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.
Tuesday night I went to the local sports bar. I stress the word local, to say this was Cheers-like would be very accurate, I walked in and the bartender before taking my order asked me my name and where I was from. She then introduced me to the other people around the bar! Ordered some food and she threw the Mets/Dodgers game on the TV over the bar. Shortly after I got there Mike and John asked me if I wouldn't mind if they put the Basketball game on that TV since it's playoff time. I said sure and they moved the baseball game to a side TV. Got included in a free round by Jim, one of the regulars and my burger was really good. Hung out for a bit after the game ended because I was enjoying hanging out with my new friends.. :)
Wednesday night.. Robyn cancelled because she got called into work so I ended up going alone to Gordon Biersch, got lobster bisque and sea bass. After dinner I went back to Neighbors because it was Donna's 50th Birthday and I wanted to stop in and say happy birthday.. Hung out for a few drinks but left somewhat early because I was starting to feel get a sinus cold.
Thursday night.. I got tickets to see the Yankees and Orioles at Camden Yards. Met Matt, Sile and Daniel at McCormick and Schmick's for dinner, I had a Parmesan crusted flounder cooked with capers. It was so good! After dinner me and Matt walked over to Oriole Park at Camden Yards for the game. We got there early and walked around the stadium, when you first enter the stadium you're in the highlight of the park. There is a road past that runs from the CF corner to the LF corner out past the wall, during game days they close that road off and it's part of the stadium. It was very pretty and was full of historical things to look at like the Oriole Hall of Fame, and a great moments in Baltimore sports history section. We had just eaten so we didn't pay too much attention to the food, but they had a bunch of Baltimore local microbrew stands which were very good. Went up to our seats and found that there was two bars in our way of the field view. The seats were very wide but only the first row had cup holders. Around the 7th inning I got hungry so we went in search of something to eat.. Hot dogs, hot dogs, sausages, hot dogs and hot dogs was about all we found. I was very disappointed in the food selection at the stadium, to be fair they also had hamburgers and one place on the right field corner of the field level which sold expensive wraps. We walked the entire stadium and I ended up with a pretzel which they only sold at one location behind home plate on the field level! Maybe I'm spoiled by the food at CitiField but I have come to expect a mix of high end and low end food. In order to get into my top list of stadiums you need some sort of special food and they just didn't cut it.
Friday was drive home day.. Lynz came over but I was probably at the height of my sinus cold so we just ate some dinner and snuggled on the couch..
Saturday I got my bike back and on the road! I didn't ride much because I was coughing and sneezing while trying to ride and not very good when wearing a face shield and helmet.. But, it was the most comfortable I felt on my bike since I've gotten it! That night we went to Foxwoods to eat dinner and to see Mark Knopfler. Ate at the Grill at Two Trees and had Salmon in capers and kalamata olives which was very good. The concert was great, the sound quality at the MGM might be one of the best I've heard in a long time if not ever. It sounded like you were listening to a live recording, everything was very good and no echo or hard to hear instruments/vocals. The concert itself was also very good, it was very "trance" and you could just close your eyes and let the music flow over and through you.. It was odd seeing how old Mark Knopfler is because he's one of those people you don't see, never see videos and he usually has pictures of instruments on his CDs.
Sunday me and Jessie went to see her mom... It was, umm.. Fun? Sure.. Dinner was great! We ate at a little seafood place on the Hudson and I had a prime rib with crab stuffed shrimp.. Yum!
Last Friday was travel day.. I got home right before 6 and spent the night relaxing and catching up on the TV.. South Park has been great the last few episodes, saw the Facebook one and the two part 200th episode and all three were very funny! If you don't normally watch it I recommend grabbing those on Hulu.
We also caught on the Daily Show and his reaction to South Park was perfect, it's a good thing he is a "comedy show" and can get away with what he does under that guise..
Saturday we went to Armsby Abby and then to the Heavy Metal Festival in Worcester to see Eluviette, they only played for about 30 mins but it was worth it. It was amazing to see how many people were actually there just to see them, we arrived while they were setting up the stage and all the people around us had done the same. When we were leaving so were others and they were also only there to see them.. I think it's time for a Folk Metal Festival in Worcester!
The night was far from over, we went over to Lynz and John's house for Cheese Fire and hung out for a while.. It was a very good time, I expected it to be fun but was actually surprised at how much so.. :D
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Sunday, rainy Sunday... Went to the Mets game for a bit on Sunday before driving down to Mclean. It was cold and rainy and I didn't stay very long, the game got suspended shortly after I left and finally cancelled because of the rain. The entire ride to Mclean was massive rain, so much so that I had to use my wipers on full blast..
Got in around 1:30 and stayed up chatting with dad for a bit while he drove home from NY.
Monday night I was in the mood for Buffalo Chicken so I went to local sports bar here called Chicks n' Wings, the service was so slow I almost left before ordering. I'm glad I stayed because the food was actually very good once I got. Found out that the manager only scheduled one girl to work, normally Mondays are slow, but not during the hockey playoffs.. Way to plan...
I told my co-worker how I was flying home from Seattle and going to a concert Saturday night in Maine and then leaving Sunday for Dallas, fly home from Dallas and go to a concert again on Saturday before leaving on Sunday for Mclean. His response was "man, you're really burning that candle at both ends", both ends you say? I think I found a few spots in the middle that burn too.. :)
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Last day in Seattle
I got out of class and headed back into Seattle to go back to the Science Fiction Museum, I'm glad I did.. In my hurry to look around the first time I missed the Red Dwarf model, they had one of the original Red Dwarf models used in the show, unfortunately they keep all the displays dark so I was not able to get a good picture. One of the big interactive screens I walked by the first time was a space dock that had bunches of ships dock and then fly away again, under the big screen they had little screens which you could interact with each ship that shows up on the big one. They listed the speed, maneuverability, fire power, distance, size and crew capacity for each ship as well a little blurb about who made the ship and why. It was really neat to look at and compare the different ships from the different sci-fi stories.
Walked around downtown a bit more before spending way too much time in the airport..
Hung around the airport and met a girl who was flying home from Hawaii, she grew up in Florida and moved to Hawaii because her husband got stationed there with the Army. She was telling me about how great the health care is there.. Is anyone surprised? You mean government provided heath care for all is a good thing?! Who knew... Oh wait, I (and probably all of you reading this) did...
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Landed later than I thought but I did get a bit of sleep on the plane, on the flight from Atlanta to Hartford I had an empty row so I was able to lay down. Me and Jessie hung out at the house for a bit while I did laundry and then we headed up to Maine. We got to the concert venue a bit before 6 and got a chance to walk around before the show, the highlight was a used toy/comic store which had tons of awesome stuff from the past. We ate at a local pub and got to the concert just in time to get front row seats. The concert was awesome! Jessie was concerned because when she saw it in Cambridge they had guest singers for each part and here they only had Anais singing. I have heard the CD before but never really realized how much she looks and sounds like Alyssa Jones from Chasing Amy, it was so close I actually looked up on IMDB to see if they were the same person or at least related. They are not..
When we first got to the venue there was a guy holding the door open for the musicians to bring in instruments. I asked him what time the doors opened and he went and found out, while he was gone Jessie informed me that he was the bass player... doh...
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Got up early and came down to Dallas via Cincinnati.. Went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner and watched the Mets lose on ESPN.
