Its been a long week, busy with lots of stuff to do and the like. That was extraordinarily descriptive I got ya. Maybe a little more detail would be reasonable.
School is in full swing, my class is going well and though it through my writing off track for a couple days, I have recovered at this point. I will, in the very near future be getting my first real doses of response and commentary on the 100 or so pages I have written in these 4 odd months, so hopefully my hopes and dreams will not be completely crushed. I have also almost fully completed the essay I've proposed on the subject of CSI: NY. The students I have are all remarkably engaged and have gotten some great ideas articulated. I'm really excited about the prospect of discussion with people who entered the class out of a genuine interest in the its subject matter, or at least the idea of literature in general, as opposed to a segment of the general college population which is forced into discussing something which has at best a marginal high-school like relevance. I also am crazy about the idea of reading and grading real papers and doing it on the basis of argument quality instead of logistical crap. We will finish our first book this week and move up the ladder including some theory in the next set. While I may never be confident in my job/economic prospects, I can say witha good amount of confidence that I am a pretty solid teacher.
Debate is also in full swing. We had the first meeting with all the novices yesterday and will leave for Kings College 9 days from now. I'm actually somewhat excited about the prospects for this season, I'm not completely sold on the activity in all its forms yet, but actively coaching again at least reminds me of the things I was originally obsessive about way back in the day and at least on and off during my coaching career. I've got a quality aff mostly written, though it doesnt appear anyone wants to run it, and I'm sure I'll have some quality neg arguments as the year unfolds. Debate was very different when I had the China topic before, but it at least gives me some perspective. I would imagine that competitive impulses will kick in the first time one of my teams gets an outround panel and as fantasy football this weekend reminded me, competition can add a good bit of cayenne to even the most bland weekend in Wilkes-Barre (which, despite all ya-lls fucking overinsistance, is prounced Wilkes-BAR).
Football too, as just mentioned, is back underway. My random Buffalo people team dominated, with Payton Manning and the Colts D coming up strong and I won by about 35 points. The more important league was tragic, as I appeared to be coming back, but succumbed at the last moment to the vicious combo of Warrick Dunn and Alge Crumpler. I got a ridiculous performance by the Bills Defense but an afternoon of serious pain inflicted on the Packers meant that Brett produced only 2 points and indeed, I fell 73 to 75. The Packers game could get a rant of its own, but I will spare all of us the tragedy. Suffice to say that while my pre-season thoughts tended to the 8-8 or 7-9 area, missing the playoffs to what I had expected to be at least a decent Viqueens squad. While after watching a truly pitiful performance against the Lions to open the season and acknowledging the devestating loss of Javon Walker I am prepared to guess something closer to 5-11 or 6-10, I'm not at all confident that Daunte is ready to make a run at the NFC North. I havent really been in "no chance for the Pack" mode for a while, so it might take me a couple weeks to fully adjust, I promise I'll be cool.
TV is also back and I can't explain to you how radical a development that is. We've gotten the premiere of The OC last week and some quality Fox programs, including Prison Break which is so far fascinating and additionally has the great privilege of featuring Marti Noxon. I'm not gonna say that its "this season's Lost" two episodes in, but it has similar qualities. Further TV reviews are on indefinate hold, at least until BB6 winds down and Survivor kicks off with 2 big surprises in the form of returning important castaways. We're back to the time of year where the DVR can really get backed up, so we've got to do some preventative maintenance.
Anyway, I will try to say hey more often this week. Nonethless, Hippo, the neat-freak of a kitten that she is, really wants me to clear the dinner dishes, so I should obey her persistant meows.
Peace,
MB-K
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Monday, September 05, 2005
I'll Be Your Number One With a Bullet, A Loaded God Complex Cock It and Pull Butt
To quote my good friend Joe Bialek "Happy Birthday Labor Movement." This year labor day was essentially not holiday-related in any capacity, but I should admit that I have very ambigious relations with it in general. As a holiday which generally celebrates the end of the most incredibly rampant forms of worker abuse in this country, I am wholeheartedly pro. As someone who will always identify as a student in Minnesota schools, Labor Day was more the last day of freedom going into another year. My mother made us breakfast in bed every Labor day afternoon, which while not elaborate, at least attempted to make up for the fact that for the next 180 odd days we would be scrambling for pop-tarts on a mad rush towards either St. Joes or RHS. Surprisingly enough, for someone who has pretty much chosen to make a career out of the school-year, I always loathe the first Tuesday after the first Monday in September. Even though it hasn't been the last day of summer in my life for a number of years, it still feels like a sign that there is a long way to go before the relief of summer kicks back in.
Last week was a little rough on a number of fronts, though I think I may be recovering from at least one of them, that being an overwhelming fear that I will never have a job, default on all my loans, drag Katie, Hippo, and myself into the gutter, so that we have to stay with my parents while I work my way back up the ladder at Wal-Mart and hit night classes at a St. Paul law school. It didnt take me long, after the panic mode had evaporated of course, to recognize that if that is my worst case situation, I should buck-the-fuck-up, since I could be far worse off than having a number of quality safety nets and at the very least a Master's degree at 25. I remain unsure about: 1) My potential to ever get a job in any context at any academic level, from high school to community college to Ivy League Univiersity--I suspect that even with a Master's, some decent grades and the like, I could get a gig teaching composition at Inver Hills after a couple years, but regardless 2) My decision to work in academia in the first place--my justification had always been that it constituted a compromise between things that I thought I could tolerate and things that I could make a living doing. I think I may have gone a little far in one direction, since I would kill to be at the point where I had passed the bar and getting a job in any random field of law. By no means am I suggesting that passing the bar or going through law school is an easy process or that I would rather be in that position. I'm simply saying that the end result, with a much greater chance at job security and the ability to pay off rapidly maturing student loans, would rock and already be in sight.
I'm in 2 fantasy football leagues, one a random EPSN assortment, the other includes some old school RHS and house homies scattered across the country. In the former league I got Peyton Manning, Javon Walker, Nate Burleson, and Antonio Gates, but am considerably lower on the running back front. In both leagues I have LaMont Jordan, but in the Wilking League he plays third fiddle to Priest Holmes and #4. I still have to determine some starting lineup questions, but in general am confident in my lineups. The latter team is a bit weaker on wideouts, lead by Reggie Wayne and one of three middle-sector players, but probably Eric Moulds. I like my chances in both my week one match-ups, assuming everyone is healthy as expected.
Because of what has variously been described as a shitstorm, clusterfuck, or tomfoolery and skullduggery we were forced to have the friend draft on instant messenger rather than the espn live draft function. That meant that not only did people not keep track of the players who had and had not been drafted (unlike me, who was smart enough to paste a list of the top 300 NFL players into a word document and delete them as they left) but resulted in some odd picks: Daunte Culpepper at #3 overall, the first defense in Round 5, the Vikings defense at all, much less in Round 7. Regardless, it should be good times.
Hippo is excited for this Thursday: her first full season of two extremely important events begin--The NFL regular schedule and The O.C. Maybe those of you who didnt spend the summer obsessed with Imogen Heap as a result of season 2's final moments or live in expectation of one of Favre's final campaigns aren't as excited. Nonetheless, in the words of my persian kitty, "MEOW MEOW READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL MEOW PURR O.C. PARTY!!!"
Peace,
MB-K
Last week was a little rough on a number of fronts, though I think I may be recovering from at least one of them, that being an overwhelming fear that I will never have a job, default on all my loans, drag Katie, Hippo, and myself into the gutter, so that we have to stay with my parents while I work my way back up the ladder at Wal-Mart and hit night classes at a St. Paul law school. It didnt take me long, after the panic mode had evaporated of course, to recognize that if that is my worst case situation, I should buck-the-fuck-up, since I could be far worse off than having a number of quality safety nets and at the very least a Master's degree at 25. I remain unsure about: 1) My potential to ever get a job in any context at any academic level, from high school to community college to Ivy League Univiersity--I suspect that even with a Master's, some decent grades and the like, I could get a gig teaching composition at Inver Hills after a couple years, but regardless 2) My decision to work in academia in the first place--my justification had always been that it constituted a compromise between things that I thought I could tolerate and things that I could make a living doing. I think I may have gone a little far in one direction, since I would kill to be at the point where I had passed the bar and getting a job in any random field of law. By no means am I suggesting that passing the bar or going through law school is an easy process or that I would rather be in that position. I'm simply saying that the end result, with a much greater chance at job security and the ability to pay off rapidly maturing student loans, would rock and already be in sight.
I'm in 2 fantasy football leagues, one a random EPSN assortment, the other includes some old school RHS and house homies scattered across the country. In the former league I got Peyton Manning, Javon Walker, Nate Burleson, and Antonio Gates, but am considerably lower on the running back front. In both leagues I have LaMont Jordan, but in the Wilking League he plays third fiddle to Priest Holmes and #4. I still have to determine some starting lineup questions, but in general am confident in my lineups. The latter team is a bit weaker on wideouts, lead by Reggie Wayne and one of three middle-sector players, but probably Eric Moulds. I like my chances in both my week one match-ups, assuming everyone is healthy as expected.
Because of what has variously been described as a shitstorm, clusterfuck, or tomfoolery and skullduggery we were forced to have the friend draft on instant messenger rather than the espn live draft function. That meant that not only did people not keep track of the players who had and had not been drafted (unlike me, who was smart enough to paste a list of the top 300 NFL players into a word document and delete them as they left) but resulted in some odd picks: Daunte Culpepper at #3 overall, the first defense in Round 5, the Vikings defense at all, much less in Round 7. Regardless, it should be good times.
Hippo is excited for this Thursday: her first full season of two extremely important events begin--The NFL regular schedule and The O.C. Maybe those of you who didnt spend the summer obsessed with Imogen Heap as a result of season 2's final moments or live in expectation of one of Favre's final campaigns aren't as excited. Nonetheless, in the words of my persian kitty, "MEOW MEOW READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL MEOW PURR O.C. PARTY!!!"
Peace,
MB-K
Saturday, September 03, 2005
Who's Gonna Talk To Me on the Phone Until the Sun Comes Butt
Since you cant't speak blgowise without referene to the New Orleans shitty, I will do so briefly. Katie and I talked for an hour or so last night, during time we should have spent watching So You Think You Can Dance, having a psuedo-theoretical argument about some of the issues involved. It was somewhat a variant of a conversation we had earlier about Survivor and the myth that informs it. Regardless.
As far as I can tell, there are three things that Katrina has been compared to: 9/11 and Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, and the Tsunami. I have nothing to say regarding 9/11 and Pearl Harbor for the most part. There is certainly more damage and more people immediately effected by the hurricaine than by these two events combined. The lasting damage on the American psyche or the state of world affairs is prolly significantly less, but judge it as you will. My thoughts concerned primarily the statement: This must be what Hiroshima looked like 60 years ago (rough paraphrase). The importance here, it seems to me, is the emphasis on the two cities looking the same. It should be noted, first of all, that this claim is bullshit because the cities look nothing the same. Here, for instance is New Orleans
Its still fucking horrible, its a disaster of amazing proportions. Here are even some better before and after shotsLots of shit is destroyed. This, however, is a before and after of Hiroshima.
The discusison Katie and I had was more or less about whether or not that comparison, were it to be even bordering on accurate, would be problematic. Katie's argument, obviously a good one, centers around the fact that the atomic bomb was of course a human inflicted tragedy, which makes any comparison with a natural disaster merely an attempt to soothe our own guilt. I think it actually has more to do with attempting to reconcile natural fury, which we couldn't control even if we did bother to prepare for it, devote the resources, etc. with the worst examples of violence we as humans can inflict on each other, a futile attempt to assert that we're not powerless. Regardless, what I find interesting in this is that there are similar criticisms of the comparisons with the tsunami. I'm not a complete idiot, I'm well aware that even with the worst estimates existing now roughly 20 times as many people died as result of the tsunami then will the hurricaine, and millions more were affected. To me the most interesting point is that the disasters in terms of their potential scale were prolly somewhat similar: the difference is in our ability to respond. Even though this is going down as "the worst natural disaster in American history" according to the majority of media coverage, the fact that we have the infastructure, the money, the awareness, to limit the scope is incredible. This is the American equivalent of the Indonesian-area-tsunami and thats not an insult to the third world or a claim to our exceptional status: it demonstrates how fucking outrageous the gap is. Not to mention, as so many others have said better than I, the split between the primarily white, primarily upper-middle class residents who got out of the city, and the primarily poor, laregely non-white population still stranded. There are more things to say, but I haven't thought through them quite enough at this point.
Haven't said anything since Katie's birthday was on its way. Its all in the rearview now, I think she liked her presents. She got alot of nice correspondence from friends and fam, some clothes, some shoes, all around products. While I had planned on giving her a nice relaxing birthday all around, we ended up spending the majority of the afternoon and evening shopping for her final birthday present, which currently resides in the parking lot, since it is a brand new Toyota Camry.
Before extolling the virtues of the new car, let me give a brief shout out to the old one, cuz it is well deserved. I bought the original Mazda in the summer of 2000, it was about a year old, but to me it was essentially a new car. I picked it up with my dad, both because I knew nothing about the purchase of a car, and because his signature was essential to the securing of a loan in the first place. I left the parking lot, lit a cigarette, and headed for the McDs drive thru. I spent the majority of my time in that car smoking and eating, through in reality, for the years I spent that car, I spent alot of my time smoking and eating. Andy had burned the upholstery with a positive ass within the first 2 hours of my possession. I drove to my house for part of the afternoon, but the first real destination I had in that ride was the House. It spent alot of time parked out front there as it did in front of the Blake school, where some jackass broke into and attempted to steal my car, that being the most significant trauma it went through. I lost all my music during that event, but it mattered not too much, since the CD player began to be fussy very soon afterwards. I essentially lived out of that car during my junior and senior years in college: I ate there, sltored my books and clothes in the trunk/backseat, I slept there, I read, worked, etc. It was a great ride. I drove it to my first date with Katie, I drove it to Mac the day I got married, it was the first car Hippo ever rode in, I drove that car back from the airport after dropping Kaitie off at the Buffalo airport, the first time in my life I was ever really alone. There were some logistical problems, but it was a great car and it deserves to be remembered as such. After 140,300 miles, the transmission had had it, and it had to be retired. Thanks for the memories.
So on our final ride with the Mazda we headed over to the Toyota dealership down the street and managed to finagle what I figured was a pretty good deal on a pretty sweet car. We paid less than the actual trade value, we got more for the trade in than we rightfully deserved, we got some good rebates and discounts, and a car payment about 80 bucks a month less than what they originally proposed to us. I don't consider myself much of a negoiator, but I told them what I could afford, they got within 10 bucks/mo of it, and, since we wanted/needed the car, we took it. Its one step up from the baseline model, it has some power seat action, steering-wheel radio controls, and a wicked freezing ac. I am happy with it, hopefully it will treat us even better than the Mazda did.
Two final notes: one sad and one happier. Geezer (my dog) passed away today. He was a really great guy and had been with us a long time. I am very sad that he is gone, but glad that he isn't in pain. I spent alot of time on the front porch with Geez, sat next to him on the couch watching football, and once got frostbite chasing him through the snow. I remember the day we brought him home and I remember the last time I petted him when we left my mom's house this summer. Love ya Geez.
A happy animal note: we went to the zoo today and got to feed a giraffe. There's a really cute picture of Katie talking to the giraffe, but I am too lazy to upload it now. Rest assured, we had fun at the zoo. Hippo was sad that she couldn't come and see her friends the snow leopards, who were very playful, but she sent her meows.
Peace,
MB-K
As far as I can tell, there are three things that Katrina has been compared to: 9/11 and Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, and the Tsunami. I have nothing to say regarding 9/11 and Pearl Harbor for the most part. There is certainly more damage and more people immediately effected by the hurricaine than by these two events combined. The lasting damage on the American psyche or the state of world affairs is prolly significantly less, but judge it as you will. My thoughts concerned primarily the statement: This must be what Hiroshima looked like 60 years ago (rough paraphrase). The importance here, it seems to me, is the emphasis on the two cities looking the same. It should be noted, first of all, that this claim is bullshit because the cities look nothing the same. Here, for instance is New Orleans
Its still fucking horrible, its a disaster of amazing proportions. Here are even some better before and after shotsLots of shit is destroyed. This, however, is a before and after of Hiroshima.
The discusison Katie and I had was more or less about whether or not that comparison, were it to be even bordering on accurate, would be problematic. Katie's argument, obviously a good one, centers around the fact that the atomic bomb was of course a human inflicted tragedy, which makes any comparison with a natural disaster merely an attempt to soothe our own guilt. I think it actually has more to do with attempting to reconcile natural fury, which we couldn't control even if we did bother to prepare for it, devote the resources, etc. with the worst examples of violence we as humans can inflict on each other, a futile attempt to assert that we're not powerless. Regardless, what I find interesting in this is that there are similar criticisms of the comparisons with the tsunami. I'm not a complete idiot, I'm well aware that even with the worst estimates existing now roughly 20 times as many people died as result of the tsunami then will the hurricaine, and millions more were affected. To me the most interesting point is that the disasters in terms of their potential scale were prolly somewhat similar: the difference is in our ability to respond. Even though this is going down as "the worst natural disaster in American history" according to the majority of media coverage, the fact that we have the infastructure, the money, the awareness, to limit the scope is incredible. This is the American equivalent of the Indonesian-area-tsunami and thats not an insult to the third world or a claim to our exceptional status: it demonstrates how fucking outrageous the gap is. Not to mention, as so many others have said better than I, the split between the primarily white, primarily upper-middle class residents who got out of the city, and the primarily poor, laregely non-white population still stranded. There are more things to say, but I haven't thought through them quite enough at this point.
