I'm Alan, eh?

Airport Security Screen nightmare

2009-05-24T10:10:00.004-04:00

I always worry about this every time I fly. (Click on the strip to embiggen or you can go here to see this comic and many others.)

I love Betty White!

2009-05-19T20:10:00.003-04:00

I've said this before, but I love Betty White. This is yet another reason why.

Sandra Bullock & Ryan Reynolds: Behind the Scenes of The Proposal from Betty White

P.S. I will be back with more blog posts... soon, I hope. Lots going on these days. Some of it it is even good! :)

Happy Star Wars Day!

2009-05-04T20:59:00.004-04:00

It's no secret that I love all made-up complete-geeky holidays. Well today is Star Wars Day, so Happy Star Wars Day.

Yes, Happy Star Wars Day! Why, you may ask, is today Star Wars Day?

May the 4th be with you.

And much groaning was heard - and not just from a galaxy far, far away.

Hello, spring!

2009-04-26T18:03:00.006-04:00

Sure signs of spring:

The birds are singing.

The leaves are starting to come out and the flowers are blooming.

And last but not least, the allergies are going frakkin' crazy. But it's oh, so worth it! Just bring on the Claritin!

Backyard Bobcat

2009-04-25T10:32:00.003-04:00

Yesterday, there was an accident on I84 just as I was getting ready to leave for work so I decided to work from home for a bit to let the accident clear. I was sitting at the kitchen counter when I happened to notice what I thought was a house cat come into the yard like it was stalking something. My first thought was that it was going after a bird and I was ready to run outside and scare it away. When I got a better look, I realized that it was actually a very small bobcat. I was still a little worried that it was going for a bird but when I saw that it was staring down a squirrel, I decided to let the little nature drama play out. I keep the camera right by the window so I grabbed it and snapped a couple of pics.

Sadly, the squirrel got away - it took off and the bobcat didn't bother following it. It walked away hungry and the squirrel is still stealing the bird seed.

March Madness? Yawn...

2009-03-22T11:03:00.004-04:00

While I don't storm off into another room cursing in symbols, I do not enjoy March's TV selections.

Schick Quattro TrimStyle for Women

2009-03-19T20:08:00.002-04:00

Hilarious! And this was on during prime time!

Happy Pi Day!!

2009-03-14T22:22:00.005-04:00

Today, being March 14th, or 3.14, is Pi Day. So, Happy Pi Day! Yes, another geeky non-holiday holiday! Two in one month! I'm definitely getting my geek on this month!

We celebrated by meeting Amanda, her hubby and that adorable kid, Jane. I don't know what to say about Jane. I keep hearing these horror stories about her meltdowns but I find her very charming. She's a good kid. Pictures tomorrow, unless Amanda beats me to it.

So, what did I have to eat for my Pi Day celebration? My first choice on Pi Day would be pie. But for lunch I had pizza pie! California Pizza Kitchen's Chipotle Chicken pizza to be exact. Delicious!

I refrained from fully geeking out in my celebrations and I did not use pi to calculate the area or the circumference of my pizza. I knew I should have brought my slide rule.

It was a happy coincidence that we were to meet at CPK for lunch so that I could have pizza pie. Really, it was a total coincidence - I wasn't even involved in the restaurant choice. I don't always seek out the geeky side but who am I to argue if the opportunity presents itself? I'm not a geek, the circumstances of my life just make me that way.

20-foot pi

While a 20-foot pie might be a little more fun and interesting, there's a 20 foot sculpture of pi at a technical high school near where I work.

Yes, it's true. It's a permanent 20-foot sculpture of pi that's made of metal and is lit from the inside. It should come as no surprise that I love it!

Yeah, I'm a geek.

By the way, I did eventually get to have some real pie to celebrate pi day. I know people say "pizza pie" and I did above but I don't normally consider pizza to be "a pie". As far as I'm concerned, if it's not sweet, it's not pie. Anyway, I did not take a picture to share but it was similar to this pie from last year's celebrations.

Hope your Pi Day was as awesome as mine!

LifeCast

2009-03-08T10:27:00.001-04:00

I'm posting a test entry from a new iPod touch app I got called LifeCast. So far it's been a frickin pain in the arse but I hope I have it sorted out now. We'll see.

We're in Northampton for the weekend and having a very fun, relaxing time. Pictures and details to follow.

Posted with LifeCast

Worst Scrabble Game ever!

2009-03-06T20:48:00.006-05:00

I play Scrabble on Facebook with a few FB friends. It's fun - I can make plays once or twice a day (or more, or even less) and I don't have to worry about sitting down and playing for a whole evening.

I actually had to foreit a game this week. Now, let me make it clear that I have never thrown the towel in on any game EVER because basically I'm too stubborn to give in. Some might even go so far as to call if ornery, or maybe even spiteful. Spiteful? Yeah, that's probably it.

Anyway, to prove to you how desperate the situation was I present Exhibit A, a screen shot of the game:

If memory serves me correctly I had the following letters, which I guess would be Exhibit B: J A A I I T N. What the frick was I supposed to do with those letters? I had even swapped tiles twice and got no help. Not so surprising considering there were only a few tiles left for swapping. I was about 30 points behind and I knew I was beat. I waved the white flag.

I'm posting this not as a "Woe is me - I had a crappy Scrabble game this week." I'm posting this as a warning to all Scrabble players out there.

As we were playing, I though it was kind of cute and funny to have that little three-letter-word shuffle down towards the lower left corner of the board. It was funny to see what other three letter words just happened to come up. It was a cute pattern and it sucked us in. It was fun at the time, but look at the mess it got us into.

It's like the dork's version of drugs. You are warned! Cue "The More You Know" music.

Slumdog Millionaire

2009-03-05T23:43:00.004-05:00

Go see this movie! Or add it to your NetFlix, or whatever it is you tech savvy kids use these days.

We finally got out to see it tonight with our friend Sarah and we all loved it. Now I'll admit that this is only the second Best Picture nominee I saw this year (we also saw Milk), but I can understand why this won the Oscar. See it!

There was one goof I noticed early on in the movie though. In one scene, there's clearly a boom mike hanging down in the upper right hand corner of the screen. It only appeared for a couple of seconds but with all the editing and effects movie people can do, nobody noticed that or was able to just blur it out in post-production?

Anyway, the movie was still excellent. Even though I'm not a big believer in the themes of fate and destiny that run through the movie, I enjoyed it.

So see it! And watch for that pesky mike.

Big Ass-teroid

2009-03-04T20:32:00.004-05:00

Do you know how close we came on Monday to this?

Well, maybe not exactly this, but an asteroid that is esitmated to be between 69 and 154 feet across came within 49 000 miles of Earth yesterday. Now I know that sounds pretty small for an asteroid but a similar sized asteroid hit Siberia in 1908 and it decimated 800 square miles of forest. Imagine what it would have done if it hit a populated area.

I also realize that 49 000 miles away doesn't sound so bad but on a cosmic scale that's frickin close. Most stories I've read have tried to describe it by saying it's about one fifth of the way to the moon, or that it's twice as high as some communication sattelites. I think those analogies are still too much for most people (including myself) to wrap their heads around.

So let's try to make it a little more relatable in more every day terms and distances. That 49 000 miles is about 6 times the diameter of the Earth. Say the average person is 5.5 feet, so 6 times that "diameter" is 33 feet. How would you feel if a bullet flew past you just 33 feet away? Pretty close, eh?

(Disclaimer: This analogy is probably still not that accurate, but it makes more sense than saying the asteroid came within one fifth of the distance to the moon.)

The next close call that scientists know about is in 2029 what an almost 900 foot wide object will pass within 20 000 miles of Earth. Please note that I said "the next close call that scientists know about". There are far more objects flying around out there than scientists can possibly know about. The likelihood is that if an asteroid hits us we won't have much time to do anything about it before it slams into us, does untold and irreparable damage to a sizable chunk of the planet and probably changes the very foundation of life as we know it.

Sleep tight!

(Amanda sent me this story this afternoon. I think secretly she wanted to blog about it but she didn't want to geek up her blog with sciencey stuff. So, I dedicate this to her.)

Happy Square Root Day

2009-03-03T18:35:00.002-05:00

It’s no secret that I enjoy all things science and geeky. I have no shame about it. I let the geek flag fly! Geek is the new cool.

The big geek news today is that it’s a Square Root Day! Today’s date, March 3, 2009, can also be written as 3/3/09, and it’s a Square Root Day because the square root of 9 is 3 (i.e., √9 = 3 or 3² = 3 × 3 = 9). Pretty frickin’ sweet, right? That’s right!

Enjoy this date while you can because unlike my other favourite geeky non-holiday holidays like Pi Day (March 14th or 3.14) and Mole Day (October 23rd or 1023) this is not an annual event. In fact, Square Root Day occurs only 9 times a century and the next one will not happen until April 4, 2016 (4/4/16) – another seven years.

So, what should one do to celebrate, you may be asking? You’re… probably… not asking how to celebrate, are you? You’re probably not nearly as excited about this as I am, are you? In fact, most people will probably have stopped reading this entry by now.

No matter.

I’ll tell you what I’m doing. I plan to prepare some root vegetables for dinner but I’ll be cutting them all in squares. Root vegetables in squares. They’ll be square roots.

Wocka wocka wocka! I kill me!

Have a Happy Square Root Day!

************UPDATE**************

Tonight we're gonna party...

...like it's 03/03/09!

Here are my square roots.

Parsnips, carrots and beets - yum!!

You thought I was joking in my previous post, didn't you? You didn't think I was really going to have square roots for dinner on Square Root Day, did you? Clearly you have underestimated the lengths to which I will go to demonstrate my science geekiness.

Let's get this party started!

Happy Monday, Vol. 6

2009-03-02T20:35:00.002-05:00

Happy Monday! This feature has been admittedly absent for a while – not for lack of happiness, just lack of time. Plus I’ve been fighting a cold for a while now and after getting home from work, there hasn’t been much motivation to blog.

We had a pretty awesome weekend. I left work a bit early on Friday to meet Todd in NYC for dinner and to see a show with friends. The dinner was excellent, the show was very good and we all went out for dessert, drinks and some excellent conversation afterwards. It was a really fun night out. It made me think that it would be so cool to live in Manhattan (or some city) and just do that kind of a night out as a matter of course. But then I thought about how expensive rents are in NYC for tiny apartments and the fact that there are not many chemistry labs to work at in Manhattan and I quickly came back to reality.

Todd’s birthday was Saturday. (Happy Birthday, sweetie!) We had a very nice evening out for dinner Saturday night with his birthday buddy and her boyfriend. They are birthday buddies because they share a birthday. Although their birthdates are actually several years apart, it is the same day. Dinner was at bespoke in New Haven.

I ordered a meal for the sole reason that it had “fufu” in it. I had absolutely no frickin idea what fufu was and I didn’t ask. I just wanted to try a dish that contained fufu. How could you not want to try fufu? The meal turned out to be delicious – it was a plantain crusted mahi-mahi which was awesome. The fufu was actually the most disappointing part of the dish – it’s basically a nondescript starch that might be made from many things. You can find some info here. So the name “fufu” turns out to be the most interesting and unique thing about it. Live and learn. Fufu.

So I wasn’t so happy to wake up to 8 inches of snow this morning but I was pretty darn happy that I am able to do some work from home. I’m also fortunate that I have a job that’s flexible enough that I don’t absolutely HAVE to be there in the event of inclement weather. I did finally make it to work but it was nice to actually get some computer stuff done in the morning without interruption.

I’m also very happy that Reaper is back tomorrow night! That show frickin rocks!!

We’ve also got a great night out planned for this week. We’re finally going to see Slumdog Millionaire Thursday night. Can’t wait!

Have a Happy Week! Fufu!

Hubble's Next Discovery - YOU Decide!

2009-02-27T06:43:00.006-05:00

How would you like to participate in astronomy? Surely, you’ve heard of the Hubble telescope. It’s the space telescope that has brought us amazing images of objects in our solar system and in deep space. Amazing pictures like these:

And as hard as it is to pick just one, here is one of my all time favourite Hubble pictures:

If you'd like to pick your own favourite, you can peruse Hubble pictures to your heart’s content here.

This is the International Year of Astronomy - pretty awesome, huh? Who knew there was an International Year of Astronomy? Well, now you do. Sometime soon I'll also be telling you about an upcoming International Year of Chemistry! Yes, that's right - International Year of Chemistry! Doesn't get any better than that - except that we have to wait until 2011 to celebrate. Anyway, this year we've got Astronomy.

To celebrate the International Year of Astronomy, NASA is running an online poll called “Hubble’s Next Discovery – You Decide”. They are giving the public a chance to vote on what you want Hubble to look at next. You can help vote on what the next amazing image that Hubble releases to the public will be. And if just participating wasn’t cool enough, voters will be entered into a random drawing and 100 people will receive a copy of the image that Hubble collects. Now wouldn’t that be a lovely addition to any décor?

So get on the web site and vote. (Sorry for the late notice but you have to vote by Sunday.)

The Golden Dauber

2009-02-25T22:21:00.000-05:00

A few times a year we go to a fundraising BINGO for the CT Gay Men's Chorus. It's a fun night to hang out with friends. What always gets me about the evening is that it's such an interesting mix of people in attendance. It's not just gay men and their friends - there's a lot of the people who you would expect to see at any church basement BINGO game. It's a riot to attend and interesting to see the crowd.

There's always a theme to the evening and some people dress up in costume (this past weekend was Pajama Party BINGO so some people wore pajamas). A hilarious "Joan Crawford" calls the numbers with her "kids" and she entertains with some colourful jokes. In addition to the actual BINGO game prizes, there are winners throughout the evening for the door prize raffle. Some of the prizes are great - restaurant and spa gift certificates, theatre tickets, merchandise - all donated by local businesses. They also do some fun, silly prizes through the evening, like the prize of a "nice, hard cock" and then they bring out a small statue of a rooster.

The most coveted prize is the Golden Dauber which I was fortunate enough to have won back in November.

