It's been a while since I've bought a t-shirt with a slogan or saying on it. I just saw one on television that I would pick up if I saw it at the store.
"Cleverly disguised as a responsible adult."
Though I guess some would argue that I'm neither an adult, nor disguised as one.
I spent most of the day pretending I was working for a television studio and a radio station. We had clients in the office for a audio recording, but we're in the process of prepping for a video shoot so I spent the morning on the video side and the afternoon on the audio side. A nice change of pace from sitting at a desk all day, that's for sure.
Hopefully the rain will hold off for the rest of the evening and then it will dry up and I can stumble out of bed at the ass crack of dawn and make it out to buggy before truck weekend this year. Especially since truck weekend is also Easter Weekend. Fun. That will be a nice nightmare to coordinate on their end. Also, I'm a little ticked that once again the alumni didn't seem to get clothing orders. As soon as we discussed...no, you know what, I'm stopping there. I swear I'm turning into a Dana Carvey character.

Lots of stuff to be done around the house and no motivation to do it. I do have to get some bills paid. The credit card companies, car people, landlord, etc. seem to get cranky when you don't get them the money on time.
We were having a discussion at work about how your "favorites" are influenced by when and where you heard them. One person at work didn't know who Corey Haim was. Just flat out didn't know. Lost Boys, Lucas, License to Drive, Silver Bullet, Dream a Little Dream, not one rung a bell. The funny thing was, every guy's Corey/Corey movie ended up being Blown Away. Why? Nicole Eggert. It's the age range. Have someone watch that movie now and you'll get blank stares and probably some popcorn thrown at you for subjecting them to crap. Back then it was a big deal to teenagers. Hell, we even endured Scott Baio in order to watch Nicole Eggert.
Nowadays the novelty has worn off and most likely been replaced in the form of Jessica Alba or Keira Knightley.
One of my favorite movies that I listed was Young Guns. Not exactly a cinematic masterpiece, certainly not the high-brow choice that most people would jump at. But, at the point in my life when I saw it, it was the perfect set-up for that movie. So, it ranks as one of my favorites.
I'm not really going anywhere with this except to kind of illustrate the point from My Fellow Americans. James Garner and Jack Lemmon are two ex-Presidents from different parties that end up on the lam together. They talk about their common experiences in the white house. Jack Lemmon asks Garner who he was most impressed to meet during his term as President. Garner answers Nelson Mandela. Lemmon laughs and says, I'm not a reporter. Garner immediately changes his answer to Ella Fitzgerald. I think it's the same for a lot of people. Sure, I'd like to answer that my favorite author is William Shakespeare or James Joyce, but in reality it's more like Stephen King.

So my evening plans were derailed in the afternoon when my project manager turns around and says, "Pick up (big big boss's name removed) on my line." Ok, it turns into one of those games that I play in my head when I used to get called to the office in high school. 1.) Did I do something wrong? 2.) If I did something wrong, can they know about it? 3.) If it's possible that they might have found out, can I talk my way out of it? 4.) Did I perhaps do something right? etc...
So, I pickup the phone and I hear, "They tell me you like hockey." Sigh of relief. "Yes, I love hockey." "Do you have plans for tonight?" "Absolutely not." So, I got incredibly sweet seats at center ice. Ok, yes they lost the game, but I saw John LeClair score a goal to become only the 7th US born player ever to score 400 goals. And, Jay Caufield was sitting 5 rows in front of us. So, all in all it was a good night. And, now the knowledge that I like hockey is now firmly entrenched on the admin side of the office.
I also have a lot of housecleaning to do, links to post, etc. I just haven't gotten around to it yet. So, expect one of those multi-link posts in the near future.

create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

Holy sad looking states. For better ones look here and here the first of which, incidentally, is where I stole this meme from.

The meme is this: "Recount a one-line anecdote for each state you have visited [and then demand that others do the same]."

You'll notice how quickly mine will pass as opposed to others.

