Thursday, December 31, 2009

The Year We Make Contact



So here we are on the final day of 2009. It's been a decent year, which makes me feel a little guilty considering it's been such a shitty year for so many people. Oh well.

The Jeanners is over at Katie's celebrating the New Years Eve, but I was too tired to be up to it. So I'm enjoying being here at the house and not working on anything, listening to music, eating pizza, drinking beer, and farting around on the internet.

We moved into the house yesterday, in a long move that was tiring but not terrible. We've moved into half the house while we work on the other half. The half we've moved into is probably about as big as our last apartment (which nobody but A-train ever saw), but it's kinda weird right now because we're using the future dining room as our bedroom. So there's a big window behind our bed.

For the first time in my life, I have a refrigerator that makes and dispenses ice. As an avid gin and tonic drinker, please let me say that I am very excited about this. I bring it up because I just heard the ice maker drop its first load. I'm definitely a cube man, but I'm sure I can get used to the weird wedge-things the ice maker makes. Those wedges make me feel like I'm 12 years old and it's summertime and I'm over at my neighbor's house drinking kool-aid out of tall skinny pastel-colored plastic cups.

If you ever want to hear a funny story, ask the J-Dog to tell you about the time her parents' ice maker flooded their kitchen while they were on vacation. Although it probably won't be that funny because I pretty much told a lot of the story in that last sentence.

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION: Work on my handwriting.

Hopefully 2010 will be the best year ever for everyone in the world.

Yesterday when we saw that all the plumbing fixtures were working I was about as happy as I've ever been.

I've been meaning to mention: if you're a Tom Waits fan, I would highly recommend picking up his latest live CD. I've been listening to it in my car non-stop for the last two weeks and it's pretty damned good. Plus, I was able to pick it up at Best Buy for $7.99.

Friday, December 25, 2009

Cool Ranch Christmas

Merry Christmas 2009, everybody.

I'm sitting on our couch, and it's cold in the apartment. I have my winter jammies on (long sleeve t-shirt, brown long underwear bottoms, brown stocking cap) and there's a choir on NPR singing Christmas carols. We have opened presents from Jeannie's folks, and we've had a tasty bacon and fake-sausage breakfast, and I finished off my cool ranch Doritos, which were my present from the J-Dog last night. Had a long, busy day at work yesterday, although it was not too busy, and I received some Guinness and Gin and tonic and limes as Christmas presents from my co-workers. They know what I like. That being said, today is exactly one month after the one-night-only reunion show of the Quintessential Pine Tree Brothers, where I went a little overboard with the celebratory libations, and I haven't had any booze since. Just wanted to see what a month with no drink would be like, would it be rough or would it be ok? Turns out it was ok.

Today we'll begin tiling the shower in the new bathroom. Perhaps all the little mistakes we've been making along the way will come to a head, but perhaps we'll find out that we're actually in better shape than we think and we're worrying for no reason. Will it be rough or will it be OK? Stay tuned. Can't wait for this bathroom to be done. The plumber comes back on Monday to install the toilet and sink.

I think this is the first Christmas ever that the Jeanners and I haven't been home. Feels a little strange but not too bad. We've missed other holidays and this just feels like another one of those. Still, Christmas is a time when we usually get to catch up with a lot of family and friends, and it sucks a bit to have to go a longer stretch without seeing everybody.

We've rented a moving truck for Wednesday to make the move to the new place. Yikes. Since we're still working on a rather large portion of the house, we're going to be sleeping in the dining room for awhile.

I guess that's it for now. Hope everyone has a happy and safe Christmas.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Snow Adventure

So on Saturday the area got dumped on by a bunch of snow, enough that work was closed (on what would have been the busiest day of the year, no less!) so the Jeanners and I had a snow adventure at the new house. It was a good time. Snow is good.

Katie is back in town and has come over a couple of times to help with the drywalling of the bathroom. It sure is nice that she's back in town.

I am no good at drywalling. I'll be glad when this portion of the program is over.

I'm off work today and I'll be walking over to the house to do some small framing projects, and I might try to get some of the snow off the lower portion of the roof so that there are no moisture problems.

Blogging about moisture problems is perhaps more boring than blogging about interest rates, and I shall make every attempt to not do it in the future.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Boogoo.

Doesn't the basement look scary?



Ugh. Slow progress. The remainder of the year is ticking away.

Today at work was the day that happens each year when I get really tired of seeing people. Work hasn't been too bad yet, though.

Today John Waters came into the store. But I wasn't much help. I wanted to tell him that I really loved the "no smoking" thing that he did, but I thought that it might be insulting to tell someone who has made many movies that the piece of work that you really like is a little fart of a joke that you saw on the internet.

Monday, December 07, 2009

A Good Name For a Dog or a Dragon

Sheesh! It's almost been a week since I wrote, but it feels like it was just yesterday. The house continues to eat up all free time, as it will for another few months, I'm sure. Progress report: old bathroom completely torn out, new bathroom walls framed up, bathroom subfloor torn out (we're going to attempt to go with hardwood in the bathroom...not sure if it will work), the plumber was there today starting to rough in the new pipes for the fixtures, we have bought a tub and toilet and sink (although we have to return the tub tonight because the finish is a little screwed up), and everything is torn out of the basement except for the crazy outdoor-as-indoor shower. We are eagerly awaiting getting stuff roughed in in the bathrrom so we can start tiling the shower wall and getting drywall up. We are tired of looking at a mostly-torn-apart bathroom.

Well shit. It's hard to write anything interesting when life is consumed by pretty much one thing. Hmmm. I went to court today in case I was needed to testify against a particular shoplifter. That's about it. Things are picking up slightly at work but the real rush hasn't started yet.

Alright. Gonna go poo and then put my laundry in the dryer.

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Jeannie Said She's Gonna Poop in My Water

When did I become a busy person? I remember many times during the past few years when I had absolutely nothing to do. Those were good times. It seems like I haven't had any days like that in the last few months.

Here's what I want for Christmas: one day between now and the end of the year that transpires like the one described in this old blog post.

All that being said, the Jeanners and I are having a pretty good time working on this fucking house. I think it's gonna be really great when it's all done (estimated completion date: June 2047). Working has been especially fun because Jeannie is doing all the hard stuff and I just tag along to do the grunt work. Seriously, though, if you ever want to think good thoughts about the J-Dog, you should work on a house with her because it's really impressive to see her do all the planning and designing and building and everything. Cannot say enough good things about it. And then after working we come back to our shitty apartment and she opens the fucking windows in the bedroom, and it gets down to about 40 degrees during the night and we're bundled up in long underwear and stocking caps and blankets. It's absolutely bonkers crazy. Also, our current shower has 2 "slippery spots", which are two places on the floor of the shower that are permanently and perpetually slippery, like they're covered in shampoo but they're not. This is also bonkers crazy. All-in-all life feels just generally a little bit bonkers. In a good way. It feels good to be doing something. Feels good to be working towards something.

Wish I still smoked cause I think when the house is done it would be a nice place to have a cigarette.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Everybody Knows I Like To Rollerskate






The one-night-only reunion show of the Quintessential Pine Tree Brothers is now a thing of memory, and I had a damned good time seeing everybody. It was very good, and very weird, and I missed the Jeanners, and I really appreciated staying with Uncle Rico at his sweet new place in beautiful Wildwood.

Also, I was able to surprise my family on Thanksgiving, which was nice, and my hangover had passed in time for me to enjoy a delicious turkey dinner. Isn't that what the holidays are all about?

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Lino Pics

Lino (the guy who owned our house) was an old dude who did a lot of photography. He took a lot of pictures in, of, and around the house. We found some of them. I love the one of his desk.











Friday, November 13, 2009

True Story

Well, it's our anniversary and my wife is spending it at stupid work. This is the second anniversary in a row that she's refused to hang out with me. I'm beginning to think she's terrible.

Been working on the house lots this week. It's been slow going, but progress is being made. Lots of stuff torn out, an appointment made for the radiators to be modified on Thursday, and then the framing and remodeling can begin. Oh, and at some point in there all the shit in the basement has to be torn out.

