Happy Halloween

I'm going as lead character from, 'My Name is Earl.'

Celts/Heat

Catching up on the Celts/Heat game on DVR due to playing real bball downtown tonight.  I just started the 3rd quarter and it is very close, despite the Heat having more "Showtime" moments than the Celtics.  The game has really gotten a lot smaller in terms of the size of the folks out there.  I don't hate Ray Allen and I think he has played very well, so far.  We will see how the rest of this game goes.  I need a snack.

One last thing - tonight would have been the Bruins playing up in Buffalo against the Sabres, which would have been entertaining.  The 2 teams hate each other and they are a division rival.  Would have made for a good evening for Boston sports.

3 More Blogs

Sometimes I feel that readers of this blog are like Never Nudes. . . there are DOZENS of you.  But then I realize I am overshooting and a single dozen would be a good start.

A few of my friends have more successful blogs where they display their wit and talent.  Here are the links:

1)  My cousin Molly is an extremely talented wedding photographer.  I am so proud of her for launching her own successful small business.  Her photographs are gorgeous and fun to look through.  You can find them on the Molly Anne Photography Blog.

2) My friend Aerin was a neighbor, pal, and adopted family member when we were growing up.  She lived across the street and I spent a whole lot of time at her house and in her swimming pool over the years.  She recently moved from Maine to Connecticut and chronicles her adventures on her blog, Leaving Lobster.

3) I met my friend Lynne through Molly.  I'd heard for years how she was super funny and outrageous.  When I finally started spending time with her this summer, she exceeded all expectations.  You can sample her humor on her blog, Bold, Blunt, Blonde!

NHL Lockout

The lockout is really putting a damper on my Fall plans.  So far due to the lockout, I've missed 2 Bruins games that I had tickets to and would have enjoyed.  Today the NHL will most likely announce another round of cancellations, probably into the Thanksgiving time frame.  The Owners are selfish and I'm definitely on the side of The Players in this dispute. 

Update as of 4:30pm on 10/26/12:  The league has canceled all games through November 30th, 2012.  With today's cancellations, the league now has erased 326 regular games, or 26.2 percent, from the 1,230-game regular-season schedule. If play were to resume at the start of December, the existing schedule would have the Bruins begin the season Dec 1 at TD Garden at 7 p.m., against the Sabres.

Tasha Tudor

My grandmother gave me Tasha Tudor's A Time to Keep as a Christmas present when I was around 11 years old.  I had never heard of Tudor, but as soon as I opened the book I was absolutely captivated by her beautiful illustrations.  One of my favorite things about her work is the lovely and intricate borders that she often created, such as the one on the cover of A Time to Keep.  I also loved that her work depicted an earlier time in America.  Although she was born in 1915, Tudor chose to live her life as if she lived nearly a century earlier.  I went through a serious Little House on the Prairie obsession in my youth, so Tasha Tudor's illustrations of an 1800s lifestyle were appealing to me.  Several of her books focus on old-fashioned holiday traditions, which I found fascinating.  I also appreciated her interest in dolls and dogs (Corgis).  I absolutely treasured my childhood dolls and have them safely put away in my great-grandmother's hope chest.  And many years after I became a Tasha Tudor fan my family got their first dog, a Corgi mix.

Tasha Tudor circa 1991-- right when I was discovering her work.  I would have died to be the little girl in the photo with her, especially when I was in elementary school and wanted to be Laura Ingalls.

After receiving A Time to Keep, I decided that I wanted to collect books by Tasha Tudor.  This idea predated Amazon.com, or even the internet.  So whenever I saved up enough money, my mum would bring me to a local bookstore, the Children's Book Cellar, which was (obviously) located below street-level and was stacked floor to ceiling with books.  It was heavenly.  Since Tasha Tudor books were somewhat tough to find in stock, I ordered books based solely on the titles and then a few weeks later I would get the call to come pick up my newest addition(s) to the collection.  Since the books were brand spanking new, they smelled fantastic and the spines creaked when I opened them.  Clearly I did not have any clue about what excited the average junior high school student.  An old-timey children's book!  Score!

Since it is nearly Halloween, I have been thinking about the book Pumpkin Moonshine.  Below are covers from a few of my favorite Tasha Tudor books.  She passed away in 2008, but her work is timeless.  I am grateful to my Nana for sparking my interest in her books and to my mum for making the pilgrimages to Children's Book Cellar with me.

