BYOB - Outside too

Bloggity Blog Blog... What's new with me? Well.. The biggest thing is that I fought at Laire this weekend.. I was full combat Saturday from when I woke up till right before feast. We woke up to some orcs trying to attack our tent site and we went after them to kill them, during the fight Lux had his sword stolen so we tracked them into their encampment. I didn't get a chance to swing in the wake up fight because I was walking to slow to get into the fight. I was wearing my sandals and didn't want to chance rolling my ankle on the rocks. I did however fight at the encampment, I hit a few, killed one and didn't get hit so I would call that success. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful until they announced arena fights. I have never lost in an arena fight and really wanted to fight their undefeated champion, I also really didn't want to hurt myself so I originally denied the fight. After watching a few fights however I changed my mind and entered the arena, considering I had not fought since November I think I did pretty well. I did end up losing in the end but I made a pretty good showing of it. Good news is that I can still at least say I'm undefeated in the Avalonian arena..

So, how are my feet? Very good, thanks for asking.. I'm sore like I over did it at the gym but at least I'm not in pain.

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The week in review..

Wednesday night I went out with Holly, we went to Paul's Pasta Shop in Groton. It's a nice place right on the water, I had a Spaghetti Pie which is Spaghetti baked in a deep dish with ricotta, hot and sweet sausage, meatballs, green peppers, mushrooms, pepperoni and mozzarella cheese topped with red sauce. It was so good and crazy big, when it arrived I cut it in half and brought that half home for Jessie to eat for lunch the next day. Holly had Paparadelle Carbonara which is a crazy wide pasta tossed with prosciutto and peas cooked in a black peppercorn alfredo sauce. After dinner we drove to Dairy Queen and then went and stood on the waterfront by the restaurant.

Thursday night I went to dinner with Lynz, we went to Coyote Flaco in Mansfield Center. We sat outside on their deck and ended up having to prop a menu up to block the sun from being in my eyes. The place had this "door handle" which is a man's worst nightmare.. It was a horseshoe pointed upwards around crotch height. I took a picture of Lynz standing next to it, I will post it on Flickr when I'm done with this blog so you can check it out. I had a skirt steak which came with a chicken enchilada, beans and rice. The steak was very good but the enchilada was a little dry, it was much better once I dumped a bunch of guacamole on it. Lynz had chicken mole (if memory serves).

I'm so glad that summer is finally starting, to be able to sit outside two nights in a row should not be a novelty in July. Speaking of summer, I really don't want to be sitting in this class right now, it's really nice out and I'm sitting in a room with windows which just makes it worse because I get to see the sunshine but not get to be in it..

Sunday I went to the Mets game with my friend Lee and his wife. It was awesomely hot and the sun was on us for the whole game.. So, you know how when you normally wear pants and your legs never get sun? Well, that would be a good time to put sunscreen on your legs.. My knees got really sunburned, possibly to the point of sun poison. I had a really tough time driving home and ended up with a really bad headache after taking a bath. I bought some after sun burn lotion while I was in Australia, I put that on it after my bath which made it feel much better. My headache and lack of energy could also have been because I didn't eat much yesterday. Jessie made me some food right before bed and woke me up so I could eat it. I think that and some dead to the world sleep made everything better. I had so little energy I could barely get my car unpacked from Laire, I just threw everything into the garage, I'll start laundry tonight when I get home.

Saturday night (yes, while at Laire) I went to dinner at Veggie Heaven in Denville NJ. Everything on their menu is Vegetarian, they do an amazing job of making meat substitutes. I had beef and chicken in a sesame sauce, Amber had some spinach noodles with chicken and mushrooms, Al had a chicken cutlet supreme, Mateo had a seafood dish (don't remember which one) and Adam had sushi and some lo mein. Everything (even the seafood) tasted like what they said it was supposed to be! I've never had a seafood substitute that actually tasted like shrimp, crab, etc.. We will probably be going back there each month, it has a much better selection than Fu's (the place we normally go). It's about a 20 min drive but it's very worth it.

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In other Mets news.. Delgado and Reyes both worked out on Sunday and are looking good, there is still no timetable for their return but they are doing better and should be back sooner rather than later. Maine and Beltran have not been doing as well and they will probably be back later rather than sooner.. They enter the all star break 6.5 games back and will certainly have a up hill battle in the 2nd half, hopefully we can get our players back soon to make the hill a little less steep.

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Tonight me and Jessie are going to a town meeting to support/change the BYOB outdoor serving law. Over the last few years restaurants in Putnam have added outdoor seating. If you serve alcohol you are allowed to serve it on the outdoor patio seating, however if you're BYOB you are not allowed to let anyone on the outdoor patio to drink! The meeting tonight is to change the BYOB law so that they can allow people on the outdoor patio to BYOB.

Saturday Putnam is having it's first River Fire from 7pm till 10pm. Me and Jessie will be there, if you're in the area come on by. Maybe we can do dinner before heading over like we did at the fireworks.

---Thought of the Day

These cookies are magic! They cure sinus infections and cranky moods.. :D

---Diversion of the Day

http://www.redmeat.com/redmeat/2009-07-07/index.html

Rollercoasters aren't just for Lynz anymore.. ;)

I have been taking a new way to Milford the last few weeks thanks to Google Maps and my GPS. Anyway, there is a home improvement store on the way that has the following quote on their sign out front.. "If you can't learn to do something well, enjoy doing it badly"

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Lots has happened since my last blog...

Went to the Mets/Yanks game at CitiField and was once again reminded why every year we say "this is the last Mets/Yanks game we go to".. I say this now, but I'm sure I'll go back on this next year.. I could sell those stupid tickets for almost as much (if not more) than my entire ticket package. Maybe next year I will really sell them..

Thursday was a great day with a capital G-R-E-A-T... Started out super exciting with a work con-call then going to Long Subaru in the down pour to get my 3,000 mile service.. I know, it does not sound to great yet.. Well as it turns out, Long Subaru gives you your first service free! After my car was done I went to Lynz's house for lunch, we ate at the Willi-Brewpub which I had not done in a long time and then got to relax at her house (kid-free and stress-free) which I had not done in, it seems like forever.. After dinner I ran home, took a quick shower and went out to meet Holly..  I got to meet Louie and then we headed out for sushi, the sushi restaurant we went to had outside seating so we got to enjoy the semi-warm weather while we ate. After dinner we went and played pool, I won both games with Holly scratching on the 8-ball, I guess that goes back to the quote on the top of this blog.. After pool we went to the boardwalk and sat on a bench looking out on the ocean. It was a beautiful night and it made for a wonderful end of a great day.