Also at some point in there is a visit from my parents, my cousin's wedding in Scranton, PA, a super-secret trip to the Lou and one-night-only Quintessential Pine Tree Brothers reunion show (anybody wanna put me up on their floor for a few nights?), and Thanksgiving.

Today at work I forgot that it was raining a lot outside, and at one point I looked up from the counter and saw somebody dripping wet in front of me. I thought it was disgusting and wondered why there was a dripping wet person in front of me. Then I remembered it was raining outside. True story.

One more performance of Julius Caesar on Tuesday at a school in Virginia, and then I can never think about it again.

What the fuck is wrong with me? I've been listening to Christmas music like a motherfucker! True story!

Thursday, November 05, 2009

Enoch Muthafuckin' Pratt

My damned wife is out of town for the week, and she took our goddamn wireless card with her, and I am unable to connect to the blessed Internet at home. Thus, I am sitting here at the Hamilton Branch of Baltimore City's Enoch Prattt free library. This is a damned shitty branch.

I have a splinter in my pointer.

The other night in my car I heard the song "I'm a Cuckoo" by Belle and Sebastian for the first time. I sat outside our place and listened until it was over. If I had Internet access I would download it. Unfortunately, the store where I work charges $17.99 for the CD, and even with my discount that's too expensive.

Julius Ceasar has closed outdoors, and on Tuesday we loaded up everything into a moving truck, took it to Goucher College, set everything up, focused lights, did the show, packed everything up, and took it all to McDonogh School, where we unloaded it, set everything up, and have been rehearsing for the past few nights with high school students added into the show. Performances this weekend. It's been a busy week, but everything has been unbelievably and surprisingly smooth.

Can't wait to get crackin' on the new house once Jeannie gets back in town. We need to get a dumpster outside so we can tear a bunch of moldy, nasty shit out of the basement. We also need to start tearing up the "bathroom." Today I took our stereo over and set it up because even shithole houses need stereos. The folks who cleaned out the house left behind a couple of pairs of speakers, one of which is pretty massive. I'm looking forward to trying them out.

The other night I had a dream that Jeannie left me for some other dude and I woke up in the middle of the night crying.

Last night I had a dream that some guy was arrested for drawing up plans for a device that would simultaneously kill himself and Michael Jackson. No lie!

Friday, October 30, 2009

Home is Where My Farts Is.

The Jeanners and I bought a house today. So now we own a house, which is strange and cool and scary.

The settlement was kinda fun, actually. We got to meet the folks who we were buying the house from, who are the brother and sister of the guy who used to live there. They were super nice and super cute. Then we spent the rest of the day pulling up the purple carpet in the living room. And lo and behold, much like the dream I had not too long ago, the floors are in pretty decent shape.

It was nice today to not think about Julius Caesar at all. This weekend I have to iron four 9' by 6' pieces of canvas, and then figure out what to do with them. Then next week is all Caesar, all the time. Luckily/unfortunately the J-Dog will be out of town next week, so while I am sad that we won't be hanging out, I am glad that Julius Caesar is not the reason that I won't be seeing her.

Our new house smells. Lino smoked cigars. Lino, by the way, is the name of the guy who used to live there. The J-Dog and I have, during the last few months, been referring to this place as "Lino's House." Also, it's kinda musty. Much work to be done!

Sunday, October 25, 2009

20 seconds

On Friday night, Jeannie and I went to dinner to celebrate the fact that we got our driveway permit. We went to a Thai restaurant, and it was OK. We had a nice time. Then after dinner, we went to Trader Joe's to pick up a few things, and I had to go to the bathroom (the Trader Joe's next to my work is #1 on my list of Best Public Restroom in America, beating out a gas station in Bowling Green, MO that used to have the #1 spot), so I went in the bathroom and cut a fart that lasted 20 seconds. Seriously. Close your eyes and count to 20. It's a long time. And I thought that after cutting the 20 second fart that I was done, that any gastro-intestinal duress had been resolved, so I went out and met Jeannie in the vitamins aisle, but she told me to go back in there and give it the ol' college try. And I'm glad I listened to her, because it turns out that I needed to do things that probably wouldn't have waited for us to make the drive home.

This week's gonna be super busy and probably pretty stressful. Wish us luck.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Not so Fresh Air Feeling

Had an inventory at work tonight and it went very well. One of the easiest that I've worked. Then headed to the Kent House (formerly the Kent Lounge) with Nikki and Abbey and Johnny. A good time.

Jeannie wrote in her blog that the dude downstairs hasn't been smoking a lot, but at the moment, he is smoking and it stinks in our place. At least it does in the living room. Hopefully she's asleep there in the bedroom and not getting any of the stink that is coming up from down below.

Tomorrow I'm off work and planning a lot of set building. Then for he show tomorrow night, there is a bigwig from the Globe Theatre (in England!) who is coming to speak, so I'll probably be around for that. Then we're all hitting the pub afterwards.

Have I mentioned that I'll be glad when October/November is over? Cuz I will.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Glass Half Full

Today I got rid of my shift at work because I had signed up for a Stanislavski workshop and I had totally forgotten about it. The workshop was informative but ultimately pointless. But it was not unenjoyable and it was good to see the other folks there, but it just kinda felt like a waste of a day and I wish I hadn't had to use personal time at work in order to go to it.

I made myself some G&T's tonight that were just about 1/2 G. Yowza!

Last night I had a dream that we ripped out the carpet at the potential house and the hardwood floors underneath were gorgeous. I hope that this dream comes true.

We have had 3 days of non-stop rain. It's looking like the entire weekend of Julius Caesar is going to get rained out. Also, the rain is screwing with my set-building plans. Hopefully it will be a dry week and I will be able to get caught up. I am beginning to get stressed by the set building and the 3 lighting designs that I have to do. It's been far too long since I've had to do a real lighting design. Even when I was auditorium manager back at Truman, I always tried to pawn off the lighting designs onto an intern (thank you, Jeremy B) because I didn't feel very comfortable doing them. Oh well. I am looking forward to October and November being over. It's very strange, but at times like these when life gets stressful, I really love my job because, if necessary, I can devote exactly 0% of my brain to it, and it still gets done just as well as when I'm devoting 80% of my brain to it.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Slow Night

When the Jeanners got home from work this evening, she was stressed and didn't feel like cooking, so we went to our favorite little neighborhood restaurant, The Parkside, for dinner. I feel bad because the place always seems pretty empty when we go there. I don't know that it can survive much longer. On their calendar, they had advertised karaoke this evening, but when we got there it became fairly clear that no karaoke was going to take place. When we left (about 9:30), we were the only folks there. Sad. It's a cute place, and the people that run it are nice.

I had planned on spending the day working on the set, but it has been raining and cold all day so I was only able to buy lumber. I am also still procrastinating on this thing because I don't really feel like doing it. Hopefully I will not procrastinate too much.

Because of the rain, I spent the day around our apartment, and with all of our books and cd's and stuff packed away in storage, there really isn't that much to do. I made some eggs, took a nap, and farted around on the internet for a long time. Looking forward to the day when we can unpack the books and music equipment.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Gaytorade

Today I was off work, and I dropped some paperwork off down at the City Office of Homeownership, and then spent the afternoon building the indoor set for Julius Caesar. I've really been abusing my body throughout this whole process. My back is now in a pretty much constant state of pain. It's probably from lugging a bunch of damned platforms around by myself. Seriously, I'm going to be one of those 80-year-olds who is about 4 feet tall and walks around staring directly at the ground.

The Jeanners just got home!

Stan Getz is one smooth mofo.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Que Pasa, U.S.A.?

I finished off the last post with a bit of a cliffhanger, and I know you've all been dying to find out the outcome, and the answer is yes, I was getting sick.

Today is the first day in a long time that I've gotten off work and don't have anyplace that I have to be. It's pretty awesome. So the show opened this past weekend, and it's up and running, and now I don't have to go every night and make sure it's running ok. Now my job turns into set and lighting designer for when the show moves indoors in about a month. Which will be a different kind of stressful, but at least I won't have to be somewhere every night.