Monday lunch was great, work provided because we have customers in the class and they brought in Chicken Marsala with a tray of grilled veggies and roasted potatoes. It was so good I went back for seconds. Speaking of good, dinner was great too.. I went to Magic Time Machine which is a theme restaurant over by the hotel. All the waiters are dressed as different characters, my waiter was Jack Sparrow and he did a great job of the part. They also had Dr Evil, Mr Incredible, Cinderella, the Mad Hatter and others. One of the funniest things was the bathroom calls, if you made the mistake of being seen going to the bathroom they would yell things at you.. One example was Cinderella asking a guy "Are you going to the potty?! Try not to pee on the floor again!", and don't make the mistake of asking anyone where the bathroom is because then they walk you all around the restaurant announcing that "this guy has to pee". Dr Evil had a guy following him as he asked each table if he could borrow their cups because this guy had to pee! He walked the guy around the restaurant like three times before he finally showed him to the bathrooms.. The food was just as good as the entertainment, I had a blackened stuffed prime rib which was two 5 oz prime ribs with crab meat and scallops between them, take that and put on a bed of garlic mashed potatoes and some asparagus. So good! I was going to just get a Rib Eye but Jack Sparrow recommended the stuffed prime rib, I just have to say thank you Capt Sparrow..
Got back to the hotel and watched the Mets game, which was once again on ESPN. After the game I went down to the hot tub to find they closed it early?!
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I slept good, but I must have slept odd because my back is killing me today, hopefully I can get to the hot tub before they close it today. I'm feeling something healthy for dinner, maybe sushi? Lunch today was mexican and just ok..
Firstly, I take no credit for rhyming automobiles with Bonemeals, the Internets had a list of words that rhymed with Automobile and Bonemeal was in there and it does make sense in the narrative..
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Rains:
What more do I really have to say but that single word "rain" to make those in the New England area shudder. We have gotten hit with so much rain up here that we set new March rainfall records for MA, CT and RI. With massive rain comes massive flooding. Tuesday I was hanging and work minding my own business when people start texting and emailing me telling me of their massive flooding problems, now I had already ran into lots of road flooding on the way to work (Rte 193 by the Thompson Speed Way) so I was pretty concerned with the status of our house. Got permission to leave early and my concerns were realized when I got home to find about 3 inches of water in the basement and the river out back up to the driveway.
Went to get a wetvac and found everyone out so I borrowed my friend Mikes. The poor little thing really didn't have a chance with it's little 4 gallon tub. It was quite literally pump for 10-15 seconds and take the thing apart to dump it. While I was working on that Mike was calling around and found us a pump at the Auburn Home Depot. We drove up there and got the last one off the shelf, Home Depot in Auburn has 4 self checkout stations 3 of the 4 had people buying the same item.
After Home Depot we went to Tuesday dinner for a little sanity and some amazing food, Badger and Marie were both at the top of their game. Hung out for a little while and headed back to the basement.
We used our existing garden hose and had little success, the hose was too long and too thin to really get effective pumping. Decided to stay home the next day and go back to work, before starting I went and got a real size hose which made the process much more effective. I had it down to puddles by the time I went to lunch, I was gone for about 30-40 minutes and when I came back it was back up to about 1.5 inches! Pumped some more and with Amber's help I moved some stuff around to vacuum up the dirt, the pump does NOT like all the dust and dirt that was on the floor so getting that up made the pumping much easier.
Jessie came home early and we went out to Providence to see TSO with Kevin and Erin. It was the first time I was at Kevin's apartment and I have to say it's a pretty nice looking place. The concert was great, I personally loved the change of pace of having a new (non-christmas) story. The story was Beethoven's Last Night in which the devil tries to trick him into handing over his music for his soul, he can't figure out how the devil owns his soul in the first place and so Fate brings him back over his life choices. In the end he finds out that the devil lied to him and does not actually own his soul. What I didn't love about the show was missing some of our normal "east coast" TSO members but the good out weighed the bad and the show was very worth it.
I got up way too early the next day to head up to Anime Boston, when I got up I noticed the basement had water almost back up to the original amount. I had no choice but to leave it to Jessie. She has now pumped a few more times and last I heard the water was still coming in but it did at least slow down.
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Sprains:
Major League Baseball opens tonight with the Red Sox playing the Yankees in Boston at 8pm. Luckily I will be leaving the city via train so I won't have to deal with that traffic. The Mets open tomorrow in NY. Another year, another hope right? Or is that another year, another injury? The Mets were crippled with injuries last year and that's the thing that really can't happen two years in a row right? Apparently it can, or so it seems early on.. Carlos Beltran is recovering from knee surgery and will hopefully be back around May, Jose Reyes has just started his spring training and they have no time table for his return, and now Daniel Murphy sprained his knee and is expected to miss 2-6 weeks! That makes 3 of our starting 8 players already on the DL. The annoying thing to me is that we don't even have our best available players on the field to start the season, apparently Gary Matthews Jr got the CF job over Fernando Martinez, who is starting the season in the minors.
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Bonemeals:
Ok, so that one's a stretch, not only is it a bad rhyme for automobiles but it's kinda misleading too. I went with that word for this title because UMass Memorial Laboratories is signing up people for Bone Marrow donation at Anime Boston and their booth is located right next to me.
I had lots of fun at Anime Boston this weekend but it was also lots of work. I got there way too early on Thursday morning after fighting with traffic and the T. I got checked in and met Christian and Mara in the empty dealer room. We watched them put it together and around noon we unloaded the Anime Boston truck and started setup. The vendors started rolling in at 2 and we worked till about 11pm setting stuff up and making sure the vendors had everything they needed.
Friday morning I got down to the dealer room around 8:30 and once again made sure the vendors had everything they needed before opening to the public at noon. Being in the front of the vendor room made for lots of great scenery, unfortunately most of the really sexy outfits were being worn by people far to young to really enjoy them. Nothing to major happened Friday during the day, one vendor was caught selling bootleg bags and I found out that Alex and Alyson were there selling chain mail jewelry. I got Dominion Intrigue for cheap and a really amazing steampunk leather book cover for me to use as Laal in Future Imperfect. Speaking of Laal, I was called Laal by no fewer than four people over the course of the weekend. I guess I have not played FI long enough for people to know my real name. Also, while on the topic of FI, it's nice to know the president of the con.. I got permission for FI flyers to be randomly left around the con and some of the players did exactly that, hopefully we can get some new players out of it.
During the day I went to a Steampunk/Cyberpunk panel expecting to see some cool outfits and stuff to get ideas for FI, instead it was just a rant about how different movies showcase and/or influence the genre. After we closed Friday night I went and got some food and then went to the Cos-Play dating game which was really cheesy, it was an 18+ show where everyone played their character in a dating game. It might have been better if I had known the characters better but I've been so out of the Anime scene that I probably only knew like 15% of the characters. I went to the rave after but only stayed there for a few minutes before checking out the gaming room which was pretty dead. After that I went to the bar across the street and ended up hanging out with some of the vendors. The bar across the street, Bukowski's Tavern, had a lot of really good beers including Maudite on tap! I had a really good beer from Troegs called Hopback Amber, we only recently found that brewery and they are really good.
Back to the dealer floor Saturday morning at 8am. The dealer room opened at 10am and we spent MOST of the day handing out tickets for the Masquerade that started at 6pm. The Masquerade was more or less a cosplay talent show, I went and checked it out after we closed the dealer room at 7 and only stayed for 1 skit which was a dance off between characters I didn't know. Saturday saw some really amazing costumes just like Friday but this time there were a lot more adults.. :)
I took a bunch of pictures and will post them to Flickr later today. One kid "dressed" as a guy from Avatar, I say dressed in quotes because what he did was paint his entire body with latex paint. When I say his entire body I mean it, he had a loin cloth on which apparently shifted while he was in the food court to show his blue privates. He got removed from the con. If you think that was ballsy (pun intended) there was a lady dressed as Leia from Return of the Jedi. Her clothes were made of chain mail and she was wearing nothing underneath but a loin cloth, even at a quick glance you could see her nipples sticking out between the links.
Back to the dealer room, during the day on Saturday a vendor came up with a kid to inform us that the kid had just bought a bootleg toy, we investigated the booth he got it at and found that everything in the booth was a bootleg. I learned a lot from Christian on how to spot bootlegs and we ended up kicking the vendor out which meant we had to hang in the room after it closed to make sure he left peacefully which he did.
