Do you think the Viking's sex cruise tired out Smoot too much to play defense? I did not see the epic confrontation with the Bears today, but 28-3 is not the type of score you want in your journey towards putting a floating sex party scandal to bed. Hehehehe, putting a sex scandal to bed. Though I suppose if they would have used beds instead of renting boats on Lake Minnetonka, none of this would have ever come out. I mean, the sex toys prolly still would have come out and if you are paying in the six figure range for les prostitutes, you figure one of them might let the word get out, but still. Even the Vikings organization might have to consider getting rid of Mike Tice at this point, though they are only a game out of first place in the NFC North.
Packers have the bye week, so I have the great and unadulterated pleasure of relaxing at home today and watching football in my living room, rather than having to run to the Casino or whatnot. This is not to say that I don't enjoy those excursions, simply that I like relaxing on the couch, with my kitty and my Katie, and watching the Bills. Shockey got me 18 points in their contest with the Dallas Cowboys, so I was pleased, even though I think it may have given Buddy a brief heart attack with the last second touchdown in regulation, worked out alright for his evil team anyway. We also got to see the spanking (kinky) that the Dolphins took from the Bucs, I suppose because of the AFC East thing around these parts. Ricky did not play enough to hold my attention, maybe he needed a bong rip on the sidelines.
I got up at 5:30 yesterday morning and drove out to Rochester, NY, for the New York College English Associations fall conference on "Literature and the Obscure." I was presenting on one of the morning's first panels, so I had to be there by 8:00 or so. I was pleased with my argument and its reception. There were about 15 people in the room for the panel I was on, which was a pretty decent showing. I was shocked by how well the papers all worked together, especially given their often less than descriptive titles. Most of the rest of the day was alright, interesting but not worth reporting on, with the exception of some of the lunch convo. There was a nice luncheon situation involved, institutional food, but banquet style decent institutional food. I was sitting at a table with the only other dude who was within about 5 years of my age and assorted other people with whom I had no connection. A couple of them worked at Buffalo-area communitiy colleges, a couple others at private schools throughout the state. None of them worked at any institution of significant prestige, and I say that not to diminish these people as scholars (whom I know nothing about) nor to piss on their institutions (since I know little about them as well and in no way think that these few teachers are in any way representative). The thing that shocked me, and the only reason I mention where they were from, was that they were ridiculously pompous and entirely dismissive of anyone who was not essentially a highly devoted English major. Over the 40 or so minutes that the table was making small talk (from when we sat down to the beginning of the keynote speaker) these people diminished: athletes (most notably football players, but baseball, soccer, and basketball all got time in as well), engineers, physicists, less than perfect students, undecided majors, and film studies. Thats not even to mention that the one oldish dude who was the most cockassy was visibly disturbed when he learned that I studied primarily psychoanalysis and 20th Century American literature--it appeared that given his specialties of Milton and Shakespeare that he was not of the opinion that much of the 20th Century counts as "literature" but maybe I was reading too much into it.
I just find it particularly obnoxious when people, of any sort, not just academics, get so damn wrapped up in what they do that everything else becomes worthless and beneath them. I am cool with you not likign football, thats your loss. But a back-up NFL running back will make more money, be better known, and most likely accomplish more in their short career than you will in your 30 plus years of intellectually whacking-it. Thats not to say that I don't see the value in studying Shakespeare or Milton (who I personally find incredibly boring), but simply that if you want to talk about which one is better by any objective measurement, professional sports have got you powned. Its surprising to me, the people I know or have worked with who tend to be from way more "prestigious" institutions (again, not that I provide any significance to such measurements, simply noting them) are almost never this intellectually exclusionary. Maybe it has to do with an interiority complex, but I really hate resorting to such cheap psychologism.
I'm just over a week away from leaving on my trip to Eugene, Oregon, the furthest West this Midwestern son has ever been. I've got a week's wotth of school and a trip to West Point in between my and the closes thing I have had to a vacation in quite a while. Its pretty weak that my vacation doesn't include Katie, but I think she's gonna be heading down to Harvard anyway. Wonder if she needs to get her hair highlighted? Hippo says that she would be happy to accompany me, but I think a night in Sanjay and Andy's apartment would convince her otherwise. Besides, she is a first class kind of persian, and my ticket is coach at best.