Every 4 years

There is a Presidential Election and The Dude walks into a plate rack corner thing sticking out of the wall.  Did it in 2008 before going on a trip to Canada and just did it tonight, with 9 days until my buddy's wedding and wedding pics.  Under my right eye there is now a swollen cut that will become a small bruise.  Awesome.

We're all going to die

Sandy is going to dominate us in a few days.  Need to stock up on groceries, batteries flashlights and candles this weekend.

3 More Under $30

CB2, an offshoot of Crate and Barrel, offers a Hanging Glass Terrarium for $6.95.  My mum gave me one last summer and put an air plant in it with some sand and shells.  The air plant is easy to keep alive, to my great relief, and I really like the look of the hanging glass terrarium.  The glass and shape are very delicate and they look lovely grouped together on the CB2 site.

The Dude bought me these Sea-Life Ceramic Tiles from Pottery Barn last Christmas.  They are no longer available, but Ballard Designs has Leaf Plaques on sale for $17.99 that are similar.  I like the clean and simple look of the plaques.

I realize that many readers have switched over to Kindles and Nooks, but for those who, like me, prefer to read actual books composed of paper and ink, this Song of Ice and Fire, Books 1-4 set is a good deal at $21.03.  I finished the third book this week and have not been disappointed in the quality of the series yet.  So far I have my grandmother and father reading them as well.  I hope to convince a few more family members to start these, so we can get the old Harry Potter/Twilight/Hunger Games book club going again.

3 Under $30

I intended to list some of my favorite things available for $20 or less, but one of the items I wanted to include has become more expensive due to its popularity.

I'll start with that big ticket item, Electronic Catch Phrase, which hovers around the $30 price range.  I am proud to say that my family got in on the ground floor of this phenomenon.  ("Phenomenon" may be overstating things-- maybe "trend" is more appropriate.)  My family is big on playing games and this one doesn't disappoint.  I added this to my Amazon.com wish list about five years ago when I saw a review for it.  My parents bought it for my birthday, which coincided with our family week at the lake, and we played it every night on vacation.  At that point in time the game was somewhat unknown, so I gifted it to various friends and family members.  As a result, there is now a good chance that wherever I am, there is a Catch Phrase device ready to be utilized.  My uncle also bought me the musical version of Catch Phrase, where you get double points for singing.  This is a convenient game because it requires no setup and the only instructions are not to give a rhyming clue or spelling clue to get your teammate(s) to guess the word or phrase.  It moves very quickly and involves the entire group so no one is left to get bored waiting for his or her turn.  Catch Phrase has been featured on "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" and Neil Patrick Harris is now starring in commercials for it.  Unfortunately the popularity of the game has resulted in the price doubling in the past five years. If only I had bought dozens and dozens when it was only $15.

Butch and Harold Sticker Picture Frames are selling for $19.95.  I bought these a few years ago for my office and I liked them so much that I then purchased sets for various cousins to zazz up their dorm rooms.  When I moved to a different department two years ago, I pealed these babies right off the wall and stuck them up in my new office.  Here is my approximate view.  (I've added a few more since taking this picture.)

The Vera Bradley Zip ID Case costs $12 and is available in an assortment of patterns.  My cousin got one of these last year and as soon as I saw hers I had to have my own.  It is cute, super convenient, and best of all, affordable. 

When It Rains It Pours

In the last few weeks, I have been caught in a financial hail storm in which the hail balls are actually turds.  I posted about my genius cat's chocolate ingestion and how that cost me a pretty penny.  This week my neighbors and I received an overdue tax bill for the first half of 2011 when our taxes were messed up because our units had not been individually assessed yet.  The bill gets chopped up into different chunks, but it looks like my piece is going to be in the neighborhood of Neville eating half a brownie.  The timing hurts, but the worst part is that this was our first notice and also carried a $700 fee for interest accrued.  The money is admittedly well over a year past due, but if we had been notified earlier, we would have paid earlier.  WHAT A CROCK!