After he left I went up to the Artist Alley and spent a bunch of time looking at wonderful artwork. I got an amazing cat magnet, I will put up a link to her site later because I left her card at home.
After visiting the Masquerade and the Artist Gallery I ended up going to an Irish pub for dinner and then to the Formal Dance where I hung out with Christian and Mara's friend Kate. It was awesome to see how much effort people went into to make formal gowns for their cosplay characters. After that I went back to the game room and was uninspired to hang out there because it was really dead again. Went to the rave again for a few minutes and then went to a panel on how to make fan dubbed anime, that was a pretty interesting show actually. The security guard there had nails that made Holly's nails look small..
Found out that Saturday night was more exciting for the security team which ended up having to deal with an overly drunk under age girl and her friends.
Sunday, 8am, dealer room... Spent almost all of Sunday taking pre-regs for the 2011 Anime Boston con which will be April 22-24. After the room closed we took apart everything and I left around 5pm.
You know, when I wrote this I could have just used Trains as one of my points... When I left I found out that the Hynes Convention Center T Station was having construction and the outbound platform was closed, "For outbound go inbound one station"... Went inbound and got off at Copley to find that due to flooding you couldn't go from the inbound platform to the outbound platform... "For outbound go inbound one station".. Went in again and finally got on an outbound train, with all the Red Sox game traffic which means I had to stand with my bags in a cramped train for a few stops before they all got off for the game.
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Got home to find more water fun.. The fridge has started leaking water from the freezer into the fridge and ruining food. Searched the Internets and found it to most likely be a problem with something frozen inside the fridge so we took everything out and loaded up the downstairs fridge and freezer before heading to bed...
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The other week I went to Mythical Journeys: Future Imperfect, it was a great weekend.. One thing that they do that I think is great is that they ask for a Post Event Letter so that the guys who run the game can see what everyone is up to. I think this is a great idea for LARPs to do but I wouldn't want to be the guy responsible for reading them all.. Anyway, here is my weekend...
Friday night could possibly be one of the unluckiest nights ever.. It was certainly the first time I've ever had to res twice in one night. Did a few rounds with Rooster so he could show me the boundaries of our jurisdiction, got into a few fights along the way with Brigands. We found some resources on them and ended up giving a Petroleum and noble metal to Grinner so he could make his Medical unit. I was standing with Rooster while he was talking to someone else and I noticed three people sitting by the water. I went to investigate and as soon as I got close enough I got three quick bullets to the chest from our little Num friends. They picked me up and walked me out past low town to meet up with their scientist. One hysterical DNA extraction later (see favorite cast) my Karma kicked in, I noticed four things, a - my neck was killing me, b - I saw a white lab coat to my right, c - I saw a black trench coat to the left and, d - I saw a clear path ahead. Instinct kicked in and I ran for it. I almost got a full message to Rooster on the radio before a bunch of nums who were waiting around the corner unloaded into my chest again. Not taking chances this time they granted me a quick death and I took the long slow walk to the res bed..
After getting back up I had Grinner check out my neck, he told me that they got my DNA and that he knew how to destroy it if we could get the bottle back. I radioed Rooster and found him in a firefight in low town so I ran to assist with Dink and a few others. After the fight we headed back to where I remember waking up, I saw the white coat and a bunch of other hostiles. We didn't engage, instead we went back to town for re-enforcements. We got re-enforcements including Pulse and headed back up to the area. By the time we got back they were all gone but I did find my shot gun.
We had a few skirmishes with some nums but none of them had any vials. On the way back into town we found some people on the path, we were attacked by the brigands when Rooster identified himself as Marshall. Dropped them and went back to the commissary.
Spoke with Pulse about his still while setting up our camp. We didn't get a chance to put straps on his armor (before the event) so we quickly attached it to him using duct tape. After setting up camp and getting him armored we started wheeling and dealing our resources for the ones he needed. Got most of what we thought we needed and headed to the auto-forge to see he had in storage. We were ambushed in the science center by another group of nums and they dragged everyone out but me. I was bandaged up and we went up to high town to get Pulse and the others back. We stormed a cabin and defeated the nums, I was bandaging Pulse when the nums got back up and we dispatched them a second time. After the interruption I went back to bandaging him up, Frost asked me if it would take a while and I said yes. Just Pulse was coming awake I got shot in the arm, I turned just in time to see the next bullet hit my chest and Frost nowhere to be found. Pulse was shot after trying to radio for help and we both laid there and bled out. We got out of the res bed minutes before the game was called for the night.
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Saturday morning started with me and Pulse cooking breakfast for everyone, Pulse cut up the boar and I cooked it along with potatoes, beans and french toast. Breakfast ended about 10 and we headed up to the commissary for the gathering so that Rooster and Pulse could officially announce their candidacy. After the meeting we went back to the auto-forge to drop of more resources towards his still and found we only needed one more patroleaum.
Came back to the commissary to find the science meeting already in progress so I quietly joined. Spoke with Mabin after about Amps and she said if I provided her the resources she would make me some amps so we headed to the science center.
On the way we ran into a new thaw who was cowering from everyone, she seemed to have something mentally wrong with her (she kept smelling a hospital smell) so Mabin tried to cure psych procedures which only made her more upset. I got her to calm down and walk with me to the rec center. I tried to see if the smell was physical so we had her remove her hat, clothes etc to see if something had the smell on it. We had her sit by the lake to see if the nice smell would help overpower it. After not having any success there I called Rooster over for his opinion and he had little to add. Convinced her to come to the commissary so she could get something to eat and drink to see if that would help. Kept her away of people who obviously looked like doctors or scientists to try and keep her calm so she could remember some of her past. She could not remember as long as the smell was there so I tried to distract her smell with alcohol which apparently was a bit strong because it knocked her down (1 damage from the drink). Got her bandaged and back up, when she came to she saw the bandage and ripped it off causing her to fall back down. Carried her over to Grinner's healing machine and healed her using that.
She was a bit calmer now that she was drunk and the smell seemed to only come back when I asked her anything about her past so I tried to just sit with her for a bit to see if we could help, as the drink started to wear off the smell came back strong so we got her some chocolate which seemed to help for a very short time. I called Grinner over to get his opinion and he suggested his laughing gas, she would not do it unless I did first so we both sat there laughing for the next 5 minutes. After the gas wore off she seemed to be pretty calm but when I asked her about her past the smell came back but this time it didn't seem as strong, she stayed calm but just said she could smell it. Thinking the only thing that will return her past is time I asked her if she wanted to stay with me and Pulse. She agreed, I had someone lend her some new clothes so she didn't have to keep wearing her hospital gown and walked her down to our camp. On the way to the camp we agreed that I would call her Kim until such time as she remembered her past.
Afterwards I came back to the commissary and put in my vote for the election and started walking with Mabin once again to the science center and we met up with the two scientists who were looking for research assistants, I declined but ended up getting the last patroleaum that Pulse needed from them. Mabin went to talk to them and I went to find Pulse. I spoke with Rooster and he told me of Dink's death, then I grabbed Pulse and we went to the science center to build his still. He transfered the resources to the device account but ended up not having the paper he needed to bring the still into game.
Pulse, Carptenter and myself went off site to dinner..
After dinner I went over to the movie, I enjoyed it but didn't stay long as the freeborn were going to meet at our camp. We got the fire going and were updated with specifics for the nights raids against the exile complex and specifics about the exodus list. We broke into groups and I was assigned to Rooster's group which didn't end up going, instead I spent most of the night monitoring the radio, patrolling the area around the commissary and keeping people informed when to expect the refugees so they wouldn't be surprised by strange people walking down the path. During this time I finally got resources to Mabin and she made me some amps, I also got Pulse's back plate attached to his armor so he would be better protected if we were needed in battle. I was playing cards with Pulse, Carpenter and Vos when they called for Rooster because George was coming. I left the card game and went with him to meet George.