CA: Saw Barry Manilow's star on the walk of fame.
CT: Saw childlike drawings on sale in a cafe for $400, came home and reproduced drawings for less than $20 (including paint).
DC: Did a whirlwind driving tour of all the monuments and stopped briefly to see Mr. Lincoln.
FL: Arrived at Miami hotel in September praying the pool was open at midnight, turns out it was open all night, heaven.
GA: After listening to O Canada by Rush, Terrence, and Phillip for the 15th time, slammed on the brakes in the middle of a 6 lane highway to wake all passengers and get a cd change.
IL: After attending a great wedding/reception listened to a college student complain that out of state tuition was almost $8000 per year. Told him, I'd give my left arm to pay only $8000 per year.
IN: Drove through at an average of 90 mph with the radar detectors absolutely silent until we hit Indianapolis at which point they went insane.
MD: Relaxed on the pier at my friend's office in a hammock across from the main center of inner harbor.
MA: Went from 0 baby experience to being able to babysit in one weekend flat.
NJ: Held off for 30 years and then had to visit Tom.
NY: Had my wedding reception here after being married in PA.
NC: Had a "Code Red" emergency here during a trip to the Tangerine Bowl.
OH: Pounded on Terri's dorm door at 5 AM in the pouring rain to drop off her contacts while wondering why the hell everyone was asleep.
PA: Too many to recount since this is home base.
RI: Went to a House of Satan in Providence and watched Alison buy some season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer thus uniting dislikes and opening the Hellmouth I believe.
SC: Where every gas pump was full at 1 AM.
TN: Saw perhaps the widest range of people and socioeconomic backgrounds ever at a Nascar race in Bristol.
VA: Actually visited Winchester on a whim.

One of the events of this weekend that I didn't mention was the passing of Buck Owens. For more weeks that I can remember, I watched Buck Owens on Hee Haw. Back then I wasn't a huge fan of Hee Haw, but back then we had one television. And Mom and Dad usually outruled the kids when it came to which of the 3-7 channels we could get on that television.
So, once I week I watched Buck and Roy pickin' and grinnin'. Like other things of my childhood, it left an indelible impression that wasn't quite realized til later in life.
Watching the footage from the numerous tributes that they cobble together in the wake of things of this nature made me feel 7 years old again. Watching my brother squirm around on the floor, Dad half asleep in his chair, Mom with the ever present cup of tea and me on the couch glued to the television and watching Grandpa Jones, Minnie Pearl, Roy Clark, Buck Owens and a slew of country music stars that will never be duplicated.

Hopefully the Pens can score a pair to take some points away from Montreal. According to the announcers it would be the first time, ever, that the Penguins had swept a season series with Montreal. That itself would be a nice feat.
Apparently Boston College lost in overtime to Villanova. What does that mean? Not much unless you attended Boston College or, like me, picked them to win it all. Although in the grand scheme of things, I'd much rather have Penguin games go my way.
Gage spent Friday night at my parent's house. Grammy and Grampy are fast realizing that they need to be well rested to keep up with the little man. I jokingly said that perhaps he could spend the whole week there, to which my mom replied, "That's fine. As long as it's a week where I have nothing to do and nowhere to be."
And, although Friday night was a good night for getting things done and some of that carried into Saturday morning, the rest of the weekend has been pretty laid back. I watched Tony Stewart, who claimed someone was going to be killed if we didn't stop the bump racing, bump and subsequently wreck Martin Truex, Jr. enabling me to once again not make any great point leaps this week. Grrr. This week's races were in Bristol Tennessee. Bristol is the track where I've seen several fall races. The Busch race was actually red flagged (where all the drivers had to stop and park their cars) for snow. Snow! In Tennessee. Considering it was about 110 degrees the first time I was there, snow was difficult to contempate. I knew that it snowed there, if for no other reason than Amy Grant's, Tender Tennessee Christmas, but to see a Busch race red flagged for that in March was surprising.

