Denver in Monsoon Season

You may be thinking but Denver does not have a monsoon season, it never really rains there, you're funny.. Unfortunately I'm not kidding, this week has been nothing but massive thunder storms, the kind that light up the sky so bright you would swear it was noon not midnight! Here is the weather recap: Monday - sunny and warm till 3pm, then rain, rain and a shit ton of rain till about 1am. Tuesday - same. Wednesday - same. Thursday - sunny and warm till about 3pm, then massive rain till about 6, then clear and warm till about 11pm before more rain.. It's certainly frustrating when you're teaching and looking out the windows at sunny clear skies and right before you get out of work the skies open up. Everyone tells me that this *never* happens in Denver and that they apparently broke the July rain record in three days (Mon-Wed).

I will not let the rain damper my week, well at least not totally anyway..

Really I guess for me the rain started on Sunday night, I was in Minnesota and they were trying to hurry people on the plane so we could try to take off before rains came, that almost worked.. We got out on the runway and were 7th in line to take off, then 6th, then 5th and then RAIN!! We got to sit on the runway for a long time with the plane getting rocked back and forth before finally taking off, the only good thing about it was I was in first class for that flight so I got all the free drinks I wanted while we got pounded by rain. Got into the hotel WAY to late and had a hard time sleeping because I napped on the plane.

Monday was recovery night, I ended up going to a mall that is near the hotel. It's an old indoor mall that has been added to outside, so there is a outdoor Irvine Spectrum type mall with a normal indoor mall in the middle. It was a pretty neat juxtaposition, they had lots of really good food places and I ended up picking the Fish City Grill where I had blackened catfish and crab bisque. The bisque was amazing and the fish was very well cooked and spiced, the veggies were pretty bland and not really cooked enough. New Belgium Brewery (the guys who do Fat Tire) have a bunch of different beers down here, they are made about 90 mins from Denver. I had their Belgium Dark Ale (don't remember the name) at Fish City and was nicely surprised at how good it was.

Tuesday.. Well, I decided to skip past Denver and drive an hour west to Boulder, why you ask, what's in Boulder?

No, not Pabst, but the feeling was there.. Avery Brewery is in Boulder and was certainly calling my name. I was thinking even if the food sucks at least the beer will be awesome. Imagine my surprise when the food was actually REALLY good, I had a chicken bacon wrap which comes with avocado, greens, tomato and a pesto mayo. They offer tasting size glasses of beer which are $1 for most and $4 for some of the special beers. I got a flight of Dry-Hopped IPA, Eighteen Anniversary and the Reverend. For dessert I had a tasting of the Eremita which is a sour (think the Beast) that is aged in wine casks. I picked up a few shirts and was talking to the manager about getting beer shipped, while talking to the manager he asked which beers I've had and when I was poo-pooing the idea of Joe's Premium American Pilsner as just another pilsner he poured me a free taste and I have to say it was actually good, might be one of the first pilsners I've enjoyed, it had a nice hop finish. Avery cannot ship beer across state lines to a resident, but as expected I was making friends while at the bar and found a girl interested in a micro brew swap, I am going to see about mailing her beer and she will do the same. Gotta check CT/MA/RI beer shipping laws. On the way back the roads were VERY flooded and I ended up getting detoured off 25 onto a side street which was then closed about a block later, had to sit in the car for a while waiting for the rain to slow down and the water level to drop. I have a Kia Soul and the water was about half way up the door, it was window high on some of the other cars sitting on the street with me waiting.

Wednesday I decided to hit the 16th Street Mall in Denver which is a big walking street between Union Station and Broadway (about 15 blocks). I parked on 15th and then the rain hit as I was getting onto 16th. I ran into Rock Bottom and had a beer while I waited for the rain to at least slow down. Once the rain slowed a bit I ventured out and walked up and down the street, it's a nice walking street with lots of restaurants. For dinner I ended up at the Yard House because they had Avery on tap and their mac n cheese2 is amazing (had it before).

Last night I went to the Rockies game, they played the Brewers who apparently were still on the all star break. The Rockies gave them a sound beating 12-3 getting 20 hits in the game. I like to see offense in games but after a while it just gets old, especially if you don't really care about the teams and just want to see good baseball. The Brew Crew certainly did not play good baseball. The stadium however is as nice as everyone says, it's beautiful and the view as the sunsets is breath taking. I got out of work and the sun was shining, got on the train (the wrong way) and then switched trains at the next stop to the correct way, by the time I passed my original stop the sky opened up and before we got two more stops I could see rte 25 completely flooded again and the side streets were rivers. I'm so glad I decided on the train instead of driving. Got to the city and walked around the outside of the ballpark, no rain is going to stop my ritual of walking around the outside of a new ballpark! It maybe should have, I was so wet I could have pissed myself and nobody would have been able to tell. I did not partake in that however as my underwear were probably the only dry thing I had on. Before the gates opened I went to the bar across the street and had New Belgium Brewery's summer ale, it was ok. Gates opened and I headed in. Got a Rockies Dog which is a hot dog with bacon crumbles, blue cheese crumbles and blue cheese dressing! It was so good. Other food highlights (did not eat), a salad place where you start with a base salad and pay per ingredient you put in, a gluten free booth that had brownies as well as gluten free rolls, a gilato place and a rib joint.

Today, I'm going back to Avery for the brewery tour and to try their Double Dry Hopped Maharaja which is a special keg they are tapping today at 5pm.

- Diversion of the Day

pushups - take 2

I forgot to mention the main reason I was writing a blog tonight. I decided to jump back into the hundred pushup challenge, I know you're thinking "but you did that already and completed it" and you are right but I feel I am getting out of shape and want to do it again. This time I'm also doing the 200 situp challenge and the 200 squat challenge. Did the initial tests for pushups and situps on Monday night and did my first official night of them today. Due to my initial test I am starting the pushups on Day 1 of Week 3 at the highest rank which means I had to do 80 pushups today. Due to my unimpressive situp test I am starting in week 1 day 1 at the lowest level so I ended up doing 2o situps today. When I was done I didn't feel done so I jumped into the squats test, last time I did squats I couldn't do more than 5 and even those were tough, tonight I did 31 squats which puts me in the top tier of day 1 / week 1. I will start the first official day of those on Friday when I do my 2nd day of situps and pushups.