Haven't said anything since Katie's birthday was on its way. Its all in the rearview now, I think she liked her presents. She got alot of nice correspondence from friends and fam, some clothes, some shoes, all around products. While I had planned on giving her a nice relaxing birthday all around, we ended up spending the majority of the afternoon and evening shopping for her final birthday present, which currently resides in the parking lot, since it is a brand new Toyota Camry.
Before extolling the virtues of the new car, let me give a brief shout out to the old one, cuz it is well deserved. I bought the original Mazda in the summer of 2000, it was about a year old, but to me it was essentially a new car. I picked it up with my dad, both because I knew nothing about the purchase of a car, and because his signature was essential to the securing of a loan in the first place. I left the parking lot, lit a cigarette, and headed for the McDs drive thru. I spent the majority of my time in that car smoking and eating, through in reality, for the years I spent that car, I spent alot of my time smoking and eating. Andy had burned the upholstery with a positive ass within the first 2 hours of my possession. I drove to my house for part of the afternoon, but the first real destination I had in that ride was the House. It spent alot of time parked out front there as it did in front of the Blake school, where some jackass broke into and attempted to steal my car, that being the most significant trauma it went through. I lost all my music during that event, but it mattered not too much, since the CD player began to be fussy very soon afterwards. I essentially lived out of that car during my junior and senior years in college: I ate there, sltored my books and clothes in the trunk/backseat, I slept there, I read, worked, etc. It was a great ride. I drove it to my first date with Katie, I drove it to Mac the day I got married, it was the first car Hippo ever rode in, I drove that car back from the airport after dropping Kaitie off at the Buffalo airport, the first time in my life I was ever really alone. There were some logistical problems, but it was a great car and it deserves to be remembered as such. After 140,300 miles, the transmission had had it, and it had to be retired. Thanks for the memories.
So on our final ride with the Mazda we headed over to the Toyota dealership down the street and managed to finagle what I figured was a pretty good deal on a pretty sweet car. We paid less than the actual trade value, we got more for the trade in than we rightfully deserved, we got some good rebates and discounts, and a car payment about 80 bucks a month less than what they originally proposed to us. I don't consider myself much of a negoiator, but I told them what I could afford, they got within 10 bucks/mo of it, and, since we wanted/needed the car, we took it. Its one step up from the baseline model, it has some power seat action, steering-wheel radio controls, and a wicked freezing ac. I am happy with it, hopefully it will treat us even better than the Mazda did.
Two final notes: one sad and one happier. Geezer (my dog) passed away today. He was a really great guy and had been with us a long time. I am very sad that he is gone, but glad that he isn't in pain. I spent alot of time on the front porch with Geez, sat next to him on the couch watching football, and once got frostbite chasing him through the snow. I remember the day we brought him home and I remember the last time I petted him when we left my mom's house this summer. Love ya Geez.
A happy animal note: we went to the zoo today and got to feed a giraffe. There's a really cute picture of Katie talking to the giraffe, but I am too lazy to upload it now. Rest assured, we had fun at the zoo. Hippo was sad that she couldn't come and see her friends the snow leopards, who were very playful, but she sent her meows.
Peace,
MB-K
Sunday, August 28, 2005
I Think You Are Blind to the Fact That The Hand You Hold is the Hand that Holds You Butt
Its been a productive final day before the beginning of stuff. I got the syllabus finalized for the course I'm teaching and plotted out the last of the dates etc. I'm actually really looking forward to teaching a class that doesn't focus on the practice of writing, but rather on the concepts, ideas and arguments associated with it. We're starting with Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying and I don't think there is anything I'm gonna have them do in terms of theory for that first book, maybe just get into the way of talking about literature and the combination of analysis and politics that I want to develop. I am somewhat unsure of what the kids who take this class will be like. I have almost a full class and while there are some English majors, they are by no means a majority. There are also some first years and while I'm sure the first years who would be interested in taking a comp-lit class will have some idea of what they are doing, the first years I've worked with in the past might not really be able to hack what I've been thinking at this point. Thats why the first week isn't too intense.
I think Tinkerbell is a better name for a little dog than it is for a fairy, when it all comes down to it. I mean, I guess the fairy dings and rings when she flaps her wings and shit, but when a dog has a little bell on its collar and that bell jingles when the puppy runs its ridiculously cute. I am not gonna name a dog Tinkerbell or anything, but the chances are pretty high that I won't be assigning fairy monikers any time soon.
I read a fair number of blogs, not as many as some people I am aware of, but a good number. I occasssionally poke through a "sex-industry" related blog because I find them interesting as a genre and because they link off some of the City Pages blogs I dig through. Anyway, what I find hilarious is that the blogs of people who work in such industries are very rarely too explicit, while on the other hand, high school debaters have less compunction than pretty much anyone. I don't have any other blog news. I guess this paragraph is over.
Jay from Project Runway made a guest appearance on last week's The Comeback. This is a show that I didn't like at all for the first three-four episodes, but its grown on me and anytime you can find an excuse to get Jay on television is something I am in favor of. Lisa Kudrow as an actress doesn't seem to add alot, but the writing is good. The show is like a less funny version of Curb Your Enthusiasm in alot of respects, since all the jokes depend upon being in really uncomfortable situations. It would never make a top list of mine, but its worth 30 minutes on tivo.
We've been eating really well these past two days. Yesterday was chicken stuffed with goat cheese and spinach and some fresh green beans with basil-butter. That evening we decidied that we needed to make cookies, so Katie concocted a batch of her favorite Hersey Bar Cookies, which have a toffee-esque flavor and are really just wonderful. Today I made Rosemary Grilled Pork Chops and Mashed Potatoes With Apples and Thyme. I think we got all these recipes out of one issue of Cooking Pleasures, and those three alone made the subscription worthwhile. The taters with apples is really a wonderful combination and one of the best recipes we've found in the last couple years, period.
Hippo just looked up at me and did the most adorable little meow dance, so I will oblige and see what the Empress wants.
Peace,
MB-K
I think Tinkerbell is a better name for a little dog than it is for a fairy, when it all comes down to it. I mean, I guess the fairy dings and rings when she flaps her wings and shit, but when a dog has a little bell on its collar and that bell jingles when the puppy runs its ridiculously cute. I am not gonna name a dog Tinkerbell or anything, but the chances are pretty high that I won't be assigning fairy monikers any time soon.
I read a fair number of blogs, not as many as some people I am aware of, but a good number. I occasssionally poke through a "sex-industry" related blog because I find them interesting as a genre and because they link off some of the City Pages blogs I dig through. Anyway, what I find hilarious is that the blogs of people who work in such industries are very rarely too explicit, while on the other hand, high school debaters have less compunction than pretty much anyone. I don't have any other blog news. I guess this paragraph is over.
Jay from Project Runway made a guest appearance on last week's The Comeback. This is a show that I didn't like at all for the first three-four episodes, but its grown on me and anytime you can find an excuse to get Jay on television is something I am in favor of. Lisa Kudrow as an actress doesn't seem to add alot, but the writing is good. The show is like a less funny version of Curb Your Enthusiasm in alot of respects, since all the jokes depend upon being in really uncomfortable situations. It would never make a top list of mine, but its worth 30 minutes on tivo.
We've been eating really well these past two days. Yesterday was chicken stuffed with goat cheese and spinach and some fresh green beans with basil-butter. That evening we decidied that we needed to make cookies, so Katie concocted a batch of her favorite Hersey Bar Cookies, which have a toffee-esque flavor and are really just wonderful. Today I made Rosemary Grilled Pork Chops and Mashed Potatoes With Apples and Thyme. I think we got all these recipes out of one issue of Cooking Pleasures, and those three alone made the subscription worthwhile. The taters with apples is really a wonderful combination and one of the best recipes we've found in the last couple years, period.
Hippo just looked up at me and did the most adorable little meow dance, so I will oblige and see what the Empress wants.
Peace,
MB-K
Friday, August 26, 2005
I'm Walking Down the Line, That Divides Me Somewhere in My Butt
It has been uncharacteristically cool for the month of August these past couple days, so we were actually able to turn the air conditioning off. That really means something coming from me, but it might even mean more in the world of the Hippo. She likes the fresh air and adores staring out of the more open windows, but she is not a warm weather kitten. We realized that she discovered the coolest spot in the entire house very quckly, and as such has been not always out watching TV with us. Anyway, it warmed up today while we were out running a long ass series of errands and we have now returned the air to its upright conditioned position.
Today was the beginning of Katie's birthday celebration, insofar as I went out to purchase gifts for her. I got some good stuff, let me tell you, but I will have to wait and allow her to post whatever she's received on Tuesday afternoon, or, knowing my wife as I do, Tuesday morning. The day of her birthday is also the first day back to school for me at Buffalo, so I think it will be a quick one. Its the first day of class anyway, so I wouldn't worry too much about how long the session will go or the necessity for office hours. I think I'm gonna have to deal with the ridiculousness of picking up a parking pass, but it usually wouldn't take more than 45 minutes even around lunchtime, a rush I hope to beat.
I received a good string of messages today from A.J. in honor of, we all know what, the second day of The Great Minnesota Get Together. He made his wait out there with Tiffany and El Grande K for mini-donuts, cheese curds, etc. He's already planned a second excursion for the beginning of next week, so everything he didn't get around to is still waiting for him. Apparently the highlight new food for the year is spaghetti and meatballs on a stick, something I don't know anything about. Could certainly be interesting, but I'm not sure how the spaghetti clings on, maybe its coated and deepfried or something, and in my general experience, deep fried pasta is the nuts.
Some of those among you may be surprised to find out a fact which I discovered today: women's socks cost an arm and an assload. I have prolly complained before about how stupid it is that socks are expensive, since they are an even more pointless item in terms of fashion and such than shoes. Unless you are wearing glass slippers, your socks are litterally almost entirely blocked from view. Katie got 4 pairs of socks for like 8 bucks which was apparently, a pretty good deal. Admittedly, they are Ralph Lauren socks, but again, they remain socks. Apparently each of the two-packs she purchased usually runs for 10 bucks. 10 bucks. I think socks should be legally forbidden than costing more than a dollar a pair. I'm usually all in favor of being able to purchase given luxury items, but as a society, shouldn't we fucking decide that there are certain items we shouldn't waste resources, time, or energy on. If there was 20 seconds a day put into sock design by three people, that's 5 person-minutes a week that we could have spent on inifinitely more important things, like new euphamisms for "vagina" or ice cream sandwich flavors.
I'm psyched, like uber psyched, for the return of the fall TV lineups. On the top of my "Totally Psyched For" list are The Gilmore Girls, The West Wing, The O.C. and Lost, which very well may be my four favorite shows. Thats not even to mention Veronica, Arrested Development, Survivor, the CSIs, and both flavors of The Apprentice. Hippo, who was not old enough last year to fully appreciate the fall premieres, is potentially even more psyched. She's purring with anticipation as we speak.
Peace,
MB-K
Today was the beginning of Katie's birthday celebration, insofar as I went out to purchase gifts for her. I got some good stuff, let me tell you, but I will have to wait and allow her to post whatever she's received on Tuesday afternoon, or, knowing my wife as I do, Tuesday morning. The day of her birthday is also the first day back to school for me at Buffalo, so I think it will be a quick one. Its the first day of class anyway, so I wouldn't worry too much about how long the session will go or the necessity for office hours. I think I'm gonna have to deal with the ridiculousness of picking up a parking pass, but it usually wouldn't take more than 45 minutes even around lunchtime, a rush I hope to beat.
I received a good string of messages today from A.J. in honor of, we all know what, the second day of The Great Minnesota Get Together. He made his wait out there with Tiffany and El Grande K for mini-donuts, cheese curds, etc. He's already planned a second excursion for the beginning of next week, so everything he didn't get around to is still waiting for him. Apparently the highlight new food for the year is spaghetti and meatballs on a stick, something I don't know anything about. Could certainly be interesting, but I'm not sure how the spaghetti clings on, maybe its coated and deepfried or something, and in my general experience, deep fried pasta is the nuts.
Some of those among you may be surprised to find out a fact which I discovered today: women's socks cost an arm and an assload. I have prolly complained before about how stupid it is that socks are expensive, since they are an even more pointless item in terms of fashion and such than shoes. Unless you are wearing glass slippers, your socks are litterally almost entirely blocked from view. Katie got 4 pairs of socks for like 8 bucks which was apparently, a pretty good deal. Admittedly, they are Ralph Lauren socks, but again, they remain socks. Apparently each of the two-packs she purchased usually runs for 10 bucks. 10 bucks. I think socks should be legally forbidden than costing more than a dollar a pair. I'm usually all in favor of being able to purchase given luxury items, but as a society, shouldn't we fucking decide that there are certain items we shouldn't waste resources, time, or energy on. If there was 20 seconds a day put into sock design by three people, that's 5 person-minutes a week that we could have spent on inifinitely more important things, like new euphamisms for "vagina" or ice cream sandwich flavors.
I'm psyched, like uber psyched, for the return of the fall TV lineups. On the top of my "Totally Psyched For" list are The Gilmore Girls, The West Wing, The O.C. and Lost, which very well may be my four favorite shows. Thats not even to mention Veronica, Arrested Development, Survivor, the CSIs, and both flavors of The Apprentice. Hippo, who was not old enough last year to fully appreciate the fall premieres, is potentially even more psyched. She's purring with anticipation as we speak.
Peace,
MB-K
Monday, August 22, 2005
She Calls Out to a Man on the Street, Sir Can You Help Butt
Pack played the Bills on Saturday night. I had considered going to the game, if for no other reason then I’ve never seen the good guys on the road. Not to mention that a Brett Favre touchdown pass is a Brett Favre touchdown pass no matter where it happens. Anyway, I ultimately decided that since we are poor it would be a bit silly to spend 40 bucks a ticket to watch the starters play 20 minutes and even though I am hopeful for the future and the Aaron Rodgers who embodies it, he’s hardly worth 10-20 bucks of interest on my credit card at the moment. Anyway, while alot of peeps, even the cats at packerschatter.com who usually seem to have rose colored contacts surgically implanted, think the defense was an enormous disaster I wasn’t really that concerned. I mean, yeah, we’re not gonna win alot of 7-0 games, but when you start Ahmad Carroll you can’t really expect that. The line had some decent penetration on a couple drops, which I suppose you could attribute to the fact that there is a happy-footed rookie QB running the Bills offense. We didn’t get the sacks but its preseason and just being in the backfield is a development after last year.
#4 didn’t play long, thank God, but he looked good. Threw a 12 yard TD to Ahman in a play that really seemed to emphasize the incredible physical condition that he came to camp in, so says every media outlet in history. Five step drop, rolled slightly right, flushed back a step to the left, avoided a sack and laid it over the defender into his arms. Bills looked alright and I’m like a kite on Willis McGahee, I always knew he would be a stud. The Buffalo rubes are already selling out on this one, sports radio is almost unlistenable in this town until week one of the NFL season. I cheer for the Bills as much as any team in the AFC, but even I can recognize that playoffs, with a rookie taking the snaps, in a division that includes the Super Bowl champions, is far from a certainty.
School is right around the corner and I am, as usual, sad. Its not that I hate being at school, it just signals commitments and awkwardness and the like. I have alot of getting ready to do and not a tremendous amount that I have accomplished, so this week should be an interesting one. The writing is progressing fairly well, but the very fact that I will finally be discussing it, showing it to people, and figuring out if I can do it or not for sure, thats kinda terrifying. I can work for 8 consecutive months and still be finished by the first of May. Thats good for me and Katie certainly, hopefully it will work out for the job market too. September 16th, btw, is when my first glimpse into that situation begins.
The freaking Sunday night network Simpson’s has played this episode where Bart gets fat on the pimped out vending machines like three times in the past month. I don’t expect a new season over the summer, but come on. TV besides Big Brother is really odd at this time of the summer, so I haven’t been excited about alot. Six Feet Under ended last night but I’m still a week behind, so I can’t comment on the finale. I can say that the third to last installment was fucking heartbreaking, one of the most difficult hours of television I have ever watched. It really emphasized exactly how little of a death related situation is shown in almost all TV and film. The entire episode focused on that moment, the preparations for the funeral, people’s inability to deal, the funeral and burial itself. Even on a show which features at least one death every week, this was really notable.
On a final note, this is the week leading up to the Katie birthday extravaganza, as it has become known around our house. Hippo has been really excited by the process, though she has not fully decided what to get. She could certainly just make her an adorable little card f some sort, but she’ll probably get her kittenish mind set on something extravagant. Luckily, she deserves it.
Peace,
MB-K
#4 didn’t play long, thank God, but he looked good. Threw a 12 yard TD to Ahman in a play that really seemed to emphasize the incredible physical condition that he came to camp in, so says every media outlet in history. Five step drop, rolled slightly right, flushed back a step to the left, avoided a sack and laid it over the defender into his arms. Bills looked alright and I’m like a kite on Willis McGahee, I always knew he would be a stud. The Buffalo rubes are already selling out on this one, sports radio is almost unlistenable in this town until week one of the NFL season. I cheer for the Bills as much as any team in the AFC, but even I can recognize that playoffs, with a rookie taking the snaps, in a division that includes the Super Bowl champions, is far from a certainty.
School is right around the corner and I am, as usual, sad. Its not that I hate being at school, it just signals commitments and awkwardness and the like. I have alot of getting ready to do and not a tremendous amount that I have accomplished, so this week should be an interesting one. The writing is progressing fairly well, but the very fact that I will finally be discussing it, showing it to people, and figuring out if I can do it or not for sure, thats kinda terrifying. I can work for 8 consecutive months and still be finished by the first of May. Thats good for me and Katie certainly, hopefully it will work out for the job market too. September 16th, btw, is when my first glimpse into that situation begins.