The Last Five Movies I Watched

The Artist

The Artist won the Best Picture Oscar, so I thought I should check it out.  This silent movie holds the record for Netflix DVD I hung onto for the longest time without watching it-- three whole months.  I usually shoot for a weekly turn-around.  There was a feeling of taking my medicine when I finally sat down to watch this one.  The award season buzz played up that this was a fun and old-fashioned-- lots of clips of tap dancing and a cute dog.  I therefore did not imagine that (spoiler alert) Jean Dujardin would stick a loaded gun in his mouth before the credits rolled.  Surprise!  I ended up giving The Artist a 3 since that is my default score for movies I neither hate nor love.

The Avengers

I had high hopes for this movie for several reasons.  1) I really liked Iron Man.  Robert Downey, Jr. was fantastic in that movie.  The sequel was less enjoyable, so I should have probably drawn some unfavorable conclusions about this third flick.  2) I thought Thor was surprisingly good.  3) I'm not that big a fan of superhero movies (I have never enjoyed a single Batman, Spiderman, or Superman movie) but I do love the X-Men.  Like X-Men, this was another group superhero movie.  Unlike X-Men, The Avengers didn't do it for me.  Any movie that spends too much time on extended computer-generated action sequences tends to lose me.  I gave this one a 3.

Chimpanzee

I inherited my love of nature programs from my mother.  I could watch Planet Earth every day and still be enthralled.  So of course I enjoyed Chimpanzee.  I just didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped I would.  The problem was mainly that it was presented by Disney and marketed to children.  I love Buzz Lightyear, but I didn't find Tim Allen's narration a good fit for this.  At one point he did his cave man "Home Improvement" grunt and that irritated me beyond measure.  The little chimp, Oscar, is awfully cute though and the storyline that finds him (spoiler alert) orphaned and adopted by the alpha male of his group was compelling.  It is fascinating to watch these amazingly human-like animals.  I just really missed David Attenborough.  3 out of 5, but a high 3.

The Five-Year Engagement

The theme continues with this movie-- I thought I would totally love it and I was disappointed.  I really like both Jason Segal and Emily Blunt and it featured great actors in supporting roles-- Parks and Rec's Chris Pratt, Community's Alison Brie, The Office's Mindy Kaling.  Okay, basically they populated the movie with NBC's Must See TV actors.  The Five-Year Engagement started off strong and really floundered in the middle.  When Jason Segal's depression turned him into a nutty survivalist/hunter/mountain man, the movie lost me big time.  It pulled things back together by the end, but I wish it had maintained the tone it set at the start the whole way through.  I was hoping for a better romantic comedy than I got.  Another 3.

Snow White and the Huntsman

It isn't a revelation to say that Charlize Theron is beautiful, but I don't think I have ever seen her look as stunning as she did throughout this movie.  It was a bit of a stretch to buy that anyone was competition for her in the looks department, let alone cardboard Kristen Stewart.  I figured that Stewart might drag this movie down, but she didn't have much dialog and I liked the movie a lot more than I thought I would.  I wonder if part of the reason I liked it is that I've been reading George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series for months and I'm kind of in the fantasy genre zone.  Anyhow, it was a visually pleasing film.  Unlike the special effects in The Avengers that took me out of the movie and caused me to lose interest, the special effects in this movie were well done and pulled me further into the story.  Finally, a 4!

Today's Pet Peeve

Beefed Up Mac & Cheese
Delicious macaroni and cheese is one of the few non-salad vegetarian meals I look for on restaurant menus.  It is so disappointing when a restaurant has incorporated meat (usually chicken or bacon) into this dish.  Did I say disappointing?  I meant devastating.

Increased appreciation of a show

Been watching a decent amount of episodes of a TV show that spanned a decade and defined a generation, 'Friends'.  The show started in September of 1994 when I was 12 years old and finished in May of 2004 when I was 22 years old.  I've seen every episode at least once and over the last 6 months or so I've been watching episodes at random on TBS during odd evening hours or afternoon weekend time slots.  I don't think I fully appreciated the humor and acting of the show and cast as much as I could have due to my age during the first few seasons.  There weren't many shows that let me down and didn't have at least a few laughs, despite some of the story lines being played out and the show going on for 10 seasons.  My original favorite character was Chandler, but after revisiting the show it is hands-down Ross.  Chandler was the obvious choice for the younger and immature me, but no question that Ross is the best actor on the show and the funniest character.