On Saturday I got to spend the day with the Jeanners (we did a lot of sleeping), and it was awesome. It's pretty amazing how much of the general suckiness of late can be directly attributed to not spending enough time with the Jeanners. The remaining 30% of the general suckiness can be attributed to:
1. trying to buy a house.
2. the persistent smell of cigarette smoke.
3. crappy water pressure.

Saturday night we went to see Ira "Schmira" Glass at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). He gave a talk and it was pretty cool.

When I was in eighth grade, my Spanish teacher used to make us watch this show called Que Pasa, U.S.A.?. Every now and again the theme song gets stuck in my head like a mothafu@#a. Enjoy.



I realize that I've been doing a shitty job of documenting this portion of the life of D-Bone and J-Dog. In order to remedy that, I shall post some pics of Where We Live Now.







Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Jesus Mary Joseph

It is a sunny, windy day today.

It is my day off, and it has been busy. It feels really good to have a day off, even though I've spent it doing a bunch of shit that I'd rather not be doing.

Life at the moment seems to be a wildly running horse, and the J-dog and I are blindfolded and hanging on tight and hoping it's going in the right direction. I guess we'll know at some point whether we're doing OK or whether we're getting trampled and shit on.

Ok, I've been having a persistent grammar and punctuation question: does the apostrophe get used when "it's" is being used as a contraction, or when it is being used as a possesive? Or neither? Or both? Please advise.

Highlight of the week: Jeanners made me mashers the other night.

Lowlight of the week: Jeanners seems to be having a tough time dealing with the City O' Baltimore ('Keep Moving') with regards to the driveway situation at the potential house.

Am I getting sick?

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

No Sitting Down or Urinating on the Horizon

U2 concert yesterday/last night. I got down to FedEx field at around noon and got in the general admission line. I was person number 296 in the line. So I'm a geek, but there are at least 295 people in the Pennsylvania/Maryland/DC/Virginia area geekier than me. Although some of the people in line were foreign, for whatever that's worth.

Anyway, got in line and talked a little bit with the folks in line behind me. Right behind me was a guy named Matt and his wife/girlfriend Kelly. Both very nice, moderate U2 fans. Then behind them was a group of 4 women from the DC area who are teachers. They were also very nice and they brought cards, so they invited me to play cards. So we played a couple hands of Bullshit (both of which I won), and a couple hands of rummy. Helped to pass the time tremendously. Also, before they knew my name, they called me "Baltimore," which I thought was pretty cool, especially when we were playing cards. So anyway, we spent the next five hours waiting in line. Luckily, once you get to know the people around you in line, that means you can get up and go use the porta-potties if you need to. So that part of the waiting wasn't too bad. Plus, I had water and Clif bars so I was set.

Once the doors opened at 5pm, then we all raced inside and got a good spot right down in front, right on the walkway that goes out into the audience around the stage. Unfortunately, after that point it was too crowded to sit down, and it was too difficult to leave the area without losing your spot, so you basically just had to stand for the rest of the night. So there was a good 6 hours of standing and not peeing, which was not pleasant. And I was cold because I decided when I got there to leave my jacket in the car.

The show was decent. Unfortunately not life-changing (I guess my days of seeing life-changing concerts are probably over) [except for the up-coming Quants reunion, of course] but not bad. It was pretty cool being up close, although the band did not use the walkways as much as I would've hoped. The sound wasn't that great, either. Nonetheless, they played a few songs that I've always wanted to hear live but never have, so that's pretty cool.

The highlight of the day was definitely meeting and hanging out with the other people in line, which was kind of surprising, but nice.

Oh, plus, I got a guitar pick when Edge's guitar technician was walking around the walkways testing the wireless system. That was pretty cool. I think my guitar playing is sounding better already.

Here are some pics from the show:












Friday, September 25, 2009

Progress?

Alright, so we've applied for a loan, set up inspections, and started work on finding out if we can add a driveway. The ball is rolling, and though it feels like it's rolling a little bit out of control, it's nice to be moving forward.

Still going to work during the day and rehearsals at night. So far this show has been a lot more work than I anticipated. I still have to come up for a set design for when it moves indoors. And then build the set. Not looking forward to that. I've got about a month.

U2 concert coming up on Tuesday. Strange, but I haven't really been thinking about it. I just want a day off so bad that I don't even think I'm going to stand outside all day in the hopes of meeting the band or getting a really great spot on the floor. Operation: Meet U2 2009 -- ABORTED.

The J-Dog has a cold. Terrible time to be sick cause she's so damn busy. I feel bad for her. I mean, I would feel bad for her if I ever saw her.

M. Flanagan, who directed the movie that I worked on shortly after I moved to Baltimore, lives in L.A. and is working on a new documentary. He sent me a message asking if I had any songs he could use, so I sent him some songs and he wants to use them. Pretty cool. Check out the trailer here.

Hmmm, that's about it for now. On tap for today: breakfast, call the lenders that we ended up not choosing, head over to the theatre's storage unit and take a drop over to one of the indoor theatres to see what it looks like, maybe investigate homeowner's insurance, and if the J-Dog is feeling better then head down to PKP's for some babysitting. Based on how the J-Dog was feeling last night, though, I doubt we will be doing that. Sorry, PKP and T-Pain.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Wu Wei

I'm much better at dealing with boredom than I am at dealing with busyness. Fuck this.

Friday, September 18, 2009

VAG

Yesterday I saw a bumper sticker that said, "I LOVE VAG." Classy.

Been busy as hell. Work, then rehearsals. Monday through Thursday. It's kept me busy, but it's been fun. A lovely time of year to be having outdoor rehearsals, and the place where rehearsals (and the show) are taking place is a lovely spot. There's lots of deer and other animals that hang out there, so I usually just sit in the car for a few minutes when I get there and watch them munching on grass.

The J-Dog is heading to the Lou this weekend for a quick trip to go to her cousin's wedding. Wish I could join her, but I'm going to be taking a lot of upcoming weekends off and I feel like it really doesn't make sense for me to head home right now.

Still waiting for the owners of the house to sign the f@#$'in contract.

Many errands to run today. Poop first.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Sept 12

One year since the death of DFW. Hmm. Still sad. Still hurts. Oh well.

Today Jeannie and I went on a home tour of Baltimore in the hopes that it will get us $3000.

It's been posted on Facebook, so it's official:



The Reunion Show of the Quintessential Pine Tree Brothers will be taking place on Wednesday, November 25, 2009 at the Skatium in St. Louis. 7pm-ish. Be there or regret it forever. Plus, you can roller skate while taking a stroll through the music of 1996.

A few weeks ago, Jeannie and BJ and Aimee and I decided that Baltimore's next slogan (current slogan: Baltimore - Get In On It!) should be Baltimore - Keep Moving.

If you haven't started watching Mad Men yet, you should. It's good.

Over there at Knese's Emergency Pudding, Jeffy has posted a picture of himself with an Amish beard. I have never seen him look uglier. Maybe it's the Amish beard/wife beater combo, but god damn.

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Rewired

Aw, shit, beyotches. I is back on d'net.

Verizon sent a very nice technician to come look at our phone line today (luckily I had the day off work so I was able to be home during their 9am to 7pm window) and it took him like 2 minutes to go down into the basement and hook our apartment back up to the phone box. Problem solved.

Our new apartment is OK, but it smells like smoke a lot because the guy downstairs is always home and apparently doesn't do anything but sit and smoke. I would be angry, but I'm too jealous.

We are one step closer to buying the damned house. We have agreed on money shit and now we just have to go to this home tour thing on Saturday (in an attempt to get free money from the city of Baltimore) and then we will send them a phat contract to sign on Monday. And then we start scrambling in an attempt to get an inspection, a zoning variance, and a loan. Anyway, house talk is boring.

Been going to rehearsals for Julius Caesar. It's gonna be a pain in the butt to light this thing. Lots of extension cords put up and taken down every night. Bleagh.

Progress is also being made in the direction of a Quintessential Pine Tree Brothers reunion. No formal announcements have been made, but let me just say that if you are in the St. Louis area, keep the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving free. You won't regret it. Especially if you like the Quintessential Pine Tree Brothers.

