Thursday, December 30, 2010

Serious Slacking

Where to even begin? Let's try here:

So a couple of Sundays ago Jeannie's brother Jake and her Dad arrived from Detroit (Jake lives in Detroit and had driven to St. Louis to pick up her Dad and then back to Detroit to work on his [Jake's] house and then to Baltimore (The Mo')) for a few days of visiting and hard work. We attempted to go to Hamilton Tavern for tasty burgers but the wait was too long, so then after a few false starts and wild chases of goose we headed over to Pappa's for some relatively forgettable seafood. Then on Monday and Tuesday Jeannie and Jake and Roger (her Dad) worked on the house while I went to work and ran my ass off in the pre-Christmas busyness. They worked mostly on electrical-type work. Sorting through the old crummy stuff and figuring out how to run new pretty stuff.

Then on Wednesday I was off work and we were all able to work on the house together. It was good times. We hadn't seen Jake in like 3 years, and in addition to being handy as hell he's fun to be around. So that was cool. And Jeannie's Dad was fairly calm and chill the whole time and probably one of the hardest workers I've ever seen and super-knowledgeable. So we had a real good time, and we talked about merkins and eventually made it to the Hamilton Tavern for a real long wait and some tasty burgers.

Thursday morning the Jeanners and Jake-o and Roggie drove off early in the morning and headed to the Lou for Christmas vacation. I stayed home and worked a long, busy day. Then on Friday morning I headed to work for a half-day and then drove to the airport when I was done around noon. Unfortunately, I was in a bit too much of a hurry to get to the airport and I rear-ended a small SUV a short distance from work. So I hurriedly exchanged information with the other folks (their car was fine, the front end of mine was a bit busted up) and dumped the car in the employee lot at work (it was drivable but leaking fluids). Took a taxi home from work ($27!) and jumped in Jeannie's car and headed off to the airport. Made it to the gate with 20 minutes to spare. No need to have hurried in the first place.

Christmas vacation was busy and mostly fun and a little bit of a blur. Saw lots of family members, got to hang with Ricky Elz finally and also got to see Karista and Drew, which was a most pleasant surprise. Also got to spend some quality time with Richie Rich, who introduced us to the Big Chief. I will leave that entirely open for interpretation. Ice skated, ate way too much, drove around a lot.

On the last day I was in town, I headed over to see my parents, who had bought a computer for themselves for Christmas. I spent the afternoon teaching them some basics and then headed to an AT&T store to set up their internet service and order a modem/wireless router for them. When I say the basics, I mean THE BASICS. This is what a left click is. This is what a right click is. This is what a file is. This what a folder is. This is called "the desktop." It was pretty funny. And also fun. They are funny.

Then the Jeanners and I flew back on Tuesday morning (a large snowfall narrowly missed The Mo' and landed just north in Philly and NYC and such) and I headed in to work on Tuesday afternoon. We shopped for some new pants for me, we took care of taking the car to a shop and getting a rental car while the insurance co. figures out if they're going to fix it or total it, and we did some work on the house. Which brings us to right now. Jimmy Smith is playing on the CD player, my butt is falling asleep, and I think I'm gonna have a G&T made with gin given to me by a co-worker.

My shoes are horrendously stinky. I think they are the worst smelling shoes ever. Must buy new shoes.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Sweet Little Jesus Boy

It seems like every year I find one Christmas CD at work that just pumps my nads for the season. Last year: Phil Spector. This year: Andy "Fuckin' A" Williams. It is a bit overblown and schmaltzy, but whatever. I personally like his rendition of "O Holy Night" and a song that I had never heard before, "Sweet Little Jesus Boy." I also like the title "Sweet Little Jesus Boy." Perhaps I will steal it for my autobiography or auto-biopic.

Jerns and I have done some good work during the last week. We're doing some more demo, tearing out a wall between the kitchen and the future 3rd bedroom. As a result, there is now a little plastic bubble-room in our kitchen. It looks like this:



Also featured in that picture: Jeannie wearing a towel on her head. There, now you've seen it.

Tearing down the wall also involved moving a water line for the refrigerator ice-maker (which kinda sucked), some phone wiring, and a doorbell + wires. I enjoyed tinkering with the doorbell, and tinkering with it makes me want to invent and build a fully-electric xylophone. Perhaps when I have free time again (and after I have perfected the art of playing the pedal steel guitar) I will devote my life to the pursuit of the EX. (Electric Xylophone).

Getting back to the plastic-bubble room: It is fun to turn off the lights in the kitchen and then turn on the work lights in the bedroom behind the plastic bubble room. Kind of a weird theatrical lighting effect. Maybe in a future set I'll incorporate the plastic bubble room.

The Jeanners and I both have the day off tomorrow. The plan: lumberjack breakfast and then mucho worko.

I bought a backgammon set the other day. I just said what the hell.

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Slacker

My 700th post.

I have been a slacker lately and not written in nearly 2 weeks. Apologies. No good reason, I suppose, just busy and haven't really felt like writing.

The other day I took a poop and it was the largest turd (girth-wise) that I've ever dropped. Just thought you should know. I felt a little violated afterwards.

Worked on mixing Spiff's song for the week after Thanksgiving. Sent it off a few days ago. I was mostly happy with the results, although when I was mostly finished I went back and listened to the rough mix that they had sent tom me along with the tracks, and realized that there were definitely things about their guitar sound that I liked better than mine. Not a fun thing to realize when you've put in a few days worth of work. Nonetheless, I think the song sounds good, and I also got to work out a bit of a Diddy-style remix. There's talk of maybe adding a little bass part at a future date.

Tami's production of A Raisin in the Sun opened last night, and the jeanners and I went to the show. The kids did a pretty great job and the show went well. It was great to see how excited they were at the end during the curtain call when all the people in the audience were screaming and clapping for them.

After the show, I headed up to the Rec Room for a little gathering to celebrate the promotion and impending departure of one Brian G from the Towson B&N. He will be taking over as the receiving manager over there in Pikesville. Best of luck, G-Man.

I haven't heard Car Talk in weeks. Sad faced.

I have probably contracted mesothelioma while working on our rear bedroom. But we got some good work done. Hopefully more good work will continue as we get closer to the end of the year.

Work has gotten busier but not crazy yet. Today it seemed like everybody and their mother wanted to tello me their life story. Why? Why? I'm still working on perfecting my "I'm sorry, I'm sure you're a very nice person and I'd like you to continue coming here, but please stop telling me things about yourself because I really don't care, and I just want to put away those CD's over there behind you" facial and body language.

Waiting for Jerns to get home.

Ugh.

Hm.

Hmmm.