PIVOT!

I lost over 1/2 my blog and some of the videos on here mid-blogging, so I think I lost some steam.  I'll soldier through the rest as best as possible.

Leather pants

Trivia Episode

Confirmed

This AV Club post confirms that Ben Schwartz is joining the new season of "Arrested Development."  So that is delightful.

I spent a chunk of my day yesterday listening to a couple of Louis Prima songs over and over again.  I started out with "Pennies from Heaven" and moved on to "I Wanna Be Like You" from The Jungle Book.  Then I took a small detour into non-Prima Jungle Book songs, particularly focusing on "Colonel Haith's March" because I love the elephant scenes.  The music from The Jungle Book is outstanding, which is no surprise since it was written by the Sherman brothers, who also wrote the music for Mary Poppins.  Mary Poppins is one of my very favorite movies.  It really deserves its own post.

Anyhow, here's a happy tune that captures my exuberance at the Schwartz/AD news:

Peter Venkman Is Ballin'

This article about Bill Murray crashing an adult kickball game put a smile on my face.  Murray has a history of showing up in weird places, such as the time he was arrested in Sweden for driving a golf cart under the influence.  I never think drinking and driving is okay or funny, but Murray was pulled over for driving too slow and again, he was operating a golf cart.  The stories of his random pop-ups read like Mad Libs.  I wouldn't be shocked to hear that he spent a day collecting garbage in Boise.  Anyhow, I really enjoy Bill Murray, especially in his collaborations with Harold Ramis and Wes Anderson.  He has produced some quality work:

A Star Is Born

I have been a Maid of Honor in two weddings.  The first was a college friend's wedding back in 2003.  I was a co-MoH in that wedding and on the walk up the stairs to the alter I tripped on my dress and nearly wiped out.  I was wearing flats.  In my cousin's wedding this past summer, I miraculously managed to walk down the aisle in heals without stumbling.  So I had to go in another direction to get attention.  My uncle proclaimed me the "Queen of Sweat" this past weekend when discussing the wedding, so below is an eyeful of what earned me the title.  That is me on the left (obvi), the lovely bride in the middle, and The Dude performing on the right.  Will there ever be a formal event in which I do not make a spectacle of myself?  Don't count on it.

New Car

Since I was 16 years old I've wanted a BMW.  I never saw one in Central Maine, but when I took family trips to MASS to visit Trish's family they were all over the place.  My parents scooped one a few years back and it was amazing when they let me drive it.  Over the last 3 years I haven't gone more than 2 days without looking at cars online.  The dream started at 16 and now 14 years later I'm the owner of a Pre-Owned Certified 2010 328i xDrive BMW.  I can now die a happy man.  This car is absolutely beautiful. 

Best part is I talked (read as harassed)  my salesman into giving me a BMW tshirt and BMW hat, which they generally only give to people buying brand new BMWs.  BOOM!

Please sir, I want some more. . . brownies

The little doink below, my cat Neville, ate a $1000 brownie last night.  I usually keep all food sealed up in the cabinets, fridge, oven, or microwave because my cats are very interested in human food.  Neville takes the interest to a new level-- a level better described as Gremlin-like aggression.  Last night I got distracted by the super amazing Halloween decorations that had arrived that day and started looking through them with my mum, who is visiting.  When I popped back into the kitchen I discovered that after offering my mother a brownie, I had forgotten to put them back in the microwave for safekeeping.  Neville the Devil was scarfing one down on the kitchen floor.  The vet emergency line confirmed that I would have to bring him in as chocolate is toxic to cats.  At the time I was cursing Nev because just walking into the animal ER costs $150.  I soon discovered that my concerns for finances and Neville's health were comically unrealistic.  When the veterinarian asked about my wishes for Neville's DNR, I totally lost it.  Big time.  Then I saw the bill, which was just shocking.  As I walked out of the animal hospital, crying like a lunatic, The Dude asked if I was upset because I was worried about Neville or worried about money.  The answer was Neville, but the cost of keeping him in the hospital for the night was a punch to the gut as well.  Assuming he survives this ordeal, Neville will forever be the piggy whose snacking cost me a grand.