For the last few days, I have had some Stevie Earl Jacobs lyrics in my head, so I'll close with those:

I got a bike lock
as thick as my cock

Monday, September 07, 2009

Hug Rainstorm

I miss the internet less than I did a few days ago. Not having a real phone still sucks, though.

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Early September

September 1, 2009


We are currently living in a telephone-less, internet-less hell. Damn you, phone company. Apparently they won’t even be out to see what’s wrong with our line until a week from tomorrow. Damn you, phone company.

So anyway, we’re moved. Big shout out of thanks to the A-Train for coming to help us out on Saturday. All in all, it wasn’t too bad; we’d gotten all the big stuff moved and unloaded by 12:15pm, and after a tasty pizza lunch the Jeanners and I spent the rest of the day cleaning our old Charles Village place. Which took awhile. We’re not tidy people.

Then when we were all done we decided to go out for dinner in Hamilton (our new neighborhood) and we walked to the Hamilton Tavern, which isn’t too far from our new place. We had a damn tasty meal, and then got caught in a hug rainstorm on the walk home. Got tremendously soaked. The rest of the night was uneventful until we were awoken at 1am by two ladies arguing out in the street in front of our house. Damn you, phone company.


Sunday we went to a CSC gathering down at Ian’s house, which was pretty great. A perfect day to spend outside, lots of cute babies, and I didn’t get painfully and obnoxiously drunk.

Had a production meeting tonight for Julius Caesar. Work on the show seriously begins next week.

Still no word on the house.

Here are some interesting things:

1. At two separate times today, I seriously thought I might have shat in my pants. Once this morning as I was leaving for work, and once this afternoon while I was preparing to leave work. Both false alarms.

2. The other day I saw a guy with copious amounts of ear hair. Veritable tufts. It looked less like hair growing out of his ears and more like he had stuffed wads of hair into his ears for hearing protection.

3. This afternoon I drove to the Julius Caesar meeting on the highway, with the windows down, blaring first Phoenix’ “Rome,” and then Phillip Bailey/Phil Collins’ “Easy Lover.” Both were awesome in their own way.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

My Necklaces

Jeez, moving sucks. But we're almost done. Just a few more days.

I feel like the next couple of months are going to lick balls. Too much going on. Moving, Julius Casar, attempted house purchase, weddings, possible Quants reunion. Too much.

Tonight as we were packing up more shit, I found some necklaces that I used to wear in college, including one that I made at the Kirksville make-your-own-jewelry store, and one that has a little amulet for "protection" that Jeannie gave to me. Dudes wearing necklaces is very underrated. Except by Italians, in which case it is overrated. That being said, I did feel a little stupid when I met one of our new neighbors and I was wearing my necklaces. Oh well.

I'm really ready for all of this shit to be over with. I'm also ready for our goddamned wireless internet connection to stop being such a pussy.

Sorry for my potty mouth this evening.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Moving to the Country, Gonna Eat a Normal Amount of Peaches. Perhaps Slightly Less Than a Normal Amount.

I had forgotten how much moving sucks. We haven't really acquired that much more shit since the last time we moved 3 years ago, but it sure seems like we have, for some reason. Maybe Jeannie did most of the packing last time. Anyway, packing sucks.

Last night the Jeanners and I were going through old photos and letters and stuff like that. Always the best part of packing. Especially reading letters from 10 years ago (almost to the day) that talked about looking back in ten years at the events that were happening at the time and how we would feel about them.

It's strange how much this place we're leaving feels like home. It's kinda the first place that we've made our own a little bit. Neither of us has entirely wrapped our mind around the idea of leaving and moving into some unknown little crappy apartment. Feels strange. Wish we were moving right into a house, I think it would be much easier.

On that note, no news on the house front. We're waiting for a reply on our offer of last week. (the dude selling the house has been in Costa Rica. Or as our agent writes in her e-mails, "Costa Rico.")

Today I get a key to the new apartment and will begin moving our packed up shit over there. We don't officially move (with a moving truck and all) until August 29. Everyone is invited to come help.

Well, fuck a duck, what a boring post. I wish the Beej was still in town. I wish it wasn't so damned humid. Not necessarily in that order.

I'm gonna brush my teeth and go for a run.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Not sure about the vocals, but I'm calling it done cause I just packed up all my music shit today.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

In-Law Suite

We are now on day 7 with no kitchen sink. I think we've had either 3 or 4 plumbers out. All of them seem to diagnose the problem, propose a solution, and then disappear. Then the next day there's a different plumber and he does the same thing.

My birthday was last Thursday. It was pretty low key. The J-Dog and I both worked, and she got me a copy of Gena's photography book, which is awesome, and it was a perfect gift because I had been planning on buying it anyway. She also got me a copy of Pillars of the Earth, which I have been wanting to read for awhile. In the the spirit of full disclosure, I will reveal that my mom owned that book when I was little and I used to read the dirty parts. There weren't that many, but they were hot stuff. At least to an 8-11 year old.

Jeannie's parents came into town on Friday and stayed with us until Sunday. It was a good time, but it would have been better if:
1. Our kitchen sink worked
2. We lived in a house.
3. The house that we lived in had air conditioning.
Nonetheless, it was good to see them, and we cooked a nice dinner last night and supplemented it with some market-bought crabcakes, and it was all real tasty. And I managed to change a headlight on our car under the watchful eye of Jeannie's dad (who is a tremendous [and I mean TREMENDOUS] car buff) and not make a fool out of myself. Changing a headlight is pretty easy, and I wasn't planning on making a fool of myself, but I can pretty much fuck up anything if somebody else is watching.

I used Jeannie's deodorant this morning because her parents were asleep in our room (where my deodorant is) when I left for work. It was not strong enough for a man.

We started watching season 1 of Mad Men last week. It's good.

The album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, by Phoenix, is my favorite album of the year so far.

I worked a 13 hour day today and it wasn't that bad.

This week: pack up the apartment and start work on Julius Caesar.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Offer #2

Let's work backwards:

- this morning I went for a run and then did our dishes in the bathtub. Tonight: hanging out with the Beej and the A-Train. Dinner somewhere fun. Games, perhaps?

- last night the Jeanners and I made an offer on the place we've been looking at. The offer was pretty low, so we'll see what happens.





- Sunday after work our kitchen sink was clogged up pretty bad, which sucks because we had a lot of dishes to do, so we called our apartment people to let them know about it. They must've called a plumbing company and told them it was an emergency, because they sent a plumber out at about 9pm and he was surly about having to come out at 9pm on a Sunday. Apparently the clog was over 25 feet away from our sink, so his snake wouldn't work and he was unable to fix the problem.

- Saturday Pat and Teresa had a party for the Beej with some CSC folks down at their house. Really good food, beers, fun folks, cute babies. A good time.

- On Friday the Beej and I headed down to P & T's for our sleepover and geek games. Had a good time playing geek games, although it felt strange being out of my entrenched routine, and I missed the Jeanners somethin' terrible. Had a vodka tonic for the first time in a very long time.

It sure has been good gettin' to see BJ. Hope that when he's done with his PhD in a few years he ends up close by.

Thursday, August 06, 2009

A Hot Date

A good today. Went for a run shortly after I woke up, did some dishes, did some laundry, and then got to meet up with the Beej! He got into town last night, and is staying down at P & T's, and he came up to Baltimore for a hot date this evening. So this afternoon he came over and then we went up to the Rec Room for some delicious cheap burgers and conversation. A good time. Hanging out with the Beej at the Rec Room is sriously one of my favorite things to do. He will be in town for awhile, and tomorrow there is going to be a boys' sleepover down at Pat's where we play lots of geek games and talk about hairy butts.

Last night the Jeanners and I went to a neighborhood meeting for the neighborhood that we are potentially moving to. We heard a lot about crime, which was a little scary (but not too scary), and met some interesting folks. We were attempting to perhaps meet some folks who could assist us in our quest for a zoning variance for our proposed driveway. And maybe we did. It was a pretty interesting night.