I had not mentioned this before - didn't want to brag, or anything - but I bring it up now because the most recent winner from this past Saturday does deserve mention. Here she is with her prize. Her name is Betty.

When she stood up to accept her prize, the place erupted in laughter to see cute little Betty tottering up to accept her prize. People started applauding and she actually got a standing ovation. It was hilarious!

Happy Pancake Day!

2009-02-24T20:31:00.006-05:00

You may know this as Mardi Gras, or Shrove Tuesday, or the start of Lent, but when I was growing up it was Pancake Day in our house. It's a tradition we followed in Nova Scotia that apparently came from the UK and stems from trying to use up the eggs and fat in a household before the start of Lent. We never really observed Lent, but we kept up with the tradition of Pancake Day by having pancakes for dinner. Perhaps it was because I had three brothers and sisters and some flour, eggs, milk and a little fat goes a long way to feed a big family. We didn't just have pancakes - actually, now that I think about it, sometimes I think it was just pancakes. Hey, it was a big family.

I do love pancakes so I try to continue the tradition. Tonight I whipped some up and made a couple of special pancakes. Here's a T for Todd:

I know - it's a little rough, but the thought is there.

One thing we loved as kids - and was a pretty easy thing for Mom to do to humour us - was the Mickey Mouse pancake:

See it? It's a Mickey Mouse pancake! Or a bear pancake, or a googly-eyed frog pancake or three pancakes that just ran together. Again, the thought is there.

I actually don't recall if Mom did this or not but one other tradition people used to do was put coins in the pancakes for kids to find. Looking back on that now it just makes me think, "Mothers put small choke-sized objects into food items?!" If someone did that now, Child Protection Services would take the kids out of the home. Seriously though, back then if we thought money was in those pancakes the tiniest speck of non-pancake would not escape our attention.

But still...

This is why we're doomed...

2009-02-19T06:14:00.004-05:00

I watched the movie Idiocracy last night. It was pretty forgettable, but the intro was pretty funny. Pretty funny because it's true.

glumbert - Intro to Idiocracy

Happy President's Day!

2009-02-16T19:55:00.013-05:00

I have to say that it's awfully nice to have a President's Day on which we aren't embarrassed by the man in the office. Yeah, yeah, I know it's too early to say that Obama is the best thing since sliced bread, but he'll have to screw up pretty bad to be worse than George W. Anyway, I have a couple of Presidential tributes to share.

Presidential Tribute I

On my usual commute, I pass through Newtown on I84. Between the overpasses of Currituck Rd. and Parmalee Hill Rd. you can see the following:

(I hope you can tell that it's Obama in Christmas lights and in the O you can see a peace sign. I would have loved a better picture but it was tough - I had to use a lot of zoom from across the highway.)

I should say that you have been able to see this display because while the lights had been up for a couple of months, I haven't seen them since the start of this month. I hope the lights aren't down for good because I loved seeing them every evening. They are probably about ten feet tall and in someone's back yard facing the highway so they were clearly for the benefit of drivers on the highway. I certainly appreciated them. Maybe they were up just for the election and Christmas. I'm definitely all for taking your Christmas lights down within a reasonable time after the actual holiday but these could have stayed up all year and I wouldn't have minded.

Presidential Tribute II

From a ten-foot-tall tribute to a microscopic tribute. Scientists (of course, it's science - I have to sneak it in wherever I can!) - anyway, scientists have created the tiniest presidential portraits ever. Each Obama in the pictures below is smaller than the period at the end of this sentence. They're Nanobamas - things this small are referred to as "nano" scale so "nano" plus "Obama" becomes "Nanobama". Hey, maybe it's corny but the creators are scientists not marketing experts. As you may have guessed by now, we're a pretty corny bunch.

I won't bore you with the details about the photolithography process and the carbon nanotubes, polymers, silicone wafers used in the creation of Nanobamas - you can get that info at the Nanobama web site. But I will show you my favourite couple of pictures and if you're really interested you can find more pics here.

How cool is science? I say, "Way cool."

Happy President's Day!!

Maybe it's Maybelline... is LOST?

2009-01-30T22:40:00.006-05:00

Maybe this is just me. Maybe I'm just stereotyping. Forgive me if this is the case.

I forgot to DVR this week's new episode of LOST. I'm thrilled that you can watch episodes online now so I went to the ABC.com web site tonight to check it out. Of course you can't avoid the ads to watch the episodes but I thought the sponsor of the episode seemed a bit out of place.

This ad for selecting your ideal Maybelline mascara popped up three different time during the commercial breaks. During LOST. While viewing the episode online.

Yes, maybe I'm stereotyping - I do know that there are women who watch LOST, I do know that women own computers and maybe some of them even geek out enough to watch episodes online. But somehow ads for Maybelline mascara seemed more apropos to Grey's Anatomy or Desperate Housewives. Anyway, let the accusations of chauvinism begin.

By the way, apparently I'm a Volum' Express Turbo Boost® Waterproof mascara kind of person - because I like my lashes thick and I'm a cryer.

Beautiful, beautiful bacon

2009-01-29T20:55:00.006-05:00

You may remember my previous entries on the subject of bacon.

Bacon is one of the most delicious things on the face of the earth and there are very few items that are not improved by it's salty, smoky, fatty goodness. Mmmm, bacon.

While I sadly can not say that I came up with it or that I have even tried it, a new bacon creation has hit the internets. This latest bacon based creation features a web of bacon surrounding a sausage stuffing and at the center is even more bacon-ey goodness.

Then it is grilled or smoked to perfection to give the final product:

My mouth is watering at the sight of it. But I also think that just looking at it is clogging my arteries. But I would still totally try it! Letting myself occasionally indulge in stuff like this is the reason I go to the gym!

Pine Siskins!

2009-01-28T20:47:00.007-05:00

There has been a dearth of bird talk on the blog in recent months. Well, there has been a dearth of talk on a lot of subjects really, but let's not dwell on the past, shall we?

I was excited this past week to have some pine siskins visit the feeders in our yard.

Now, yes, I can hear you thinking, "Excited? Dude, first off, it's a frickin' bird! And second, it's one of the most bland, boring birds I've ever seen. You're excited? WTF?!"

Well, I'll have you know that these pine siskins are fairly rare visitors to backyards in CT. And what makes them particularly exciting for me is that they are visiting from Canada! Normally they spend winters north of here but this year a number of groups have been spotted in more southerly areas where they are not normally seen. And to provide your birding lesson for the day (and you know that I do love to offer up these valuable public services for you, dear reader), this sudden increase in the observed population of a bird species is called an irruption.

I have seen only four individuals at a time and apparently 100 at a time (or more!) is not uncommon, so I'm keeping my eyes open.

I was actually kind of amused by the following picture when I downloaded it from the camera. I made no effort to stage this photo and I did not photoshop it but it looks like a pretty decent mirror image.

So, boring and bland? Maybe. But if you're into that sort of thing - and I am - then definitely pretty cool! Well, maybe not so much "cool"...

25 Random facts about me

2009-01-27T21:02:00.005-05:00

I got tagged to put together a list of 25 random facts about myself on Facebook and it seemed to be a subject worth posting on the blog.

Well, more truthfully, it took me so much time that I didn't have time to write anything else to post today, so here it is.

25 Random Facts About Me

1. I am a dork.

2. Both of my parents are still living and I have three brothers, three sisters, seven nieces, four nephews and two great-nieces. While we may not communicate as much as we could there is hardly a day that goes by that I don’t think of each of them.

3. I used to think I would have kids but now I think I prefer to be an uncle.

4. I like to think that I am an honourary uncle to some of our friends’ kids.

5. I love the desert. Being from Nova Scotia, I thought the ocean was in my blood and that I would hate the desert. Turns out that I prefer the desert and that our two trips to Arizona are two of my favourite vacations.

6. I secretly wish that I could be quarantined or house bound for a month so that I could sort, edit, post and share the literally thousands of digital pictures I have on assorted hard drives.

7. I am very likely not as smart as people think I must be when they hear that I have a Masters in Chemistry.

8. I am a birdwatcher.

9. I am an atheist – I don’t believe in any sort of god, afterlife, fate or karma.

10. I celebrate Pi Day (March 14, i.e., 0314) and Mole Day (6:02 am to 6:02 pm on Oct 23, i.e., 6.02 x 10^23).

11. I love almost all Sci Fi and occasionally I even enjoy watching the cheesiest of B-grade Sci Fi movies – movies that are so bad that they’re good.

12. I don’t usually do these because they’re pretty time consuming.

13. I had hernia surgery in 1997.

14. I think that as many as 25% of the population (especially drivers) are too stupid and/or lazy and/or selfish to be allowed out of their homes.

15. When I was five or six, while sitting alone in my parents’ car I accidentally knocked it into gear and rolled down a hill into a ditch. No injuries – until my father got hold of me.

16. I have very little patience.

17. I have never experienced stage fright.

18. I am an excellent singer – in my car… alone… with nobody there to judge me.

19. I have never seen Forrest Gump or Pulp Fiction and would never have seen Titanic if I hadn’t agreed to watch it as a Valentine’s Day gift to Todd. And now that I’ve seen it, I know why I didn’t want to see it.

20. I look for the double entendre in any conversation.

21. I am very good at puzzles.

22. I have a stack of unread magazines but will not just throw them out because I might miss something if I do.

23. I have an aversion to big old-timey corny musicals.

24. If it wasn't for a chance meeting in 2000 where I was Shanghaied into community theatre, I probably would have left CT and never met Todd.

25. I think reality TV is accelerating the downfall of society.

Happy Monday, Vol. 5

2009-01-26T21:14:00.003-05:00

Happy Monday!! I am happy that we had a very nice weekend. We had two birthday parties on Saturday – one for a 6-year-old and one for a 25-year-old. Both were fun.

I’m happy that yesterday we met friends for lunch at Utsav which is a new Indian restaurant in Vernon, CT. It was a buffet and there was so much yummy Indian goodness there that I ended up going for thirds of a few items. I was so full that I didn’t have dinner last night and even when I woke up this morning I think I still had some Indian food in my belly. It was excellent.

I’m happy that this is my first full week back to work for 2009. Technically, I was back from the 5th through the 9th but that first week after two weeks off is more catching up and readjusting than actual work.

So why am I happy that it’s a full week of work? Well, first off, I’m fortunate that I get enough vacation time to occasionally give myself an extended weekend when I feel the need. I’m also hoping that this full week back will get me back into some sort of schedule. I’m really hoping that I can get into the habit of getting to the gym. I’ve been pretty sporadic with it so far in 2009 and while I never made any sort of resolution to get back to the gym, I know that I feel better when I get there.

I’m happy about the early decisions Obama has made. He’s actually using science as a basis for his decisions - like allowing individual states to set vehicle emission standards after Bush tried to block it - link. A president listening to science? What a refreshing change.

He’s overturned Bush’s order to deny funding to international groups that actually educate people on abortion. Link Awesome, just awesome.

Obama stated in his inaugural address, “We will restore science to its rightful place, …” A-frickin-men. I read a column by conservative Mona Cheron and in her “analysis” of Obama’s inaugural address she included the following:

“We will restore science to its rightful place” – who moved it?

Um, George W. moved it. Where have you been?

But he’s gone now. First Monday without him in the White House. And if that’s not enough to make for a Happy Monday then I’m not sure what is.

High expectations

2009-01-24T16:30:00.000-05:00

As excited as I am about President Obama and about my belief that the administration is going to do things differently (dare I say, better?) than the previous administration, I do hope that people understand that it's not going to involve quick fixes. It's going to take some time and people are going to have to pitch in, make some sacrifices, be ready to change the way they live and, yes, maybe even pay more taxes in the long run.

And he's probably not going to fix male-pattern baldness or obesity. Maybe in his (again, dare I say?) second term.

Easy abs!

2009-01-23T22:21:00.002-05:00

So, apparently I'm done with the gym. Don't need it anymore! No more early mornings draggin' my butt out of bed to schlep into the gym before work. No more dealing with the weirdos who populate my gym in the mornings. Yeah, some of them are sane and a few of them are even really nice and I consider them friends. But some of them... Oy!!

Now I no longer have to deal with that weirdo who hammers the treadmill and then walks around the gym and even the locker room (!) panting like a dog. No more of the obnoxious New Yorker who flaps his gums more than he actually works out. No more of the lady who has no problem "letting it rip" when she's on the treadmill. No more.

What's my secret? Well, I just discovered that you can just buy Abs in a Box! That's right - Abs in a Box!! Here's the link. The ladies' version is here.

Click and order and you get a make-up kit (?) and you... paint (?!) on the... abs (?!?!).

WTF?!?!

Hmmm, I guess you have to be kind of in shape in the first place for this to work.

Oh, well, I guess I'll be back at the gym Monday morning. Should have known there was a catch.

Lasik surgery is probably not for me

2009-01-22T21:13:00.004-05:00

I have crappy vision. I always have and - without surgical intervention - I probably always will. I have very seriously thought about laser surgery to correct my nearsightedness and astigmatisms and apparently I am a good candidate for the surgery.

As much as I suspect that my eye doctor says that to all his patients, I have been tempted by thoughts of waking up and being able to actually see the alarm clock without first fumbling for my glasses. And I'd love to know that I'd never again have to deal with another down-on-all-fours-squinting-like-crazy-feeling-for-my-glasses-after-knocking-them-off-the-night-stand kind of morning.

But I am really frakkin' nervous about messing with my eyes and frankly just watching the surgery gives me the heebie jeebies.

I am providing a video courtesy of NPR's Science Friday but if you can't bear to look at the picture below then under absolutely no circumstances should you watch the video. Seriously!

One last Buck Fush

2009-01-21T17:15:00.006-05:00

I guess it's time to remove my bumper sticker from my car now considering that we've entered a new age of enlightenment. (Aren't you glad I didn't say a new age of "hope" or "change"? Oh, I guess I just did.) I think it's time for a message that is more positive and uplifting.

