Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Funnies

Thanks to OAA for posting several things over the last few days that have made me laugh out loud.
(oh, and the audio is probably not appropriate for the workplace.)



Tuesday, October 28, 2008

How the Day Sounds

At work we listen to a lot of the same music over and over again. For the last two months or so, we've had a CD in rotation called Three Flights From Alto Nido by a guy named Greg Laswell. It's generally agreed that it's the only CD that we've been playing that the music dept. employees can still stand. I think the song "How the Day Sounds" is pretty damn solid.



My dad had a meeting with his oncologist to find out the results from the bone marrow test and CAT scan from a few weeks ago. It looks like there's no cancer in the bone marrow, which is a very good thing, and the doctor didn't have the results from the CAT scan. Which I don't quite get, but my dad doesn't seem too worried, because he said they did a CAT scan when he first went in with the kidney stone and they only saw the tumor in his abdomen. So who knows. But the bottom line is that he starts treatment on Monday with some drug that I've forgotten the name of but have written down, and it's some sort of drip. And he'll do that for three days, then go in the next week and get it for one day, and then the week after that, etc. for like 4 or 5 weeks. Then they evaluate. Anyhoo, that's the plan.

Strange thing: the kidney stone that my dad orginally went to the hospital for seems to have disappeared. Neither passed (that he knows of, and from what I've heard about kidney stones I get the idea that you can usually tell when you pass them) nor showing up on any sort of scans.

I feel a bit distant tonight. Wouldn't mind a G&T, but I think I'm going to abstain. The J-Dog is whipping up what smells like it will be a delicious veggie lasagna. I did help a little, but I've abandoned her to come fart around on the internet in the living room.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Effluvia

This morning I woke up with the word "effluvia" in my head, and I had no idea what the word meant, so when I got to work I looked it up. Feel free to view its meaning here.

I was off work today, except that I had to go in this morning for our weekly Monday-morning manager's meeting. This week's was especially painful. People seemed to be in their grumpy pants. Plus, I was going to use this week's meeting to start lobbying to get the right people working in my department for December, but because everyone was in their grumpy pants, my lobbying was not as successful as I would've hoped. I will continue my efforts throughout the month of November.

It was an overcast, gray day today. And after the meeting I went to the gym, and after the gym I came home and took a nap. And then my girlfriend came home from work early and we napped together. We both had spent the weekend working, so it was nice to get a little together-naptime in.

Tonight, we made our plans for our anniversary celebration, which will be happening in a few weeks. On the actual day of our anniversary, the J-Dog will be in her physics class, so we are celebrating on the following day, a Friday, and we're gonna go dancing at an American Legion hall. On a "50's and 60's" night. The website looked absolutely batshit crazy, so I'm both nervous and curious.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Thomas Tallis

I do enjoy sitting on our couch in the evening and listening to some relaxing music while watching the birds fly in loops above the houses and church dome across the street. There usually seems to be bunches of birds around in the evenings. Today's listening is The Tallis Scholars Sing Palestrina, which I borrowed from a guy at work and have been enjoying for the past few days. I think it will be a good November-Winter album. It's chilly in our apartment and the tip of my nose is cold.

Had an inventory at work last night, and a relatively painless one at that. We were done at around 1am, early enough that Abbey and Dan P. and myself had a couple of beers after we were finished. A good time. Work is better when you hang out outside of work every now and again. I don't necessarily know if that's true across the board or if that just happens to be true for this particular job at this particular time.

It's been a long week. I'm looking forward to a day off, but it won't be arriving until Monday.

I straightened up our apartment when I got home from work and made our bed. I am slowly (finally?) discovering the pleasure of making your bed on a (at least semi) daily basis. It just feels good to get into bed at night and have all the sheets and blankets be cool and heavy and smooth and cover your entire body, instead of having them bunched and twisted and trying to figure out exactly how they're twisted so you can stretch and pull them the right way to at least get your ass and legs covered enough to be warm.

It's just about dark outside.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Domingo

Havin' most Sundays off with my lady friend ain't a bad deal at all.

Although we didn't do that much today, really. J-Dog did a lot of physics problems, and I was on call as a consultant. So I read a lot of IJ. And we went to the farmer's market this morning and bought a lot of vegetables, which vegetables I then spent the evening chopping and peeling for a vegetable-roasting extravaganza which will probably take place at our place sometime this week.

