Snow

It's been snowing here in the mornings every few days. Snow is pretty awesome. I like it.

I continue to be busy as hell.

When this show goes up, I'm going to use the massage gift certificate that my girlfriend gave me for my birthday.

Death!

Another false start dies on the table...

"Get On Your Boots" is not a good song.

I have heard the new U2 song, "Get On Your Boots," and I would like to go on record as saying that it is grade-A poop. Doo doo. Brian Eno, I am disappointed in you. Hopefully the rest of the album will be better.

I am currently reading John Adams. It's a very good book, and I usually hate non-fiction stuff. But the J-Dog and I watched the HBO miniseries about JA a few months ago, and it was good, and it made me want to read the book. So I'm reading the book. It's better than the miniseries, but I'm glad I saw the miniseries first. One complaint about the book: I think it would be better if the title was Juan Adams.

Thanks to everyone who took part in the DOB quiz. I'll post the answers sometime in the future, but I would like to say that Karista, you got a C because you didn't answer most of the questions (did you forget to turn the test over?), and OAA you got high marks for effort, but I unfortunately have to give you an F.

Been very busy working on stuff for the set. Jeannie and I have worked together at the Habitat shop a few nights, which has been nice. Not looking forward to spending my whole day and night off tomorrow working on show stuff.

The Quiz

First, let's start off with this video that K-Torr posted on Facebook:




I have the morning off, and it's the first weekday morning off that I've had in a long time. FORESHADOWING: I think I'm going to fix myself a version of my all-time favorite breakfast.

Jeannie and I went over to Katie's last night for dinner, and we had a good time, and a tasty lentil soup and kale salad and Guinness. I have discovered, though, that lentil soup seems to pack a lot of gunpowder into the ol' ass cannon, if you know what I mean. And I think you do.


Next: Work was super slow yesterday, so I had some time to work on the quiz that I mentioned the other day. Test your knowledge of DOB.

You have 1 hour to complete this test. Timing will be done on the honor system. Answers will be posted in a few days. Good luck.


1. What is my all-time favorite breakfast?
a) 2 bowls of Lucky Charms with milk, 1 banana.
b) 2 eggs over easy, 3 pieces of bacon or sausage patties, toast, juice.
c) 3 fried eggs, 1 can of black beans, 3 TBSP salsa, 1 TBSP lowfat greek-style
yogurt. Mash it all together.

2. How many siblings do I have?
a) 0
b) 1
c) 2
d) 3
e) 4

3. What is my oldest childhood memory?
a) J. Hines peeing on the boys' bathroom wall -- kindergarden
b) Cutting my head on a chair leg at the bank -- age 2
c) Afternoon walks with my mom through the neighborhood, spelling W-A-T-E-R on
sewer lids -- age 4
d) burning my eyelashes and -brows on the cake at my first birthday party.

4. What is my current favorite song of all time?
a) "All I Need" by Radiohead
b) "Brothers on a Hotel Bed" by Death Cab for Cutie
c) "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)" by U2

5. I prefer to wear:
a) boxers
b) briefs
c) boxer-briefs
d) commando
e) bikini briefs
f) thong

6. My least favorite coin is:
a) penny
b) nickel
c) dime
d) quarter
e) Kennedy half-dollar
f) Susan B. Anthony dollar
g) Sacajawea dollar

7. I have 3 bullets. Who gets them?
a) D. Finlaysen, A. Beanstock, B. White (local NPR personalities)
b) E.V. Arnold, Ross, Beatles Guy (B&N loons)
c) George W. Bush, Karl Rove, Ann Coulter (political players)
d) Dane Cook

8. Favorite Soup?
a) vegetable
b) pea
c) ass
d) clam chowder

9. What is my preferred style of government?
a) monarchy
b) democracy
c) communism
d) despotism

10. If I could live during any past era, it would be:
a) Wyoming, 1870
b) New York, 1950
c) England, Medieval Times
d) Dinosaur times

11. My favorite nostalgic TV show is:
a) Growing Pains
b) Who's the Boss?
c) Silver Spoons


EXTRA CREDIT



ESSAYS

Please write a short essay on one of the following topics:

1. Describe one of my typical days at the power plant.

2. Describe a typical day for me in Kirksville, MO.

3. Describe a typical day for me at the B&N.

Rebloggin'

Jeannie's brother, Jake, recently visited the Hoover Dam, and posted this picture on his blog. It's a sign at the dam that lists some of the lingo used by the folks who built the damn. As you can see, those folks was dirty as hell. Banjoes and Crutches, indeed. Step aside, Donkey Punch, here comes the Candy Wagon.

I worked outside on the set today after working at my real job, and it was cold as shit. My poor little nubbin fingers got all frozed up.

Rev. Al

I have decided to legally change the name of my car from "The Reverend Al Crawford" to "The Reverend Al Crawford Slater". That way, I can still refer to him as "The Reverend Al", or just "Al," but I can also call him "The Reverend A.C. Slater." There. It is done.