I am going to keep the bumper sticker handy though - I heard Jeb is thinking about running.

OBAMA!!!

2009-01-20T20:00:00.004-05:00

President Barack Obama. President Barack Obama!! I still get chills when I let that sink in. And by "chills" I don't mean the fear mongering chills that the right wing tried to induce in the electorate - I mean chills of anticipation and of excitement.

We’ve heard this a lot but I believe that a change has started. No, I don't blindly believe that he's going to fix all the problems the US is currently facing. The man has a huge set of tasks ahead of him, and I’m not sure anyone could get us back on track in one term. But I do believe that his administration will change the way we’ve seen government run over the past 8 years. We now have a president who won’t be advising people to “go shopping” when facing tough times. Frankly, that kind of advice is exactly the kind of thing that contributed to this mess.

We now have a president who knows and understands some science and what he doesn’t know, he’s willing to learn. We now have a president who sees that the way we’ve been doing things – fiscally, globally, environmentally – is getting us into trouble and it needs rethinking. We now have a president who is going to listen to diverse opinions and have a thoughtful measured response. I’m going to steal a quote from an author and historian, Doris Kearns Goodwin, because I can’t say this any better.

“By surrounding himself with people who bring different perspectives, he will increase his options, absorb dissenting views and heighten his ability to speak empathetically to people on different sides of each issue.” Doris Kearns Goodwin

(She’s written a book called Team of Rivals about the Lincoln presidency that I plan to pick up because it seems that Obama has read it.)

But hey, I could be completely wrong and the man might run us completely into the ground - what do I know?

Back in November, I was at an election results party when they called the presidency for Obama. It was a very exciting moment. I was surrounded by people who had voted for Obama so needless to say they were quite excited. Lots of cheering and champagne corks - it was awesome.

I was happy right along with everyone and I enjoyed the celebrations today (I took the day off so that I didn’t miss anything) but I have to say that I have been a little sad that I’m not truly a part of it. Sure I’ve been celebrating right along with everyone else but I didn't actually contribute to the victory. As a Canadian citizen, I can not vote and I can not contribute financially to campaigns. Back in 2000 and 2004, I did want to vote but that was mostly a vote against something, or more specifically, against someone. I have to confess that I was a little envious that this time around I wasn’t able to vote FOR someone.

Anyway, in spite of not feeling truly part of it I am very excited about President Barack Hussein Obama. I can truly say that I have never been happier to be proven wrong.

Oh, and I love this picture from today:

So long, MaryAnn

2009-01-19T21:29:00.007-05:00

This is not going to be a Happy Monday post. I do hope it’s not a complete downer, but it’s not exactly a happy one.

I went to a memorial service today for a wonderful lady named MaryAnn Halibozek. I shared the stage with her six months ago in a production of The Twilight Zone. While I did not know her for very long she and I clicked right away - even at the auditions - and we became friends very quickly. Very shortly after the show closed she was diagnosed with a brain tumor and sadly rapidly succumbed to it.

I was fortunate to have shared the stage with her. She had a wonderful stage presence and was completely at home in front of an audience. There were just three cast members and our director and we became such a close group. We had a great time together.

The roles she and I played in the TZ episode, Nothing in the Dark, make for a very strange and poignant coincidence. She played an older lady (she required a lot of make-up to look the part) who was so afraid of death that she locked herself away in a dark basement apartment so he couldn’t take her. I played “Death” and my character tricked her into letting me into the apartment and then I convince her that it is okay to let go and go “to the other side”. It’s a little strange to think back on that and consider what happened to her so soon afterwards.

During the show, we shared a lot of laughs and because we really got into our roles (some might say too into our roles) we shared a few tears backstage when we gave in to the emotion of our scene. She helped to make it one of my favourite theatre experiences and she will be very sorely missed.

I’ll always remember her as a vibrant and vivacious woman and I think that the best way to honour her is to live life and do theatre as she did – wholeheartedly and passionately.

Oh, and with the occasional Dewars on the rocks with a twist.

Happy Monday, Vol. 4

2009-01-06T04:12:00.004-05:00

Sorry for the lack of blogging while we’ve been on vacation. It’s not like we were particularly busy during our vacation or anything but I always feel weird posting a lot of details about us being away from home. I have stalkers.

And technically I am a little late on my Happy Monday installment for this week, but it's early enough that one could argue that Tuesday hasn't really started yet. One could not argue that very successfully but whatever.

Yesterday was the first day back to work and while that particular fact doesn’t exactly make my Happy Monday list it had to happen eventually. What I am happy about is that we had a nice long restful break. It’s rare that we take a full two weeks for a vacation and the way it worked out, it was very relaxing and very enjoyable. We split the time between some family in Canada and with Todd’s folks in Florida and made every effort to keep everything very low key – no gifts, no guilt, no stress, good food, good drink, good company. By keeping it low key I think we actually had one of our most pleasant Christmas/New Year seasons ever. And while I wasn't excited about the return to work yesterday at least I was ready for it.

President-elect Barack Obama takes office two weeks from today! "Today" being Tuesday which I argued above hasn't really started yet because I'm trying to sneak in a Happy Monday a day late, but let's say that Tuesday starts... now!

Happy Monday, Vol. 3

2008-12-22T23:24:00.004-05:00

I am on Christmas vacation and am finally safely ensconced in the sweet bosom of my beloved homeland.

It just doesn't get much happier than this for a Monday.

NOW it is Christmas

2008-12-21T09:20:00.004-05:00

It's not Christmas until Santa's in the car window. I can listen to Christmas music, deal with the cranky people do some Christmas shopping, decorate the house, attend Christmas parties, drink some eggnog (preferably with rum), eat festive food, watch the snow fall, send Christmas cards (not this year!), read Christmas cards (feeling a little guilty now) or do any of those Christmas things that usually get people into the spirit, but none of it means anything until Suction Cup Santa hits the car window.

Now it is Christmas!

Christmas Cupcake

2008-12-18T06:03:00.004-05:00

Someone brought cupcakes to work yesterday as a holiday treat. Ah, nothing says Merry Christmas like a ginormous cupcake covered in icing that must be loaded with Red Dye No. 40 to have that vivid colour.

It was delicious!!

Happy Monday! Vol. 2 redux

2008-12-15T21:29:00.004-05:00

I have a friend who posted this status update on her Facebook page:

XXXXXX is dying for George to finish cleaning the poop out of the cow's stomache so I can get the house back to normal...

I am happy that Todd doesn't like tripe and more thrilled that he doesn't feel the need to prepare it fresh from the farm.

Happy Monday! Vol. 2

2008-12-15T20:35:00.003-05:00

I didn’t realize until this weekend that this Happy Monday thing could actually be a public service. A study has shown that happiness can be contagious and spread within a social circle. Here's hoping it works!

On with the happiness!

I’m excited that this will be my last week of work in 2008. It’s been a busy (and frustrating) couple of weeks and I think I’m on track to be done work on Friday. Unfortunately, I’ve had a few December surprises in past years that have delayed the start of Christmas vacation so starting my break on Friday is not a lock. Let’s say that I’m cautiously optimistic.

I’m excited that we’ve finally figured out our Christmas plans. We’re doing something a little different this year – no long drive to Nova Scotia for starters. We’re going to miss the Nova Scotia contingent but we will still be with family. It’s going to be a simple Christmas – a hard candy Christmas like last year. We’ve pledged no gifts (except for the kids and some stocking items) but there will be lots of good food and drink and relaxation.

President-elect Barack Obama – I know I used this last week, but I’m still excited!

I’m excited that someone at work understands my life a little better now. I don’t want to reveal too much, but an authority figure at work now understands what it’s like to experience a hell week. I work in science and I’ve often wondered how many people I work with truly understand the mental and physical commitment required to do a show and that it can sometimes affect work performance. I have a little more confidence that someone now truly understands and can convey that experience when management is discussing the performance reviews of all us paeons.

**********************
So I had written most of this earlier this morning but I didn’t have time to actually post it online. If you can believe it, my Monday at work didn’t ruin my optimism for this week. Unfortunately, I’m missing a Christmas party tonight which I’m sure is going to be fun but I’ll manage. Things could always be worse.

Happy Monday! Vol. 1

2008-12-08T05:48:00.005-05:00

As if I don't steal enough ideas from Amanda's blog, I've decided to do a feature called Happy Monday. I could argue that it's not a complete rip-off of her Good Stuff Fridays except for the fact that it really is a complete rip-off of her Good Stuff Fridays. But you're not here for originality, are you? If you were, sorry.

Anyway, since Monday tends to be a not so pleasant day as we all have to go back to work, I thought we could use some happy thoughts to start the week. So, here are the things I'm looking forward to this week.

A former coworker used to say that he loved Mondays because it represented the start of another week of potential success. He is a "former" coworker because he ended up getting committed to a mental institution. No, not really, but some Mondays I thought he should have been. He's actually retired now. I have always been jealous of his attitude so today I say, "Yes! Monday!! This week will bring success!!"

I don't talk about work here, but I am excited that today I should be finished with one of the more onerous aspects of my (or almost anyone's) job - the performance review. I've never had actual serious problems with my performance or with my review, but the touchy-feely, sell yourself nature of the performance review drives me nuts. But it's due today so that will be it!!

President-elect Barack Obama. 'Nuf said.

I am excited about dinner plans tonight with some friends in New Haven. We're going to Tandoor for some delicious Indian food. I lurve Indian food! Favourite cuisine ever!

I am excited that there is a nice layer of snow on the ground to brighten things up today. I am even more excited that it happened on the weekend and was only ~1 inch so that it didn't mess up a commute. I'm hoping that the snow will help with the Christmas spirit because we have a lot to do and only 2 weeks to git 'r done.

So, that's about all I have for now. Although having five things that I'm excited about this early on a Monday morning is pretty darn good, if I do say so myself.

Have a good week!

Jesus is My Friend?

2008-11-20T20:09:00.004-05:00

I know it's been a while since I've posted anything. Another couple of crazy weeks.

I will post something something about the election two weeks ago - and yes, I'm pretty darn happy with the outcome. I'm disappointed in California but we'll see what happens there. More later.

Until then, amuse yourselves with the following video. The words to the song are really enough to make this worth watching, but these people are total givers and have provided SO much more. I love the guy on the middle on the guitar (or bass? whatever...) - he's totally into it! I love the back-up singers - especially the woman on the left and the man in the right. The poor male back-up singer on the right clearly does not want to be there! Check out 1:08 of the video for a fabulous view of the female back-up singer on the left. It's like one of those viral videos people send around where you have to look very closely for something and then a scary picture flashes up on the screen with a loud noise that makes you crap your pants. 1:08 of the video might have the same effect on you.

The hands down best part of the video without a doubt is 1:49 through 1:56. You will see why I love it. Here's a hint: Zap!

More thoughts on the election

2008-11-02T16:50:00.009-05:00

Undecided voters? Undecided? How could anyone still be undecided?

David Sedaris, writing in the New Yorker, nailed this topic perfectly - much better than I could have, so I will just quote him directly.

To put them [undecided voters] in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”
To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.

Maybe you've already heard that little snippet, but I recommend that you read the whole piece. He's hilarious and it's worth the read. (I loved his latest book as well.)

He makes a very interesting point at the end of the article. He says, "calling yourself a maverick is a sure sign that you’re not one" which I couldn't agree with more. It's like calling yourself "cool". If you need to remind people that you're cool, you're probably not.

A Presidential Memorial in San Francisco

Not surprisingly, I love this. Voters in San Francisco have a measure on their ballot called Proposition R to name a San Francisco landmark after George W. Bush. You might be surprised by this considering how liberal San Francisco is, until I tell you that the "landmark" they want to name after George W. is a sewage treatment plant.

The other reason that this is appropriate is that from ground level the plant looks like a bunch of big boobs.

Big boobs for the biggest boob in the nation.

Yes on Prop R!!!

Vote NO on Question 1 in CT

2008-11-01T12:58:00.005-04:00

http://www.ctvoteno.org/home

This election is freaking me out. I realize that you might never know that considering that there's been next to no discussion about it here. It's not that I have nothing to say about the election. Oh, have I got stuff to say!

It's just that in the rare and brief opportunities that I've actually had to blog over the last little while, there’s been so much I want to let loose on that it overwhelms me and I don’t know where to start. I also expect that once I start I won't know where to stop the rant.

There is one issue in CT that needs to be addressed before the election Tuesday. Tuesday?! It’s going to be a tense few days.

There is a question on the ballots in CT to open up the State Constitution to changes.

"Shall there be a Constitutional Convention to amend or revise the Constitution of the state?"

Sounds innocent enough, right? Unfortunately, it’s not nearly as innocent as it sounds. While I agree that any state or country constitution could occasionally stand to be reviewed and revised, this initiative is being sponsored by groups that eventually want to have state referendums to prohibit abortion and to block our newly won access to gay marriage.

One of the groups supporting the Constitutional Convention is the catholic church. There have been some TV ads that they sponsored and I noticed that at the end of the ads where they are required by law to identify who is paying for the ad, the writing was so small that you couldn’t make out what it said. It was almost like the catholic church was trying to sneak the ads out there without appearing to be responsible for them. Hmmm.

I have noticed that more recent airings of the ads have included the statement that the ads are sponsored by Connecticut catholic conference. Apparently, someone called them on it and made them change the font so people could actually read it!

What I really want to know is how the church’s involvement in a political issue affects their status with the I.R.S. which prohibits organizations that accept tax deductible donations from having getting involved in political campaigns.

If the Constitutional Convention passes and they start having referendums, maybe the first referendum to push for is a vote to make churches pay taxes.

Anyway, vote NO on Question 1 on Tuesday!

The Canadian Election '08

2008-10-23T05:44:00.002-04:00

It's true. All true.

Especially the part about Gay Nader Fans for Peace.

By the way, the Canadian election was held 37 days after it was announced. 37 days! Such a refreshing change from the US elections, which have lately gone on for about 4 years.

I say "refreshing", you say "socialist".