Peace,
MB-K
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Thursday, October 13, 2005
And We Can Ride the Boogie, Share That Beat of Love, I Wanna Rock With You, All Butt
I have been a combination of busy and sick for the past little while and as a result not posting and the like. I think I got through the Buffalo tournament, up until the point where we got home Sunday night, crashed for like 13 hours and were completely wiped the entirety of the next day. We did, at one point, have the chance to run to Target, where Katie bought me my birthday present. It is the totally sweet NINTENDO DS (to be read in the Cartman sense of SEGA DREAMCAST) and its greatest possible accompaniment Nintendogs. I have a really awesome Siberian husky named Jordis who is totally cool. She has learned how to sit, lay down, shake, and chase her tail on command. I can't even explain how cute it is. I'm gonna get a pug dog pretty soon here, but wanted to get the hang of the game first. So while they are delayed, I just wanted to send out a mad round of props to Katie for the present, which is awesome, and allows some video-based gaming on the often long and boring road to debate tournaments and the like.
Second thing of note: I ran to Wal-Mart the other day to pick some up some romance novels for Katie when she was not feeling well. Besides the fact that the photo lab now has a sweet machine that makes gift cards with any picture on the front (like Wal-Mart cash present gift card things) there was one thing really out of place. Parked next to me in the Wal-Mart parking lot, on Saturday afternoon, when every store in the world was open, was a brand new Bentley. Seriously, a car that potentially costs multiple hundreds of thousands was shopping for something at the cheapest of cheap ass locations. I understand that people who are rich get that way by not spending money all the time on random shit, but if you can afford even thinking about a Bentley its time to move up to Target full time.
We have watched alot of TV to make up for the tremendous lack of televisual moments that occurred between Kings and Buffalo. I'm up to date on Lost and Desperate Housewives, both of which I am happy to report, have not yet jumped the shark. While the basic satirical form of Desperate Housewives will prolly always leave it teetering on the edge, Lost appears to be going as strong as ever, now that everyone has determined like I did last year, that the show should be primarily about Locke. Jack's important and all, but without the incredible moments of Locke's feelings about the island the show would prolly end up meh at best. My three favorite new shows so far are Surface, Threshold, and Extras, the first two being pretty radically distinct from the last. Surface and Threshold are somewhat in the vein of Lost, at least insofar as the takeoff of odd mystery shows represents. I spose they also have a bunch in common with shows like The 4400. Surface also prolly connects with my childhood obsession with the Loch Ness monster, which I studied and wrote papers about for no specific reason for a while. I am still way behind on Rome and Invasion but I am happy for both. The disappointments, as of yet, are pretty limited, but two episodes in Commander in Chief is a not good program. I will give Geena Davis a couple more full weeks in office, but she is a pretty craptacular president thusfar.
Packers won big, it was a crazy awesome occassion, let me tell you. I'm not gonna equivocate like the NFL Live folks and think that the fact that we are only one win behind the Lions means that we have the chance to turn the season around, we're still a 6-10-ish team that just happened to encounter the perfect point-scoring storm in Lambeau field last Sunday. Brett Favre gets 3 touchdowns without playing a down after 3:00 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter, a productive running game producing two rushing TDs, and (I can hardly believe I'm writing it) 14 points produced by the defense and a near shutout. We beat-up the Saints, not exactly the Cowboys of the early 90s I might add, who were playing with injured/weakened/whatever Deuce and Brooks. I'm not trying to diss on the Pack-Attack, since I loved it more than just about anyone not wearing shoulder pads and the number 4, but I don't think it changes anything about the quality of the team. I'm just gonna enjoy that win for what it was.