Got an inventory this week at work, which I never look forward to, but I'm always glad to get 'em done. And a production meeting tomorrow night for The Country Wife, which will be going up in February. Not exactly sure what my job will be yet on the production (maybe designing, probably building) but perhaps I will find out more at the meeting...

Thursday, October 16, 2008

I don't know what to title this one.

My dad got the results back from Monday's test, and the thing growing in his abdomen is, in fact, his old lymphoma. Back again. So that's the bad news. The better news is that it's stage 1, which is the slowest growing type, and most easily treated. So the plan right now is that he'll try some sort of drug that has apparently had some success treating this type of cancer. No chemo, no surgery, no radiation. So that's the plan, unless some of the other tests that he had yesterday and today show that the thing has spread or anything. And if the drug doesn't do anything, then I would imagine that chemo is probably the next step.

Anyway, I talked with him this afternoon, and he sounded both disappointed and relieved. He did use the word "crappy," which is a word I don't think I've heard him use before. "Crap" yes, but not "crappy." Anyway, I guess I'm feeling disappointed and relieved, too. The results could have been better, but they could have been a lot worse. So that's that, for now.


I got contacted by Maya Dimova on Facebook. It's good to hear from her.

I just tried to eat something that I thought might have been part of a stale chip, but it turns out it might have been part of my shoe.

Anyway, Maya Dimova, yes. She's married and living in Italy and has two sons, 6 and 2. Crazy Maya Dimova who used to work at The Blimpie. Now employed by Teatro alla Scalla. Wonderful.

To those who have at some point worked where I currently work: someone got fired from where I currently work, and I don't want to be super gossipy by mentioning this person's name, but I will say that he/she had worked there a long time, he/she knows where Osama bin Laden is, and he/she apparently routinely had his/her car's tires shot out.

Ok, Jeannie just got home from class. Yay! So I'm gonna hang with her now...

Monday, October 13, 2008

Perhaps it might very well indeed do a body good?

It is a beautiful autumnish day, and I am off work.

I had a dream last night about hanging out with K-Torr and his kid (perhaps as a result of leaving a Facebook comment several days ago about hanging out with K-Torr??)

There is a mouse (or some sort of animal) scurrying about in one of our living room walls. I am glad that it is stuck in the wall and not in our apartment. Nonetheless, the scurrying sounds are not enjoyable.

My dad starts his 3 days of tests today.

My dad has not been to a dentist for roughly 40 years. And never has any tooth-related problems. He says it is because he drinks a lot of milk. And he does drink a lot of milk, usually a glass or two a day. And since I have started dieting and stuff back in June, I have also started drinking a lot of milk (of the fat-free variety), about a gallon a week. And back before I started drinking the milk, I had been having some pain in one of my teeth, but since that time the pain has gone away. And so, long story short, I think my dad is right and that drinking milk is good for your teeth.

(or my tooth has become so rotten that the nerve inside is finally gone.)

Last night I ran to the B&N and then made it halfway home before I had to stop running and start walking. While I was running, I was thinking to myself that surely this had to be well over 10 miles, that I could easily run a half marathon, etc. Then I got home and Google-mapped it and it turns out that I only ran about 8-point-something miles. Which is good, and I'm pleased, but not nearly as impressive as the pain in my legs made it feel.

Laundry. Dishes.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Kachunk. Kachunk. Kachunk. Kachunk.

Today I rode my bike to work. And I haven't ridden it for a few weeks, and it's been sitting outside the front of our place (which is where our bikes live), and the chain has gotten kinda rusty. And so every time I pedaled, the chain would slip. Which made for a very annoying ride, indeed.

When I got home I oiled the chain which seems to have helped.

Not much else going on. The Jeanners and I went dress shopping this evening. The mall on a Friday night is a scary, scary place.

Started work on a new song last night. I'd been playing around with some chords and very sketchy lyrics for the last few weeks, and last night I was able to record a nice solid foundation, now I just need to come up with something to make it all interesting.

Tonight we watched part II of the seven part HBO miniseries John Adams. The second part was better than the first (but seemed longer -- was it longer?) and it's getting engaging. We'll see.

The reread of IJ is going well. I'm around page 180. Kneser, are you hanging in there?

