I am resisting the urge to watch 'The View'...

...and I'm writing in my blog instead.

What a good morning it's been so far. Today's my day off, but I got up early this morning to go into work just to help make sure the day goes nicely for all the suckas that have to go the B&N today, and I headed to the gym and had a nice workout. Then I came home and made myself some bacon n' schmeggs and I've been hanging out with my girlfriend, singing along off-key'ly to Christmas carols and reading OAA's blog. Right now we're listening to a bit from the Nut-racker . I mean, Nutcracker.

Last night after work, the J-dog and I headed over to Aimee's, where we shot the shit and helped her with her large Christmas cookie baking tasks, and I got to satisfy my month-long craving for good ol' delivery pizza. Papa John weaved his magic, and I ate a whole damn pie. It was a good time, and it was good to hang with the A-train, who we don't see nearly as often as we should, and who seems to be enjoying life.

How shall I spend the rest of my day? The only things that are definite at this point are a shit and a shower.

Hangin' Over

I am proud that I didn't make any flagrant spelling or grammar mistakes in last night's post, as I was pretty drunk when I wrote it. I had to concentrate very hard to not screw anything up. And today I was feeling the pain. Not too bad (I didn't make salsa or sleep on the bathroom floor or anything) but 5:45 rolled around pretty early this morning.

This morning at work we had our secret santa gift exchange, and there was also a little luncheon for some of the folks, from which I got to eat some of the leftover scraps, which were very good. A nice ham sandwich with mayo and cheese. Eating it made me remember the 1 or 2 Christmases when I worked at Honeybaked Ham during X-mas break. When I learned the many many uses of ham fat. The best part about HH was that they paid for lunch every day, and laid out an awesome spread of ham, turkey, and other fixin's. Yum. I do not miss the job, though, because it was boring.

One more day closer to being done with the busiest time of year! Woo-Hoo!

Game and Gin Night

Tonight, after a relatively shit day at work (it actually wasn't too bad, considering that today was December 17th) we had Katie, Elizabeth (not from work) and Chris over for Chipotle, G&T's, and games. The Chipotle wasn't quite as good as the one in Towson (I thought) {I'll give it a couple of months to get better}, but the G&T's were good (and they did the trick), and the games were fun. Even for Elizabeth, who is a self-described non-game fan.

I'm ready for it to be December 26th. I'm tired of large crowds at work.

Jeannie bought some handmade soap today that smells like cloves.

A mere 8.5 shopping days left

Busy busy day today at work, but not too bad. Busy enough that the day flew by, which is a good thing. And no Christmas-ruiners.

I'm a bit weary this evening. I don't think the Jeanners slept very well last night so I'm guessing she is, too. She's in the shower right now. She went and volunteered at Hab. For Human. (her former employer) today with Alison, a former Habitat coworker who is now engaged and living somewhere in the farther-north Northeast. Boston, maybe?

Last night we watched the 90's David Lynch movie Lost Highway, and though it had a slow start we eventually got into it and it was ok.
I remember owning the soundtrack for that movie. I think I sold it in college so that I would have money to buy large bottles of gin. I'm glad that I no longer have to sell things when I want to drink.

I don't know what we'll be doing this evening. Maybe wrapping presents. Maybe watching another movie. Maybe just hanging out. I think we'll be staying home and laying low.

Whiz

In Chuck Berry's, "Run, Run, Rudolph," Rudolph is described as 'whizzing across the sky,' which I think is a funny image. For me, it conjures urine more than something moving quickly.

That being said, the days are whizzing by.

Last night at work was kind of fun, because at the end of the night, Cindy and Marlene were out on the floor helping to straighten up, and we were all yelling to each other from different aisles, and joking and talking about going home and drinking and there was just a general sense of comraderie that sometimes exists at the B&N and sometimes does not. I like it when it does.

My parents are putting up their Christmas tree today, which historically was the only time that we children ever heard my father cuss. Well, it was the only time when we could expect to hear my father cuss. There were , of course, odd hammer-to-thumb moments when he would let a throught-the-teeth goddamnit slip out, but putting up the tree day was always good for some verbal fireworks.

Bacon is frying in the pan.

Man or Machine?