A little while later we got the radio call that Buckles had been captured and that Grinner needed help going after him. Frost told us to go so I grabbed Pulse, Vos, Carpenter and Orion and headed up to Aleph Complex. We went up the back way and apparently Grinner came down the other way so when we got there we found nobody waiting. I was getting spotty reception on the radio but after moving about up there I got enough signal to get in touch with Rooster who told us to come back to the commissary, as soon as we got back we found Grinner getting ready to leave so we walked back up with him. We went inside the complex and through the long tunnel to the room with Buckles and lots of hostiles. I was doing good shooting people over Pulse in the tunnel until Pulse finally ran in and I moved up. I only got one more shot in after I moved up before getting shot in the head. Grinner got me up and we finished off the hostiles. Back through the tunnels to the elevator to find we were above max capacity for it. Grinner said he would stay behind and I jumped out as the doors were closing to stay with him. While we waited one of the bodies came in trying to find it's res bed. The elevator came back and we jumped in, the body was trying to get in but Grinner got the door closed just in time to hear it banging itself against the doors. We got back to town and spent the rest of the night around the firepit. People were hungry for late night snacks so we made beans over the fire and put them into shot glasses to invent a "shot of beans".
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Sunday morning was lots more cooking but this time it was far less crowded so I even had a chance to eat before it was all gone. We came up with the "freeborn sandwich" which was a piece of french toast with beans and ham folded up, it was messy and very good. After breakfast we went up to the commissary and heard the happy results of the election. When they started calling names for the exodus I went to the bathroom, when I came out Pulse looked at me with an odd look and pointed across the room where I saw Vos Walker standing in the line. Before I could react Grinner came up and asked what was going on with him and then called for him to come to us. His name was on the list and he didn't know about the refugees taking the place of anyone not wanting to go. We sat him down and sent someone in his place. After everyone left I was talking to Vos about it and was going to hit him with a knockdown from my shotgun when he pushed the barrel at the last second and I ended up hitting Jacobi instead. I got hit with a knockdown punch from behind and went down, after I got up I went over to apoligize and took another knockdown punch from Shlea too.
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Now back to our regularly scheduled big ass-blog... I'm going to end this here because it's getting WAY to long.. Make sure you check out this diversion, it's a 10 part review of Phantom Menace..
Last night we went to Elephant Walk which is a Cambodian / French restaurant right near the House of Blues.. Dinner was great but it took WAY to long, we got there at before 6:30 and left after 8:30! I just went to paste what I ate but my entree is not listed online..
My starter was:
Rouleaux (available Vegan)
Two Cambodian spring rolls filled with ground pork, crushed peanut, beanthread noodles, carrot and onion; served with fresh greens and herbs for wrapping and tuk trey on the side for dipping
Duck in an orange sauce with really good crispy potatoes and asparagus.
My dessert was:
Mousse aux Fruits de Passion
Refreshingly tart and sweet passion fruit mousse served in an almond lace cup; garnished with fresh pineapple macerated in dark rum, sugar and lemon juice
It's a tough call to say which was better between the duck and the mussels, everything was great except the dessert which was just ok. I had an amber ale from Cape Ann Brewing in Gloucester MA, it was no James Squire but I would certainly drink it again.
One more thing about that restaurant, they had an entire page on their menu dedicated to gluten free.. :)
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The concert was amazing.. We got there after the 2nd band which is kinda lame because we wanted to see the 2nd band. The House of Blues does not normally have Irish beer but they had a special stand setup with Guiness and another special stand with Celtic Ale. Dropkick Murphys is set to release a new live CD/DVD today and they had it at the concert last night cheaper than the in-store/online prices! Got the CD/DVD, a shirt and a sticker for my car..
Last night made me really glad for my Achilles Tendon surgery, I was jumping around and dancing for most of the show and have no knee/leg pain! There really is something special about having multiple bagpipes playing at the same time, and I don't mean multiple bagpipes playing as one. They let TONS of girls on stage during "Kiss Me I'm Shitfaced" and a ton of guys during one of the last songs! It was really neat seeing the entire stage filled with people.. The last song they played was Shipping Up to Boston and luckily I had plenty of room to dance around!
Something I realized last night was how welcoming Irish people are, I've been all over the world now and nobody is as welcoming as the Irish. You can live in Japan your entire life and no matter what you're still "gaijin", you go to Ireland and walk into any pub and you're family, just don't order the wrong beer.. ;)
Early on a guy bumped into me before the show started, we just looked at each other and raised our glasses in a toast. Everyone was bumping into each other while dancing and there were no fights or crazy crap you would expect at a crazy type concert like that.. I was very tempted to crowd surf, it was the first time I felt that was a good idea, I didn't however because they were kicking people out for doing it, I felt bad for the guy who crowd surfed during the 2nd song and had to miss the rest of the concert..
I was talking to a guy while waiting for in the coat check line and he handed his iPhone to some random dude before he jumped on stage and that person not only gave the phone back when he got off but also took some awesome pictures of him on stage with the band!
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Speaking of Irish, Badger is making a big st pattys feast tonight for Tuesday Dinner.. Should be great..
Wednesday night I finally watched all of Something Something Darkside.. If you have not seen it yet I do recommend it. At first I was pissed that they chose to release it right to DVD/BluRay but after watching it I realize they could probably never air it on TV, especially on broadcast TV. Leah to Han before carbon freezing "I love you", response "fuck off".. Emperor to Vader talking about Luke "I want you to turn him", response "Well, turn him? That might be tricky. I might be able to make him go bi, but all the way?" Now that I've watched it fully I want to watch it again with the "pop-up facts" turned on. Watching for the first time with those I felt was distracting.
Yesterday Lynz found out that Cafemantic, a coffee house in Willimantic, was starting to do Trad Sessions on Thursday nights. We decided instead of bowling to go there.. I got there a little late and found Lynz happily sitting on the stage playing her fiddle.. It was very cool to see and hear her playing up there with everyone but it was also very odd to be at a Trad Session without beer.. I had some really good green tea and a turkey panini but.. The coffee house is across the street from Willi Brew Pub, maybe next time I will bring my "water bottle" in with me and go get it refilled across the street.. :D
Shane is coming over tonight and tomorrow is Future Imperfect's one day event. Should be a great time..
I'm sitting at Harry's house in North Carolina.. We are going to go get lunch and see a movie soon but I figured I would try and bang out a blog since I have not in a week. I tried last night but I was exhausted, I did however upload lots of new pics to Flickr last night (some from Nov and some from Dec).
Sunday night (last Sunday) me and Jessie met Kaitlyn and her friend Bean at the People's Pint. When I checked their website they didn't have anything listed for entertainment so I was pleasantly surprised to find the Trad Sessions were indeed on for the night. My favorite beer of theirs is the Slippery Slope which was apparently making it's return to the menu that night! They switch between that and a few others to keep things new so it worked out well that we had postponed dinner from last week. Not only would Slippery Slope not have been there but there would have been no trad sessions because they are every other week. The session players started out small but grew as the night went on. Kaitlyn had just come from her family's house and had a bunch of left over desserts in her car so after dinner we walked out and ate a bit in the parking lot before coming back in for some more beer and music. Didn't get home till real late but it was a great time..
Monday was a somewhat quiet day, Nurit came over for lunch and I had dinner with Janine. Nurit and I went to the Courthouse and then spent some time at Victoria Station and Wonderland Books, I found out that not only is there a book that Howl's Moving Castle was based on but there is a sequel! I added them both to my Audible wish list. Janine and I ate at Red Robin in Millbury.. The Millbury FYE is closing so they have everything on clearance sale, the prices still are not very good, but they are better than normal "in-store" prices. I went to look up if all FYEs were closing or just that one so I went to Trans World Entertainment's site and found out that they own Suncoast now!? Both Suncoast and Saturday Matinee are listed as their stores now.. Odd...