Both the Yankees and the Red Sox are out of the playoffs, so the sports world can't be all bad. I haven't ripped on the Yankees as much as I normally would, insofar as I now work with two rapid Yankee fans. Similarly, I coach enough rubes from the Red Sox Nation to not bother making fun of the chowds. Suffice to say, not having to listen to either camp brag in their obnoxious East Coast accents for the rest of the year is reason enough for me to tolerate baseball. I wasn't surprised that the Chi-Sox took down Boston, but must admit that the dumbest named team in the history of professional sports surpsised me by defeating Steinbrenner's lackeys.
I almost forgot to mention one of last week's most exciting endeavors. Katie and I took our Friday night off and pretended that we were a normal couple that didnt spend every weekend in a random NorthEastern EconoLodge, instead deciding to go out for a nice dinner. We headed to a place called Marinaccio's for dinner, though we had just happened upon it. It was a decent Italian joint, small but classy enough. Katie had a tasty piece of trout while I rolled for the seafood, goat cheese, and tomato-cream sauce deliciousness that was the Agnelotti Paolo. I've really had a thing for the Southern-Northern Italian mixemup represented by the tomato-cream sauce lately, just thought I would throw that out there.
Afterwards we hit up the real highlight of the evening though: Butterwoods Dessert Restaurant. I won't go through the history and what all of the place, you can read the website if you care. The point is this: its a restaurant that serves elaborate multi-course plated desserts. It has coffee and a bakery with incredible looking cookies, pastries, cakes and whatnot, but those are all in second. You'll never believe how much in second they are until I tell you this. Katie and I ordered two things to share this is my description of the one which was NOT the best: it was called The Belgian Chocolate Pyramid. It was presented with a stick of chocolate in the top, atop a fluffy bed of whipped cream and accompanied by a creme puff swan. It was beautifully presented, and I haven't yet explained the dessert itself. The pyramid shaped concoction was coated with a hard chocolate shell. Directly underneath that shell was a layer of mousse, thick, delicious, chocolatey mousse. All that was atop something that was somewhere between a brownie and a flourless chocolate torte. On any other night it would prolly have been the highlight of the evening. Instead it was served at the same time as the Apple Tarte Tartin. The dessert meals were almost a combo of tapas desserts or something, since there were 7 mini desserts included. Some of them are described on the menu, but there was far far more.
The dessert came on a large rectangular platter about 2.5 feet by 1 foot. From my perspective, this is what it contained: in the near right hand corner was the tartin for which the dish was named, a delightful baked apple concoction with layers of apples, cinnamon, and flaky pastry, served with a creamy caramel sauce. To its left was the marscapone creme brulee, something which is so self-obviously delicious that I refuse to explain it to you, topped with a cookie thing and a mini-scoop of creme fraiche ice cream. Further to the left was a sort of shaved apple ice, which had a specifc name I cannot possibly remember. It was flavored like apples and green tea and was apparently made by freezing an apple, shaving it into little chunks of ice, and flavoring those with some herbs and syrups and the like. Bordering on savory dessert, but wonderful. Behind it, the back left of the platter, was a half an apple, poached in a ginger syrup and served with sour apple sticks. Nextdoor was three full sized apple chips, standing upright in two other scoops of homemade ice cream, one banana and one ginger. Wonderful. The ultimate highlight was next, an apple tempura. Damn was it delicious. I fully intend to whip that up with some caramel sauce and ice cream at some point, or, as Katie suggested in her infinite brilliance, a caramel apple tempura pie. The final note in this apple composition was a green apple sorbet, so deliciously sour and cold. It was great, really truly great.
It was my first endeavour into the world of dessert restaurants, but I think Katie and I have defintively decided to make return trips to Butterwoods. There is a chocolate pistachio beignet just waiting for me to devour it. We are not sure about their pet policy, but Hippo has been meow-sisting that we take her since the moment we got home. I'm pretty sure that more than a couple bites would have doubled our petite kitty's weight, but when she gets an idea in her persian head, you know how it can be.
