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December 7th, 2007
08:05 pm - ...damn...
...I'm so stuck in the new 4am...
'Vilnius Colony' is one of those haunting pieces, moving around like smoke in a noir b/w set piece.
And it may be one of the best songs I've heard in a long time...
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December 5th, 2007
03:08 am - Any crash you can walk away from...
...is a good one, right?
Tell that to my left knee, my lower back, my left elbow, my left shoulder and the base of my neck.
You all can see what happened, right?
I'm really at a loss for words right now: last I saw the car, the left rear tire was set at about a 35-degree angle and neither door on the driver side of the car could open.
The pluses? Hmm...
1 - I could get out of the car. I was wobbly, to be sure, but I could get out of the car
2 - Owen was not in the car. Yes, I was on my way to pick him up to bring him to school, and yes, if this had happened fifteen minutes later, he'd likely be in an ICU right about now (based upon the point of impact). So, I repeat: OWEN WAS NOT IN THE CAR.
3 - My side of the car got hit. The side without the gas tank - if he had hit me on the same spot on the other side of the car, he would have hit the gas tank dead-on.
4 - OWEN WAS NOT IN THE CAR; I have to keep reminding myself this every so often, otherwise, I'd be consumed by 'what-ifs'.
So today, I go back to the car and take out the car seats and everything in the trunk, then go to Enterprise and basically rent a skateboard from them, since that's all that's covered under my insurance. After that, I get my prescription filled for muscle relaxants and wait to see if either my health insurance or, barring that, my auto insurance, will cover the MRI that's needed.
Current Location: living room
Current Mood: sore
Current Music: hum of the refrigerator
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December 2nd, 2007
07:17 pm - Yeah, Yeah, Yeah...
I know - it's been two weeks (or something like that) since I last stuck something up here. But there's been a lot going on.
Honest.
Lessee - been busy with dayjob (review time), been busy with sidejob (more on that another time), been busy with sick family, been busy with school.
Oh, yeah - this whole thing with LJ and the 14 and over bullshit hasn't inspired me to post anything here as of late, either.
But I'm back - slowly but surely.
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November 13th, 2007
07:39 pm - T-minus 9 days and counting...
...at least I got my Thanksgiving menu written.
This'll be the third Thanksgiving I'm cooking at my place. Mostly, it's wifey's family, but my parents drive out from Port Jeff to spend the day with us.
It's a long drive, sure, but face it, they don't really feel comfortable anywhere else - too many people at one brother's house, and my other brother spends the day with his wife's family.
Anyway, I pick up Godzilla-I mean, the turkey-on Saturday, along with the potatoes and the herbs from the 'rents. Saturday morning is shopping for everything else at Fairway's and BJ's.
The shopping list is written, the prep list is set, so here's the menu:
Appetizer - Puree of Winter Squash Soup with Applewood-Smoked Bacon Gougeres
Entree - Apricot-Brined Roast Turkey with Pan Gravy
Mashed Potatoes
Cranberry-Orange Marmalade
Sweet Potatoes with Apple Butter
Green Bean Casserole (a concession for my mother)
Honey-Glazed Root Vegetables
Herbed Bread Stuffing
Creamed Onions with Thyme and Sage
Dessert - Deep Dish Apple Pie with Cider Reduction Sauce
Sweet Potato Pound Cake
Individual Pumpkin Puddings with Meringue Topping
Assorted Petit Fours: Bittersweet Chocolate Bark
Candied Orange Peels
Cranberry Clusters dipped in White Chocolate
An Assortment of Roasted Nuts
An ambitious menu, but I feel comfortable with it.
The only thing missing is the plum pudding with brandy sauce.
Current Music: Ozomatli - 'Street Signs'
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November 9th, 2007
07:21 pm - Writing choices
I've mirrored this onto the blog:
When I signed up for NaNoWriMo, I had several ideas to choose from. Obviously, I could only choose one, which leaves the others all dressed up - of sorts - and nowhere to go.
So, I'm going to do one justice and publish it on the blog.
And you, you have a very important task.
You get to choose which one I write.
The catch - you only get the titles, and you have to pick from that.
So, here's your choices:
The Decisions of Others
A Sort of Homecoming
snuff.com
Andiamo
Let me know, and have fun!
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07:44 am - Bee-hind
Soooooooo effin' behind.
I'm at 5500 words on NaNoWriMo, when I should be at...lessee, carry the three, and add...
fifteen thousand words.
I'm short by 2/3.
F!
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November 5th, 2007
09:10 pm - NaNoWriMo update
Sitting down for the first real writing session I've had since it started, and I've been able to plus down some 1000 words - and it's only 9 pm.
