get better}, but the G&T's were good (and they did the trick), and the games were fun. Even for Elizabeth, who is a self-described non-game fan.

I'm ready for it to be December 26th. I'm tired of large crowds at work.

Jeannie bought some handmade soap today that smells like cloves.

Saturday, December 16, 2006

A mere 8.5 shopping days left

Busy busy day today at work, but not too bad. Busy enough that the day flew by, which is a good thing. And no Christmas-ruiners.

I'm a bit weary this evening. I don't think the Jeanners slept very well last night so I'm guessing she is, too. She's in the shower right now. She went and volunteered at Hab. For Human. (her former employer) today with Alison, a former Habitat coworker who is now engaged and living somewhere in the farther-north Northeast. Boston, maybe?

Last night we watched the 90's David Lynch movie Lost Highway, and though it had a slow start we eventually got into it and it was ok.
I remember owning the soundtrack for that movie. I think I sold it in college so that I would have money to buy large bottles of gin. I'm glad that I no longer have to sell things when I want to drink.

I don't know what we'll be doing this evening. Maybe wrapping presents. Maybe watching another movie. Maybe just hanging out. I think we'll be staying home and laying low.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Whiz

In Chuck Berry's, "Run, Run, Rudolph," Rudolph is described as 'whizzing across the sky,' which I think is a funny image. For me, it conjures urine more than something moving quickly.

That being said, the days are whizzing by.

Last night at work was kind of fun, because at the end of the night, Cindy and Marlene were out on the floor helping to straighten up, and we were all yelling to each other from different aisles, and joking and talking about going home and drinking and there was just a general sense of comraderie that sometimes exists at the B&N and sometimes does not. I like it when it does.

My parents are putting up their Christmas tree today, which historically was the only time that we children ever heard my father cuss. Well, it was the only time when we could expect to hear my father cuss. There were , of course, odd hammer-to-thumb moments when he would let a throught-the-teeth goddamnit slip out, but putting up the tree day was always good for some verbal fireworks.

Bacon is frying in the pan.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Man or Machine?

Yesterday was perhaps the most productive day I've ever had at the B&N. I went through a lot of receiving, made a lot of money, and straightened up the department, all by myself. It was a busy f'ing day. Probably tonight will be a repeat.

Dan C. stopped in to the store last night. I hadn't talked to him in awhile, so it was good to catch up a little. He seems to like teaching very much.

Yesterday the Jeanners and I took the most wonderful nap!

Today before work maybe I'll try to do a little X-mas shopping. I also have to buy plastic-ware for several luncheon-type things coming up at work.

RETAIL NOTE: Whenever a person wearing a brightly colored, "festive" hat approaches me at work, I always assume they're going to be annoying. I am rarely disappointed.

Monday, December 11, 2006

13 shopping days left until Christmas!

Today kicked my ass around a bit. I just got home and am enjoying the first of what will probably turn into several gin and tonics. One of those days...

It actually wasn't too bad, just busy and far too long. I did have one nearly-Christmas-ruining customer, though, just as a I was leaving. Just an unhappy, unpleasant person.

Once again, I find myself thinking good thoughts for Elizabeth. She has been on my mind all day and I hope she is ok.

Also, I'm looking forward to my wife getting home because I fear that I'm going to see far too little of her over the next 13 days.

Monday morning meeting

Not much time to write, as I'm off to work in a few minutes. Work has gotten pretty darned busy. Here's the skinny:

1. Friday on my day off I wiped Jeannie's hard drive clean, reinstalled Windows, and then reinstalled just the basic stuff we need on it. Now it's running like a champ. Why didn't I do this sooner?

2. Saturday night after work we had folks over for dinner. It was a good time, with good wine and good conversation.

3. I'm sleepy!

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Baby Bosco

Well, the day has finally arrived when my good ol' buddy C. Bosco told me that he and his ladyfriend Susan is gonna have them a baby. How 'bout that? We had a nice chat this evening, although I was saddened to hear that they won't be coming in to the 'Lou for X-mas.

One of the things we talked about was the strange phenomenon that I've noticed for awhile (maybe since starting blogging in earnest) where I don't want to answer anyone's e-mails or phone calls anymore. Why is that? Is it somehow because of the blog, or is it just a natural side effect of aging?

Speaking of aging, I have been accused by some of my younger supervisees at work of being an age-ist. Which is probably at least partially true. I've been feeling old lately, and I'm probably taking it out a little bit on those bastards who are still in their prime.


Tonight Jeannie and I are straightening up our apartment because we have people coming over for dinner on Saturday.

Also, tonight the new Chipotle down the street (opening on Saturday) was offering some sort of sneak-preview free burritos. The line was out the door and down the street. So I did not go.

Also, tonight Jeannie and I received our Christmas present to ourself, a new big ol' harddrive for our computer. So I'm backing up a bunch of her files and then we're gonna wipe her computer clean cause it's got too much crap on it. Then we're going to make it her lean, mean, AutoCAD-ing machine.

I'm off tomorrow! To the gym with me!

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

If I die of cancer, some possible causes to look into:

1. Hotdogs
2. Popcorn
3. Toxic, nasty dust from the B&N
4. Walkman usage
5. Dish soap residue left on dishes
6. Bacon and/or eggs
7. Gin and/or tonic

Monday, December 04, 2006

Grand Opening

The Chipotle down the street will be opening on Saturday, Dec. 9th. Unfortunately, we're having some folks over for dinner that night so I won't be able to christen the damned thing on opening night.

This morning I got up early for a meeting at work, then went to the gym, came home and slept, and soon it's back to work this evening. Saturday and Sunday were the first days where it felt like we were really getting ready for Christmas, i.e. it was busier than usual, but not too bad.

I was in bed last night by 8:30pm. Sad. I am old and tired.

Friday, December 01, 2006

Prairie Home Companion

Tonight Jeannie and I almost went X-mas shopping but we ran out of time because we both went to our respective gyms (which I want to try to do regularly throughout December because it keeps me feeling better and it also keeps me from getting fat little man-titties.), so we ended up watching Prairie Home Companion instead, during which I realized that Garrison Keillor reminds me of the picture I have in my head of the character James O. Incandenza (from Infinite Jest). Which reminds me, Patrick from work recently showed me an artice in Newsweek (Time?) about the 10th anniversary of Infinite Jest, and there was a picture of David Foster Wallace, and in the picture he looked like the spitting image of John C. Reilly, except with longer hair. And John C. Reilly was in Prairie Home Companion. Which brings us full-circle.

I give the movie a nice solid B.

We are not getting any of the snow that is schlumping across the Midwest, and dammit, I'm ready for some snow. It's hard to listen to Christmas music all day when it's 65 degrees outside.

It is almost time for G&T/Letterman and then time to make the sleepie.

to Drew: You should've seen me play Feste. I was freakin' hi-larious!

Not really.


also to Drew: just when I thought I would never see anything gayer than this...
...you go and post the picture of your new boots.

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Update

The Mark Kozelek cd is good. The kind of songs I would write if I was any good at writing songs. Acoustic, open tuning, mopey voice and lyrics.

Here is the view from the kitchen this morning:


The dishes have been done and the kitchen is relatively clean.

Addiction to CD's Nuts.

Are you like me? Has it been bothering you for the last few days that when I wrote "inadvertantly and unknowingly" in the last post that I might have been redundant? It's been bugging me, but I've been too lazy to actually dig out a dictionary and check. If it's been bugging you, I'm sorry...

I have been buying cd's like a mofo this week. SInce I last wrote, I purchased a Duke Ellington CD for an absolutely awesome version of 'Auld Lang Syne' that it contains. Then, yesterday at work I saw that Mark Kozelek (from Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon) has a new live CD. So I had to buy that, too. I know, I know, I should be saving money for when Chipotle opens up down the street. Which should be soon, it looks like. Holy Jeez, what am I going to do?

Today I'm off work and I'm going to do some laundry and take our recycling to the dump.

If you were sitting next to me right now, you'd probably say, "Jeez, Dan, you stink." Because I haven't taken a shower yet today and I smell pretty bad.

Here's what it looked like out of our kitchen window when I got home from work last night:


Monday, November 27, 2006

Questions and Comments are welcome...

Well, thanks to A-Train, I came to discover that I had inadvertantly and unknowingly enabled "comment moderation" on this here blog, which means that the blog wasn't publishing anyone's comments until I approved them, but I didn't know I had to approve them. So I had a big long list of everyone's comments waiting for me to approve. So I have approved them all, and I turned off comment moderation, so feel free to leave your comments and tell me what you think of my life.

So I will now address some of the things that came up in the comments:

1. Sean, you don't get a prize because you are in the picture. Of course you know who took it.

2. No, Becky, I have never cut my fingernails with a knife. It's never gotten that bad.

3. Tim Bantle! Howdy!


And now, on to the things that have been going on...

Last night, A-train Aimee came over and we had some Thanksgiving leftovers and then sat around and shot the proverbial shit. It was a good time, and somewhere in the middle of the conversation I decided that I could go for a nice big G&T, and then another, and another, and by the time Aimee left I was a bit drunk. I always feel a bit strange when I'm the only one who's drinking. Usually because then I'm the only one who's drunk. But I guess it doesn't make me feel too strange, especially when I'm with folks as close as the Jeanners and the Aimers. After Aimee left, the Jeanners and I went out for a walk, and it was a nice quiet night.

Yesterday during the day, the Jeanners and I got some good work done (maybe plugged our mouse hole [if ya know what I mean...] and fixed our annoying squeaky bed) and I also worked a long time on some recording that ended up being not very good. But it was fun to work on it. Maybe I'll stick it up on the Myspace site...