Jeannie and I have not known where to start with this whole "maybe buying a house" thing, so on Saturday morning we had a meeting at a place called Live Baltimore, where you can basically just go in and ask a realtor questions about buying a house in Baltimore. It was super helpful. If you're thinking of buying a house in Balto (or as we like to call it, "Chesapeake Shakesb'more", ) I'd recommend it.

Is diarrhea funny because it's a funny word, or because it refers to liquid poop?

I've been having lots of weird dreams lately. Many of them involving Ricky Elz. The other night I had one where me and Ricky and Bosco were riding in the back of a car that was being driven by some high school girls, and the high school girls drove to their high school and us guys were waiting for them in the back of the car while they ran inside to get something, and we were talking about how back in the day it would've been really cool to be in the car with three high school girls, but now it just seemed kinda dumb. And Bosco said, "The only thing I want from these high school girls right now is for one of them to watch my kid so I can take a nap." Which I thought was pretty funny.

I think I had that dream because Jeannie and I had recently watched a "Family Ties" episode where young high schooler Mallory had to fend off unwelcome sexual advances from creepy family friend "Uncle Arthur."

I've been super busy lately, spending a lot of my free time working on the set. It's going pretty well. I feel well prepared, mainly because I've been making construction drawings and actually planning out what I need to build before I show up to build it. Strangely helpful.

I think that sometime in the future I'm going to post a quiz called "How Well Do You Know DOB?" I was thinking about it today in the shower.

Busy as Hell, Bitches.

I been busy as hell, bitches.

But tonight me and the ladyfriend are goin' on a date.

Dinner Time

It's a nice time of day on a Sunday. Dinner time. I'm making the sauce and prepping the vegetables and defrosting some tofu for a kick-ass stir fry. Writing this makes me sound like I'm a good cook or that I'm that one that makes the good meals in our house, but the truth is that the Jeanners usually does all the heavy lifting when we make something for dinner that is more involved than pasta, pizza, or veggie burgers. But she's at the gym. So I'm trying to be helpful and getting shit ready so that she can do the actual stir frying when she gets home. Because large pans full of boiling oil scare me. Probably because I cook shirtless a lot.

So the sauce is done (4 cloves of garlic!), and I'm listening to the "good jazz" playlist on the ol' MP3 player, which I'm convinced is probably one of the greatest playlists in existence on Earth. It really is good. All instrumental stuff from the 50's and early sixties, except for Frank Sinatra's In the Wee Small Hours, an album which, hopefully obviously, has vocals.

I lost a bet this evening. I bet Jeannie that Eddie's market would have chili garlic paste, and she bet that it wouldn't. I was so sure that it would. I was so very sure that I told Jeannie that when we got to the market, I was going to buy 2 jars of chili garlic paste, one to use in the recipe and one to smear all over her face. Because she lost the bet. But she didn't lose the bet. I lost the bet. But we ended up finding some chili garlic paste at the cute little halal market where we buy flatbreads. It really is cute. But I hate losing bets.

We got some good work done today, transporting the set pieces that we built at the Habitat Shop over to the theatre, where they will live for the next couple of months while they get prettied up for the show.

Why is the overhead light on in our kitchen? Yuck.

Alright. Time to cut vegetables.

Whoa, I almost forgot to add that the other day I was looking at James Taylor's christmas CD and I decided that I have an inexplicable hatred of James Taylor. I kinda just want to punch him in his face. But he seems like he'd be an OK guy, so I don't know why I have that feeling. I also want to punch Carly Simon, but that's because her last CD was an insult to the human race.

Auld Lang Syne

Does anybody know what "Auld Lang Syne" means? Neither do I. So last night, while Jeannie and I were over at Katie's for New Year's Eve, we decided it means, basically, the equivalent of "oh well." As in:

"Oh no! I've missed the train and now I'm late for work! Auld lang syne."

"Shoot! I just spilled coffee on my brand new trousers! Auld lang syne."

"I've forgotten all my old acquaintances! Auld lang syne."

My car is in the shop, because a mystery belt is squealing loudly and randomly, and the J-Dog and I had to get up early yesterday to drive it there. And then I had to go to work, and then after work Jeannie picked me up and we got some Thai food and went over to Katie's, where we watched The Kite Runner (which, we pretty much all agreed, was not a very good movie), and sang/hummed "Auld Lang Syne" (complete with harmony). We were home by 11 and promptly asleep, and did not wake up for any fireworks/random-Baltimore-gunfire that may have occurred at midnight.

While in St. Louis over Christmas I got a bunch of clothes that belonged to my Uncle Larry. Some of the clothes make me look and feel like Jimmy Buffett, especially a pair of turdy mustard brown loafers for which the J-Dog displays a keen dislike, but hey, free clothes.

Also, speaking of clothes, I read in Entertainment Weekly that 'lumberjack chic' is now "in." Finally, the look I've been sporting for well nigh 12 years now is starting to get some props.

I have one New Year's Resolution: use my time better. Yep, I am adopting the hoary old chestnut, Carpe Diem, as my motto for 2009. I think I'm gonna start by getting my ballsack pierced.