Yesterday was perhaps the most productive day I've ever had at the B&N. I went through a lot of receiving, made a lot of money, and straightened up the department, all by myself. It was a busy f'ing day. Probably tonight will be a repeat.

Dan C. stopped in to the store last night. I hadn't talked to him in awhile, so it was good to catch up a little. He seems to like teaching very much.

Yesterday the Jeanners and I took the most wonderful nap!

Today before work maybe I'll try to do a little X-mas shopping. I also have to buy plastic-ware for several luncheon-type things coming up at work.

RETAIL NOTE: Whenever a person wearing a brightly colored, "festive" hat approaches me at work, I always assume they're going to be annoying. I am rarely disappointed.

13 shopping days left until Christmas!

Today kicked my ass around a bit. I just got home and am enjoying the first of what will probably turn into several gin and tonics. One of those days...

It actually wasn't too bad, just busy and far too long. I did have one nearly-Christmas-ruining customer, though, just as a I was leaving. Just an unhappy, unpleasant person.

Once again, I find myself thinking good thoughts for Elizabeth. She has been on my mind all day and I hope she is ok.

Also, I'm looking forward to my wife getting home because I fear that I'm going to see far too little of her over the next 13 days.

Monday morning meeting

Not much time to write, as I'm off to work in a few minutes. Work has gotten pretty darned busy. Here's the skinny:

1. Friday on my day off I wiped Jeannie's hard drive clean, reinstalled Windows, and then reinstalled just the basic stuff we need on it. Now it's running like a champ. Why didn't I do this sooner?

2. Saturday night after work we had folks over for dinner. It was a good time, with good wine and good conversation.

3. I'm sleepy!

Baby Bosco

Well, the day has finally arrived when my good ol' buddy C. Bosco told me that he and his ladyfriend Susan is gonna have them a baby. How 'bout that? We had a nice chat this evening, although I was saddened to hear that they won't be coming in to the 'Lou for X-mas.

One of the things we talked about was the strange phenomenon that I've noticed for awhile (maybe since starting blogging in earnest) where I don't want to answer anyone's e-mails or phone calls anymore. Why is that? Is it somehow because of the blog, or is it just a natural side effect of aging?

Speaking of aging, I have been accused by some of my younger supervisees at work of being an age-ist. Which is probably at least partially true. I've been feeling old lately, and I'm probably taking it out a little bit on those bastards who are still in their prime.


Tonight Jeannie and I are straightening up our apartment because we have people coming over for dinner on Saturday.

Also, tonight the new Chipotle down the street (opening on Saturday) was offering some sort of sneak-preview free burritos. The line was out the door and down the street. So I did not go.

Also, tonight Jeannie and I received our Christmas present to ourself, a new big ol' harddrive for our computer. So I'm backing up a bunch of her files and then we're gonna wipe her computer clean cause it's got too much crap on it. Then we're going to make it her lean, mean, AutoCAD-ing machine.

I'm off tomorrow! To the gym with me!

If I die of cancer, some possible causes to look into:

1. Hotdogs
2. Popcorn
3. Toxic, nasty dust from the B&N
4. Walkman usage
5. Dish soap residue left on dishes
6. Bacon and/or eggs
7. Gin and/or tonic

Grand Opening

The Chipotle down the street will be opening on Saturday, Dec. 9th. Unfortunately, we're having some folks over for dinner that night so I won't be able to christen the damned thing on opening night.

This morning I got up early for a meeting at work, then went to the gym, came home and slept, and soon it's back to work this evening. Saturday and Sunday were the first days where it felt like we were really getting ready for Christmas, i.e. it was busier than usual, but not too bad.

I was in bed last night by 8:30pm. Sad. I am old and tired.

Prairie Home Companion

Tonight Jeannie and I almost went X-mas shopping but we ran out of time because we both went to our respective gyms (which I want to try to do regularly throughout December because it keeps me feeling better and it also keeps me from getting fat little man-titties.), so we ended up watching Prairie Home Companion instead, during which I realized that Garrison Keillor reminds me of the picture I have in my head of the character James O. Incandenza (from Infinite Jest). Which reminds me, Patrick from work recently showed me an artice in Newsweek (Time?) about the 10th anniversary of Infinite Jest, and there was a picture of David Foster Wallace, and in the picture he looked like the spitting image of John C. Reilly, except with longer hair. And John C. Reilly was in Prairie Home Companion. Which brings us full-circle.