Work has been pretty good. Still owe many phone calls to people.

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Rah, Rah. Sis-Boom-Bah.

Why has writing in the blog seemed not as interesting as it used to? Is this a phase? Will this pass or will the blog slowly die? My guess is this will pass.

At work we are entering the holiday mode, which I don't think will be too bad this year. I wrote a note today to everybody in the department, laying out some helpful hints about how to deal with some of the shit that will undoubtedly come up when the store is full of people, and also just kind of a cheerleading note to say that it could actually be a decent time this year if we all help each other out, because we've got a good crew of fun people. So work was fine, uneventful, and I'm off tomorrow which should be nice. The plan is to hang out with A-Train, who we haven't seen in about a million and a half years, and with whom I will now be able to swap B&N war stories.

I said that work today was uneventful, but I forgot to mention that today I heard that they caught two people having sex in the womens' restroom yesterday at the B&N. Which is fine with me, but I'll bet the two people weren't married, which I think is immoral. I'll bet that people never have sex in the mens' bathroom at the B&N because I keep it smelling like feces so much.

Tom Waits has a new 3-disc set! Zowie!

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Thanksgiving

Well, here it is, Thanksgiving Day, and the Jeanners and I are in the kitchen, listening to Garrison Keillor and preparing our Turkeyday feast. Turkey, stuffing, mashers, vegetables, and many pies. It's a grey, cloudy day here, but we're having a good time so far.

Last night we watched Citizen Kane. I thought it was pretty good. The Jeanners fell asleep.

Tomorrow begins the screaming drive towards Christmas at work. I'm enjoying these last few days before things get crazy. Although I'm hoping that if the department is scheduled well it shouldn't be as hectic as years past.

Hope everyone is having a good holiday!

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Keep Soaping!

Today is a day of mixed emotions. Happy because I have the next two days off, and tomorrow is one of two days during the year when the store is closed and I don't have to think/worry about it. Sad because we're usually in Ohio at this time of year, and we miss our buddies there. But also a little excited because we know that having a break from our usual Thanksgiving festivities will make the next time we get together all the more rockin'. But anyway, I hope that all is well in Ohio and that everyone's Thanksgiving is peaceful and happy.

Today the plan is:

1. hit the gym.
2. inspect our bedroom and kitchen to see where the mousies might be coming in. (we think that the living room has been properly sealed.)
3. make stir-fry. Yeah! Stir-fry!
4. I also, at some point, need to call or e-mail my brother, to whom I have owed an e-mail or call for some time.

'Twas good to hear from Sean about his recent trip back to the Midwest for his (gasp) 30th birthday. When did we all get so damned old? And yet, I'm sure the boy can out party any 18-29 year olds that care to challenge him...

Drew's blog made me laugh today. Perhaps I should change my online alter-ego to turduckenboyden? It seems that fame jumped right from the standard "turkey" directly to the "turducken", and my beloved "turken" never achieved mass popularity. But then, why have a chicken inside a turkey when you can have a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey. 'Tis the American way.

Monday, November 20, 2006

1/2 Day

Sometimes it is more fun to work a half day than it is to have the entire day off. Today was one of those days, I went in to work early for a meeting, stuck around with Elizabeth and got some shite done, and I am now at home, about to put some hot dogs in the pot (not a euphemism, I'm literally going to put some hot dogs in a pot and boil them), and listening to a new cd that I bought for myself.

Today is the type of day I think of when I think "November." Chilly, grey, breezy. Bleak but peaceful. I think the beauty of November is often overlooked after the flashy melancholy of October. But I think it's rapidly becoming my favorite month.

This evening I head in to HCCA to take down the ladders from Love's Labors. Then we're having a meeting to start talking about the summer shows, then a general company meeting. So it'll be a lot of CSC stuff going on this evening. I'll think I'll bring some beer to keep things interesting.

The cd that I bought, by the way, is James Brown's Soul on Top. It's good stuff, especially when you keep in mind that James Brown is absolutely insane. Rolling Stone had a good article a few months ago, and the gist of the article was that James Brown is currently incredibly bonkers, and I believe that article. But anyway, this cd is pretty good, lots of James Brown-esque screaming and wailing, the kind that my dad hates so much. And a big band. It's a big cd, good for playing loud in the car.

Saturday, November 18, 2006

jlhgljhghgfhfgddfg

I have been piss poor on keeping up with the blog lately. Mainly because I've spent the last couple of days wrestling with Jeannie's computer, attempting to rid it of viral infections. Yuck. I hate arguing with machines.

Not too much else going on.

Been enjoying The River in Reverse, by Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint.

Hope all is well at the Schluetermetz house.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

The Break Up

Ah, I've been working a lot, but I have the next 2 days off. One day of chores and errands, one day of perhaps recording or perhaps sitting on me bum.

The Jeanners and I had a good anniversary. We went to a Greek restaurant called "Samos" located in, well, Greektown. Which is a little distance away, but it was worth it. It wasn't very fancy, the stuff we ordered was relatively cheap, and it tasted almost as good as the stuff at Olympia. I think that with a little lettuce and some feta cheese (which I'm sure can be added next time), the gyros will be just as good as Olympia. And I now know that the Greek sauce-stuff that I like so much is called "tatziki" or something like that.


Yesterday at work a guy came into the department, and looked very well groomed, black leather jacket, vaguely and generically and slightly foreign. He asked if I worked the department, then said he needed my help and knew absolutely nothing of what he was talking about. Then he said, "I will tell you the truth. I am breaking up with my girlfriend, and I want to give her a song that will make her sit and cry for weeks and weeks." Well, at first my mind blanked on good breakup songs. I wanted to say, "Jeez, jackass, the entire Blood on the Tracks album is great for breakups, but he didn't seem like a Bob Dylan type of guy. Plus, I had no idea if the breakup was due to the fact that she did something bad to him [i.e. does he want a mean breakup song?..."Idiot Wind"] or because he did something bad to her [does he want an I'm sorry breakup song?) or did it just end? (in which case a just plain sad breakup song would be in order). In the end I suggested "Gone for Good" by Morphine and "Lost Cause" by Beck. He listened to samples from the songs but didn't seem too impressed. I'm not sure he and I looked at breakups in the same way.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Year after year of hellacious torture

Tomorrow is the second anniversary of the wedding of the Danners and the Jeanners. We are planning on celebrating by going to a greek restaurant. Whenever we are in St. Louis, we always eat at Olympia (a greek restaurant) and have the deluxe gyros (one of the few instances in which the Jeanners eats meat), and every time we're there we always say, "We have to find a good greek restaurant in Baltimore." So tomorrow, Operation Find a Good Greek Restaurant in Baltimore '06 begins.

In all seriousness, I think this will probably be our last anniversary. I give the marriage maybe six months more, tops.

Sad news has cancelled our Thanksgiving plans. So the Turkeyday will be different this year, and surely not as good as it always is, but we will either find something else to do or else enjoy a few days of doing nothing.

We had our annual holiday meeting today at work. At 6:45 this morning. It's the one time of year when everybody that works at the store is gathered at the same time. Which I always think is kind of fun. Anyway, it was fine.

Thassall for today!

Friday, November 10, 2006

How come you never say "Golly Moses" after we kiss?

The Jeanners and I were going to go see LOVE's LABORS tonight, but I was too damned tired when I got home from work. So we stayed home and watched THE PHILADELPHIA STORY instead, which I was not expecting to like but ended up liking a lot. Basically it's about a bunch of rich white people who get trashed and then hungover. But with Jimmy Stewart, who I always enjoy.

Also, we caught another mouse tonight. I have a feeling that as the weather gets colder we'll be catching bunches. At least we seem to be catching them now before they get a chance to settle in and we really get to know them. Still, it makes a person feel pretty damned guilty.

Had a really rude customer today, someone who was belligerent for no reason, not just annoying. Haven't had one of those in awhile. 'Tis almost the season!

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

US-6 Mice-0

We caught another mouse last night. I think that puts the total at 6 since we moved in at the beginning of July. That's more than 1 a month. The mice still seem to prefer the death trap to the happy trap. Maybe we should just buy a fox...

Right now Jay Farrar is playing on the Itunes radio station we enjoy so much.

Last night I (finally) did not wake up in the middle of the night due to dreams of shoplifters. I did, however, have a dream that I was an usher on Letterman.

I like to think that, in most areas of my life, I employ a healthy mix of cynicism and hope. But when it comes to politics, the cynicism really rears its ugly head. I hope that in the coming years my inner thoughts are proven wrong and that somehow the U.S. government becomes a lot less interested in killing people and more interested in subsidizing the sagging compact-disc industry.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Cutting off hands seems reasonable to me.

The shoplifters are getting to me. It's very depressing to find a bunch of things stolen every day and not be able to figure out who the f*@# is stealing all this shit?! Especially when you think the person who is stealing all this shit is a damned kid.

This morning before work Jeannie and I were listening to an Itunes radio station and in the course of about an hour I heard Greg Brown, Daniel Lanois, Nick Drake, Elliott Smith, and Ron Sexsmith. Not too shabby.

I think I've decided that when it comes to obscenities in the blog, I'm going to follow the example of The Goonies. Which means that you can say "shit", but the f-bomb is reserved for very extreme circumstances.

Tomorrow night I have plans to go have a half-priced burger with Patrick From Work and then watch LOST. I am looking forward to it.

Everyone Absolutely Must Vote

I do not actually believe the above statement is true, which I'm sure would make some (most) of my friends angry with me. But oh well.

