This boot was made for walking..

I was watching ICA today. I watched three episodes today to catch up finally. The 2nd battle was chef Art Smith vs Cat Cora. Art Smith has been a judge on ICA a bunch of times and decided that he could hold his own in Kitchen Stadium. The ingredient for that battle was Cheddar cheese. Art Smith lost and I learned something interesting about Cheddar.. The color of Cheddar cheese depends on when the cow was milked, if the cow is milked in the spring or summer the cheese will be yellow, if the cow is milked in the autumn or winter the cheese will be white.

The 3rd episode was the latest one which was a Thanksgiving special. Almost two years ago they announced that Mark Ecko was going to design new uniforms for each Iron Chef, they finally unveiled them on the Thanksgiving special. Batali was not in Kitchen Stadium but they showed his fitting, he has a white chef's coat. If you didn't know Mario Batali got into a fight with Food TV and is not actually still on ICA, the writers and producers of ICA will not remove him from the Iron Chef list because they are hoping that he will settle his contract dispute with Food TV and come back. In the meantime he is allowed to be shown in the credits as an Iron Chef and can do publicity shots but he is not allowed to cook on air. Symon has a black coat, Flay has a dark blue one, Cora has a blue one and Morimoto has a silver japanese style coat. Speaking of Morimoto, he lost a bunch of weight, he looks really good again. I really like the Iron Chef America patch that is on each coat's right sleeve. I tried to find a picture of it on the web but I can't find one right now, I guess since the episode is still the "current" one they are not releasing pics of it yet. Anyway, the battle was Cora and Morimoto vs. Symon and Flay. I was not surprised by who won but I am not going to spoil that for anyone who has not and wants to see it. I called the winner when they announced the teams though.

----
My dad sent me a funny email today...

Young Chuck moved to Texas and bought a Donkey from a farmer for $100.
The farmer agreed to deliver the Donkey the next day.
The next day he drove up and said, 'Sorry son, but I have some bad news, your donkey died.'
Chuck replied, 'Well, then just give me my money back.'
The farmer said, 'Can't do that. I went and spent it already.'
Chuck said,'Ok, then, just bring me the dead donkey.
The farmer asked, 'What ya gonna do with him?'
Chuck said, 'I'm going to raffle him off.'
The farmer said: 'You can't raffle off a dead donkey!'
Chuck said, 'Sure I can. Watch me. I just won't tell anybody he's dead.'
A month later, the farmer met up with Chuck and asked, 'What happened with that dead donkey?'
Chuck said, 'I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at two dollars a piece and made a profit of $998.'
The farmer said, 'Didn't anyone complain?'
Chuck said, 'Just the guy who won. So I gave him his two dollars back.'

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Tomorrow is the Holiday Dazzle Light Parade in Putnam, it starts at 6pm, if you live close enough I hope to see you there.. :)

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My foot has been feeling pretty good so I decided to try and walk today. I put on the cast boot and walked to the bathroom this morning, it hurt a bit but felt better a few minutes later. I walked again a few hours later, just to the bathroom again. It hurt a bit again, but I figure I have to push it a bit right?

Went to dinner at Matt and Sile's house and leftovers, Sile made an awesome stuffing for Thanksgiving which she MUST make again for one of our Tuesday dinners. My foot is in a lot of pain tonight which I think is less to do with the walking and more to do with having it not elevated for so long while at Matt's house.

Tomorrow I think I'm going to try and drive, figure I'll have Jessie drive to a parking lot and see if I can operate the gas and brake with confidence.

----
Anyone watch Supernatural? A few people told Jessie that she should watch it and we are watching the first episode of the season tonight, it seems pretty good so far, the problem is that it's in the 4th season and we are a bit lost on the characters/story. I'm going to need to see if we can find the earlier seasons on DVD.

---Diversion of the Day

---Thought of the Day
"We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures." - Thornton Wilder

Cyanide and Happiness

Ryan introduced me to Cyanide and Happiness so now I must spread the word.. It's good stuff.. I started reading them today.. I added the link in my Random Links section..

Speaking of Ryan.. He came over last night and he and Jessie made me a wonderful venison steak dinner with pierogies, collards and okra. This meat was so fresh Ryan's friend cut it off the deer the day before.. Yumm.. They did a very good job of cooking it to the correct wellness.. Don't know if wellness is the word or if it's even a word, but you know what I mean..

After dinner we watched King Arthur, the one from 2004 with Keira Knightley. It was a good movie but I think it would have been better if they didn't call it King Arthur, there was a statement in the beginning of the movie saying that the Arthurian legend was based on a real man in the dark ages and this was his real story.. I think had they just made up new names for the characters it would have been much better because there wouldn't be this expectation based on the names. Anyway, I would recommend it if you like fantasy/medieval movies, just try to forget the Arthurian legend names.

I'm about to head out to VSC, gotta get out of the house for a bit, I've been wearing the same clothes for a few days and the furthest I've gone is the picnic table in the back yard. Here's to getting changed and getting some fresh air... :)

---Diversion of the Day
http://www.explosm.net/comics/53/

Palin Prank Call!!!

This is a real call!