In Pittsburgh

Has it really been almost a month since I've posted a blog?! I guess so.. Anyway.. Last week I was in Santa Clara CA, I woke up to my alarm and literally seconds after it went off a co-worker called me to tell me he was also in Santa Clara. I very rarely see him since his main office is in Irvine CA so it was nice that he was in town too, we hung out 3 of the 4 nights I was there. I was feeling crappy and wanted to eat somewhat healthy, first night I had a shrimp, veggie brown rice bowl at the Yard House which was very tasty and mostly healthy. I don't remember what we ate the 2nd night honestly, but it was not very healthy. The third night I told him to meet me after dinner and I went to Good Karma Cafe which is a vegan restaurant in San Jose, after dinner we bar hopped along a street that was closed to traffic, they were showing Princess Bride on a screen setup in the street so they had closed the street to cars. I would say that was the best night I spent in Santa Clara/San Jose but I don't know if I can really say that.. The last day I got out of class early and headed west to the ocean, I drove up and down the mountains through the red woods with the windows down and no cell phone service. I got to Santa Cruz and sat on the beach for about 2 hours before heading to the airport, I felt so much better getting on the flight because of the nature hike. The mountains and red woods of California are NOT to be missed, if you have the means I recommend getting out there to see them. There is nothing like driving up a winding mountain road having to make 180 degree turns around a tree in the road, and when I say tree in the road I don't mean a laying down one but a standing tall enormous tree!

While I was out in CA I got a call from my boss that they needed an emergency change of instructors for this week, end result is I'm here in Pittsburgh this week. Pittsburgh is a very pretty city (nature wise) with lots of hills and forest (not CA redwoods forest, more east coast "normal" forest), it's so cool to see the buildings sticking out among the trees and the roads (even new ones) that wind in and around the hills and trees. The hotel I'm staying at is on Neville Island which is a little strip of land in the middle of the river, the island is pretty lame as it's mostly old industrial buildings but it's nice to be surrounded by water. The view out of my window is of a very "old style" bridge spanning the river, what's better is the hotel has a sitting area along the river with a hammock and fire pit. I went out there last night to sit by fire and look over river and my relaxing experience was ruined by a drunk old guy, he was talking to me and it was clear he was WAY drunk, he apparently bought a case of Bud Light and was trying to finish it off in one sitting.. /sigh

The first night here I went to Primanti Bros, which is a world famous sandwich shop, and got a steak and cheese which came with french fries on the sandwich as well as coleslaw and tomato, it was very good but left me feeling rather fat.. Last night I went to the Double Wide Grill which is an old gas station turned sports bar/restaurant, they have lots of vegan options as well as 65 beers on tap! I had the Meatless Stroganoff which used mushrooms as its "meat" and was OMG tasty! Tonight I went to Hofbrauhaus which is clearly a German restaurant, I had a roasted pork tenderloin in a wine and bacon sauce with bacon strips and a potato dumpling, may not be healthy but MAN was it good!

Work unblocked Hulu and Dailyshow so I've been catching up on TV, I watched the whole season of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution over the last two days which may sound like a lot but it was only 6 episodes. I really think everyone MUST see this, he does an amazing job and it's very eye opening to see how people fight the concept of eating (and serving) good food. If you haven't seen it check it out on Hulu.

Last thing I will mention before turning this blog in is.. Apparently it's not so hard to score 15 runs in a game when you play American League style ball, for all those who say the American League is better just remember that the DH is the reason why you see inflated stats all across the league..

Patience

Patience is a virtue right? I certainly learned a lesson in patience this week. Lynz posted a link on facebook saying that Verizon was going to start sending the new Android OS to the phones starting on Friday the 27th. Friday came and my phone didn't upgrade, come to find out they were only pushing it to a select number of phones as a "soak test", feeling left out and impatient I found the leaked OS on a website and loaded it to my phone.. Yay to the internet? I thought so..

Anyway, they officially released the new OS and it turns out it was a newer version than the one I had.. I had 588 and they released 596.. D'oh.. No problem right, just do a quick upgrade, or not.. Because I was not on the soak list my phone wouldn't upgrade via the Verizon phone upgrade. In the meantime I decided I wanted my phone to get emails from work, I put in a request to get Active Sync turned on and on Tuesday set up my phone to receive work emails, in doing so I inadvertently locked my phone via corporate settings. Corporate settings = no pattern lock, must use pin lock of 5+ characters, can't browse certain websites and worst of all, can't get gmail?! Can't get gmail on my google phone, wtf!! Removed work email account but could not get the remote administrator and corporate policy off my phone. To the internets..

Only way to remove corporate policy is to wipe my phone?! Had to revert phone back to factory settings and re-install all my applications. After doing all this I found out the next day that I couldn't upgrade my phone because of the pre-release OS.. Back to the internets.. so frustrating, spent most of last night researching before finally finding a download of 596.. Bitch was I couldn't install it unless I was back at Froyo or rooted.

For all of those who are afraid of rooting the phones, it's super easy.. You download an application called GingerRoot and run it, GingerRoot is a one click rooting tool. Click, reboot, done. Now had a to grab another application to do boot strap recovery and loaded 596. Rebooted, unrooted and back to normal. Should have just waited the extra 2-3 days.. Oh well, lesson learned.

In terms of corporate email, I got a tool called Touchdown. It sections off a portion of the phone to be a "corporate run" area, it takes the corporate policy and applies it to email only.

Gathering?

I didn't end up going to see Book of Mormon, they were sold out and I didn't get there early enough to get in the stand by list. It's probably better anyway because I was really tired and ended up taking a nap before dinner. I ate at a place across the street from the hotel and got some very tasty scallops. It ended up being a pretty laid back night, after dinner I went back to the room and watched Glee and putzed around the hotel for a bit before heading to bed.. I know, very unlike me to not go wander.

Spent Thurs and Friday getting ready for FI because I always tend to wait till the last minute when doing that stuff, I will be making a concerted effort to change that. In that realm I am planning on working on my armor on Monday, I want to fix the straps (they broke during game and had to be quickly patched with thread and duct tape) and add back holsters for shot guns. My new additions to it look really cool, go check flickr for some pics I took while at FI.