Sunday was not all bad, in fact it was not even half bad.. Actually, I think I quite enjoyed it (it being the day as a whole).. I went over Sara's house for lunch and we went and got (wait for it) sushi at Thai Basil.. After lunch we went and walked around the paths around her yard with Murphy.  Sunday night Jesse, Marie and Sara came over and we went to the Courthouse for dinner and then we met up with Rene, Hoyle, Janine, Matt, Sile and Daniel and watched the Putnam Fireworks. I love the Putnam Fireworks, they always do an amazing job. I don't know how much they spend on them but it's worth every penny..

Speaking of Fireworks.. Friday night Amber and Kris came over and we hung out with my friend Mike playing Guitar Hero till real late.. Saturday me, Jessie, Amber and Kris went to my mom's house for a bbq, I went to Smoke and Leather and finally got a pipe.. Joe (my mom's husband) makes a really good BBQ sauce that he marinated the chicken in and put on top of the burgers. My mom bought a bunch of fireworks and we had a really good time shooting them off in the evening.. Me, my brother and his kids played Croquet during the day which was lots of fun (thanks Randy for showing me that silly game)..

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In and around this crazy week I've been working on my new shield for Laire, I am planning on fighting a bit this weekend so I need to have my shield re-done. I had been trying to get someone who was actually an artist to paint on my shield but nobody could do it under short notice so I did it all myself.. I'm actually shocked at how good it came out.. Not to sound too cocky but, I do tend to do a good job at whatever I actually try to do.. "unquiet" right? Anyway, I have pictures of it on my computer and they should be on Flickr soon after I post this blog, go check them out..

My feet have been doing much better, I ran a few times in the last few days and I've even been doing push ups again. Must make these pants not tight!

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Yesterday me and Jessie were going to go to the Thai place in Webster but on the way saw signs for Waterfront Mary's and decided to go there instead.. I'm very glad we did, the place is right on Webster lake and they have outside seating right against the water. They actually have docks so you can drive your boats to the restaurant! What an awesome idea, I would love to live somewhere that I could drive a boat to a restaurant! The food was good and cheap as was the beer. I will certainly be going back and I would recommend it to anyone. We had crab cakes which had tons of actual crab meat and I had a shrimp ceaser salad. The waitress recommended I put lemon in my ceaser salad which I had never tried before and turned out to be an awesome idea. The restaurant has a Myspace page but I can't link it because I'm typing this blog at work and can't access Myspace.

After dinner we watched Iron Chef America and History Detectives while I worked on my shield. I am all gaga over Elyse Luray (one of the History Detectives), I feel sorta stalker-ish because last night I joined Twitter and she was the first person I added my following list..

I added a bunch of new Food Network shows to my TV lineup (Chopped, Next Food Network Star, and The Best Thing I Ever Ate) for the summer since all the regular shows are in repeats.

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Unquiet by Toad the Wet Sprocket

I am taught but i

Never learn a thing

I'm not deaf but i

Can't hear everything

A quiet world

Unquiet

I am strong but i

Never move a thing

I have words but i

Lack the voice to sing

A quiet world

Unquiet

I would sell the world

Would i...

I am fast but i

Never move at all

I have sight but i

Never choose to show

A quiet world

Unquiet

I would sell the world

Would i...

A quiet world

Unquiet

NL East article on ESPN

I was reading ESPN today and they had a really good article about the beat up NL East. For those of you who skip my baseball blogs, there is more under this article so if you want you can scroll down.. :P

The NL East is playing out like a really nasty game of dodgeball, and if you're keeping score at home, you could probably count the bodies left standing on one hand.

You know the New York Mets have lost their best home run hitter, their All-Star shortstop, two-fifths of their rotation and their second most important off-season acquisition in J.J. Putz … and at the end of play Tuesday night, the Mets were still just 2½ games out of first place.

The Florida Marlins saw their most consistent starting pitcher from last year sent to the minors, and their starting center fielder batted .202 before being demoted. They've had to make do at third base with a youngster who had always played in the middle infield. Dan Uggla, one of their few returning veteran stars, is batting .217, and shortstop Hanley Ramirez has a nagging groin injury. Today, these Marlins, with the lowest payroll in the majors, are three games out of first place.

The Philadelphia Phillies might have lost No. 2 starter Brett Myers for the rest of the season, No. 3 starter Jamie Moyer has a 5.97 ERA, and No. 5 starter Chan Ho Park lost his job. Closer Brad Lidge was much less than perfect before landing on the disabled list, shortstop Jimmy Rollins has battled a slump most of the year, and now Raul Ibanez is hurt.

And the Phillies lead the NL East.

So in other words, this battered and tattered division -- major league baseball's Black and Blue Division of 2009 -- is a very long way from being decided.

A few hours before Tommy Hanson pitched out of trouble over and over again and the Braves shut out the Yankees, Atlanta GM Frank Wren spoke with optimism, and who could blame him? The Braves have been one of baseball's worst offensive teams; their outfield production was easily the worst in the majors, prompting Wren to trade for Nate McLouth. And those Braves are four games out of first place.

"I think none of us foresaw what the [Phillies and Mets] would have," Wren said. "We're sitting where we thought we would be. … I actually feel like over the last week, we've started to make some strides. The last five days, we've swung the bat as well as well as we have all year."

Casey Kotchman has been swinging better of late, Wren says, but hasn't had a lot to show for it yet. Garret Anderson ripped a two-run double Tuesday night, and is hitting .435 over the past week. McLouth has helped the Atlanta offense, creating more opportunities for Chipper Jones, Brian McCann and others. If the Braves can muster any offensive consistency, they'll be dangerous because of their rotation and bullpen depth.

Wren is open to adding a hitter "who is available and who fits what we need," but like a lot of other GMs, he reports that there are few players on the market right now. And in the end, Wren's hands could be tied because of expense. "There's very little financial flexibility [among other teams], and for us, as well," Wren said. (Yet another reason why the trade market will probably be a dud: It's unclear whether even the Dodgers can take on money, as Bill Shaikin writes.)

Soon enough, the Mets will get back Jose Reyes, John Maine and Carlos Beltran, and it's possible they will get help from Carlos Delgado and Oliver Perez. And the Mets, one of the few teams willing to take on money in trades, are looking for a hitter. The Phillies are looking for a starting pitcher, but without success so far. The Marlins have historically made runs in the second half of the season, as their young players improve.

Jeff Schultz wonders if better days are ahead for the Braves. These days, the Mets must hit and run and pray, writes John Harper.

I hope at least some of you thought that was interesting.. If not, too bad.. To keep my blog legal I should say that Buster Olney wrote that..

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I went to my cousin's wedding on Saturday and Sunday I went to see Hangover with my dad for father's day... Hangover was such a bad movie.. I recommend nobody see it..

I went bowling with Lynz on Thursday which was tough on my feet but good too. I think there was a ball magnet in the gutters because my ball really liked hanging out there. I was adjusting my approach to not hurt my feet so I was all over the place but I had fun and I feel it did a good job of building up some muscles in my legs.