Last night as I was parking my car at the end of the night, I saw a fox rummaging through some garbage and then trotting nonchalantly across the street.

Every night this week I've been waking up in the middle of the night with nightmares about shoplifters. It seems we're having a problem in the department at the B&N with the thievery.

Well, everyone have fun voting!

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Great Scott!

Ah, November 5th, 2006. Twenty-one years ago, Marty McFly took his fateful trip back in time. Thirty years ago, the world welcomed one Seanyboy Spiff. What a day!

It's Sunday morning, and I have the day off, thankfully. Last night at work I felt like I was getting sick, but I'm not sure if that was the case or not.

What shall Jeannie and I do with our day? We have no plans except to make a large stir-fry dinner this evening. We were talking about maybe playing outside, but it's not a very sunny day.


Well, after writing the previous sentences, Jeannie and I went to the gym, went to Trader Joe's, and came home and had a nice bacon n' schmeggs breakfast. Now I'm going to lay on the couch and relax.

Last night I listened to Steinmetz Family Rhymin' at about 1 in the morning and it made me sad, partly because it's so good and partly because I miss my friends a lot. Thanksgiving!

The phrase for the day is: baby seal cracker pig.

Friday, November 03, 2006

"Hello Dear. Senator. Babs."

The title of this post is my favorite line from the Alfred Hitchcock film, Strangers on a Train, which the Jeanners and I watched this evening. It was nice to sit around and chill after a long, relatively annoying day at work.

Love's Labors opened tonight. Hope everything goes well.

Right now the Jeanners and I are resting on the couch, and I have a feeling that we'll be in bed soon. I'm pretty damned tired, and her eyes are closed, which means soon it will sleepy time for us both.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Hoops and jumping

I am blogging this blog on the road. I'm currently at the Howard County Cente for the Arts (known to those in the know as HCCA) where I was doing a little work on the lights and set for Love's Labors.

I spent my entire day off working on b-crap for the B&N, and I'm still not done. Some of the b-crap will be helpful in the long run, but much of it will not. I wish I could say, "Well, at least I'm getting paid for it." But I'm not. Dammit.

I desperately need a haircut. And I need to call my parents.

It's been beautiful autumness here.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Potpourri

Strangely divergent things going on for the next few days. I have 2 days off (which hasn't happened in awhile) and here's some of the things on my non-existent to-do list:

1. Laundry (today)
2. Eye Doctor Appointment (today)
3. Go to HCCA to finish and touch-up the set (today)
4. Watch LOST (tonight)
5. Do 2 months worth of hypothetical schedules and daily assignment sheets for work (tomorrow)

That's about it. I guess it's not really as much as it seems like in my head. But doing all the scheduling stuff tomorrow is probably going to take many unpaid hours. Why am I volunteering my time to a huge corporation? Because I care, dammit.

A couple of days ago I switched our music library over to Itunes. I hate all things I-related (ever since the deaths of my Ipod, as well as Apple's practice of making all of their hardware and software incompatible with other brands [to the point that when I install Itunes on the computer, it loads some sort of malicious script that makes it impossible for me to open Musicmatch Jukebox -- and the same thing happened when I tried to install my Creative Zen Touch MP3 player onto the computer; I couldn't install the damn thing until I had uninstalled Itunes]), but Jeannie and I have been enjoying listening to the Internet radio stations included with Itunes. Plus, now we can (easily and legally) download many more This American Lifes for our upcoming road trip to Ohio for Thanksgiving. Yeah, Thanksgiving!

Yesterday was my 4 year anniversary with the B&N. It was also my dad's 4 year anniversary of his retirement.

Here's what the Jeanners looked like (with friend Katie) last night for Halloween:



She asked that I not post this picture, but I believe that freedom of expression is one of the things that makes this country great. I think the lesson here is that if you don't want people to post pictures of you as some sort of blue wizard on their blogs, then you shouldn't take any pictures of yourself when you are dressed up like some sort of blue wizard.

Did anyone else catch Letterman the other night when Borat was on and he made the reference to "wizards sleeves?" Funny stuff.

Monday, October 30, 2006

The Lou

Today I would like to send out a great "Huzzah!" to my home city of St. Louis, MO. First of all, their baseball team, the Cardinals, recently won the World Series. Secondly, the city was just named THE MOST DANGEROUS CITY IN AMERICA. I guess that when you come from THE MOST DANGEROUS CITY IN AMERICA you grow up tough like me. Although, as my wife likes to always point out, I'm technically from the suburbs. Still though, I'm pretty tough.

This morning at work I made a bit of an ass of myself. LESSON LEARNED: As Patrick from work pointed out to me, correctly, you should know what you are talking about before you criticize others. Mr. Dan's Mouth, please say hello to Mr. Dan's Foot.

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Taking a Leak

Last night, due to the heavy rains, the ceiling in our bedroom started leaking. And it actually started leaking right over our bed. And, actually, it started leaking right over the part of the bed where my crotch likes to sleep. So I woke up very early, thinking that I had wet myself with cold, cold urine. But actually it was just rainwater leaking down onto my crotch. So that was cool.

Then, when I got to work this morning, the manager was panicky because the 2 people who were supposed to show up to open in the cafe did not show up, so she and I and another person scrambled around and tried to figure out what needs to happen in order to open the cafe. One of my jobs was to make the mocha, and I'm thinking it probably tasted like shit because it was all lumpy. I was later told that I probably hadn't whisked it enough, but jeez, I whisked it a lot. So I got a lesson in cafe this morning. It was enough of a lesson to learn that I want to stay in music.

Hmmm. What else happened today? Not too much. I was by myself in the department for most of the day so I stayed pretty busy and the day went by fast.

Tonight I'm planning/hoping for a quiet night because I have a long day tomorrow of set stuff and then work.

Friday, October 27, 2006

Angels in America

The Jeanners and I went and saw P. Kilpatrick's show, Angels in America pt. 1: Millenium Approaches and I was very very pleasantly surprised. I was not expecting it to be very good, but both Jeannie and I really enjoyed it. Well acted, well directed, and interesting design choices. I had originally thought that the space was going to be too small, but the play actually worked really well in such a close setting. Who knew. Anyway, it was refreshing to see something good.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

p.s.

K-Torr is a daddy!

Perspective (or, Sleepy Barcelona)

Today at work I helped a guy in a motorized wheelchair who had no control over his body from the neck down and very little control from the neck up. Basically, his whole body was constantly writhing and spasming, and he drooled a lot and couldn't speak or gesture, and just constantly seemed like he was in the process of performing a very low-impact sneeze. I asked him if he needed any help, and he sat and flailed a little while, and I waited, and then somebody else came up and asked for help so I helped them, a little relieved.
As I was helping the other customer, the wheelchair guy rolled up behind us, so I figured that he must need some help and just wasn't able to talk. When I was done helping the other customer, I noticed that wheelchair guy had a board next to him in his chair. I took the board out; it was about 1.5 feet by 2 feet, and maybe a quarter of an inch thick, and on the upper left hand corner it said "I can hear perfectly." Next to that it said, "I use this board to talk. Repeat back the things I point to." The rest of the board was covered with words and the alphabet and the numbers 0-9. So I held the board in front of his face and he proceeded to flail around a little more, but little by little I noticed that he was using his nose to point to different words or letters (it didn't help that he was wearing a baseball cap; for awhile I thought he was trying to point with the bill of the hat). So after awhile he was able to communicate that he was looking for a specific DVD, and he wanted me to read to him what our computer said about it, and I ended up ordering the DVD for him.
At the end of the conversation he started spelling out "can" "someone" "help" "me" "in" "the"...and I was worried that he was going to say "restroom." But he ended up saying "elevator," so I helped him get in the elevator and took him upstairs and he went on his merry way.

The Point: The point of all of this is to say, "HOLY SHITE!" What an amazing amount of balls and strength and heart this person has to be out and about on his own. If I was trapped inside of a body that didn't work, I'm sure I would lay flailing around on my bed all day and life a very short, unhappy, bitter life. So I was just moved by this guy and his profound handicap and the amount of energy,brains and effort it must take to overcome it every moment of his life. The world is a strange place.

The last couple of nights as I've been driving home after doing set stuff after rehearsals, I've been coming up into the city from the south, on 395, which is probably one of the prettiest views of Baltimore there is. The city really has a nice skyline from the south, and I enjoy the drive. Listened to "The Old Matchbook Trick," and thought it was a song that eveybody should hear. I'm not sure if that's true or not, though.

Also, saw a guy who looked like Kevin Sorbo walking on Charles Street.

Busy

Well, I've gone from "Not much going on..." to "I need more time!" in just a day or two.

Yesterday I spent about 14 hours working on a relatively easy light hang and load-in. Why did it take so long? I don't know, exactly. Without Jeannie's help in the morning I probably would've been screwed. Watched rehearsal last night, and I have a few things to fix before rehearsal on Sunday. So now every moment of my time is booked between now and Sunday night. Lovely.

Hmm. I will cut this short because I want to have time to make myself a big bacon n' schmeggs breakfast before work. Yum!

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Math!

Not much has been going on, yet strangely busy...

This morning I woke up and did a bunch of calculations for work--projected sales, proposed hours, etc. I feel like a real grown-up manager! Actually, though, figuring all this shit out before the holidays hit puts me in a much more relaxed state. Now I just need to convince our store manager of all the stuff I came up with this morning.

Tomorrow is my day for hanging lights and loading in the set and all that stuff. My loverly girlfriend is going to help me in the morning. Hopefully it will be a good time and unforseen-problem-free.