Left for DC right after game on Sunday and it took me forever to get here, got stuck in Manhattan due to construction and didn't get to hotel till almost 4am. Monday and Tuesday have been low key, get out of class, nap, eat, sleep.. Monday night I tried to get new shoes at REI but they were out of my size and ended up eating a shrimp and crab dish at a placed called Coastal Flats near REI. The guy at REI called the store in Conshohocken PA and they have one in stock and on hold for me. I am going to go there on the way to Laire on Friday. Last night I had a hankering for some red meat so I called around to find grass fed steaks, I found one place that is mostly grass fed (Capital Grill) and another that has 100% grass fed burgers (Clyde's). I opted for the burger which I think was a good choice, I got a tuna/salmon tartar appetizer and a bacon/pepper jack burger. After dinner I watched the season finale of Glee, it was ok but they spent too much time on the "oh look we're in NYC" and not enough time on the competition.

I am finally not feeling super tired although I can't say I slept well last night, I'm not loving my Sheraton experiment and may be going back to Marriott soon. The beds are not as comfortable and the bath tubs seem to be very small, at first I thought it was just the NYC one that had a small bath tub, but this one does too. Plus it smells like a cheap whore in the hotel lobby, elevator and hallways. At first I thought I must have been walking behind some girl who was over perfumed but I can't imagine every time I walk around I'm following the same person. The hotel must just use it as an air freshener.. I'm certainly wishing I was at the Courtyard or Residence Inn which are both a block away.

Don't know what I'm doing tonight, but there is a place in DC running a double feature of Nausicca and Spirited Away, they serve food and have happy hour prices on drinks. I will see what time I get out of here if it's worth going into the city.

I was trying to decide on my Thurs night / Friday plans. I ended up deciding to check out of hotel tomorrow morning and then drive to Philly after class. This is a benefit in many ways, one - and most importantly - I won't have to deal with DC traffic on Friday morning of Memorial Day Weekend and, two - it will put me closer to REI and eventually Laire, three - there is a Celtic Music Faire in Philly tomorrow and The Gathering is playing a 10pm show at a college, if I can get out of here early enough I can drive up to Philly, hit REI and go to faire/concert.

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In other news - Fuck you Fred Wilpon! As the owner of a team you have the final say on the decisions your team makes, don't act like the Mets are a punishment that has been tossed upon you and don't sit in an interview talking about how one of the best players to ever wear your team's uniform is a bum. Up until yesterday I was on his side in the Madoff scandal, but not anymore. Don't get me wrong, Wilpon cares about baseball, but his alliance is clearly towards the Brooklyn Dodgers. Maybe the new owners will remove all the Dodgers shit from our stadium and replace it with Mets stuff. Earlier in the year Bud Selig had MLB seize control of the Dodgers who were having problems paying their payroll, they are not nearly as in debt as the Mets who have taken out millions of dollars worth of loans from MLB and still can't pay payroll. ESPN had a great article on this today and went on to say how the only reason Wilpon has not been removed by MLB was because he is friends with Bud Selig.. I say they both need to be out of baseball.

PMGA

Did you know there was a Professional Mini Golf Association? I did.. Years ago when I was in Irvine looking for good mini golf I was led to this group, it lists all the professional grade mini golf courses across the US. Anyway, I had some time to kill on Friday before my flight and it was amazingly nice out so I decided on some mini golf, after doing a quick search on the google I found a bunch of local ones. To narrow down the field I checked out the PMGA website, I found one in the Cleveland area which happened to be right near the airport.. Memphis Mini Golf is it's name in case you're every in Cleveland and have a hankering to play some mini golf. I got there and was slightly amazed at the shabby appearance but shouldered on.. It's a Memphis Kiddie Park which has little rides for kids and even a little roller coaster, tucked into the back (have to walk through lots of lame kiddie areas) is the mini golf section. I'm glad I shouldered on because it was a lot of fun! I would say the course was moderate difficulty with a few easy holes and few pretty hard ones. I ended up shooting 2 over par..

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Flight back was pretty quick, I got a call while I was in Cleveland airport telling me my connecting flight (Cin to Hartford) was delayed but when I landed in Cin I found out it was back on schedule.

Got up too early on Saturday and went to the Robin Hood Springtime Festival, the story shows were very good but the overall faire experience was dampened by the cold, damp weather. I was supposed to go back on Sunday but the weather was even worse so I opted to just hang out at home. It's a shame really because I would have loved to spend more time there and see a few of the shows I missed out on but the thought of another day in cold rain was not appealing to me.

Speaking of cold and rain, I went to the Mets game last night. The game was supposed to start at 7:10 but the game had a 90 minute rain delay to start, the annoying thing about that is it was not even really raining. There was a light drizzle and the weather man called for big rain which never came. I'm very happy with my new seats since they are undercover and have a wall behind them which kills most of the wind, I'm not so happy with the guy who sits next to us. He is one of those guys who has no care about others around him, he splayed out with his professional size score book and was constantly tossing his peanut shells on whoever sat next to him. Unfortunately he also has the Sunday plan so I guess we will be dealing with him for the remainder of the season.

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I'm teaching in NYC this week and am debating trying to get tickets to see Book of Mormon tonight, they have a lottery to get cheap seats, you need to get your name in 2 hours before the show so hopefully I can get out of work early enough. If I can't I am not going to pay full price because it's an expensive show to go see alone.

This week I was supposed to be home teaching online but got called last minute to be here in NYC, next week I'm supposed to be off platform but just got a call and am needed in either DC or Dallas next week. I chose DC because I can at least drive there Sunday night as opposed to getting a flight.

PNC

Yesterday I went into Pittsburgh to see a Pirates game at PNC Park, class got out early so I was able to get into town around 4:30. Pittsburgh is a very pretty city, and Hoyle told me I must go up the Duquesne Incline which is a trolley car that runs up the side of a big mountain. I parked at the stadium and walked over the rivers to the incline. The ride up was very fast considering the amount of distance it covers and the age of the trolley. At the top I walked around, grabbed a beer at a tavern and took some great pictures using the Droid X Panarama Assist feature (go over to flickr and check them out). After some time up there I can back and headed over to the stadium. The stadium like the rest of the city is very pretty with lots of sort of meandering paths, the concession stands a bit hidden kinda like stadiums of yesteryear. One thing I really loved about the stadium is that when you walk in they give you a program which includes a map of the stadium with a list of ALL food items and at which gate you can find them, even knowing the section sometimes you had to look around or even ask the locals where the booth was. Also included in the program were the starting lineups and a scorecard!

