Friday, May 28, 2010

I do not take requests...

..but for you, A-Train, anything.

My thoughts on the LOST finale (I am surprised that I forgot to write about it yesterday): I was satisfied. Didn't think it was perfect, didn't think it was terrible. I thought it was a little on the cheesy side but that didn't disappoint me too much. I think, as a whole, the show is a nice, for the most part well-told story that peaked in season 2 but still had some really great moments throughout. I think that they kinda wrote themselves into a corner, leaving way too much story to try to tell in the last season, trying to cram in all the mythology stuff and the stories of the main characters, so a lot of it feels more rushed than the first couple of seasons.

But anyway, I thought it was pretty good, and a decent end to the show.

A lot of times I feel a little guilty about watching LOST, but I think Terry O'Quinn's performance as Locke, from start to finish, is what got me hooked and kept me watching. And, especially during seasons 2 and 3, Michael Emerson's performance as Ben Linus.

What'd you think, A-Train? (We should probably get this discussion out of the way online so that when we actually hang out we don't bore BJ and the Jeanners).

Another thing I forgot to write about: on Monday we had this dude come out and do a bit of a modified energy audit on our house. Basically, we wanted him to come out and tell us, if we're going to spend money insulating and air-sealing the house, what are the best, most cost-efficient things to do first and how should we go about doing them. Very helpful. A super-knowledgeable guy with a lot of good ideas, I probably got more out of it than I did out of our initial home inspection when we were buying the thing.

Alright, I think I have written about everything I forgot to write about.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Hot hot heat.

It's starting to be hot today. In the 90's. I'm guessing it'll be hot now for most of the duration of the summer. It hasn't been too bad inside, though, as long as you're laying on a bed doing nothing with a box fan blowing on you.

Today the Beej (who arrived in Baltimore while we were away in St. Louis) and I headed to the Rec Room for our annual outing of tasty burgers and catching up. Always a good time. He will be in town for a few months while working on Hamlet with PKP, so hopefully we will be able to get together and play some geek games at some point in the near future, as well as get together with the A-Train, who I haven't seen since last year, which is a disgrace considering she lives about 30 minutes away.

The J-Dog ain't home yet. Where is she? Affair? Probably.

The third season of Big Love is pretty darned good. We usually end up watching an episode from 9pm to 10pm and then hitting the hay. It's been a decent way to end the day, although we only have a few episodes left and then we'll have to find something else to do, like work on our torn up house.

Jeannie's garden is doing nicely, thanks for asking.

I shouldn't feel hungry, but I do. It's probably boredom and not actually hunger, though.

Willie Nelson cut his hair.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Eat My Fat ______.

We are home from our lovely St. Louis vacation. The quick and dirrrty rundown:

Saturday: Leave the Super 8 in St. Clairsville, OH. Arrive in St. Louis around 5 in the evening. Hang out at Jeannie's folks' house. Have dinner.

Sunday: Hang out at my parents' house.

Monday: School with Jeannie's dad. Lessons learned: tool sharpening, drill bit sharpening. Monday night: dinner at Olympia with Gena and Robin. A great meal and great company.

Tuesday: Head down to my family's clubhouse, Mossy Springs, on the Gasconade River. I'm not sure if I've ever written about Mossy before, but it's a cabin that my great grandfather and and some of his friends built in 1903. Been passed down among the families ever since. It's a very unique and wonderful place.

Wednesday: Another day down at Mossy. Returned in the afternoon and played cards and drank wine with Jeannie's mom and Grandma. Her grandma is a wicked trash-talker and I really enjoy playing cards with her.

Thursday: A slow morning, and then a surprise phone call from the J. Knese, who was working from home that day. He invited us out to lunch, and we ate at a wonderful little place called the Everest Cafe, a place where the J-Dog and I had never eaten. I whole-heartedly endorse their lunch buffet. I also whole-heartedly endorse J. Knese.

Dinner with R. Riley at the Big Bear Grill. The Jeanners had never seen his relatively new place, so we had a nice time shooting the breeze before and after dinner. I also enjoyed two different manifestations of potato at dinner and a couple of super-tasty cream sodas back at Chez Riley.

Friday: breakfast with Jeannie's grandma, then lunch with her friend Shannon and her new baby boy, then dinner at my sister's house. My entire family (19 in all) ended up going down to my sister's, and we ate most of 9 Imo's pizzas. It was entirely too hectic, and a little annoying, and it made me ready to leave St. Louis.

Saturday: School with Jeannie's dad. Lessons learned: sweating copper pipe. He also gave us some tools and some lengths of wire. Then in the early afternoon we left St. Louis. Highlight of the day: finding a Chipotle in Richmond, Indiana. In other words, the middle of nowhere.