'Course, I just looked at Chris's page and damn him! he's already 6000+ words into it. Man, I only checked his profile 15 minutes ago, and he only had 3500 or so words.
I'm sure he's sitting there, going "heh heh heh."
Time to start firing on all cylinders.
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November 2nd, 2007
09:48 pm - NaNoWriMo
Okay, day two, aannnnnnnd I'm about 1200 words in.
Not a good start, considering I'm supposed to average about 1667 words/day, which that I should be over the 3200 mark today.
Sadly, yesterday and today did not work out well for me, time-wise. I'm hoping to make up for some lost time over the weekend.
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October 26th, 2007
02:44 pm - How's Your Weekend Look?
Because mine's gonna just jampacked full of fun!
Lessee...there's:
- accounting homework!!!
- pediatrician appointments - for two!!
- studying for a microbiology exam!!
- writing a manual!!
- rewriting a manual!!
Oh, the joy that is to be had this weekend!
Would that I could share it with you...
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October 25th, 2007
08:43 pm - An Odd Exchange
Wife: What are you looking at?
Me: A map of the the areas that are being hit by the fire.
(Wife looks over shoulder)
Wife: Oh,look - San Juan Capistrano's safe.
Me: ...
Wife: Otherwise, it would suck for the swallows.
Me: ...
Me: It's a good thing English isn't your first language, you know that?
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October 2nd, 2007
02:17 pm - The 4am
Warren's at it again...
He's gone off and started a new podcast of music donated to him by unsigned artists; he's calling it 'The 4am'.
I think his most successful attempt prior to this was the Apparat singles collection; there were some real gems in there - one song in particular I found to be ethereal and beautiful, made all too tragic by the fact that the lad responsible for that piece died (I believe) just before Warren added it to the playlist.
Sadly, I cannot remember the name of the song or the artist's name, either. Fragments of it echo through me even now.
This first 'cast contains what he says is the quieter of those songs. Quieter or not, I'm enjoying every single second of it.
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11:05 am - So...November
Yes, you read that right - I'm talking November.
Why?
Because I just signed up for Nanowrimo.
50,000 words between November 1 and November 30.
This should be fun.
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October 1st, 2007
08:45 am - Scorecard
Kevin: 2
Mice: 0
Oh, hell yeah!!
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September 27th, 2007
12:32 pm - 250 words: sci-fi version
Is available for viewing here.
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September 26th, 2007
07:53 am - geekgeekgeekgeekitygeekgeekgeek...
So I walk through the door yesterday to be set upon by two small hairless monkeys, each holding one end of an oddly-colored...box (fuck if I know any other way to describe it). "Daddy," they're yelling, "this is for you."
I'm about to ask when I see a word on one side - in fact, knowing full well what day it was and what was happening in the outside world that day, it was the word.
Halo. To further add to my surprise, amazement and shock, the number 3 was printed after it. I knelt down, took it from their little hands and looked at it full-on.
Yes, my eyes were not playing around; I was looking at Halo 3 The Collector's Edition.
Of course, as with everything, there was just one little problem.
I don't own a Xbox 360.
Oh well, easily remedied: a quick walk to Game Stop, and now I have a 360.
So, it's time to get my geek on.
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September 17th, 2007
07:27 am - Five days?
Doesn't feel like five days since I last posted.
Spent part of the weekend out East, going to the vineyards out past Riverhead. Only hit three - Lenz, Pindar and Bedell.
If I had to describe each one in only a short sentence, it'd go something like this:
Lenz: Obviously, they're not using their best wines for tastings.
Pindar: Motherlode for tastings, but felt like the new singles scene.
Bedell: Calm, soothing, high end wines.
In the end, we avoided buying any wine from Lenz whatsoever, and bought nearly a case from Pindar (Autumn Gold [chard blend], Pythagoras [cab/merlot blend], cab port, gamay [without a doubt, my favorite red grape]).
From Bedell, spent way too much for a vintage chard, but it is definitely worth the money. At least, I thought so.
Until we landed at Mirabelle for dinner with the parents. Because the chef, Guy Reuge, had won the Silver Toque earlier this year (past winners include Alain Sailhac, so this is no small potatoes kind of deal), he put together a prix-fixe menu: app, entree, dessert and wine for $48. Wifey and the parents all took that, so I got to try the house white.
And there was the best glass I tried that day, hands-down. A Spanish chardonnay. The waiter wrote down the label info for me, so I'm going to google it later and try to source it out, since house wines are notoriously difficult to find.
Of course, the menu as well: Mom had tomato-watermelon soup, wild mushroom risotto and raisin-ginger souffle; wifey had almost the same menu, but substituted the soup with rabbit pate.