Peace,
MB-K
Second thing of note: I ran to Wal-Mart the other day to pick some up some romance novels for Katie when she was not feeling well. Besides the fact that the photo lab now has a sweet machine that makes gift cards with any picture on the front (like Wal-Mart cash present gift card things) there was one thing really out of place. Parked next to me in the Wal-Mart parking lot, on Saturday afternoon, when every store in the world was open, was a brand new Bentley. Seriously, a car that potentially costs multiple hundreds of thousands was shopping for something at the cheapest of cheap ass locations. I understand that people who are rich get that way by not spending money all the time on random shit, but if you can afford even thinking about a Bentley its time to move up to Target full time.
We have watched alot of TV to make up for the tremendous lack of televisual moments that occurred between Kings and Buffalo. I'm up to date on Lost and Desperate Housewives, both of which I am happy to report, have not yet jumped the shark. While the basic satirical form of Desperate Housewives will prolly always leave it teetering on the edge, Lost appears to be going as strong as ever, now that everyone has determined like I did last year, that the show should be primarily about Locke. Jack's important and all, but without the incredible moments of Locke's feelings about the island the show would prolly end up meh at best. My three favorite new shows so far are Surface, Threshold, and Extras, the first two being pretty radically distinct from the last. Surface and Threshold are somewhat in the vein of Lost, at least insofar as the takeoff of odd mystery shows represents. I spose they also have a bunch in common with shows like The 4400. Surface also prolly connects with my childhood obsession with the Loch Ness monster, which I studied and wrote papers about for no specific reason for a while. I am still way behind on Rome and Invasion but I am happy for both. The disappointments, as of yet, are pretty limited, but two episodes in Commander in Chief is a not good program. I will give Geena Davis a couple more full weeks in office, but she is a pretty craptacular president thusfar.
Packers won big, it was a crazy awesome occassion, let me tell you. I'm not gonna equivocate like the NFL Live folks and think that the fact that we are only one win behind the Lions means that we have the chance to turn the season around, we're still a 6-10-ish team that just happened to encounter the perfect point-scoring storm in Lambeau field last Sunday. Brett Favre gets 3 touchdowns without playing a down after 3:00 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter, a productive running game producing two rushing TDs, and (I can hardly believe I'm writing it) 14 points produced by the defense and a near shutout. We beat-up the Saints, not exactly the Cowboys of the early 90s I might add, who were playing with injured/weakened/whatever Deuce and Brooks. I'm not trying to diss on the Pack-Attack, since I loved it more than just about anyone not wearing shoulder pads and the number 4, but I don't think it changes anything about the quality of the team. I'm just gonna enjoy that win for what it was.
Both the Yankees and the Red Sox are out of the playoffs, so the sports world can't be all bad. I haven't ripped on the Yankees as much as I normally would, insofar as I now work with two rapid Yankee fans. Similarly, I coach enough rubes from the Red Sox Nation to not bother making fun of the chowds. Suffice to say, not having to listen to either camp brag in their obnoxious East Coast accents for the rest of the year is reason enough for me to tolerate baseball. I wasn't surprised that the Chi-Sox took down Boston, but must admit that the dumbest named team in the history of professional sports surpsised me by defeating Steinbrenner's lackeys.
I almost forgot to mention one of last week's most exciting endeavors. Katie and I took our Friday night off and pretended that we were a normal couple that didnt spend every weekend in a random NorthEastern EconoLodge, instead deciding to go out for a nice dinner. We headed to a place called Marinaccio's for dinner, though we had just happened upon it. It was a decent Italian joint, small but classy enough. Katie had a tasty piece of trout while I rolled for the seafood, goat cheese, and tomato-cream sauce deliciousness that was the Agnelotti Paolo. I've really had a thing for the Southern-Northern Italian mixemup represented by the tomato-cream sauce lately, just thought I would throw that out there.