Saturday at my cousin's wedding I ran a little bit and that really strained my calf muscles, I am thinking next week I will hit the gym and try the elliptical machine. If that fails I'll be swimming for sure and maybe some very minor weights.

Anyway, back to work for me...

中車

Holy crap, I can't believe it's been almost a month since my last blog... I keep meaning to blog but then I get tied up with other crap and now I feel like so much has happened I don't know where to start or what to right about...

So, big news... Sonic has moved onto another life, I didn't bring him to Subaru heaven but instead sold him to a repair shop in Putnam who is taking care to bring him back to his full glory. I am very sad to part ways but he needed more a more car savvy person to continue a healthy long life.

I did a bunch of research and ended up with another Subaru. I checked out the new Outback Sport and found the cargo space was way to small. I checked into other makes as well (Audi A3, Toyota Matrix, Pontiac Vibe, Suzuki SX4) but none of them had anywhere near the cargo space as Sonic. Apparently people want the look of a wagon, but don't want the cargo of a real wagon. I forget the exact numbers now because I did all this research a few weeks ago and didn't write it down, but the new Subaru Outback has 3 more cubic feet of storage then my old car.

Pictures of the new car are up on Flickr, although I have not posted a blog in awhile I have been updating Flickr. New car is the color of the blue Totoro, his name is ironically Chū Totoro (Chū meaning middle or medium). I say ironically because he is the middle sized Totoro, the big guy is Oh Totoro and the little one is Chibi Totoro (Oh means biggest or great, Chibi means small). Well if the Impreza is Subaru's little car or Chibi car and if the Forester is their big car (Oh car) then the Outback is their middle or Chū car. Car translated in to Japanese is 車 which can be pronounced Ka or Kuruma, hence the new car's name is 中車. 中 = Chū.. I have not decided yet if I want to pronounce it Chū Ka or Chū Kuruma.

I have ordered replacement stickers for everything but the Studio Ghibli one. I tried to call the Museum shop but they don't accept calls from outside Japan, I tried to email them and my email address got rejected. I emailed a friend who works in Japan and hopefully they can get in touch with them.

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Went to Yankee stadium for the first time on Saturday to see the Mets play, luckily for me the Mets won that game. That stadium is the worst of the new stadiums I've been to. It feels like your in a corporate park and not in a baseball stadium, when you're at your seat the stadium is just like being at the old stadium except the massive scoreboard. The problem is when you leave your seat to get food. The food is WAY to expensive and not very good, they apparently have really good food but you need reservations to get into those sections. They did have a nice Yankees museum.. Speaking of that museum, they had seats behind glass from four different times in Yankee Stadium history (2009, 1976, 1950s, 1923), the smallest seat was the 2009 seat and the biggest was the 1950s seat by a long shot.

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Other things since last I blogged...

May Laire.. The plotline was really neat but it was a very frustrating event for me. I really miss fighting and hate to be a bystander during big battles where I know I could help. Can't fight till September event, figure I'll play non-combat Daimone in July to show off my new summer outfit, play a combat Brother Hawk in August and then a full combat Daimone in September!

Arkham Horror.. Me and Jessie went to Steve's house at the end of May to play Arkham Horror, if you have not played it yet I would recommend it. It's sorta like Betrayal at House on the Hill on steroids. You and the other players are a team and your goal is to out live the board, you draw a random big monster at the beginning and you have to stop the monster from awakening, if you fail and he awakens you have to try and kill it before it kills you. According to Board Game Geek rankings Arkham Horror is #51 all time. Speaking of Board Game Geek, I don't really know how they determine their rankings. I was highly offended to see Empire Builder at #387, especially since their biggest bitch was the fact that the crayons broke!

June 5th marked my one year anniversary with Lynz. What a crazy roller coaster ride of a year it's been. Looking back at everything it's sorta amazing that it all happened in one year. I'd rather have a full crazy life then a boring one. What would you rather ride, the roller coaster or the Ferris wheel? Well, I for one hate Ferris wheels.

On June 6th I went to the Silver Kingdom Renaissance Festival in Charlton MA. It's a nice faire but you can tell it's a new faire. The camp ground is owned by a LARP (Lione End of Seasons), it's a really big camp but they only used one field for the faire. If they had spread it out more they would have done a lot better, as it was you walk into the one field and you can see all the faire has to offer in one glance. In terms of entertainment, they only really had musical acts and no "plot shows" to speak of. To me it seemed the faire was a LARP membership drive, the main focus of the faire was a boffer tournament which took place in the center of the ring of stores. I ended up buying a really nice summer outfit for Daimone that I can't wait to wear.

Speaking of Ren Faires and LARPs.. I still have not been able to get in touch with Son of Sandlar, I will try to call them again today when I leave work. I've emailed them a few times and left messages for them a few times as well with no responses. When I talked to them at the NY Ren Faire last year they told me to contact them via myspace and they would provide me shipping instructions to get my boots fixed.

--Diversion of the Day

Obama Drastically Scales Back Goals For America After Visiting Denny's

Online?!

Lynz came over with Anja last night for dinner..  I went to the store and started getting a bit frustrated trying to buy a salad dressing that was gluten free, I was in a bit of a hurry and after looking at the first few dressings I gave up and decided to make my own.  I decided I would make a chunky sauce and use the chunky bits to cook the tilapia in.  The sauce came out really good so I figured I would post the recipe.

5 tomatillos

1 green pepper

1/4 onion

1 large chunk of garlic (the garlic we have has monstrous cloves, I cut one clove in half twice to put in the sauce..  I would say it's equivalent to 3 normal size cloves)

approx 2 tablespoons of soy sauce

a pinch or two of salt

- Throw all of that into a food processor and get it all ground up (keep pretty chunky) then add oil to make it thinner, I would say about 4 tablespoons of oil.  Blend again but not too much because otherwise it will get less chunky.  Now take it off and put it on low heat till it warms up a bit, once it warms up put a touch of Agave in to sweeten it.  

- Now scoop out some sauce, try to get a bunch of chunks and spread them onto a frying pan.  Put the tilapia on the sauce (fish should not be touching the pan so it stays nice and moist), put more sauce on top and cook on medium heat till the top gets white and flaky.  Meantime the sauce should stay on low heat to continue to meld the flavors.  

- I also made brocolini which I put in a pan with a little bit of oil and salt, cover it so that it steams in the oil.  Cook it until the skin starts to caramelize.

- Carefully take the tilapia out of the pan when it's done and put on more chunks.

- What you have left will be a watery sauce which would be good for salad dressing or, as we did, something to top your rice or quinoa with.