Dad had the soup, followed by roasted monkfish, cranberry beans and some other stuff (fish special of the day) and a sorbet plate for dessert. Finally, I had the seared foie with roasted root vegetables and balsamic reduction, saddle of lamb stuffed with merguez sausage and served with cippolini onions, chanterelle mushrooms and garlic-corn flan, and chocolate mousse cake for dessert.
In the end, it was a good time for us all.
Current Location: office
Current Mood: full
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September 11th, 2007
07:36 am - 9/11 Anniversary
Yes, the fifth anniversary was last year, but this is the one that's got me a little on edge, since the 9/11/01 was a Tuesday.
Pop quiz - what day of the week is today? Thank you.
I was on my way to work when it happened. I actually got into work when the first tower fell. We all looked at each other, packed everything on ice (I was working at a fish market in Grand Central at the time), and we sent the hourly staff home. Myself and the rest of the management team finished closing down and went outside.
As soon as we got outside, I ran into my friend Tony, who was - I guess - trying to get into Grand Central to get home. We made sure we were both okay, then went our separate ways. I looked at the guys I was with and we all sort of said the same thing at the same time: "Bar."
We found an Irish pub a few blocks up and huddled in, watching the news while we sucked down pints of Guinness like they were going out of style. After my third pint, it occurred to me that I may want to try and find wifey, let her know I was okay. No phones, obviously, so I started the walk up to the UWS.
I think it took me the better part of an hour, but I finally got to the building she worked in. I got in, and after a couple of minutes standing there, shocked and hugging, we decided to make our way home.
We walked from the UWS all the way to Canal when we decided to see if we could catch a subway. We tried the M and lo and behold, we were able to get onto the first one working. Because it was the first one, not a lot of people knew the subways were back in service yet, so it relatively empty at that time. We sat there, silent, as the M crossed the bridge, watching hundreds of people walk across on the roads.
Once we got home, my first priority was to let everyone know that we were home and safe. Once that was done, my next job to make sure that the people I know who worked around Ground Zero were safe - specifically, Mike and Jody. Mike worked on one side of the towers, Jody's office was on the other side. The lobby of Jody's building was being used as an emergency triage center, and Mike's was covered with dust.
But everyone I knew was okay.
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07:21 am - Right now
Wifey is out in the rain, taking Son #1 to his first full day of Kindergarten. Son #2 is probably accompanying them in the stroller, complaining that he'd be much happier if they were all still home.
Good luck, little buddy.
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06:51 am - Yesterday
...was just a big ole bear of a day.
Not to say that it was bad - there were certainly more good parts than there were bad ones. It was just that the bad ones made things more stressful.
Good: Son #1 (no names, remember?) had Kindergarten orientation. I took him because we couldn't find anyone to take care of Son #2. While everyone there was required to show up for orientation in uniform (catholic school), he was the only one to show up wearing the winter one - everyone else had the summer one on.
Anyway, he met his teacher, saw his classroom and had some fun. Me, I got the paperwork, speeches from the principal and Monsignor, and a box of candy to sell.
Good: Email gabbing with Michelle. Hadn't done that in a while, and we both had a lot of laughs. Especially towards the end there. And I still believe whisky can make everything better, dear.
Bad: My accounting class - the homework, at least. My professor posted a worksheet last week for us to use in conjunction with the homework assignment. It specifically states that we will not be required to show the work in the final submission.
So what happens when I open up the file for the homework submission? Three questions which all state the same thing: 'Make sure to include your work for full credit.'
Not only that, but instead of the 15 questions on the worksheet, there are 17 questions to be answered in the submission. Also, question 15 from the worksheet is now gone.
WTFuckery?
Bit the bullet, struggled my arse off through the new problems. I opened the worksheet up on my laptop as a new file and put all the work on there. I submitted the completed worksheet to the professor, along with a note voicing my concerns over these changes (I also sent that as an email), then finally submitted the actual homework.
I don't care if I lose points for complaining - at least the complaints are on record now. To me, that's a win I'd like to have.
Current Location: Office
Current Music: Scofflaws - 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly'
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September 9th, 2007
08:29 pm - Looking Back
My father reconnected with the best man from his wedding sometime last year (the reconnecting thing, not the...you know, wedding), and they've been fast friends since then.
I took this cue as an opportunity to find some people from my past, specifically my best friend from grade school We went to different high schools very far from one another, but kept in touch at that time - he even got me my first job.
It was once we hit college that we lost track of one another.
Hopefully not any longer - found his sister's name on Classmates and got in touch with her. She cc'ed her brother and now I've sent a note to him as well. Turns out he lives in SD with his wife and kids.
Here's to seeing what happens.
Current Location: Brooklyn living room
Current Music: Rob Zombie - 'Dragula'
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