The freaking Sunday night network Simpson’s has played this episode where Bart gets fat on the pimped out vending machines like three times in the past month. I don’t expect a new season over the summer, but come on. TV besides Big Brother is really odd at this time of the summer, so I haven’t been excited about alot. Six Feet Under ended last night but I’m still a week behind, so I can’t comment on the finale. I can say that the third to last installment was fucking heartbreaking, one of the most difficult hours of television I have ever watched. It really emphasized exactly how little of a death related situation is shown in almost all TV and film. The entire episode focused on that moment, the preparations for the funeral, people’s inability to deal, the funeral and burial itself. Even on a show which features at least one death every week, this was really notable.
On a final note, this is the week leading up to the Katie birthday extravaganza, as it has become known around our house. Hippo has been really excited by the process, though she has not fully decided what to get. She could certainly just make her an adorable little card f some sort, but she’ll probably get her kittenish mind set on something extravagant. Luckily, she deserves it.
Peace,
MB-K
Saturday, August 20, 2005
And I’m Missing You, And Nobody Knows it But Butt
To some extent the computer issues have been resolved. I got one from the ROC, thanks to Mr. Ken, whom we met up with yesterday afternoon when I journeyed accross Western New York to do a ridiculously small amount of paperwork. We had a tasty Mexican lunch and talked about the upcominig topic, season, etc. Chimichangas are not good for you, that is the most profound insight I developed during the experience. Not to say there weren’t some quality ideas regarding China and differing forms of pressure that might be exerted upon it. This computer suffers from a good number of maladies, but most important is that the battery licks its own nuts. Anyway, while the general warranty is still in effect, the battery is only covered for a year, so I just have to remain tethered until yet another laptop is ordered and received by the debate squad. Regardless, Katie no longer has to share her computer, which is the best case situation for everyone, Hippo included.
We are 5, count ‘em, 5 days from The Great Motherfuckin’ Minnesota Get-Together. I was fortunate enough to get there last year, spending the day with A.J. and his little hombre. We will not be returning to Minnesota this August and each of the very very few times in my life I have missed the State Fair I have been saddened. Even some 960 miles from the area between Snelling and Cleveland, Como and Larpenteur, there starts to be a buzz in the air near late August. I think there is a cosmic glow in the force the moment the mini-donuts booth on Judson fires up the donut machines for the first time, when the doors are unlocked to the food building and the cheese-curdish love that has been bottled up for around 340 days is unleashed, when the kids who work at Sweet Martha’s begin to rehearse the cry that rings in every child’s heart of “cookies please!”, when the milk tanker pulls up accross the street from the barns, the oven-baked brownie booth, the icee stand, and just away from the Australian battered potatoes, when single-occupant root beer barrels are rehooked to their taps, when the giant slide gets nicely lubed up, when REO Speedwagon turns their mid-nineties model Chevy Astro Van towards the grandstand, or when the first blessed wiener takes a dip in Pronto-Pup batter.
I love the fair. It is without a doubt my 100% absolute favorite place in the world. If I was a man of leisure I could go to the fair every day and be happy. One of my dreams in life is to have the time and the money to sample every booth in the same year. I mean, I don’t need 10 different caramel apples, but I would really prefer to be able to say for certain which is the best. If I ever do get to live such a dream I can assure you that Pronto Pups and cheese curds are on the menu each and every time I enter. I will be with all of you fairgoers in spirit, so enjoy the fresh cut fries for me and don’t forget to take a bag of cotton candy home after you walk up what will always, in my heart, be machinery hill.
We went to Target last night, cuz Katie loves Target and especially loves going shopping at ridiculous times. When we hit the pharmacy to purchase some Tylenol Sinus, which, if you were curious, completes the analogy “Crackheads:crack::Katie: ???”, we were greeted not by the friendly green box, but a card hanging above the shelf. It told us that because Tylenol Sinus, and by the looks of it 50ish other everyday OTCs including NyQuil, DayQuil, some Tussins, and other, contained psuedo-ephedrine, since it can conceivable be used to make meth, is behind the pharmacy counter and can only be purchased during hours when the pharmacy is open. Apparently this is a New York State Law, which just goes to show that even in this part of the country, almost everyone is stupider than a self-buttfucking llama. I don’t think many people make meth out of Tylenol but even if they do, you gotta choose, either make it a controlled substance or let me buy it. I also don’t know how making it accessible only via the pharmacy prevents me from using it for meth anyway, like your desire to get meth overcomes the dangerous chemistry involved but not the inconvenience of talking to the pharmacist or going to multiple locations. I wouldn’t have cared if I needed to get a manager to unlock the door and grab me something which is about as dangerous to the general public as Diet Pepsi with Lime, but to say that after 6 or whatever I have to overpay at Walgreens so winners who failed high school chemistry don’t blow up the basement full of High Life empties and overflowing ashtrays of Basic Menthol 100s is ricockulous.
Hippo thinks that was slight overkill. She may have a point, but I may also be blinded by her kittenosity. So cute.
Peace,
MB-K
We are 5, count ‘em, 5 days from The Great Motherfuckin’ Minnesota Get-Together. I was fortunate enough to get there last year, spending the day with A.J. and his little hombre. We will not be returning to Minnesota this August and each of the very very few times in my life I have missed the State Fair I have been saddened. Even some 960 miles from the area between Snelling and Cleveland, Como and Larpenteur, there starts to be a buzz in the air near late August. I think there is a cosmic glow in the force the moment the mini-donuts booth on Judson fires up the donut machines for the first time, when the doors are unlocked to the food building and the cheese-curdish love that has been bottled up for around 340 days is unleashed, when the kids who work at Sweet Martha’s begin to rehearse the cry that rings in every child’s heart of “cookies please!”, when the milk tanker pulls up accross the street from the barns, the oven-baked brownie booth, the icee stand, and just away from the Australian battered potatoes, when single-occupant root beer barrels are rehooked to their taps, when the giant slide gets nicely lubed up, when REO Speedwagon turns their mid-nineties model Chevy Astro Van towards the grandstand, or when the first blessed wiener takes a dip in Pronto-Pup batter.
I love the fair. It is without a doubt my 100% absolute favorite place in the world. If I was a man of leisure I could go to the fair every day and be happy. One of my dreams in life is to have the time and the money to sample every booth in the same year. I mean, I don’t need 10 different caramel apples, but I would really prefer to be able to say for certain which is the best. If I ever do get to live such a dream I can assure you that Pronto Pups and cheese curds are on the menu each and every time I enter. I will be with all of you fairgoers in spirit, so enjoy the fresh cut fries for me and don’t forget to take a bag of cotton candy home after you walk up what will always, in my heart, be machinery hill.
We went to Target last night, cuz Katie loves Target and especially loves going shopping at ridiculous times. When we hit the pharmacy to purchase some Tylenol Sinus, which, if you were curious, completes the analogy “Crackheads:crack::Katie: ???”, we were greeted not by the friendly green box, but a card hanging above the shelf. It told us that because Tylenol Sinus, and by the looks of it 50ish other everyday OTCs including NyQuil, DayQuil, some Tussins, and other, contained psuedo-ephedrine, since it can conceivable be used to make meth, is behind the pharmacy counter and can only be purchased during hours when the pharmacy is open. Apparently this is a New York State Law, which just goes to show that even in this part of the country, almost everyone is stupider than a self-buttfucking llama. I don’t think many people make meth out of Tylenol but even if they do, you gotta choose, either make it a controlled substance or let me buy it. I also don’t know how making it accessible only via the pharmacy prevents me from using it for meth anyway, like your desire to get meth overcomes the dangerous chemistry involved but not the inconvenience of talking to the pharmacist or going to multiple locations. I wouldn’t have cared if I needed to get a manager to unlock the door and grab me something which is about as dangerous to the general public as Diet Pepsi with Lime, but to say that after 6 or whatever I have to overpay at Walgreens so winners who failed high school chemistry don’t blow up the basement full of High Life empties and overflowing ashtrays of Basic Menthol 100s is ricockulous.
Hippo thinks that was slight overkill. She may have a point, but I may also be blinded by her kittenosity. So cute.
Peace,
MB-K
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Everytime I See Your Picture I Cry and I Try To Get Over Butt
I feel like Strongbad. I mean, it didn't go down quite that way. Anyway, my computer broke. To fix it would have required a new motherboard in the area of 500 dollars, something a three year old laptop is by no means worth. I knew I was gonna by a new one next spring/summer anyway, this just solidified that fact. Thankfully I should have a University of Rochester laptop to use for the course of this academic year. In the meantime I'm still dealing with sharing Katie's computer and would like to thank her again for her generosity in that respect. My laptop has now been converted into an external hard drive which, alongside the assistance of a powered 4-port USB hub, allows me to access the old computadora through any of its brethren. To some extent, I have made the old Toshiba even more powerful, since it is now no longer tied to its physical body, but can inhabit any form it chooses.
We looked at some of the new laptops that were available while they extracted and installed the laptop's drive into an attractive little white casing. Toshiba has some ass kicking models that I really like, one that was about $1500 that had a 17" screen, 100 gig hard drive, 1024 megs of ram and lots of good stuff. I really like the gigantic widescreen laptop things. It seems like a couple years ago the trend was towards smaller smaller smaller machines, and that has been reversed, by my survey. There were still a couple things that would have looked at home with Will Ferell's hip character who rode the scooter in the hip store sketch on SNL, but alot more with full size keyboards and monitors. There was even this gorgeous black shiny model that had a built in DVR and tv tuner, so that I could record everything onto my hardrive and watch wherever it was available.
Anyway, I am really pissed at BB6 after a really really enjoyable week last time around. Kaysar came back , cuz 82% of America agrees with me on the fact that he was the nuts this year. Anyway, Jennifer, the jerkasscock that she is, is going to result in his immediate dispersal. I mean, it was his fault for giving up the HoH competition that he had her pwnd on, but it still pisses me off. She deserves to get shot through the neck with a metaphorical crossbow. I think the fact that he got voted in by America should result in him being safe for at least a couple weeks. I recognize that I am partisan on this question, but I hate Ivette, Maggie, and Jennifer more than just about any characters in the history of reality TV. Beau and April aren't my fave either, but they don't get on the radar with those three and their assorted crappityness combined with their love for Cappy. If Eric had stayed on the show long enough to be anything but a short bald loudy-mc-louden-pants who occasionally happened to be on the right side of political arguments (in what I have entitled the WTF Episode of Season 6) just enough to make me not put a price on his head, he would be in the same league. Anyway, the remainder of the summer's reality programming seems somewhat doomed. I'm not gonna abandon Julie Chen or anything, but it would have been more fun if King Kaysar was around to play.
Hippo has really really sharp claws that haven't been trimmed in far too long. They are in desperate need of trimming, so we are gonna take a run at them. Maybe she'll get catnip as a reward.
Peace,
MB-K
We looked at some of the new laptops that were available while they extracted and installed the laptop's drive into an attractive little white casing. Toshiba has some ass kicking models that I really like, one that was about $1500 that had a 17" screen, 100 gig hard drive, 1024 megs of ram and lots of good stuff. I really like the gigantic widescreen laptop things. It seems like a couple years ago the trend was towards smaller smaller smaller machines, and that has been reversed, by my survey. There were still a couple things that would have looked at home with Will Ferell's hip character who rode the scooter in the hip store sketch on SNL, but alot more with full size keyboards and monitors. There was even this gorgeous black shiny model that had a built in DVR and tv tuner, so that I could record everything onto my hardrive and watch wherever it was available.
Anyway, I am really pissed at BB6 after a really really enjoyable week last time around. Kaysar came back , cuz 82% of America agrees with me on the fact that he was the nuts this year. Anyway, Jennifer, the jerkasscock that she is, is going to result in his immediate dispersal. I mean, it was his fault for giving up the HoH competition that he had her pwnd on, but it still pisses me off. She deserves to get shot through the neck with a metaphorical crossbow. I think the fact that he got voted in by America should result in him being safe for at least a couple weeks. I recognize that I am partisan on this question, but I hate Ivette, Maggie, and Jennifer more than just about any characters in the history of reality TV. Beau and April aren't my fave either, but they don't get on the radar with those three and their assorted crappityness combined with their love for Cappy. If Eric had stayed on the show long enough to be anything but a short bald loudy-mc-louden-pants who occasionally happened to be on the right side of political arguments (in what I have entitled the WTF Episode of Season 6) just enough to make me not put a price on his head, he would be in the same league. Anyway, the remainder of the summer's reality programming seems somewhat doomed. I'm not gonna abandon Julie Chen or anything, but it would have been more fun if King Kaysar was around to play.
Hippo has really really sharp claws that haven't been trimmed in far too long. They are in desperate need of trimming, so we are gonna take a run at them. Maybe she'll get catnip as a reward.
Peace,
MB-K
Sunday, August 14, 2005
She Hates California, Its Cold and Its Damp, Thats Why the Lady is a Butt
I wrote this Tuesday in Burlington, but then my computer broke. Admittedly it is old and it was probably my fault that it broke. Anyway, I got all the documents and shitty off it already, hopefully the computer fixer people will allow me to continue using it. I'm sure the comments will be limited until I have computer access that doesn't depend on the generosity of the Katie.
Made the drive up to Burlington with pretty good time. I hit McD's drive-thrizzle and tried the new Chicken Ranch BLT sandwich, which I think edges out the Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch in terms of a fast-food chicken sandwich, but is still getting butt-pounded in respect to the song. I think this year's NCAA tournament has permanently installed that song in my head. Psuedo-Hootie, you rock so hard. Streams of bacon-ranch dressing really do flow right up to your knees. I hope, that at some point, you get to veg all day, all your lotto tickets pay, and that there is a King who wants you to have it your way. I also stopped at this little roadside stand somewhere about 5 miles into Vermont for a soft-serve ice cream cone. I had prolly gone several years without soft serve ice cream, but something about the small town ice cream stand really does it for me. This place was literally next door to a dairy farm, which, while providing a smell which is not the world's greatest flavor enhancement, may have provided the milk and cream involved in the ice cream. It was very tasty indeed. I was driving, so I just rolled with a cone, but the sundaes I saw the people in front of me get involved more whipped cream than could be produced by a whole bowl full of whippits.
Got into Vermont at about 6, right when Katie had finished her final evidence assignment of the summer. We hung out for a bit before heading to downtown Burlington. Katie bought some stuff at the J. Crew, all of which I believe was green, but I did not call her Kermit. Afterwards we had dinner, well, I had dinner, Katie had a molten flourless chocolate torte thing. It counts, nonetheless as having dinner. I had a good quality steak sandwich and we ate outside on what is the Burlington equivalent of Madison's State Street. Its smaller and less college dominated, but the same idea. Lots of restaurants with outdoor seating and lots of puppy dogs walking around. People even sit at the outdoor tables with their dogs hanging out next to them. We saw what I was pretty sure was a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog (roughly the same coloring as a Bernese, but smaller, with a longer snout and face) and a dalmation-spotted Great Dane. It wasn't a huge Great Dane, but certainly taller than our table. Very pretty.
Katie is correct that I simultaneously go back and forth between saying that I could live in Vermont and that I couldn't fucking stand it here. I really like the vibe of mountains and water and some of the small townish stuff that is around. I cannot stand being unable to find the shit I need or the places I want to go . I mean, I don't know the area well, I'm sure there is a restaurant somewhere that serves breakfast 24 hours. If I lived here, I would prolly know that. The problem is that I can't find a damn Denny's when I just need some cheap pancakes at noon. Also, I hate hippies. Thats a problem, since there are dirty stupid hippies all over the place. I have no problem with parts of hippy thought, mind you, or even certain hippy practices. Its just that directing frustration at big corporations that do things well rather than capitalism in general seems pretty stupid to me. I mean, not Wal-Mart, there it makes sense. I could even understand some frustration towards Starbucks or Barnes and Noble, but just against the corporate mentality in general, seems to me offense against capitalism, rather than against having a Denny's within reasonable proximity of me. Still, the lake is beautiful and mountains nearby counts for alot. As much as pancakes...not sure.
The first debates of the year are always awful, I know this and yet I still try to be optimistic. I am in the second debate now and I can honestly say that both instances give some examples of hope for everyone who was speaking. To be honest I know tremendously little about this topic. Any knowledge I have is pretty much just carry over from the China topic when I was in high school or general foreign policy understanding and the like. I will have to do some reading at some point, but I have a hard time dividing up my time. By that I mean, I'm not good at working on multiple things at the same time. I like to do one thing, finish it, and move on. I will get everything taken care of and go into the season with at least a bare minimum understanding of the topic, but let me re-emphasize, I am not good at it. I suppose its as good a time as ever to learn some serious multi-taskability.
I am excited at the prospect of going to get some dinner after this debate. I do not know where we will be going, but again, I am excited. We had lunch today at the Vermont Soup Company and I can say that they served what is definatively the best corn chowder I have ever had. I'm quite a corn chowder lover, I should note, I make a fair bit of it. Whenever my dad was out of town when we were little, my mom would make "corn soup" cuz we all loved it but, jobviously, he did not. Anyway, this one was advertised as featuring real cream and brown sugar. You could really taste them both. Not only was it all creamy smooth and delicious, but had a sweetness you don't usually expect in chowder, at least I don't. I was seriously blown away. On Fridays they serve a Lobster chowder and I cannot imagine how pants-jizzingly delicious this chowder base would be with a little lobster stock and some chunks of lobster. There's no Vermont tournament this year, so the chances of that happening are slim to none. Irregardless, thats a recipe I need to work on.