I ended up getting a gyro for dinner which was great followed by some perogies which were certainly not great.. Whoever heard of steaming perogies? They were a big pile of glop and not at all enjoyable. Grabbed a PNC Dark and headed up to the seat. This was the first stadium in a long time where I got the feeling of awe when walking out to seats, the view of the stadium with the city in the background and the bridges was just an amazing site. If you ever get out to PNC sit in the upper deck, you get a much better view of the city, bridges, river, etc from there. The game was good, 0-0 till late and a final of 2-0 in favor of Dodgers. Met some really awesome people at the game, one older gentleman who was retired after working for the NYC transit authority and a younger couple who had moved from NY a few years ago.

I'm not sure what I'm doing tonight, certainly going to do something outside, it's so warm and sunny out..

Symon Says..

Last night I went downtown Cleveland to Lola's Bistro which is Michael Symon's restaurant. I've been there in the past before he was an Iron Chef but I figured I'd go back on the company dollar.. :)

The Indians were home last night so traffic was a lot worse and there were people in the city! Lola's is about 2 blocks from the stadium so parking was non-existent, luckily Lola's has valet parking so after driving around for a few minutes I gave in and let them valet the car. I went in and asked for a table, I was told the wait was at least 90 minutes but I could get the full menu at the bar. The bar didn't have an empty seat so I went back to the podium to put my name in. As I was at the podium a group of 3 came in for a kitchen view table, the kitchen view area is a bar facing the kitchen that has 8 seats, with this group there would have been one open seat so the manager said I could sit there if the group of 3 was ok with that. The group of 3 were 2 ladies and an older guy there on business. We chatted for a min and they said sure.. :-)

I sat down and started looking at menu and there was no drinks which I thought was odd. I already had my dinner choice narrowed down to two choices, which was the "Wild Salmon with chicken confit, red wine mustard sauce, hash brown salad" and the "Scallops with sweet pea tart, lemon, pancetta, carrot" so there was little to look at on the menu. The waitress came over with a iPad which had their drink menu, it was very cool to browse the drink menu on that. I watched the guys cook for a while before deciding on the Salmon. The Salmon was perfectly cooked but the hash brown salad was the high point of the dish. For dessert I had a Passion Fruit Parfait with caramelized white chocolate, passion fruit granita, micro basil. All in all the meal was a mere $80 with one glass of wine, valet and tip.

After dinner I wandered around since the city now had some form of population, apparently the game was rain delayed so a bunch of people who had not gone into the stadium yet were hanging out at the bars. Btw - it was NOT raining so I don't know why it was in a rain delay. I hung out for a bit before heading back to the hotel. On the ride back it rained a little.

The title of this blog is in reference to a shirt they were selling at Lola's, on the front it says Symon Says, on the back it says "Live to Cook".

Cleveland Rocks?

I am teaching this week in Cleveland, I went out last night to downtown to grab food. Happy Cow led me to a vegan restaurant called the Flaming Ice Cube but the address in Happy Cow was slightly off. I got into downtown and when the GPS said I was there I was in nowhere land. I plugged the restaurant name into my GPS and found it two blocks over. I was in Cleveland in the past and was amazed at how much of a ghost town it is, I found the same thing to be true last night. There was nobody walking around and no cars driving either, aren't there supposed to be people who live in the cities of America?

Anyway, went to the restaurant and had a delightful mock buffalo chicken sammich with some corn and red bean salsa. After dinner I figured I'd walk around a bit and try to find civilization, I found a two block area of population signaled by a one legged man playing a saxophone. When you're in a city and already feeling like the last survivor of the Apocalypse the last thing you need is the distant sound of a saxophone. Life is nothing but an adventure so I of course headed towards the sound, when I got closer I saw the above mentioned one legged man standing on a street corner belting out his tunes. The corner he was standing on was the beginning of civilization and that lasted exactly two blocks. Lola (Michael Symon's Restaurant) is in that area so I will probably be going back tonight. I went into a local bar and hung out with a beer before heading back to hotel. I had Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy which is a lemon aid / heffe mix, it was surprisingly good but very tart.

I can't possibly talk about Cleveland without talking about my flight here.. I flew from Hartford to Hate-Lanta, when I landed in Atlanta I found my flight to Cleveland was cancelled and they were proposing putting me on a flight in the morning which would have made me more than late for class. I went to the ticket counter and they told me they couldn't help me because they didn't know how to use the ticketing computer (yes, I'm smeggin' serious) and told me to call Delta's ticket number. I called and them and we found a flight that was leaving in about 10 mins to Cincinnati, at least it's closer than Atlanta, they put me on the flight and I returned to the same plane I just got off. I got off the plane and didn't even wait for the luggage to be unloaded, instead I went right to the computer kiosk and scanned my luggage tag, result - "go to agent". I go up to the lady and explained the situation and she calmly (and very slowly) looked up my bag tag and said my bag was in Atlanta and scheduled to fly to Cleveland in the morning (which I had told her already), then she, looking confused, said in a questioning voice "but you flew into Cincinnati?".. "Yes I did, I am going to rent a car and drive to Cleveland".. "That's a long ride".. Really do you think so! "Yeah, I know, can I just give you the address of my hotel in Cleveland to send the bag to ?".. "Hold on a sec, it looks here like I can put you up in a hotel and fly you out tomorrow on the 9am flight".. "no thanks, I just want to get on the road".. "ok, so you want me to mail the bag to the 20 Wicker St address?".. This went on for about 15 mins before I was on my way to the car rental place.. All in all it took over 90 minutes from the time I was off the plane to the time I was in my rental car, FAR to long in my opinion. I got a Hyundai Genesis which is a really nice quiet ride, the seats are very comfortable, the stereo has good sound and the car handles very well. You know what's open at ass o'clock in the middle of Ohio? Me neither honestly. I only stopped once and that was early on to get food, I tried to get coffee but those places were closed, instead I ended up with White Castle. Speaking of, they have a new Bacon Cheddar burger which was very good and my body didn't reject it as much as I had expected. Anyway, hours and hours later I made it to the hotel to take a nap before class. My bags did show up yesterday and were waiting for me when I got back to the hotel.

Did you know that Pittsburgh is only about 2 hours from Cleveland? I didn't.. Why does that matter? Because I'm going to see a Pirates game tomorrow.. I have heard PNC Park is beautiful, I will let you know.