I give the movie a nice solid B.

We are not getting any of the snow that is schlumping across the Midwest, and dammit, I'm ready for some snow. It's hard to listen to Christmas music all day when it's 65 degrees outside.

It is almost time for G&T/Letterman and then time to make the sleepie.

to Drew: You should've seen me play Feste. I was freakin' hi-larious!

Not really.


also to Drew: just when I thought I would never see anything gayer than this...
...you go and post the picture of your new boots.

Update

The Mark Kozelek cd is good. The kind of songs I would write if I was any good at writing songs. Acoustic, open tuning, mopey voice and lyrics.

Here is the view from the kitchen this morning:


The dishes have been done and the kitchen is relatively clean.

Addiction to CD's Nuts.

Are you like me? Has it been bothering you for the last few days that when I wrote "inadvertantly and unknowingly" in the last post that I might have been redundant? It's been bugging me, but I've been too lazy to actually dig out a dictionary and check. If it's been bugging you, I'm sorry...

I have been buying cd's like a mofo this week. SInce I last wrote, I purchased a Duke Ellington CD for an absolutely awesome version of 'Auld Lang Syne' that it contains. Then, yesterday at work I saw that Mark Kozelek (from Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon) has a new live CD. So I had to buy that, too. I know, I know, I should be saving money for when Chipotle opens up down the street. Which should be soon, it looks like. Holy Jeez, what am I going to do?

Today I'm off work and I'm going to do some laundry and take our recycling to the dump.

If you were sitting next to me right now, you'd probably say, "Jeez, Dan, you stink." Because I haven't taken a shower yet today and I smell pretty bad.

Here's what it looked like out of our kitchen window when I got home from work last night:

Questions and Comments are welcome...

Well, thanks to A-Train, I came to discover that I had inadvertantly and unknowingly enabled "comment moderation" on this here blog, which means that the blog wasn't publishing anyone's comments until I approved them, but I didn't know I had to approve them. So I had a big long list of everyone's comments waiting for me to approve. So I have approved them all, and I turned off comment moderation, so feel free to leave your comments and tell me what you think of my life.

So I will now address some of the things that came up in the comments:

1. Sean, you don't get a prize because you are in the picture. Of course you know who took it.

2. No, Becky, I have never cut my fingernails with a knife. It's never gotten that bad.

3. Tim Bantle! Howdy!


And now, on to the things that have been going on...

Last night, A-train Aimee came over and we had some Thanksgiving leftovers and then sat around and shot the proverbial shit. It was a good time, and somewhere in the middle of the conversation I decided that I could go for a nice big G&T, and then another, and another, and by the time Aimee left I was a bit drunk. I always feel a bit strange when I'm the only one who's drinking. Usually because then I'm the only one who's drunk. But I guess it doesn't make me feel too strange, especially when I'm with folks as close as the Jeanners and the Aimers. After Aimee left, the Jeanners and I went out for a walk, and it was a nice quiet night.

Yesterday during the day, the Jeanners and I got some good work done (maybe plugged our mouse hole [if ya know what I mean...] and fixed our annoying squeaky bed) and I also worked a long time on some recording that ended up being not very good. But it was fun to work on it. Maybe I'll stick it up on the Myspace site...

Work has been pretty good. Still owe many phone calls to people.

Rah, Rah. Sis-Boom-Bah.

Why has writing in the blog seemed not as interesting as it used to? Is this a phase? Will this pass or will the blog slowly die? My guess is this will pass.

At work we are entering the holiday mode, which I don't think will be too bad this year. I wrote a note today to everybody in the department, laying out some helpful hints about how to deal with some of the shit that will undoubtedly come up when the store is full of people, and also just kind of a cheerleading note to say that it could actually be a decent time this year if we all help each other out, because we've got a good crew of fun people. So work was fine, uneventful, and I'm off tomorrow which should be nice. The plan is to hang out with A-Train, who we haven't seen in about a million and a half years, and with whom I will now be able to swap B&N war stories.