Hippo was txting me earlier about the big party she had last night. They apparently went through three whole smoked salmon and like a couple cases of heavy cream. I told her to take it easy, but she said that since she plans on spending all her time over the next week or so purring while laying with Katie, she wanted to celebrate her Purr-th-day with her friends in advance. Have fun and stay safe little kitties.
Peace,
MB-K
Made the drive up to Burlington with pretty good time. I hit McD's drive-thrizzle and tried the new Chicken Ranch BLT sandwich, which I think edges out the Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch in terms of a fast-food chicken sandwich, but is still getting butt-pounded in respect to the song. I think this year's NCAA tournament has permanently installed that song in my head. Psuedo-Hootie, you rock so hard. Streams of bacon-ranch dressing really do flow right up to your knees. I hope, that at some point, you get to veg all day, all your lotto tickets pay, and that there is a King who wants you to have it your way. I also stopped at this little roadside stand somewhere about 5 miles into Vermont for a soft-serve ice cream cone. I had prolly gone several years without soft serve ice cream, but something about the small town ice cream stand really does it for me. This place was literally next door to a dairy farm, which, while providing a smell which is not the world's greatest flavor enhancement, may have provided the milk and cream involved in the ice cream. It was very tasty indeed. I was driving, so I just rolled with a cone, but the sundaes I saw the people in front of me get involved more whipped cream than could be produced by a whole bowl full of whippits.
Got into Vermont at about 6, right when Katie had finished her final evidence assignment of the summer. We hung out for a bit before heading to downtown Burlington. Katie bought some stuff at the J. Crew, all of which I believe was green, but I did not call her Kermit. Afterwards we had dinner, well, I had dinner, Katie had a molten flourless chocolate torte thing. It counts, nonetheless as having dinner. I had a good quality steak sandwich and we ate outside on what is the Burlington equivalent of Madison's State Street. Its smaller and less college dominated, but the same idea. Lots of restaurants with outdoor seating and lots of puppy dogs walking around. People even sit at the outdoor tables with their dogs hanging out next to them. We saw what I was pretty sure was a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog (roughly the same coloring as a Bernese, but smaller, with a longer snout and face) and a dalmation-spotted Great Dane. It wasn't a huge Great Dane, but certainly taller than our table. Very pretty.
Katie is correct that I simultaneously go back and forth between saying that I could live in Vermont and that I couldn't fucking stand it here. I really like the vibe of mountains and water and some of the small townish stuff that is around. I cannot stand being unable to find the shit I need or the places I want to go . I mean, I don't know the area well, I'm sure there is a restaurant somewhere that serves breakfast 24 hours. If I lived here, I would prolly know that. The problem is that I can't find a damn Denny's when I just need some cheap pancakes at noon. Also, I hate hippies. Thats a problem, since there are dirty stupid hippies all over the place. I have no problem with parts of hippy thought, mind you, or even certain hippy practices. Its just that directing frustration at big corporations that do things well rather than capitalism in general seems pretty stupid to me. I mean, not Wal-Mart, there it makes sense. I could even understand some frustration towards Starbucks or Barnes and Noble, but just against the corporate mentality in general, seems to me offense against capitalism, rather than against having a Denny's within reasonable proximity of me. Still, the lake is beautiful and mountains nearby counts for alot. As much as pancakes...not sure.
The first debates of the year are always awful, I know this and yet I still try to be optimistic. I am in the second debate now and I can honestly say that both instances give some examples of hope for everyone who was speaking. To be honest I know tremendously little about this topic. Any knowledge I have is pretty much just carry over from the China topic when I was in high school or general foreign policy understanding and the like. I will have to do some reading at some point, but I have a hard time dividing up my time. By that I mean, I'm not good at working on multiple things at the same time. I like to do one thing, finish it, and move on. I will get everything taken care of and go into the season with at least a bare minimum understanding of the topic, but let me re-emphasize, I am not good at it. I suppose its as good a time as ever to learn some serious multi-taskability.
I am excited at the prospect of going to get some dinner after this debate. I do not know where we will be going, but again, I am excited. We had lunch today at the Vermont Soup Company and I can say that they served what is definatively the best corn chowder I have ever had. I'm quite a corn chowder lover, I should note, I make a fair bit of it. Whenever my dad was out of town when we were little, my mom would make "corn soup" cuz we all loved it but, jobviously, he did not. Anyway, this one was advertised as featuring real cream and brown sugar. You could really taste them both. Not only was it all creamy smooth and delicious, but had a sweetness you don't usually expect in chowder, at least I don't. I was seriously blown away. On Fridays they serve a Lobster chowder and I cannot imagine how pants-jizzingly delicious this chowder base would be with a little lobster stock and some chunks of lobster. There's no Vermont tournament this year, so the chances of that happening are slim to none. Irregardless, thats a recipe I need to work on.
Hippo was txting me earlier about the big party she had last night. They apparently went through three whole smoked salmon and like a couple cases of heavy cream. I told her to take it easy, but she said that since she plans on spending all her time over the next week or so purring while laying with Katie, she wanted to celebrate her Purr-th-day with her friends in advance. Have fun and stay safe little kitties.
Peace,
MB-K
Sunday, August 07, 2005
Don't Wanna Close My Eyes Dont Wanna Fall Asleep Cuz I Miss You Baby and I Don't Want to Miss a Butt
Making what I sincerely hope is my last trip to Burlington, VT tomorrow. I feel like a short haul trucker or something with the amount of time I have spent on the crazy ass routes off 87. Regardless, I'm heading up there, judging at the WDI tournament, then Katie and I will be making a real quick exit on Thursday morning. Not only does it cost me at least a couple days worth of work being accomplished, but assures that by Friday I will be ready for somem relaxation.
I've gone on a little movie binge over the past week or so. I was running low on TV for a while, so I started tivoing flicks fairly liberally. This is no longer the case of course, since I am saving for Katie every Big Brother since she's been gone (I think its about 18 hours), a couple episodes of Kill Reality, Kathy Griffin's show on Bravo, and the finale of Beauty and the Geek. The last one was on a long time ago, but she didnt have time before her excursion into the wacky worlds of debate and such. Our tivo percentage will go back to a reasonable amount once Katie catches up with BB6, not to mention that I will be able to again publically complain about the developments of the first part of the season. I am so hoping what I want to happen occurs this week. Thats vague, I get it, but I'm tryin to save back on the spoilers for Katie.
So over the last couple of days I've watched bunches of movies that are clogging the box. Paycheck, which normally would be on my shit-list because it stars the worst actor in the country, if not the history of time, had to be seen if for no other reason than the PKD story it was based on is really quality. The movie had really only a passing relation to that story of course, it was actually even less similar to its respective than Minority Report or Blade Runner. The clever thing that sets up the story is really the only thing. Beyond that, well, its a sub-par action flick with hideous acting overall. I am watching Coffee and Cigarettes now, which is enjoyable if not a little pretentious. The Steven Wright/Roberto Begnini bit, which was apparently originally a standalone short film, was cool. Iggy Pop and Tom Waits are fun to watch, but seriously atrocious actors. In all honesty though, Meg White makes them look like fucking Brando. Still the White Stripes segment is funny. Biggest problem, I havent been craving a cigarette like this in a long long long long long time. Damn you Jarmusch!
There was another series of short films I watched, some of which were pretty decent. Its apparently something that IFC does every couple weeks or so. Finally, I saw a fairly recent French movie called Jeux D'Enfants which for one reason or another is changed in English to "Love Me if You Dare." Its a fine title for the movie, but I'm not sure whats wrong with "Children's Games/Kid's Games" or whatever, mebbe its just taken. Anyway, it was pretty sweet. Its the kind of love story that I can really get into, though I recognize there are those who wouldn't consider it much of a love story at all. The woman who plays Sophie has a really incredibly beautiful way about her, which makes the significant amount of time that passes during the film even more fun to watch. There are a couple remarkably gorgeous shots that I won't give away, but I recommend it. Might even be on Sundance again this week if you care. There's one quote I had to rewind and scribble down, it may make an epigraph to the dissertation, certainly make a paper at some point.
I'm pissy at my bank today, since the ATMs were down and as a result I could not get cash out of them, and as a result, I could not go to the garlic festival at St. Anthony's today. I don't know if the food would have been great or not, my guess is towards yeah, regardless, I was excited about it and pissy that it didn't happen. I mean, I could have gone and paid in the area of 2.50 to have the cash, but I figured I'd survive. Besides that today has not been an inredibly significant day, poked around at the old worky-work, played GTA, watched TV. I also talked to my dad, seeing if there is a Packer's game we can make it out to next winter.
Hippo appears to want someone to swing around her pink-fuzzy-toy for her attacking pleasure. I figure she will be lonely for 70ish hours, so I am, as always, happy to oblige. Hope to report from Burlington.
Peace,
MB-K
I've gone on a little movie binge over the past week or so. I was running low on TV for a while, so I started tivoing flicks fairly liberally. This is no longer the case of course, since I am saving for Katie every Big Brother since she's been gone (I think its about 18 hours), a couple episodes of Kill Reality, Kathy Griffin's show on Bravo, and the finale of Beauty and the Geek. The last one was on a long time ago, but she didnt have time before her excursion into the wacky worlds of debate and such. Our tivo percentage will go back to a reasonable amount once Katie catches up with BB6, not to mention that I will be able to again publically complain about the developments of the first part of the season. I am so hoping what I want to happen occurs this week. Thats vague, I get it, but I'm tryin to save back on the spoilers for Katie.
So over the last couple of days I've watched bunches of movies that are clogging the box. Paycheck, which normally would be on my shit-list because it stars the worst actor in the country, if not the history of time, had to be seen if for no other reason than the PKD story it was based on is really quality. The movie had really only a passing relation to that story of course, it was actually even less similar to its respective than Minority Report or Blade Runner. The clever thing that sets up the story is really the only thing. Beyond that, well, its a sub-par action flick with hideous acting overall. I am watching Coffee and Cigarettes now, which is enjoyable if not a little pretentious. The Steven Wright/Roberto Begnini bit, which was apparently originally a standalone short film, was cool. Iggy Pop and Tom Waits are fun to watch, but seriously atrocious actors. In all honesty though, Meg White makes them look like fucking Brando. Still the White Stripes segment is funny. Biggest problem, I havent been craving a cigarette like this in a long long long long long time. Damn you Jarmusch!
There was another series of short films I watched, some of which were pretty decent. Its apparently something that IFC does every couple weeks or so. Finally, I saw a fairly recent French movie called Jeux D'Enfants which for one reason or another is changed in English to "Love Me if You Dare." Its a fine title for the movie, but I'm not sure whats wrong with "Children's Games/Kid's Games" or whatever, mebbe its just taken. Anyway, it was pretty sweet. Its the kind of love story that I can really get into, though I recognize there are those who wouldn't consider it much of a love story at all. The woman who plays Sophie has a really incredibly beautiful way about her, which makes the significant amount of time that passes during the film even more fun to watch. There are a couple remarkably gorgeous shots that I won't give away, but I recommend it. Might even be on Sundance again this week if you care. There's one quote I had to rewind and scribble down, it may make an epigraph to the dissertation, certainly make a paper at some point.
I'm pissy at my bank today, since the ATMs were down and as a result I could not get cash out of them, and as a result, I could not go to the garlic festival at St. Anthony's today. I don't know if the food would have been great or not, my guess is towards yeah, regardless, I was excited about it and pissy that it didn't happen. I mean, I could have gone and paid in the area of 2.50 to have the cash, but I figured I'd survive. Besides that today has not been an inredibly significant day, poked around at the old worky-work, played GTA, watched TV. I also talked to my dad, seeing if there is a Packer's game we can make it out to next winter.
Hippo appears to want someone to swing around her pink-fuzzy-toy for her attacking pleasure. I figure she will be lonely for 70ish hours, so I am, as always, happy to oblige. Hope to report from Burlington.
Peace,
MB-K
Saturday, August 06, 2005
The Child is Grown, The Dream is Gone, I Have Become, Comfortably Butt
Its not the playoffs, not the regular season, its not even the preseason. Nonetheless, Lambeau Field was sold out earlier tonight when the Packers gathered with the Buffalo Bills for the first scrimmage of the 2005 NFL season. Thank God I have the NFL network so I can get at least a preliminary look at my boys. I mean, it doesn't mean anything, but its close enough to football for the first week of August. There are alot of questions going into this season for the good guys, two new guards, a defense which struggled mightily against the run and despite relative success on passing downs, has prolly its biggest problems in the defenseive backfield that isn't Al Harris. First defensive series, we looked alright actually. Ahmad Carroll broke up a good pass, Roman made a tackle in the flat, and Cole, the tackle who played a couple games during our injury filled December, looked pretty good. I've read quite a bit about the new defensive scheme thats coming with Jim Bates, but its not exactly unbiased testimony. There have been pretty much no additions to the D-line, so I have my doubts that we will be able to engineer a pass rush besides what KGB can do.
The offense is a bit skewed for this scrimmage, since Klemm (the new left guard) is not playing and Favre is missing Franks. Steele's not a bad or small target, but still, its never the same as throwing to Bubba. I don't really care what Favre does in this situation, I know how the dude plays and this is not gonna be relevant to the season. He completed a couple passes and threw a couple which weren't really on target. The Bills have a pretty solid defense, so at least the fact that he was under pressure several times is explainable. Aaron Rodgers came out to run a couple series and I was fairly pleased. Completed a quick one to Chatman. He threw another that Chatman dropped and one that wasn't good at all. It was nice to suggest that there is a reason to live in the post-Favre era, God forbid it ever comes. Brett returned to throw a couple touchdowns; nothing like the first "Bang on the Drum All Day" of the year. Anyway, it was fun to watch. Thank you NFL network.
No one has had anything to say on the subject of Conneticut's state song. So I'm gonna give it some thought and decide by the end of the weekend. Other states which can consider themselves excused: Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois. Illinois gets special props, btw, for naming their state song "Illinois" and thats what I'm looking for. We'll see what happens to the rest of you state-like homeys.
Have you ever sat down and given some consideration to the word "tastycake?" Try it sometime. Tastycake. Yumm.
I really miss the various types of fast-food that are obtainable in areas beyond Buffalo. I mean, techincally you've got your Tim Hortons and your Mighty Taco that don't exist many other places, but damn would I kill for Chipotle, or LeAnn Chin, or freaking White Castle. The lack of White Castle in this area is so ricockulous that I can't even begin to articulate it. If I wanted to make some money and live in Buffalo even a moment longer than I had to, I would make a freaking crave case available near the University. Make it a nice suburban one, an increasingly rare commodity. I would say keep it clean, but I'm somewhat worried that cleanliness and true slider taste are mutually exclusive.
Hippo and I are tired. She is meowing at me to go to sleep so she can scamper around in the dark and I will oblige.
Peace,
MB-K
The offense is a bit skewed for this scrimmage, since Klemm (the new left guard) is not playing and Favre is missing Franks. Steele's not a bad or small target, but still, its never the same as throwing to Bubba. I don't really care what Favre does in this situation, I know how the dude plays and this is not gonna be relevant to the season. He completed a couple passes and threw a couple which weren't really on target. The Bills have a pretty solid defense, so at least the fact that he was under pressure several times is explainable. Aaron Rodgers came out to run a couple series and I was fairly pleased. Completed a quick one to Chatman. He threw another that Chatman dropped and one that wasn't good at all. It was nice to suggest that there is a reason to live in the post-Favre era, God forbid it ever comes. Brett returned to throw a couple touchdowns; nothing like the first "Bang on the Drum All Day" of the year. Anyway, it was fun to watch. Thank you NFL network.
No one has had anything to say on the subject of Conneticut's state song. So I'm gonna give it some thought and decide by the end of the weekend. Other states which can consider themselves excused: Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois. Illinois gets special props, btw, for naming their state song "Illinois" and thats what I'm looking for. We'll see what happens to the rest of you state-like homeys.
Have you ever sat down and given some consideration to the word "tastycake?" Try it sometime. Tastycake. Yumm.
I really miss the various types of fast-food that are obtainable in areas beyond Buffalo. I mean, techincally you've got your Tim Hortons and your Mighty Taco that don't exist many other places, but damn would I kill for Chipotle, or LeAnn Chin, or freaking White Castle. The lack of White Castle in this area is so ricockulous that I can't even begin to articulate it. If I wanted to make some money and live in Buffalo even a moment longer than I had to, I would make a freaking crave case available near the University. Make it a nice suburban one, an increasingly rare commodity. I would say keep it clean, but I'm somewhat worried that cleanliness and true slider taste are mutually exclusive.
Hippo and I are tired. She is meowing at me to go to sleep so she can scamper around in the dark and I will oblige.
Peace,
MB-K
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
You Can't Run, You Can't Hide, You and Me Gonna Touch the Sky, A Little Bit of Monica in My Butt
Katie and I moved to add Showtime to our cable lineup, largely in anticipation of Mary Louise Parker's show, which I believe starts with a preview this upcoming Sunday. Anyway, you should check out the show too, cuz not only is Weeds getting great reviews, but Mary Louise Parker is hot and Kevin Nealon deserves to get something entertaining if, for nothing else, the brilliance of his work on Weekend Update. Anyway, we juiced up to Showtime and I am watching one of the many episodes of Penn and Teller's Bullshit that I have managed to TiVo. I think I've mentioned before how long I've been a fan of Penn and Teller. I don't know why, I certainly started enjoying them simply as magicians, prolly when I was going through some phase where I wanted to be a magician myself. Regardless, I eventually bought their book How To Play With Your Food and I bet I've read that bastard 100 times. In fact, considering the amount of times a line from that book runs through my head, there's a pretty good chance it has had more influence on me then any book I've ever read.