Last night in Tokyo, make an Iron night!

Things to do in Japan:
1. Eat Sushi - check
2. Go to a Giants game - check
3. Go to the Tokyo Tower - check
4. Eat some odd unidentifiable animal - check
5. Get "Russian roulette" dinner - check
6. Eat Tempura - check
7. Make it Sontory Time - check
8. Climb Mount Fuji - nope
9. Eat at Iron Chef Sakai's restaurant - check
10. Eat at Iron Chef Chen's restaurant - check
11. Eat at Iron Chef Kobe's restaurant - check
12. Take part in Bukkake (extra credit if you are the bowl) - nope
13. ...

Ok, I'm stopping that now, I really just wanted to throw in some bukkake reference while I was here.. :D

----
Today I went with some co-workers to lunch and I had a tempura platter.. It was good, it had some white fish, shrimp and various vegetables. The view from the restaurant was amazing, you could see a lot of the city from the restaurant, Kato said in the winter you can see as far as Mount Fuji. After lunch I played with my facebook page for a long time, I uploaded a bunch of pictures over there in my 2008 photo album. I also in general cleaned up the page so go check it out..

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Got out of work and headed over to Restorante Massa. I was a bit concerned tonight after last nights showing by Nakamura, then I started to remember that Iron Chef Masahiko Kobe never lost two consecutive battles and he also never lost a battle after another Iron Chef lost, I guess you could call him the stopper.

The short review of tonight, he restored my faith in the title of Iron Chef. Obviously Nakamura was a fluke. The restaurant was really hard to find, I had 18:00 reservations so I arrived at 17:30 to make sure I could find it with no problems. Good thing I did too because it is really out of the way and hidden in a back alley. I think the Iron Chefs (or the good ones anyway) are playing a game to see who can hide their restaurant better. Sakai's restaurant is on the 32nd floor of an office building, but he does have a sign at the entrance of the building and one at the elevator doors. Chen's is on the 3rd floor of a hotel stuck in the back behind the conference rooms but again he has a sign at the hotel entrance and it even has his picture. Nakamura's restaurant is in a mall attached to a food court, he has no sign anywhere and the mall directory is in Kanji only. He does have a sign at his door with his picture. Kobe won this battle, his restaurant has no sign and you have to know to turn down the back alley, check out the pic I took once I finally realized it was the place. There is actually a blue shield that says MASSA on it as you can see in the picture.

Go in and sit down, the waitress brings me the drink menu and the menu of choices. Basically it's a fixed menu, but each course has 2 choices so you can customize your meal a little bit. I put my order in and about a minute later Kobe comes out to make sure I understood what the squid/oyster dish was, I told him I was and it sounded wonderful (I'll get there later). He thanked me and asked if I wanted to take a picture, of course I did! He really looks young, I know he is the youngest of the Iron Chefs but still, I guess I didn't expect him to look that young.

Course 1 - Pickled Onions with Parmesan Cheese. This was really a nice clean crisp starting dish , it made my mouth feel all clean.

Course 2 - Chilled Foie Gras with Apples and a Blackberry sauce. Oh yummm, chilled foie gras is so good! It was served raw and chilled, apparently you need to eat this kinda quick because if it warms up to much it gets real mushy so you need to eat it while it's still kinda firm. The nice thing is that when you put it in your mouth it warms up and gets all nice and mushy! Worked really well with the blackberry sauce, dipped the apples in it too. I knew at the first bite of this dish that Kobe was not going to make me leave Japan on a down chapter in the book of Iron Chefs.

Course 3 - Oyster and Squid Saute. So, imagine if you will.. Take a squid and cut off the head, inside that head put a raw oyster, not a little one mind you but a big one, big enough to fill the squid head. Now take the squid and steam it over pasta sauce! Oh, the rest of the squid, you should cut that up and saute it in some garlic and pasta sauce! This is Italian food at it's finest, two knock out dishes in a row! The rest of the food probably could have sucked and I would have been happy enough with just these two!

Course 4 - Abalone Pasta. This was slices of Abalone tossed in spaghetti in a clam sauce. The abalone adds a nice layer to the clam sauce. I am actually thinking of trying this one back home if I can get some good abalone.

Course 5 - Pumpkin Tortellini - Kobe's speciality was always making pasta out of odd ingredients so I could not try pumpkin pasta? It was very good but the pumpkin flavor was over powered most of the time by the cheese in the tortellini. If you ate a piece of the pasta with no cheese you could really taste the pumpkin and it was amazing, but overall it was too cheesy.

Course 6 - Abalone Steak with some veggies and Sauteed Foie Gras! I figured I would push my limits with abalone, having an entire steak was probably not the greatest idea, it was great if I cut it up into small slices, but trying to eat it like I would eat a steak it was too chewy. I know your going to say that I shouldn't eat my food in big bites anyway, but so's your face. Oh, burn... bet you didn't see that coming.. You were reading along just having a good old time and BAM there went a "so's your face".. The Sauteed Foie Gras does not even need a review, I am running out words for holy jesus that was amazing!