I'm in a weirdly good mood, and I have been for the last several days...I think after all my worry while I was out of town I feel relieved to get back and see that everything is as normal as ever.

Wonder how Rich has been doing in St. Louis/New York?

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Cow Pie

The Jeanners and I had a good day off today. Thismorning I made myself six eggs worth of breakfast burritos, and then we headed out to work on the set for LOVE's LABORS LOST. We didn't get quite as much done as I had hoped, but Jeannie will be able to help me work on Wednesday morning so I'm not worried.

Then we came home and made some dinner, and we had wine with dinner (life feels good when you have wine with dinner!) and watched a little bit of THELMA AND LOUISE, which I had never seen. It appears I was not missing much.

Something that we made for dinner wanted to leave my body immediately and forcefully, so I think that Jeannie might be trying to poison me...

I bought a cd yesterday by The Breaks Co-Op, and it is not as good as I wanted it to be, but there are some good songs on it.

My stomach is still cramping a little bit so maybe I'd better sign off for now.

Friday, October 20, 2006

So Much New News

Firstly, I have bad news for all of you who love me because I'm skinny and cute: They're building a Chipotle right down the street from our apartment. Holy Shite. I predict I will soon be tipping the scales at at least 450 lbs.

Secondly, I have a bad headache and I'm tired right now.

Thirdly, Jeannie and I were going to go see Pat's show tonight but are going to go on another weekend because I'm not feeling great and we're both pretty damned tired.

Fourthly, I tweaked the look of this here blog so that the random picture would be visible on more browsers. Aaaagh! Geek talk!

Lastly, Jeannie caught a mouse last night with her bare hands and then accidentally bit its head off.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

A big crying baby. That's what I am.

So it turns out that I was overreacting about all these fears and worries about work, just like everybody was telling me. Work today was fine. I kind of enjoyed it a very tiny bit. Tomorrow I work in the morning and then go back at night for a music inventory. In between I must go to Baltimore Stage Lighting to pick up some gel. Unfortunately, BSL is on the other side of the damned city.

Watched LOST tonight with Jeannie, who was, as usual, uninterested. The episode was so-so, but next week's looks pretty good. Jeannie gave me some kisses, though, that made me want to go roll around in the hay.

One thing I forgot to mention about our trip:
1. Jeannie and I bought a grand total of 4 pairs of shoes.

Long day tomorrow. Should be ok, though.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Back Home

Well, Jeannie and I have arrived back in Baltimore, after another relatively easy drive thanks to some more This American Life downloads and nice driving weather. And my dad took us to the library before we left St. Louis so we could get another book on cd, but the things we got weren't that great. They helped pass the time, though.

Well, I'm dreading going to work tomorrow. During this trip, I seriously started thinking about other jobs that I could possibly do. I don't know why, exactly. Am I burned out on retail? Do I not like being a manager? I'm not sure. I just know that I've never dreaded going to work like this since I've been at the B&N. Maybe after I go in tomorrow all of these bad feelings will go away. Maybe they'll be worse. Not really sure at this point, and I think that's part of the problem.

I think that another part is that both work and the set/lighting design/build for CSC are reaching points that require my attention.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Sunday Night

I don't want to go back to work on Wednesday in a way that is different than the other times that I haven't wanted to go back to work. I feel almost scared to go back to work, like I'm going to get yelled at when I go back or something. Which I guess is a possibility, but not likely. But I feel scared.

Today was a good day, one that Jeannie and I spent with my family, and it was relatively painless. It was really good to see everyone, and it's nice when people take off work and skip other engagements to come see you when you're in town. And Jeannie likes my family because everybody generally gets along, which is sometimes different than her family. Anyway, it was good to see everyone and I enjoyed it and I got to drink some red wine to boot.

I think, for me, the highlight of this trip has been getting to spend time with Jeannie's maternal grandmother, who lives in St. James, MO (just outside Rolla), and who, up to this point, I have met only one other time, very briefly, and not in the best circumstances. We've gotten to spend some good time with her this weekend, and she is a very nice, quiet, warm, funny woman. And tiny and cute. So that has truly been a pleasure and I'm so glad that it has happened.

I have, for the last several minutes, been cutting farts that smell more like poop than farts. You know the kind.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

From Concentrate

From St. Louis....

Here's what's been going on the last couple of days, condensed down to a few sentences.

1. Jeannie and I had one of the easiest drives here that we've ever had, thanks to:
a) an audiobook. Nando Perrada's account of when his Uruguayan rugby team's plane crashed in the Andes, called Miracle in the Andes.
b) several cd's worth of downloaded This American Life episodes.
c) Equally shared driving responsibilities.

2. At a rest stop in Indiana, we encountered a handcuffed and manacled convict, wrists chained to his waist, with armed police escort. Jeannie was wondering how the convict was going to pee with his hands chained to his waist. Who would pull his pants down? Well, I can now answer this ancient question: it turns out that the policeman unchained the convict's hands while he pee'd. The convict remained in handcuffs and anklecuffs, however.

3. I saw a large flock of birds while driving up 170 from Jeannie's parents' house to my parents' house yesterday. It was large enough that I described it to myself as a swarm of birds.

4. I think that every season, there is one day that is the perfect specimen of weather from that season. Yesterday was perhaps our perfect day this autumn.

5. On the drive here, we drove through sunshine, rain, and even snow. In Ohio. Why do I always seem to encounter my first sowfall of the year while I'm in Ohio? Not much fall color along the drive, other than in western Maryland and West Virginia.

6. Today we head off to Jake's wedding.

7. I have been thinking/worrying about work far more than I should be. I'm afraid I left things in more a state of disarray than I wanted to.

8. Jeannie got a haircut yesterday that is supercute.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Morning Thoughts

Sometimes when I listen to the Supremes I feel pretty pumped. Does that mean I'm gay?

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

The Shoppe

Had a good night last night. Went over to Howard County Center for the Arts (HCCA) and started building the set for Love's Labors. Since we don't really have any room in which to build, I set up a makeshift, portable shop outside and built there. Since HCCA is in kind of a wooded area, it was nice to build outside with the bugs making noise. And the weather was perfect. So it was peaceful and nice. I think, though, that for a larger set (i.e. THE FRONT PAGE) we're going to have to get a real shop space. Or hire out the set entirely.

Hmmm, what else? I'm working this evening, so not much should be happening. I hope to get things in order at work so that everything runs smoothly while I'm in St. Louis.

Then tomorrow it's laundry, work, pack, and LOST...

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Brown Baggin' It

Right now, there are 2 Chipotle burritos in a brown bag on our kitchen table, each wrapped tight in foil, it's unique blend of spices getting all stewy. One for me, steak, and one for the Jeanners, veggie. Jesus, Chipotle burritos are good. I can't wait to eat mine.

Been working. Worked this morning. I was off yesterday, and Jeannie and I ran a bunch of errands. I bought lumber for the set, and we picked up some stuff for Jeannie's construction job, and then came home for some dinner before heading back out to do some clothes shopping. I picked up 2 new pairs of pants and the Jeanners looked for something to wear to her brothers wedding this weekend. Sounds exciting, doesn't it?

We're looking forward to the trip. It's been awhile since we've gotten to see our families, and Jeannie's new-ish neice will be almost 5 months old.

On Friday I didn't go into work until the evening, and I got to spend all day recording, which I haven't getten to do in awhile. The results aren't that great, but I had fun working on it. Once again, many thanks to Rich for fixing up my guitar and bass. Makes the whole process so much nicer.

Friday, October 06, 2006

News from the Front. (and rear)

I've been putting in some long hours at work, so I haven't had much time/energy for blogging. As a result here's some highlights of the last couple of days...

1. Watched the season premiere of LOST on Wednesday night, after a suprise trip to Home Depot with Jeannie. The trip to Home Depot wasn't very fun, but I came home and fried myself some bacon n' schmeggs, and plopped down in front of the tube. I was a little bit of an ass, because I was making a big deal about watching the show and not being interrupted or distracted. So the whole experience probably would've been better if I hadn't been an ass. Story of my life.

2. BJ is going to come to town and do THE FRONT PAGE in the spring. Which means I'm going to do FRONT PAGE in the spring. Which I think will be fun, but I'm still a little worried about balancing work and show. We'll see what happens.

3. I will start work this weekend on doing lights and set for LOVE's LABORS LOST. Trips to Home Depot and Baltimore Stage Lighting and whatnot.

4. The Jeanners has been running the show at her carpenter job, while the carpenter (Eric) is out of town. It doesn't sound very fun, and I don't think it's a job that I could do, so big ups to the J-dog.

5. Jeannie and I are getting ready for our trip to St. Louis next Thursday for her brother's wedding. We leave a week from yesterday. Woo-Hoo! Not really looking forward to the drive, though.

6. I think that's it.

Monday, October 02, 2006

Some things that happened...

...over the last couple of days:

1. My brother called yesterday and said that he and his wife are expecting another baby. Woo-Hoo! Johnny's gettin' laid! (My brother's name is not Johnny. That was a reference to the semi-popular film from the 1980's, Johnny Dangerously, which I own thanks to one E. Elz.)

2. We went to the symphony with Ms. Ginsberg, which was different, even enjoyable. I liked the music (Shostakovich's 5th symphony) more than I thought I would.

3. I was stunned--STUNNED--at how bad Saturday Night Live was. I mean, it's been bad for awhile, but you know it's gotten to the bottom when you find yourself thinking, "Boy, it was funnier back when Horatio Sanz was on." My Gawd it was so bad.

4. I was annoyed at work.

5. I went to the gym for the first time in a long time, partly to relieve the annoyance that was generated at work, and partly because I have been feeling like a fat tub. In reality, I only weighed about 1 lb. more than the last time I was at the gym.