Thats really a side note to the fact that I really dig this program. In alot of instances we seem to be on the exact same page and though there are opinion based questions where we seem to differ, the possibility of precisely that difference seems always to be used to the best possible extent. There's a bit in the food book about the "water into wine" trick that P+T have transformed for the purpose of doing it at McDonald's. One of the things they said in that bit was roughly (paraphrase): We're not gonna teach you the water to wine trick. If it was up to us, you wouldn't drink alcohol. Of course, it isn't up to us and it shouldn't be up to us." The episode I'm watching now is about profanity, somethin I've pretty much always had strong feelings about.
I started swearing profusely sometime during high school, before my senior year, certainly, since I always received comments at that point about the lists of obscenities that lined my accoridans and any files I put out. I could attempt theories of some sort as to why that is, but they would most likely be crap anyway. The point is simply that I like talking that way, I don't have to, I don't think it has to do with shocking anyone, since, with the exception of when I screw up around some ancient family member, no one I know responds with anything resembling shock. If you read back a ways on this journal, you can find some instances where I was more profuse and I'm certain you cant go more than a couple days without something. I reluctantly accept that there are people who don't like it, people who would think negatively of me as a result, so I've backed off considerably from my electronic vocabulary of old. Just thought I should make it known that I remain incredibly uncomfortable with my not swearing. If I get rich and don't need to worry about who reads what I say, rest assured that I will return to the good old days.
I've already excused everybody up to California (follow along here if you like) and we come to the first potential challenge in Colorado. Its clear to me that this song concerns a Western State, it has to do with mountains, buffalo, etc. I was very tempted, upon my first reading, to throw out Colorado's anthem, but I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt because it has the word Columbine in the title. No one has any association of the word Columbine with a tree anyway, so while I don't know if that particular plant is unique to the Wado, I'm just gonna let it slide. Columbine is Colorado, you have enough crappy associations with that name, I don't need to help out.
But Conneticut, oh Conneticut. You just couldn't let it go, could you, you had to go and act just like Kansas, choose a classic old time song that is definitively not about your state. There's not even an argument, the song mentions nothing about any locality. It simply describes a dude, Yankee Doodle, to be specific. I'm not gonna go through and critique the fact that its stupid as hell to bother choosing a state song if it doesnt have either any redeeming social value or some romantic connotations about the place it represents. What I will mention is located in small print at the bottom of Conneticut's page. This was selected as the state song in 1978!! First of all, the state of Conneticut had been around in the area of 200 years before they fucking got around to choosing a state song. I guess you were busy creating all those exciting tourist destinations or maybe you were too wrapped up in your abundant professional sports franchises, it took you a couple centennials to take a vote. Second, if you take 200 years to choose something and you come up with Yankee Fuck Doodle, just retire, give up the choosing of specific state things altogether. Thats like standing at the Baskin Robins counter and holding up the line for a week before ordering a single scoop of vanilla in a cup.
I don't think enough people read this for me to take any poll regarding what song should be substituted in, but I will narrow it down to a couple and decide from there, taking any offered consultation into account. My suggestions:
Liz Phair's HWC
or
Necro's All the Hotties
If you haven't seen the lyrics to the second, they are literally too good to believe. Anyway, I think Hippo and I are gonna run to the Applebees that opened in my living room. She's in the mood for cajun catfish, at least something good has come from Baxterization.
Peace,
MB-K
Thats really a side note to the fact that I really dig this program. In alot of instances we seem to be on the exact same page and though there are opinion based questions where we seem to differ, the possibility of precisely that difference seems always to be used to the best possible extent. There's a bit in the food book about the "water into wine" trick that P+T have transformed for the purpose of doing it at McDonald's. One of the things they said in that bit was roughly (paraphrase): We're not gonna teach you the water to wine trick. If it was up to us, you wouldn't drink alcohol. Of course, it isn't up to us and it shouldn't be up to us." The episode I'm watching now is about profanity, somethin I've pretty much always had strong feelings about.
I started swearing profusely sometime during high school, before my senior year, certainly, since I always received comments at that point about the lists of obscenities that lined my accoridans and any files I put out. I could attempt theories of some sort as to why that is, but they would most likely be crap anyway. The point is simply that I like talking that way, I don't have to, I don't think it has to do with shocking anyone, since, with the exception of when I screw up around some ancient family member, no one I know responds with anything resembling shock. If you read back a ways on this journal, you can find some instances where I was more profuse and I'm certain you cant go more than a couple days without something. I reluctantly accept that there are people who don't like it, people who would think negatively of me as a result, so I've backed off considerably from my electronic vocabulary of old. Just thought I should make it known that I remain incredibly uncomfortable with my not swearing. If I get rich and don't need to worry about who reads what I say, rest assured that I will return to the good old days.
I've already excused everybody up to California (follow along here if you like) and we come to the first potential challenge in Colorado. Its clear to me that this song concerns a Western State, it has to do with mountains, buffalo, etc. I was very tempted, upon my first reading, to throw out Colorado's anthem, but I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt because it has the word Columbine in the title. No one has any association of the word Columbine with a tree anyway, so while I don't know if that particular plant is unique to the Wado, I'm just gonna let it slide. Columbine is Colorado, you have enough crappy associations with that name, I don't need to help out.
But Conneticut, oh Conneticut. You just couldn't let it go, could you, you had to go and act just like Kansas, choose a classic old time song that is definitively not about your state. There's not even an argument, the song mentions nothing about any locality. It simply describes a dude, Yankee Doodle, to be specific. I'm not gonna go through and critique the fact that its stupid as hell to bother choosing a state song if it doesnt have either any redeeming social value or some romantic connotations about the place it represents. What I will mention is located in small print at the bottom of Conneticut's page. This was selected as the state song in 1978!! First of all, the state of Conneticut had been around in the area of 200 years before they fucking got around to choosing a state song. I guess you were busy creating all those exciting tourist destinations or maybe you were too wrapped up in your abundant professional sports franchises, it took you a couple centennials to take a vote. Second, if you take 200 years to choose something and you come up with Yankee Fuck Doodle, just retire, give up the choosing of specific state things altogether. Thats like standing at the Baskin Robins counter and holding up the line for a week before ordering a single scoop of vanilla in a cup.
I don't think enough people read this for me to take any poll regarding what song should be substituted in, but I will narrow it down to a couple and decide from there, taking any offered consultation into account. My suggestions:
Liz Phair's HWC
or
Necro's All the Hotties
If you haven't seen the lyrics to the second, they are literally too good to believe. Anyway, I think Hippo and I are gonna run to the Applebees that opened in my living room. She's in the mood for cajun catfish, at least something good has come from Baxterization.
Peace,
MB-K
Sunday, July 31, 2005
Don't Give Up, You've Got a Reason To Live, Can't Forget, You Only Get What You Butt
So Katie is in Vermont. Has been for a couple weeks now actually. I brough her up there a little under a week after we got home from Minnesota, stayed the night, and drove back home. The drive up there was a disaster, which is just somewhat expected when you are dealing with roads in Vermont. By that I mean only this: it appears that there are in fact highways in Vermont. At the very least there is 89 and its affiliate 189. Ostensibly 89 is an interstate, but I have no freaking clue which even more isolated state this highway connects to. I guess it does connect Montpelier and Burlington, the two "big cities" in the state, but for some reason, there is no freaking route from any part of New York to the biggest city in the state of Vermont that doesnt require mostly travel on roads with one lane in either direction. Seriously, I am not trying to crap on Vermont, cuz there are a bunch of things in that state I really dig, but you have to have a freeway to your biggest city. If you can't get from New York City to your city driving only on significant highways, its too freaking small. End of story, no more negative things to say about the drive to Burlington.
In fact I will go on to say something complimentary about the area, just so there are no hard feelings. Due to a significant road closure on the ride up, I decided to negotiate my own route on the way home. I got some suggestions from google maps, took some advice from the Vermont road signs that indicated the direction of the "Bridge to New York," and sort of improvised my way back to highway 87. The route I took was magnificent, it really hit up what I would imagine are the most beautiful places in the Western Vermont, Northern New York area. I'm a sucker for mountains, coming from about the flattest area of land you can imagine, and when you get up that far into the Adirondacks, they are pretty legit. If you've gotta drive thru the middle of nowhere on one lane roads, you might as well do it negotiating the heart of a mountain range, sunlight filtering through the trees, breathtaking clear lakes nestled between them. Incredible, really really incredible. If I had either the ability to get a summer house or a job that would allow me to work from the middle of nowhere, I think this is the area I would consider. A boat, fresh fish, storms coming in over the mountains. I took the same route this last week, on the way up and the way back, its the absolute highlight of the trip.
One of the most highlightable moments of that highlight is the trip over Lake Champlain, which we spent a good amount of time admiring over the days I spent with Katie. She had a couple days off between high school and college institutes so we decided to venture to some place with good food, air conditioning, and comfy beds. My original thought was just that she would like a hotel nearby, but we eventually decided to venture into the exotic and generally geriatric world of bed and breakfasts. Anyway, we decided a night at the rustic Point Au Roche Lodge near Plattsburg, NY, right on the other side of the lake from Burlington, essentially. So, Tuesday morning we got up and headed up the actual highway towards the ferry.
I have never been on a ferry before but I love boats in general. Not to mention that this particular ferry cut about 40 miles off the potential drive. So we bought our tickets, got in line, and drove a car onto a boat. I suppose that its not surprising that I would like the concept, in a way its a bit like the turducken of the transportation world. I think we should also have the plane equivalent of a ferry, but I won't get into that for the moment. Maybe we could put helicopters on tanks or something. Regardless, the boat ride was fun. I was unaware, for instance, that Lake Champlain is the 6th largest freshwater lake in the US. We crossed at a pretty narrow point, the ride was only 12 minutes accross, others are up to an hour. Here's one of the ferries:
Its prolly not the most economical way to get accross, but it was worth the cash, both time wise and cool wise. You can sit up in the observation deck or just stand out and look out over the front of the boat. Apparently the boats run all day all year round. I think both the winter and the middle of the night would be cool rides, personally.
Since a big part of the whole getting away from debate camp thing was eating food that was not preparable by microwave without refrigeration, we ate pretty well. Had lunch at some cute little cafe called Irises. Katie had a tasty little chicken on foccacia, while I had a rosemary-mushroom bacon cheeseburger. To be honest I had never thought of rosemary as a cheeseburger herb, but it really worked well. We returned to the "downtown Plattsburgh" area to have dinner at Giovanni's (review=hilarious by the way, since there is obviously not an overabundance of quality eats in this town). It was a good Italian joint, good bread, a tasty appetizer of fried beef tenderloin with grilled polenta, some wine etc. Katie had a tasty baked pasta, which I cannot remember specifically at this point, it was manacotti-ish and filled with the various types of cheeses one might expect. It was really quite good. I was blown away by my cheese tortellini, which was stuffed with ricotta and parmesan, bathing in a tomato-cream sauce, and topped with a big clump of some of the best gorgonzola cheese I have ever eaten. It was so fresh and so perfectly tart, I was really blown away. Both of us were too full for dessert, which means alot when theres tiramisu on the menu.
Our other eating experience on the Tuesday we went out there is to freaking hilarious for me to accurately explain without first giving you this picture:
Thats correct, that is a big neon sign that indicates that this ice cream stand is called "Creamies." I literally thought I was going to crash the car, I couldn't breathe for like a minute after I saw it. We had to stop and get a cone, I insisted that Katie get a picture of me under the sign, cuz I don't think anyone would believe that someone named a business "creamies" without proof. I learned later on that in this area of the country (maybe in other areas for all I know, but I've eaten a fuckload of ice cream in my day, and never heard it before) soft-serve ice cream cones are referred to as "creamies." We stopped at a couple other ice cream stands, cuz Creamies got me in the mood (omg, it never gets old), and most of them seem to spell it "Cree-mees" or some variation thereof, hopefully to try to distance themselves. I tried to get Katie to rub the ice cream around her mouth and let me take a picture of her licking the cone under the sign, but she would have none of it. Regardless, it was good, so I can say with all certainty, if you are ever near Plattsburgh, NY, you should have a creamie.
The time that we didn't spend eating was spent in the "Garden Room" at the Point Au Roche Lodge. Katie was tired, so she took an afternoon nap, as has become her custom whenever we check into a hotel. I spent that time out on the sweet-ass deck in the Adirondack chairs (in the Adirondacks no less) reading Truman Capote. Total hipster was I. While I dig the rustic ambience and all, none of these rooms had television, which in my mind is just stupid. I understand the desire to be all away from the world and all, but when I was laying in bed, waiting for Katie to finish her chapter, tired and a little tipsy, I would have really liked to watch 10 minutes of sportscenter or an old sitcom. If you wanna get away from it entirely, just turn it off. Get some self control, hippies.
Anyway, I won't post a bunch of pictures of our hotel room, largely because you can see them on the hotel's website if you want. It was hella pretty. I don't think there is a shot of our deck, so here's that:
and here is the view towards the lake. In actuality you can see the fogged mountains behind the water, but it doesn't turn out well in the photograph. Regardless, it was a gorgeous place to relax on a summer afternoon.
I got up the next morning and got a cup of coffee before breakfast just so I could sit out on the chair again and read in the morning air. I'm not usually up at 7:30 in the morning, but when I am it always seems worthwhile. The mountain and lake combo is really the right way to spend a cool morning, even if you are reading about the gruesome murder of a rural Kansas family.
When Katie did get up we headed down for breakfast, which was in fact quite an affair. I had the Spinach, Bacon, and Cheese Fritatta, while Katie went for the Buttermilk Blueberry Pancakes. I tried some of Katie's bfast as well, and while it didn't match up to the eggs, I must admit that I have never tasted a better fruit filled cake like snack. I think we both enjoyed the pleasant B+B hospitality factor, but luckily we didn't really have to interact much with any of the other patrons. Katie was all freaked out that we would be shunned for not doing crafts in the great room or something, thankfully, it was not the case. Its really just a quaint hotel, with the best continental b-fast in history. By my evaluation of the breakfast room we were the youngest people there by only about 10 years. If you exclude the woman who was there by herself, obviously on some sort of business trip to Plattsburgh that she managed to convert into a comfy B+B, it was at least 20. I'm not 100% sure that we will start spending all our vacations in overly-floral bedrooms lacking in fairly simple electronics, but it was fun.
Since Katie gave me this very useful list of state songs, I will lead into my tirade, to be continued next time, by letting Alabama, Alasaka, Arizona, Arkansas, and California know that you and I are cool. Beyond that its any-Hippo's guess.
Peace,
MB-K
In fact I will go on to say something complimentary about the area, just so there are no hard feelings. Due to a significant road closure on the ride up, I decided to negotiate my own route on the way home. I got some suggestions from google maps, took some advice from the Vermont road signs that indicated the direction of the "Bridge to New York," and sort of improvised my way back to highway 87. The route I took was magnificent, it really hit up what I would imagine are the most beautiful places in the Western Vermont, Northern New York area. I'm a sucker for mountains, coming from about the flattest area of land you can imagine, and when you get up that far into the Adirondacks, they are pretty legit. If you've gotta drive thru the middle of nowhere on one lane roads, you might as well do it negotiating the heart of a mountain range, sunlight filtering through the trees, breathtaking clear lakes nestled between them. Incredible, really really incredible. If I had either the ability to get a summer house or a job that would allow me to work from the middle of nowhere, I think this is the area I would consider. A boat, fresh fish, storms coming in over the mountains. I took the same route this last week, on the way up and the way back, its the absolute highlight of the trip.
One of the most highlightable moments of that highlight is the trip over Lake Champlain, which we spent a good amount of time admiring over the days I spent with Katie. She had a couple days off between high school and college institutes so we decided to venture to some place with good food, air conditioning, and comfy beds. My original thought was just that she would like a hotel nearby, but we eventually decided to venture into the exotic and generally geriatric world of bed and breakfasts. Anyway, we decided a night at the rustic Point Au Roche Lodge near Plattsburg, NY, right on the other side of the lake from Burlington, essentially. So, Tuesday morning we got up and headed up the actual highway towards the ferry.
I have never been on a ferry before but I love boats in general. Not to mention that this particular ferry cut about 40 miles off the potential drive. So we bought our tickets, got in line, and drove a car onto a boat. I suppose that its not surprising that I would like the concept, in a way its a bit like the turducken of the transportation world. I think we should also have the plane equivalent of a ferry, but I won't get into that for the moment. Maybe we could put helicopters on tanks or something. Regardless, the boat ride was fun. I was unaware, for instance, that Lake Champlain is the 6th largest freshwater lake in the US. We crossed at a pretty narrow point, the ride was only 12 minutes accross, others are up to an hour. Here's one of the ferries:
Its prolly not the most economical way to get accross, but it was worth the cash, both time wise and cool wise. You can sit up in the observation deck or just stand out and look out over the front of the boat. Apparently the boats run all day all year round. I think both the winter and the middle of the night would be cool rides, personally.