McCain Agrees with Murtha in Moon, PA

2008-10-22T09:06:00.001-04:00

Usually when an old guy loses his train of thought and rambles like this, one considers the possibility that Alzheimer's is kicking in.

I love Betty White

2008-10-15T06:02:00.001-04:00

I already watch too much TV and I'm an early to bed, early to rise kind of person so I never see late night TV. So, I'm glad that someone on YouTube has uploaded this clip from the Craig Ferguson's show with Betty White posing as a speech writer for John McCain.

Betty White is f-ing brilliant! H to the Izzo!!

Definitely a new computer!!

2008-10-14T19:01:00.004-04:00

Today I saw pictures and coverage of the laptop that I'm going to ~~marry~~ buy. I hope to meet it in person next week.

As you may have guessed, I was very happy with the big Apple announcement this morning.

Finally, a new computer?

2008-10-14T07:10:00.000-04:00

I’ve mentioned before that I’m ready for a new computer. This computer has become increasingly frustrating – the hard drive is basically full (iTunes downloads) and it’s very slow. As my parents used to say, “It’s slower than cold molasses running up a hill in January.”

Ugh, how sad is it that these kinds of folksy statements make me think of that dipshit Sarah Palin? Ugh!

Anyway, my computer needs to be dropkicked out of my life like the outdated aggravation that it is. Hmmm, that makes me think of both John McCain and Sarah Palin. Does it seem like I’m distracted by the election? Perhaps.

Back on track. New computer. Right.

I actually did some frustrated random unused-program deletions from my computer last week, which is usually a nice recipe for disaster and Blue Screen of Death, but it actually did help the computer’s performance. Everyone once in a while, my occasionally spastic behaviour coupled with my technical ineptitude does not get me into trouble.

I’ve decided to get a MacBook for my next computer. Yes, I’ve decided to join the cult of Mac. I love the iPods that I’ve had, including the new iPod touch that I bought a few weeks ago. It’s amazing! Having said that I would have traded some of the thinness for a built in camera and GPS. I think. But, still, it’s amazing. So, they’ve roped me in with the iPod and now I’m going all in with the computer, too. I think I read somewhere that there’s a marketing term for that business model but I don’t remember it. I just hope it’s not called “Sucker”.

While I’ve been ready for a new computer for a while, there have been rumours circulating on the internets for a several months now that there would be new MacBooks coming out. “Soon”, always “soon”. Occasionally, dates have been mentioned, but those have come and gone without new MacBooks. I’ve been patiently waiting – that’s a lie, I’ve been pretty impatient – but finally a date that has been in the rumour mill for a while has been confirmed by Apple. Tuesday, October 14th, 10:00 AM PST

I am beyond excited for the announcement!

Not going to the chapel....

2008-10-13T19:36:00.004-04:00

You may have heard that Connecticut is the latest state to take a step closer to ~~slipping into hell~~ granting full equality to all of its citizens. We can now get gay-married in CT. Can you believe that we haven't all been smitten from above by now?

So, when are we getting married, you might be asking? I'm sorry to say that you're not going to see us rushing out to get hitched. First off, as far as I'm concerned we are already "married" but secondly, the law isn't exactly as fair or as cut and dried as it might appear. I'll explain.

The CT Legislature granted same sex couples civil unions in 2005. We were the first state to get that benefit without court action - the Legislature actually took the initiative to grant the civil unions. Well, as with any "supposedly equal, but in reality still separate" situation, some couples weren't happy with that, so they fought to the CT Supreme Court. This past Friday, the Court ruled that same sex couples can not be denied the right to marry.

Cool, right? Unfortunately, it's still not a completely fair system and it won't be until same sex marriages are recognized equally by all the states that allow them. I won't even get into the states that haven't allowed them yet because as we all know, there are some states that will never allow them. Unfortunately, this also means that no US party or president in their right mind would grant them on a federal level. What gives me reason to be hopeful is that you could have said that about the abolition of slavery 200 years ago, desegregation and allowing interracial marriages 40 years ago. Those eventually went through because they were the right things to do and there was enough support to get them passed, but there are people who are still unhappy about both.

Why is same sex marriage not the same state-to-state, you might ask? "California and Massachusetts grant gay marriage and now CT grants gay marriage, what's the difference?" Well, we don't know what the difference is yet. Back when CT was passing the civil union law, we went to a seminar to learn about the facts. A lot of the facts were yet to be determined and sadly, not much has changed since then.

As it stands now, another state's gay marriage could be considered a separate marriage contract to a CT gay marriage and not directly transferrable. So if we were to move to another state with gay marriage, the marriage wouldn't necessarily transfer and the new state might not consider us to be married. But if we then got married in the new state to get that state's version of marriage, we could then be part of two marriage contracts. That's bigamy even though it's still just Todd and me. We might have to dissolve the CT marriage and then get remarried in the new state. The kicker to the dissolution process is that you have to be a resident of CT to get a dissolution - at least that's the way it was for the civil unions. So we'd have to make sure we dissolved the union before we left CT, then move and get remarried in the new state. Equal? Does that sound equal to you?

It's not even just the hassle involved in dissolving one union so that we can just have another one in another state that bugs me. I'm offended by the simple fact that we have to say we're dissolving our union. That statement should be considered a last ditch effort in a relationship - not part of moving day.

California and New York have come out (pun intended) and decided that they will recognize same sex marriages from other states and countries, but Massachusetts has yet to make the same statement, even though they just decided to allow non-resident same sex couples get married. And until the state governments do explicitly say it, nobody knows what will happen.
I don't even want to get into the whole domestic partner/civil union state-by-state situation, or what would happen if we moved to another country that allowed gay marriage.

So, you'll have to forgive us for making you wait for our wedding. It's not that we're planning any big moves in our immediate future but until the law is sorted out, it's just too uncertain and potentially aggravating a situation. The law is getting there - it's certainly better now that CT has full marriage, but it still has a long way to go.

Hello, anyone still there?

2008-10-11T09:01:00.002-04:00

I'm back. Sorry for the prolonged absence. It's not like I haven't had anything to say - it's just that it's been particularly difficult to find the time and the concentration to be able to write something.

The election, the economy, some firings at work, busy time at work - it's been a rough few weeks.

There's been a lot to say about the election situation, but it just makes me so mad and frustrated when I try to gather my thoughts that I can't write.

The economy has been too depressing to write about. But I know that this is a dip in the market. It will come back and my in-the-toilet 401k will come back - I have a few years til retirement so I have some time.

Work - I don't talk about work here, but I will say that it has been a somewhat tense and uncertain time there. And busy. "All consuming" is more like it.

So, now that I've got the "I haven't blogged for a while. What am I going to post to explain myself?" post out of the way, hopefully I can get back to posting more frequently. I have to catch up to Amanda's 31-Day post promise.

So cool...

2008-09-20T14:17:00.001-04:00

If you can stand it , I'm blogging from my iPod touch. I think I love this little thing!!

Wake up and smell the coffee

2008-09-12T17:11:00.000-04:00

So, one of the problems with doing blog posts that are “topical” (as someone once put it) is that if you don’t have time to write what you want to say, then the topic becomes old news before you post it. And who wants to read old news?

Anyway, I suspect that this topic is relatively safe because it’s a science story. It's rare that an actual science story based on an actual scientific study makes it to the evening news. This one may have because it's about everyone's favourite morning beverage - coffee.

Now, most everyone knows and appreciates the stimulating effect of their morning coffee. A study found that even just the smell of coffee caused the release of anti-stress proteins in the brains of sleep-deprived rats.

No word yet on the effect of coffee aroma on people brains because as I'm sure you can understand, it's ethically easier to take a look at what's in rat brains than to look at what's in human brains. Don't ask for specifics - it's best not to.

Todd will appreciate this story. He doesn't drink coffee (except to steal a taste of my mocha EVERY SINGLE TIME I GET ONE!!) but he does love the smell of fresh brewed coffee. He occasionally makes fun of my addiction but maybe he’s just as addicted as I am but his addiction is to the smell rather than to the caffeine. So there.

So smell all the coffee you want. It might not calm you down but it can't hurt. And I wouldn't recommend that you look for the same effect by snorting the coffee grounds. That very definitely does NOT have a calming effect! Again, don't ask for specifics.

But if you really want to de-stress, move to the second most popular morning drink - beer. Mmmmm, beer......

Imagine....

2008-09-11T17:17:00.002-04:00

Today’s forecast – sunny and 70 degrees with a slight chance of scattered… black holes?!?!

2008-09-10T05:01:00.002-04:00

Sometime today (and with the time difference, maybe it’s already happened), scientists in Geneva at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) will rev up the largest particle collider in the world, the Large Hadron Collider.

The above picture is not the entire particle collider - this is one small part. The following is an aerial shot of the entire particle collider - it's the HUGE circle in the picture (click on it for a better view):

The particle collider is contained in a 17 mile (27 km) long circular underground tunnel that straddles the French-Swiss border.

So, what is a particle collider you may be asking? Well, it is a very large instrument (did I mention the 17 mile long tunnel?) that accelerates two beams of atoms to almost the speed of light and smashes the two beams of atoms into each other. Scientists believe that this mimics the Big Bang and that by studying these collisions they will learn more about the nature of matter and the universe, possibly revealing new dimensions of time and space. Pretty heady stuff, eh?

So, what’s the big deal with a Big Bang or a few tiny little black holes? Seriously, if either of those happened we’d probably never even notice because the entire galaxy will either explode or be sucked into a black hole within milliseconds. Not even enough time to think about kissing your arse goodbye.

For a lighter view, check out the following YouTube video of a rap song explaining the Large Hadron Collider. While some of it may not make sense to the average person without some Physics background, it totally worth watching watch just to see a bunch of science geeks rapping and dancing.

This will give you a glimpse into the way things are in my lab every day. We be fly, yo!

Don’t be scared about the Large Hadron Collider. Today is a warm up - they're sending just one beam of particles through the collider. The big bangs and black holes won't start until both beams are sent flying at each other in about two months time. Besides, even if black holes form, at least one researcher thinks that a few microscopic black holes would not be a big deal.

Perhaps predictably, the crazies have come out of the woodwork and researchers are actually getting death threats. These are probably the same right-wing nut-job loons who threaten the lives of stem cell researchers and pro-choice doctors but then slap “My boss is a Jewish carpenter” bumper stickers or an Ichthys symbol on their cars.

Particle colliders are very important pieces of scientific equipment. They are very safe and are used to answer some of the most fundamental questions about the nature of matter and the universe.

And more importantly, you can use these very important and very expensive pieces of scientific equipment to date wine.

Apple announcement update

2008-09-09T20:42:00.006-04:00

Well, honestly it was a little disappointing. I was really hoping they'd surprise everyone after the iTunes/iPod stuff and say that they were coming out with new laptops soon, which is what I REALLY want right now. They didn't - it was all iTunes and iPod.

Anyway, I am also in the market for a new iPod, so I listened.

They updated the iPod Nano's capacity and style and added a bunch of colours which look pretty cool:

But what I really had my ears open for was the iPod Touch - it's got a bigger screen for watching video and all the controls are done on the touch screen. You can access the internet at any WiFi spot, download music wirelessly, play games, use it as a calendar, address book, add all kinds of applications. Very cool. Oh, and you can even use it to listen to music.

The problems with it have been that the memory isn't much (32 GB) considering how much it has been ($499). But hey, it's new technology - it's going to be at a premium for a while then will drop as it gets cheaper and easier to make. That's the way it works and anyone who complains about that shouldn't be allowed to get one. And I say that to all the people who bought their iPhones the day they came out last year and then had the nerve to complain when the price dropped a few months later. Deal.

Anyway, I've been hoping that today they would announce a price drop and an increase in the memory. I had even read rumours that they might add GPS functionality to it which would have been sweet.

Well, as Meatloaf might say - one out of three ain't bad.

They didn't increase the memory and no GPS, but they did restyle it a bit and dropped the price by $100. That's a 20% drop in price - what else has dropped in price by 20% in the last few ... ever?

Anyway, I'm seriously tempted to purchase.

I need new toys!!

2008-09-08T21:33:00.002-04:00

Technology has been frustrating me lately. It hasn’t been just the fact that my new work laptop died on me and made me lose a month of work (and, yes, I keep reminding myself that it could have been worse.) My personal laptop is on its last legs - it’s sssssooooooooo sssssssloooooooowwwwwwwwwwww and the battery lasts about 45 minutes. And my iPod doesn’t hold much of a charge anymore either.

It’s time for replacements. Actually it’s been time for replacements for a while. So, what am I waiting for? I usually do investigate my purchases to death and that usually takes me a while but that’s not what I’m waiting for this time.

I’m waiting for tomorrow. Tomorrow - Amanda is now singing, “it’s only a day away.” Stop it!!

Tomorrow is a big Apple event in San Francisco where CEO Steve Jobs is going to be talking about some new products. Speculation is running rampant, but based on some leaks and reports I’ve read and the above invitation, the most likely scenario is that they’re coming out with new iPods which might even be cheaper than they are today.

While new iPods at a cheaper price (and hopefully more memory if we’re talking the iPod Touch) would make me very happy, I’m equally interested in finding out when they are going to update their MacBooks.

Based on how happy I’ve been with the iPod, I’m very likely going to replace my DELL laptop with a MacBook. Yes, I might be joining the Cult of Mac. They’re like drug dealers - they rope you in with the iPod and then they sell you on the computer. Pretty darn smart actually. Or I’m pretty darn stupid to fall for it.

That rumour of new laptops has been floating around for a while but it doesn’t look like it will be announced tomorrow. Hopefully soon.

Anyway, don’t bother me tomorrow at 1:00 PM Eastern time. I will be glued to the live feeds to find out what’s Apple has up its sleeve. Or is that under its peel? HaHa! Under its peel. I apologize - that wasn’t funny. And yet I didn’t delete it.

Sorry - no updates

2008-08-28T21:08:00.003-04:00

I haven't felt like blogging. Nothing has felt inspiring enough to actually post. Here's the past month in a nutshell:

The Twilight Zone - good fun. If you saw it, hope you enjoyed it.