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Other things...

I got the new Queen remastered CDs the other week, they are totally worth it. Each album comes with a second CD of extra stuff, those are take it or leave it, but the main albums sound so much better than they ever did before. They are much crisper and they really feel modern again. I can't wait for the next five to come out in June.

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I started a D&D campaign the other week, I had Becca take notes during the session so I can type up a recap / story. I am planning on posting that here and also in the Facebook group for the game. We are using 4th Edition and I have to say the game system is pretty nice now that they re-did a bunch of rules and added lots of races, classes, skills and feats. The only thing that I'm still unsure about is the ritual section, we shall see how that plays out in the next few sessions. When we decided on 4th edition I borrowed my friend Grim's books, after reading them I was stunned at how crappy the system was. I was complaining to Hoyle and he showed me his books which were totally different from Grim's first printing of 4th edition. In general I'm not a big fan of looking at books online (I know, how un-technical of me) but Wizards has a compendium which is actually pretty easy to use so I don't mind looking at that online. I guess the big difference is it's not a scanned in version of a book, it's a web interface into the rules.

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Sorry for the long blog, but this is what happens when I don't blog for a while.. :P

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The other day (like my specific time lines here) I was driving down to NY with Jessie. On the way down I was thinking about going to Dragon's Laire (gaming store in NY) to see what, if anything, they had for Heroscape and I started to think about certain people's obsession with board games..

When I was younger we had a bunch of video game machines (NES, 2600, Coleco, Intelevision, Master System, Vetrex) not to mention computer games but we were never overloaded with games. Maybe it's because games didn't come out as fast, maybe it was because there was not the internet where you can get instant access to stuff.. Either way, we would get a few games here and a few there but we never got a glut of stuff all at once. This gave us time to play, learn and enjoy each game before moving onto the next one. Around the time of the Genesis & SNES this started to change, more games came out each month and they were easier to get (didn't hurt that we had a hacker system set up and modded our Genesis and SNES to play pirated games as well as Japanese ones). The sheer amount of games made it almost overwhelming, like you felt bad for playing one game for a few weeks because there was always other games that you wanted to play and always new ones coming out. I think this is what led to things like cheat codes because if you wanted to see the end of a game but didn't have the time to dedicate you would just throw a cheat code in and you were invincible, this way you could polish that game off in a few hours and move to the next one. Now, I'm not saying choice is bad, but as a kid you just "gotta have 'em all" as they say, gotta have 'em and gotta play 'em all, gotta have 'em and gotta play 'em all at once, gotta have 'em and gotta play 'em all at once and gotta do it all today.. And why are kids suddenly being diagnosed with ADHD at alarming rates? Because there is too much to do and not enough time to do it. Enjoy that one game, let it enfold you, learn it's insides and outs and take the time to really master it. I'm not saying you can't play many different games but don't feel the need to play 'em all, there are so many wonderful things out there and of course we get the urge to want to see & do it all but just stop and really enjoy the moment, be it a game, meal, song, whatever. If you don't get my rant about games think about music, remember back when you only had a few albums, remember how well you knew those albums, now think about how that's changed over the years. Now you can plug an iPod in and transfer someone's entire music library, yes you now have a ton of great new music but will you ever really know those songs? There is something to be said for a little at a time..

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Phew, that was long winded... ;)

This weekend coming up is my birthday weekend. I will be at the CT Ren Faire Saturday (my birthday) and Sunday, hope to see you there..

Anime Boston 2011 - Setup

I am sitting in the dealer room at Anime Boston handing out badges, showing vendors to their spots and dealing with general vendor issues.

The logo this year is "Turn is up to '11", I wonder how many young kids will not even get that reference..

Anyway, if you're coming by make sure to check in with the dealer's room and see me..

Sports Bar - Fail

I'm out in Irvine this week, I come out here a lot and usually I do the same things while here. This time I decided I would do different things because a. why not and b. im tired and want to me more low key.

So.. Monday I went to Starbucks in the morning and found that the wine bar next door closed and is now a sports bar. One thing I used to really like doing out here was going to the Fox Sports Club and watching East Coast Baseball games during happy hour. So, I figured I'd go to the sports bar Monday night and watch the Mets. I decided to walk there since it's only a few blocks from hotel, when I got there I found out they don't have the baseball package.. How do you call yourself a sports bar and not pay for the MLB Extra Innings package? On top of that how can you call yourself a sports bar and put a baseball on your logo without the MLB Extra Innings package? When I went in there were a few businessmen hanging at the bar with a very pretty bartender. I was upset about no game but figured I would at least get a drink and some food since I was there, got a Old World Heffe which was good. While I was eating some young guys came in and kicked on the juke box, to say it was loud would be an understatement. Finished my food and left, walked over to the river and walked for a long time before going back to the hotel.

Tuesday I decide to try again with a different bar.. This time I did research online and found a cool looking bar called Players over in Laguna, I've never been in Laguna so I figured I'd go to the bar, watch some of the Mets game and then wander around Laguna. On the way to the bar I turned on the pre-game show to find out the game had been rained out! Fail take two... The food was good and the bar was quiet, watched a few innings of the Cubs game and then wandered around. The area was not very exciting but I will certainly be back to the bar another time.

Tonight I'm going to my friend Frank's house for dinner.

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In other news, it's been a while since I blogged. I sent back my ticket from Sturbridge asking for a trial, no date yet. I apparently skipped my entire trip to Seattle, meant to write a blog but work has been real stupid with blocking websites lately. They finally unblocked this one today, hence why I'm here.. :)

Anyway, Seattle. I went to Seattle to teach at Microsoft, the facility is very nice but the cafeteria only takes cash!? No biggie since they have an ATM in the cafeteria, but.. The ATM decided to take money out of my account without actually giving me any money.. /sigh.. Had to have Putnam Bank fight with them to get my money back, very happy with the speed in which Put Bank did that too. Not much else exciting happened in Seattle..

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Back home.. I did end up getting an apartment and just recently moved some stuff over there from Putnam. The apartment is small but nice, I met a few of the neighbors now and they seem nice too which is good. It's very quiet, walking distance to a few good restaurants and easy to get to work from. It's annoying realizing all the stuff that I need for the apartment like pots, pans, plates, etc.. Wondering what to get me for my birthday? I recommend BBB gift certificates.. I suppose I have lots more to say on the apartment topic but I'm not going to at this time, maybe soon..