Course 7 - Chocolate Tartlett, a Rice Dumpling and assorted fruits. The Rice Dumpling is apparently a traditional Japanese dessert? I never had it till tonight, I've never had Natto but I think this is what natto would taste and feel like.. Good thing there was a chocolate tartlett and it was very good. Fruits are good, they helped cleanse the palette and left my mouth feeling very clean again.

When I got up to leave Kobe came out of the kitchen and said goodnight and bowed, he even opened the door for me as I was leaving and bowed again..

I would certainly go back. Sakai, Kobe, Chen and Michiba are all truly Iron Chefs! - Don't feel that I am poo-pooing Morimoto, his restaurant in Philly was amazing and I would certainly love to go there again. I would put him in a class with these guys, but I would not put him in the same cuisine as Michiba. They probably should have been:
Chen - Chinese
Sakai - French
Kobe - Italian
Michiba - Japanese
Morimoto - Neo-Japanese

These 5 men are the masters of their art and it's no wonder why Kitchen Stadium was always in shock whenever one of these men lost a battle.

Can the new breed of Iron Chef compete with these guys? I think so.. Ok, well maybe not Wolfgang Puck, but he is not around anymore.. He would probably beat up Nakamura, but none of the others. Michael Symon is a true master of mediterranean cuisine and I would have no problem listing him in the ranks of the true Iron Chefs. I have not tried Bobby Flay or Mario Batali, after having Kobe's food tonight Mario Batali is going to have to do something pretty amazing to live up to the name Iron Chef Italian.

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Heading to bed everyone. I leave tomorrow at 4:45pm so chances are the next time I blog I will be back on US soil.

Diversion Blog

I am really bored at work so I caught up on a bunch of emails from my Metrocast. Here a few things I wanted to share..

1 - Adventuring Party Politics: The Campaign is Getting Ugly

2 -

Some Palin Humor and the Comic of the Day...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DIc8jdra0o



---Comic of the Day

Waste of gas...

I'm sitting in the office right now.. What a waste of gas it is.. I spent the night in Willimantic last night so the drive this morning was long and there really is no reason for me to be here.. I could be typing this blog just as easily from home.. :D

Got a call from the tattoo place in Putnam on Tuesday night, they drew up some artwork and I am going to look at it tonight. I really hope it's at least on the right track.. Obviously it would be nice if it were fall-in-love perfect, but I don't hold out that much optimism, if it's on the right track then I can work with the guy and get it to that fall-in-love perfect stage.

Japan update: The Central League Climax Series tickets don't go on sale till Oct 13th, the Pacific League Climax Series tickets are on sale now and I may be getting a ticket to Game 4 (Tuesday Oct 21st).. I still need to go to Putnam Bank and have them activate my Debit Card for Japanese ATMs, apparently the US debit cards don't work as ATM cards unless you have your bank activate it for their system. - Found that out from Tom W..

There was something else I wanted to mention.. I thought of it right after posting my blog the other day but now I don't remember what it was.. I thought of posting another blog yesterday but I felt I had posted enough for one day.. Crap, I just re-read my blogs from yesterday and I don't remember what it was.. I will post another blog if/when I remember..

Poly Pride Day is Saturday in NYC, looking forward to that.. Afterwards I'm going to see my friend Bob "the Long Organ" play in his band... Not sure what Sunday will bring, depends on how tired I am but there is a Country Fair at the Willimantic Food Co-op..

Here is a really funny link.. I somewhat wish this was made up but..

On the funny note here is an email I got from my dad today...

A big city lawyer went duck hunting in rural North Carolina. He shot and dropped a bird, but it fell into a farmer's field on the other side of a fence. As the lawyer climbed over the fence, an elderly farmer drove up on his tractor and asked him what he was doing. The litigate responded, 'I shot a duck and it fell in this field, and now I'm going to retrieve it.' The old farmer replied, 'This is my property, and you are not coming over here.' The indignant lawyer said, 'I am one of the best trial attorneys in the United States and, if you don't let me get that duck, I'll sue you and take everything you own.' The old farmer smiled and said, 'Apparently, you don't know how we settle disputes in North Carolina . We settle small disagreements with the 'Three Kick Rule.'' The lawyer asked, 'What is the 'Three Kick Rule'? ' The Farmer replied, 'Well, because the dispute occurs on my land, I get to go first. I kick you three times and then you kick me three times and so on back and forth until someone gives up.' The attorney quickly thought about the proposed contest and decided that he could easily take the old codger. He agreed to abide by the local custom. The old farmer slowly climbed down from the tractor and walked up to the attorney. His first kick planted the toe of his heavy steel toed work boot into the lawyer's groin and dropped him to his knees. His second kick to the midriff sent the lawyer's last meal gushing from his mouth. The lawyer was on all fours when the farmer's third kick to his rear end, sent him face-first into a fresh cow pie. The lawyer summoned every bit of his will and managed to get to his feet. Wiping his face with the arm of his jacket, he said, 'Okay, you old fart. Now it's my turn.' The old farmer smiled and said , 'Nah, I give up. You can have the duck.

I'm very sad, I'm caught up on all of my Internet comics.. That does not mean the comic of the day will stop, I saved a bunch of good ones as links so I can keep posting comics of the day for awhile still, but.. It does mean I have no comics to read while trying to kill time at my desk.. If you know of any cool Internet comics shoot me over the links..