Life - crazy busy. Actually, those should be separate thoughts. Life - crazy. Life - busy. Add in a soupçon of "Life - confusing these days" - and that's about right.

Work - all consuming. Happy news - got a new work laptop a month ago. At my request. So I could be more productive, get more work done and give more to the company. Yah!! This weekend - hard drive died. Lost a month's worth of work. Proof that good intentions pave the road to hell. Or proof that no good deed goes unpunished. Or something.

I don't know anymore.

And clearly, after reviewing this blog entry, I don't know grammar or syntax any more.

Hey, I never make any promises of quality but at least it's new.

That shit is old!

2008-07-31T21:28:00.004-04:00

So I’m catching up on the local paper and I get to the editorial page. I usually read the editorial page just to see what people are saying. It’s often good for a laugh – especially some of the letters written to my local paper. Imagine my reaction when I read the following headline:

Cindy McCain and the smell of death

Of course my first thought was that “the smell of death” was a reference to John McCain, because that shit is old! Look at it.

I initially felt bad laughing at the headline because the editorial is about Cindy McCain’s efforts to bring medical teams to third world countries. But when you look a little closer, the fact is that the “editorial” is an obvious puff piece extolling the humanitarianism of Cindy McCain and suggesting that she’d make a great first lady. The author, Michael Gerson, felt compelled to discuss it in his column because Cindy McCain is just too darn demure and humble to mention it and people should know what a giving and caring person she is. The fact that the author is a Republican evangelical who used to write speeches for George W. should come as no surprise.

And coincidentally enough, John McCain and the smell of death was a topic on Tuesday night’s Daily Show. During an interview with George Stephanopolous, a fly landed on John McCain’s face. As Jon Stewart so eloquently put it, “is there a more potent symbol of decay than a fly?”

Fly lands on John McCain

For more reminder that John McCain is old, you can check out this blog Things younger than Republican Presidential candidate (oh, and did I forget to mention war hero?) John McCain. You might be amazed to find out what is actually younger than John McCain. One of my favourites is that 91% of the US population is younger than John McCain!!!

That shit is old.

Hello, six figures!!

2008-07-29T20:09:00.002-04:00

While that title sounds like it might be me announcing exciting news that suddenly I am making loads and loads of money, it is not my salary that has reached six figures.

No, sadly, it is the odometer on my car that has reached that depressing milestone.

That's a lot of zeroes - and not in a good way.

Whatever happened to Baby Jane?

2008-07-23T16:28:00.003-04:00

She’s not little Baby Jane anymore! She’s a whole one year old today! Happy 1st Birthday, Jane!!

So, now she’s little Toddler Jane.

We did not take these pictures. I copied these from Amanda’s most recent (and very sweet) blog entry talking about Jane.

These pictures were taken at Jane’s first birthday party which apparently was held this past weekend. Our invitation for said party clearly must have gotten lost in the mail, but it is okay because we were pretty busy anyway.

I’m just saying…

Anyway, Happy Birthday Jane!!!

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Blastoffs and then it's Done!

2008-07-14T20:53:00.002-04:00

I have mentioned before that I would really like to see a space shuttle launch live and in person.

I knew my chances were becoming more and more limited because NASA had announced plans to retire the space shuttle fleet in 2010. I have been keeping an eye on the schedule to see if I can get to one, but it hasn’t worked out yet. I’m going to have to be more careful now because NASA has announced the schedule for the final ten launches of the space shuttle.

I’m sure it is not a coincidence that they made an announcement listing a final ten missions. I’m sure some clever geek at NASA did it intentionally to mimic the typical countdown from 10. You can bet your ass that I would have.

Here is the list of dates and you can find an outline of the final ten missions at Space.com.

Oct. 8, 2008 — Atlantis (STS-125)
Nov. 10, 2008 — Endeavour (STS-126/ULF-2)
Feb. 12, 2009 — Discovery (STS-119/15A)
May 15, 2009 — Endeavour (STS-127/2JA)
July 30, 2009 — Atlantis (STS-128/17A)
Oct. 15, 2009 — Discovery (STS-129/ULF-3)
Dec. 10, 2009 — Endeavour (STS-130/20A)
Feb. 11, 2010 — Atlantis (STS-131/19A)
April 8, 2010 — Discovery (STS-132/ULF-4)
May 31, 2010 — Endeavour (STS-133/ULF-5)

The crappy thing about the shuttle launches is that these are all tentative dates depending on the shuttle and the weather so it's tough to make plans. But you can bet your sweet patootie that I will be at Cape Canaveral for at least one of those launches. Want to go with me?

Me in the Hartford Courant

2008-07-13T22:43:00.003-04:00

As per usual, the theatre sent some publicity info to the local papers to advertise for The Twilight Zone. I'm not sure who picked it (our people, or the newspaper folks) but I got my picture in the Hartford Courant!! The same picture was also in the New Britain Herald, but they don't have it online.

Here's the picture:

Alan and MaryAnn from the teleplay 'Nothing in the Dark.' (ARIENNE DAVEY / HANDOUT / July 8, 2008)

Not the most flattering picture, I'll admit, but what are you gonna do?

Another Opening, Another Show

2008-07-13T12:14:00.004-04:00

I am relieved to say that opening weekend for The Twilight Zone was great! The audience was a great size both nights (~85 opening night, ~75 Saturday night for a house that holds ~95), the cast was on, the lighting, sound and set changes went great and I do believe that a good time was had by all.

Opening night at Hole in the Wall is an interesting beast. The audience is generally made up of HITW regulars who have been involved in other show as actors, directors, stage managers, lighting techs, sound techs, etc. To say that it's an appreciative audience would be an understatement. That's not to say that their appreciation is fake or overly exaggerated, but they understand that actors like to hear audience reaction. The audience certainly did not disappoint in that regard. That kind of ~~instant gratification~~ feedback really helps us with our acting and makes for a better show.

Almost everyone in the cast seemed to be having a great night. While watching and listening to the show backstage, I noticed that a lot of people had stepped up their acting a notch and were having a good night. Of course some people have just been good all along, but there was something about the energy and excitement of opening night that brought just a bit more out of the cast.

I am particularly relieved to say that the episode I am in went really well. In fact, I think that our opening weekend performances were the best we had ever done it. The lead woman was fecking amazing this weekend. And because she was so good, it helped me be more in the moment. Unfortunately, I maybe got a little too into it Friday night and got more emotional than was called for, but I blame that on opening night excitement and her brilliance. But still it was good.

We have four more weekends, so come on down and spend some time in The Twilight Zone. Here's part of the official press release from the theatre for more info:

Submitted for your entertainment. It's 8:00pm on a sultry summer evening; you enter a dark, air-conditioned space in the city of New Britain , Connecticut . The space is inviting and intimate; it's known as a black box theater. Actors take the stage and transport you to another time and place, a place not only of sound and light but of mind. You are about to enter The Twilight Zone.

Hole in the Wall Theater presents The Twilight Zone: Of Shadows and Substance, four teleplays from the original award-winning television series, The Twilight Zone written by Rod Serling and George Clayton Johnson. The teleplays, which have been adapted for stage, will be performed live.
A show with appeal for fans of the television show, as well as theater and sci-fi lovers, The Twilight Zone: Of Shadows and Substance boasts cast members from around the state.

Twilight Zone: Of Shadows and Substance opens on Friday, July 11, 2008 with performances on Friday and Saturday evenings at 8:00 pm through August 9, 2008 with matinee performances on Sunday, July 20, 2008 and Sunday, August 3, 2008 at 2:00 pm. All shows will be performed at Hole in the Wall Theater, 116 Main Street , New Britain . Tickets are $20 (suggested donation). Reservations may be made by calling (860) 229-3049. This production is supported in part by a grant from the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism.

Founded in 1972, Hole in the Wall Theater, an all volunteer, non-profit organization and winner of the The Hartford Advocate's Best Community Theater award for 2008, presents award-winning community theater with a professional edge. For more information visit www.hitw.org. For a sneak preview visit www.youtube.com/HITWTheater

Maybe you had to be there....

2008-07-09T00:29:00.006-04:00

We had rehearsal tonight for The Twilight Zone. I was apprehensive about it because last night was a bit rocky. It was not unnecessarily rough (also a term for a hockey penalty for those who are interested) but we're now in tech week, we're working out scene changes and adding lighting so there's a lot of new stuff going on. In a typical tech week (aka hell week), we would normally have done this particular rehearsal stuff on a Sunday but because of the long weekend, the production crew kindly gave us Sunday off. YAY, production crew!! So we were trying to condense a long Sunday rehearsal into a Monday evening and it made for a bit of a rough night.

Tonight was a bit smoother, but still some rocky spots. And as you can tell from the publish time on this entry, it was a long night. We're probably exactly where we need to be at this point, but when you're in the middle of a messy scene change it feels worse than it probably is.

Anyway, the point of this entry, in spite of the ~~unnecessarily rough~~ long introduction is to announce for all to hear that I now have a new most favourite director's note ever. "Director's notes" is the term for what the director says after the rehearsal to tell you what to change, continue to do, or to try. This was not a note to me, or to anyone in my "episode" but I was there for it.

And here it is:

"Doug, it's a grocery bag, not a purse."

I was sitting right in front of "Doug" - the names may or may not have been changed to protect the ~~creepy~~ innocent - and I was convulsing in silent laughter for a good five minutes.

And that brings me full circle to the title of the post - maybe you had to be there.

Or maybe I'm too tired.

Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Presidency

2008-07-07T18:09:00.002-04:00

It will all be over soon. 196 more days then it will be time to clean up the devastation.

Stinky-assed flower

2008-07-06T21:31:00.005-04:00

Have you ever heard of the corpse flower? You probably have. It's the plant that blooms with a "flower" that's about six feet high and three feet across and it smells like a nasty rotting corpse. Yeah, nice, right. Something everyone wants in their garden, I'm sure.

Well, I actually wouldn't mind - they're pretty cool. There is one that is about to bloom at the UCONN Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Plant Growth Facilities. If you ask me that sounds like a somewhat ~~pretentious~~ extravagant name for the UCONN Greenhouse.

Anyway, it should bloom sometime in the next couple of days. I was hoping it would bloom over this past weekend so we could go check it out. It didn't. Unfortunately, with this being hell week for the show, there's no way I'm going to get up there to see or smell it.

If you're interested in finding out more so you can go there to enjoy its odoriferousness in person, you can follow its progress at this blog and get daily updates.

As a substitute, the following picture uses a very cool, brand new, cutting-edge internet technology that's scratch and sniff. Rub your finger over the picture a couple of times and you should be able to smell the flower through your computer speakers.

You didn't really try that, did you?

Happy July 4th!

2008-07-04T10:05:00.003-04:00

We're off to Amanda's for a fabulous July 4th fiesta. I'm bringing hummingbird cupcakes. This time I put in even more bits of real hummingbird (I caught a few extra) so I hope they turn out okay.

If you need some down time between July 4th celebrations, the SciFi channel is continuing a marathon of The Twilight Zone today. I thought that was very nice of them to do this just before we do our production of The Twilight Zone at Hole in the Wall.

#@&*$% car!!!

2008-07-02T21:05:00.001-04:00

As fans (?) of the blog probably know by now, I don’t believe in luck, or fate, or karma or some supreme being guiding events in the universe. I believe that good things happen to bad people, bad things happen to good people and all the possible combinations therein just happen. I think that most unpredictable events happen pretty much at random and that the predictable things are usually of our own making.

Now having completely dismissed the possibility of some preternatural grand scheme in the universe, I have been wondering recently if my car is cursed.

I seem to have had more than my fair share of problems with my current car. From three flat tires in the last year, to getting keyed, to the excitement of a leaking head gasket coupled with a major service to the tune of $2100 and now the most recent joys of a leaking transmission pan, needing new rotors and rear brakes (another $1000 yesterday), I feel that this car has required more than the average number and scale of repairs for a four year old car with 98 000 miles.

If I had known a month ago that I would be putting about three grand into the car, I would have gotten rid of it faster than George W. gets rid of people who tell him things he doesn’t want to hear. But live and learn.

If you need a sign that I’ve been to the Subaru service department too much, one of the service reps who I don’t even deal with much knew my name yesterday. That should not happen.

It’s not like I abuse or neglect the car - I get the required maintenance from the dealer on time and yet these problems just seem to happen.

But who knows? Maybe there is such a thing as karma and it’s biting me in the ass for something, maybe I should be more proactive with the dealer to make sure they check these things, maybe someone at the dealer hates me and damages my car on purpose, or maybe they like me and want me to spend more time with them. I have no idea.

Anyway, I am trying to look on the bright side rather than wallow in a self-pity party (although you should see the decorations I have for my self-pity party. Awesome! Or to feed a stereotype, they’re FABULOUS!)

Things could always be worse. The car could have something wrong that couldn’t be diagnosed – or couldn’t be repaired – or cost even more. The car could have just died on me – stopped on the side of the road late at night in a scary neighbourhood. Or I could be in a situation where I couldn’t afford the repairs.

Hmmm, that isn’t really helping as much as I wish it did. Why, oh, why does the bright side not soften the sting of a big credit card bill?

Happy Canada Day!!

2008-07-01T17:48:00.002-04:00

Alas while my fellow countrymen and countrywomen who live north of the border are enjoying a day off celebrating with excellent beer and all things Canadian, I worked today. And I won’t even get to enjoy a fine Canadian beer and the ketchup chips left over from the recent family visits because I have rehearsal tonight.

So, please enjoy a beer for me…eh?

I'm missing Melissa Etheridge today

2008-06-29T11:54:00.003-04:00

I'm a pretty big fan of Melissa Etheridge and I have been since her first album way back in 1988. No, I'm not a lesbian, just a fan.

She's doing a concert in Danbury today but unfortunately, I'm missing it because of rehearsal for the show. I probably could have arranged to have the day off, but we're supposed to have thunderstorm later anyway which will likely cancel or cut short the outdoor concert so it's all for the best. That's my coping mechanism and I'm sticking to it.