Afterwards we hit up the real highlight of the evening though: Butterwoods Dessert Restaurant. I won't go through the history and what all of the place, you can read the website if you care. The point is this: its a restaurant that serves elaborate multi-course plated desserts. It has coffee and a bakery with incredible looking cookies, pastries, cakes and whatnot, but those are all in second. You'll never believe how much in second they are until I tell you this. Katie and I ordered two things to share this is my description of the one which was NOT the best: it was called The Belgian Chocolate Pyramid. It was presented with a stick of chocolate in the top, atop a fluffy bed of whipped cream and accompanied by a creme puff swan. It was beautifully presented, and I haven't yet explained the dessert itself. The pyramid shaped concoction was coated with a hard chocolate shell. Directly underneath that shell was a layer of mousse, thick, delicious, chocolatey mousse. All that was atop something that was somewhere between a brownie and a flourless chocolate torte. On any other night it would prolly have been the highlight of the evening. Instead it was served at the same time as the Apple Tarte Tartin. The dessert meals were almost a combo of tapas desserts or something, since there were 7 mini desserts included. Some of them are described on the menu, but there was far far more.
The dessert came on a large rectangular platter about 2.5 feet by 1 foot. From my perspective, this is what it contained: in the near right hand corner was the tartin for which the dish was named, a delightful baked apple concoction with layers of apples, cinnamon, and flaky pastry, served with a creamy caramel sauce. To its left was the marscapone creme brulee, something which is so self-obviously delicious that I refuse to explain it to you, topped with a cookie thing and a mini-scoop of creme fraiche ice cream. Further to the left was a sort of shaved apple ice, which had a specifc name I cannot possibly remember. It was flavored like apples and green tea and was apparently made by freezing an apple, shaving it into little chunks of ice, and flavoring those with some herbs and syrups and the like. Bordering on savory dessert, but wonderful. Behind it, the back left of the platter, was a half an apple, poached in a ginger syrup and served with sour apple sticks. Nextdoor was three full sized apple chips, standing upright in two other scoops of homemade ice cream, one banana and one ginger. Wonderful. The ultimate highlight was next, an apple tempura. Damn was it delicious. I fully intend to whip that up with some caramel sauce and ice cream at some point, or, as Katie suggested in her infinite brilliance, a caramel apple tempura pie. The final note in this apple composition was a green apple sorbet, so deliciously sour and cold. It was great, really truly great.
It was my first endeavour into the world of dessert restaurants, but I think Katie and I have defintively decided to make return trips to Butterwoods. There is a chocolate pistachio beignet just waiting for me to devour it. We are not sure about their pet policy, but Hippo has been meow-sisting that we take her since the moment we got home. I'm pretty sure that more than a couple bites would have doubled our petite kitty's weight, but when she gets an idea in her persian head, you know how it can be.
Peace,
MB-K
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
I Can't Live Without Your, Love and Affection, I Can't Face Another Night On My Butt
After the grocery store we did Wal-Mart for some awards and then headed up to the Amherst area Motel 6 which was to serve as the tournament hotel. It really pisses me off that there continue to be hotels that do not have wireless internet of some sort. Don't get me wrong, I am pretty pissed when I have to pay for wi-fi, its just something I feel entitled to at this point, but at least there is an option for me. The Motel 6 was prolly the first hotel I had been in for quite a while that had no ability for high speed internet of any source. In order to cut the politics cards I needed I had to do lexis "downloads" for like an hour prior to my leaving. I put downloads in quotes there because my lack of a lexis code has forced me over to academic universe, which has no "download" capability. What I actually did was copy and paste articles one at a time into freaking word documents so I could read them later.
Regardless, Katie had to be there to send out pairings, work on the computer stuff, do early registration, and talk with the Buffalo kids in preparation for the first tournament of their season. I was sad that I had no access to my tivo, my couch, or my wireless, but we all make do. I didn't finish cutting the politix story until like 10:00 in the evening, but the evidence was pretty spectacular. I can't imagine the story will be that good come West Point, but we can always hope. I even got the impact story to play in the right direction. It was, admittedly, one of the moments I remembered what I like about coaching debate: finding a quality strategy, a good set of useful arguments, figuring out a way to smack somebody around. Anyway, in between those moments I talked with the Buffalo kids, ate another freshly baked cookie or two, and went to get dinner at a Thai restaurant down the road. The place was quality and was hella busy this particular Friday night, so I decided to wait outside the restaurant and talk on the phone while they got my curry, pad thai, and satay ready to go. Since I was as close to Asia as I was likely to get for a while, and my brother was not, I gave him a call.