After Lynz left I started folding laundry and, because Luna peed on the bed in the spare bedroom, start more laundry.  While I was folding laundry the oddest thing happened, I logged into gmail and noticed Kaitlyn was online!  I ended up chatting with her on IM while I folded laundry!  It was a little surreal having her on IM and knowing that she is now reading this blog..  Welcome back to the internet world Kaitlyn...  I added her blog link to the random links section..  

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Tuesday night I skipped dinner for the first time, it was not the first dinner I missed but it was the first I missed not due to travel.  Me and Melissa went to the Red Sox game instead.  A co-worker has season tickets in row B of the Right Field Roof Box, they are awesome seats and it was probably the first time I felt I had good seats in Fenway.  The seats still didn't face home plate but at least the pitch of the seats made it so that I could see over the heads of the people sitting in front of me.  I hate sitting on the field level there because if anyone sits in front of you (and at Fenway that means all the time) you can't see the field.  The game was a great pitching duel with the Red Sox coming out on top, the entire game was only 2 hours 15 minutes!  The food choices at Fenway do leave a bit to be desired but the burger I had was really good, probably because they were out when I ordered it so I got a fresh one.  They had signs for a kosher stand and I was going to get a knish but then I saw that their kosher "stand" was a vending machine!  It did have knishes but I didn't feel up for testing out a vending machine knish.

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Laire this weekend..  I am planning on "playing" Daimone for the full weekend, I say playing in quotes because I will be non-combat still.  The Order is staying in the inn which means I can play at night too because I won't have to walk down to the cabin.  Hopefully I'll win lots of gold at night while everyone else is out killing the bad guys.. :)

---Diversion of the Day

Flickr update...

I just uploaded 127 new pictures to Flickr..   Enjoy..  :D

Birthday Weekend...

Birthday in Jersey..

Me and Jessie decided to head to Portland Oregon 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.

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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.

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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..

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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.

These are the days... <3

Last Monday I went to dinner with Amber at Blue Ginger in Wellesley MA..  Me and Amber were both having a "no-good-miserable-horrible day" and needed to have a good end to the day.  We met at the restaurant and after a short time looking at the menu decided to do the Tasting Menu..   The tasting menu was 5 courses including dessert.  I got mine with the wine paring, I assume the waitress filled my wine glasses beyond where they normally would so that we could share..  The amuse bouche was a bite sized pork meatloaf in a mushroom sauce.  Course 1 was -  hawaiian bigeye tuna poke with a crispy sushi rice cake topped with peppercress-tosaka salad.  Course 2 - sake-miso marinated Alaskin butterfish in a wasabi oil, soy-lime syrup with a vegatarian soba noodle sushi.  Course 3 - foie gras shiitake shumai in a sauternes-shallot broth.  Course 4 - grilled marinated hanger steak and garlic-black pepper lobster with lemongrass fried rice and pea tendril salad with soy-ginger vinaigrette.  Course 5 - bittersweet chocolate cake with cardamom ice cream and a sesame macadamia carmel nut tart.  The wines were all very good but the stand out wine for me was the 2005 Atteca Old Vine Garnacha which is from Calatayud Spain.  I have been there in the past with Jessie and it was just as good this time.  I wish it was not so far away so I could go there more often.. 

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Saturday I had a board game day at my house..  The planning started out as a small six person Catan game and ended up turning into an epic day culminating in 12 people coming over and 15 going to dinner and Star Trek!

Randy won Catan thanks to Christian stopping me twice from winning by pulling away my longest road points.  In retrospect I probably should have stopped trying to get longest road after the first time and I probably could have just built another two settlements and been done with it but I could fixated and fell...  After Catan we played Betrayal and hit a haunt I had never seen let alone played, the good guys almost didn't have a chance as I was the only one strong enough (Ox) to beat up the spaceship and I was taken out in the first round..  :(

Star Trek was a bit of a frustrating experience for me..  I honestly didn't care if I saw the movie in the movies and was only going because I knew so many people who really did want to see it.  I am that guy who talks during movies (whisper to people sitting next to me) and one of the big reasons for me to go to movies is to have that running commentary with people..  Anyway, we went into the theater and everyone scattered to different locations (some WAY up front, some WAY in back and others in the middle), unfortunately for me that meant that first of all I would now have to choose who I sat next to..  Normally I would have just stayed with Jessie in the middle but I really wanted to see it with my friends who drove really far to watch it with me..  Jessie went and found an elevator and I was able to go up to the top of the theater and watch it with Christian and Brad.

So, what did I think?  Well..   I have to say that I went into the movies with low expectations, I am a bit of a nerd when it comes to continuity and I was afraid of what they were going to destroy by making a prequel to the original series.  I also have to say (somewhat braggingly) that I did not see a single preview, I had a few close calls but I didn't even know who was cast (other than Kirk and Spock).  I am not going to give any details, just a few statements..  Casting - 4.5 Stars!  LOVED the casting of the younger versions of the crew, the only one who didn't amaze me and the reason for this not being 5 stars is Kirk.  I felt that he was sorta generic and didn't scream Kirk to me.  Everyone else was perfectly cast.  Special Effects - 5 Stars!  The effects were not only really well done but they never became the focus of the movie, I hate how so many new movies focus on the effects and lose the actual movie plot and character development.  Good Character Development & Dialogue - 5 Stars!  Evil Character Development & Dialogue - 2 Stars!  The enemies were supposed to be Romulon but they did a very bad job of portraying them both in appearance and attitude.  Plot - 3 Stars...  Nothing to say here, just see the movie and we can argue if you want...  Continuity - I am not going to rate this or say anything about it because it would give away the plot.. 

---Thought of the Day

"A love affair is not a lifetime. 

It's calendars and clocks, my friend. 

All good things 

Have to end. 

A memory of a happy moment -- 

That's what this week will one day be." - Aspects of Love

I have been accused of not doing "short term relationship", at the time it was meant to be a knock against me, I think it's a plus.  My shortest relationship with a lover was almost 3 years and I really like being able to look back on shared memories of happy moments.  There are people in my life I have known a very long time and I would be sad to have them leave, I am not foolish, I know that all good things do indeed have to end (learned that from Picard) but it does not mean that it has to end now, or even in a few weeks, months or years...  I really wish I had saved my calendars over the past 14 years because it would be so nice one day to be able to look back on those and say "remember when we did that"...  I know I have the google calendar for things going forward but it's a shame to not have the ones from the past..    I guess what I'm trying to say is...  Don't get so caught up in the moment to not think about saving something to remember it by..  In the end all you really have is memories and, if you're lucky, someone who shares them with you..  

Thanks to everyone who has and continues to help me create my "memory of a happy moment".. 