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I'm on vacation next week, Tuesday I'm going to my first Mets game of the year and Thurs-Sunday is Anime Boston. Should be a fun week.

Sturbridge

I went to my friend's house in Sturbridge last night and on the way home got pulled over at a stop light for doing 60 in a 30!? The night was very foggy and visibility was down to feet at best, while I was driving I was playing with lights to see what would give me the best visibility, while I was at the red light I was playing with them again. While I was playing with the lights a car came up behind me, when the light turned green I started to pull out and before I was across the intersection the lights came on. I figured maybe I had a light out or something, she said she caught me speeding, my first reaction was something like 'where, at the red light?'. Seriously pissed me off. I freely admit I do indeed speed, but unless she saw me in another dimension I was not speeding.. So, I guess I will have to deal with that in court..

In other news.. I think I'm going to start up a D&D campaign, thinking one Wednesday night a month. I have not seen 4th addition D&D so if you have and have opinions on it send me an email, I am interested in seeing what people think. I can either do that or an older addition since I have books from when I used to play 3rd.

Too Old To..

Rock and Roll? Nope, just too old to think people should be able to drink when they're 18 in bars.

I went into London today and walked around from 4 till 8, got off Underground at Green Park and walked all over the theater district, soho and the river areas. When I'm in a city I love to do the "what's that cool looking thing over there" style of wandering around, at one point I was in a five way intersection and decided left looked cool, after about 15 minutes of "this way looks cool" turning I ended up back in the same intersection, that's when I decided I was done in the theater district and wandered over to the river. On the way over I went into a comic book store to get some Red Dwarf merch but I didn't really like what they had in stock. The Thames is very pretty at night with Big Ben, the London Eye and the London Aquarium. Took some cool pics, uploading to Flickr while I type this. After wandering around the river I decided to head back to Bracknell, on the way to the train I stopped off in a game store and was very impressed with their selection, just not their prices..

Went back to Bracknell for food because I felt cheap and figured since all beef here is organic and grass fed I would eat some more burger, not to mention the Old Manor has their Burger and a Beer special for 6 GBP. While I was in the bar (about an hour) I saw 4 "kids" get thrown out because of drunken disorderly conduct.

Apparently because of the mad cow scare British beef is now all organic and grass fed, so I guess some good came of the mad cow scare - too bad America didn't follow suit.

Block Crazy

EMC sent out an email this morning saying that they were having issues with the internet blocking mechanism and they apologize for any inconvenience. They are blocking my eRoom which is where I get courseware and updates, they are blocking powerlink (which is their customer portal website), they are blocking Meebo (my IM site), they are blocking MLB, ESPN, CNN, ADP, Facebook, & Bella's and those are just the ones I tried. They are not however blocking Blogspot? OK.. So today's blog is brought to you by luck I suppose.

Last night I went out for the curry club and the Old Manor with a co-worker. For 6 GBP I got a very good Chicken Tikki Masala and Vegetarian Samosas, it came with 2 pieces of nan and some yellow rice. It also came with a free beer! I got the English Bitter again. I was so tired last night after staying up late every night that I ended up crashing in bed around 10. I woke up around 2:30 and had problems falling back asleep so I watched a documentary on TV about British Yogurt sales and how the packaging and marketing evolved over the last 40 years. It was the best thing on.. I didn't watch it all, I watched from the 1960's till the 1990's before I got tired enough to shut it back off and get back to sleep.

I am done with lecture and now waiting for my students to do labs, it's a bit frustrating because they have not even started them, instead they went for a "quick" break before labs about 25 mins ago. I plan to go to London today once they are done and would really like to be sooner rather than later.

Ghost town

Last nigh I decided to just hang out around Bracknell, London is an hour train ride and I feel that if I get out after 6 it's not worth riding all the way into the city just to eat and come back. I went to Reading the other night so I didn't want to do that again. I searched online and found a bunch of music venues in Bracknell, all in an area called "the Ring", so I figured I would walk around and see what I stumbled into.

What I stumbled into were tumble weeds, not literally but figuratively. This town is dead at night, from my hotel I walk past a college and a pub called "The Manor House" to get into the center of town so you figure in a college town there would be a night life. Plus with all the music venues you would assume that too. However, the night life, music venues and night clubs are only open on Friday and Saturday nights. During the week you get a nice quiet walk past lots of closed shops and buildings. I was so stunned when I saw Burger King closed at 8pm that I had to start taking pictures of the empty wasteland that is Bracknell at night.

Speaking of pictures, I uploaded a bunch of pictures from January, February and March onto my Flickr.

Walked through the dead zone and came out near the train station, the only thing open there is "the goose" which is a pub with less than fantastic looking food. I decided after walking around for a while to go back to the manor house. They had a sign up saying favorite beer spot of 2010 so I figured I'd give it a shot. I went in and they had maybe 20 different beers on draft and their menu looked pretty impressive. I ended up getting a mozzarella fishcake as a starter and a bacon cheddar burger as my main. One thing I love about being here is the sustainability of the food, all meat is grass fed as I said before and most places sell line caught sustainable fish. The nicer part is that the menus will clearly say that, for example the fishcakes were called "line caught haddock cake with italian aged mozzarella cheese". When I ordered the burger the bar keep tells me I get a free drink with that, I'm thinking soda, turns out it's beer! I had a Lomond Gold Ale which is an Organic English Bitter, I know beer advocate only gives it a C+ but I thought it was good, maybe the people on beer advocate don't like that type of ale? After that beer I had a Ruby Red Hot Chili IPA which is by the same company "Traditional Scottish Ales", I can't seem to find that one on Beer Advocate. Hoyle, if you're reading this, don't get that beer in hopes of being up to your standard of IPA. It is a very good beer, probably better than the Lomond Gold but I would not call it an IPA. It's got a very smooth flavor and a very smooth finish, there is a hoppy flavor but certainly not when used to the Bastards.

Tonight they are having the Manor House is having their Curry Club which is 6 GBP for curries and a beer, I know it's not as cool as wandering around London but I might just go there tonight depending on what time I get out of class. I'll keep you posted.