The local paper did an interview with her yesterday and I had to laugh at this excerpt.

...she admits she has a "base core audience" of lesbians who will turn out for her shows no matter what ("If I said, I'm going to show up in your town and sing out of the Yellow Pages, these people would show up.")

And if you've ever been to a ME show, you've seen the audience and you know it's completely true. People always say that Yellow Pages thing about singers or actors, but I think for ME's fans it's no joke.

And I'm not sure how anyone could not be a fan, especially after this performance at the 2005 Grammy Awards. The woman had breast cancer, was going through chemotherapy and gave this performance of Piece of My Heart - bald head and all.

That bitch ain't messing around.

And before someone jumps on me for calling her a bitch, I want you to know that I am using it as a term of absolute respect and admiration for a strong woman who doesn't back down, who is very likely tougher than me and who could probably kick my ass.

Anyway, if you're going to (or went to) the show and you've stumbled across this blog entry, please let me know how it was.

I love rhubarb

2008-06-25T21:35:00.006-04:00

I've been having a ridiculously busy month at work so tonight I bought myself something that I would normally never buy.

Yes, that's rhubarb. I'll admit that it's not exactly the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a crazy, splurge-y, treat-yourself kind of thing but I do love rhubarb. I love it stewed with what most people would call way too little sugar. I love it in almost any way imaginable as long as it's not too sweet. My theory is that if your face doesn't pucker at least a little bit, it's too sweet.

I call my big rhubarb purchase a splurge because this is the first time I've ever actually paid money for it. My parents, like a lot of people in our area of Nova Scotia, have practically a field of it in their back yard. When I was growing up it was basically a weed, so I've found it hard to actually pay for it here in CT. Besides, usually what I've seen for sale here looks worse than what my parents would throw away.

But this stuff looked good, so I bought my 5 foot-long pieces of rhubarb which weighed all of 1.5 pounds and I paid my $3.06 - again, not much money but when you're used to getting it for free....

Anyway, I stewed it up added some strawberries and a teeny-tiny bit of sugar and it was delicious!!! Worth every penny.

Do you like weather?

2008-06-24T20:26:00.005-04:00

Here in CT, we’ve had a pretty awesome week of weather. We’ve had a few thunderstorms and bursts of rain but otherwise it’s been in the low to mid-70’s every day and cool at night. If work and rehearsals hadn’t been so insane over the past little while, I could have enjoyed it a bit more, but I’ll deal.

By the way, I have officially bitten off more than I can chew this month but that’s not today’s topic. Back to the weather.

Can you guess what exotic locale has been having this weather?

Sunny, with a high of -25F (-32C) and a low of -110F (-80C), with light winds and clear visibility.

Sounds comfy, doesn’t it? This is the weather experienced by the Phoenix Lander which is sitting on the northern polar region of Mars. Chilly, eh?

I'm bring this up because I found out last week that the Phoenix Lander has a weather station on it courtesy of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA)!! Yes, we do indeed have a Canadian Space Agency. Hey, don’t laugh! We make our contributions to the space program.

Where would NASA be without the shuttle's Canadarm?

It was so good that NASA asked for another one which the CSA named the admittedly not so clever Canadarm 2.

It even came with a Canadian permanently attached to the end. It’s true. I applied, but didn’t get it.

The CSA got a bit more creative with name of the latest arm, Dextre, which just went up in March.

With all these arms Canada has sent up, you could say we’re NASA’s right arm country! Ha, right arm country! Well, you could say that if you wanted to be completely corny. And that’s how I roll, biatches!

So, the next time the weather comes up in conversation you can wow your friends by making polite small talk about the weather on Mars. You can even download a widget for your computer or your Google page which will give you automatic updates so you never need to miss a moment of the Martian weather.

All courtesy of Canada. You’re welcome.

Ice, Ice, Baby!

In another space/geek story, NASA scientists have confirmed that there is solid ice at the northern polar region. The scoop on the Phoenix Lander revealed a white substance which changed in appearance over a couple of days.

NASA thought it was either ice or salt, but since salt doesn’t really change like that (“sublime” is the fancy-schmancy science geek term), they’ve concluded that it is indeed ice.

Now that they have found ice all they need is some vodka and a shaker and Mars will be livable.

George Carlin - Religion is bullshit.

2008-06-23T06:51:00.001-04:00

We have lost a voice of reason in the world.

Stormtroopers invade Danbury!

2008-06-21T16:40:00.005-04:00

Did you know that the state of CT has its very own group of Star Wars Stormtroopers? They're officially the Connecticut Garrison of the 501st Legion of Stormtroopers.

I guess they must be unemployed since the defeat of Darth Vader and the Emperor because now they fill their time doing public apperarances. And they must be feeling some guilt over what they did during their war with the Jedi and the Rebel Alliance because their appearances are all done for charity.

They will be appearing in Danbury tonight with the Danbury Symphony Orchestra as the DSO performs a concert of music from space related movies.

Alas, we have other plans for the evening, so I will not be there to enjoy the geekfest. They do photo ops and how cool would that have been?

Chocolate covered what?

2008-06-20T05:42:00.004-04:00

Remember my blog post where I raved about bacon and then showed a picture of a Maple Bacon Bar – a maple doughnut with actual bacon on top? I expect that you remember for one of two reasons. Either the Maple Bacon Bar completely grossed you out and you can't possibly forget it - or because you were so excited about its awesomeness and you can't possibly forget it.

Well, gastronomes everywhere can celebrate because there’s a new bacon combination out there. Marini’s, a candy shop in Santa Cruz, CA is selling chocolate covered bacon.

I may never again say “Everything is better with bacon.”

But I shouldn't knock it until I've tried it and I may get a chance to try this concoction. I found out this week that a friend will be directing a show in Santa Cruz next year so we just might be planning a trip. I'll be sure to let you know if we get to Marini's.

Dance your cares away, worry's for another day, let the music play...

2008-06-18T06:57:00.002-04:00

Down in Fraggle Rock!! (And if you knew that was the next line, then you are A-okay in my book!)

Why is there a video of the Fraggle Rock intro on Alan's blog, you might ask?

Well, I just want everyone to know that Fraggle Rock is being made into a full length movie!!!

I would confess to being a little embarrassed by my level of excitement about the Fraggle Rock movie except for the fact that it's too fricking cool for words!

Seriously, people! Fraggles! Doozers! Gorgs! Come on! Gobo, Mokey, Wembley, Boober, Red! Too. Fricking. Cool. For. Words.

Notwithstanding the fact that the Fraggles and all things Henson are inherently cool, the fact that I have no shame about anything (seriously, have you read this blog?) should let you understand why I have no embarrassment whatsoever over my Fraggle-excitement.

The only problem is that I have to find a child to take to the movie. While I have no shame, I am aware that going to a so-called kids' movie alone might draw some unwanted attention and weird looks. Maybe we'll be visiting some nephews and nieces when it hits theatres. Or maybe Jane will be old enough by then.

40

2008-06-17T17:38:00.002-04:00

So, I’m 40 now. Big frackin’ whoop.

It’s not that I’m depressed or stressed or upset about turning 40. It’s just no big deal for me. It’s certainly not that I’m trying to deny the fact I am 40 - I have no problems with my age and as far as I'm concerned, 40 is just a number.

It’s just that birthdays, especially milestone birthdays, are pretty much a non-event for me. Everyone puts so much emphasis on the event and makes it into this big deal, but with the exception of the drinking-age-birthday, there’s really nothing different in your life the next day. It’s just a different number. It’s a bit like New Year’s Eve - or Presidential elections (well, that's how it was in the pre-George W. days anyway).

So, other than having some delightful family visits this month, there was nothing big planned for this birthday. I don't really celebrate other birthdays so why bother to celebrate this one? It seemed really pointless to plan some big to-do.

And really what would I be celebrating? What accomplishment would I be marking? The only real achievement would be that I've hung around for 40 years. I have successfully (and if you think about it, not exactly selflessly) dodged major illness and injury for 40 years. Yeah, me!

This is not to say that I'm just hanging around waiting for death to spare me from my boring life or to say that I've achieved nothing else in my life. I love my life - it's a full rich life. Maybe you'd never know it from the plethora of boring-assed blog entries, but at least I have fun. And while I haven't achieved anything stupendous that has brought me the worldwide acclaim and fortune that I so rightly deserve (HA!), I like to think I've done some pretty cool exciting things and that I've made some sort of contribution to my field of work through my potions in the lab.

I guess that this "what to do for my milestone birthday" dilemma really comes from the general expectation that I should want to do something special. But anyone who knows me likely knows that if people think I should want to do something, then chances are I won’t want to do it.

Maybe that last statement reveals another reason why I’m not concerned about turning 40. I’m not worried about getting older because I’ve had curmudgeonly down pat for years!!

Happy F-ing Birthay

2008-06-15T22:05:00.000-04:00

We saw this birthday party set at Urban Outfitters on Friday. If I wasn't celebrating with a 3-year-old, I would have considered buying it.

Today in history - June 15

2008-06-15T17:18:00.004-04:00

Interesting events from today in history.

1649 - Margaret Jones of Charlestown becomes the first person tried and executed for witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts.

1752 - Benjamin Franklin and his son conduct the famous experiment involving a kite and key during a thunderstorm, confirming Franklin's theory that lightning is electrical.

1846 - The border between the US and Canada is set at the 49th parallel

1902 - Canada's Maritime Provinces switch from Eastern to Atlantic time

1948 - WTNH TV channel 8 in New Haven, CT (ABC) begins broadcasting

1962 - Canada launches its first space vehicle, Alouette 1

1968 - I make my grand entrance

1973 - Neil Patrick Harris is born

1974 - "Streak" by Ray Stevens hit #1 on UK pop chart

1979 - 1st space shuttle solid rocket booster qualification test firing; 122 seconds

1983 - US Supreme Court strikes down state & local restrictions on abortion

1987 - Ontario passes North America's first pay equity legislation.

1988 - NASA launches space vehicle S-213

1992 - During a spelling bee, Dan Quayle misspells potato, as potatoe

And by "interesting" I mean Canadian-centric, left-leaning, somewhat-gay, pop-culture-y, moderately humourous, anti-religion and geek-tastic events from today in history.

You may feel free to place my birthday in any or all of those categories.

The Happening

2008-06-13T08:23:00.001-04:00

Have you seen the trailer for the new M. Night Shyamalan movie?

This trailer makes me laugh because it shows Mark Wahlberg saying, "There are forces at work beyond our understanding." After seeing some of Mark Wahlberg's movie roles and interviews I'm willing to bet that there are a lot of things that are beyond his understanding. Not that I'm implying that I think he's dumb or anything. I'm just saying that I don't think he'd win any mental acuity contests.

However, I might actually go see this movie based on the trailers. I've found Shyamalan's movies to be increasingly disappointing since the brilliance that was The Sixth Sense. Unbreakable was okay. Signs was horrid. And I guessed the ending of The Village from the trailers. I didn't even pay much attention to The Lady in the Water.

Maybe this one will redeem him.

Straight to the moon, Alan!

2008-06-12T10:20:00.000-04:00

How cool is this? Obviously, based on my track record here, everyone is thinking that this entry is going to be something supremely dorky if I start with the question "How cool is this?"

Anyway, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is a space craft that is headed to the Moon in November to check things out for NASA's plans to land on and set up a presence the moon. Well, you, too, can get involved with this mission. I already did.

NASA is letting the general public go to the moon!

Well, your name anyway. You can go to a NASA web site and enter your name which will be placed on a microchip and sent to the moon on the LRO. Your name can be orbiting the moon for many years to come!

I repeat, how cool is this?

You even get a fancy-schmancy certificate of participation which is most definitely suitable for framing.

I can tell that Todd is now panicking that we're going to have more dorky space nonsense on our walls. Unfortunately, I think I've already reached my quota of geek paraphernalia on display so I won't get to put this up but it would look pretty cool, wouldn't it?

But do not delay, the deadline for this is June 27th, 2008, so go to the web site now and one of those days in November, bang, zoom, straight to the moon!

Flobots - Handlebars

2008-06-11T06:41:00.001-04:00

I happened to catch this band on Jay Leno last week. I'm not a fan of rap (or spoken word music, whatever you want to call this) but for some reason this song got stuck in my head. After watching the video I'm starting to think they might be one of the smartest socially-conscious bands around.

Twilight Zone rehearsals

2008-06-09T20:43:00.008-04:00

Observant people may have noticed that I haven't mentioned the show that I'm doing since I announced that I got cast. It's not that I'm avoiding it as if it's too painful to discuss. It's going very well. I think.

It's just that it's been kind of an odd rehearsal process. Now, I should state for the non-theatre people that every show is different in its rehearsal schedule. It depends on the needs of the show, the role, the rest of the cast, the theatre and the director. For this show, the big limitation has been the lack of a set. Or I should say the limitation has been dealing with the set that has been in place for the show that precedes us.

There isn't a ton of dialogue in our show, so a lot of the rehearsal involves working out the blocking (that's "the action" for you non-theatre folks). Without our own set it's been tricky to know where we're supposed to be and how we're going to get there.

Instead of bumping into the existing set, we've just been avoiding the problem by sitting and running lines. It's going well and I think we've got a handle on how we're doing the lines - my cast mates are great and we're having fun. It just feels like we're not getting a lot done. But there are many directors out there who will say that rehearsals don't even start until everyone is off book (knows their lines), so at least we are getting somewhere on that front.

Fortunately, we kicked the last show out on Sunday when we took down their set and now our set is being built. Hopefully this week, we'll be able to start really working the show and it will feel like we're actually getting somewhere.

Of course, my perception of how much we're getting done might be a bit messed up by my recent experiences in rehearsals. Half of the shows I've done in the last few years have been roles where I've been cast late in the process and I've had to jump in head first and work my ass off to catch up. Maybe this more relaxed pace is just what it's supposed to be like....