6. My girlfriend and I sat out on the roof and I watched her eat dinner and she farted.

7. I locked myself out of our building while doing laundry and attempted to break in using a piece of metal from a broken umbrella I found in the alley but I was unsuccessful.

8. The words "gluey poop" were used in our apartment more than you might imagine those words get said during your average weekend.

Sunday, October 01, 2006

Dreams

Ah, I'm up early/late with a little bit of insomnia after a strange dream about driving around St. Louis with Bosco and others looking for a Mexican, Chinese, or sushi restaurant. Or a casino buffet. I was hoping for a Mexican place because I wanted a big burrito. Paging Dr. Freud...

Today the Jeanners and I are heading to the symphony with Ms. Ginsberg. I also hope to get some laundry done and maybe some grocery shopping tonoght.

Last night after I got home from work we were laying on the couch together listening to music and talking about our families. It was a good time. We also bought our plane tickets for Christmas. It's going to be a fast, expensive trip. Ouch!

Friday, September 29, 2006

Customers

For the past few days I have been talking with a man named Emil Gasparini who came in to the store to look for a cd that had some of the songs he used to sing (or hear) when he was in the air force during WWII, songs with titles like "There Are No Bombadiers in Hell." Well, it turns out that we can, in fact, order the songs he was looking for. It used to be a 4 LP set that they've put onto 2 cd's. Anyway, I'm writing about him because A) he has a great name. B) he is very pleasant and entertaining and nice, and tells me that I should listen to some of the songs, although some of them do contain "a few choice words." I assured him that I probably had already heard most of the words he was referring to. And C) he reminds me of my dad, although my dad was never in the air force and is too young to have been in WWII. Anyway, Emil Gasparini seems to be, in my limited view of him, a very classy, nice, and funny guy.

Also, today a regular customer and friend (to the extent that a clerk and customer can strike up a friendship at a B&N) named R. Ginsberg offered Jeannie and myself two of her extra tickets to the symphony this Sunday. She's a tiny, elderly, extremely intelligent classical music connoisseur who is very unlike anyone I have ever met. Since we have no plans, we accepted, and we're looking forward to it.

Finally, today I was helping a more-annoying-than-most drag queen.

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Checking In

It's been a few days...

Right now I'm thinking good thoughts for Elizabeth and her Dad, hoping that everything turns out ok...

Many thanks to Rich for fixing up my electric guitar and bass, they're both sounding great and having them in good working condition has already made recording more enjoyable.

Work has been ok, we hired 2 new people on Friday and one of them quit after his 1st day, the other one seems like she'll be very good. So I'm blaming the one that quit on his own questionable emotional stability, rather than my meager skills as a person of authority. But I suppose that either thing could be the actual culprit.

Tonight Katie was over when I got home from work. I enjoyed sitting at the kitchen table with her and Jeannie and waxing philosophical on Ralph Machio, cat anuses, and ebola. With G&T's, of course.

Today I thought I would try and write a list of my favorite things for tonight's blog entry. I think, however, I shall just include one of my favorite things: a hot bath when it's chilly in the apartment and it makes me want to not get out of the bathtub.

My thoughts seem pretty scattered this evening, both in the head and in the blog.

Monday, September 25, 2006

last day

today jeannie and i will be leaving ohio. it's been such a fun trip, although today i feel kind of depressed. mostly because i don't feel like going back to work tomorrow. i have a feeling the next couple of weeks are going to be kind of stressful, and i just don't want to deal with it.

yesterday we went and saw jen's play, which was very very good, and i'm really glad i got to see it. Here's a pic:

Then last night we played a heartbreaking game of Phase 10, where I started off so well and then fell into a dark hole and it ended up that I accidentally handed the game to Jen, my arch-enemy when it comes to game playing. Aagh!

Saturday, September 23, 2006

hand-cranked

We arrived in Ohio at around 3am last night, after a long-ish but uneventful drive. Rich had waited up for us, and we chatted for a short while before the Jeanners and I hit the hay. Today we've spent a lazy day around the house, watched a little bit of the British "The Office," and have just made some home-made ice cream to eat for dessert later after dinner.

Tonight I'm imagining an evening of games and maybe a few G&T's.

Yesterday at work I hired 2 people, and another woman that used to work at the B&N but left to have a baby is going to come back and work 1 night a week. So hopefully the people shortage in the department will soon be a thing of the past.

More later, maybe some pics. I love being in Ohio! (because my friends are here. I actually don't like the state of Ohio very much).

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Warhola

For the last couple of nights, Jeannie and I have been catching parts of this PBS documentary on Andy Warhol. It's pretty interesting. Why do I find something like that inspiring? I don't know, but I do. It made me want to find out how much it would cost to rent a big warehouse space and then invite artists to come use it. Hmmmm.

Where in the HELL has Drew's blog gone?

I interviewed some folks at work today. Hopefully that means we'll have plenty of talented, well-trained workers in a couple of weeks.

Tomorrow after work, J and I leave for Ohio. It's about damned time. I am so looking forward to this.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Grammar Police!

I used the expression 'once again' twice in one sentence in my previous post. What a dumbass!

Today I got a lot of good stuff done at work. I feel much better after this day of work than I did after yesterday's day of work. Plus, I am off tomorrow. So I get to do laundry. And take our recycling to the dump. And watch my new ZOO TV LIVE FROM SYDNEY dvd.

****ADDED LATER****

And of course, in my previous post where I wrote "shout outs," I meant "shouts out."
Of course. What a dumbass!

All eyes on BJ

Well, my bad-Monday feelings are a little bit out of my system, although I'm not really looking forward to going to work today. But perhaps I will get to take care of a lot of things that have been problematic there lately. Schedule stuff, mostly.

It appears that if BJ agrees to come to Baltimore and perform in THE FRONT PAGE this February, then I will also be performing in THE FRONT PAGE this February. And Pat will also be performing in THE FRONT PAGE this February. So yes, there is a chance that that wacky threesome of comedic genius will once again be gracing the Baltimore theatre scene once again. All eyes are now on BJ to determine his next move...what's the word, Ponyboy? Are you in or out?

Shout outs to Amanda White and Karista, who have written me e-mails that I have, so far, failed to respond to. I'll get around to it, though.

Monday, September 18, 2006

Rainy days and Mondays...

Today was not rainy, but lordy was it ever Monday.

Today was a day that had its foot securely up my bottom, i.e. it kicked me in the arse.

Why have I felt so busy lately? Jesus!

I'm ready for several days off, hanging in Ohio, drinking a G&T and trash talkin' with the cool kids.

I'm going to go call the cool kids right now!

Sunday, September 17, 2006

High Zero

Gena is in town.

Tonight she and Jeannie and I went to Baltimore's High Zero festival, which is a showcase of experimental improvisational music. I did not specifically enjoy it, but it was not specifically bad. We had a good time, either way.

It did bring back a vivid memory of Eric, Drew, California Mike, Blind Ryan, and Myself setting up recording equipment and various and sundry instruments on the stage at SLUH and recording some improvisational jams, perhaps the most well-known of which is 'Door is Ajar.' If you haven't heard it, ask me to play it for you sometime. This particular recording session took place just a few days before I left St. Louis for Baltimore, and it featured Drew on cello, Blind Ryan on my Korg synthesizer, California Mike on a tiny Casio keyboard, Eric on microcassette recorder and also recording engineer, and me playing on stuff when other people weren't. Also vocals by Ryan, Mike, and Drew. Ah, good times.

The other night, Patrick From Work, Elizabeth, FCW and Sarah came over and we drank a bunch of Guinness.

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Bad Dreams

Ugh. I'm up too early, because I can't sleep. I had a "nightmare" about being at work and having a persistent, annoying customer who required help for at least 30 minutes after the store had closed. My nightmares are usually like that, never the usual horror-movie type scary stuff, but more like things that, to me, seem truly terrible but are not the stuff nightmares are usually made of. In other words, I do have dreams where I'm being shot or being chased but they never seem that bad, but the dreams where an annoying customer keeps me at work a half hour longer than necessary wakes me up in a cold, annoyed sweat.

Well, the dream put work stuff on my brain and now I can't get back to sleep.

And I am also hungry and have semi-intense gas.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Busy Day

Congrats to Jeremy and Emily, who now have a new baby boy, Ethan Robert, weighing in at a respectable 5 lbs. 3 oz.

Tonight I interviewed a new guy at the B&N. He was pretty nervous (so was I. I haven't done this much. Luckily Cindy sat in on the interview and chatted everybody up.), but I think he'll be fine. Very nice, polite, seems reliable.

Tomorrow I unexpectedly have the day off, because Elizabeth's Dad is having surgery on Friday so she asked me to switch our days off. She and Patrick and FCW are, I believe, coming over here tomorrow night to drink some Guinness and maybe play some games and fart and trash talk.

Jeannie's all done with her soup. We're going to drive our car in to the shop for an oil change and to get it checked out before we drive to Ohio and St. Louis. I'm getting sleepy.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Baby Mamma Drama

Jeremy at work's wife Emily could very well be at the hospital birthin' a baby right now. Isn't that exciting? It is exciting, because it will be fun to watch Jeremy be a daddy. But sad because once he's a daddy he won't work at the Noble anymore.

Jeannie and I met up with D. Calloway and his ladyfriend, Lisa, this evening after work. We met at One World Cafe and chatted and had some onion-y nachos. I think "nachos" should actually be spelled "natchos". Wouldn't it be better? I also think it would be better if "pizza" was pronounced with a short 'i' sound and a softer 'z' sound, so that it rhymed with fizz-ah.