What else? Still reading and enjoying The Time Travelers Wife, although it feels like its getting to be too long. That, by the way, is what SHE said.

Feels good to be running regularly again. Must remember to try and stay in the habit instead of being sporadic.

Monday, August 03, 2009

Respect My Wishes...

Last night I said the sentence, "Respect my wishes, bitches, which is: no kisses." and it felt like I was break dancing with my mouth.

I think that walks at night are the best.

I also enjoy reading in small pools of light in otherwise dark rooms.

I had several whack-ass dreams last night about Jeannie's brother, Seth.

I got new sneakers. For the first time in a long time, my sneakers cost more than $15.

Only two more days of work this week.

The thought of having a hearing before a zoning committee and contacting our potential future city representative and getting a petition signed by our potential future neighbors puts a little ball of dread in my tummy, but knowing that I would be doing all those things with the Jeanners makes it not-so-bad.

I am getting hooked on Trader Joe's mini pizzas for lunch because they taste like grade school cafeteria pizza. The rectangular kind.

I am reading The Time Traveler's Wife. Yes, I do feel a little bit embarrassed about it, but dammit, I don't care. It's pretty good. I watched a trailer for the upcoming movie and it looks d r e a d f u l.

We put clean sheets on our bed last night and they stank.

I am enjoying CD's by Richard Hawley lately. He's definitely worth checking out. This is the first song I ever liked by him:

Friday, July 31, 2009

Pong!

Last night Jeannie and I headed over to the neighborhood where we're looking at houses (and where our new apartment will be) to walk around and see what was going on. We walked around a bit and then headed into a restaurant/bar called the Parkside that we've been to a couple of times before. I like the place - it's relatively new, pretty spacious, well decorated with genuine old stuff, usually not very crowded, and nice folks working there. The menu could be a little better, but they usually have good beer. Well, last night we stopped in to have some beers, and noticed that they've set up a ping-pong table, foosball table, and air hockey table in the back. The bartender said that folks are encouraged to just go and play if they feel like it. So we did and had quite a good time. Free ping-pong is a good draw, I think. For me, anyway. I'll spend my beer money there in the future.

Today the Jeanners and I both had the day off, and this morning we met with a plumber and a general contractor at the house we're looking at. We outlined some of the changes we're interested in making, and they looked around and said they'll come up with estimates on how much those changes would cost. So we should find out some stuff by the middle of next week. We spent the rest of the afternoon down at the City Municipal building, getting city drawings of the lot and trying to find out if zoning laws would allow us to add a driveway to the lot. Basically, the laws don't really allow us to do exactly what we want, but because it's a corner lot we might still be able to do it. It's all a little confusing and overwhelming, but I think it would be less overwhelming if we actually owned the property.

Who knows what we'll do tonight? Maybe more ping-pong...maybe not.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

False Start

I thought I had to go to work today, so I woke up early and got to work at 7, as usual, only to find that it was actually my day off. So i got to come home and run a lot of errands instead. It was a decent day, got a lot done. It's starting to get hot.



Today I saw a woman in roller blades wearing shorts that did not cover her ass.

I went to the library today, and they found a CD that they said I hadn't turned in but that I really had.

The Jeanners made appointments today with a contractor and a plumber, we're going to look at the house on Friday and get estimates for the changes we'd like to make. Also, over the weekend we put a deposit down on an apartment (we'll be living in the apartment between the end of August [when our current lease is up] and when we find a house and finish making the major immediate improvements that would need to be made). We're glad to have found a place, but it's smaller than our current place, so we're gonna have to figure out how to make it work. Hopefully it'll be very temporary.

I feel like over the past few days I've had interesting things to write about but they have all escaped my brain.

The Beej is coming for a visit!

The Jeanners' parents are also coming for a visit!

I think August and September are going to be busy months.

Our friend Gena is an awesome photographer. She has a new book. At this site, you can see a preview of the book, and order it if you so desire, and vote for it in their readers' poll. Her stuff is seriously really good. I don't normally think people should make their living doing artsy things, but I think she should.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

No Jack & Diane. Idiot.

Went to the conert tonight. Got to Ripken stadium at 4pm (doors opened at 5) and there was already a bit of a line to get in, but luckily there were a lot of older people in the crowd who wanted seats, so I was able to get down pretty close to the front for Willie's set. This is what it looked like when I got there:



There was a forgettable opening act, and then Willie came on and started his set. He was awesome, pointing and waving and smiling, playing some wicked lead guitar on that beat up old guitar of his.





Unfortunately, during his set, a big storm rolled in with some nasty looking lightning, so he had to cut his set short and they made everybody clear the field. Sucky.



After awhile the rain stopped and the Coug came on. When they let people back on to the field, I was able to get right down in the center in the front row. It was a nice spot to be. The Coug did not play Jack & Diane, which I find nearly unbelievable. It was impossible, however, to not sing along during "Hurt So Good". At one point I noticed that the Coug was sporting a little bit of camel toe, although I think it was just because he was dressing a little bit to the side.



After the Coug finished up, Bob Dylan came on, and although I have heard bad things about his live shows, I thought it was pretty good. I was glad that I was up close because he doesn't do much physically but he does a whole hell of a lot with his face. Weird smiles and looks and poses. It was also really strange to see the relationship he had with his band. They kinda seemed to love him, respect him, hate him, and fear him all at the same time. And every member of the band watched him like a hawk. For the whole set. "Like a Rolling Stone" was definitely the highlight of the show for me. By the way, Bob Dylan's drummer was pretty awesome and looked a little bit like Jeff Tweedy.





Some fun facts about the shows:

1. I'm sure that Willie pointed at me and smiled.

2. The Coug plays a "G" chord differently than anybody I've ever seen.

3. The Coug's drummer looked like a cross between me and Richard Dean Anderson.

4. The Coug had a totally badass anorexic fiddle player. She was awesome.

5. Number of non-white people seen at today's event: exactly 3. One of them was
the Coug's bass player.

6. I ate a lot of food today for breakfast and lunch, and by the middle of the
Coug's set, the bowel-rattling bass guitar and kick drum nearly worked it all
out right onto the field. Luckily the sewage-stench of my farts in the crowd
was masked by all the pot smoke.

7. Bob Dylan is either very strange or very smart or both.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

The Freewheelin' Applebee's

Tomorrow I am going to go see Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan and John 'Cougar' Mellencamp in concert. The show starts at 5:30pm, and is at Ripken minor league ballpark. But first, in the afternoon, I am gonna go to motherfuckin' Applebee's. Because I have a gift card and I want a steak. And I'm gonna have a salad, too, and a baked potato with butter and sour cream. Aw shit. I am expecting nothing less than the best day of my life.

The Jeanners and I went to look at the house again. We are both leaning towards making an offer, I believe. The guy who used to live in the house was named Lino, and he used to write little notes on everything, like when the washer and dryer was installed, and who installed it, and how much it cost, and when they died. He also had notes where he would write down his name and address, and notes about the weather, and notes about his mood. He was a photographer and had a lot of his photos hanging in the house, some with little notes. I don't know. The house would need a lot of cleaning up and work, but it's in pretty good shape. And it seems to be the right size.

Earlier this week, I tried to give Jeannie the nickname "Stinko," but she got upset so I can't call her that.

I called in sick to work on Tuesday. Then I was off on Wednesday. And now I'm gonna be off tomorrow. It's been a nice week.

Still doing a lot of recording. Trying to do a little bit every day. Most of it sucks and just goes in the trash, but they're nice little lessons.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Strike That

I went to the strike for the Twelfth Night set tonight, and goddamn it if I didn't have a good time. Lots of people turned out to help, and although I'd much rather have a few competent people than a lot of incompetent ones, having lots of people around made it seem like a much more social event. Plus, I got to karate chop and kick boards and it felt good. Although I did get some rusty screws in the back of the leg. Jaw...locking...up......blargh.