Roundabout

I drove to Reading tonight after work to go to the Oracle Center which is a big shopping plaza / mall on the river. I went there because today was the LUSH release of Dirty and I wanted to check it out. Work was a little lame today as I fought with the printer in my classroom for almost 20 minutes this morning before giving up and having the receptionist print out the materials. The classes in the UK start at 10am on the first day so we got a late start then had lunch at 12 which was brought in (chicken cordon blue, which was very tasty). We didn't get to labs till about 3 and the last two students were still there when I kicked them out at 7.

Reading is about 12 miles away and I counted 11 roundabouts on the way, that seems like a lot until you factor in the fact that this morning on the way to work I counted 6 in 2 miles! This smeggin' place really needs to just put in some smeggin' traffic lights and save on the road foot print that a roundabout takes up. Anyway, not to get off subject.. So, the Oracle..

I got there and started wandering looking for LUSH and on the way found an H&M music/dvd store so I stopped in. I ended up picking up the entire series of Extras with Ricky Gervais, it includes both seasons and the made for TV special movie for 20 GBP. As I was leaving H&M I noticed the mall was closing so I ran to LUSH to find them still open, they had the door half closed but there was a ton of people inside, today was the launch party for Dirty so they were open late. I got to wash with the new shower bar and got to try the mouth wash / toothpaste. It is VERY odd to use a scented toothpaste, what is odder is that the toothpaste is a chew able tablet you chew on and let coat your mouth before brushing. I took a sample to try tomorrow morning (or maybe tonight before bed) so I will let you know how it really works, trying it in the store I just chewed on it and rinsed which was very odd. The shaving lotion and hair treatment smelled "eh" but the shampoo gel and spray scent both smelled amazing so I got one of each to try / share. I ended up talking to a guy who works there and was telling him how disappointed I was that they didn't carry The Smell of Weather Turning in the store, he said he thought he had one in the back from a sample pack but when he came back he said he couldn't find it. Oh well.. In the midst of us talking I mentioned that my girlfriend works at LUSH in the US and he actually ended up giving me the employee discount because we were talking and what I know nobody who didn't work at LUSH would know.. Thanks sweetie, you talking about trial baskets and parties saved me some money tonight.. :)

After LUSH I decided it was time to eat so I went to Yo Sushi which is one of those places that has a bunch of sushi on a conveyor belt and you pick what you want as it goes by. The sushi was very good but the star of the meal was the Miso Soup which was out of this world good! All in all I ended up getting 6 dishes (2 rolls, 2 hand rolls, 1 nigri and the Miso soup) for just under 20 GBP.

Got back to the hotel and went to the local pub for a UK Guinness, I really have to say if you ever get to the UK make sure to try the Guinness because it's certainly a treat.

Stormtroopers in Stilettos

I have no idea where that name came from, but it's the name of the Queen 40th Anniversary Celebration in London. This is taking place in the flat Freddie used to rent while he was in arts school.

I got into London and was exhausted, tried to get a coffee but they wouldn't take my Amex or Euros! I get not taking the Amex, but this IS Europe and they should be taking Euros! Last time I was here the Euro was a valid currency, but not anymore apparently. I might change those over to GBP put right now I'm feeling pretty uppity about it. I found a Starbucks which took my Amex so coffee procured it was time to venture over to Stormtroopers in Stilettos. Btw, my overground round trip ticket and an all day/all zone Underground ticket was only 18 GBP which is very cheap considering it's all zones.

Anyway.. Got to SiS around 1pm and left there around 5pm, so yeah, it was worth it! As stated above it was in a flat Freddie used to rent while he was in arts school studying to be a clothes designer. They had an entire room dedicated to each year from 1971 - 1978 and then a wall with snipits from 1979 - 2011. The exhibit was done by fans using old footage and old interviews, they even had Freddie's old bed and lots of costumes that the band wore through the years. I learned lots of new stuff about Queen and their history. For example the band went though lots of bass players in the beginning, one guy only lasted two gigs and Freddie got rid of him because he was too much of a show man and he felt there was not enough room in Queen for another show man. It really shed a lot of light on just how much of a Diva Freddie really was, his being a Diva saved the band a few times from ruin and being taken advantage of by the record companies.

After SiS I wandered around London looking for a LUSH before finally giving in and texting Becca to find me one online. I had a rather large "son-of-a-bitch" moment when she told me there was one in Liverpool's Underground Station since that's the area I started my search, checked around that station and then went over to Tottenham Court and Piccadilly before finally asking for her assistance. While I was searching I found a cheap price theater ticket place and got a seat in row N for Love Never Dies (the Phantom of the Opera sequel) and decided it was time to finally eat something. Great thing about Europe, all cows are grass fed! I guess that's what happens when the government does not subsidize corn. Got a really nice, but expensive, steak with a merlot. I went in an ordered just the steak and they were all like "you don't want any sides with that", "nope (just the big hunk of meat for me thanks)" *note the () was not said, just thought.. The steak was 12oz of amazingly melt in your mouth goodness!

After dinner I had about an hour before the show started so I ran to Liverpool and hit LUSH, they really don't sell anything different in the store. All the UK exclusive stuff is online only. Poo, what a waste of time running back there. I did find out that they are releasing a new fragrance today called Dirty and plan to go to a LUSH near Bracknell tonight to check it out. There is one in Reading which is not a long car ride from here.

Got back to the theater district just in time to grab a coffee and get in line for the show. The main track "Love Never Dies" which Christine sings was one of the best songs in the show, the other being the one the Phantom and Christine's son sing "The Beauty Underneath".

Lyrics below..

Here is "Love Never Dies":

Here is "the Beauty Underneath":

- Love Never Dies Lyrics:

Who knows where love begins

Who knows what makes it start

One day it's simply there

Alive inside your heart

It slips into your thoughts

It infiltrates your soul

It takes you by surprise

Then seizes full control

Try to deny it

And try to protest

But love won't let you go

Once you've been possessed

Love never dies

Love never falters

Once it has spoken

Love is yours

Love never fades

Love never alters

Hearts may get broken

Love endures

Hearts my get broken

Love endures

And soon as you submit

Surrender flesh and bone

That love takes on a life

Much bigger than your own

It uses you at whim

And drives you to despair

And forces you to feel

More joy than you can bear

Love gives you pleasure

And love brings you pain

And yet with both are gone

Love will remain

Once it is spoken

Love is yours

Love never dies

Love never alters

Hearts may get broken

Love endures

Hearts may get broken

Love never dies

Love will continue

Love keeps on beating

When you're gone

Love never dies

Once it is in you

Love may be fleeting

Love lives on

Love may be fleeting

Love lives on

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-The Beauty Underneath Lyrics:

have you ever yearned to go

past the world you think you know?