---Comic of the Day
http://mchat.comicgenesis.com/d/20080926.html

---Thought of the Day
How did anybody ever plan anything before Google Calendars? I know they have day planners and week planners and all those great books but the problem with those is that only you can access your book and when things change you have all kinds of crossed off items. Plus you only have a little space to write and if your hand writing is anything like mine nobody else can read it which I guess goes back to the fact that only you have access to your day planner.. Sure you could put it on a Palm Pilot or Mobile Phone/BlackBerry but again only you have access.. The Google Calendar can be seen by anyone you want it to be seen by and you can even get programs that will sync it to your Desktop, Laptop and even your BlackBerry. I have a really nice program called "Active Desktop Calendar" that will sync your Google Calendar and your Outlook Calendar so you have everything on your PC..

Palin Brushing Up On Foreign Policy At Epcot

This is from the Onion.. I was going to post a link, but I figured a blog with nothing but a link would be pretty lame.. :D

ORLANDO, FL—Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin sought to silence those who have criticized her lack of foreign affairs experience Tuesday by announcing plans for a weeklong, 10-nation tour of Walt Disney World's Epcot. According to Palin, the trip—her first past Frontierland—will include speaking engagements at Norway's famous Viking ride, sausages at Germany's Kaufhaus, and, time permitting, a fact-finding mission to Future World. "This ambitious trip should finally demonstrate that I am ready to assume the vice presidency, whether by standing in long lines at Morocco's Tangierine Café or by sitting down face-to-face with Mexico's Three Caballeros," Palin announced during a campaign stop outside a Chinese restaurant in Tulsa, OK. "All of our neighbors deserve good diplomacy, from the Universe of Energy down to the French pavilion." Palin also promised a visit to the American Adventure exhibit before returning home, adding that she hoped to learn more about her own nation and the diverse peoples within.

Oh, no.. Not the Dentist...

Last night was a great success, I finally met Kristen (Yoda) and her daughters Libby (2) and Caity (1). Rene had a blast having all the kids over, one of the funniest things of the night was when we were about to eat. The kids had their own table and Rene and Caity were sitting down, Daniel was standing at the table and Libby tried to get him to sit down. She grabbed his hand and said 'come on, sit down', Daniel pulled his hand away and said 'no', she swatted at him and Daniel yelled at her, she looked at him and said 'no scream'. I thought it was so cute.. Caity's "game" was climbing the stairs, she would climb up, an adult would bring her back down and she would climb them again.. At one point I was carrying Libby and Caity down (one in each arm).. You could tell the night was a success for the kiddies because when we left Rene was passed out on the couch (I have never seen Rene sleep before).. :D

One of the nice things about communal dinners is good food.. Sile made a "Sheppard’s pie", I use quotes because when I think of Sheppard’s pie I think meat and potatoes.. This was Sheppard’s pie for a new healthy generation, it had tofu, beans and mashed cauliflower.. It was very good and it was a nice surprise to have it be a healthy Sheppard’s pie.. I made a tofu "east meets south" rice dish, east because it had Chinese style sauce, south because it had onions, peppers, mushrooms, and corn. Sara made Bean and sweet potato burritos which were very good, I never would have thought of sweet potatoes in a burrito but it was a really good flavor enhancement to a normal burrito. Me and Matt got a bit crazy and ended up making a 2nd burrito which consisted of my tofu rice dish, the beans and the sweet potatoes.. so good... For dessert Kristen made a chocolate cake with Peanut Butter Mousse between the layers of chocolate cake.. It was better than a dry Guinness.. :D

Matt and Sile ended up leaving before the cake because it was late and a bit (under exaggeration) past Daniel's bed time.. We were trying to convince them to stay for the cake and Sile said she was too full, in order to try and convince her to eat a bit Ryan said to think of the cake as a dry Guinness.. It was pretty funny...

Next week things will be better planned (this week we planned it all in the morning) and hopefully we can get dessert and everything in before people start heading out.. Speaking of next week... Oh, wait... Hold on to that thought...

So, after cake Jessie and Sara washed the dishes and I dried and put them away. Kristen, Libby, Caity, Jessie and myself all left around midnight.. Caity and Libby were both still up and running when we left which is a bit surprising since Rene was passed out.. I guess Rene lost his crown as the stay up champion.. :D

So, we are planning on doing these dinners on Tuesday nights.. We are already planning next weeks menu.. When I go to Chicago I go to this restaurant called the White Chocolate Grill and get a Balsamic Marinated Rib Eye steak. Next week I am going to make that! I am planning on starting the marinating on Monday night so they will be nice and tender and tasty..

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I am at Patrick Subaru getting an oil change right now and it is POURING out! I used to go to a dentist in Westboro MA when we lived in Grafton and even when we moved to Putnam because I was working in Southboro which was right down the street from the dentist. Since I transferred to Franklin I stopped going to that dentist because they are just so far away from anywhere I would be it was not worth the drive.. Unfortunately that was about 2 years ago now and I have not been to a dentist since.. I know, I know, but I really hate dentists and it's not the biggest priority to go suffer at a dentists office.. I switched to a dentist in Webster MA and had an appointment in May that I had to cancel because I ended up being on the road, I tried a few more appointments and had to cancel each one. So, today (1:45) is finally my first dentist appointment with the new dentist.. Since it's a "first" appointment I am doing x-rays as well as a cleaning.. I am sooooo not looking forward to it..