"Sometimes I get the feelin'

I was back in the old days - long ago

When we were kids when we were young

Things seemed so perfect - you know

The days were endless we were crazy we were young

The sun was always shinin' - we just lived for fun

Sometimes it seems like lately - I just don't know

The rest of my life's been just a show

Those were the days of our lives

The bad things in life were so few

Those days are all gone now but one thing is true

When I look and I find I still love you

You can't turn back the clock you can't turn back the tide

Ain't that a shame

I'd like to go back one time on a roller coaster ride

When life was just a game

No use in sitting and thinkin' on what you did

When you can lay back and enjoy it through your kids

Sometimes it seems like lately - I just don't know

Better sit back and go with the flow

Cos these are the days of our lives

They've flown in the swiftness of time

These days are all gone now but some things remain

When I look and I find no change

Those were the days of our lives - yeah

The bad things in life were so few

Those days are all gone now but one thing's still true

When I look and I find

I still love you" - Freddie

First of May 2009!

I was going to call this blog First of May but I already have one titled that when I posted the lyrics and video of the song, I went to post it and Blogger yelled at me because it was a repeat name..

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Here we are on the much anticipated First of May... Unfortunately the weather is not the greatest but it's also not horrible out either, I wish we had the weather from the beginning of the week but at least it's not snowing..

This week has been a series of long nights and little sleep and looking forward it looks like I should be able to sleep in on Sunday.. I'm not complaining about the long nights, I just wish I didn't have to get up so early but I guess that's the working mans curse.

Tuesday night we had a pretty big group for dinner and everyone made lots of food. I really have to find out from Sara how to log into the Tuesday night blog, I know she gave me a username/password but I went to the blog today and I don't see a login button.. Anyway, I made a shrimp & rice dish...

1 lb Shrimp sauteed in the wok with a combination of soy sauce, balsamic vinegar and the hot sauce John got Jessie which is "Pain is good batch 37". (I should really measure amounts when I make stuff, but since I didn't I can't say how much of each I used. I can say I didn't use enough of the hot sauce.)
2 packages of steamed Broccolini
2 cups of rice cooked with sushi seasoning in rice cooker.
Mix everything together (including sauce from pan) and serve.

Gwen came this week and brought her son Tim who seems to have gotten along really well with the other kids. Kevin was a no show this week, but Amber made it because she was driving home from Long Island.. We got there really late because I had forgotten to start the rice in the morning and I had to wait around for it to finish. It was really nice out and Lynz brought her dulcimer and Sara broke out her guitar.

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Wednesday night I went over to Willimantic and me, Lynz and Anja went to dinner at Opus. Opus is a really good restaurant that opened recently, they don't have a website which is a major problem because we were the only people there and Lynz says that's normal for them. I took their card and am going to try and get it over to Mike so he can contact them about getting them setup. I got one of their set dinners which was a cauliflower soup, garlic bread in a fondue cheese sauce, a steamed trout and lemon sorbet. Everything was really good, if you're ever in Willimantic I would recommend checking it out, I know I'll be back.. After dinner me and Lynz finally got a chance to sit and talk which we had not been able to do in a long time. I'm so glad the weather is getting warmer, it's been a long winter of no picnics.

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Last night I went to see Spring Awakening with Melissa and Gwen in Boston. It was a good play, the music was excellent and it had some very funny stuff as well as some very serious points and moments. I'm trying to figure out what to say without saying too much (don't want to tell the entire plot). I guess I will just say it's a story about a group of kids coming into and finding their sexuality, the play does a good job of showing what mistakes can be avoided if the parents would educate their kids. One example is: Wendla asks her mom where babies come from and her response is that in order to conceive a child a woman must love her husband with all of her heart. Because of this explanation the girl is surprised when she becomes pregnant from having sex.. I was checking it out on Wiki today and I found out that the play was originally done in Germany in 1891 and was banned there due to the sexually explicit scenes.. It re-appeared a few times over the years (sometimes censored) before being turned into a musical in 2006.

Before the play we ate at Remington's of Boston which is right next to the Colonial Theater. Remington's is upstairs and attached to Dick Doherty's Comedy Club. This was the second time I ate there, the first was with Kaitlyn before Ryan Adams. Me and Gwen both had fish and chips and Melissa got the meat ravioli. They have a Sam Adams beer on tap that was made just for sale in the Boston area called Brick Red which is a very smooth Irish Red Ale.

After the play we ended up going back to Gwen's new apartment which is very nice and very secluded but also not really setup yet. For some stupid reason the GPS thinks that the best way to get to 295 from Franklin is to drive to Woonsocket RI and then take side roads almost all the way back to Franklin before getting on 122. My GPS tried to do the same thing today when I was driving here, it appears that the GPSs (mine and Melissas) think that one of the roads over here is a dead end when in truth it's a thru street. My guess is that the road was extended recently and the GPSs don't know about it yet. When I was driving this morning my GPS said I entered a dead end road and that I should turn around.

---Thought of the Day
Things really don't change do they? Spring Awakening was written in 1891 and deals with issues around parents not talking to their children honestly. It shows that by parents trying to seclude and shelter kids when it comes to sexuality they do nothing but harm them and damn them to make the same mistakes generation after generation! If generation A makes a mistake because their parents didn't talk to them then why does generation A NOT talk to their kids when the roles are reversed? Do they want them to make the same shitty mistakes? Here we are 118 years later and we are still having the same problem... Come on people, it's about time people learned the right thing to do is to inform your kids! It's really not a joke that information is power! Arm your kids with the power to succeed..

---Diversion of the Day (obviously)

Surrounded by beauty

I am totally in love with this heat wave! I bitch and complain all winter but I do think the change in seasons makes you appreciate the warmer weather and the regrowth of nature. I just wish the colder parts of the year didn't last as long.

Yesterday I went up to Kaitlyn's house, we went and got some sammiches and brought them up to a beautiful waterfall in the middle of the woods. The water is all mountain run off and runs really strong this time a year due to the snow melting. All around the water there are amazing looking big rocks, Amber could probably spend an entire week there just studying the rocks.. I took a few pics (posted to Flickr), but they don't do it justice. The water comes down a waterfall and forms a really nice swimming hole that is a little over head deep, on the other side of the swimming hole is a cliff face of clay. Kaitlyn was telling me how in the summer they will swim across and get a bunch of clay, they swim back with it and put it all over their bodies and lay out in the sun on the rocks! Free spa anyone! I know, you can't have a spa without a hot tub/jacuzzi right? Well, if you swim to the base of the falls there are rocks you can sit on in the water and have the waterfall pounding around you.. After we ate and chatted for a while we ended up going for a swim, the water was surprisingly not cold. I would say the ocean in Australia was colder, I was able to sit in the water for a few awhile whereas in Australia I was not even able to get legs in the water!

Nature is really the best medicine, my foot feels great after spending a few hours out by the falls... I even slept without my boot on last night for the first time since having the cast off!

Ahh Warmth!

Had a great weekend.. Lovely weather and lots of fun events..