Since a big part of the whole getting away from debate camp thing was eating food that was not preparable by microwave without refrigeration, we ate pretty well. Had lunch at some cute little cafe called Irises. Katie had a tasty little chicken on foccacia, while I had a rosemary-mushroom bacon cheeseburger. To be honest I had never thought of rosemary as a cheeseburger herb, but it really worked well. We returned to the "downtown Plattsburgh" area to have dinner at Giovanni's (review=hilarious by the way, since there is obviously not an overabundance of quality eats in this town). It was a good Italian joint, good bread, a tasty appetizer of fried beef tenderloin with grilled polenta, some wine etc. Katie had a tasty baked pasta, which I cannot remember specifically at this point, it was manacotti-ish and filled with the various types of cheeses one might expect. It was really quite good. I was blown away by my cheese tortellini, which was stuffed with ricotta and parmesan, bathing in a tomato-cream sauce, and topped with a big clump of some of the best gorgonzola cheese I have ever eaten. It was so fresh and so perfectly tart, I was really blown away. Both of us were too full for dessert, which means alot when theres tiramisu on the menu.
Our other eating experience on the Tuesday we went out there is to freaking hilarious for me to accurately explain without first giving you this picture:
Thats correct, that is a big neon sign that indicates that this ice cream stand is called "Creamies." I literally thought I was going to crash the car, I couldn't breathe for like a minute after I saw it. We had to stop and get a cone, I insisted that Katie get a picture of me under the sign, cuz I don't think anyone would believe that someone named a business "creamies" without proof. I learned later on that in this area of the country (maybe in other areas for all I know, but I've eaten a fuckload of ice cream in my day, and never heard it before) soft-serve ice cream cones are referred to as "creamies." We stopped at a couple other ice cream stands, cuz Creamies got me in the mood (omg, it never gets old), and most of them seem to spell it "Cree-mees" or some variation thereof, hopefully to try to distance themselves. I tried to get Katie to rub the ice cream around her mouth and let me take a picture of her licking the cone under the sign, but she would have none of it. Regardless, it was good, so I can say with all certainty, if you are ever near Plattsburgh, NY, you should have a creamie.
The time that we didn't spend eating was spent in the "Garden Room" at the Point Au Roche Lodge. Katie was tired, so she took an afternoon nap, as has become her custom whenever we check into a hotel. I spent that time out on the sweet-ass deck in the Adirondack chairs (in the Adirondacks no less) reading Truman Capote. Total hipster was I. While I dig the rustic ambience and all, none of these rooms had television, which in my mind is just stupid. I understand the desire to be all away from the world and all, but when I was laying in bed, waiting for Katie to finish her chapter, tired and a little tipsy, I would have really liked to watch 10 minutes of sportscenter or an old sitcom. If you wanna get away from it entirely, just turn it off. Get some self control, hippies.
Anyway, I won't post a bunch of pictures of our hotel room, largely because you can see them on the hotel's website if you want. It was hella pretty. I don't think there is a shot of our deck, so here's that:
and here is the view towards the lake. In actuality you can see the fogged mountains behind the water, but it doesn't turn out well in the photograph. Regardless, it was a gorgeous place to relax on a summer afternoon.
I got up the next morning and got a cup of coffee before breakfast just so I could sit out on the chair again and read in the morning air. I'm not usually up at 7:30 in the morning, but when I am it always seems worthwhile. The mountain and lake combo is really the right way to spend a cool morning, even if you are reading about the gruesome murder of a rural Kansas family.
When Katie did get up we headed down for breakfast, which was in fact quite an affair. I had the Spinach, Bacon, and Cheese Fritatta, while Katie went for the Buttermilk Blueberry Pancakes. I tried some of Katie's bfast as well, and while it didn't match up to the eggs, I must admit that I have never tasted a better fruit filled cake like snack. I think we both enjoyed the pleasant B+B hospitality factor, but luckily we didn't really have to interact much with any of the other patrons. Katie was all freaked out that we would be shunned for not doing crafts in the great room or something, thankfully, it was not the case. Its really just a quaint hotel, with the best continental b-fast in history. By my evaluation of the breakfast room we were the youngest people there by only about 10 years. If you exclude the woman who was there by herself, obviously on some sort of business trip to Plattsburgh that she managed to convert into a comfy B+B, it was at least 20. I'm not 100% sure that we will start spending all our vacations in overly-floral bedrooms lacking in fairly simple electronics, but it was fun.
Since Katie gave me this very useful list of state songs, I will lead into my tirade, to be continued next time, by letting Alabama, Alasaka, Arizona, Arkansas, and California know that you and I are cool. Beyond that its any-Hippo's guess.
Peace,
MB-K
Saturday, July 30, 2005
But Don't Hesitate, Cuz Your Love, Just Won't Wait, Ooh Baby I Love Your Butt
Before I attempt to crank out the last of the Minnesota trip, only 3 some weeks after the actual return from said state, I have a brief pronouncement. As I was driving Katie to Vermont a couple weeks ago I discovered that Kansas' state song is "Home on the Range." Jobviously, I called bullshit, cuz you very clearly can't have "Home on the Range" as your state song any more than you could just say that "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" is your national anthem. My criteria are not yet objectively set out, but the basic idea is this: your state song has to have something to do with your state. Can't just go all willy fucking nilly on the bit. Yes, Kansas is on the range, so are Texas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska. I appointed Katie the official representative of the state of Kansas and since she was unwilling to budge on the legitimacy of the ballad, I offered her two alternatives to choose as the new state song. Since she again refused, I have officially designated as the new state song of Kansas 2 Live Crew's epic "Face Down, Ass Up."
I'll be adopting a thorough review process and potentially replacing the state songs of the other 49ish states as necessary in due time. Let me tell you this off the bat: I'm coming for you Conneticut.
Last notable event, I believe, from the Minnesota trip was the trip to Nebraska. Katie finished her institute before noon, so we picked up her dad, gave Hippo instructions for the weekend and journeyed down 35. The drive was pretty uneventful and we actually made good time, thanks be to the people of Iowa, who finally had the good sense to raise their speed limit to a civilized 70. We got into Carole's mom's house, had a nice dinner, hung out, etc. Later that evening, Katie,Karly, Kari, myself, and Cousin Jessica (I totally like the practice of referring to relatives by "Relation-First Name" in the singular without articles, if nothing else, I can sound like a Dukes of Hazard episode) headed to "Downtown Lincoln." Downtown Lincoln is a bit like naming your pet goat "Awesome:" we get the reasoning behind it, but we're not quite sure the name makes any sense.
There was a strip of bars somewhat like you would find in any college town and while most of them looked like the fratish places I usually intend to avoid like the plague, we were amongst a crowd that seemed to prefer even the University environment rather than suburban bar-grills. We hit a place that I am forced to believe is by far the hippest place in prolly the whole of Nebraska. It wouldn't have been out of place in a decent city, though it was empty on Saturday night here. There was a decent micro-beer selection, well stocked bar, and most importanly, I think our tab for 3-4 beers, 5 shots, and 2-3 drinks was like 35 bucks. For some reason we matriculated to a place down the street, which was pretty much the picture of bars I don't enter. While the drinks were even cheaper than the previous joint (a pitcher of something that appeared to essentially be a screwdriver was 8 freaking dollars) there was a series of frat boy behaviors which impinged on our good time and ultimately resulted in our venturing to another establishment. This one was a fairly classic dive, which I didn't expect around either. The occupants were still huskers thru and thru, I think there was at least a couple instances of ass-grabbage when Katie, Kari, and Jessica headed to the dance area. Drinks remained cheap and plentiful and to establish what kind of an evening it was becoming, I had switched from beer, to bourbon on the rocks. There was one more bar, which finally had freaking Maker's Mark, but otherwise had no distinguishing characteristics. We went home late, fun was had by all.
The next morning featured a high quality breakfast which was conveniently also classic hangover food, sausage, bacon, eggs, biscuits, and gravy. There were more family members, some repeats, and for a while there was a female exodus to the Dillard's 4th of July sale. Tom and I watched the Cubs game with Carole's parents before the ladies came home and the party traveled from some section of Lincoln to a different section of Lincoln and another set of g-rents. We didn't need to make late night bar binges here, cuz unlike the first stop, there were beverages a plenty. There was good food, good drinks, fireworks, and general comradery. Their house is the nuts, with a huge well decorated backyard, a pool table, bars upstairs and down, prolly about 20 total televisions (including a set-up of four in the living room to feature any and all available sporting extravaganzas), and a good deal of Nebraska themed merchandise. We took a couple pictures, most during the afternoon of the 4th when the Tom designed bocce tournament (featuring prelims and seeded elims) came down to an epic battle between Katie and Kari. Here's a lone action shot to demonstrate the intensity of the finals:
Drove home the next day in fairly uneventful fashion. Pretty much just enough time to say hello to my rents one more time, gather up the Hippo-Bear and vamoose to Buffaliz. Alright, thus ends the Minnesota rants and at least a good amount of the picture fests. More importantly, the incessant narration of something that is not incredibly interesting and in the near past. Hippo seriously needs a claw trimming and I have the scars to prove it, so I think we are gonna see what we can do bout that.
Peace,
MB-K
I'll be adopting a thorough review process and potentially replacing the state songs of the other 49ish states as necessary in due time. Let me tell you this off the bat: I'm coming for you Conneticut.
Last notable event, I believe, from the Minnesota trip was the trip to Nebraska. Katie finished her institute before noon, so we picked up her dad, gave Hippo instructions for the weekend and journeyed down 35. The drive was pretty uneventful and we actually made good time, thanks be to the people of Iowa, who finally had the good sense to raise their speed limit to a civilized 70. We got into Carole's mom's house, had a nice dinner, hung out, etc. Later that evening, Katie,Karly, Kari, myself, and Cousin Jessica (I totally like the practice of referring to relatives by "Relation-First Name" in the singular without articles, if nothing else, I can sound like a Dukes of Hazard episode) headed to "Downtown Lincoln." Downtown Lincoln is a bit like naming your pet goat "Awesome:" we get the reasoning behind it, but we're not quite sure the name makes any sense.
There was a strip of bars somewhat like you would find in any college town and while most of them looked like the fratish places I usually intend to avoid like the plague, we were amongst a crowd that seemed to prefer even the University environment rather than suburban bar-grills. We hit a place that I am forced to believe is by far the hippest place in prolly the whole of Nebraska. It wouldn't have been out of place in a decent city, though it was empty on Saturday night here. There was a decent micro-beer selection, well stocked bar, and most importanly, I think our tab for 3-4 beers, 5 shots, and 2-3 drinks was like 35 bucks. For some reason we matriculated to a place down the street, which was pretty much the picture of bars I don't enter. While the drinks were even cheaper than the previous joint (a pitcher of something that appeared to essentially be a screwdriver was 8 freaking dollars) there was a series of frat boy behaviors which impinged on our good time and ultimately resulted in our venturing to another establishment. This one was a fairly classic dive, which I didn't expect around either. The occupants were still huskers thru and thru, I think there was at least a couple instances of ass-grabbage when Katie, Kari, and Jessica headed to the dance area. Drinks remained cheap and plentiful and to establish what kind of an evening it was becoming, I had switched from beer, to bourbon on the rocks. There was one more bar, which finally had freaking Maker's Mark, but otherwise had no distinguishing characteristics. We went home late, fun was had by all.
The next morning featured a high quality breakfast which was conveniently also classic hangover food, sausage, bacon, eggs, biscuits, and gravy. There were more family members, some repeats, and for a while there was a female exodus to the Dillard's 4th of July sale. Tom and I watched the Cubs game with Carole's parents before the ladies came home and the party traveled from some section of Lincoln to a different section of Lincoln and another set of g-rents. We didn't need to make late night bar binges here, cuz unlike the first stop, there were beverages a plenty. There was good food, good drinks, fireworks, and general comradery. Their house is the nuts, with a huge well decorated backyard, a pool table, bars upstairs and down, prolly about 20 total televisions (including a set-up of four in the living room to feature any and all available sporting extravaganzas), and a good deal of Nebraska themed merchandise. We took a couple pictures, most during the afternoon of the 4th when the Tom designed bocce tournament (featuring prelims and seeded elims) came down to an epic battle between Katie and Kari. Here's a lone action shot to demonstrate the intensity of the finals:
Drove home the next day in fairly uneventful fashion. Pretty much just enough time to say hello to my rents one more time, gather up the Hippo-Bear and vamoose to Buffaliz. Alright, thus ends the Minnesota rants and at least a good amount of the picture fests. More importantly, the incessant narration of something that is not incredibly interesting and in the near past. Hippo seriously needs a claw trimming and I have the scars to prove it, so I think we are gonna see what we can do bout that.
Peace,
MB-K
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
This is The Story of a Girl, Who Cried a River and Drowned the Whole Butt
Last night's RockStar didn't match up to the first week's show, but it was still very phat. Jordis dominated yet again and I found myself saying exactly the same thing as Dave Navarro in response to the fact that she sang Hoobastank. Basically, that song sucks, but you made it pretty sweet. It wasn't nearly as rocking as her version of Baba O'Reily or Heart Shaped Box, but she hits this one note that, were I to be in charge of giving names to musical things, I would call a "break-note." Heather was also on her nuts yesterday while some other people met mediocre reviews. Jennifer Robinson's "Purple Haze" couldn't match up with her "I Want You to Want Me" from last week. Anyway, if you started watching RockStar: INXS last night on my advice and were disappointed, just give it another week. Its freaking sweet, trust me.
I am currently watching last night's Canadian Idol. This young lady just decided that, in case anyone wanted to notice how overshadowed she was by any of the American Idols she decided to do Roy Orbison's "Crying" , which we all remember was done in the later weeks of this past season by Ms. Underwood. One of the guys literally sounds like a girl, I mean, when he talks, you would think that he was a girl. Its not even a particularly high voice, its just a girl's voice. He's apparently 17, so maybe bloomin js just comin late, but I'm leaning towards no. Tonight is apparently Canadian music night, so we've done BTO, Orbison, and now some dude whom I have literally never heard of. Its ricockulous. Also, Sass Jordan (Canadio-Paula) appears to have selected a shirt that is designed to make her breasts sag into her waist area. Ouch, Sass, ouch.
I return to Minnesota, specifically, Rosemount at the point I returned from Mad-town. Katie had borrowed the car, her dad had cleaned it like a mo-fo (new carpet pad things, scrubbed, washed, everything out from under shit, it was really impressive) and she was coming to pick me up. When I bought that car in the late summer of 2000 the first two things I did, in all seriousness, were light a cigarette and go through a drive-thru. I'm quite certain that there was ash in the car somewhere very shortly and there is absolutely no question what happened with the MickeyD's trash. Regardless, it looks as good now as it did the day I picked it up. Katie came down, we hung with the kitty for a couple minutes before heading out for our anniversary celebtration.
I wanted to take Katie back to the Hyatt for our anniversaire, but things didn't work out. Luckily my favorite hotel in the Twin Cities came up strong having available rooms, reasonably priced, and then upgrading us upon arrival. We were staying, of course at the St. Paul Hotel overlooking Rice Park and right down the block from the home of our rehearsal dinner last year. I don't think Katie had ever entered the building before, which made it an even more enjoyable experience. We stayed in what Katie described as what her bedroom would look like if our home wasn't overflowing with Care Bears (thats a slight paraphrase). The view was good
I think Katie prolly appreciated the bed and the shower more than the occassion itself, since she had been stuck in the Hamline dorms for about a week at that point. The bed admittedly was pillow topped, large, and very much in charge:
We hung around, Katie napped, and we still made our dinner reservations at the St. Paul Grill. I love the ambience of that joint, prolly more than anywhere else I have ever really eaten. Manny's is up there and I've always dug on my g-rents country club, but still, that place is just freaking classy. I had a tasty piece of beef, but in all honesty it was second fiddle to Katie's walleye, which was served with a some sort of an almondy maple sauce. Katie continued her on the nuts descriptions by explaining that it was like having fish for dessert.
Dessert itself was waiting for us upstairs. We had the top tier of our original wedding cake, but it had been through alot, I mean, a freaking lot. We got it from the reception the day after, we transported it to Buffalo, somewhere along the line it got wet, it hung out in the freezer for a year, taking up space that we could have really used for turkey, or bacon, or turkey-bacon. Anyway, I got a similar cake recreated by Wuollets for the occassion so we didn't have to eat more than a bite of the nasty stale stuff.
There was cake and champagne and maybe more importantly, no debate camp of any kind. One year down, many many to go. I guess alot of people say the first year of marriage is really hard, but I can't say I buy it. I've really enjoyed everything and on a practical level not that much really changed. We had been working with joint finances for a year before, we lived together, we shared a car, etc. (sidenote: this woman on C-Idol was talking about her return to her hometown and she literally spoke this sentence, which I never would have imagine was actually a possibility: "When I got home yesterday they had a parade for me, they had a big gathering down by the world's largest axe." I believe its the structural equivalent of "If it wasn't for my horse, I wouldn't have spent that year in college.") Anyway, the first year of marriage was pretty awesome for me and the parts of year two that we have spent together put it on track to top even that.
Hippo wants to check out the premiere of So You Think You Can Dance so I think we will set the computer aside.
Peace,
MB-K
I am currently watching last night's Canadian Idol. This young lady just decided that, in case anyone wanted to notice how overshadowed she was by any of the American Idols she decided to do Roy Orbison's "Crying" , which we all remember was done in the later weeks of this past season by Ms. Underwood. One of the guys literally sounds like a girl, I mean, when he talks, you would think that he was a girl. Its not even a particularly high voice, its just a girl's voice. He's apparently 17, so maybe bloomin js just comin late, but I'm leaning towards no. Tonight is apparently Canadian music night, so we've done BTO, Orbison, and now some dude whom I have literally never heard of. Its ricockulous. Also, Sass Jordan (Canadio-Paula) appears to have selected a shirt that is designed to make her breasts sag into her waist area. Ouch, Sass, ouch.