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I just got this email forward from Matty 2 Fatty...

"If you had purchased $1,000.00 of Delta Air Lines stock one year ago you would have $49.00 left.
With Enron, you would have had $16.50 left of the original $1,000.00.
With WorldCom, you would have had less than $5.00 left.
But, if you had purchased $1,000.00 worth of beer one year ago, drank all of the beer, then turned in the cans for the aluminum recycling REFUND, you would have $214.00 cash.
Based on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle.
It's called the 401-Keg"

---- Comic of the day
http://mchat.comicgenesis.com/d/20080904.html

---- Thought of the day
When faced with something you don't want to do, like go to the dentist, the right thing to do is NOT to avoid it for 2 years.. The longer you put it off the more you dread doing it.. The reason you dread doing it is because it's inevitably going to be harder the longer you wait..

Lay down your arms and gather your friends, gather your friends!

Dianne called Jessie tonight and I answered the phone cause Jessie was playing with the litter pan.. Well, turns out Dianne has a blog on livejournal, from her site I found Alice Riley's blog and Joe Dolce's blog..

Added them to my links gadget..

As Glen says, "lay down your arms and gather your friends".. This blogging thing is a great way to keep up with people.. If you have a blog or know someone I know that has a blog shoot me the link.. :D

And a little laugh, or cry... John McCain ad?

And one to certainly bring a smile to your face.. Peanut Butter Jelly Time

Heros never falter!

Just got back from lunch a little while ago.. I love that spot, we have been there so often that now the little forest creatures are coming out to hang out with us.. Today a few chipmunks came almost to touching distance.. They are not afraid of us at all which is awesome! I love the views, every time we are there we see something new.. Today I saw a beautiful spiders web high up in the trees, it was glistening in the sun light, unfortunately I moved and lost it and couldn't find it again because the sun moved too.. Sometimes I wish I had cameras in my eyes to take pictures of all the beauty in the world..

Part of me is really sad that winter is coming, we will have to make sure we get there a few more times before it gets real cold..

An old favorite to lighten the mood.. Robert Tilton, I swear some of these have to be real!!

---- Thought of the day
Never pretend you like something just because your partner does.. It's hard to deal with the fact that maybe you and your partner don't agree on music/movies/food but it's better to know now than to find out later.. Especially when finding out later also means finding out that you've lied all this time about liking it..

DP?

Last night me and Jessie went to Club Hell to see Sin of Angels, Steel Assassin and Wargasm. The show was, ummm.. Well, lets talk about dinner first.. Dinner was really good, we ate at Trinity Brew House which is right by the club. I had a Cheeseburger with Buffalo sauce and blue cheese which was very good, the beer was alright..

So, back to the concert.. I would recommend you never go see heavy metal at Club Hell, the place is way to small for the volume they were pumping out. The first band's instruments were so loud that you could not hear the vocals, you could see the lead singer moving his mouth but you could hear nothing. We ended up going outside and listening to most of the first band from the street. The door man was giving me and Jessie shit for being "too old" but every time the door opened he would cringe because of the sound and he had ear plugs in outside. The second band was just as bad so we ended up leaving after a few songs..

This morning I was laying in bed thinking of the acronym DP. If I were to say "she really wants a DP" what would you think? If you have a dirty mind you probably think DP means Double Penetration, if you're more baseball oriented you might think DP means Double Play and finally, if you're a LAIRE geek you might even think it's a Dark Paladin. So the real question is, is she watching baseball, playing laire or looking for a threesome? I know what your thinking, can't you be looking for a threesome while playing Laire? Most people who play Laire are indeed looking for a threesome.. What about a DP of DPs? (a double penetration of dark paladins).. :D

After we finally got out of bed we went to Bill's Bread and Breakfast and then went to a Holistic Health Fair. Breakfast was good as usual, the holistic health fair was ok. They had a few cool things, one thing that was awesome is that we found a organic farm in Woodstock CT. They are called Wrenhaven Farm and they are on 99 West Quasset Road in Woodstock, they have a stand that's open 24 hours a day. They sell produce on the honor system, they have a scale and a cigar box for money so you can go up anytime you want to get stuff. They are about a 5 min drive from my house which is awesome!

Tonight?? Jessie is going to meet a guy, Mike, from OKCupid in Wallingford CT. My plans are very much up in the air. When I'm done with this blog I am going to mow the lawn and then wait to hear if I'm being called in from the sidelines.. Elizabeth is home sick tonight so if I stay home I will invite her over to eat and watch the Mets game.. Speaking of sidelines and the Mets, John Maine threw 10 pitches Thursday and Friday, today he is pitching a simulated inning to live batters. If that goes well and he has no pain in the morning he will be activated on Monday to take our vacant closer role..