Thursday I picked Jessie up and we went to Red Robin for dinner before seeing Earth. When Discovery/BBC filmed Planet Earth they had a bunch of stuff they didn't use. Disney took some of the stuff they aired in Planet Earth and a bunch of stuff they didn't and made a really nice movie out of it. James Earl Jones narrated the American version which is always a good thing. Disney is planning on making this an annual Earth Day event, next year they are releasing Oceans. I just looked up the figures and it made $83,316,770 this weekend which is a lot of trees! Disney announced they would plant a tree for every ticket sold over the first weekend! When trying to find numbers I found out that Patrick Stewart narrated the International version of the film, hopefully when they release the DVD they will include both narrations.

Friday was wonderfully warm.. Melissa came over and we spent the day out and about, sat outside at Bella's Gourmet Market for lunch and I had the Balsamic Watermelon which was nice and refreshing.. Afterwards we went to Mohegan so she could put in applications before heading down to the outlet mall at exit 65. We got back to Putnam as the sun was starting to set, we tried to go to Thompson Dam but the bugs were coming out in force and we didn't think to use bug spray so we didn't last long.

Saturday was equally as nice out.. Putnam had their town cleanup scheduled for the morning and couldn't have picked a better day! Unfortunately I pushed it a bit too far during the cleanup and hurt my foot trying to get a boot from a pretty steep hill. Our cleanup ended early because I really couldn't stand/walk on my foot.. :(

After spending some quality time on the couch with an ice pack I felt good enough to head back out. We went down the outlet mall and I found a great piece of luggage made by Samsonite and Jessie finally replaced her sunglasses. After dinner we went to Water's Edge in Greenville RI, I posted some picks from there on Flickr but they don't really capture the beauty of the place. They have a porch that goes out over the water and creates a really amazing view, especially as the sun sets. The food there is really good too which could make it one of my normal haunts. I had the Rigatoni with Rabe and Sausage which was so good, the other nice thing was that the portion size was really nice and I didn't feel stuffed when we left.

After dinner we went to "Music at the Mill" and saw the West Eddy Trio. The Mill is a very small venue, they have couches and comfy living room chairs as their seats. They have a small selection of snacks and non-alcoholic beverages available which are all inexpensive. There is no set price for the show, instead they pass around a hat for you to contribute what you feel you want to. Adrienne West is the lead singer for the West Eddy Trio, she has a knock out voice. They did a bunch of covers and few of their originals, check out their youtube page. I personally can't wait for them to release their own music on a CD. They recorded the show and hopefully they will release some sort of live CD, the Mill has a few live CDs of people who were there in the past so there is a chance they will release Saturday night's show.

We went to the Mets game on Sunday and watched yet another bad game! Love the stadium, still planning on writing a blog about that, but it's getting very frustrating watching the Mets play bad ball... Murphy fell down again in LF... I know it's early but these early losses are killing us...

---Diversion of the Day
http://www.explosm.net/comics/345/

April catch up blog

So, the picture that was short-listed for inclusion in the seventh edition of the Schmap Sydney Guide was officially put to use in the guide which I think is pretty rockin'...

Here is the link - http://www.schmap.com/sydney/entertainment_concerts/#p=339954&i=339954_21.jpg

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The other night at dinner John mentioned an article on the Onion that talked about Mr. Met not getting enough sleep at the new stadium. Check it out..

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I've neglected this blog for far too long. I now need to recap almost the entire month of April..

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The week of the 5th - 11th..

Monday the 6th I woke up and decided I was going to try and walk on the cast, I took a few tentative steps before I put the crutches down and everything was great. To compare, I didn't walk on the cast until the beginning of week 4 during the last surgery and even then it was only for very short spans of time. This time I started walking in the beginning of week 3 and I only used the crutches a few since the 6th.

Melissa came over that day and we hung out and watched opening day! The great thing about opening day is no matter what, every team at least thinks they have a chance to make this their big season.. Thursday I went over Nathan's house up in Beverley for the first time. His house is very nice and they did a lot of work on it since they got it, it would have been interesting to really see how it looked before hand. We ended up going to Home Depot and Lowes and it was probably more walking than I should have done, by the end of the day my left knee, back, arms and shoulders were killing me. Luckily for me Lynz came over on Friday night and did a lot of work on my legs, arms, shoulders and back. I can't say how thankful I am that she was able to put everything back in place.

Friday night Melissa went to Alliance (LARP formally known as NERO), Saturday morning she came over to shower and get changed before going to a friend's party in Boston. I'm usually the one coming home from LARPs and being all excited about what happened so it was odd being on the other end of that.. A good odd, but certainly odd. I can't wait till Laire in May... I had to miss the April event because it was too close to me getting my cast off, but I'm ahead of myself..

Saturday night Sara came over and we went to Pho Evergreen in Greenville RI and had really good soup. It's a really nice family run restaurant, Sara told the girl she was allergic to gluten and she made a really good point of checking with her mom about each ingredient. On the way out the youngest boy was sitting in the reception area watching TV and we heard a dog barking from what appeared to be the back room.

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The week of the 12th - 18th..

The 12th was Easter or as a friend called "Zombie Christ Day".. We went to my brother's house which was nice because we had not been there in a while and the food was really good... His kids are getting real big, it's sort of amazing to me to realize that little Lenny is now 16!

Monday I went to dinner with Kaitlyn at our normal restaurant (the People's Pint) and afterwards got to sit and listen to her play the guitar and sing! It was finally nice enough out so that we could sit in her breezeway and just relax. She'll probably yell at me for saying this in my blog, but she has a great voice and I could totally see her playing an acoustic live set in a local bar or club.

Tuesday I got my cast off!!!!! I was supposed to get it off on Thursday but I could not get an appointment early enough to do it and then get to the Mets game in the same day. I really wanted someone to be there with me when I got it off because I was unsure how stable I would be afterwards so I picked Melissa up Monday night and brought her to Putnam so she could go with me on Tuesday to the doctors. The cast came off and the foot actually had strength enough to push the doctor's hand which is way better than last time when I could barely stand. They gave me a soft boot cast and it was really nice out so we went to play Mini-Golf afterwards which Melissa won by one stroke!

Wednesday night I went over to Willimantic and ate dinner with Lynz and Anja, we went to the sushi restaurant in the mall and hung out at her house afterwards. I had not been down to Willi in a while so it was a good change spending some time there.

Thursday was my first game at Citi-Field! I think I am going to write a separate thing about the stadium in general so I'm just going to say that for Thursday nights game is was COLD! I went with Melissa and my dad. Mike, his mom, Amber and Kris met us there. Ivon ended up spending the whole game in the Promenade Club bar and only came to the seats for about 10 minutes towards the end of the game.