I return to Minnesota, specifically, Rosemount at the point I returned from Mad-town. Katie had borrowed the car, her dad had cleaned it like a mo-fo (new carpet pad things, scrubbed, washed, everything out from under shit, it was really impressive) and she was coming to pick me up. When I bought that car in the late summer of 2000 the first two things I did, in all seriousness, were light a cigarette and go through a drive-thru. I'm quite certain that there was ash in the car somewhere very shortly and there is absolutely no question what happened with the MickeyD's trash. Regardless, it looks as good now as it did the day I picked it up. Katie came down, we hung with the kitty for a couple minutes before heading out for our anniversary celebtration.
I wanted to take Katie back to the Hyatt for our anniversaire, but things didn't work out. Luckily my favorite hotel in the Twin Cities came up strong having available rooms, reasonably priced, and then upgrading us upon arrival. We were staying, of course at the St. Paul Hotel overlooking Rice Park and right down the block from the home of our rehearsal dinner last year. I don't think Katie had ever entered the building before, which made it an even more enjoyable experience. We stayed in what Katie described as what her bedroom would look like if our home wasn't overflowing with Care Bears (thats a slight paraphrase). The view was good
I think Katie prolly appreciated the bed and the shower more than the occassion itself, since she had been stuck in the Hamline dorms for about a week at that point. The bed admittedly was pillow topped, large, and very much in charge:
We hung around, Katie napped, and we still made our dinner reservations at the St. Paul Grill. I love the ambience of that joint, prolly more than anywhere else I have ever really eaten. Manny's is up there and I've always dug on my g-rents country club, but still, that place is just freaking classy. I had a tasty piece of beef, but in all honesty it was second fiddle to Katie's walleye, which was served with a some sort of an almondy maple sauce. Katie continued her on the nuts descriptions by explaining that it was like having fish for dessert.
Dessert itself was waiting for us upstairs. We had the top tier of our original wedding cake, but it had been through alot, I mean, a freaking lot. We got it from the reception the day after, we transported it to Buffalo, somewhere along the line it got wet, it hung out in the freezer for a year, taking up space that we could have really used for turkey, or bacon, or turkey-bacon. Anyway, I got a similar cake recreated by Wuollets for the occassion so we didn't have to eat more than a bite of the nasty stale stuff.
There was cake and champagne and maybe more importantly, no debate camp of any kind. One year down, many many to go. I guess alot of people say the first year of marriage is really hard, but I can't say I buy it. I've really enjoyed everything and on a practical level not that much really changed. We had been working with joint finances for a year before, we lived together, we shared a car, etc. (sidenote: this woman on C-Idol was talking about her return to her hometown and she literally spoke this sentence, which I never would have imagine was actually a possibility: "When I got home yesterday they had a parade for me, they had a big gathering down by the world's largest axe." I believe its the structural equivalent of "If it wasn't for my horse, I wouldn't have spent that year in college.") Anyway, the first year of marriage was pretty awesome for me and the parts of year two that we have spent together put it on track to top even that.
Hippo wants to check out the premiere of So You Think You Can Dance so I think we will set the computer aside.
Peace,
MB-K
Sunday, July 17, 2005
I Was Frying On the Bench Slide in the Park Accross the Street, L-A-T-E-R That Butt
I've gotten into the summer seasons of The Inside, Big Brother 6, The 4400, and Six Feet Under, to name the big ones at least. The one I wasn't expecting that is fantastic is CBS's RockStar: INXS. This was the first week of the show, but its off to a biz-a-bang, let me tell you. I'll just give you three reasons you should watch this show so you can make an informed decision come tomorrow, Tuesday, and Wednesday evening before you set your TIVO:
1) Mark Burnett is god. Seriously, if Mark Burnett made a reality show about people who like Froot Loops, I would watch it. This guy can do no freaking wrong and this is no exception. If you don't like reality TV I guess this isn't a reason for you, but I don't know any fans who don't live to see that flaming logo.
2) Imagine this: American Idol with rock music. Thats right, take out all the crappy songs and replace them with rock and roll music, people who sound like they're fronting a band instead of a choir performance. There's nothing wrong with those things, notably, but in my world they just can't compare. Thats also not to say that the people on this show don't have tremendous talent, cuz jobviously they do. The stuff that Kelly Clarkson is doing now (Hazel Eyes, Since You've Been Gone) proves how well that works, women with tremendous voices who don't just do Celine Dion. Think when Carrie did Heart's "Alone" this year or several of Bo's performances. I know its a little early to say for sure, and I'm sure it can never compete ratings wise, but this show looks potentially better than AI.
3) Jordis Unga. She's cute, she has awesome dreds, she's from St. Paul. She's my jobvious favorite, from the first moment on the screen. She sang Nirvana and The Who and while its hard to say that she is the favorite, she's certainly in contention. She's got a pretty rock-metal voice, so that may play into my opinion, Even if for some reason you don't like Jordis (shame on you) there are at least 4-5 other people on this show who are pretty sweet.
Anyway, watch RockStar, its good. Back to the MN trip. Had I been going strictly chronologically I would have technically missed one significant event, but there is not really anything I can say about it that hasn't been set to music and chronicled by Bietz. It was fun and delicious and t-shirt riffic. I did eat a little too much beef, all in all, with the Nookie, a stop at Mannings, and the trip to Assbraska, but still good.
We turn then to the weekend: since Katie was at camp I figured that I would join the collective of homeboys/girls who were making the trip to Mil-a-wau-kee (in the immortal words of Alice Cooper) for the Twinkies road-stand at Miller Park. I didn't join them the year, but was excited to finally see the stadium. I rode with Kevin and Andy J leaving on Friday night. Thor and Ari followed us, Maroney and Reut came down after work, my bro and Melia were already in Madison (which, I should note, is where we stayed) and Wilking and New Jenswick met us at the park. Regardless, we drove, listening to alot of music that typically wasn't my thing, but allowed me to relax and enjoy the drive. It was broken up by the Beach Boys and some Beck (mebbe you could've guessed that Kevin was in charge). Despite my best attempts, this was the best artistic shot of Andy J drinking Propel fitness water that I could come up with:
We checked into the Red Roof Inn and eventually made our way to food and beer. Eventually ended up at some joint called the Great Dane which, while named after a truly excellent dog breed and a Mad-town institution, was a bit disappointing on being out of the two beers I would have most enjoyed drinking. At least I got some New Glaurus at dinner and a decent micro-brewed pilsner. My bro and Malia had met us by then and joined us back at the hotel, where we continued the party in anticipation of Maroney and Reut. Ari came strong with a couple bottles of wine, so we were good until they showed up in the 3:45ish area. To show exactly how hard the party was rocking I give you Ari and Thor:
The next morning featured the absolute worst grocery store run in all of history. We took about an hour, spent an unknown amount of money, but managed to get just about everything we needed, save napkins. There were burgers and brats and beer and condiments, and hotdogs, and to be honest, that was about all we cared about. Still it took forever and we were on the road to Milwaukee maybe 45 minutes late. Didn't much matter though, since we were still amongst the first wave of tailgaters and had a quality spot. Reuter got mad along the way because we kept confusing him with a Asian gang member:
I still think that this photo generally summarizes the experience:
but there were people there besides Maroney's half-drunk Corona with lime. For instance, my brother and Backwards Malia (who were the only ones smart enough to bring chairs).
The ballpark was gorgeous
we got to see Santana pitch
and Wilking and Jen were doing it as always.
We all drank quite a bit, though I thought Reuter's bottle of scotch was without question the classiest set up. A really really intelligent lady who was collecting money for either some homeless shelter or a scam came up and at first scared us cuz she acted like she was going to give us a ticket. Instead she joked around with us, got a dollar or two from everybody, and passed out stickers which were variously attached to Wilking's genitals:
(sorry I can't make that right side up)
We ate a bunch of burgers and hot dogs and brats during two distinct grill sessions. It was a strong way to spend a summer Saturday afternoon. Freaking Twins lost, but we got to see Torii and Shannon Stewart go yard. The only time I can ever really care about baseball is when I'm back at home, and the stadium alone was totally worth the trip. I can't imagine how awesome it would be if the TC could get something like that accomplished. I rode back with Reut Dawg, Kevin, and Maroney, in the back of Reuter's car with a passed out Maroney. This was a reasonable play, notableuce, since there was nothing to do and drinking in the hot sun can take alot out of you. When we did arrive back at the Red Roof Inn it took us a while to mobilize Maroney, and when we did, he leaned just a bit too far and stumbled down a small hill finally causing this:
That is, knocking down the fence, or at least a segment of it. I was amazed that he didn't tumble straight through it, but he righted himself enough to get back upstairs so he could continue drinking. I don't think anyone realized until the next morning that we may have had a former Maroney, had he gone about another 2-3 feet beyond the fence line
a drop that is estimated, depending on who you ask, between 12-25 feet. My guess is near 20, but I'm not a measuring tape or nothin, whadda I know.
Two final hilarious stories:
1) At one point hanging around the RRI we flipped through the Adult Desires section of pay-per view. While there were several quality double features and alot of girl on girl action, everything else was blown away by Latex Housewives, which anyone can tell you are characterized by three adjectives: Slutty, Bored, and (you guessed it) Horny. We joked about how desperately this movie needed to be ordered and it wasn't until Maroney pressed the wrong button on the remote that it actually ended up on Thor's credit card. It was legitimately hilarious and lived up entirely to its name. It was during the film that Maroney and I discovered exactly how difficult it is to fall asleep with porno in the background. Very disconcerting. I was sad I had to miss the disclosure to Thor, but Andy J and I were out early the next morning.
2) Kevin was being all Kevin-like on Saturday night, so after we decided to hit the hay, Kevin announced that instead of sharing a bed with someone, he was going to build a fort using a comforter, two chairs, and the table. It was in fact, a high quality fort, which happened to be located immediately next to my bed. In fact, one of the chairs of which it made use was the chair on which I had set my wallet, phone, etc. So in the middle of the night, around 4 in the morning, when I reached over to my phone to find out exactly what time it was, I had to lift up the corner of the blanket and was immediately confronted by the accusation: "You're breaching the walls of my fort!" I swear he was waiting to use that line all night. If you know Kevin, that one's a classic.
Alright, Hippo and I are gonna watch Elisha Cuthbert's "The Girl Next Door" which I believe was just selected as AFI's Greatest Teen Movie About Porn Stars. Hippo says meow.
Peace,
MB-K
1) Mark Burnett is god. Seriously, if Mark Burnett made a reality show about people who like Froot Loops, I would watch it. This guy can do no freaking wrong and this is no exception. If you don't like reality TV I guess this isn't a reason for you, but I don't know any fans who don't live to see that flaming logo.
2) Imagine this: American Idol with rock music. Thats right, take out all the crappy songs and replace them with rock and roll music, people who sound like they're fronting a band instead of a choir performance. There's nothing wrong with those things, notably, but in my world they just can't compare. Thats also not to say that the people on this show don't have tremendous talent, cuz jobviously they do. The stuff that Kelly Clarkson is doing now (Hazel Eyes, Since You've Been Gone) proves how well that works, women with tremendous voices who don't just do Celine Dion. Think when Carrie did Heart's "Alone" this year or several of Bo's performances. I know its a little early to say for sure, and I'm sure it can never compete ratings wise, but this show looks potentially better than AI.
3) Jordis Unga. She's cute, she has awesome dreds, she's from St. Paul. She's my jobvious favorite, from the first moment on the screen. She sang Nirvana and The Who and while its hard to say that she is the favorite, she's certainly in contention. She's got a pretty rock-metal voice, so that may play into my opinion, Even if for some reason you don't like Jordis (shame on you) there are at least 4-5 other people on this show who are pretty sweet.
Anyway, watch RockStar, its good. Back to the MN trip. Had I been going strictly chronologically I would have technically missed one significant event, but there is not really anything I can say about it that hasn't been set to music and chronicled by Bietz. It was fun and delicious and t-shirt riffic. I did eat a little too much beef, all in all, with the Nookie, a stop at Mannings, and the trip to Assbraska, but still good.
We turn then to the weekend: since Katie was at camp I figured that I would join the collective of homeboys/girls who were making the trip to Mil-a-wau-kee (in the immortal words of Alice Cooper) for the Twinkies road-stand at Miller Park. I didn't join them the year, but was excited to finally see the stadium. I rode with Kevin and Andy J leaving on Friday night. Thor and Ari followed us, Maroney and Reut came down after work, my bro and Melia were already in Madison (which, I should note, is where we stayed) and Wilking and New Jenswick met us at the park. Regardless, we drove, listening to alot of music that typically wasn't my thing, but allowed me to relax and enjoy the drive. It was broken up by the Beach Boys and some Beck (mebbe you could've guessed that Kevin was in charge). Despite my best attempts, this was the best artistic shot of Andy J drinking Propel fitness water that I could come up with:
We checked into the Red Roof Inn and eventually made our way to food and beer. Eventually ended up at some joint called the Great Dane which, while named after a truly excellent dog breed and a Mad-town institution, was a bit disappointing on being out of the two beers I would have most enjoyed drinking. At least I got some New Glaurus at dinner and a decent micro-brewed pilsner. My bro and Malia had met us by then and joined us back at the hotel, where we continued the party in anticipation of Maroney and Reut. Ari came strong with a couple bottles of wine, so we were good until they showed up in the 3:45ish area. To show exactly how hard the party was rocking I give you Ari and Thor:
The next morning featured the absolute worst grocery store run in all of history. We took about an hour, spent an unknown amount of money, but managed to get just about everything we needed, save napkins. There were burgers and brats and beer and condiments, and hotdogs, and to be honest, that was about all we cared about. Still it took forever and we were on the road to Milwaukee maybe 45 minutes late. Didn't much matter though, since we were still amongst the first wave of tailgaters and had a quality spot. Reuter got mad along the way because we kept confusing him with a Asian gang member:
I still think that this photo generally summarizes the experience:
but there were people there besides Maroney's half-drunk Corona with lime. For instance, my brother and Backwards Malia (who were the only ones smart enough to bring chairs).
The ballpark was gorgeous
we got to see Santana pitch
and Wilking and Jen were doing it as always.
We all drank quite a bit, though I thought Reuter's bottle of scotch was without question the classiest set up. A really really intelligent lady who was collecting money for either some homeless shelter or a scam came up and at first scared us cuz she acted like she was going to give us a ticket. Instead she joked around with us, got a dollar or two from everybody, and passed out stickers which were variously attached to Wilking's genitals:
(sorry I can't make that right side up)We ate a bunch of burgers and hot dogs and brats during two distinct grill sessions. It was a strong way to spend a summer Saturday afternoon. Freaking Twins lost, but we got to see Torii and Shannon Stewart go yard. The only time I can ever really care about baseball is when I'm back at home, and the stadium alone was totally worth the trip. I can't imagine how awesome it would be if the TC could get something like that accomplished. I rode back with Reut Dawg, Kevin, and Maroney, in the back of Reuter's car with a passed out Maroney. This was a reasonable play, notableuce, since there was nothing to do and drinking in the hot sun can take alot out of you. When we did arrive back at the Red Roof Inn it took us a while to mobilize Maroney, and when we did, he leaned just a bit too far and stumbled down a small hill finally causing this:
That is, knocking down the fence, or at least a segment of it. I was amazed that he didn't tumble straight through it, but he righted himself enough to get back upstairs so he could continue drinking. I don't think anyone realized until the next morning that we may have had a former Maroney, had he gone about another 2-3 feet beyond the fence line
a drop that is estimated, depending on who you ask, between 12-25 feet. My guess is near 20, but I'm not a measuring tape or nothin, whadda I know.
Two final hilarious stories:
1) At one point hanging around the RRI we flipped through the Adult Desires section of pay-per view. While there were several quality double features and alot of girl on girl action, everything else was blown away by Latex Housewives, which anyone can tell you are characterized by three adjectives: Slutty, Bored, and (you guessed it) Horny. We joked about how desperately this movie needed to be ordered and it wasn't until Maroney pressed the wrong button on the remote that it actually ended up on Thor's credit card. It was legitimately hilarious and lived up entirely to its name. It was during the film that Maroney and I discovered exactly how difficult it is to fall asleep with porno in the background. Very disconcerting. I was sad I had to miss the disclosure to Thor, but Andy J and I were out early the next morning.
2) Kevin was being all Kevin-like on Saturday night, so after we decided to hit the hay, Kevin announced that instead of sharing a bed with someone, he was going to build a fort using a comforter, two chairs, and the table. It was in fact, a high quality fort, which happened to be located immediately next to my bed. In fact, one of the chairs of which it made use was the chair on which I had set my wallet, phone, etc. So in the middle of the night, around 4 in the morning, when I reached over to my phone to find out exactly what time it was, I had to lift up the corner of the blanket and was immediately confronted by the accusation: "You're breaching the walls of my fort!" I swear he was waiting to use that line all night. If you know Kevin, that one's a classic.
Alright, Hippo and I are gonna watch Elisha Cuthbert's "The Girl Next Door" which I believe was just selected as AFI's Greatest Teen Movie About Porn Stars. Hippo says meow.
Peace,
MB-K
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Do You Feel the Same, Am I Only Dreaming, or is This Burning, an Eternal Butt?
Drive back to Minneapolis: relatively uneventful, Hippo found a comfy spot under Katie's seat, we got slowed down in Chicago but made it to Janesville in about 10 1/2 hours, at which point Katie took over and filled out the remainder of the drive. We were home by about 2 am and besides getting a little antsy from the Dells onwards, the kitty was remarkably calm. She had access to food and water and her litter box, not to mention a comfy spot on the backseat. She desperately wanted to be sitting on Katie's lap a good amount of the time, but generally she just speculated about the history of the land she saw around the car. If you've got a couple spare hours you should ask the Hippopotameow her thoughts about the Indiana landsacape.