That's it for now.. I hope you all have a wonderful night and I'll check in with y'all later.. :D


---- Comic of the day
http://mchat.comicgenesis.com/d/20071017.html

---- Thought of the day
The best things in life are not things.

Sidelines

Been thinking alot about being on the sidelines, watching things unfold around you and knowing you have no impact on what happens.. Sure you can talk and support but when it comes right down to the action you have just to sit and watch.. Is this really a bad place to be? For some it is..

Last season John Maine was one of the best starting pitchers we had, this year he started out really good and then developed a bone spur in his shoulder.. He tried to pitch through the pain and ended up pitching real bad, they finally shut him down for a few weeks and when he got back he was just as bad, the answer? Surgery, more rest? Well the final answer is surgery which he will have after his season is officially ended but they decided to let him rest.. After three more weeks of rest he finally threw the ball the other day, he threw around 30 "tosses" and felt no pain - ready to pitch?? He thinks so, the pitching coach and manager say otherwise.. Yesterday he tried to convince his manager and coach that he was ready, instead they gave the ball to a guy with a lifetime 8.62 ERA.. Here is a quote from John Maine yesterday, "You know, I can come in here, get dressed, talk and joke with everyone. Go out and stretch. But once the game begins, I'm not part of the team. There's nothing I can do to help us. I wish there were. I just hate this."

So, what do you do when you're on the sidelines? Listen, watch, support and wait.. Those things are much more important than you think.. Sometimes the people in the action will miss what's going on around them, they can only see the part of the action that they are dealing with, the people on the sidelines can see the whole stage in front of them. Watch that stage and listen to what people say (and when I say listen, I don't mean hear their words, but listen to what they are actually saying with their words and their body language).. If you do that then you are in a better position to support those in the fray.. Think of how many people's job it is to study games after they are over to see if the pitcher is tipping his pitches by the way he stands or by the way he holds his glove or the angle of his arm while getting set to throw.. Being on the sidelines is just as important as being in the game sometimes..

There are two types of leaders, there are those that lead from the front line and those that lead from the back.. "What can we learn from following leaders, who lead from the rear, where are they now?" (SkyClad's History Lessons) I am very much a front line leader but I can tell you there are benefits of leading from the rear. When fighting on the front line you only see your ally to your left, your ally to your right and the opponents directly in front of you right? I suppose if you're good you can see a bigger pocket than that (which I am), but you still can't see the whole battle field, especially if it's a wide spread battle.. Do you need to see the bigger battle? Sometimes you do.. With that said, I still prefer to be on the front line.. I've been leading from there all my life, it feels good and it feels comfortable, from there I have complete control over my little spot on the field.. I am learning how to lead from the rear, how to watch those I care about fight without jumping to their side.. A big part of that is having confidence in those you are leading, in knowing that they can handle the fight.. The bigger/harder part for me is knowing that sometimes they don't need you to jump in.. I want to always feel that I'm needed, if they can handle the fight without me what am I still important? However being in the rear you can watch how people fight both alone and together, you can help them after the fight to learn from mistakes they might not know they are making. You can help them after the fight to see what the other people are doing around them. You can see when the enemy is mounting a big push just over the horizon.. I learned a lot of this while healing from my injuries this year (first my partially torn rotator cuff and then my ankle/tendon issue).. However much I learned it was still nice to get back on the line when I could..

Everyone is on the sidelines from time to time and everyone is on the front lines from time to time. Very few people feel equally as comfortable in those two spots.. When on the sidelines remember that those in the fight need your support..

----

In other news.. Last night was awesome, I made dinner and brought it over Matt & Sile's apartment.. We had a "bit" to drink and had an overall good time, both at Matt's and after we got home.. :D

Huh, I've been at work for almost 3 hours? I guess I should do some work?? Tonight is 3rd Thursday, me and Jessie are planning on going over there to see some live music.. Speaking of live music.. Glen is coming back to MA in October, Oct 16th and Oct 31st.. I will just be getting back from Japan on Oct 31st so I guess that means I will be going to see him on Thursday Oct 16th.. Sounds good right? Well, Jessie is going to see Hanson with Sara.. Anyone want to go see Glen with me on the 16th?

OK, *now* I need to get back to work.. :D

---- Thought of the day
I hate driving all the way to work when all I’m going to do here is sit in a dark empty classroom and randomly browse the internet.. I can do that so much more effectively from home.. :D

Focus on the positive.

Don't you hate when you're driving and you think of something awesome that you want to make sure you add to your blog.. Then you get to work and you forget.. What a crappy thing to have happen.. So all day I sit at work and I can't remember what the hell it was that I thought was so insightful. I mean isn't that why we blog, to show the world just how insightful we can be? Sure, it would be easy to just Wright up a bunch of dick and fart jokes but there are so many out there already, speaking of which - what's worse in your opinion a hot dog that's too small for the bun or a hot dog that's too big for the bun? In one case you just have this mess of hot dog that you can't quite put mustard on because it falls off and you certainly can't put chili or kraut on it because there's nothing to hold it on the dog.. In the other case you might as well just eat a loaf of bread.. Hmmm..