I said that work today was uneventful, but I forgot to mention that today I heard that they caught two people having sex in the womens' restroom yesterday at the B&N. Which is fine with me, but I'll bet the two people weren't married, which I think is immoral. I'll bet that people never have sex in the mens' bathroom at the B&N because I keep it smelling like feces so much.

Tom Waits has a new 3-disc set! Zowie!

Thanksgiving

Well, here it is, Thanksgiving Day, and the Jeanners and I are in the kitchen, listening to Garrison Keillor and preparing our Turkeyday feast. Turkey, stuffing, mashers, vegetables, and many pies. It's a grey, cloudy day here, but we're having a good time so far.

Last night we watched Citizen Kane. I thought it was pretty good. The Jeanners fell asleep.

Tomorrow begins the screaming drive towards Christmas at work. I'm enjoying these last few days before things get crazy. Although I'm hoping that if the department is scheduled well it shouldn't be as hectic as years past.

Hope everyone is having a good holiday!

Keep Soaping!

Today is a day of mixed emotions. Happy because I have the next two days off, and tomorrow is one of two days during the year when the store is closed and I don't have to think/worry about it. Sad because we're usually in Ohio at this time of year, and we miss our buddies there. But also a little excited because we know that having a break from our usual Thanksgiving festivities will make the next time we get together all the more rockin'. But anyway, I hope that all is well in Ohio and that everyone's Thanksgiving is peaceful and happy.

Today the plan is:

1. hit the gym.
2. inspect our bedroom and kitchen to see where the mousies might be coming in. (we think that the living room has been properly sealed.)
3. make stir-fry. Yeah! Stir-fry!
4. I also, at some point, need to call or e-mail my brother, to whom I have owed an e-mail or call for some time.

'Twas good to hear from Sean about his recent trip back to the Midwest for his (gasp) 30th birthday. When did we all get so damned old? And yet, I'm sure the boy can out party any 18-29 year olds that care to challenge him...

Drew's blog made me laugh today. Perhaps I should change my online alter-ego to turduckenboyden? It seems that fame jumped right from the standard "turkey" directly to the "turducken", and my beloved "turken" never achieved mass popularity. But then, why have a chicken inside a turkey when you can have a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey. 'Tis the American way.

1/2 Day

Sometimes it is more fun to work a half day than it is to have the entire day off. Today was one of those days, I went in to work early for a meeting, stuck around with Elizabeth and got some shite done, and I am now at home, about to put some hot dogs in the pot (not a euphemism, I'm literally going to put some hot dogs in a pot and boil them), and listening to a new cd that I bought for myself.

Today is the type of day I think of when I think "November." Chilly, grey, breezy. Bleak but peaceful. I think the beauty of November is often overlooked after the flashy melancholy of October. But I think it's rapidly becoming my favorite month.

This evening I head in to HCCA to take down the ladders from Love's Labors. Then we're having a meeting to start talking about the summer shows, then a general company meeting. So it'll be a lot of CSC stuff going on this evening. I'll think I'll bring some beer to keep things interesting.

The cd that I bought, by the way, is James Brown's Soul on Top. It's good stuff, especially when you keep in mind that James Brown is absolutely insane. Rolling Stone had a good article a few months ago, and the gist of the article was that James Brown is currently incredibly bonkers, and I believe that article. But anyway, this cd is pretty good, lots of James Brown-esque screaming and wailing, the kind that my dad hates so much. And a big band. It's a big cd, good for playing loud in the car.

jlhgljhghgfhfgddfg

I have been piss poor on keeping up with the blog lately. Mainly because I've spent the last couple of days wrestling with Jeannie's computer, attempting to rid it of viral infections. Yuck. I hate arguing with machines.

Not too much else going on.

Been enjoying The River in Reverse, by Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint.

Hope all is well at the Schluetermetz house.

The Break Up

Ah, I've been working a lot, but I have the next 2 days off. One day of chores and errands, one day of perhaps recording or perhaps sitting on me bum.

The Jeanners and I had a good anniversary. We went to a Greek restaurant called "Samos" located in, well, Greektown. Which is a little distance away, but it was worth it. It wasn't very fancy, the stuff we ordered was relatively cheap, and it tasted almost as good as the stuff at Olympia. I think that with a little lettuce and some feta cheese (which I'm sure can be added next time), the gyros will be just as good as Olympia. And I now know that the Greek sauce-stuff that I like so much is called "tatziki" or something like that.