Monday, October 06, 2008

Here We Are Now, Entertain Us

Wow, listen to those stocks fall! You can almost hear them whistle as they fly by! I listened to This American Life on Saturday, and the show was all the about the "current economic crisis," and basically just tried to explain what the hell is going on, and how it happened, and possible outcomes and/or solutions. It's pretty scary. And a little exciting. Although I'm guessing that if I had children, a home, or any sort of responsibility it would be less exciting and just scary. But anyway, it was a good program, and worth listening to online if you're at all interested in economics (which I usually am not, but still found the program interesting).

I have started rereading Infinite Jest (and have already, at page 77 or so, been reminded of why it is the Greatest Book Ever) and it has got me thinking about entertainment, and what type of entertainment I like, and I'm realizing that without a TV and with very limited exposure to movies, the entertainment I've been enjoying is a lot different than what it used to be. (It just took me like 5 attempts to try and type 'different' correctly). My current top pieces of entertainment (and maybe I would so far as to call these things 'art'): DFW stuff, Savage Love, This American Life, and Car Talk. And I think there's a definite common thread among them all, and it probably has something to do with the narrative tone and the word conversational.
But then who cares.

BJ called me on the goddamn telephone the other day. A mere one day after Schlueter and I had decided that we were writing him out of our respective wills because he is a non-answerer. So he's back in the will. TO BJ GAILEY I BEQUEATH: ONE SMALL-TO-MEDIUM SIZED BAG OF SNACK CHIPS TO MAKE UP FOR THE BAG I ATE.

For those who haven't heard: we think that the J-Dog got the highest grade in her class on the ol' physics test last week. She got like 160+%. She's a hard worker.

Friday, October 03, 2008

A Look At Yesterday

7:15am --Alarm goes off. Hit snooze once. Shower. Leave for work.

8:30am-11:30am -- Work.

11:30am-12:50pm -- Drive to bus station at the Maryland Travel Plaza. Get required passes for parking, pick up bus ticket, wait for bus.

12:50pm-4:30pm -- Ride bus to the Port Authority bus terminal in NYC. Listened to some DFW readings, latest David Byrne/Brian Eno album, et al.

4:30pm-7:30pm -- Arrive at the Port Authority bus terminal in NYC. Walk around Times Square a little bit. Buy some beers and a bag of Doritos. Walk around a little more. Get approached by a man who asks, "Is your name Augustine?" Take beer and Doritos and hunker down across the street from the back door of the Letterman show. For some reason, this is my absolute favorite place in New York. It's a good place to people watch, and it's out of the way. I saw, in order: Bill Hader, Calista Flockhart, various Late Show band members, Alan Kalter, and Paul Schaffer. Then walk to Schlueter's hotel, just around the corner.

7:30pm-10:45pm -- Schlueter arrives at hotel, we walk to restaurant in neighborhood. Some type of pub. I get my steak, have beers. Schlueter gets a wrap of some sort, has beers. We talk about lots of things. Good time.

10:45pm -- I check my phone and see that my bus leaves in 45 minutes. Pay tab, quick goodbye on 8th Avenue.

10:45pm-11:20pm -- Run down 8th Ave. a few blocks to the Port Authority bus terminal, which is large and confusing. I ask the person at the information desk if she knows where my bus will be leaving from. She says Gate 74. I find Gate 74 with a few minutes to spare. Above Gate 74, one of the destinations listed is the Maryland Travel Plaza (my destination), so I figure I am in the right spot. There is no bus and no people there. I wait for the bus to arrive.

12:15am -- Still no bus. I ask a Greyhound baggage dude walking by if he knows when the bus will arrive. He tells me that my bus left from Gate 78. He says that the next bus will be at 3:45am and that it will take me to downtown Baltimore, not the Maryland Travel Plaza.

12:15am-3:45am -- Fitful sleeping on the floor of the Port Authority bus terminal. Buzz from beers going away rapidly and unpleasantly.

3:45am -- Board bus to Baltimore. More fitful sleeping on bus.

5am-ish -- Vomit in bathroom at back of bus. Thank god for gum.

7am -- Arrive at downtown Baltimore bus terminal. Wait for transfer to Maryland Travel Plaza.

9am -- Arrive at Maryland Travel Plaza.

9:45am -- Arrive home. Poop.


So it was good to see Schlueter. Would I do it all over again? Yes. I would probably just have the Doritos, though, and not the beers before dinner. And I would ask someone different where I was supposed to catch my bus. But other than those 2 things, it was a really fun trip.