Anyway, where was I.. Insightful things.. I'll get there.. This is a linear blog right? I might as well start back to what made me forget my friggin thought to begin with.. I was driving to work this morning and I (and almost everyone else on the road) got pulled over for speeding! I know what you're going to say "when you speed ALL the time eventually you get caught", and you would be right, but you could also bugger off.. The MA cops had a guy sitting at Exit 100 in CT clocking everyone's speed, they had a ton of cops sitting at Exit 1 in MA with the two right lanes blocked off and a guy in the left lane pointing at everyone who was speeding! My question is can the MA cops put a guy in CT to clock people? What are the rules for crossing state lines?

So, on to work.. Busy, busy, busy, busy.. I am not going to whine about work, at least not in this forum.. :) Went down to eat around 1:30 and the cafe was already closing, the sandwich girl had not cleaned up so she let me order.. I had ham & swiss on a wrap with mayo, lettuce, tomato and basil. Ok, no more about work today..

After work I went to my foot doctor, I am going to have surgery on my right Achilles tendon on Nov 19th with the left foot to be scheduled after that one heals a bit. Did I say no more about work? I lied.. My boss is going to give me the week of Nov 19th off platform so I can work from home with my foot elevated..

On the way home I was chatting with Lynz and I suddenly remembered what my insightful thought was!! I was all excited, ironically though as soon as I logged in to start typing this I forgot!! :( I have been typing up the day in hopes that it would jump back in there... Oh well.. On to dick and fart jokes? Nah, I'll leave those to Mr. Smith, he is the real master..

So, I wanted to mention a really awesome band my friend in Chicago showed me.. There is an acoustic duo Rodrigo y Gabriela which will blow your mind away.. This video is them doing Stairway to Heaven on two guitars, nothing but two guitars!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNc5o9TU0t0

If you have not yet you should check out my "Random Links" section.. If you have something that you feel people who read my blog would be interested in shoot me a link and I may post it over there.. Things I really want are links to my friend's blogs so that I can have one place to go for all my blogging needs..

About to head to dinner.. I am going (if they are open) to check out the Putnam Tattoo place finally.. I figure I keep going further and further away to find a good tattoo place and I keep crapping on the one right down the street because "it can't possibly be good if it's that close"..

And two more things that came to me while Jessie was checking for spelling errors.. First - Queen has a new CD (http://www.amazon.com/Cosmos-Rocks-Queen/dp/B001DU8T6S) coming out!!! I am so friggin happy I think I make myself wet everytime I think about it!! Second - RC is the best cola!!

---- Comic of the day
http://www.xkcd.com/400/

---- Thoughts of the day
Just because you have an insightful thought does not mean it's always a good idea to share it.. I did remember what my insightful thought was finally but after all of that I decided in the end I should not post it.. I guess today's thought of the day is that some thoughts are meant to be internal thoughts only.. Wizard's Eleventh Rule?

Remember to focus on the positive thoughts and positive things in your life. The more you focus on those the happier you will be which will in turn make you focus more on the positive things.. It's a happy spiral!

Last night in Chicago - aka let the women lead

Tonight was my last night in Chicago for this trip.. I hope to come back soon.. Anyway, tonight I went back to Millenium park, I walked by there the other night and saw the giant fountains but I didn't see anything else because it was dark.. I was talking to a friend today and she said asked if I saw "the bean", when I said no she said I needed to go check it out.. Glad I did.. It's called the cloud gate and it really needs to be seen to be believed.. It is a giant silver "bean" that is basically a big mirror.. It is amazing and you get some really awesome views of the Chicago skyline, under it you get a really odd sense of looking into a tunnel at yourself.. I took bunches of pictures, I can show them to you when we get together again.. After the cloud gate I went over to the BP Bridge which is a curved bridge that crosses Columbus Drive (East side of Millenium park), it was really cool to be on a winding path in the sky..

After the park, on Lynz's recommendation, I went to Vong's Thai Kitchen which is a French-Thai fusion restaurant. I had a tuna wasabi pizza and a scallop/shrimp citrus curry. I had just started to look at the menu when the waitress came over and basically told me what I was getting all the way down to the wine.. I was very happy with her choices.. :) The pizza was f'n amazing, I see Tuna Ricotta Wasabi Maki rolls in my future (maybe with some Benito flakes to make it crunchy)..

After dinner I went over to House of Blues and watched an acoustic Blues performance by Keith Scott (http://www.heavyblues.com/). He had a guitar and a harmonica on a neck stand and he played both at the same time.. In between sets we chatted for awhile, he is actually from Westchester County NY! I will probably end up getting one or more of his CDs, he is a great guy and a very good bluesman.. Did overhear a really funny conversation, two guys were getting ready to order dinner at the House of Blues and one guy said he tried Jambalaya for the first time the other night, he apparently knows a Puerto Rican girl and apparently Jambalaya is a traditional Puerto Rican dish!!! Who knew!! Gotta love people!!

Back at the hotel now, have to pack and get to sleep so I can grab my 8:30am flight tomorrow.. I want to be at the airport around 6ish which means leaving here around 5am, I don't think there will be traffic but I would rather get there earlier rather than late..