Sissy Boy 80s Hits?

2008-06-08T11:04:00.003-04:00

A while back, I found this playlist on Yahoo's music page. The writer put together a list of "New Wave Sissy Boy 80s Hits You Were Afraid To Admit You Liked In High School".

Insert joke here about the 80’s not reaching Canada until the 90’s (yeah, thanks How I Met Your Mother).

On with the list:

Too Shy - Kajagoogoo
No One Is To Blame - Howard Jones
Do You Really Want To Hurt Me - Culture Club
Poison Arrow – ABC
Save A Prayer - Duran Duran
Careless Whisper - Wham!
Hold Me Now - The Thompson Twins
If You Leave - Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
Blasphemous Rumours - Depeche Mode
Tainted Love - Soft Cell
It's My Life - Talk Talk
More Than This - Roxy Music
I Ran (So Far Away) - A Flock Of Seagulls
Promises, Promises - Naked Eyes
Perfect Way - Scritti Politti
West End Girls - Pet Shop Boys
Only You – Yaz
Girls Just Want To Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper
Safety Dance - Men Without Hats
Love Plus One - Haircut 100
True - Spandau Ballet

Sissy Boy? Afraid to admit I like? Well, yeah, maybe in high school, but now? Nuh-uh! I'll proudly say that 13 of the 21 songs on that list are on my iPod’s Favourites playlist. And I would actually like to thank the writer for reminding me of 5 more that I loved but kind of forgot about.

No jokes please, but I guess that makes me a “Sissy Boy”. I said no jokes! Actually, go ahead, make jokes. I’ll take the title anyway. As I like to say, "I'm sure I've been called worse by better people." Not that I'm dissing on any friends or family who reads this. Moving on...

Anyway, there are some serious omissions from the above list. Here are some additions:

Blue Monday – New Order
Obsession – Animotion
Take On Me - a-Ha
Promises, Promises – Johnny Hates Jazz
Tenderness – General Public
Small Town Boy – Bronski Beat
You Spin Me 'Round (Like a Record) – Dead or Alive
Send Me an Angel – Real Life

And quite possibly the sissiest of the sissy boy New Wave hits:
Relax – Frankie Goes to Hollywood

Come on. How could that possibly have been left off the original list? Maybe that went so far beyond “sissy boy” that it was just too obvious to include. Could be.

Here are some Canadian additions you may not be familiar with (and yes, they actually came out on the 80's, not the 90's):

Echo Beach – Martha and the Muffins
Nova Heart – Spoons
Rise Up – Parachute Club
Don’t Walk Past - Blue Peter

I’m 99% sure you don’t know those last four, but if you like 80’s music you really should check them out. By the way, Men Without Hats - Canadian. It's a fact.

Now if you'll excuse me I have to go to iTunes to download some music and create some new sissy boy playlists.

Happy 300!

2008-06-06T01:06:00.002-04:00

So, here it is everyone, my 300th post. Ye-haaaa….. or whatever.

I've been down on the blog recently. More than a few times over the past little while, I’ve almost completely given it up. Cut it off. Shut it down.

While I sprinted into my 200th post by posting nearly every day (or at least every other day), I feel like I've reached the 300 mark more like an old man using a walker that has a wonky leg. I staggered and faltered towards the line and then just kind of fell over it more by accident than by any real desire to get there.

These days I'm lucky if the increasingly elusive combination of time and inspiration converge in my life more than once a week. Between rehearsals for the show, work being crazy and family visiting there just hasn’t been time to write much that’s worth posting. And if you’ve read some of the crap I’ve posted, well, you know it must be pretty bad if even I won’t post it.

The nearly fatal blow to the blog came when I read a book. But not just any book.

I went to our local chain bookstore that was closing down and found Strunk and White’s Elements of Style at 40% off. For those of you unaware, this book is considered by many to be the writer’s bible. I thought, “Hey! Strunk and White. If I’m going to write this blog, maybe I should read this for some tips.”

“Tips” isn’t quite the word I would use for what I found. What I did discover is that I am most definitely not a writer. While my grammar and English usage is usually done fairly well (assuming that I can be forgiven for my use of Canadian spellings), the section on writing style put me in my place. It turns out that I violate almost every recommendation for good writing style in almost every blog post. It was a little rough on my self-esteem.

But I'm getting over it. It’s not like I’m getting paid for this. It’s not like I’m trying to sell this to a publisher. It’s not even like this is what I would describe as actual “writing.” It’s a blog of my nonsense and minutiae put out there mainly for friends and family to let them know what’s going on in our lives. And in my defense I think that almost everyone who does write a blog violates Strunk and White’s Elements of Style. If you doubt me, read it sometime. While it's not an edge-of-your-seat cliff-hanger kind of book, it is an eye opener. At least I’ve got a leg up on a lot of other blogs by actually having some grasp on the proper use of grammar. It may not always be right but it‘s pretty close.

So, the nonsense will continue. But I think I’m done with counting the entries so there will be nothing to mark the 400th. That is if I get there….

Sex and the City

2008-06-04T21:32:00.003-04:00

My apologies to Amanda because I know she's very excited about the movie, Cougars Have Sex Then Talk About It While Wearing Crazy Clothes And Shoes That Are Ridiculously Expensive Making It Totally Unbelievable Because, I Mean, Seriously If You Live In The City Who Has That Kind Of Disposable Income For Clothes And Shoes? Of course, that's a bit long for a movie marquee so they shortened it to Sex and the City.

Before you think I'm judging something without having even seen it, I have seen the SATC show and I just did not think it was that funny. Maybe I don't have the plumbing required to enjoy the show.

I'll have to admit to an accidental Sex and the City moment a few weeks ago. While wandering around the Upper East Side of NYC a few weeks ago killing time before a show, we stumbled upon a bakery. I could always go for a tasty baked good so we headed on over. I was wondering what the deal was with the gaggle of twenty/thirtysomething girls hanging around outside and having their pictures taken until I realized that it was Magnolia Bakery, a place that was mentioned in the show. They were clearly on a rather sad Sex and the City tour of anything and everything even mentioned in the TV show.

So anyway, we did have a couple of cupcakes. They were okay. Nothing great. Kind of like the show.

I think I'd rather see this movie:

Squirrels have abs?

2008-05-29T18:40:00.001-04:00

Squirrels are evil. I've said it before and I'll say it again many many times. They're destructive little gluttons and they're probably even responsible for global warming. I have nothing to back that up - I'm just saying...

I feed the birds in our back yard. Unfortunately, in most of North America if you feed birds, you also feed squirrels. And when squirrels eat - I should rephrase that - when squirrels gorge they don't let much get in their way. If that means chewing through a feeder and completely destroying it in the process then that's just fine with them. See, evil!

I've spent quite a lot of time and money fighting the squirrels by blocking access to feeders and buying squirrel-proof feeders. HA!! I laugh at that term "squirrel-proof." Biggest crock of hooey ever.

Anyway, I have one feeder that's been pretty good at keeping the squirrels from gorging themselves.

It's made of metal so it's relatively chew-proof (and seriously, when you're dealing with squirrels, metal is literally just relatively chew-proof). In addition, the bar at the front is attached to a spring inside and when anything that weighs more than a medium-sized bird lands on the bar, the feeder closes up and blocks access to the seed like so:

(That's my finger - not a naked squirrel or a pink bird)

Well, squirrels are nothing if not wiley and persistent. I looked out the window this weekend to discover that a particularly clever squirrel has outsmarted even this feeder.

She has discovered that by hanging upside down underneath the feeder by her back toes, she can curl her upper body up behind the spring loaded bar and get seed out. She then relaxes her abs of steel and hangs to snack on her ill gotten gains.

Seriously, she's dangling from her back toes!!

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

As much as I dislike squirrels, I was thoroughly impressed. Have you ever done those kind of ab curls? They're frickin brutal!!

And just to make you respect this squirrel even more, she's got just one eye. It looks like she may have been caught in a scuffle with a cat or something but apparently she seems to be managing just fine, thank you very much.

So I guess that the point of this entry is to publicly state that a half blind squirrel has outsmarted the best I have to offer.

Funny, that also sums up my work week....

The Phoenix has landed

2008-05-26T17:40:00.004-04:00

I’m sure you’ve heard this on the news by now but yesterday NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander successfully touched down on the northern polar region of Mars in a search for signs of life. NASA scientists hope that the frozen water in that area harbours life or at least has some habitability potential.

Considering that half of the attempts to land on Mars have failed, a successful landing was cause for some tense moments and the fact that the landing was nearly perfect is pretty exciting stuff.

We were at a party yesterday when it touched down but while the party went on outside, the hosts left the NASA TV coverage on inside. Did you know there was a NASA TV? A whole TV channel devoted to all things NASA! Imagine that! I'm sure you are imagining a total geekfest that, yes, indeed, I would love to get. The party hosts were getting it through Direct TV which we don't have and unfortunately our cable company doesn't have NASA TV. Time to send Charter an e-mail.

Todd even joined in on watching the actual landing. He lost track of me at the party and correctly figured out that I was inside watching the landing. He even seemed to get into the excitement of it all. Unless he was just making fun of the rest of us with his mock excitement. Well, now he knows how I feel when basketball is on.

Anyway, while NASA TV was waiting for the actual landing, they showed this animation of Phoenix entering the atmoshpere and landing on the surface of Mars.

An official fully-credited NASA version of the video can be found here.

Another party attendee who I did not know felt the need to point out to me that it was just an animation. Oh, really? An animation? It's not live? You mean NASA didn't send up a second lander to fly right beside Phoenix to film the descent? And NASA didn't have a video crew on the surace of Mars to film the actual landing and the post landing action? Oh, thanks for pointing that out.

Clearly I was not that snarky to her - I'm sure she was just trying to be helpful but I did have a good little laugh over it.

Besides there was actually a second spacecraft documenting the action. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took this photo of Phoenix and its parachute which deployed to slow down the lander's descent.

I'm sure we can all guess just by looking at the pictures which are actual pictures and which are artist renderings.

People have too much time on their hands...

2008-05-21T20:27:00.001-04:00

I guess I probably shouldn’t talk considering the geeky lameness so prominent in my hobbies (blogging, birds, nature, gardening, reading, acting, space), but I’m having a crappy week full of too many meetings and it's making me cranky so I'm going to throw some stones at someone else’s glass house.

I don't even remember how I stumbled upon this but I discovered a web site where you can buy wigs for cats. Yup, go back and read that last bit again. I'll even type it out again for full effect - a web site where you can buy wigs for cats!

From the website:
Blue is edgy and electric. In this wig, Chicken sports some serrrrious attitude– she’s thinking saxophones, smoke and snapping fingers. Blue gives your kitty a sharp look -- jazzy and totally copacetic.

Lest you think the Kitty Wigs people are being too felinocentric (or canophobic), the wigs will also fit small dogs.

Now, I know that people love their pets. I know that many pet owners love their pets at least as much as parents love their children. In fact, the way I've seen some parents behave in public I suspect that many pet owners love their animals more than some parents love their kids. But seriously, folks, pets do not need wigs or costumes.

No, in spite of what you may think, they do not enjoy it. They tolerate it. Just because a cat is not scratching your eyes out (even though they are thinking about it), it does not mean they enjoy wearing a wig or costume.

Now, I will allow for the possibility that I might be wrong in some cases. Maybe your kitty does come to you just begging to please, please let them wear a wig. Right, that seems likely.

If you'd like to see even more pet abuse, there is a Flickr group to display the madness. Someone call PETA. Or the ASPCA. Or maybe just get the owners a good therapist.

Happy Mother's Day!!

2008-05-11T19:10:00.003-04:00

For Mother's Day, I present the card we sent to a very special mother.

Happy Mother's Day to all and to all a good night!

Mmmmm, bacon....

2008-05-09T16:53:00.003-04:00

I love bacon. Clearly, it's not exactly good for you but I love turkey clubs, BLTs and bacon and egg sandwiches.

One of my favourite statements is "everything is better with bacon," but I think I may have found my limit.

In this April 12, 2008 file photo made from video, a Bacon Maple Bar is shown at Voodoo Doughnut in Portland, Ore.(AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

The bacon itself looks delicious (naturally), and even the doughnut looks tasty but the combination might fall into the category of "two great tastes that do not go great together." Although, maple-flavoured bacon is very tasty, so who knows.

For more taste sensations, check out the web site of Voodoo Doughnut - they've got some other hilarious doughnuts. Another one of my favourites is the store's namesake, the Voodoo Doughnut, which is made in the shape of a voodoo doll.

Clearly this is a food item that should be played with before eating!

Crazy family visit time

2008-05-08T19:30:00.004-04:00

Hmmm, that kind of sounds like a Japanese TV show... anyway...

I don’t mean to say by my title that my family is crazy – well, not any crazier than any other family anyway. I mean that we’re going to have a crazy amount of family visits over the next month.

I say that this is crazy because we don’t get a whole lot of family visits. We go visit the Ontario and the Nova Scotia factions of the clan once a year, but we don’t often get family coming to us. We’re excited to show them our little corner of the world.

First up, my mother is travelling through next week. And I literally mean “travelling through”. She is going on a bus trip to Amish country in Pennsylvania and they just happen to be stopping near where I work for lunch. Seriously, think about that. Of all the ~900 miles this bus trip will be traveling from the starting point in New Brunswick down to Lancaster, PA, they just happen to be stopping for lunch two miles from where I work. It’s a pretty amazing coincidence.

Not only that but Mom doesn’t travel a lot in the first place, so this is a pretty significant event. In fact, I’m not sure she’s been to the US in the last 30 years. Who knows what new wonders she will see?

What, you may ask, is she looking forward to seeing on her big adventure? When I talked to her on the phone the other night it sounded like she was most looking forward to the possibility of seeing a cardinal. Yes, a cardinal. They’re rare in NS and it seems to be her favourite bird, so it would be a big deal for her. I guess the apple doesn’t fall to far from the tree after all – I must get my thing for birds from my folks.