Tuesday.. Me and Jessie went down to NYC to see Storm Large at Joe's Pub. The trip was not too bad and we arrived a bit before the show, parking was easy and there was a Starbucks and Gamestop nearby so we had no problem wasting time before the show. We had dinner reservations for 6:00pm with the show starting at 7:30pm. The dinner was just ok, but that's not why you go there.. So... Storm.. The reason to drive to NYC in the middle of the week? You betcha, she was amazing. I would say the best thing of the show was seeing her do I Want You to Die and Hopelessly Devoted to You. I know there a few of her concerts on the web and I really hope that show will show up. I was trying to grab Hopelessly Devoted for my diversion but the only live versions have really bad sound quality. The only thing I feel robbed about was that they didn't sell shirts between the shows. They had them (I saw them being counted before the show) but they didn't want to sell them because they needed to clear the house.
Wednesday.. I went to lunch with Lynz, I picked her up at work and we went to a lunch place we have been to before, funny thing.. That lunch place is right near Holly's house! It was really funny, I was driving there going I know this place and then I realized why.. Two times South in the same day.. After lunch I got my oil changed for the trip and then I went back South with Jessie to meet Holly and Louie for dinner at Johnny's Peking Tokyo. They have an appetizer called Johnny Mussels which are mussels with eel sauce, tobiko and a few other things. They are so friggin good! Apparently Holly and Louie get them every time they go there, I can see why.. I got tuna tar-tar and bunches of sushi & sashimi, everything was great and I want to go there more.. After dinner we played pool and I lost all three games! Game 1 was me and Jessie v. Holly and Louie.. Game 2 was me and Louie v. Jessie and Holly.. Game 3 was me and Holly v. Jessie and Louie..
Thursday.. I packed and went to Lynz's house for lunch, we went to a cafe near her and got sammiches.. After lunch I drove to Matt's house in NJ.
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Drive to Disney part 1..
I picked up Matt at his job and went to his house for the night.. Sile made dinner and afterwards we watched a Ricky Gervais stand up DVD. I never saw him do stand up and it was very very funny.. He did a bit about an HIV awareness pamphlet for gay men, I was laughing so hard it hurt.. That and his bit about glory holes were probably the best bits of the DVD.
Woke up early and drove to Virginia, got to Robyn's house around 2pm. Hung out and chatted for a while before going to get an early dinner at a fish restaurant near her job. They had a Gorgonzola bacon special sauce which I got on a Sea Bass, it was really good and the portion size was not too big.. After dinner I drove the grip to Harry's house in NC. I got a ticket on the way when they randomly lowered the speed limit of the highway from 75 to 65 and then to 55! They had cops at each lowering point and were pulling everyone over. Finally got to Harry's around 11pm.. Hung out and went to bed pretty late which made the early rise and drive a bit annoying..
Well ok.. That's not really what made the drive annoying.. The Rock Slide on Rte 40 which was the first part.. Rte 40 on the NC/Tenn boarder is closed and has been since October, apparently there was a bad rock slide and they are estimating March to clean it up. The Blizzard was the other part! It was raining when I left Harry's house around 6:40am and by the time I got to the boarder it was snowing BAD! I decided to listen to the gps which told me to take 40 to 25 which went over and through the Blue Ridge Mountains. The ride over them was nice but would have been much better if not for the blizzard. Anyway, after 7+ hours of driving I finally got to the Parthenon in Nashville. I really don't think you can get a real idea of how big the Parthenon is when you see it on TV, I took some amazing pictures which are up on Flickr.. The one of me standing in front of Athena will give an idea of how big it is.. The Parthenon in Nashville was first built in 1897 but they had to fix it up a few times, the statue of Athena was finished in 2001. The entire place is painted as it was in Ancient Greece.. They have an American Art museum in the basement (under the Parthenon) and they have some of the original sculptures in the main room against the walls. 7+ hours of driving got me back to Harry's around 10:30pm.. That's right, left Harry's at 6:40 and returned at 10:30.. Long ass day of driving...
I slept late today (around 10am) and lazed about with Harry.. We went to the Jockey underwear store and ate lunch.. Now we are just watching stuff on YouTube before dinner..
I just got to Sao Paulo today and found out almost everything is closed.. I went and walked the city a bit this afternoon and found that the only thing open are gas stations and chains like McDonalds. I guess I'm going to eat dinner at Hooters since I assume they are open and they are right by the hotel. If they are closed I guess I'll eat at the hotel.
The taxi from the airport cost me 120 Reals which is outrageous, I guess I'm glad I can expense it.
The flight from Boston to NJ was delayed but they got me on the earlier flight so I ended up getting to NJ about the same time I would have if I had gotten the correct flight. As I was wondering around the Boston airport I found out they now have a Harpoon brewery on site which had Winter Warmer on tap! I was so excited since it's one of my top 5 beers of all time. I got to NJ and ended up going to the Brooklyn brewery and chatting with a girl from LA. She is working on a dating site geared towards lawyers, we talked a lot about OKC and my relationships which gave her some ideas for her site.
The flights were pretty uneventful but I should mention the plane was going real fast on the flight from Boston to NJ. He made it from Boston to NJ in about 34 minutes! While I was on the plane getting ready to take off they announced that they had too much weight and they said they were taking all of the later flight passengers off the plane to correct the weight. They announced like 10-15 people but I was not one of them, I guess it helps to be "Elite".
The week behind.. The biggest thing since my last blog was Future Imperfect, it was an awesome time! If you don't know what Future Imperfect is, it's a sci-fi LARP that takes places on a newly colonized world. In just one short weekend I got sworn in as a deputy and made lots of friends. I can't wait till the next event. The FI dates do not conflict with Laire which means I will not have to miss one over the other. After the game I went and saw Kevin in a vampire musical called Nightsong. The story, dialog and lyrics were all very good but the acting was BAD, I really hope that someone else picks this play up and does a better job with it.
Thursday night me and Jessie went to Bella's and had some great food as usual. Dianne came up after dinner and we hung out for a bit before bed. Friday we went to see WPA which was a great show, it was at Passim and somehow they got 6 people and a drum kit on the stage. Not much room for them to move but they did a great job. We were supposed to go to the 7pm show but Jessie must have clicked on the wrong show when buying tickets so we ended up wondering around Cambridge for a few hours while we waited for the late show.
Today's rainy cold weather made me glad to be heading out of the North East. Weather in Santa Clara, 70s all week.. I'm glad to be going but glad it's only a week too, it's been a long time since I've been on the road so I'm torn with my sense for adventure and my sense of missing those back home..
Since last I wrote I did lots.. I was just getting ready to go to Laire when last I wrote, Laire was a great time. I even played on Friday night (have not done that since right before my surgery). Friday night was almost a mistake as I pushed myself a lot to far when Naryn went down and I felt the need to run her to get a life spell. After that little incident I had to lean on her to get back to the cabin. While relaxing in the cabin we got ambushed and we almost died, my crazy running speed (almost forgot how fast I can really run) saved my life and Naryn's, unfortunately it was not enough to save Ventrick. I stumbled my way back to the cabin once more and feared I had taken myself out of the weekend with my crazy running.
I woke up on Saturday and was surprisingly fine, so onto another day of hard core combat. Saturday night ended with a big mod in which I kept getting yelled at for breaking the line, I was a bit over zealous to kill things since I was finally able to again.
One of the coolest things about Laire was that Robyn came back.. I ended up hanging out with her most of Saturday going on mods and overseeing her warrior training. Friday night she hung out with me while I was doing the dishes and Saturday night she came with us to Veggie Heaven. I'm making her a shield now that she knows how to use one.. :)
Sunday night me and Jessie went and had dinner with dad so I could fix the speaker wires I put on backwards and to get my new blueray/dvd player.
Monday was another long crazy day, me and Jessie went down to NYC to see Garfunkel and Oates. We parked by the venue (Upright Citizen's Brigade) and walked over to Pure Food and Wine which is a raw vegan restaurant on the other side of Manhattan. Dinner was great and the show was better! We ended sitting center stage right behind Riki's mom, it was very cute to see how flustered she got by having her mom in the audience. If they are ever in your area I recommend seeing them, they are funnier live than they are on their CD/YouTube clips.
