Sunday, December 28, 2008

Golddigger

Well, our '08 Christmas trip home is over. Some of the highlights:

1. On the flight to the Lou, Jeannie and I watched a twenty-something pick her nose for a good 20-30 minutes. Basically, anytime during the flight that she was awake, she was picking her nose. Awesome.

2. Response to the bushier beard seemed generally positive.

3. Familial response to the fact that Jeannie and I are going to start looking for a house in Baltimore was generally positive. Folks (including friends in the realty business) agreed that it is a good time to try and buy.

One of the lowlights of the trip is that our age is starting to very obviously catch up with us, as we were back at her parents' place and in bed by 11 or 12 every night we were there. Lame.

Nonetheless, it was good to see many party people. And the trip was not too rushed. And although I was experiencing a bit of general malaise, I still enjoyed myself.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Eating Pizza Makes My Mustache Smell Like Vomit

This year has felt very strange at work. Just...strange. 'Tis neither bad nor good. Whatever.

Tying up a few loose ends:

I finished Infinite Jest about 2 weeks ago. As always, I immediately wanted to go back to the beginning and start reading it again. I refrained, and instead have been reading A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again. I think, come January, I shall start reading Don Delillo's White Noise. Why not.

For the last few days I have regretted writing about interest rates in my last post. I do not want to be the type of person who blogs about interest rates. I also do not want to be the type of person who thinks very often about interest rates. I would guess that thinking about money is at the root of a lot of the troubles and worries and problems in the world, and that's a tub of crap into which I do not want to throw my hat. So instead I'm going to think about getting some sort of electronic drum kit and working on making it sound like a real drum kit. Also going to put thought into the set I'm working on, and how to make it nice. And how to make it cheaply. It's fun to think about wood.

Yesterday the Jeanners and I went to a memorial service for T. Long, who was a close friend of MAW's and who we didn't know super-well, but we had hung out a few times, and I had come to really like his work as a director and an actor. Plus, he just seemed like an all-around good and interesting guy. Mid-forties. Sudden heart attack. I thought the memorial service was well done, and a few people said some very nice things. And it's hard to be at a memorial service for someone who died suddenly, and to be listening to the things people were saying, and not think about the way in which you live your life, and the things people would say about you if you died tomorrow. I think that pretty much I don't care what people might say about me, as long as they were able to say 2 things: I loved my friends and I loved the J-Dog. And that I did those things well. I think that when it comes down to it, those are the only 2 things in the world I care about. And interest rates.

I would also like to take this opportunity to publicly (and perhaps inappropriately) request that no Josh Groban be played at my funeral. Stick to Tom Waits.

Also, I would like to be buried at sea.

Also, if there is a funeral before I am buried at sea, I would like to be wearing a wig when I am laid out. Color and style unimportant.

I think that those are all the post-mortum requests that I have at the moment.

Tomorrow: Nachos and Beer with Bewley. Jealous, aren't you.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Holidays '08

Well, I usually don't go a week between posts. No good excuse, really. Work is getting busier, but not busy enough. It's been kinda frustrating for the last week or so, but mainly I think just because everyone is stressed about the "tough economic climate." Whatever the reason, it hasn't been laid back and fun this season, and I blame mostly myself for that. And Bewley. And Korn. Ha Ha.

On my day off on Monday, Jeannie arranged for me to be able to work in the Habitat wood shop, so I was able to get lumber delivered and start working on the set for "The Country Wife". It was really wonderful to be working in a full shop again, to have room to work, and all the materials and tools that I needed. Sigh. One day CSC will have all this type of stuff on-site, I hope. Would make life much easier. But anyway, it was fun on Monday to be working. And I realized that I cannot work on a set without thoughts of Ron Ryb flooding the ol' memory all day. A good thing.

Can't wait for Christmas to be here, can't wait to get back to The Lou (even if it is going to be a lightning-quick trip) and see friends and family. Can't wait for work to go back to normal.

Jeannie and I are planning on diving in to house hunting when we come back for the new year. Meeting with money folks, etc. I keep hearing of all the interest-rate cuts happening, and start rubbing the ol' hands together. I'm thinking that it really is going to be a decent time to buy a house. And the Jeanners is getting super-excited about having a place of our own (read: a porch and a large garden).

Well, I've got the day off today. I need to run some errands, but I think I'm not gonna start until I've had a tasty breakfast of eggs and black beans. Remember when I used to eat bacon all the time? Jeez.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Multiple Blasts From the Distant Past

I just decided to have a piece of that lovely apple pie for breakfast. I'll be right back...

DAMN, this is good pie. And the best part is that last night, Jeannie told me that she doesn't like it and it made her tummy hurt, so she's not going to eat any more of it. So I get the whole rest of the pie for myself. But really, I'm attacking it with pretty regular voraciousness, so it won't be around much longer.

Is there a better word than 'voraciousness' for the noun-form of 'voracious'? I think there is (maybe voracity?) but I'm too lazy to look it up.

Last night I spent a good portion of the evening friending people from grade school on Facebook and uploading old pictures. It is truly a trip. Very surreal seeing people that I haven't seen in 20 years, all growed up and with kids. Kinda makes me feel old, but not too bad. I don't think I've changed too much since then, though. Equal parts silly and serious. Equal parts happy and sad. Balanced. The only major things I've lost since then are excitement and, to a lesser degree, some curiosity. I don't miss the excitement, but I wish I could get some of the curiosity back.

The Jeanners had her last Physics class last night. It's strange, but I think she'll miss it. I think she enjoyed being good at something at which she thought she would be lousy.

I'm off work today. Many dishes to be done, and a trip to the gym. Maybe a long run.

Worked on some music last night. Recorded, took a break and went for a walk, came back and listened to the recording and it sounded like shite. Oh well. I guess that happens about 90% of the time, but the 10% that it doesn't is worth the effort.

Monday, December 08, 2008

Cheek, Cheek, Sack, Dick, Leg, Leg.

I've had some music sitting around, hoping something something would spring from it, but nothing has. So screw it. Here it is:



Jeannie made an apple pie last night, and I think it's the best apple pie I've ever had.

Thanks to all who voted in "Decision '08: Dough". The polls are still open.

Sunday, December 07, 2008

Dough

Informal poll here:

Do you like eating raw dough? Doesn't matter what kind of dough. Could be pizza dough, could be pie crust, just any kind of uncooked dough. For the sake of the poll, though, let's leave out cookie dough because everybody knows that it's delicious.

Dough. Tell me all about it.

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Okra, Enough to Choke Ya

Woke up this morning cosmically Bored, with a capital B, feeling blah. Yet had plenty to do. Just procrastinating. So I spent the morning sitting in the tub and chain-watching Sports Night episodes.

Been listening to some Chris Smither lately (who I would recommend for fans of ol' Greg Brown), and when I listen, the songs take me right back to our Alaska trip earlier this year, which was when I first listened to any of his stuff. I can totally picture Spiff and I in his kitchen, rolling dice, drinking Guinness, a bright morning light coming through the window, smell of eggs and bacon, listening to a lot of good tunes.

The J-Dog and I have been talking lately about our plans for the future, specifically house-buying and J-Dog-school-returning-to. We're thinking it's probably a pretty darn good time to look at houses, what with interest rates being real low and house prices dropping. And we've got some money in the bank that ain't doin' nothing. And it's a bad time to quit a job and move elsewhere, so it's looking like '09 might be the year that D-Bone and J-Dog hunker down and start playing Grown Up.

I'm off tomorrow, and I'm planning on doing some preliminary-type work on the set for the show I'm starting to work on, "The Country Wife", which will be going up in February. And laundry. Gotsta do laundry.