Texas Forever

Oh MAN.  Romney is using the "Friday Night Lights" catchphrase "Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose" on the campaign trail.  That bums me out.  I have a magnet with that saying stuck to a file cabinet above my desk at work.  Am I unknowingly endorsing Romney?  My intention was to endorse Coach Taylor.

Chocolate and Peanut Butter

I was crazy excited when I saw Ben "Jean-Ralphio" Schwartz plus Will "Gob Bluth" Arnett in the photo below.  But after obsessively rereading the caption I can't tell if Schwartz is actually going to be part of the new "Arrested Development" episodes or if he was just visiting Arnett on set.  I'm really hoping for the former.  What an outstanding combination.

Book Report

This post combines three of my great loves: books, lists, and nostalgia.  Last week I ordered a number of children's books to be donated to Maine schools in memory of my aunt, who would have turned 60 this month.  Ruth was an elementary school teacher and the book drive is a lovely way to honor her.  My parents, grandparents, and The Dude all let me order for them because this small project was right up my alley.  Thinking about my favorite children's books reminded me of one of the great thrills of elementary school-- ordering from the Scholastic book club.  My parents were pretty awesome about letting me pick books.  I should thanks them for that.  I usually chose a Babysitters Club book, as I was obsessed with that series for several years.  In junior high I moved on to R. L. Stine and Christopher Pike books.

As much as I treasured my monthly selections from Scholastic, none of my very favorite books were purchased through their catalogs.  In the approximate order that I read them, here are my all time favorites.

Anne of Green Gables series, Lucy Maud Montgomery
I read these books when I was little and then cranked through the series again during a high school summer vacation.  Anne Shirley is such a great heroine for little girls.  She is smart, honest, creative, and a good friend.  I prefer the early books in the series because Anne's fabulous personality seems to fade as the series progresses and she ages.  By the final book, some of her children are old enough to fight in World War I.  The two Anne movies that used to play on PBS when I was little were a delight and reinforced my desire to someday visit Prince Edward Island.

Charlotte's Web, E. B. White
This is such a sweet book about friendship.  The first time I read it and got to the part where (spoiler alert) Charlotte died, I was devastated.  Just destroyed.  (Side note: my overwrought reactions to the death of beloved book characters will be a reoccurring theme in this post.  Did I mention how heartsick I was when Anne Shirley's adoptive father Matthew died?  Oh boy.)  In a hypothetical world where I had kids and had to explain to them why they were vegetarians, I'd reference Wilbur in a second.

Bridge to Terabithia, Katherine Paterson
Speaking of crying.  Holy smokes.  The end of this book hit me really hard.  I felt so very depressed for poor Jess who had lost his best friend.  

The Outsiders, S. E. Hinton
Whenever I read and enjoyed a book that wasn't super girly, I made The Dude read it right after me so we could discuss.  The Outsiders was one of those books.  I thought it was amazing.  Hinton was a teenager when she wrote this book and although there are some ridiculous elements (brothers named Sodapop and Ponyboy?!) it totally spoke to me when I was in junior high school.  Lots of drama with the Curtis brothers struggling to remain together after the death of their parents, the greaser versus Soc battles that resulted in multiple deaths, and some killer Robert Frost poetry.  "Stay gold, Ponyboy."

The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCullough
This was a book that I started reading after my mum and I rented the mini-series from the library.  My mum had read the book and seen the mini-series years before and then she shared the experience with me when I was probably in junior high. Meggie, a young gal who lives in the Australian Outback, falls in love with her priest.  Very taboo, and thus totally thrilling to me.

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
We read this in my sophomore English class and I loved it.  I've read it a couple times since then and I always enjoy Scout's narration and the colorful characters in Maycomb.  I would like to have a fraction of Atticus Finch's goodness.

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
I love Jane Austen and this is my favorite of her books.

The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery
I have a Le Petit Prince poster framed in my living room.  So yeah, I really do like this book.  I first read it in my high school French class.  Since then I've stuck to the English translation, but it is still lovely.

The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger
After I graduated from college, I convinced my dad to read a number of my favorite books.  This was one of them and I have to admit that I don't blame him for not enjoying it.  As a teenager, I appreciated Holden Caulfield's disdain for everything.  People are phonies, am I right?  But yeah, reading it as an adult, he is more of a whiny d-bag than a sensitive outsider.