Tuesday was my 14 year dating anniversary with Jessie. To celebrate we had Tuesday night dinner at our house.. OK, well to celebrate the anniversary we went to see Garfunkel and Oates but on Tuesday Jessie broke open a bottle of ice wine we have had for years, it was very good and just reminds us both that we miss Montreal. The Tuesday night crowd was very small this week and we ended up having it in the basement. We will continue to have them in the basement till it gets too cold to do so..
Wednesday I went up to see Nurit, she cooked dinner and we hung out and watched Cheers. Thursday I was supposed to go see Stacy but she cancelled at the last minute. In a way I'm glad she did because me and Jessie got a chance to relax and I ended up going to bed before 9! I guess my body finally had enough of the late nights and needed the after Laire rest I was not giving it.
Friday Lynz came over and we walked to Bella's for dinner. The idea was to go to 85 Main for sushi but as we walked we decided we didn't want that. After dinner hung out and watched some Star Trek TNG.
Saturday, yesterday, me and Jessie went to the CT Ren Faire again. It was cold but there was no rain in site which means we got the full show this time. We saw a bunch of shows and ate lunch before leaving. I ended up getting called on stage during the Wheel of Mis-Fortune and got to sit down without a dunking after guessing the word right. :)
After the Ren Faire we went home, napped and met Matt, Sile and her parents for dinner. We were supposed to go to the Courthouse but because of the size of our party the wait was too long so we went to 85 Main. I had a pumpkin bisque with scallops that was ok. The scallops were good but the bisque left a bit to be desired, it was better after adding soy sauce. As an appetizer I got some Tuna sushi and it was really good, pretty big pieces and nicely cut.
I'm boarding in Hartford now.. I will post more later..
Kiss just released a new CD set this week. They released this as a Walmart exclusive which is the first thing that pisses me off but whatever. I went to Walmart on Tuesday morning to wait in line and get my copy like all the other Kiss fans, yes there were lines.. I cleverly avoided the line in electronics when i saw a few of the CDs sitting on a A-Frame and grabbed one along with the new Madonna DVD and walked to the front registers which had no lines. :)
This CD set has two CDs and one DVD. The first CD is a new CD called Sonic Boom, on first listen I loved the first song then it dropped off dramatically till the last few songs. On second listen I was more forgiving perhaps because I found myself liking most of the songs but my favorites are still the first and last. The CD booklet lists who wrote each song but not who sung them, obviously I can tell the Gene and Paul songs but there was one song sung by someone else, I assume it was Tommy Thayer because I've heard Eric Singer's voice before and it was not that bad.. :)
Speaking of bad voice, Eric did sing Black Diamond on the second CD but did it in his best (it was bad) Peter Criss impersonation.. If you hadn't guessed the second CD was a CD of recorded Kiss hits called Kiss Klassics. The did 15 tracks and for some reason felt the need to include Christine Sixteen in that set. For the most part these songs sounded almost identical to their original versions all the way down to the fade out and fade in at the end of I Love it Loud, they did sound better if only for modern day recording studios. A few of the songs were actually different and mostly in good ways, for example I Was Made for Loving You was done more in line with how they play it live and not in the original disco mold. Forever was a stinker, Paul's voice sounded strained and uninspired. All in all I think Do You Love Me was the best of the re-recordings.
But wait, there's more.. This set comes with a 6 song live DVD that was recorded on the last tour in Buenos Aires. Kiss fans are everywhere and one of my co-workers was talking about getting this CD so I let him borrow mine and then we decided to watch the DVD here on one of the projectors. Wow, was it bad.. I gotta think as a marketing decision this was a major screw up, nobody is going to watch that DVD and then think to themselves 'man I gotta go see these guys'. They were out of tune, out of sync and generally had no life on stage. I have to imagine that they could have found a better night to take the recordings from.
All in all, is the new CD set worth it? Yes.. There are enough good tracks on the first CD to make the $12 paid a value not to mention most of the songs on the 2nd CD were well done and sound fuller than the previous versions. The DVD, just throw it out..
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If you live anywhere near Hebron CT you need, need, need to get to the CT Ren Faire this year.. They did an amazing job on the fight sequences this year. The story this year is called 'For the Love of Lancelot' and there are four shows throughout the day, five if you include the show at the gates before the faire opens. By the way, if you can you really want to try and get there before the gates open because that show was really good and really sucks you in.
I mentioned the fight sequences were great this year and that's mostly in part to Taryn Bazinet and Colette Marie Crowley who play two French girls who fight as one, they were like watching intense synchronized swimming combat. The final fight had this holy crap amazing sequence that you really just have to see to believe. No, I'm not going to describe it because you need to go see it live!
I was a little disappointed by some of the cast changes and the fact that the sheriff was not around but all in all it was an amazing time.
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Sunday me and Jessie went to the final Mets game of the year with dad. He bought tickets in the Ceaser's Plaza Club which were right in front of the SNY broadcast booth. Believe it or not the seats were a bit thiner than the seats in the section we want to move to in the Promenade, they were actually thinner than some of the seats on the same level but further away from Home Plate.
When we got to the game they had closed off our normal parking area and let us park in the main lot (usually only for pre-paid parking). Because we were in the main lot we decided to walk over to the Shea Stadium base markers. It was neat standing on the pitchers mound marker and looking around at how small everything looks. Citi-Field was beyond the outfield wall at Shea but yet it looks so close when standing on the mound and even at Home Plate. I guess it looks smaller because now it's all just a parking lot.
It was a really good game. Nelson Figueroa pitched a complete game shutout, first in Citi-Field history. Jessie got a new sweater from Touch and we got a ball autographed by Alyssa Milano. Here is a quote from the label of her sweater.
"to rally for each other
to play fair
to run with abandon
to dance with life
is to Touch"
:)
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Speaking of Monday.. Lynz come over Monday night with Anja and we watched a great episode of Nova regarding the possibility of life on Mars. You can watch the entire episode here on PBS.
This was especially interesting right now because I just finished reading the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson which is all about Terra-Forming Mars.
Speaking of Terra-Forming.. I'm going to be playing Mythical Journeys: Future Imperfect in November, it's a futuristic LARP that takes place on a newly colonized world. Just finished making my character the other day. Going to use a shot gun so it should be fun and at the very least different.. Come check it out with me..
Tuesday dinner was spent working with Kevin on his costume and on my gun. We had to modify the shells so the bullets go further by drilling holes in the bottom to let more air in. Sarah stole the food show with her soup. Hopefully she will post the recipe either here as a comment or on the Tuesday night dinner blog.
Holly came over last night and I re-made my Tomatillo Salsa tilapia dish, but this time with cod because Price Chopper didn't have any tilapia. It came out good but not as good as it does with tilapia. The salsa was just as good but the end product was a little less then I would have liked it to be.
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Yay, Laire is tomorrow... Speaking of yay! Garfunkel and Oates are coming to NYC next week, they will be at the Upright Citizen's Brigade on Monday and at the Gotham Comedy Club on Wednesday. Me and Jessie will be going to the Monday show, care to meet us there?
I'm sorry for not writing anything, I keep saying this in most of my newest blogs.. I need to do a better job of sitting and writing at least once a week if not back to once a day. I'm not really trying to create the longest blogs ever. ;)
As mentioned in my last blog, me and Jessie went to see Jon Oliver in Boston on Friday the 28th. We ate at Jacob Wirth before the show and met a really cool couple (Kriss and Jonathan) who was sitting next to us. Jessie was trying to decide what to order (I know, shocking) and Jonathan started giving us his review of her choices, we hit it off really well and hung with them until we went into the show. The warm up comedian was the same warm up guy from when we went to see the Daily Show, he was much funnier this time. Jon Oliver was as good as expected so it was a very good night.