As a potentially necessary piece of backstory: my brother has wanted to go to Asia, more specifically to Japan, for quite a while now. It has been his obsession in college, the language, the culture, the history, etc. I appreciate the history and art and most notably the food, but I've never had the intensity of the interest he did. Regardless, it turns out that there are enough young Americans with the same ideas about going to Japan as my brother that the process of getting a job and getting over there is kinda long and complicated. To make a long story short, he and Melia decided to go to Thailand in the meantime. They left this last Saturday night, flew from Chicago to Seoul, spent a day there, and then were on to Bangkok. My dad forwarded the email he sent upon his arrival, but besides that I don't have much to report. He is going to be living in a city called Loburi or Lopburi, though the information I've gathered about it online is pretty limited. They do have a pretty awesome monkey festival, which I am looking forward to seeing pictures of, but besides that I can tell you only that its a medium sized city in central Thailand. The point of all this was that I talked to my bro for about 45 minutes while waiting for my incredibly late dinner order and was able to catch up before he was on his way to O'Hare. I only saw him for a day or so this summer and before that not since Christmas. I don't know when I will see him again, but I just wanted to send good blog wishes to him and Melia. I think they are down in Phuket, on the coast, at this point, so prolly enjoying a much more interesting place than Buffalo has been recently.
Nothing else much occurred that night, since we went to sleep fairly early in an attempt to get up at 5:30 ish the following Saturday. We woke up to an especially playful Hippo for 5:30 am and were out of the house before 6:00. Our routine wasn't too horrible, we were at Manhattan Bagel before 6:10, I dropped Katie off and unloaded the car, then was on my way to the remaining breakfast related stops at Duncan Donuts, Tim Hortons, and Starbucks. All of these businesses had generously donated various delicisosities to the tournament cause, though Starbucks apparently employs a number of illiterate managers, since they were not prepared for which weekend we would be arriving--though it was clearly indicated on the letter. It took care of itself after only a little bit of discomfort on my behalf and we got our free coffee. The tournament got going on time, rounds progressed as planned, I got the chance to cut some cards on Army's affirmative, which ultimately helped us win a quarter's debate, even though there is work that still needs to be done on the counterplan. I digress, everything worked out well on Saturday, we got food there on time, cleaned up the room where it was served and accomplished 5 rounds.
Sunday morning was essentially the same routine. Up early, bagels, school, donuts, coffee, school. I managed to go the whole weekend without judging a debate,thank goodness for having Rochester teams in late elims I guess. We only managed to clear 4 out of our 13 teams, but 8 of those 13 were raw novices, so there was certainly nothing to be upset about. Two novice teams got out, a JV team that went 2-4 last week ended up 4-2 this week, losing a 4-1 round to end up as such--they ultimately lost in quarters. Buddy and Rohan had the weekend of their dreams, at least for this early in the season, 8th and top speakers, 5-1 with a loss to Case Western in prelims and victorious through the final round, ultimately beating Case on a 2-1 at the end. It was a hasty strategy that we put together, seeing as how I had not even looked at Case's odd Confuscianism/Empire aff, but I guess we had a thesis that we could sell to the panel in a more explainable sense then the aff. I told everyone that the debate would be decided based on who could more clearly articulate their alternative in terms that did not require an in-depth understanding of Hardt and Negri or whatever.