A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving
This book started me on a serious John Irving kick in college.  None of his other novels reached the heights of Owen Meany for me though.  I've read it several times and it still makes me laugh out loud and cry.  Owen is such an original character.  The narrator John is a bit of a blank, and when I reread the book, I skip over the parts where he talks about his present-day life.  I'm looking for the all-caps dialog from the hilarious, brilliant, and tragic Owen.  Love him.

Harry Potter series, J. K. Rowling
The best part about the Harry Potter series was reading it at the same time as various friends and family members.  My family vacations managed to coincide with the release of the final few books so that several of us in the house were racing through the books at the same time.  The series is very comforting to me.  And the Weasley family, like all gingers (Anne Shirley included), is super awesome.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
This is a short and sweet book.  It consists of a series of letters written between friends in post-World War II England.  I picked it up several years ago to read on vacation and had no idea that I would like it so much.

Apple me, bro

Scooped the iPhone 4S today and jumped into the land of Apple products.  Many folks are probably wondering why I didn't buy the iPhone 5.  The 5 is obviously more expensive, could have potential defects not found yet, but most importantly, the iPhone 5 has a new charger.  I have a ton of Apple chargers as well as a nice Apple dock for my Sound System, so I later the new 9 pin versus 30 pin.  The 8 megapixel camera is pretty amazing.  Huge step up from my Blackberry's 3.2 MP camera.  Siri is very cool - was able to text Herself today without even typing anything in.  Love it. 

Here is a comparison between the 5 and 4S.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/apple-iphone-5-vs-iphone-4s-spec-showdown/

Yell Orange! Orange! Yell Black! Black!

A few years ago while shopping at Target, I found the exact tissue paper ghosts that my family had while I was growing up.  The ghosts have been jazzing up the month of October in both my home and my office since then.

This past weekend I decided that I would continue my search for retro Halloween decorations.  I ordered a few fabulous items that I can't wait to put up.

1) Jointed Skeleton
This large skeleton was always hung on the door of the small kitchen closet that contained our ironing board.  The skeleton usually guarded the ironing board in strangely compromising positions thanks to The Dude's and my juvenile humor.  When our mother insisted we clean things up, the skeleton would strike a Michael Jackson pose.

2) Tissue Paper Pumpkins
I'm not certain that we actually had these growing up, but you can't go wrong with pumpkins-- they carry you all the way through to Thanksgiving.

3) Tissue Paper Spider
I might have gotten into the tissue paper zone while ordering.  Back in the day, we set up a giant fake spider web with artificial spiders in the divider between our kitchen and living room.  It was pretty awesome.  I don't have the perfect place at my house for a web, plus I am certain my cats would demolish it.  So I'll hang Charlotte up high enough that they can't reach her.  Now that I referred to the spider as Charlotte, I really want to create a web that says "Some Pig" next to the spider.  Maybe next year.

4) Assorted Paper Decorations
I bought this pack specifically because we had the same jointed black cat and the same scarecrow leaning on a tissue paper haystack.  Plus it provides a smaller skeleton for my office.  I am pretty sure the lame "Happy Halloween" sign will get tossed, but the rest will be utilized.

Additional Halloween Decor (Non-Paper):

Adorable Bronze Mouse from my uncle

Spider Tealight Holder from my mum

Announcement

I can't wait for the new season of "Arrested Development" to hit Netflix.

That is all.

Holy CRAP

Poop Shame

This article is unreal and needed to be shared.  Talk about shaming being used as a preventative tactic.  Yikes.

No parent truly enjoys cleaning up a child’s poop, especially when it lands outside of the safety of the toilet or a diaper.  One dad took his disgust with the dirty work of parenting to the Internet. He had his smiling, pajama-clad daughter, who looks to be about 3, pose for a photo with a sign around her neck that read: “I pooped in the shower and daddy had to clean it up. I hereby sign this as permission to use in my yearbook senior year.”

Donde esta, El Dude?

Been MIA since Sept 10th, according to the blog.  I've been working most weeks in CT, but was out on the west coast for a bit, then Las Vegas, then had a bachelor party weekend on a lake in Maine, so its been a rough month.  Luckily Herself has kept this blog going and actually thrown down a few solid blogs, including the Xmas movies blog.