Today was a loooooong day at work. Although since Terri worked late tonight, I've been the model of efficiency. I finished going through all the hockey cards. I got them put away safely and stored. I watched the Penguins beat the Islanders in overtime robbing them of a precious point that they are going to need to make the playoffs.
I've also managed to go through another shelving unit of books. Only 5 more to go. Maybe in another couple of weeks I'll actually finish up. Although my hope is to finish tonight/tomorrow.

I got to spend all day, or at least 75% of the day in a training session to learn how to play with all the new toys they added to our recording studio at work. It's a long way from the four channel mixer and rca patches that I used. The camera boards are incredible. It's a shame I can't do that all the time. Although over the next month or so it's probably going to feel like it. I'll be running the boards for over 10 hours of recordings and then some. I wonder if my desk will miss me.
So one of the movies that Tom lent me was The Fantastic Four. It was actually one of the few movies that I saw in the theater in 2005. I wasn't overly impressed. The effects were ok, but the story was lacking and had huge plot holes. The end battle seemed a little weak too. Since I usually attempt all the extras on a DVD just to give it a fair shake, I listened to the commentary of Michael Chiklis, Ioan Gruffuld and Jessica Alba. It changed two components of the movie for me. Michael Chiklis comes across as a fan of the comic books and his intelligent comments make up for the fact that the movie isn't quite up to par. Jessica Alba, on the other hand, spends a lot of her comment time complaining about the suit, the fact that she's in a bra and panties, and numerous other things. What little respect I might have had for her in the category of actress leapt right out the window. At this point she's reduced herself to just a whiny chick who can't seem to come to terms with the fact that all the roles she accepts are scantily clothed. That, coupled with her recent squabble with Playboy and that puts her about 3 notches off my future radar screens. Have a nice day.

Not much going on today. I watched South Park skewer "Chef" in their newest episode. I smell a lawsuit. I really need to get back into the habit of exercising. Oddly enough, I keep dropping a little weight here and there. I think the couple of weeks that I did exercise boosted my metabolism back to where it used to be. So, if I could get back on track I should have no problems shedding the amount of weight that I want to lose by October 1st and collecting a tidy sum of cash for my troubles.

Since it looks like a pretty safe conclusion that the Penguins are going to lose tonight's game with the Ottawa Senators, tonight they will be mathematically eliminated from making the Stanley Cup playoffs. Now comes the chance to play spoiler. In order we play Montreal, the Islanders, Florida, the Islanders again, New Jersey twice, Florida again, Tampa Bay, Philly, the Rangers, the Islanders twice more, and ending with Toronto. With the exception of the Rangers and Philly, all of the teams the Penguins play fall in slots 6-12 in the Eastern conference. We have a pretty good chance of spoiling playoff bids for the Islanders, Florida, potentially New Jersey if they lose a few more, and the very last game of the season could mean quite a bit to Maple Leafs who are only 5 points out right now. Even though winning does nothing for us at the moment, it's sweet to see our victories prevent other teams from just stepping to the playoffs. Really it's what the Pirates could do if they won more games down the stretch.