I have been skimming through 'Infinite Jest' recently, because P. Kilpatrick might still be reading it, and our friend Chris is reading it, so my interest has been re-aroused. Jeez it's a good book. I'm making so many new connections in it, and I feel like I'm so close to a 'unified theory' regarding IJ, but there's still so many questions I have....

I'm sleepy.

Monday, September 11, 2006

Another blog day.

Today was a little sucky, just because it turned out different than I expected and I worked a longer day than I thought I would. But other than that, it wasn't too bad.

I miss Rich's blog.

I always enjoy it whenever Eric's sister Amy posts a new blog. She's such a good writer that even though I don't know her very well, I always enjoy reading what she's writing.

Because I can, and because this is a blog, and because you have no choice but to read it, I will now write about what I was doing 5 years ago, on Sept. 11, 2001:

I was living in St. Louis at the time, but happened to be visiting Baltimore, and I was actually scheduled to be flying back to St. Louis later in the afternoon. The flight was cancelled, of course. I was staying with BJ and Pat at their 12th floor apartment in the Marylander at St. Paul and University Parkway, just up the street from where I live now. The night before there had been a fire just down their hallway, and the whole building had been evacuated.
BJ had gone into work at CSC relatively early that morning, and I woke up to the sound of him leaving a message on the answering machine: (spoken in typical loud-nasal BJ voice) "Uh, hi guys, it's BJ. I was just calling to see if you guys were up because there's been some strange things happening, uh, terrorist activity, and I don't know if Dan's going to be able to get out of Baltimore. I wanted to see if you guys were up. Talk to you later." Or something to that effect. I remember him mentioning terrorist activity and thinking to myself, "What in the fuck is he talking about?" So I turned on the TV and saw what was happening and went in to Pat's room to wake him up, and I distinctly remember him laying naked on his bed and seeing his big ol' Pat-ass sticking up in the air. I don't remember if I woke him up or not.

The rest of the day was spent figuring out how to get me back to St. Louis relatively quickly, since all the flights were cancelled. A strange set of coincidences occured and it ended up that BJ had to drive to Texas to replace an actor that was on tour, so it was decided that he would leave for Texas that afternoon, stop in St. Louis to drop me off and stay at my apartment for a few hours of sleep, and then continue on to Texas the next day. So BJ and I left Baltimore at around 2 in the afternoon, and it took a hell of a long time to get out of the city, and we drove halfway across the country in Heidi and Ian's Pathfinder, listening mostly to NPR when we got a good signal (I remember a news story about members of Congress standing outside the Capital singing, 'God Bless America' or something like that and thinking that that was a strange thing to do), and pulled into St. Louis at around 5 in the morning. It was a very surreal day.




Right now I'm waiting for Jeannie to get home so we can eats us some dinner. I just had 2 pickles, one baby sweet and one bread-and-butter. I would like to have a beer tonight but don't know if I should. The other day on my day off I got out my recording equipment and did some recording that I was initially excited about but then it all got too convoluted and muddy and I erased it all. Elizabeth called out from work today.

Sunday, September 10, 2006

A Pleasant Surprise

Tonight Jeannie and I decided to go out for dinner, so we went out walking, and the first couple of places that we went by were closed, and we were walking back to Rocky Run when we ran into our friend Katie and her sister Alice, who were also out looking for someplace to eat. So we decided to have dinner together and it was a good time.

One of my favorite things about Charles Village so far has been running into people while we're out on walks. It's such a nice thing to unexpectedly have dinner with friends...

Work is boring!

Saturday, September 09, 2006

Crystal Ball

Another boring work week is upon me. Not much to look forward to until Friday, when I have the day off and our friend Gena comes into town for her visit.

This week the plan is to interview some folks for the B&N. Hopefully I'll find some good people, because a girl that was supposed to be transferring in to our store is no longer transferring in, and I've got people leaving in the next couple of weeks that I need to replace...such are the troubles of the lowly music manager.

Is that how 'lowly' is spelled? It looks funny.

Jeez, I can't wait to go to Ohio. It's looking like we'll be leaving either the night of Friday the 22nd or the morning of the 23rd. Woo-Hoo! A long drive with my Jeannie with friends at the end! Is there a better thing on Earth? I think not...

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Good News!

Tonight I discovered that 'The Schnapps Shop' (the local liquor store), has Murphy's Stout, my beer of choice. Although I'm drinking one now and it's not as flavorful as I remember it...perhaps because I was too lazy to pour it into a glass and am just drinking it from the can, Missouri style...

On the way home from the store I saw someone driving a horse-drawn wagon-thingie down St. Paul.

Jeannie's off at a meeting with someone for whom she is drawing up kitchen remodeling plans, so I have the house all to myself. It's kind of warm in here...

Tomorrow I have the day off and the only thing on the agenda is laundry. Perhaps I'll finally dig out the old keyboard and work on some music. I feel kind of like working on some beats. Or, I could waste the day playing Civ III, which I have not done in a long time. We'll see tomorrow, I guess.

Here's a big shout out to A-Train Aimee, who is now an employee of the B&N in Pikesville, MD. She's the last of the 37th Street roommates to work for the Noble, and that includes Jeannie (the "unofficial" [i.e. non-rent-paying] roommate).

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Of Coursey!

After a relatively uneventful and unremarkable day, I met Patrick From Work at Rocky Run and had a 1/2 price burger (not as good as the Rec Room, but it was ok because the Krabby Patty [burger with crab meat on top] was one of the 1/2 price ones) and some beers. We discussed jobs and whether one should try to have a "meaningful job" or just a job that pays the bills, and I offered my theory that one should not try to get a job doing the #1 thing they love most in the world because it will end up killing the love. I think that one should try to get a job doing something that is near the top of the list but not at the top. Patrick disagreed. And so the discussion went. It was a good time, though, and one that we should repeat in the future.

Mid-Week.

Jeannie woke me up this morning, worried that she parked the car on the wrong side of the street last night and that it had been towed this morning. Turns, out she just forgot where she parked, which is nice because it costs like $200 to get your car bach when they tow it.

My back has been bothering me the last few days, after improperly moving some boxes around at work last Thursday.

The other night we headed over to Katie's house for the first meeting of the Dinner Club, a rotating party where, like once a month, we'll have dinner over at somebody's house. I volunteered to host hotdog night.

Also, we found out that our friend Gena will be coming out for a visit in 1.5 weeks, which is nice because we've wanted to have visitors lately. We're also looking forward to our upcoming trip to Ohio later in September, where we'll get to hang out with the cool kids and see a production of Schlueter's play. Pretty exciting stuff, indeed.

Sunday, September 03, 2006

Little Miss Sunshine

Tonight Jeannie and I walked down to the Charles Theater and saw LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE. It was ok. I did get to watch a little kid walk around in shorts and cowboy boots, which is always pretty awesome.

Today I worked on writing reviews for folks at work, which was not fun and required lots of procrastination breaks (phonecall to parents, haircut and beard trim, etc.) but is now, for the most part, finished, for better or worse.

I also read through the latest ROLLING STONE that featured an interview with Bob Dylan, and I swear, every time I read an interview with him, it feels like he kind of talks in code or something that I don't understand at all. I like the guy, I respect and enjoy his work, I think he's one of the greatest, but I sure wouldn't want to hang out with him for longer than a few minutes. At least that's the impression that I always get. Anyway, we've been listening to his cd at work, and although it's not the greatest atmosphere in which to listen to a cd, my initial report is that the cd sounds a little tame, maybe a little boring, but good. Haven't had a chance to really hear any of the lyrics yet, which I suppose are what put the asses in the seats anyway.

Jeannie has a paint can full of plant food scraps out on our back roof, that she takes over to her friend Katie's compost pile every now and again, and over the last few days of rain it filled up with water and then the lid fell off of it. So this evening Jeannie went out and dumped out the rotted-food-scrappy water onto the roof and I swear it smells like a professional basketball team all went out and had industrial-strength diarrhea just outside our kitchen window.

In Vino Veritas

Tonight Jeannie and I headed over to Chris and Elizabeth's, friends of a friend (our friend Katie), for Chris' birthday dinner. I had just the right amount of red wine and am now feeling comfortable. Chris and Elizabeth are interesting people; smart, artistic, funny. It was a good time, and a nice way to relax into my day off tomorrow.

Tomorrow I get to hopefully do not much of anything for awhile, maybe try to catch the THIS AMERICAN LIFE that I missed today due to work, and then I have to write reviews for the music sellers at work. Yuck. I have to write what should be normal, simple evaluations of people, except that I have to do it in company-speak. I hate company-speak, and I hate jumping through hoops.

I have decided that my favorite verse of THE STEINMETZ FAMILY RHYMIN' is Jen's verse. It sounds to me like it was written by Rich, and I like the lyrics, but I also like her voice, and I like the vocal production as well. For those who haven't heard it, I will now transcribe the beginning of the verse, the part that gets stuck in my head:

One, two, crack your knuckles, here we go.
I'm the lyrical miracle with the God-given flow.
Oh damn! It's Jenny Jam! And I'm comin' in quatro,
Have you poppin' and lockin' like you're Mr. Roboto.

Friday, September 01, 2006

Alert the Media, pt. II

So yesterday I was at work, and I got a personal phone call, and I figured it was Jeannie or somebody from our home office in New York that I was expecting a phone call from, but it turns out that it was a reporter from the Baltimore Sun who was writing a story about Charles Village and had stumbled upon my blog while researching on the internet, and he asked if he could interview me about my thoughts on Charles Village so far. So I told him I would call him when I got home, which I did, but couldn't get ahold of him. So maybe I'll get interviewed for the paper.