The only problem with the night is we got home very late (as expected) and I had to get up early in the morning to drive to Brad's house. AnimeFest was really good, but I think the name should be changed to Board Game Fest. Anime was only on in one room and it was mostly old stuff, the only Anime I watched was some of Ponyo in Japanese and that was at the end of the night. I played two games of Carcassonne: The City and won both and one game of Apples to Apples which I lost to Kelly (Brad's girlfriend). The kicker to that game is she joined late and still managed to get 7 cards first.. The highlight of the night was probably going out for Japanese food with Christian and Mara, we went to a place right by Brad's house (don't remember the name) and spent a while talking and catching up. I left in the early morning because I had drank way too much caffeine and there was no way I was going to sleep there.
The problem with writing blogs infrequently is I don't remember everything.. I know I did something on the 30th and 31st but I don't remember.. So, checked Google Calendar and Flickr and I have no records for those days. Nurit mentioned to me yesterday that she adds things to her calendar after she does them, now I see why she does that.. Just asked Jessie and she recommended checking my IM logs..
September 1st's dinner was at our house but I don't remember any specifics about dinner, don't even remember what I made.. I love chat logs! I just read the chat log with Holly and it reminded me that I made a Rhubarb Cheese sauce and put it over Ham. AH-HA, I just realized something.. When we went to make the Brazilian cheese Jessie asked me what happened to the Muenster we had in the fridge, now I remember.. I used it for the Rhubarb Cheese Sauce!
Ok, back to Sunday/Monday.. I just checked my chat logs with Holly and found out that Sunday was mostly spent sleeping, the rest of the time we watched Weeds. Monday night we watched more Weeds and Jessie made her "German" meal which was Chicken Sausages, Red Cabbage with BokChoi and Pirogies.
Wednesday Sept 2nd will always live in memory as the day Matt Salvatore lost to food! Casa Mariachi in Putnam has a 5lb Burrito challenge, if you win you get a bumper sticker, a shirt and your picture on a wall of fame. If you lose you get your picture on the wall of shame and pay $27 for the burrito (if you win it's free). Anyway, I think he made two fatal mistakes: 1. He chose Chicken which means he got 5lbs of shredded chicken. 2. He didn't spread the toppings (guacamole and sour cream). You have an hour to finish, he probably had half of it down in the first 10 mins before slowing down. He was still moving at a good pace till he hit the 2nd consecutive glob of sour cream which crushed his hopes. There are pictures, check my Flickr.
I was supposed to have dinner with Lynz on the 3rd, she called me from work to tell me her mom had tickets for the CT Defenders for that night so me, Lynz and Anja met her mom at the stadium instead. We sat in one of the luxury boxes and made friends with the waitress. It was nice to be able to chat with Lynz's mom and it was fun explaining baseball to Anja. Cutter came up and hung out with us in the box which I think made Anja's night. One of the biggest highlights for me had to be watching Lynz and Anja doing push ups in the luxury box during extra innings! We ended up leaving the game early because it was a weekday and the game didn't matter since the Defenders had already clinched the division.
Nothing like going to Laire when you're already exhausted! Friday drive to Laire was tough, I had to stop a bunch of times and get coffee and walk around to stay awake. Did my work shift Friday night and went right to bed. Saturday I played, and when I say played I mean "FULL Combat". The plan was to play from morning till dark, the actual-laity is I played from about 9am till 3am! The only time I stopped was when I went out to Veggie Heaven for dinner. I ran, I jumped, I fought and I killed! Sunday was more of the same, got up around 10 and played till about 2am only stopping to go to Fu's for dinner. I did plan to play Monday but when I woke up I was so sore I had to leave. When I say sore I don't mean my tendons either, I mean my calf muscles. All in all this was a VERY successful event, no tendon pain and no knee pain!
September 8th's dinner was at our house again and Nurit came out for it. She got there early so we had some time to hang out before the crowds showed up. Speaking of the crowds: Sara, Sean, Ryan, Gwen, Lynz, Jesse and Marie all ended up calling out. I made some steaks on the grill and Kevin made some kebabs and Sarah brought shrimp for the grill. It was a good night but most of it was spent with me at the grill, ran out of gas so me and Joe had to go get more before I could finish grilling.
The 9th and 10th are missing from my memory and I don't have any chat logs with Holly for those days because she was not at work. I know the 10th Jessie went to Yoga and then to Hoyle's house, I hung out with Elizabeth for a bit and then I ate dinner, made the Catupiry Cheese and went to bed. I'm going to guess the 9th was watching Weeds with Jessie.
The 11th me and Jessie went over to Matt and Sile's house and made the Brazilian style pizza. We made two, one traditional style with ham, onions, hard boiled egg and catupiry cheese and the other one had lots of veggies. The pizza's came out great and we had a good time chatting and hanging out.
Jessie was real sick on the 12th, we watched LOTS of Weeds and ended up bringing her to the hospital in the evening. Joe came over around 9 and I went to dinner with Matt at the Courthouse.
Phew - Almost done.. The 13th I went and had lunch with Lynz for her birthday, I packed up a picnic and we went and got "lost" in the woods in Willimantic for a few hours. We found a nice spot in the woods that had a little stream sat, relaxed and snuggled.. Yay picnics, I've missed you.. Wine at Lunch returns, at least for a day. After lunch I headed back home and took Jessie out to a corn maze. We went to the corn maze in Pomfret, their maze is laid out as a spider in it's web. They had a bunch of scarecrows scattered through the maze and you had to answer 9 questions about them (which one plays baseball, which one is holding a christmas bear) so you couldn't just "solve" the maze without finding all the scarecrows. I like corn mazes and hopefully we can get to the one in Thompson before the season ends.
We're finally on the current week! Monday I went to Nurit's new house and hung out there with her and her room mate helping her organize her room. We went to this amazing apartment complex to get her a box spring from a couple that couldn't get it in their unit. This apartment complex was built inside an old middle school so it had massive ceilings and massive hallways. I didn't feel right taking any pictures but wished I had. We went to Ohara's which is an Irish restaurant/pub by her house, I had a Wasabiaki Salmon which was a wasabi/teriyaki glazed salmon. It was very tasty but certainly not spicy.
Tuesday - Dinner.. I made cheeseburgers at Hoyle's request (it was his birthday) and Badger made some amazing pork chops. Sara, Sean, Lynz and Kristen did not come this week. Hoyle brought Janine and Kevin brought two new people who were both very cool. After dinner and after Rowan left we pulled the porn pile out and tried to get some porn diving going. We didn't get any porn diving but we did at least sell a few.
Wednesday and Thursday was Weeds, Weeds and more Weeds. We are half way through season 4. I guess it's not fair to just say Weeds, Weeds and more Weeds, we also watched Daily Shows (welcome back after a 3 week vacation), Monk, History Detectives and Chopped.
--Quote of the Day
Another day, another way to change the future of yesterday. - Stacy Davenport
Upcoming Events: Works Progress Administration concert at Club Passim on Nov 13th, we are going to the 7pm show if you want to join us.
Me and Jessie decided to head to PortlandOregon for my birthday this year, why Portland?Storm Large wrote a one woman musical about her life that she is performing at the Portland Center Stage, the show is running from March till the end of May and I hate missing once in a lifetime shows.If you don’t know who Storm Large is she is a singer/song writer who is from MA, she moved out west and started a band.That band had released a few CDs and then she went on Rockstar Supernova which is where we found her and fell in love.She is a tough, kick ass girl who makes no excuses for her attitude, language and appearance.Since Rockstar Supernova she has released another CD which not surprisingly was her best selling one to date.Check out her song Ladylike which she sung on Rockstar Supernova and later recorded for the CD of the same name.
So, using Marriott Rewards points, Continental miles and a travel voucher we got our trip all set for a grand total of $80 + rental car and food.I may bitch about my job but the travel thing is one part of it I really do love.