Just another entry in the "nothing is ever easy" category of my life.
Terri wants a Sidney Crosby Rookie card for Gage. She didn't really care what kind, just a rookie card. Being a one-time collector, I decided on Upper Deck. They now split the Upper Deck hockey cards into Series I and Series II, and they have all sorts of special cards like game worn jersey cards. So, I go to the Upper Deck site and they aren't selling Series I or Series II for that matter. Turns out that Series I is sold out and Series II hasn't started yet. I figure I'll just hit some of the stores in the area and pick up a few packs. Target, Wal-mart, Toys R Us, a hobby store, Dick's Sporting Goods, and a sports memorabilia store. One place had the cards at $5.25 a pack. Insane. So I turn to the trusty internet. A couple of sports memorabilia places are selling the cards. So I pick some up. Then I realize that I don't have anything to hold the valuable cards. So I run out to pick up some card holders. By this time I've realized that I don't even know what the valuable cards are, outside of the normally high-valued cards. So, I figure I'll turn to the trusty Beckett pricing guide. (Now, just to keep perspective, this is happening over the course of several weeks...I didn't do this all in one day) Since I work in a complex with a Barnes and Nobles, I figure my problem is easily rectified. Turns out Barnes and Noble didn't have it. So I check the beckett site online. I find out that they still publish a monthly issue and this month has Sidney Crosby and Mario Lemieux on the cover. I figure that accounts for the lack of them at Barnes and Noble and decide to hit a couple other stores. So, I travel out to Robinson tonight. Nothing at Toys R Us, nothing at the hobby shop, nothing at the mall (which includes Dick's sporting goods, a bookstore, and sports memorabilia shop), nothing at the Barnes and Noble out there, nothing at the Target, nothing at the Wal-Mart. I've finally given up finding this magazine in Pittsburgh. So, I call up Tom and tell him to keep an eye out. He suggests checking the Giant Eagle in Robinson since it had a larger than average magazine section. Wouldn't you know it? There it was...the last copy of Beckett Hockey Card Monthly. Of course, now that I have the cards, the holders, and the pricing guide...I realize that I don't have any space to hold the cards. So, it's back to the internet for some of these. I should have just hit one of the kiosk's in the mall and paid the $50 or whatever they wanted toward the beginning of the season.

Odd, for some reason, my post from Thursday night didn't post. It was in the queue, marked as published, but not posted. Anyway, it's there now. Friday was my cousin Cindy's birthday so I'm now officially late on getting her gift in the mail too. Dammit, I think the US Postal service should just come to my house.
I've got to get better at posting on the weekends if I want to hit my target goal of posts for 2006. I certainly don't want it to come down to having to post each and every day from November 1st on just to come close.
I still haven't taken a count on how many of the 100 books I've read, but I'll make it there soon. I realized that I'm woefully underread within my own library and I was trying to figure out why. Then I came to the conclusion that I buy books that I want to read, but most of my current reading has been from borrowed books. At least I hope that's the case. I'd hate to find out that I'm just an illitereight poseur.

Tonight we had dinner at the Warners. Gage and Katie had a great time playing. Even though Gage has a lot of the same toys, he looks at everything as though it's brand new. Puzzles me. I'm glad they get along though.
On the way home I stopped by half price books. I got a couple of interesting books, but the one that I'm extremely happy about is "The History of Early Rome" by Titus Livy. It may not sound like a prestigious book, but it represents the 100th book from the Easton Press list "The 100 Greatest Books Ever Written" So, I now own all 100 of these books.
Don't get excited. I said own not read. I haven't taken an accurate count of the one's I've read yet. Perhaps I'll update you on that at another time.
I did read Songbook by Nick Hornby. He's the author of High Fidelity, About A Boy, etc. It was an interesting take on pop music from all walks of the genre. There were a few songs that I'm going to have to track down. I was a little disappointed in the editor of the book. When you put together a book of critiques, essays, short stories, or any short form writing you have to make sure that the writing tricks aren't showing. A writer will find a phrase that they like, or a certain comparison and they use it whenever the mood strikes them. And, although Hornby isn't a hack who uses the same trick over and over, he did use one comparison twice within the context of the book and I'm surprised that the editors didn't catch it. In two different essays he mentions the lyrics of the song covering a lot of ground and says "You'd be hard pressed to find that much material covered in most first novels by beginning authors." Just kind of threw me.
Back to dinner, which was very good, in case you were wondering. I got to peruse Randy's legos and drool over that which I cannot acquire just yet. Man, why do I have to be a responsible adult. If I was an alcoholic I wouldn't think twice about spending an entire paycheck on Stoli. Perhaps I can get diagnosed with legoitisism. It's a rare genetic disorder that predisposes the victim to have to purchase legos at least twice a week. I'm just sayin'.