Saturday me and Jessie went to lunch with Hoyle and his wife Janine. We met up at Unos by their house and afterwards went back to their place for a while to hangout and chat. She is a very nice girl and I think we may have convinced her to come to Tuesday night dinners. Yes, I have not mentioned anything about Tuesday night dinners in this blog. And Yes, they are still going strong. Trick is I don't remember what everyone brought each week so I will just say that they were fun as always! I will actually talk about this weeks in a bit but I'm not there yet... So... After leaving Hoyle and Janine's house we went home and met up with Ryan and Sara for dinner at Bella's Gourmet Market in Putnam. The just reopened after being closed for a week to put in a kitchen, they now have a full dinner menu and I highly recommend you check them out if you live in the area. They have this amazing Balsamic marinated grilled Watermelon as an appetizer that comes with chocolate goat cheese! I would go there and just eat that! I got a steak which was so tender I was able to cut it with my butter knife!

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The week of the 19th - today..

The 19th saw my 2nd game at Citi-Field, it was still cold but a bit warmer. I went down with Jessie, Sara, Ryan and my dad. We gave Mike's tickets to Amber and Kris but they didn't show up. Ivon sat at his seats this time and once again we lost. Walked less this time but still probably too much.

Monday was my first day back at work, I went in early because of the silly Boston Marathon and ended up lasting till after lunch before my foot was starting to really bother me and I took off. Monday night Amber came over and we went to dinner at Someplace Special. She filled me in on all the goings on at Laire over the weekend while at dinner much to Jessie's boredom.

Tuesday I went to work, then the dentist... I had a cleaning appointment scheduled for 2, I got there a few minutes early and found out that my dentist had retired and given the practice to another dentist. I've never met the dentist so him retiring is really not that big a deal, but.. The dental assistants were very upset over the changes which included having to use new machines. Upset dental assistants + new machines = horrible cleaning! I left there feeling a bit violated and in pain. I hate dentists! Dinner was quiet this week, in attendance was me, Jessie, Melissa, Sara (for most of it), Ryan, Joe, Hoyle, John (for a little while) and Kristen (for a few minutes towards the end). We (me, Jessie, Hoyle and Melissa) got there late and were the first to arrive. Joe showed up a few minutes later and then Sara had to leave because of "mom issues". We ended up going to the table with just the 6 of us. John showed up a little while after and then Sara came back to bring our little group up to 8. Kristen showed up while everyone was eating dessert to drop the kiddies off for Sara to watch for the night.

Yesterday I went to dinner with Sara at Thai Basil while Jessie was at Yoga. We were supposed to go early but we had to wait for Kristen to come get the kiddies before Sara could come out. I got home from dinner around 9 and ended up chatting with Ange and Melissa before heading to bed.

Holy crap - it's today! I am sitting at work with a bunch of pissed off employees, apparently even though my company made record profits last quarter they are giving everyone a pay cut for the rest of 2009! Oh and they stopped 401k matching funds too! I'd hate to see what they would do if they didn't post record profits! I dropped my car off at Patrick Subaru for it's first 3,000 checkup since the new engine. It's been getting very poor gas mileage and running kinda loud and although Kiss may Love it Loud I don't when it comes to my car. They just called a few minutes ago to tell me it's done so now that I'm done with this long ass-blog I'm going to go get it. Tonight I'm going to the movies with Jessie, we are going to see Earth. I'll let you know how it is. If you don't know Disney is planting a tree for every ticket sold this weekend so go..

---Diversions of the Day
It's been long time since I blogged so I will give you two today...
http://mchat.comicgenesis.com/d/20090413.html
http://www.redmeat.com/redmeat/2009-04-14/index.html

Bag of Weed

I have been meaning to write a blog for a few days now and have not had the time to dedicate to it.. This is not that blog... That blog will hopefully be written tomorrow while at work or maybe later tonight depending on plans...

Anyway, this blog is all about Family Guy and the song Bag of Weed!

If you have not seen Family Guy from last night you missed a great episode in which Brian gets arrested for having a bag of weed on him. The go to the park and Brian and Stewie sing a song about pot.. Here it is:

http://pleasedontstare.wordpress.com/2009/04/19/family-guy-bag-of-weed/

Lyrics -
Stewie: Now everybody gather ’round and listen if you would
When I tell you every person needs a way of feeling good
Every kitty needs a ball of string and every dog a stick
Stewie & Brian: But all you need is a bag of weed to really get a kick
All: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight
A Bag of Weed, A Bag of Weed
Oh, Everything is better with A Bag of Weed
It’s the only hope that you’ll ever need
Cuz’ Everything is better with A Bag of Weed
Stewie: Here you go, you’re all getting it now
Ensemble: When Texas people want to feel good,
Stewie: They go assault a queer.
Ensemble: When stupid people need a thrill,
Stewie: They rent The Rocketeer.
Ensemble: When Michael Jackson needs a rush,
Stewie: He humps a guy like me.
Ensemble: Right!
All: But all we need is a bag of weed,To keep us worry free.
One, Two, Three, HO!
A Bag of Weed, A Bag of Weed
Oh, everything is better with A Bag of Weed
Oh, you don’t need meth and you don’t need speed
Cuz’ Everything is better with A Bag of Weed
Stewie: Have a go, Brian!
Brian: As Mr. H.L. Mencken said, “The common man’s a fool.”
Stewie: And just like Helen Keller said, “Doof stoo gee nay foo tool.”
Brian: But try and use your heads and don’t buy into all the fear.
All: HEY!‘Cuz all we need is a bag of weed
To make us wanna cheer!
And One, Two!
A Bag of Weed, A Bag of Weed
Oh, everything is better with A Bag of Weed
You can try and fight but we’re all agreed
Because everything is better with A Bag of Weed
(break)
One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight,
And One, Two, Three, Four, And A Five, And A Six, And A Seven! HO!!
A Bag of Weed, A Bag of Weed
Oh, everything is better with A Bag of Weed
You’re a happy guy but you can’t proceed
Because everything is better with A Bag…Of…Weed!
Oh ev’rything is better with a bag of weed!!

Photos and Video

I posted pics to Flickr today and when I got there I had a message telling me that one of my photos has been short-listed for inclusion in the seventh edition of the Schmap Sydney Guide, to be published late April 2009.

I had to approve their use of my picture which I gladly did. That kind of thing makes me feel cool because it's a random pic I took that they now want to use in a city guide!

The picture they chose was one of the ones I took of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

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I also posted 9 videos from One Night of Queen on YouTube.

Mets add 'historic bat' in Sheffield

No, this is not a blog about only baseball again.. I just laughed my ass off when I read that headline on MLB.com.. I guess "historic" is the new pc phrase for old.. If you don't know who Gary Sheffield is, he used to be a great outfielder, now he is a has-been. He is 40 years old and his last good year was 2005 when he hit .291 with 35 home runs, he has steadily decreased since then and was released by Detroit in spring training because he hit .175 in the spring. If the Mets were going to sign a random old outfielder I would have rather they sign Bonds who could probably still play or at least hit the crap out of the ball.