Not much new to report here and no content is coming to me at this time due to dominating the Comments section on Herself's blogs.  Tomorrow is a notable evening as I am starting a part-time gig as a Karaoke Host at one of my favorite bars in Boston, Hong Kong.  I have been going to that bar for years due to them having karaoke every night, no cover charge and $1 Coors Light beers.  I got offered the gig there back in September and tomorrow is my first night.  I have a solid following coming to watch me and sing under my guidance.  Family members, including some from Maine, friends from high school and friends from college and of course, Herself.  Lots of pressure for me to be on my 'A Game', but I have full faith that I will pull it off.  Here is a quick taste of some of the songs that I will be dominating tomorrow night:

'No Diggity' by Blackstreet.
I started dominating this song about 2 years ago.  The karaoke version does not have the Dr. Dre rap at the beginning or Little Kim rap in the middle, thankfully.

'2 Princes' by Spin Doctors
Solid older song and I believe UBri or UDave gave me the CD when I was younger.

'Haven't Met You Yet' by Michael Buble
Big fan of the Buble and this song adds to the eclectic mix of songs I can dominate.

Why Am I A Vegetarian?

This is not a post that is going to outline moral and health arguments in favor of not eating meat.  I am legitimately wondering why I'm a vegetarian after a work lunch went very wrong this afternoon.  Lunch was at Legal Seafood, so obviously the menu primarily featured seafood.  As the only idiot vegetarian on the planet who doesn't like salad, I locked on to an item called "The Vegetarian Box," which is described as "sesame soy stir-fried vegetables, Thai red coconut curry sauce, cashews, tofu and brown rice."  I wasn't sure how I would feel about the sauce and I assumed that at least some of the veggies wouldn't be my favorites and I'd pick around them.  Oh God.  A giant mound of stink was placed in front of me and I had to choke down as many bites as possible and slide food around the plate to make myself look busy.  I primarily pulled carrot strips and rice grains out and focused on closing my nostrils to the aroma of the dish.  Here is a photo I found online of the meal.  That picture would look appetizing if I hadn't just experienced it up close and personal.  I feel nauseated.

I should mention that the children's menu featured three items I would have been delighted to eat, but the a-holes at Legal have closed the menu to adults.  So instead of enjoying a grilled cheese (I have never NOT enjoyed a grilled cheese), I had to dig into a foul pile of nastiness.  Okay, I realize that The Vegetarian Box is probably delicious to many people, but the sauce is just brutal and the mixture was half onions (which, surprise, I don't like.)

I'm off to eat some yogurt and hopefully eradicate the weird taste from my mouth. 

Ms. Jackson If You're Nasty

One of my pet peeves is people I don't know calling me by a nickname.  I don't know why it rubs me the wrong way, but it does.  For most of my childhood I refused to answer to the shortened version of my name because I was convinced it was a boys' name.  Mostly because of the following characters:

In elementary school when I received my final report card on the last day of school each year, my teacher's name for the next year was written at the bottom of the sheet of paper.  Every year on the final day, my mum picked me up and walked me to meet my future teacher.  One of the primary reasons for this introduction was so I could tell the teacher, in no uncertain terms, that I only answered to my full name and my presumed nickname was off the table.  I was strangely militant about this issue for such a quiet and well-behaved kid.  Looking back, I'm sure that each of my elementary school teachers spent the summer before I joined them in class rolling their eyes when they thought of me.  Luckily I won them all over.  Well, except for my second grade teacher.  I will still never understand how she didn't like me.  I mean, I cried my eyes out when kindergarten and first grade ended because I loved Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Bickford so much and didn't want to move on.  Second grade was a real slap in the face.  Luckily Mrs. Glidden was amazing in third grade.  When I had my tonsils and adenoids out, she sent me a glass bowl that contained a rose floating in water.  It was the classiest thing I had ever seen.

Okay, that diversion is over.  The point is this-- when I meet people or hear from people and they go straight to the nickname, which I am totally fine with these days, it weirds me out.  I have never in my life introduced myself as anything other than my full name and all of my work correspondence includes my full name.  Yet people feel free to shorten it.  And so this morning, when I opened an email from a stranger that greeted me with a shortened version of my name, my immediate reaction was, "YOU DON'T KNOW ME!"  I realized right away that my indignation was not appropriate for the situation.  And then I blogged about it.