Not many events in the first couple days at home. We saw my dad, Dave and Amy and Natalie and Matt and Katie's rents, and so on. I hung out with the homies at Andy J's place and eventually went up to see my madre. Father's day was the first notable situation: since I got two incredible meals and partied with the assorted paternal figures. We picked up Karly, then Tom and Carole, before making our way to Rudolph's in Minneapolis for the BBQ brunch, which I haven't attended in quite a while. They have both quality breakfast food and their more traditional BBQ, which was on the nuts. Garlic mashed potatoes, brisket, ham, ribs, and really good cornbread were the focus of my plates. Katie, unfortunately, had to bow out after that meal, and head o'er to Hamline for the inagural debate camp experience. I, on the other hand, joined up with my sister and dad at his place to enjoy a big steak, some quality early season sweet corn, and the like. I've actually gotten to have a nice meal with my dad on each of the last two father's days, which before that prolly hadn't happened in 5 years. Debate camps and wedding ceremonies set us up, I guess.
Hippo and I were alone with my dad for the next couple days, since Katie had to be sleeping in the dorms at Hamline during some hot-ass days in the Twin Cities. I believe the high point was Thursday afternoon, when the digital display on the strip club near St. Cloud indicated the temperature was 99 farenheit. I was in St. Cloud in the first place for a visit to my Grandparents' place North of Brainerd. My sister and I rode up with m mother in the convertible, which was actually a pretty relaxing way to spend the morning. We left at like 8, got there around 11, hung around, went out for lunch, hung some more and came home by 7 or so, even including the stop at the rural-ass DQ-Brazier for a tasty blizzard treat. My grandma's back is really not doing too well, even though she had this crazy ass hippy new age pain treatment that is all the rage in fringe medical circles these days. We had lunch at this ridiculous little cafe, since their usual restaurant, The Chaparal, burned down the week before. My mother put peanut butter on her BLT, which was truly fucked up. My cousin Robin was up there, which in my mind satisfies my "extended family outside the grandparents" requirement for the next 3-5 years.
My grandparents refer to their place up there as "the lake" which is an accurate depiction, insofar as there is, in fact, a lake. They have some land, which has a driveway and a clearing, a big ass garage which stores some motorcycles, a boat, and a motorhome which I think my grandfather purchased from the estate of Otto Von Bismark. They have had this land since my mother was young, she remembers cutting down the trees which produced the clearing and even building the original bridge and dock that lead from that clearing to the lake. We went up to the lake all the time when we were kids, staying in a camper, in the motorhome, etc. at various times. I was there really really briefly my junior or senior year in college, but besides that prolly haven't been to the Brainerd area since high school. It was somewhere in there that my grandparents built their "cabin" which is more accurately two pre-fab houses next to each other. If you're gonna do a cabin, this is the way I would suggest it, with heat, gas, electricity, a two-car garage, air conditioning, high speed internet, full kitchen, two bathrooms, a couple tvs. and so on. Its by no means huge, but a comfortable suburban home. Here's my grandma and my sisters enjoying the recliners, and the kitchen in the backdrop:
A boring outdoor shot, but it emphasizes the comfort of the area:
From the back window through the woods, to the lake:
Finally, a cute one of my sister and me with the g-rents:
The ride home was uneventful. We had to keep the top up cuz it was just too damn hot without containing the ac, see for instance, the strip club which informed us of the 99 degree situation. Afterwards I went to the como area to pick up something for Katie and saw what I think pretty clearly sums up St. Paul hippies in all of their glory:
Its not a great picture, but I'm gonna leave it at that. Hippo's ready for bed anyways.
Peace,
MB-K
Not many events in the first couple days at home. We saw my dad, Dave and Amy and Natalie and Matt and Katie's rents, and so on. I hung out with the homies at Andy J's place and eventually went up to see my madre. Father's day was the first notable situation: since I got two incredible meals and partied with the assorted paternal figures. We picked up Karly, then Tom and Carole, before making our way to Rudolph's in Minneapolis for the BBQ brunch, which I haven't attended in quite a while. They have both quality breakfast food and their more traditional BBQ, which was on the nuts. Garlic mashed potatoes, brisket, ham, ribs, and really good cornbread were the focus of my plates. Katie, unfortunately, had to bow out after that meal, and head o'er to Hamline for the inagural debate camp experience. I, on the other hand, joined up with my sister and dad at his place to enjoy a big steak, some quality early season sweet corn, and the like. I've actually gotten to have a nice meal with my dad on each of the last two father's days, which before that prolly hadn't happened in 5 years. Debate camps and wedding ceremonies set us up, I guess.
Hippo and I were alone with my dad for the next couple days, since Katie had to be sleeping in the dorms at Hamline during some hot-ass days in the Twin Cities. I believe the high point was Thursday afternoon, when the digital display on the strip club near St. Cloud indicated the temperature was 99 farenheit. I was in St. Cloud in the first place for a visit to my Grandparents' place North of Brainerd. My sister and I rode up with m mother in the convertible, which was actually a pretty relaxing way to spend the morning. We left at like 8, got there around 11, hung around, went out for lunch, hung some more and came home by 7 or so, even including the stop at the rural-ass DQ-Brazier for a tasty blizzard treat. My grandma's back is really not doing too well, even though she had this crazy ass hippy new age pain treatment that is all the rage in fringe medical circles these days. We had lunch at this ridiculous little cafe, since their usual restaurant, The Chaparal, burned down the week before. My mother put peanut butter on her BLT, which was truly fucked up. My cousin Robin was up there, which in my mind satisfies my "extended family outside the grandparents" requirement for the next 3-5 years.
My grandparents refer to their place up there as "the lake" which is an accurate depiction, insofar as there is, in fact, a lake. They have some land, which has a driveway and a clearing, a big ass garage which stores some motorcycles, a boat, and a motorhome which I think my grandfather purchased from the estate of Otto Von Bismark. They have had this land since my mother was young, she remembers cutting down the trees which produced the clearing and even building the original bridge and dock that lead from that clearing to the lake. We went up to the lake all the time when we were kids, staying in a camper, in the motorhome, etc. at various times. I was there really really briefly my junior or senior year in college, but besides that prolly haven't been to the Brainerd area since high school. It was somewhere in there that my grandparents built their "cabin" which is more accurately two pre-fab houses next to each other. If you're gonna do a cabin, this is the way I would suggest it, with heat, gas, electricity, a two-car garage, air conditioning, high speed internet, full kitchen, two bathrooms, a couple tvs. and so on. Its by no means huge, but a comfortable suburban home. Here's my grandma and my sisters enjoying the recliners, and the kitchen in the backdrop:
A boring outdoor shot, but it emphasizes the comfort of the area:
From the back window through the woods, to the lake:
Finally, a cute one of my sister and me with the g-rents:
The ride home was uneventful. We had to keep the top up cuz it was just too damn hot without containing the ac, see for instance, the strip club which informed us of the 99 degree situation. Afterwards I went to the como area to pick up something for Katie and saw what I think pretty clearly sums up St. Paul hippies in all of their glory:
Its not a great picture, but I'm gonna leave it at that. Hippo's ready for bed anyways.
Peace,
MB-K
Monday, July 11, 2005
How Do You Talk To an Angel, Its Like Trying to Catch a Falling Butt
Its been a long wait for day two of the Toronto trip, not to mention that I have not said a word about our time in Minnesota, my trip to Madison/Milwaukee, or the recent one year anniversary. I will get to them all, I swear, but back to Canadia in the first place.
As I think I mentioned, my biggest complain from my first full day spent in the heart of the land of the North was the lack of two words "hoser" and "ay," specifically as they might be combined in a sentence like "ay ya hoser." Despite my attempts to get in as many Tim Hortons conversations and Canadian art discussions as I could, no one called me any names of any sort, hockey related or otherwise. While I didn't fix that dilemma I did manage to overhear someone call his friend a hoser and, several times, was told that "It was a good day for ____, ay?" Which was totally awesome. It is an infintiely cooler expression than "huh?" as in "Nice day out, huh?" or "ain't it" or any of that shit. Not to mention that it allows for question to simply become a statement with the sound "ay" at the end of it and some questioning pronunciation and you are golden. It was especially cool when this early 20s-ish woman said "Ay, good choice, ay" regarding our weekend plans. It worked out really well.
Both those moments occurred on our way to or at the Royal Museum of Ontario, which we don't really have any pictures from, even though it was kinda interesting. We went through this exhibit which had alot of incredibly highly-detailed fossils from a dig site in China. The primary argument that the exhibit was making concerned not only the fact that most (if not nearly all) types of dinosaurs actually had feathers (including a scary ass set of feathered velociraptors and an enormous chicken-like dino, that seriously could have eaten at least three Nookie Supremes), nor that birds descended from dinosaurs, but that birds are dinosaurs. I'm not much of an archaeologist or anything, so I can't regurgitate it all, but it had alot to do with archaeoptrix, which was a pretty sweet little dinosaur as far as I was concerned.
Royal Museum, back to hotel, check out, tipped Mexican valet (according to his nametag), in Canada, with American cash, and headed for Casa Loma. I don't know if Katie has described her thoughts about Casa Loma on her blog yet, but she will and they are seriously in depth, so I will save them for her. Basically, its a castle built in the 1900s, in the middle of Toronto. A quick shot of the gardens and the architecture:
Its not downtown, but its clearly in Toronto. We climbed up into one of the towers, through a one (skinny) person wide cricular staircase of about 4 stories, and while exhausting, it produced the coolest part of the excursion. It was worth seeing once, but don't make it a must see Toronto attraction. Katie and I look pretty good atop the castle, at least:
The picture spectacular really begins now, at the Toronto Zoo, which as far as I was concerned, was by far the most important part of the trip. Before the Canadian Idol victory city ever came into the picture, after all, we were planning on a run down to the Buffalo Zoo-logical gardens which didn't have any of the rhino or hippo related things. I was all nervous since it looked like it was about to rain right as we arrived at the zoo, but Katie's continual optimism proved right as always. It was hot like a mother as we made our way towards the Austral-Asian area, passing a couple of cute camels who had been impressed into giving rides to children, which I would say sucks for them, but I guess its an improvement over full size people and long rides through the desert and such. We first got to the indoor section which featured some cute birds, some fishies, a water monitor, and a big ass komodo dragon. After that there was a dark area which featured nocturnal things, a little kangaroo-like hoppy rodent, a kookaburra bird, and a wombat, which was so incredibly cute that I can't even describe it. I had never seen one in person, but I couldn't take a picture, since the guy was in the dark and all. Imagine an immensely cute version of an ROUS with a shorter face, but an even better waddle.
So we were already off to a great start when we saw some large birds in the distance and approached their cage. The closer we got to the cage the more we realized that it was a fenced-in enclosure featuring a gate which we were encouraged to enter. We then walked up a hill along a narrow-ish path to see a herd of kangaroos and about 4 decent sized emus, walking freely in the area we were in. No walls or fences or gates or pits or moats or trenches or whatever, just the kangaroos and emus between 2-10 feet away. This doesn't emphasize how close the birds got, but shows the general atmosphere:
There were lots of herd animals and monkeys and polar bears and stuff near by. The most notable thing was this incredibly adorable red panda, who was doing its best Hippopotameow impression napping in the tree:
I have pictures of lions and rhinos and gorillas and jaguars and so on, but for the moment I will just include a couple. First off, Katie with a couple of gigantic elephants. I know I have seen elephants before, but I think maybe they were all Asian-speciated or something, cuz these folks were enormous. I mean gigantic.
This is a set of pictures intended to prove two things: 1) Hippos of all types are fricking awesome 2) My cat is well deserving of her title "World's Prettiest Hippo" (which she proudly sports on her favorite coffee mug)
Finally, a good story about the last animal of the day, the Indian rhino. This guy is a big sucker and at the point we got to his spot it was about 5 minutes to closing and the park had cleared out pretty significantly. I found a spot near a corner of the rhino area and watched him graze around for a couple minutes before he got within, literally, 3 feet of the fence. While Katie had backed up and started to make her way towards the exit, I followed the rhino around by the fence for a couple minutes and had a nice convo. I took this one right before I left with literally no zoom:
Anyway, we left around 6 and were home well before dark after a stop for Canada's signature donut at Tim Hortons. It was a really sweet little vacation and we will certainly go back. Sorry it took so long to freaking describe it.
We are back in Buffalo now and have been for a while. I swear I will get up to date soon. At least some Minneapolis stories before Katie leaves me on a month long excursion to summer camp. Hippo needs to play, so I bid you adieu.
Peace,
MB-K
As I think I mentioned, my biggest complain from my first full day spent in the heart of the land of the North was the lack of two words "hoser" and "ay," specifically as they might be combined in a sentence like "ay ya hoser." Despite my attempts to get in as many Tim Hortons conversations and Canadian art discussions as I could, no one called me any names of any sort, hockey related or otherwise. While I didn't fix that dilemma I did manage to overhear someone call his friend a hoser and, several times, was told that "It was a good day for ____, ay?" Which was totally awesome. It is an infintiely cooler expression than "huh?" as in "Nice day out, huh?" or "ain't it" or any of that shit. Not to mention that it allows for question to simply become a statement with the sound "ay" at the end of it and some questioning pronunciation and you are golden. It was especially cool when this early 20s-ish woman said "Ay, good choice, ay" regarding our weekend plans. It worked out really well.
Both those moments occurred on our way to or at the Royal Museum of Ontario, which we don't really have any pictures from, even though it was kinda interesting. We went through this exhibit which had alot of incredibly highly-detailed fossils from a dig site in China. The primary argument that the exhibit was making concerned not only the fact that most (if not nearly all) types of dinosaurs actually had feathers (including a scary ass set of feathered velociraptors and an enormous chicken-like dino, that seriously could have eaten at least three Nookie Supremes), nor that birds descended from dinosaurs, but that birds are dinosaurs. I'm not much of an archaeologist or anything, so I can't regurgitate it all, but it had alot to do with archaeoptrix, which was a pretty sweet little dinosaur as far as I was concerned.
Royal Museum, back to hotel, check out, tipped Mexican valet (according to his nametag), in Canada, with American cash, and headed for Casa Loma. I don't know if Katie has described her thoughts about Casa Loma on her blog yet, but she will and they are seriously in depth, so I will save them for her. Basically, its a castle built in the 1900s, in the middle of Toronto. A quick shot of the gardens and the architecture:
Its not downtown, but its clearly in Toronto. We climbed up into one of the towers, through a one (skinny) person wide cricular staircase of about 4 stories, and while exhausting, it produced the coolest part of the excursion. It was worth seeing once, but don't make it a must see Toronto attraction. Katie and I look pretty good atop the castle, at least:
The picture spectacular really begins now, at the Toronto Zoo, which as far as I was concerned, was by far the most important part of the trip. Before the Canadian Idol victory city ever came into the picture, after all, we were planning on a run down to the Buffalo Zoo-logical gardens which didn't have any of the rhino or hippo related things. I was all nervous since it looked like it was about to rain right as we arrived at the zoo, but Katie's continual optimism proved right as always. It was hot like a mother as we made our way towards the Austral-Asian area, passing a couple of cute camels who had been impressed into giving rides to children, which I would say sucks for them, but I guess its an improvement over full size people and long rides through the desert and such. We first got to the indoor section which featured some cute birds, some fishies, a water monitor, and a big ass komodo dragon. After that there was a dark area which featured nocturnal things, a little kangaroo-like hoppy rodent, a kookaburra bird, and a wombat, which was so incredibly cute that I can't even describe it. I had never seen one in person, but I couldn't take a picture, since the guy was in the dark and all. Imagine an immensely cute version of an ROUS with a shorter face, but an even better waddle.
So we were already off to a great start when we saw some large birds in the distance and approached their cage. The closer we got to the cage the more we realized that it was a fenced-in enclosure featuring a gate which we were encouraged to enter. We then walked up a hill along a narrow-ish path to see a herd of kangaroos and about 4 decent sized emus, walking freely in the area we were in. No walls or fences or gates or pits or moats or trenches or whatever, just the kangaroos and emus between 2-10 feet away. This doesn't emphasize how close the birds got, but shows the general atmosphere:
There were lots of herd animals and monkeys and polar bears and stuff near by. The most notable thing was this incredibly adorable red panda, who was doing its best Hippopotameow impression napping in the tree:
I have pictures of lions and rhinos and gorillas and jaguars and so on, but for the moment I will just include a couple. First off, Katie with a couple of gigantic elephants. I know I have seen elephants before, but I think maybe they were all Asian-speciated or something, cuz these folks were enormous. I mean gigantic.
This is a set of pictures intended to prove two things: 1) Hippos of all types are fricking awesome 2) My cat is well deserving of her title "World's Prettiest Hippo" (which she proudly sports on her favorite coffee mug)
Finally, a good story about the last animal of the day, the Indian rhino. This guy is a big sucker and at the point we got to his spot it was about 5 minutes to closing and the park had cleared out pretty significantly. I found a spot near a corner of the rhino area and watched him graze around for a couple minutes before he got within, literally, 3 feet of the fence. While Katie had backed up and started to make her way towards the exit, I followed the rhino around by the fence for a couple minutes and had a nice convo. I took this one right before I left with literally no zoom:
Anyway, we left around 6 and were home well before dark after a stop for Canada's signature donut at Tim Hortons. It was a really sweet little vacation and we will certainly go back. Sorry it took so long to freaking describe it.
We are back in Buffalo now and have been for a while. I swear I will get up to date soon. At least some Minneapolis stories before Katie leaves me on a month long excursion to summer camp. Hippo needs to play, so I bid you adieu.
Peace,
MB-K
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