Meta-blogging: blogging about people reading your blog.

Our roof has started to leak a little bit. Tonight Jeannie and I gave Patrick From Work a ride to the Apple store to return his free defective printer. Then we played around with our camera until I got annoyed at her for sticking her foot in my face and taking pictures of it. Then she got annoyed at me for getting annoyed. Then we made up. Now we're sitting on the couch. I'll soon be heading off to bed, to rest myself for another most-likely-uneventful day at work.

I bought Coleman Hawkins' The Hawk Relaxes album today. It's one of those great late-night tenor saxophone jazz albums that it's just good to have.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

The Figgs

Just finished a couple of long days at work, days that didn't leave much time for anything else. Oh well. I'm tired.

The other night, Jeannie was having trouble sleeping, so we were joking around for a little while in bed, and we started coming up with names for our future children. For some reason, we decided that our kids' last name would be Figg. If the kid was a girl, she would be named Blammy Newton Figg. If the kid was a boy, he would be named Jammy Juice Figg. Jesus, we were cracking ourselves up coming up with those names. It was a good time.

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Oh SNAP!

Today I almost broke my damned toes by stepping bare-footed onto a mousetrap. A very Tom-and-Jerry moment. But luckily I stepped on the trap in such a way that it did no damage.

Jeannie and I had a nice, relaxin' day of doing nothing, and then rotting our brains in front of the TV, watching the mice scurry across our living room. The moral: if you sleep over at our apartment, take the futon rather than the air mattress.

Banana Hammock

Today seemed like a pretty good day. We hit the market, and listened to THIS AMERICAN LIFE (it wasn't great), then I headed to work. I was training a new kid, Sam, and he did well. I was pleased with his progress. It is always nice when new people actually make themselves useful early on.

Right now Greg Brown is telling his CANNED GOODS story on the cd player. Jeannie's reading. She just started singing a silly song to nobody in particular. To me, I guess.

The other day I told her that after I die I want her to put together a Broadway show with all of the songs I sing to her. I wanted her to do this because I had just come up with a little ditty that day that went:

Nobody likes me,
Everyone hates me,
Everyone thinks
I'm an ass-hole.

One of my other favorite songs is:

Come take a shower with me-e-e.
And my banana hammock!
My banana hammock!

I like that one because it makes no sense and it includes the phrase "banana hammock," one of my favorite expressions.

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Presto-Change-o

The Great B&N Music Dept. Rearranging of '06 was a rousing success. Now we just have to catch up on the other work that has fallen behind during the last few days as a result...

Today, the Jeanners and I are gonna hit the farmers market, then listen to THIS AMERICAN LIFE, which has become our Saturday routine. Then it's off to work for me.

Now to make brown!

Friday, August 25, 2006

The Pooch

For the last couple of days, I have had the expression, "screwed the pooch" stuck in my head. As in, "Boy, Rich, you really screwed the pooch when you knocked over that jar of pickles on the new carpet." Or, "Pat totally screwed the pooch when he cast BJ as Petruchio. The show really suffered as a result!" I don't know where this expression comes from (historically or how it got in my head) as I haven't heard it used for quite some time.

Last night I estimated that around 25% of the food in our refridgerator is pickle products.

Lots of rearranging going on at work. Making more room for DVD's and moving everything around. Hopefully we should have it done in the next day or two.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Dear Diary...

It's been a couple of days. Relatively uneventful, here's what's been going on:

1. Ian asked if I could design a set for 'Love's Labour's Lost.' I agreed, and I'm kind of looking forward to it. It'll be nice to do something mildly creative again, as the B&N has been keeping me in boring manager mode for quite awile. I read the play today, and the whole thing takes place in one location! So it shouldn't be too time-consuming.

2. Jeannie has kept a journal since se was like 13 or 14, and last night she was reading through some of her earlier journals, including the one from when she was 17-18, when we met. So I made an unexceptional spaghetti dinner and we ate out on the roof and she read me some of the highlights from when we met, including our first kiss and other firsts. All the drama and excitement, the highs and lows of being young and falling slowly in love. Who would've guessed that one day she'd be reading that journal to me, now her husband, on our roof in Baltimore. Not me. And I don't miss being that young and confused, either.

3. Work is getting mildly stressful again, as I start thinking about the upcoming holidays, and Elizabeth and Jeremy leaving, and schedule juggling and all that nonsense. Luckily, I am well aware that it's all just a music department in a bookstore, and it ain't really that important. I'm not going to invest too much of myself into this job anymore. I'm going to do a good job and not worry about it...

4. Had a CSC meeting tonight at Lesley and Scott's new home, which is large and still empty. I like empty houses, and theirs is very beautiful. The meeting was relatively uneventful but fun, one of those small-group social meetings that I enjoy, with wine and beer and where ideas are thrown around but not too much gets actually decided. But good ideas come up, and we all get reminded that we enjoy working with one another, and I think it renews people's sense of purpose a little bit. I think it renews mine, anyway. It's a very interesting mix of people, diverse talents and interests, and I think the diversity is what has kept us afloat this long.

5. I proposed to Jeannie that if/when we have a dog in the future, we should name it Jean Rambeau. I firmly believe that pets should have both a first and last name, and this would be an homage to American action hero John Rambo. My proposal was rejected.

I guess that's about it for now. Back to work tomorrow, not really looking forward to it.

Sunday, August 20, 2006

The Boob Tube

Tonight after work, Jeannie and I watched FIRST BLOOD (Rambo pt. 1) on TV. I enjoyed it, but Jeannie mocked it the entire time, despite the fact that early on she said she wasn't going to watch it and was just going to go to bed. Yet she stayed and watched it, seemingly just to mock it and ruin it for me. It's worth watching the whole 2 hours of the movie just to hear the song at the end, which has got to be the terriblest song of all time. So very very bad.

Then after the movie, we were flipping channels and caught the tail end of K-Fed's performance on the Teen Choice Awards.

What a night!

Saturday, August 19, 2006

To-Do List Blog

Things I scratched off my to-do list before going to work today:

1. Sit around in my undies.
2. Fry some bacon and eggs.
3. Watch Mr. Rogers.

Friday, August 18, 2006

Alert the Media

Eric has updated his blog. He's not dead. Praise the baby Jesus.

We've been catching some mice in our apartment. Unfortunately, they seem to avoid the happy, mouse-friendly trap that we have set out and go right for the quick, violent, deadly one. Well, it's entirely up to them...but still, we're sorry Mr. and Mrs. Mouse.

I've been thinking lately, and reading a lot, and it seems that I'm in a point in my life when I really don't give much of a damn about the world around me, or politics, or art, or ideas, or anything at all except being with the Jeanners and taking each day as it comes. And, since the Jeanners and I are technically one flesh (wink, wink) and therefore the same person, this means that I care only about myself. Which is not entirely true because I care about my family and friends, but still, the point is that I think my life has an extremely narrow focus at the moment. Should I be apologetic about this? Is this something I should try and change? Is this a viewpoint that I will eventually come to regret? I don't know. I tend to think that it's ok, that viewpoints and outlooks come and go and shift and change all on their own, they don't obey the brain or the heart. And it sounds corny and trite, but I really don't see how there can be anything wrong with focusing on loving one person as deeply and fully as you can. But still, I feel like I'm becoming narrower and narrower and I don't know what to think about that.

Rich wrote and said he got bored with blogging. Lately, I understand what he's saying. Still, I think it will be fun to look back at this in 30 years and have a laugh. Plus, my grandkids can know what my poop was like...and lately my poop has been frustrating. I won't elaborate, and you can thank me for that later.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Nu Shooz

Happy birthday to the capital-D Dude, the man who inherited Elvis' soul, known to at least a couple hundred as Flippy the Magnificent.

Today Jeannie and I spent the day exploring our fair city on foot. We walked down to the HArbor and Federal Hill, looking at stuff along the way. It was a beautiful day, and we've been wanting to walk downtown for awhile.

Also, this evening, we went shopping for some new shoes for me, and I was able to find my favorite $10 sneakers at Walmart that I haven't been able to find for a few months. Woo-Hoo!

Hot Damn.

Well, Jeannie and I both have the day off tomorrow, and we were planning on going to help move some stuff from the CSC offices. But we got an e-mail tonight from Lesley that said that things are pretty well under control and that we don't really need to come help. Sweet Jesus! I think it's literally the first time that anyone from CSC has ever turned down an offer of help. But I'm happy to accept the rejection.

So now we've got a whole day off together and nothing to do.

We had a great day down at Ocean City on Monday. MAW and her family are such wonderful hosts, and the weatheer was perfect, and the water pretty calm so Jeannie got in and we frolicked and had a grand ol' time.

Why has Rich's secret blog been taken down? Inquiring minds want to know...

Sunday, August 13, 2006

29

Today is my stinkin' birthday. It's off to work in a little while, and then the Jeanners and I are going out for my special birthday dinner. Someplace seafood-y.

Tomorrow we're going to drive down to the ocean for one last summer frolic.

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Are the Seats in this Boat Warm or Cold?

Friday night, I just got home from work, and I'm glad to be home. Work is boring again. Training a bunch of new folks every week.

I have been listening to the Midlake CD very much. I like it very very much. It's not for everyone, but I think it's one of the most solid CD's I've heard in a long time. And the lyrics are strange. One song features the line, "The seats are cold in this boat," and a different song has the line, "The seats are warm in this boat." Well, Midlake, which is it? Are the two songs about two different boats? Anyway, enough about Midlake.