We also had, in that debate, a really odd situation where we managed to piss off a critic because he was not able to understand what was going on. From my understanding this came from the formal issues (i.e. speed and tech) and not the subject matter (Empire and Zizek). As an FYI, this Case team is high quality, they are smart, they are fast, and they are technically proficient. While the panel was not the fastest in history, two of them could keep up with most situations. Somewhere during the round, prolly going into the block, ROC decided that we were gonna get blown out of the debate if we didnt pick up the speed. Anyway, at some point a decision was made by both teams that one critic would have to get blown off for the sake of the other two. This isn't uncommon, I should note, its a decision we've all made as debaters and coaches, at least a couple times. If you've judged any decent amount of outrounds you've probably been blown off a panel at least once. That doesn't mean that you don't vote for whom you think you won and it doesnt mean that your vote won't be the deciding one when the teams split the two judges they were going for, it just means that to focus on winning you would have cost two ballots. I guess that my feelings about debate as a competitive activity first and foremost makes me a little more understanding of being blown off a panel than others are, but I simply don't get being pissed about it. Not only do I not get the mentality which refuses to see the competitive necessity behind it (emboddied in some aspect or another of every competition by the way, from the sac-fly, to taking a safety or penalty, to tripping a player on a breakaway) but I cannot imagine being pissed enough about it to rant within the context of the debate. Fundamentally, why do you care? It doesn't chance anything about your life, it doesnt effect your teams or the tournament, its just plain irrelevant. Either way you judge the debate, you vote for one team, you say why, and you go home. It actually makes the decision easier, cuz you have the absolute defense that the teams made no effort to win your ballot, so it was all but a random shot in the dark.
Again, that doesnt catch us back up to this moment. But I'm getting closer. Needless to say, Buddy and Rohan won the debate in question and I think the whole ROC staff was pleased to get our fist championship of the season out of the way so early. Hippo concurs, but wishes that instead of pressuring China, the topic consisted of petting Persia(ns).
Peace,
MB-K
Regardless, Katie had to be there to send out pairings, work on the computer stuff, do early registration, and talk with the Buffalo kids in preparation for the first tournament of their season. I was sad that I had no access to my tivo, my couch, or my wireless, but we all make do. I didn't finish cutting the politix story until like 10:00 in the evening, but the evidence was pretty spectacular. I can't imagine the story will be that good come West Point, but we can always hope. I even got the impact story to play in the right direction. It was, admittedly, one of the moments I remembered what I like about coaching debate: finding a quality strategy, a good set of useful arguments, figuring out a way to smack somebody around. Anyway, in between those moments I talked with the Buffalo kids, ate another freshly baked cookie or two, and went to get dinner at a Thai restaurant down the road. The place was quality and was hella busy this particular Friday night, so I decided to wait outside the restaurant and talk on the phone while they got my curry, pad thai, and satay ready to go. Since I was as close to Asia as I was likely to get for a while, and my brother was not, I gave him a call.
As a potentially necessary piece of backstory: my brother has wanted to go to Asia, more specifically to Japan, for quite a while now. It has been his obsession in college, the language, the culture, the history, etc. I appreciate the history and art and most notably the food, but I've never had the intensity of the interest he did. Regardless, it turns out that there are enough young Americans with the same ideas about going to Japan as my brother that the process of getting a job and getting over there is kinda long and complicated. To make a long story short, he and Melia decided to go to Thailand in the meantime. They left this last Saturday night, flew from Chicago to Seoul, spent a day there, and then were on to Bangkok. My dad forwarded the email he sent upon his arrival, but besides that I don't have much to report. He is going to be living in a city called Loburi or Lopburi, though the information I've gathered about it online is pretty limited. They do have a pretty awesome monkey festival, which I am looking forward to seeing pictures of, but besides that I can tell you only that its a medium sized city in central Thailand. The point of all this was that I talked to my bro for about 45 minutes while waiting for my incredibly late dinner order and was able to catch up before he was on his way to O'Hare. I only saw him for a day or so this summer and before that not since Christmas. I don't know when I will see him again, but I just wanted to send good blog wishes to him and Melia. I think they are down in Phuket, on the coast, at this point, so prolly enjoying a much more interesting place than Buffalo has been recently.