Yesterday at work a guy came into the department, and looked very well groomed, black leather jacket, vaguely and generically and slightly foreign. He asked if I worked the department, then said he needed my help and knew absolutely nothing of what he was talking about. Then he said, "I will tell you the truth. I am breaking up with my girlfriend, and I want to give her a song that will make her sit and cry for weeks and weeks." Well, at first my mind blanked on good breakup songs. I wanted to say, "Jeez, jackass, the entire Blood on the Tracks album is great for breakups, but he didn't seem like a Bob Dylan type of guy. Plus, I had no idea if the breakup was due to the fact that she did something bad to him [i.e. does he want a mean breakup song?..."Idiot Wind"] or because he did something bad to her [does he want an I'm sorry breakup song?) or did it just end? (in which case a just plain sad breakup song would be in order). In the end I suggested "Gone for Good" by Morphine and "Lost Cause" by Beck. He listened to samples from the songs but didn't seem too impressed. I'm not sure he and I looked at breakups in the same way.

Year after year of hellacious torture

Tomorrow is the second anniversary of the wedding of the Danners and the Jeanners. We are planning on celebrating by going to a greek restaurant. Whenever we are in St. Louis, we always eat at Olympia (a greek restaurant) and have the deluxe gyros (one of the few instances in which the Jeanners eats meat), and every time we're there we always say, "We have to find a good greek restaurant in Baltimore." So tomorrow, Operation Find a Good Greek Restaurant in Baltimore '06 begins.

In all seriousness, I think this will probably be our last anniversary. I give the marriage maybe six months more, tops.

Sad news has cancelled our Thanksgiving plans. So the Turkeyday will be different this year, and surely not as good as it always is, but we will either find something else to do or else enjoy a few days of doing nothing.

We had our annual holiday meeting today at work. At 6:45 this morning. It's the one time of year when everybody that works at the store is gathered at the same time. Which I always think is kind of fun. Anyway, it was fine.

Thassall for today!

How come you never say "Golly Moses" after we kiss?

The Jeanners and I were going to go see LOVE's LABORS tonight, but I was too damned tired when I got home from work. So we stayed home and watched THE PHILADELPHIA STORY instead, which I was not expecting to like but ended up liking a lot. Basically it's about a bunch of rich white people who get trashed and then hungover. But with Jimmy Stewart, who I always enjoy.

Also, we caught another mouse tonight. I have a feeling that as the weather gets colder we'll be catching bunches. At least we seem to be catching them now before they get a chance to settle in and we really get to know them. Still, it makes a person feel pretty damned guilty.

Had a really rude customer today, someone who was belligerent for no reason, not just annoying. Haven't had one of those in awhile. 'Tis almost the season!

US-6 Mice-0

We caught another mouse last night. I think that puts the total at 6 since we moved in at the beginning of July. That's more than 1 a month. The mice still seem to prefer the death trap to the happy trap. Maybe we should just buy a fox...

Right now Jay Farrar is playing on the Itunes radio station we enjoy so much.

Last night I (finally) did not wake up in the middle of the night due to dreams of shoplifters. I did, however, have a dream that I was an usher on Letterman.

I like to think that, in most areas of my life, I employ a healthy mix of cynicism and hope. But when it comes to politics, the cynicism really rears its ugly head. I hope that in the coming years my inner thoughts are proven wrong and that somehow the U.S. government becomes a lot less interested in killing people and more interested in subsidizing the sagging compact-disc industry.

Cutting off hands seems reasonable to me.

The shoplifters are getting to me. It's very depressing to find a bunch of things stolen every day and not be able to figure out who the f*@# is stealing all this shit?! Especially when you think the person who is stealing all this shit is a damned kid.

This morning before work Jeannie and I were listening to an Itunes radio station and in the course of about an hour I heard Greg Brown, Daniel Lanois, Nick Drake, Elliott Smith, and Ron Sexsmith. Not too shabby.

I think I've decided that when it comes to obscenities in the blog, I'm going to follow the example of The Goonies. Which means that you can say "shit", but the f-bomb is reserved for very extreme circumstances.

Tomorrow night I have plans to go have a half-priced burger with Patrick From Work and then watch LOST. I am looking forward to it.