The Jeanners has been playing around with the floorplan of the house with which we've had an on again/off again relationship, and come up with an idea that we both like, and one that requires a relatively small amount of work. Our realtor is currently on vacation, but maybe when she comes back we'll make an offer. In the meantime, we went and looked at some apartments, and we've got an appointment this week to look at another. It will suck to move twice, but it will feel good to have some temporary housing lined up.

Life feels alright right now.

I'm not a Pete Yorn fan, but there's a couple of songs on his new CD that I'm enjoying. There's one in particular that I really like, and there's two lines that stand out: The first is, "you kissed the best and had enormous breasts," and the second is, "I googled you in quotes - got no results." The second line in particular I'm interested in, because it seems really shallow and like a smug pop-reference, but there's also a very specific emotion and loneliness that runs underneath it. I'm impressed by lines that can have a completely unpoetic word like 'googled' in it but still conjure a very specific, sharp, and common emotion. I don't know, I'll just link to the song over in the playlist and you can listen for yourself. It's called "Social Development Dance."

That's all I got right now. Don't feel like getting up for work in 5.75 hours.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Hog Butcher to the World

The other day at work my back went all funny and I was seized up in pain for a few minutes. Then it would do that randomly every now and again for the rest of the day. But I went home and laid on the floor and iced my back and now it's been fine. Huh.

The house that we liked last week, we like less, although we still like it. It's very close to being the "right" house, although we're not sure that it's gone ahead and crossed the "right house" line yet. We'll watch and see if the price goes down. So tomorrow we're probably gonna go look at some apartments since our lease is up at the end of August.

Been doing a lot of recording. I think I've done more productive recording in the last few weeks (since getting The Boss) than I've done in the last 6 months. Feels good.

Some phrases that have made their way into the D and J vernacular:

"Dropping an L.G." - means taking a stinky shit at someplace other than your home bathroom.

"Taking a Harry Truman" - means taking a nap where you strip down to your underwear, but the nap is no longer than 20 minutes.

Finished A Brief History of Time. I was in over my head for most of the book, but I still enjoyed the read. Pretty interesting, and it made me think about stuff that I haven't thought about for a long time. Like astrophysics. I'm now currently reading Cormac McCarthy's The Road, which so far seems to be entirely about coming up with different ways to describe things as gray, dead, and ash-covered. But I'm liking it.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

A New Place

Well, there's another house that the Jeanners and I are considering making an offer on. We went and looked at it yesterday, and were expecting not to like it, but we both liked it. We were expecting not to like it because it only has two bedrooms and it is only one story and it is made out of cinder blocks. But we liked it anyway. I'm making it sound uglier than it is. It's actually pretty cute, and on a quiet corner lot. There's 17 trees on the lot. I know because went went back there this evening and counted the trees. We also got a chance to talk to 2 of the neighbors, Donna and Jackie. We also sat on the front porch to see how it felt. Felt pretty good. It also has a cool front door.

I had a good day today. Work was pretty decent, I think because I started my day by having a chat with Bobo Jubilee on my way inside from the parking lot at work. Bobo Jubilee is a guy who is a bouncer and multi-purpose man who works at the bar/restaurant near the B&N, and he deserves a blog post all to himself. Needless to say, he has the greatest name in America. He's also quite a character, and he comes into the B&N and orders wrestling DVD's with some frequency. Anyway, it's good to start the day with a chat with Bobo because he's a sweetheart. And he has a potty mouth.

For the past few weeks I have experienced the longest stretch of wonderful weather that I've ever experienced. It's been wonderful. A wonderful experience.

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

National Lampoon's St. Louis Vacation

The Jeanners and I took a trip to St. Louis last week. It was a good trip, and we got to see a lot of people (everybody except Drew, who, like us, was busy with familial obligations). Next time, Drew. The trip was not too hectic, and even contained a lovely day where jeannie and I walked around the south Grand neighborhood, and dropped in to see Shannon and little Adam, and ended up sitting and chatting for a few hours. Lovely weather, too. I felt strangely uncomfortable for pretty much the whole trip, though. I think it's because I don't really feel at home in Baltimore, and I don't really feel at home in St. Louis anymore, so I just felt very rootless. It was, in a weird way, comforting when we got home last night. It was good to see a lot of the cool kids, though.

The Jeanners has been gone all evening, so I've been doing some more recording. She just called a few minutes ago to tell me that she'd been driving one of the trucks from her work and it overheated, so she's stuck downtown with one of her Americorps workers waiting for a tow truck. Sucky.



This one might turn into something. Later.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Experiment #2

Tomorrow we go to the Lou!

Yippie. Ready for a vacation. Hope we get to see all the folks we want to see.

Last night I screwed around some more with the recorder. Until Jeannie told me to shut up and go to bed. She said it in a nice way, though.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Bell, Blevins, and Devoe

The Jeanners and I did not take our possible trip to the beach. Didn't feel like making the drive, didn't feel like spending the money for a hotel. So instead we spent the day up around Rocks State Park (the place where I lost my wedding ring about 4 years ago), and then decided just to drive around and see what we came across. Well, we ended up at York, Pennsylvania. Lots of pretty farm country around there, and we stopped and had dinner at a funny little family restaurant called the Taylor Haus, where I had the option of getting gravy atop every item included in my dinner. I opted for gravy atop 2 of the 3 things, but left my fries dry, as god intended them. Anyway, we had a fun time, enjoyed trying to find good songs on the radio, and enjoyed the numerous Michael Jackson songs we came across.

I have spent the past few days getting to know the new 8 track. Really liking it. It's easy to work with, does everything I would want it to do, and is totally portable. I smell possible car-recorded vocals in my future. While I was getting to know it the other day, I was screwing around and recording stuff and making up the track as I went along, and this is how it sounds:



If only the damn thing would come up with a melody line and write some lyrics for me, I'd be freakin' set. Still, though, I'm really happy with it.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Things that happened:

1. Michael Jackson died yesterday. I have no thoughts on the matter except surprise. And I feel sorry for his kids and sorry for people who got a lot of emotional satisfaction from his music and will miss him. RIP, Michael Jackson.

2. I had a DR. PEPPER today for the first time in like 10 years, and boy did it taste like SHIT. I don't know if I got a defective DR. PEPPER or if they've always tasted like that and I'm just now noticing.

3. The Jeanners and I hung out with the A-Train and her boyfriend last night, and we had a good time playing games and shooting the shit and going to dinner and having delicious ice-cream. Neither Aimee nor Jeannie wanted to play SORRY!, which made me sorry, indeed.

4. The Jeanners and I are considering doing something adventurous and fun tonight and tomorrow. Perhaps an impromptu overnight trip to the beach? Traffic will suck, but the question is, will it suck bad enough to prevent us from going? Also, weather concerns?

5. My new digital recorder arrived a few days ago, and I've been playing around with it and getting it all set up. I think it's gonna be awesome.

St. Louis next week!

Sunday, June 21, 2009

The Boss



On a whim the other day, I decided to bid on a used digital 8-track recorder on e-bay. I was a little bit surprised last night when I won, but pleasantly surprised because I got it for a really good price.

Some of the things I'm excited about:

1. It records in 24-bit resolution, as opposed to 16-bit resolution, so shit will sound just generally better and clearer.

2. On-board rhythm generator, on-board effects, and on-board phantom power for the mics, which means I won't need the computer, keyboard, or pre-amps when I want to record. Just the 8-track and a microphone. Between the POD and the 8-track, I'll have a nice little studio in 2 highly portable boxes. However, if I want to record something that's more involved, I can totally use The Boss in conjunction with my computer.

3. It'll be much easier working in real-time with knobs and faders than it has been working on my stupid, slow, crash-prone, mysterious-issue-having computer.


Looking forward to the arrival of this thing. Should be interesting to work with.


Also in the news:

Went to see Cyrano the other night with the Jeanners. I thought it was a bit too long but pretty damn good. Not really a weak link in the major players. Also, got to hang with PKP, T, and young FKP, which was definitely the highlight of the evening. PKP's been working tons, so it was nice that he was able to get an evening free and that we got to see him on it. Hopefully if my work schedule works out right, we'll be able to hang again next weekend.