Enough background, let’s get to the fun that was this trip…I mean that in a mostly serious way..Thursday’s plans: Fly from Hartford to Newark, check.Fly from Newark to Portland, how ‘bout Friday?It turns out that Newark was having bad weather so our flight from Hartford was delayed, ironically (or rather unfortunately) the flight to Portland was not delayed by the weather..Our flight to Portland was supposed to leave at 6:05 (and did) and our flight from Hartford got in around 7:00… No big deal, the hotel will be on the airline right?Nope…Because it was the weather that caused us to miss our flight they would not put us up in a hotel for the night.We were made aware of this while still in Hartford so I started calling/texting a bunch of people from Laire to see who lived near the airport.Our new flight was at 7am so we decided it would be silly to get picked up by someone local just to have to be back at the airport for 5am.A few calls later and I cancelled one night in Portland and used the points to get a room in Newark..
After texting, chatting with a bunch of people in the area we decided to have Grifo meet us at the airport and go out with him for dinner/drinks.He got on a few wrong trains and in the end never made it over (gave up around 9:30).While waiting for Grifo to show up we met some really cool guys, one of them was from Chicago and visiting his friend in NYC.His friend apparently hooked him up with a crazy girl, depending on who’s version of the story you believe he was told that the girl was crazy before he went off with her.Regardless, she was crazy and not the good kind.She is on medication and once it wore off she got real crazy and the whole experience ended with her hitting him while sitting in the airport waiting for his flight.I have to give him credit for doing the right thing, he grabbed her hands and restrained her knowing that the cops (or goons as he called them) would show up and break it up.As it turns out nobody reacted at all and he had to just sit there and take the beating, makes me sick that we pay a so called security force to let that happen.
We finally made it to the hotel and now it was getting late so our food options were very limited, we ended up eating in the hotel restaurant which ended up not being that bad.I had a steak which was very well prepared, the spices were done very nicely and it was cooked almost perfectly (crispy on outside but still pink in the middle).The hotel had Yuengling as well which is always a win.Not the birthday dinner I imagined (eating at a nice restaurant in Portland) but it ended up being really good.
---- Crazy Enough
When we got to the airport on Friday we couldn’t use the self check-in because our flight had been changed from the original plan, we went to the elite check in area and the elite security clearance area and were on her flight with plenty of time to spare.Again, I love this part of my job..The non elite lanes were out of control and we probably would have missed our flight.
Arrived in Portland, got a car and went to the hotel to shower and change before heading out for the day.We were going to do a walking tour of Portland so we parked between the tour starting point and the theater but due to my foot we decided not to do the tour.Instead we did the beer tour, we had lunch at a brewery called Deschutes Brewery, it was very good.I had a burger with garlic, goats cheese and some mustard.Jessie had a lamb burger which had tzatziki sauce on it, her burger was ok but mine was better.We each got a flight of beers which includes six four ounce glasses, my favorites were the Mirror Pond Ale, the Amber Dawn, the Bachelor Bitter and the Gluten Free ESB.
After lunch we went to a book store called Powell’s.This place is out of control big, they are at least an entire city block and three stories tall, they have different color rooms for what genre you’re looking for (the blue room was Sci-Fi, the red room was games, etc.).They had some really old out of print books just sitting on the shelves used and some even new, they had autographed copies of some books for sale as well and they had a RPG section that was bigger than most stores entire sci-fi and fantasy section.They had RPG books from the old West End Star Wars and one book from the Decipher Star Trek as well as almost any Wizards of the Coast book you could ever want.We wandered around for a while to walk off the buzz we had from lunch.They had an Ancient Greek section that was an entire isle, some of the books were in Ancient Greek and some were the translated versions we are all used to seeing.
After lunch we went to one of McMenamin’s pubs (the Ringler’s Annex) and I had a their raspberry beer (Ruby) which was very good, Jessie got a coffee with rum and it was super strong.After our mid day drinks we went for a walk around the city, we didn’t see too much other than pubs and after a while ended up back at Powell’s so Jessie could get a real coffee before the show which we split.
The Portland Center Stage is a nice theater, they are actually two theaters, there is a big one upstairs which has two levels of seating and then there is the small one down stairs.Crazy Enough was downstairs in the smaller of the two stages.Before the show I saw Storm come in and walk up to the third floor to get ready, Jessie was standing on the stairs taking a picture of the poster when Storm walked past her.While we were waiting for the show we saw the announcement that they extended the run to the end of June!
I don’t know what to say about the show, it was the most personal thing I think I’ve ever seen done on stage.She talked in depth about everything in her past, her mom had made a lot of attempts to take her own life and when Storm was a little kid she was told by her mom’s psychiatrist that it was hereditary and that she was be crazy like her mom.She was told it would probably kick in when she was in her 20s or at the latest when she had kids of her own!What a thing to tell a little girl!She talked about a few of her mom’s attempts including one in which she put dishwasher detergent in dinner.She talked about going to see her mom in the hospital and how it was when her mom would come home from these trips.She talked about her sexuality at school and her bout with heroine when she moved to CA.There was one really funny point when she was talking about her early sexuality when she had gotten an older lawyer in bed while she was still very young and after hours of sex after all of her makeup had worn off the guy looked down at her and asked “how old are you, really?” and she said 13.I don’t know if she was 13 at the time or if she just said that to fuck with the guy but his reaction was hysterical.She went on to talk about how her band and her attempt to get onto the Lilith Fair.She also was a model for a dildo company and she relayed a really funny story about her time posing with the “product”, the camera man told her that she made their penises look small.She finally made peace with her mom right before she finally died a few years ago, and she admits that she is indeed crazy, but unlike her mom her crazy works for her.She’s not too crazy, she’s just crazy enough..If you have the means I would recommend the trip out to Portland if only to see her show.Hopefully she will release a live copy when the run is over, it would be awesome if it became a touring show.We got the soundtrack and it has some truly amazing tracks.
---- Speaking of crazy enough…Did you know that Seattle is only a 3 hour drive from Portland?Why is that relevant?Well, the Red Sox were playing the Mariners so Saturday afternoon we drove up to Safeco field and saw the game.Saturday morning we met Mik (a guy Jessie had been talking to on IM since Australia) and wandered around the city.We went to the Saturday Market which is an outdoor market with food, drinks, clothes and artwork.I had a Rogue summer beer and got a few cool things from the market.We ate breakfast and lunch at the same vegetarian restaurant and then headed off to Seattle.Safeco is a nice stadium, the view from the seats was very good, we had row 1 in the upper deck so we had a great view.The only problem I had with the stadium was that when you were not at your seat I felt very away from the game, you could not see the field from any of the concourses.The food was good, I had an Ichiroll which is a really spicy tuna maki roll, it was so spicy I almost couldn’t eat it.One really cool thing about this stadium is that they had the ability to order food from your seat, you could do this on your Nintendo DS (Mariners are owned by Nintendo) or your Verizon phone via text messages.The other nice thing (hope you’re not surprised) is that they serve Starbucks coffee instead of Dunkin Donuts.I had a few different beers at the stadium including a Pyramid Amber Ale which was really good.Speaking of Pyramid, they had a brew house across the street from the stadium which we went to after the game.I had a summer brew from there which was also very good.
We didn’t get back to the hotel till after 2am and had to get up at 4am so we could get to the airport in time for our 8am flight..At the airport in Portland we went to the Rogue brew house and had a pre-flight drink and breakfast which included Kobe beef meatballs with blue cheese inside them.At the Detroit airport I had my mid-day Murphy’s Irish Stout..Got back to CT and ate at the Japanese restaurant in Willimantic before finally getting home to pass out..
---- Portland is a really cool city, it's very laid back and very spread out. There are no really big sky scrapers and there is a bunch of greenery in the city. The ride to Seattle was amazing, there was this enormous snow caped mountain off in the horizon and the road was lined with big hills and enormous trees! I can see why people love it out there, I wish I had more time (and healed feet) so I could go hiking and enjoy the lovely surroundings. I would like go back there when I have time to just veg in the wilderness for a few days.