Sunday: leave the Super 8 in Cambridge, Ohio (I liked it better than the one in St. Clairsville). Drive to Baltimore. Unpack. The Jeanners does some garden work, I clean up the house a little bit. Watch last Tuesday's LOST (the series finale is tonight, although I won't get to watch it til tomorrow).

Write in blog.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Super 8

We are in a room at the Super 8 Motel somewhere just west of Wheeling, West Virginia. It smells vaguely of cigarettes, disinfectant, and my farts. It's a decent enough room, but a little too close to the sounds of the parking lot and Highway 70. We've stayed here before, but neither of us remember when.

A nice, easy drive tonight, hopefully tomorrow will be more of the same. It's been awhile since the J-Dog and I have been on a road trip - I think the last few trips we've taken have been by plane. It feels good to be driving, I've always felt very comfortable on the road, especially on a long trip (although I like driving in Baltimore much less than I like driving around St. Louis) and the Jeanners and I usually do pretty well together on long drives. Although there have been a few where one or both of us gets pissy for some reason and then it's pretty awful.

It seems strange to me that the words 'awful' and 'awesome' mean the exact opposite of each other.

Should I wake up early tomorrow and go to the Denny's next door for breakfast before the Jeanners wakes up? (she's already refused to go with me). I think I might - I bet I could get some country-fried steak and eggs with biscuits and gravy. Holy Jeez that would be awesome.

Well, now I gotta go to bed so I can wake up early tomorrow.

Sunday, May 09, 2010

Forever Young

Tomorrow: Bono's birthday, my brother-in-law Tom's birthday, and the 5 year anniversary of this-here blog. Mozel tov!

Yesterday the Jeanners and I worked on putting some framing up for our future bedroom closet. We then headed down to the DC area to have dinner with PKP and birthday girl T-Pain. PKP makes a tasty black bean burger, fer sure. Had a good time lounging around and chatting, playing with Dr. Finn, who is walking around like a little monkey. We then headed in to the 9:30 Club to see Josh Ritter, who decided to play an evil trick on old folks like us by not taking the stage until 10:30-ish. So it ended up being a late night. But it was a good show, and Josh Ritter seems like A) he took a fistful of happy jumpy pills before the show, or (and more likely) B) he's just a super nice, happy, aw-shucks type midwestern type dude. The 9:30 Club is the type of dark, phosphorescently lit place that I haven't been to in a long time, the type of place that when you're young makes you feel very young and hip and alive, but apparently when you're old makes you feel very old and quiet and tired. I have to say that although higher-caliber bands seem to play the 9:30 Club, I much preferred the atmosphere at the Black Cat a few weeks ago when I went to see Midlake. I wonder what the next concert will be? I've been very happy with the shows I've seen this year. Here's to live music that don't suck!

One more week of work before we head off to St. Louis. Should we plant our vegetables before we go? Will we be able to finish the framing in the closet before we leave? I'm predicting yes and no, respectively.

Quotes of the day:

"Personally, I think I would have an easier time killing a bunny than a monkey."

and

"Why are you massaging that bird's anus with a Q-Tip?"

Thursday, May 06, 2010

We Can Now Bake Large Things But As of Yet We Have Not Taken Advantage of This Ability

I am off work today, and I have a list of things to do but not sure which things I'm going to get to. I would like to go to the gym, go to Trader Joe's, go buy some new underwear, go to Best Buy, update our MP3 player, watch Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, look for a birthday gift for T, have eggs and fake sausage for breakfast, and play Civ III. Not necessarily in that order.

I have begun the project GUT BEGONE 2010. I've been hitting the gym every day and eating better. My tummy and love handles hurt so bad that when Jeannie poked me in the tummy last night I just about started crying.

We went to a meeting of our neighborhood association last night. It was OK. Nothing too exciting. But I like that our neighborhood seems to include a nice mix of different races and classes.

The J-Dog and I got a lot of good work done last weekend. Fixed the oven, fixed (hopefully) one of the roof leaks, ran the vent pipe for our bathroom sink into the attic, and worked on the garden. Things are coming along nicely.

Remind me one day to tell you the story of Jerry Orbach's cousin. It's not that exciting or I would just post it here, but it's funny in a smile-not-laugh sort of way.

Hmmmm. What else? Yesterday the J-Dog and I were sitting on the front porch after work and we were watching the cutest little tiny baby rabbit munching away on some clover in the yard. It was the cutest little thing ever and it either didn't know to be scared of us (cause Jeannie strangles rabbits) or it didn't care and it was just munching away just a few feet from us. It was cute. In fact, it was the cutest little thing ever.