been enthralled to the call

of the beauty underneath?

have you let it draw you in

past the place where dreams begin?

felt the full breathless pull

of the beauty underneath?

when the dark unfolds its wings

do you sense the strangest things?

things no one would ever guess

things mere words cannot express?

yes

do you find yourself beguiled

by the dangerous and wild?

do you feed on the need

for the beauty underneath?

have you felt your senses served

and surrendered to the urge?

have been hooked as you looked at the

at the beauty underneath?

when you stare behind the night

can you glimpse the primal night?

might you hunger to possess

hunger that you can't repress?

yes

it seems so beautiful

so strange yet beautiful

everything's just as you say

and he's so beautiful

perhaps too beautiful

what i suspect cannot be

and yet somehow, we both see

the very same way

it's the music in your head

have you followed where it led

and been graced with a taste

of the beauty underneath?

does it fill your every sense

is it terribly intense?

tell me you need it too

need the beauty underneath

when it lifts is voice and sings

don't you feel amazing things?

things you know you can't confess

things you thirst for nonetheless

it's all so beautiful

can it be?

almost too beautiful

do you see what I see?

to him it's beautiful

my world is beautiful

how can this be what it seems?

all of my secret dreams

somehow set free

you can feel the lift

yes

come closer

yes

you've no fear of the beauty underneath

you can face it

yes

you can take it

yes

you see through to the beauty underneath

to the splendor

splendor

and the glory

glory

to the truth of the beauty underneath

the beauty underneath

you'll accept it

yes

you'll embrace it

yes

let me show you the beauty underneath

to the splendor

splendor

and the glory

and the glory

to the truth of the beauty underneath

the beauty underneath

you'll accept it

yes

you'll embrace it

yes

let me show you the beauty underneath

Arrived in London

Flight started well, we backed away from the gate and were powering up the engines when they found that one of them was not working.. Had to power down and wait to be towed to a repair gate were we sat for 2 hours waiting for them to fix the engine. They turned on the entertainment system while we waited but my seat (and the empty one next to me) had broken entertainment systems. No problem they said, they will reboot them once we have restored full power and it should work. I could look at the list of movies/tv shows but I couldn't watch any. There were probably 10 of the 50 movies that I really wanted to see so I was hopeful it would work after they fixed everything. Finally got engine fixed and ready to take off.. Entertainment system still broken, oh well, I wanted to sleep anyway.

Landed in London with no further issues. Got my car which is an Audi A6, super nice ride with GPS in dash and climate control. Drive to hotel was no issue, took a little getting used to again being on the "right" side of the road but after a minute I was fine with that. If anyone wants to know how it's like to drive in London, drive in New Jersey. It's the only other place with this many "jug-handles" or as they call them here "roundabouts".

Just checked in at hotel. TripIt failed me for the first time, they had my hotel details but no address so I had to boot laptop in airport and pay for internet to find out address. D'Oh... Anyway, the rooms in this place are SMALL, there is barely enough room for the bed and the bathroom only has a shower! So much for all the LUSH goodies I brought with me to take baths.

I am about to head into London for the day, figure I'll go see the Queen thing today and maybe wander to the theater district to see what's playing and what I can get cheap tickets to.

Because of high price cell phone calls I will make sure to update this blog regularly while I'm here.

"Keep keep it together"

Sorry I've been absent for such a long time, the problem with a public life blog is that when things get tough it's hard to put it all out there.. Well, I've been putting it all out there for a while but never anything bad, now that things are in general chaos I don't feel like blogging the everyday activities because it would involve talking about stuff I would rather not..

What's been going on? Well, if you talked to me recently you know that me and Jessie are not doing good. I'm still not really ready to talk about the specifics of that in a blog, but the bottom line is that I'm looking for (and almost have) an apartment with the theory that if we are not living under the same roof maybe we can get along better and at least salvage some part of our relationship/friendship.

In the last few months I've been travelling a lot which is good and bad, been to Dallas, Chicago, San Antonio, and Austin. This week I'm heading to London and then I come home for a week before going to Seattle. Me and Lynz broke up a while back and me and Jessie are (as stated above) on the outs and trying real hard to just be friendly with each other. Hopefully once I am under my own roof it will give us time to hang out in a friendly way.

I've never lived on my own and this is a great big scary adventure but I think it will be good in the long run. I am not looking on moving far, the apartment I want is in Danielson CT which is only about 15 mins from Putnam.

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Been getting into HeroScape big time, it's an expensive hobby and I'm trying real hard not to get sucked into it. It's a fun game, you build your army out of hundreds of possibly characters (have to buy each one you want) and then it's a turn based strategic battle game sort of like the Shining Force series on the Sega Genesis, Saturn and Dreamcast. If you play HeroScape and want to play some time let me know.

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My car has been through hell lately, it has already needed more work than my 2001 probably ever did but it's finally running well. Well, except for the stupid brake light that keeps coming on and off. Last month I went to the Fetish Flea Fashion show and after wards was backing out of the parking space and hit the stupid pole denting the drivers side front by the wheel, I was so pissed at myself I punched the steering wheel and broke the horn.. Which made me more pissed at myself, I have not gotten that fixed because it's going to cost lots to fix the horn which involves replacing the whole wheel including air bag.. /sigh

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Last week I was in Austin TX and was very impressed with that city, a block all around the river and lake was the "hidden" part of Austin which was full of new age places, micro brews and vegetarian / vegan restaurants. Part of me is tempted to move there, I would have a job in a heart beat with RackSpace which is a great company. I've taught there twice (once in San Antonio and once in Austin) and they really impressed me as a great place to work. If you have money for random stocks I would buy some of their stock.

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This week, as I said, I'm heading to London.. Well not technically London, I'm going to Bracknell which is close to London via train and underground. I'm looking forward to it because there is a Queen exhibit this week at a bar in London. I think I'm going to go there tomorrow after I land. I figure going into London on a day I don't have class is a good idea because I can see how long it will really be on train, etc. According to the web it's less than an hour from Bracknell to the Waterloo Underground station.

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I guess that's all I have time for, the flight will be boarding in a little bit.. I'll try not to be a stranger.. Sorry for all those who use this as their main way of keeping up with me..