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Quick update, recap of the last week or so...

Last Saturday was Joe M's birthday, originally just Jessie and Hoyle were going to go but since my foot was feeling pretty good I decided to tag along and drag Sara with us. We met at a Comedy Club/Brewery in Hartford called City Steam Brewery Cafe around 5 figuring we would eat and then catch their 7pm show. When we got there we found out that the show was sold out so we could either go to the late show or go to Funny Bones in Manchester, after a quick vote we decided to eat and head to Funny Bones. Speaking of food... I would really like to go back to that brewery on a night that they didn't have a show, the food (crab cake sliders) was very good when they finally brought it. I had a two of their beers and they were both tasty, the first (and better) beer was the Winter Wheat which is an odd beer, at first I was not sure if I liked it but by the end of the glass I decided I liked it enough to bring home a growler. Well, as it turns out the Winter Wheat was the end of the run, I got about 2 glasses in the growler but they only charged me $3 for it so I figure it's a win. The 2nd beer I had was Deirdre Does Dublin which is a Guinness clone, it was ok but not great.

After dinner we loaded into the car and shot down to Manchester, got tickets and got seated right before the show started. Ian Bagg was the headliner and was really funny. I forgot the names of the first two comedians, they were ok but obviously not that memorable. My leg was still feeling ok afterwards so we went back to Joe's house and played some Apples to Apples with his clan.. Speaking of his clan, I was shocked to see Gwen sitting at the table when we arrived for dinner. Me and Jessie knew Gwen from a few years ago when she was living in Willimantic with her ex Jack. We lost touch with them when they moved down to Georgia, we messaged Gwen once or twice when she moved back to Providence and it was very cool to catch back up with her over dinner and the show. We didn't stay too long at Joe's because my foot was starting to really bother me. We did stay long enough to invite Joe, Melissa and Gwen to Tuesday night dinners. More on that later.. :)

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Monday I had lunch with Mike B at Bella's in Putnam and helped him setup his stereo system at his girlfriend's condo. Bella's is adding a kitchen this coming week, they are closing Monday-Wednesday and revamping the restaurant. When they open back up on Thursday they will have a full dinner menu including Jessie's raw pasta sauce!

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Melissa came over during the afternoon on Tuesday to hang out before dinner. We hung out and watched "What the Ancients Knew - Greeks", it's the 2nd "What the Ancients Knew" episode I recorded (the first was Japanese). I was not impressed with the way they put the show together, there was so much they could have talked about but didn't. The only thing that was really cool was when they talked about the giant Triremes, which were their war ships. They actually built one and had a team of modern day rowers get in and test how fast it could go and how long they could maintain that speed. Jessie made a tamarind dip for dinner, Sara made Afghan Squash which was really good especially when mixed with Jessie's tamarind dip.. Kristen made cookies and Lynz & John made a veggie dish. Melissa was hijacked by the kiddies when she arrived and didn't rejoin the adults till dinner was served. After dinner I went and laid on the couch to put my foot up and Melissa came and sat with me when the kids weren't having her spin them..

We ended up playing Trivial Pursuit after John and Lynz left. Teams were - Me and Melissa, Jessie and Hoyle, James and Therese, Kevin and Sara and Kristen. Joe was going to team with Kristen but he was not feeling good so he took off early. Hoyle and Kevin are pretty evenly matched when it comes to trivia games but Hoyle and Jessie ended up coming out on top in the end. Me and Melissa did ok considering we kept getting distracted by the kids and apples.

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Wednesday I had lunch with Mom, Joe, Grandma and Sara. Joe made a pizza for him and Sara, the rest of us got pizza from that really good pizza place in Putnam. Grandma was not impressed saying that it was not really New York pizza. Mom and I disagreed.. :)

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Lynz came over Thursday, she had been meaning to check out that herb place by the Vanilla Bean so we ate lunch at the Bean and checked out that place. I had a turkey, bacon, avocado wrap which was sooo good.. After lunch we went up to Dr Scheffel's office to get my stitches out. Getting the stitches out hurt a lot more this time, last time getting the stitches out was a relief because of the staple that was pulling on the bandages, this time there was no relief just pain. The re-casting process really sucks, while your knee is bent they push your foot up to the angle they want it and then have you hold it there while they cast it. Holding the foot at a stretching angle really hurt my knee and my muscles. Once the cast is on and hard the next trick is straightening your knee which stretches the tendon even further. Back to the pain meds for a few days..

Amber came over for a bit on her way home which is always cool.. The rest of Thursday night was lots of Red Dwarf. Years ago I started watching Red Dwarf with my friend from NY, we watched 3 seasons and I think we watched 1 episode in the last year so I decided to download them off Netflix online.

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Last night me, Jessie and dad went to see One Night of Queen which is a Queen tribute band called Gary Mullen & the Works, they are sanctioned by Queen and Brian May as the definitive historical Queen show. They did two sets, the fist set was good but the 2nd set was holy crap amazing! The version of Love of My Life was probably the crown on the show for me, they did a different version of it than Freddie and Queen would normally do and it was great to hear him use Freddie's voice but a different arrangement. They also broke up We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions with Friends will be Friends which was nice and unexpected. We got handicap seats which were very close to the stage off to the side of the theater. I took lots of videos and should have them up on YouTube in a little while.

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So, I'm watching the Mets/Red Sox game now. Before watching this I watched this weeks Mets Weekly which talked a bit about food at Citi Field, they apparently have a stand which has fries with various dips including a bacon dip!

Speaking of Baseball.. Over the last few days I've been reading a bunch of different articles on ESPN.com and MLB.com.. Here are some interesting things I read...

The new Yankee stadium has a center field restaurant that apparently blocks the view of the field from the bleachers! They just announced they are lowering the price of those bleachers to $5 because they are "limited view", if you look online you can find pics of what it looks like to sit in those seats. Speaking of Yankee stadium, the Yankees increased their ticket prices 76.3% from last year! The Mets increased their ticket prices by 8.6%.. The Red Sox had the highest average ticket price for the last 13 years, this year the Yankees eclipsed them. The average ticket price at Yankee stadium is $72.97, the average ticket price at Fenway is $50.24, 3rd place is Wrigley Field at $47.75 and Citi Field is 4th at $36.99.

How about salaries? The Yankees are once again #1 in baseball with $216,661,739.. The Mets are at $129,987,735.. I don't know where the Mets fall because not all teams have published their salaries yet for the 2009 season. I know, if all the teams have not published their figures how can I say the Yankees are #1? Because no other team is even near them.

---Thought of the Day
Be true yourself and have the confidence to know that by being yourself nothing is untouchable or unattainable..