Also: The other day I had two bananas in my lunch, and they were so big I felt a little embarrassed when I ate them.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Beware India

Again, not too much going on. I just had a little burst of energy and did a dance routine for Jeannie in the kitchen. She's on the phone, but she would give me little nonverbal signals to cheer me on. A thumbs up, a nod of the head, little suggestions about possible moves.

Jeannie went to a public-speaking group meeting tonight, so I had the evening to myself. I decided to waste it by playing Civilization III. I was doing OK, but I knew that if India decided to attack me they would wipe me off the map. They played nice for awhile and then perpetrated a vicious sneak attack. I then quit the game.

Pretty quiet week for houses. Nothing new caught our eye. Yawn.

The J-Dog and I have decided to take a trip to St. Louis in a few weeks, because she was able to get the time off, and I was able to get the time off, and we didn't know if there would be any other time this summer when we could do it. So from July 1st to the 6th, look the fuck out, St. Louis!

I think that when we go to St. Louis, I'm going to eat nothing but Imo's Pizza. Except on the 4th of July, when I'm going to eat 400 lbs. of pork steak and drink home-made beer until I go into diabetic shock. While wearing cutoffs and a half shirt. Fuckin' A! Imo's is awesome.

I'm off tomorrow. I'm gonna do laundry, dishes, cleaning, maybe start running again, probably do a lot of sweating.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Early Summer

Not too much going on, other than that the spacebar doesn't seem to want to work right.

Work has been entirely uneventful. It's been so uneventful it's starting to get spooky. I think that I could literally do my job in my sleep.

I've been enjoying getting home in the evening, watching the storms blow through, listening to lots of music, reading a lot, taking a walk with the Jeanners after dinner, enjoying a G&T, then hitting the hay. Strumming the guitar a lot. Thinking of trying to put three songs together to maybe play at an open mic night. Haven't decided yet.

I finished my Willie Nelson book. I'm glad to be done with it. It was just too much information about Willie Nelson. Then I finished Johnny Cash's autobiography, which I liked a lot better (and was a lot shorter) and which Jeannie is reading now and also (so far) enjoying. Now I'm reading Bob Dylan's Chronicles, which is, so far, pretty awesome. Really well written. Surprise, surprise.

When we move I think the thing I will miss the most is the way our stereo sounds in our living room. It sounds pretty perfect. I love sitting on the couch, looking out the windows and listening to music.



Our neighbors in the apartment below us have moved out, and the new people won't be moving in until September (after we've already moved, most likely), and it's pretty nice not having anybody living below us. They were nice and all, but I don't miss them.

Monday, June 08, 2009

Pig N' Stink

Last Friday we looked at 4 more houses. They only seemed to make us regret losing the other house even more. (sigh) Keep lookin'.

Friday night we went to one of Jeannie's Americorps recruit's house for a shabbat dinner, which I had never been to before and which was pretty interesting. I think that having to learn the Jewish blessing for bread and wine in high school when I was in Godspell, as well as a working knowledge of Fiddler on the Roof prepared me well for shabbat. I like the idea of a mandatory family meal once a week, but I don't think I would do well with all the rules.

Yesterday the J-Dog and I both had the day off, and it was a beautiful day, so we headed down to Virginia to visit Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello. I had been there with my parents when I was a little kid, but I had been wanting to visit again after reading John Adams last year. It was a good day. A nice drive there, a walk around the gardens, a tour of the house, lunch, a nice little walk to the family cemetary, and then home. He's a pretty inspiring dude, but also seems like he'd be a little too anal for me, what with the meticulous record-keeping and notes and turd counting. Plus the whole slave-owning hypocrisy is a bit of a turn-off.

For awhile now, there have been a few made up Facebook status updates floating in my head that I've really wanted to use, but they're a bit inappropriate for completely public dissemination, so I shall use them here:

1. DOB fu**** a horse!

2. DOB pooped it out!



Also, here's a snippet from a weird transaction I had with a customer the other day:


Dan (behind register): That'll be $20.07.

Customer (getting money out of wallet): Ok.
Have you ever had a colonoscopy?

Dan: No.

Customer: Boy, are you in for a surprise!


I've taken care of lots of chores today (two days off in a row! First time that's happened in awhile), and I've got numerous vegetables chopped up on our kitchen counter, waiting to stir-fry them when the J-Dog gets home for dinner. Yum!

Contemplating experimenting with an old-time air conditioner (blocks of ice sitting in front of a fan) this summer at night instead of a window unit. I wonder how much ice would melt over the course of a night?

Monday, June 01, 2009

A Kick to the Nuts

All week long I've been thinking that we were still going to end up with the house that we lost last week, because the house had still been showing up on all the listing web sites and stuff, and I figured that the listing agent told us that they had accepted another offer just to try and eventually drive up our bid. Well, last night, it finally went off the listing sites and showed up as under contract. So, barring any out-of-the-ordinary acts of god, we really have lost the place. It sucks. I'm pretty bummed. I totally thought this was the place for us, and it had been nice living in denial for a week, thinking we were still going to get it. Bummed, bummed, bummed.

Last night Jeannie and I went on a date, and it was pretty fucking awesome. We went down to Fells Point for dinner, walked a little bit and headed to Duclaw for some outdoor dining by the water. It was perfect outside weather-wise, and the food was good and the conversation was good and it was an all around perfect evening. After dinner we walked around down by the harbor and the water smelled like super diarrhea. Seriously. Imagine a toilet full of poop and how that smells, and then make the toilet and poop about as big as chesapeake bay, and that's what it smelled like. But even with the poop stench, a perfect evening.

Been listening to a lot of Bob Dylan lately. I'm just gonna go ahead and add him to my shortlist of musical geniuses. So far on the list is: Bill Evans and Jimi Hendrix. And now Bob Dylan. They all changed the game. I'm especially liking the 1966 concert from england. Anyhoo, all the listening is getting me super pumped for the Willie and Bob (and Cougar) show that I will be attending in July. I'm gonna try to get super close.

Also, hope to be done with my Willie biography soon. Next on the reading list: finish Johnny Cash's autobiography, then read A Brief History of Time, then Bob Dylan's Chronicles.

Bummed.

Bummed.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The Wait is Over

We didn't get it. Poop.

Also, I've decided that I'm gonna learn how to play pedal steel guitar.

The Waiting Game

So Jeannie and I made an offer on a house Friday night. And then on Sunday morning our agent, Lorrie, got an e-mail from the selling agent, who said that they'd received 3 contracts over the weekend and that we should make our best offer. The J-Dog and I talked it over and decided we were happy with our offer, so we left it the same and sent it back. And now we've been waiting to hear what happens.

The waiting is kinda sucky, although I think we've made the right choices through the whole process. I'm glad we made an offer, and I'm glad we didn't raise that offer, and I think we'll both be sad if we don't get it, but we're OK if that happens, too. Bleagh. The home-buying process is a little bit broken, I think. It seems kinda backwards. Oh well.

The last couple of days we've been helping out with the building of the set for CSC's summer shows. It's been a nice way to keep the ol' noggin' occupied during the house business. And it's been good to be outside and working on stuff, and at the same time not be in charge of building the stuff.

The other day, I think I figured out that my dreams (the nighttime kind) have, my whole life, been showing me (generally) the things I desire. When I was a kid, I dreamed a lot about flying and having magical powers and shit. When I was in my 20's, I would always dream about meeting and playing with famous rockstars. These days, it seems like my dreams are all about my friends, the most recent of which was a dream about Sean paddling a canoe against some swift rapids, and eventually falling backwards out of the boat. Cole and I were watching from the bank, and she went in to drag Spiff out of the water.

I'm not sure what my recurring shoplifter dreams are about. I guess anxiety or just the desire to do a good job at work or something.

I guess that's all I've got for now. I'm gonna go buy a red pepper and make a stir fry for dinner.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Size Might Matter

Holy cow, it's been over a week since I last wrote. If my own blog was listed in the handy-dandy chronological blog-list over there to the right, it would be down near the bottom. A very shameful place to be. Apologies.