Everyone Absolutely Must Vote

I do not actually believe the above statement is true, which I'm sure would make some (most) of my friends angry with me. But oh well.

Last night as I was parking my car at the end of the night, I saw a fox rummaging through some garbage and then trotting nonchalantly across the street.

Every night this week I've been waking up in the middle of the night with nightmares about shoplifters. It seems we're having a problem in the department at the B&N with the thievery.

Well, everyone have fun voting!

Great Scott!

Ah, November 5th, 2006. Twenty-one years ago, Marty McFly took his fateful trip back in time. Thirty years ago, the world welcomed one Seanyboy Spiff. What a day!

It's Sunday morning, and I have the day off, thankfully. Last night at work I felt like I was getting sick, but I'm not sure if that was the case or not.

What shall Jeannie and I do with our day? We have no plans except to make a large stir-fry dinner this evening. We were talking about maybe playing outside, but it's not a very sunny day.


Well, after writing the previous sentences, Jeannie and I went to the gym, went to Trader Joe's, and came home and had a nice bacon n' schmeggs breakfast. Now I'm going to lay on the couch and relax.

Last night I listened to Steinmetz Family Rhymin' at about 1 in the morning and it made me sad, partly because it's so good and partly because I miss my friends a lot. Thanksgiving!

The phrase for the day is: baby seal cracker pig.

"Hello Dear. Senator. Babs."

The title of this post is my favorite line from the Alfred Hitchcock film, Strangers on a Train, which the Jeanners and I watched this evening. It was nice to sit around and chill after a long, relatively annoying day at work.

Love's Labors opened tonight. Hope everything goes well.

Right now the Jeanners and I are resting on the couch, and I have a feeling that we'll be in bed soon. I'm pretty damned tired, and her eyes are closed, which means soon it will sleepy time for us both.

Hoops and jumping

I am blogging this blog on the road. I'm currently at the Howard County Cente for the Arts (known to those in the know as HCCA) where I was doing a little work on the lights and set for Love's Labors.

I spent my entire day off working on b-crap for the B&N, and I'm still not done. Some of the b-crap will be helpful in the long run, but much of it will not. I wish I could say, "Well, at least I'm getting paid for it." But I'm not. Dammit.

I desperately need a haircut. And I need to call my parents.

It's been beautiful autumness here.

Potpourri

Strangely divergent things going on for the next few days. I have 2 days off (which hasn't happened in awhile) and here's some of the things on my non-existent to-do list:

1. Laundry (today)
2. Eye Doctor Appointment (today)
3. Go to HCCA to finish and touch-up the set (today)
4. Watch LOST (tonight)
5. Do 2 months worth of hypothetical schedules and daily assignment sheets for work (tomorrow)

That's about it. I guess it's not really as much as it seems like in my head. But doing all the scheduling stuff tomorrow is probably going to take many unpaid hours. Why am I volunteering my time to a huge corporation? Because I care, dammit.

A couple of days ago I switched our music library over to Itunes. I hate all things I-related (ever since the deaths of my Ipod, as well as Apple's practice of making all of their hardware and software incompatible with other brands [to the point that when I install Itunes on the computer, it loads some sort of malicious script that makes it impossible for me to open Musicmatch Jukebox -- and the same thing happened when I tried to install my Creative Zen Touch MP3 player onto the computer; I couldn't install the damn thing until I had uninstalled Itunes]), but Jeannie and I have been enjoying listening to the Internet radio stations included with Itunes. Plus, now we can (easily and legally) download many more This American Lifes for our upcoming road trip to Ohio for Thanksgiving. Yeah, Thanksgiving!

Yesterday was my 4 year anniversary with the B&N. It was also my dad's 4 year anniversary of his retirement.

Here's what the Jeanners looked like (with friend Katie) last night for Halloween:



She asked that I not post this picture, but I believe that freedom of expression is one of the things that makes this country great. I think the lesson here is that if you don't want people to post pictures of you as some sort of blue wizard on their blogs, then you shouldn't take any pictures of yourself when you are dressed up like some sort of blue wizard.

Did anyone else catch Letterman the other night when Borat was on and he made the reference to "wizards sleeves?" Funny stuff.