You are Riff-Raff. You have some freaky astro-boy
hair later on in this movie!


Which Rocky Horror character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Monday at lunch I walked out in a polo shirt. Today at lunch I was hunched over in a winter coat and gloves. What's wrong with the weather? If it's going to succumb to global warming, dammit shouldn't it be warm?
Gage's daycare sent home a note that one of the children has mono. How do children 5 and under get mono? Although having a lethargic child who sleeps a lot might be a refreshing change. I'm just sayin'.

There's a gentlemen at our church who is blind. He has a seeing eye dog and is really a nice guy. His girlfriend is also blind. She lives out of town and only comes in every once in a while. She was in this Sunday and halfway through the service, one of the gentlemen in the choir led her to the front of the church where they had a music stand set up near a microphone. She proceeded to sing a solo while reading the music (in braille) off the music stand. I know how difficult it is to read music for a sighted person. I can't imagine being nervous in front of a bunch of people that you don't know very well, can't even see, and then singing what turned out to be an incredible solo. It was impressive.
This was a sad piece of news that I just came across. Tomarken was from Olean New York. For those of you that know myself and my wife, you'll recognize Olean as the small town where we had our wedding reception. It was a bizarre little coincedence that I just happened to be watching old reruns of Press Your Luck one day when Tomarken announced where he was from. I think people need to stop flying their own planes and pay the exorbitant prices of the airlines.

First chasing Martin Brodeur out of the net yesterday and then blanking the Flyers 2-0 this evening is oh, such a nice weekend treat after the crappy week at work. The wonderful refs tried to hand Philly the game by giving them a 7 minute power play with around 10 minutes left in the third period. The Penguins killed off all 7 minutes. Not bad considering they are 30th in the league on the penalty kill. Add in the fact that they held Philly to 1 shot in those 7 minutes and you can see why the entire crowd at the Mellon arena was on their feet giving the Boys of Winter a well deserved standing ovation. It's a shame that the "officials" in charge of the Penguins future can't see through their blinders to moments like that. Moments that unite 15,000+ people, moments that will no longer be possible in any fashion if the Penguins leave town. Even my mother, who has never attended a Steelers, Pirates, or Penguins game has been to an event at the Mellon Arena. Hell, my grandmother who probably could not have even told you the names of the three major sports teams had been to several events at the Mellon Arena. A multi-function building...for free...it kind of boggles the mind that there's even a discussion about this.
Oh well, the whole point of the post...Pittsburgh 2 (are you paying attention Matt?) Philly 0.

Today was a nice mellow day at home. In fact we barely left the house all day. Actually, I didn't leave the house all day. I got to sleep in a little, read a book that someone at work gave me, play around with Gage, watch the Pens beat up on the Devils and chase Brodeur out of the net, and watch the movie Rent. After the week I had, this was just what anyone ordered, doctor or not. Hopefully the Pens will have enough left in the tank for the Flyers tomorrow night when I'm actually in attendance at the game.

And the perfect capper for the week. Thank God it's Friday. I hope the weekend crawls by so slowly it feels like a year's worth of Saturdays and Sundays. In fact, I wouldn't mind having a nice Groundhog's Day moment on Saturday. I might actually get stuff done.
Hopefully everyone else will have a nice weekend as well.

Three for three in the realm of crappy days. At least tomorrow is Friday. It's funny, one of the guys that I work with developed a little countdown workday timer. It has 9 bars on it at the beginning the of the day. The top 3 are red, the middle 3 are yellow and the bottom 3 are green. It's how we keep track of the day now. "Alright, we're in the yellow." "Ok, we're in the green now." At 1:30, we hear a quote from Caddyshack to announce lunchtime and at 5:59 we hear Judy Garland repeat, "There's no place like home. There's no place like home. There's no place like home."
It kind of breaks up the day a little and gives everyone a little relief from the work day.