If it has been a week since I last wrote, it's because my brain has obsessed with a series of houses that the J-Dog and I have looked at. The first one was big, somewhat rundown, on a huge partially wooded lot, and was somewhat affordable. I got pretty excited about it. The J-Dog less so. So the other night we had a big 3.5 hour discussion about it where we worked out how our finances would work, and rehab loans, and made lots of lists of work that would need to be done, and talked about the floor plan, and ended up deciding that it wasn't the right place. It was big, though. After our marathon 3.5 hour discussion, we both felt a little wiped out, so we went for a quick walk and then came home and I made us some accidentally super-strong G&T's (we had less tonic than I thought we did), and Jeanners got a little drunk. It was cute, although Drunky-Drunk didn't sleep very well.

I would be sad, but luckily the same day that we decided that the big place wasn't the right place, another house went on the market that looked pretty promising. It's super cheap (why?) and good sized and looks to be in a workable state of disrepair. And I went and drove by it last night and got out and walked around the outside, and now I'm convinced that this is the place for us. Unfortunately, we don't get to see the inside until tomorrow morning, so for the last day and a half, I've been a bit annoyingly excited about the place, which makes the J-Dog automatically (and understandably) take a more cautious look at the whole thing. My problem is I get too excited. I told Jeannie that if this house goes off the market before we get a chance to see the inside, I will go into a months-long depression and stop eating and let my fingernails grow super long and all that shit. But seriously, I think it could be perfect. And it's cheap.

What else?

I'm about halfway done with my mammoth Willie Nelson biography. It's OK. I'm still on a Willie kick, but now I'm also doing some listening to early Sun Records stuff. Elvis, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison. This Sun Records interest was sparked by starting to read Johnny Cash's autobiography, CASH, at work. It's really good. And much shorter than the Willie book.

Work has been un-remarkable.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Courier New! The Musical

Well, we went and saw the guys from Spinal Tap the other night. It was, at the same time, both entertaining and slightly depressing. Entertaining because they're funny, and they played most of the songs I wanted to hear (they didn't play 'Stool Boom,' but they did play 'This Bulging River'), and they did an audience Q&A (which I always think is ballsy); depressing because the whole thing had a bit of an 'old guys attempting to rock out with acoustic guitars' vibe. Nonetheless, enjoyable.

Last night I went over to Patrick's (formerly from work) place to watch the season finale of LOST. For the last few episodes, the show has been teetering on the brink of spinning hopelessly out of control, but with the finale they really pulled it back and took it in a whole new direction. Very good finale, and I'm glad I got to watch it with other LOST dorks in a social setting. And I had lots of Guinness, which always helps. In a strange coincidence, I saw Derrick last night on my way to Patrick's (Derrick is my old boss), and FCW was at Patrick's for the show (FCW is my old, old boss), so I saw my two former bosses on the same night in two different places.

We just got Helvetica from Netflix, on Schlueter's recommendation. If you're like me, you probably think a movie about a font sounds like a very very bad idea. This had better be good, Schlueter.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Cosmic Connections

There are 2 dates during the year that seem to have cosmic importance to me, dates where a lot of different things have happened that for some reason stick in my brain. One of those dates is Nov. 5th (Marty McFly, Spiff, J. Steinmetz, etc), and the other is May 10th. Today is:

1. Bono's birthday (I believe he is 75 this year).

2. My brother-in-law Tom's birthday. I will not disclose his age out of respect for the victim.

3. The 4th birthday of this here blog. Happy birthday, time-waster extraordinaire!


We're trying out a different kind of salsa. I don't like it.

Last night we watched Amadeus, a movie that both I and the J-Dog remember enjoying back in the day, but last night it seriously blew. First of all, it's fucking l o n g. Long like a big ugly dick. And it basically has one premise that it takes 3 hours to show to you over and over again: Salieri is jealous because Mozart is a genius and he (Salieri) isn't. I don't know. Like I said, I used to like it, so maybe it really isn't that bad, but I guess my taste in movies has changed a bit over the last 15 years or so.

There's a part of me that wants to see the new Star Trek movie, and another part of me that wants to drown myself just so that part dies.

Boy, it's a gorgeous day outside!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mutha's out there!

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

The, uh, death.

Not much going on. At all. Which is kinda nice a little bit. I had the day off work today, and I got many things accomplished, including a stack of dishes, an oil change, a trip to the gym, and a trip to Target where I bought a new package of white T-shirts and a new package of underwear. I should be set for clothes now until 2019.

The other day in the shower I was trying to think of my most embarrassing moments. Not sure why. I could think of two. Neither of them will make any sense without me describing the situations in which they occurred, but I don't feel like taking the time to set up those situations. The first was when I was talking to Aimee's mom on the phone and I said, "Sorry about the, uh, death." Perhaps the stupidest thing I have ever said to anyone. The second was when I attempted to make a funny joke by saying "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow," in a very slow and very monotone way. It fell flatter than any attempt at humor that I have ever witnessed, and I immediately felt a burning shame that made me want to throw up, take a shit, and set myself on fire. Perhaps coincidentally, both PKP and BJ were present at both of these occasions.

The J-Dog is currently a member of a jury.

Oh, I also made some brownies today.

Also, when I weighed myself at the gym today before I worked out I weighed 169.5 lbs. That would be awesome, but I think it might have been a fluke because when I weighed myself after the workout I weighed 173 lbs. Oh, but my workout did consist of eating 3.5 lbs of Toblerone.

Been reading The Buddhist Bible, a book I picked up from the used bookstore in Eugene, and it's pretty good, if you like reading scriptury-type things. Also still reading my Willie Nelson biography, which is making me think a lot about Sean. It's all about playing live music and what a central thing it was in the lives of all these young Texas and Nashville musicians in the 50's and 60's. Makes me wonder what it would be like if I was in a band.

Also, the musician Doug Sahm's name has been popping up in many places over the last few days. I don't think I have ever heard any of his music, but perhaps I shall investigate.

Monday, May 04, 2009

Bowling Execution

Been a busy weekend. Looked at houses yesterday and went then went to work. We looked at a house that if I were a single man I would totally buy (although if I was a single man I wouldn't be able to afford it, but that's neither here nor there), but Jeannie doesn't want to buy it. It's OK, I forgive her. I understand that it's not the right house for us. But it's big and old and cheap, and it has this attic on the third floor that you get to by going up this old staircase, and the attic is dark and eave-y and would be a perfect recording studio. It looks like this:


Today we went down to the DC area to help PKP and T move into their new place (which is new and beautiful and lovely), and we met lil' baby Finn (who is also new and beautiful and lovely, as well as chill, sleepy, and content), and it was nice to get to hang out and help out, although it rained pretty much the whole day. Then after we got home I took an hour nap and then went into work for an inventory, which was fine. At Pat and Teresa's I ate some pizza, and then at the inventory I ate some pizza. And I have pooped today about 20 lbs. worth of poop. But unfortunately I ate about 25 lbs. worth of pizza, which means my net weight gain is about 5 pizza-lbs. And now I'm staying up too late after the inventory. I will regret this tomorrow when I have to go to work in the afternoon.

I was straightening up the books in the Sports section tonight, and I saw a book called "Bowling Execution." Two words I never expected to see in the same sentence, and for a second or two I had no fucking clue what the book was supposed to be about.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Additional Casting

Been trying to cast a few additional roles that I've been having trouble with, but I think I've nailed them down.

Karista..........Jill Hennessy
K-Torr...........Brendan Fraser


Alright. I think that's my cast list. I think reading Tom Cavanaugh for Uncle Rico is a good idea, and I did think that Antwan Lewis was surprisingly BJ-ish (but I'm afraid Kenny Hotz has a lock on the role), but I'm just not feeling Jason Lee for me.

Been reading a lot lately. Re-read Crime and Punishment. What a great damn book. Finished White Teeth, which I enjoyed but not as much at the end. Tonight at work I started reading a biography of Willie Nelson that's pretty damned good, so I bought it. It's pretty big so hopefully it'll keep me occupied for awhile. A good music biography is usually pretty inspiring for me.

A semi- day off tomorrow. Lots of errands to run.