Mom’s going on this bus trip with a church group so hopefully they won’t be horrified to have a sinner in their midst for lunch. But maybe I will give them something to discuss and pray about when they’re back on the bus.

We’ve got more family coming to visit at the end of May/beginning of June and then another wave comes in the middle of June. More on those visits later.

And as I said above, we’re excited to show them all our little corner of the world. I am also excited by the thoughts of all the fantastic Canadian beer that the family can bring across the border!!

Not to mention the ketchup chips!

Alexander Keith’s and ketchup chips – it just doesn’t get any better than that.

Cinco de Mayo

2008-05-05T18:43:00.003-04:00

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Glug... glug... glug...

That feels better!

Rinse, lather, repeat....

Star Trek: The Klingtastic Musical?

2008-05-04T09:42:00.004-04:00

I am excited to report that I have been cast in a show at Hole in the Wall Theatre! In July and August, they are doing a stage version of four classic episodes of The Twilight Zone. They’re calling it The Twilight Zone: Of Shadows and Substance. Since I am a big fan of sci-fi and fantasy, this show is right up my alley. But please don’t worry that it will be a big old geek-fest. While there are elements of fantasy in each episode, they are also just really well written mini-dramas. Really.

I don’t want to give away too much information about the show because if you’ve ever seen The Twilight Zone, you know there’s usually a twist at the end of each episode. Since synopses and full episodes are available on the internets, I don’t want you to research the shows and spoil any surprises. So I’m not going to tell you what episodes we’re doing and I’m not going to tell you what role(s) I have. I will tell you that I will definitely be heavily featured in one of the episodes and may do smaller roles in another one or two. There are callbacks later today for those roles, so I’ll know more then.

I’m going to enjoy this show for a few reasons. I’m looking forward to working with my cast mate (she and I are on stage most of the time and there’s only one other minor character). We saw her in another HITW show and she was great so I’m looking forward to working with her.

There’s also another much less mature reason I’m going to enjoy this. As you may know, people in the theatre community support each other by going to see each others shows. A lot of my theatre friends who would normally come to my shows are probably not big fans of sci-fi or fantasy. Not that The Twilight Zone is strictly sci-fi (remember what I said above – “really well written mini-dramas. Really”), but this show will probably not be up their alley.

So this will finally be sweet revenge for all the crappy musicals I’ve felt obliged to see over the past little while…. as in, many years. See, much less mature reason.

Also not so mature is the title of this post - Star Trek: The Klingtastic Musical. Amanda knew I was auditioning for something sci-fi-ish and she asked me this week if I heard back about Star Trek: The Klingtastic Musical. It made me laugh out loud at work and the name has kind of stuck – at least between the two of us. By the way, if the people who own the rights to Star Trek in its many forms read this they really should do this musical. The potential audience must number in the tens of … well, tens.

I must admit that I would be one of those tens because I think it is a totally excellent name for a show and I would totally go to see it. If for nothing else, I would go to see how much of a “train wreck” it could be. Plus it would be awesome to mock the seriously hard core Star Trek geeks who would show up in costume.

So, anyway, come to Hole in the Wall in a couple of months and see me in ~~Star Trek: The Klingtastic Musical~~ The Twilight Zone.

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BARACK

2008-05-03T10:49:00.005-04:00

This is a riot! I almost snarfed my coffee when Annie Oakley flew on.

Tonight, tonight...

2008-05-02T17:22:00.002-04:00

We are having dinner with our friend Sarah tonight. As always, we’re very excited to see her but we’re also very excited to be trying a new restaurant. It’s been open for a while, but it is new to us. It’s called Crave, it’s located in Ansonia and apparently it’s awesome. Who’d have thought that you could find a cool restaurant in Ansonia?

Anyway, I am so excited that I wrote a little song about it. Well, actually I rewrote the lyrics to the song "Tonight" from West Side Story. Yes, surprisingly enough, I am revealing a familiarity with musicals here. I will admit to seeing the show, but I definitely did not enjoy it. It represents pretty much everything I dislike about musicals. Nuff said, moving on.

Here is my little ditty:

Tonight, tonight.
Fun with Sarah tonight.
I’m so excited I can’t even say.

Tonight, tonight.
We’ll be with her tonight.
But just platonically because of course we’re gay.

So, I don’t see any Tony Awards in my future but Sarah, Todd and I got a chuckle out of it.

In other Sarah-related news, she will be pairing up with her bestie, Mia, for a cabaret performance at Center Stage Shelton the weekend of May 23rd. They are both inexplicably single so their show is titled Two Chicks without Boyfriends. It will feature “classic and contemporary love songs” as well as some hilarious anecdotes from their lives. At $15 a head, you can’t pass that up. You should also bring a single guy to introduce to them. Or even better, bring TWO single guys – one for each of them!

Daycation yesterday

2008-04-25T16:39:00.003-04:00

I ended up taking a daycation yesterday. It was not a planned day off, but I woke up yesterday feeling like a big steaming pile of poo. And by “feel”, I don’t mean in an actual tactile sense. I don’t mean that I know what a steaming pile of poo feels like as if I’ve actually physically felt a big steaming pile of poo by putting a hand in one or anything. Overall, health-wise, I felt like what I imagine a big steaming pile of poo would feel like.

You know, I use the phrase “big steaming pile of poo” in a negative sense all the time, but I never really thought about it before. Perhaps a big steaming pile of poo feels pretty good being itself considering how warm and steamy it must be – like a little self-contained sauna. It might be very cozy and happy as… well, to bring it all full circle, happy as a pig in shit. For the sake of argument, let’s continue to assume that a big steaming pile of poo does not feel good. Let’s just move on period.

I think feeling lousy arose from the seasonal allergies that have arrived in full force. There is usually one day each spring where my body hasn’t adjusted to the allergens and/or the allergy medication hasn’t fully kicked in and I feel absolutely rotten. I’m hoping that yesterday was that day.

I shouldn’t be surprised I guess because it has been really nice here over the past week. The trees are really starting to leaf out so the air is loaded with pollen. You can really tell because my car looks like it has a yellow film over the green paint. It’s not such a good colour combination.

Apparently, the weather in my home province of NS is significantly worse than what we’ve had. Today’s my youngest sister’s birthday and it always snows on her birthday. True to tradition, she reported that they had a few flurries this morning. We in CT should consider ourselves very lucky to be getting this nice weather. Associated allergies and all!

So, for my daycation, I basically puttered about at home. I did some cleaning up in the yard, some gardening and some reading. It was a very peaceful, relaxing day and I feel much better for taking it. My body also seems to have adjusted to the pollen as I feel much better today even though I spent the majority of my time outside yesterday. So while I started yesterday feeling like a big steaming pile of poo, I felt pretty darn good by the end of the day. And that, as we’ve discussed, may actually be how a big steaming pile of poo feels. Who knows?

********************************************
I know this entry is in itself a big steaming pile of poo, but I’m stealing an idea from another blog I read and I’m having a “no delete day”. I’m stuck with whatever I’ve typed and whatever comes out gets posted. I’m thinking maybe it was a bad idea that is best not repeated…

Car troubles

2008-04-24T20:03:00.006-04:00

So, here we go with my vehicular tale of woe. I was at the dealer a couple of weeks ago for an oil change and was informed that the head gasket was leaking. I don’t know ~~anything~~ much about cars, but I do know dollar figures and this particular repair was going to run $1600. Add on to that a 90000 mile service that was due (~$500) and then sometime later this year replacing the timing belt (probably another ~$400) and my 2004 Subaru Outback with 93000 miles and a Kelley Blue Book value of ~$8000 was seriously teetering on the precipice of the fix/replace debate.

I was in a bit of a panic because my last car (which also happened to be my first car) actually died on the side of the road during a Christmas vacation while we were on our way back to CT from NS. We were stuck in Moncton, NB for two days while the water pump fuel pump was fixed. Suffice it to say, I’m a little nervous about car failure. Since a leaking head gasket can lead to some serious nastiness, I was a little panicked.

After doing some quick research on new car options and considering the somewhat dubious scheme of trading in my car with the knowledge that it had a leaking head gasket, I decided I wasn’t ready to have new car payments just yet and wasn’t ready to pull that not-so-honest trade-in move. I decided to have the car fixed. This unfortunately was not the end of the worry because once they opened up the engine to do the repair, they could have discovered that the engine block was cracked which would have meant a new engine. Good times.

I dropped the car off on Monday for its two day repair job. Fortunately, the dealer gave me a 2008 Impreza as a loaner car (file that under the “The Least They Could Do” category) and since it was one of the new cars I considered buying, I treated it as a two day test drive. One positive aspect of this whole experience is that I discovered I don’t want a new Impreza. So, that’s something.

But back to my car. I tensed up every time my phone rang because I was scared the dealer was calling with bad news, but the only call I got was that the car was ready. The engine block was not cracked, so the planned repairs were all that were required and I had no surprises on the bill. I had the aforementioned timing belt replaced as well because it could be done a little early while the head gasket was being done. Hopefully, I will not have a major bill again this year.

So, what was the final bill you ask? It was a bit over $2000. Or to be more specific and to pay homage to (well, really to “mock”) the musical RENT, the bill was 211,548 pennies. That’s how much money – money it cost.

Hey, that’s kind of catchy, eh? Sorry, Amanda, I know you love RENT but you have to give me points for trying to find the humour in the situation.

Anyway, although I am ~$2000 poorer, the car does run better than it did before the repair so that is also on the plus side.

So with that big stressor out of the way (for now), I still hope to find my sorts as I mentioned yesterday. It helped that I took today off. That's an additional contribution I made to Earth Week - I didn't commute!

Brother, can you spare some sorts?

2008-04-23T19:30:00.005-04:00

Because I seem to be completely out of sorts these days. Interesting phrase – “out of sorts”. Go here for a couple of possible explanations of the term.

Anyway, that’s my flimsy excuse for not blogging much. Read on for details. Or spare yourself and don’t. Whichever.

I think part of my troubles has been the arrival of spring with the associated pollen and that oh so delightful sign of spring - the seasonal allergies. YEE-HA!!! Please don’t tell me to avoid exposure to pollen by staying inside because with this weather I am going to enjoy the warmth and sunshine as much as possible. I do indeed have a laptop so I could blog from the out of doors, but the battery loses power like water through a sieve these days so that’s not so much of an option. A new computer is planned for the near future, but it’s not in the cards right now.

I’ve also been busy trying to get the apartment cleaned up because we had a few people over this past weekend. It’s been a while since the apartment had a thorough ready-for-company kind of cleaning. It’s not that we live like complete slobs and it’s not that I obsess about having everything just so, but it truly needed to be spiffed up. In the spirit of full disclosure (and before Todd leaves a blog comment calling me out on it), I do have to admit that I like to have everything “just so” for company. But the big clean was because the apartment really needed a cleaning. Next up is gutting the crap we have shoved in drawers and closets.

It's also been tough to get back into the habit of going to the gym since our vacation. Going to the gym definitely gives me more energy, but lately I haven't had the energy to go to the gym to get that additional energy. It's a vicious cycle, I tell ya!

The biggest thing that’s been weighing on my mind has been an aggravating automobile situation but I think I’ll save that for tomorrow – it could take a while to write it all out.

Anyway I do hope to find my sorts soon. Maybe I can find them at the gym, but if you see them running about all willy-nilly, please let me know.

Huh, "willy-nilly" is another interesting phrase.

Sorry I've been so distant

2008-04-12T09:18:00.008-04:00

Hy. Oh, yeah, that’s right. I have this blog thingie, don’t I? I imagine this is the kind of thing that gets a little boring if you occasionally come back to it over three whole weeks and don’t see anything new. Not that the updates I typically post would be so much more exciting than nothing, but at least it would change the scenery around here.

Speaking of scenery, one week of blog absence was due to a fantastic trip to Arizona. We vacationed in Tucson, Arizona and while I would love to give a day by day account of how much we enjoyed the scenery, the weather and, of course, the food, I suspect that it would just depress me and annoy you. I’m sure you don’t want to hear about cloudless skies, 79-84 degree daytime temperatures, comfortably cool sleeping temperatures, stunning scenery, amazing National Parks, wonderful hiking, awesome wildlife, an incredible cavern, a truly special adobe bed and breakfast in the middle of the desert, hot-tubbing after a long day of hiking, stargazing without the haze and light pollution of the northeast, or the feeling of complete relaxation and well-being that I never thought I’d have in the desert.

There, see, it depressed me and I’m sure it annoyed you. Told you so.

So, I’m sorry that you haven’t heard anything from me. It’s not you, it’s me. I do hope to be a bit more regular with my updates and we’ll talk more often, I promise.

(Click here for larger view of the above picture. It's now the background on my computer at work. We took it at sunrise at the B&B. Yes, Todd was awake at sunrise. Can you believe it?)

Tucson 10 day forecast

2008-03-18T19:50:00.003-04:00

Ho-hum! How boring does this look?

And by boring I mean perfect and amazing EVERY day without a drop of rain to dampen our spirits.

Compare the above forecast to what we will be leaving behind.

I mean seriously! Your highs will be our lows!

Oh, I can feel the jealousy over the internets. Please don't hate me!

*******************************************
After reading this again, I have come to the conclusion that the above post is really mean and I'm very sorry.

Mind you I'm not sorry enough to delete the post, but I am sorry.

Was that you, Mom?

2008-03-18T15:34:00.003-04:00

I'm on vacation. I just caught myself cleaning a bit before we go away because "If someone breaks in, I don't want them to think we live like pigs."

Thanks for that one, Mom.

Overheard at Trader Joe’s last night…

2008-03-17T19:51:00.001-04:00

An older gentleman was shopping with his wife and they walked down an aisle near me looking for something.

He sees a Trader Joe’s employee and asks, “Do you carry any of that salmonella flour?”

If I hadn’t been feeling rather sick and mirthless, I think I would have laughed out loud.

I’m not sure how the Trader Joe’s employee didn’t laugh but he managed to very professionally say, “Do you mean semolina flour? No, we don’t have that either.”