Goodnight and thanks for reading.. There is no Comic or Thought because I posted one earlier today and they specifically say Comic and Thought of the day, not of the blog!!

Welcome to Cold and Rainy Chicago...

Update from last week... Went with Elizabeth on Thursday and she got a new phone (Chocolate 3). John and I didn't hang out on Thursday because he needed to catch up on sleep.. Mon-Wed he had classes so he was up late.. Instead Jessie made raw pasta sauce on Thursday night which was awesome... Friday I went to Lynz's house for lunch and had leftover pasta sauce before going for a nice long ride with Matt. Dinner with Matt was good, but good god that sword fish was spicy..

Saturday Lynz, Anja and Mike came over and we went for lunch before playing Catan.. Hold on to your seat, but I lost Catan, Mike won!! Riverfire was cancelled due to the rain but we ended up seeing a really good show at VSC, me and Lynz ended up standing in the doorway for most of the show while Anja ran around in the rain... Gotta love kids sometimes...

So... Now on to new things... Yesterday I flew into Chicago, actually got an earlier flight and got in just around when the Mets game was starting. The flights were good, the Hartford to Newark flight was quick and I was in a row by myself. The flight to Chicago was PACKED, they were offering $400 and a room in Newark to anyone who would take a flight the next day.. I met a guy who was flying from the UK on the plane, he was a cool guy.. Unfortunately there was a newborn baby in the row directly behind me who decided he would yell/cry for almost the entire trip, luckily I had my iPod and headphones to drown out most of it.. Sunday night I ate at Red Robin...

Today.. I went to work and found that I only have two students this week, they didn't ask any questions during lecture and they were done with their labs around 1:30.. I tried to go to Borrowed Earth (the raw vegan lunch place) but they are closed on Mondays.. After work I went into the city and wondered around in the area of the Chicago Diner..

Saw lots of "cool" shirts in a few stores, here is a sampling of them:
Some of these are not direct quotes because my memory is not perfect...
Stick figure man with penis - under says Weapon of Ass Destruction
Picture of a fork and knife and a cat
Alright I'm sorry, unfuck you!
shh, hey you.. Less talky more sucky
what starts in the mouth stays in the mouth
I fucking <3 Fucking I really wonder who wears those, I can't imagine anyone wearing those is getting laid anytime soon.. Had good raw food at the Chicago Diner to make up for not eating it for lunch.. Dessert was a raw cocoa orange cheesecake! So good... After dinner I went to Goose Island and had a Blueberry Cubbie Ale before heading back to the hotel.. Anyway, I'm back at the hotel at the hotel now and heading to bed... I'll see you all tomorrow...
--- Comic of the day
http://www.redmeat.com/redmeat/1997-04-14/index.html

--- Thought of the day
A friend of mine started a new activity where each night they look at the best thing from the day and the worst thing from the day.. I decided to give it a shot and I recommend everyone do it.. You would be surprised at how trivial the worst thing usually is and how good the best thing usually is.. Plus it gives you time to reflect on each day.. As Ferris Bueller once said "Live moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

Beer at work is nice, but wine at lunch is better... <3

Last night I attempted Week 6 day 1 of the 100 Pushup challenge. My body was too tired and beat to complete day 1 of week 6. I decided I would do week 5 again to build up more strength for week 6. Week 5 was tough last week, maybe it will be better this week..

On my way to work today the car told me that there was traffic ahead so it had me get off the highway early and drive down a bunch of side roads, it was a nice trip down roads that were only wide enough for one car. When a car came the other way both of you had to drive onto the sidewalk or hit each other.. Gotta love European streets..

Can this office get any better?? Today at 4:30 they have happy hour, I am not kidding when I say this but... They have free beer at work? Wow!! I am torn, part of me wants to stay and have at a free beer at work because how many times in your life does that happen, but I also want to get out and enjoy the nice weather since class will probably get out early today.. I can't actually post this blog till I get back to the hotel so the answer to what I choose will probably be in the next few paragraphs.. :)

Here is an article I saw on CNN (http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LmNubi5jb20vMjAwOC9DUklNRS8wOC8yNS9jb3VwbGUuY2hhcmdlZC5hcC9pbmRleC5odG1s).. Part of me wants to treat it as a joke, but I guess I know better... I guess you can laugh at it because she got caught, but holy crap!

Onto Vacation hours and what I need to use... Because I dropped so many of my vacations this year to help out with classes that needed to be run I am going to take next week as Vacation, that will still give me my December vacation and 4 more days I will have to use by the end of the year.

http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8veGtjZC5jb20vMjY3Lw== - words to live by?

So, my decision was made for me.. It's 4:45pm, my students are still working and I'm drinking a beer and eating a pretzel.. Yes, I took a picture!

I just came back to the hotel to drop some stuff off before heading into the city. I figured since I typed this at work today I would post it real quick while I'm able to access Myspace. I will probably post another update tonight..

---- Random email of the day
I found 3 sombreros last night under my car in the middle parking garage at 176. They are now at the main lobby security desk.

---- Thought of the day
It's amazing how the simplest things (like sitting on a log) can change so many people's lives.. I love the way the universe comes together sometimes..