Our good friend Aimee came over last night for dinner and conversation. It's always good to catch up and find out what she's been up to. She said that when she reads my blog, she is unable to view the new sidebar with the random Flickr picture. Instead, the sidebar is now blank. Jeannie said that the same is true on her boss' computer. I asked my computer geek friend Patrick from work about it, and he said that it is most likely due to some sort of compatibility issue with the browser they're using to view the blog. I wonder how many others out there have problems enjoying the advanced features of this blog? Just for the record, I use Netscape to enjoy this blog as well as many other wonderful things on the Internet, which I'm told using Netscape is a very uncool thing to do. But I like it.

Alright, I'm going to enjoy some brief quality time with my wife (and maybe popcorn!) before I got to bed...

Thursday, August 10, 2006

The Music Report

1. Today I bought a CD by Midlake, called The Trials of Van Occupanther. I think I'm going to like it a lot. It's kinda strange, at times very pretty, and interesting. I would say it's a hybrid of Sufjan Stevens, Rufus Wainwright, and Fleetwood Mac. With maybe a little My Morning Jacket thrown in. But just a little.

2. Greg Brown has a new CD out as of yesterday. Saw it at the store, but haven't had a chance to listen to any of it yet.

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Bacharach

Tonight I saw the Geico commercial with Burt Bacharach in it. He looked palsied or like he has had a stroke or something? Has Burt Bacharach had a stroke? The last time I saw him was in an Austin Powers movie, and he didn't look like he's had a stroke.

Another quiet night at home after a semi-long day of work. I'm wondering if this radio station plays jazz every night?

Tomorrow I'm running some errands with the Jeanners. Probably sell and buy some cd's. Gotta go get a key made for Elizabeth.

Also, since my bass is in Ohio with Rich, and my guitar is missing a string, perhaps it's a sign I should break out the keyboard and record some good, old fashioned, gay techno music.

Monday, August 07, 2006

Stop Time

When I was little and used to picture what I thought my life should be like, I think I used to picture a night kind of like tonight. Jeannie is sitting reading a book, I've been sitting on a chair sipping a beer, and we're listening to some Louis Armstrong and other jazz stuff. Our apartment is looking and feeling just the way we want it, very calm and spacious and relaxed.

Last night after I got home from work we watched The Squid and the Whale, which was pretty interesting. It made me think a lot about what life was like as a kid and how much easier life is now than it used to be. How nice it is to grow up and find that there's very little in this world that truly matters. Strange to think that there was more bullshit in my life when I was 10 than there is now.

Long day at work today, but not too bad.

Friday, August 04, 2006

New Look, Same Great Blog Flavor!

I spent the morning doing some tweaking to the ol' blog template, so now as you read my innermost thoughts, feelings, desires, pet peeves, and lower GI workings, you can gaze upon pictures of my friends. A steaming-hot cup of visual nostalgia.

I figured I needed to spice up the blog a lil' bit since what I've been writing is boring trash. Image over content, that's what I always say...

If you don't ever see a picture of yourself here, it could mean one of 3 things:

1. I don't really like you.
2. I don't have any pictures of you.
3. I have reached my bandwidth limit for the month on Flickr and you will just have to wait until next month to see yourself displayed on this blog.

Which reminds me, if you see yourself on here in a picture that you would like me to take down, just let me know. The only exception to this is the one of Jen Schlueter fisting the turkey. Sorry, Jen, it won't be taken down.


Today's me day off, and life is pretty perfect.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Busy at Work.

I had another whack dream last night, but I don't remember any of it, other than that it involved the Schlueterileymetz'. I've been trying to conjure a memory of what it might have been about, but I've had all day to forget about it.

I'm going to try and stop writing 'been busy at work.' Although it is true, I'm tired of writing it. Perhaps I shall invent a web-abbreviation for it, such as BBW? Also, since we bought a new camera a few months ago for our California trip, I have had to fight the urge to post pictures of our most banal daily activities. I am trying to put together a Flickr page with pictures from the California trip and the new apartment and some of our weekend trips, so I can send the link to my family and they can see what's been going on in our lives. Cause they don't get to read this here blog (and hopefuly they never will -- so everybody keep mum if you're ever talking to the more tech-savvy members of my family [i.e. anyone under the age of 45]}...

I like sentences that use multiple forms of punctuation all in a row, so that the sentence ends up looking more like a math equation than a sentence. Probably picked up from DFW.

Which, by the way, I am ever so pleased to announce that Pat Kilpatrick has started reading 'Infinite Jest.' He called the other day with some questions. Sounded like he was about 50 pages in. The next 100 pages or so will probably determine whether he sticks with it. Hang in there, Pat!

Hot Like Oven

I had a crazy dream last night involving Eric Elz and a couple of people I haven't thought about in a decade or more, including Tim Bantle (from high school) and James Dutt (from middle school). Eric had a terrible haircut and was very strange in my dream. When I woke up, Jeannie asked me if I remembered being on my hands and knees on the bed during the night, which I didn't, and I don't even want to know what I was dreaming about while that was going on. She said she tried to talk to me but I wasn't making any sense, but eventually she was able to talk me into lying back down.

It's been hot here, as I guess it's been hot all over the damned country. If it isn't hot where you are, consider yourself lucky.

Been busy at work. Loving the new apartment. Blah, blah, blah. Same ol' b-crap.

Sunday, July 30, 2006

Wide-Open Day

How are Jeannie and I going to spend our Sunday? We've been oscillating between getting outside to do something adventurous or just staying at home and getting more unpacked in the apartment. Tonight, though, I am planning on BBQ-ing.


I wrote the above paragraph yesterday morning, Sunday, at around 10 in the morning. Then I couldn't think of anything else to write so I just saved it. Tonight, Monday evening, I can tell you exactly how events unfolded yesterday:

Jeannie skipped her yoga class, and she and I worked all day yesterday getting the apartment into shape, with good results. Our living room now looks like this:



Which is fine by us.

One thing I like about our new apartment is that the stereo sounds really good and I can listen to it with no guilt because there's no one living beneath our living room. Right now I'm jamming to some Curtis Mayfield.

We caught a mouse yesterday morning. Unfortunately, he chose the mean trap rather than the happy trap. Sorry, Mr. Mouse.

Jeannie might be quitting her architecture job today. I'll have to find out how it went when she gets home.

Last night after we finished working, we walked down to Rocky Run for some drinks, and I drank a very large stout that tasted exactly like a very large glass of cold coffee, but better. Anyway, it was a nice little date. All in all a very good day.

Friday, July 28, 2006

Long and Boring.

Long and boring is how the last few days have been. At work anyway. At home, Jeannie and I have been taking walks in the late evenings after I get home, enjoying the new apartment and the new neighborhood. At some point we should have people over for beers, conversation, and maybe games.

Been thinking lately about maybe eventually working on some more music. Not sure what it should sound like. The two songs that lately I have been wishing I had written and recorded:

1. Maps, by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
2. Another Day on Earth, by Brian Eno.

I don't know what it would sound like if those two songs had a baby, but that's probably what I would want my new songs to sound like.

Also been missing my weekly lunches with the Beej. I hope that his summer is continuing nicely in the Missouri.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

CSC

Spent the day in at CSC packing stuff up and throwing things away, getting ready for a junk sale on Saturday that will be taking place before CSC moves to a new space in August.

I spent a lot of the day thinking about CSC, about how just when I can be all ready to quit doing theatre stuff once and for all I go in and have a good, fun day like today and it ropes me in for another season. As I was thinking, I came to the conclusions that it's really just the large-group activites that I don't like. I tend to like the smaller shows, the smaller group meetings that are less planned and more intimate. And I like puttering around by myself and moving stuff around. So now that things are settling down again at work and at the new apartment, I feel a bit more comfortable about working on the shows this year. I guess it's all a matter of balancing work and home and CSC and free time.

Also, Ian told me that he read the blog the other day, so this evening I reread through a lot of old blog posts to see if I'd said anything bad in the past...surprisingly the only negative stuff I found were some un-stellar reviews of past shows. But nothing that I think was unaccurate or mean, so I didn't have to erase them from the blog or anything, ha ha.


Today I found on Rich's secret blog a link to the Steinmetz Family Rhymin'. Holy Jeez, it's good. Holy Jeez.

Tonight Jeannie and I have some un-planned hang-out time. What shall we do? I'm predicting that no matter what we do, some ice-cream eating will take place. Probably from cones.

At the moment I'm kinda sticky-sweaty from working at CSC and I need a shit and a shower. For the last few days I've been picturing myself doing some recording, which means that in a few weeks I might break out all the equipment and see what happens.

I make the stinky gas!

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Patrick Kayak Pork

The last few days have been b oth eventful and uneventful. The fun started on Saturday night when Patrick C. left his keys at the B&N and was forced to spend the night at our place. Stupid Patrick! So we popped some corn and watched a bad SNL.

Then on Sunday (after taking P-rick to retrieve his keys) Jeannie and I wanted to get outside on our day off, so we decided to go to Gunpowder Falls State Park and rent a kayak. So we headed out (it's only about 20 minutes away, which is nice) and rented a kayak for a little while and paddled around. Then watched people learning how to windsurf on a day with very little wind.

Then a brief trip to Target and the grocery store where we bought some fixin's for a nice dinner, then brought them home, stuck our camping grill out on the roof and had us a nice little barbeque.

Yesterday was all about going to work. The crazies kinda drove me nuts last night.

Today is also all about going to work. ANd then tomorrow I'm going down to CSC to help get ready for the office-move.