Nothing else much occurred that night, since we went to sleep fairly early in an attempt to get up at 5:30 ish the following Saturday. We woke up to an especially playful Hippo for 5:30 am and were out of the house before 6:00. Our routine wasn't too horrible, we were at Manhattan Bagel before 6:10, I dropped Katie off and unloaded the car, then was on my way to the remaining breakfast related stops at Duncan Donuts, Tim Hortons, and Starbucks. All of these businesses had generously donated various delicisosities to the tournament cause, though Starbucks apparently employs a number of illiterate managers, since they were not prepared for which weekend we would be arriving--though it was clearly indicated on the letter. It took care of itself after only a little bit of discomfort on my behalf and we got our free coffee. The tournament got going on time, rounds progressed as planned, I got the chance to cut some cards on Army's affirmative, which ultimately helped us win a quarter's debate, even though there is work that still needs to be done on the counterplan. I digress, everything worked out well on Saturday, we got food there on time, cleaned up the room where it was served and accomplished 5 rounds.
Sunday morning was essentially the same routine. Up early, bagels, school, donuts, coffee, school. I managed to go the whole weekend without judging a debate,thank goodness for having Rochester teams in late elims I guess. We only managed to clear 4 out of our 13 teams, but 8 of those 13 were raw novices, so there was certainly nothing to be upset about. Two novice teams got out, a JV team that went 2-4 last week ended up 4-2 this week, losing a 4-1 round to end up as such--they ultimately lost in quarters. Buddy and Rohan had the weekend of their dreams, at least for this early in the season, 8th and top speakers, 5-1 with a loss to Case Western in prelims and victorious through the final round, ultimately beating Case on a 2-1 at the end. It was a hasty strategy that we put together, seeing as how I had not even looked at Case's odd Confuscianism/Empire aff, but I guess we had a thesis that we could sell to the panel in a more explainable sense then the aff. I told everyone that the debate would be decided based on who could more clearly articulate their alternative in terms that did not require an in-depth understanding of Hardt and Negri or whatever.
We also had, in that debate, a really odd situation where we managed to piss off a critic because he was not able to understand what was going on. From my understanding this came from the formal issues (i.e. speed and tech) and not the subject matter (Empire and Zizek). As an FYI, this Case team is high quality, they are smart, they are fast, and they are technically proficient. While the panel was not the fastest in history, two of them could keep up with most situations. Somewhere during the round, prolly going into the block, ROC decided that we were gonna get blown out of the debate if we didnt pick up the speed. Anyway, at some point a decision was made by both teams that one critic would have to get blown off for the sake of the other two. This isn't uncommon, I should note, its a decision we've all made as debaters and coaches, at least a couple times. If you've judged any decent amount of outrounds you've probably been blown off a panel at least once. That doesn't mean that you don't vote for whom you think you won and it doesnt mean that your vote won't be the deciding one when the teams split the two judges they were going for, it just means that to focus on winning you would have cost two ballots. I guess that my feelings about debate as a competitive activity first and foremost makes me a little more understanding of being blown off a panel than others are, but I simply don't get being pissed about it. Not only do I not get the mentality which refuses to see the competitive necessity behind it (emboddied in some aspect or another of every competition by the way, from the sac-fly, to taking a safety or penalty, to tripping a player on a breakaway) but I cannot imagine being pissed enough about it to rant within the context of the debate. Fundamentally, why do you care? It doesn't chance anything about your life, it doesnt effect your teams or the tournament, its just plain irrelevant. Either way you judge the debate, you vote for one team, you say why, and you go home. It actually makes the decision easier, cuz you have the absolute defense that the teams made no effort to win your ballot, so it was all but a random shot in the dark.
Again, that doesnt catch us back up to this moment. But I'm getting closer. Needless to say, Buddy and Rohan won the debate in question and I think the whole ROC staff was pleased to get our fist championship of the season out of the way so early. Hippo concurs, but wishes that instead of pressuring China, the topic consisted of petting Persia(ns).
Peace,
MB-K
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
I, I Love the Colorful Clothes She Wears, and the Way the Sunlight Plays Upon Her Butt
Been a long time. It was, specifically, a time filled with a tremendous amount of crap. I will go briefly through the major events that have occurred from September 20th until this evening. I'm sure sme things will get filled in at different levels later on. Anywho.
A couple days after my last posting was the departure for Wilkes-Barre, King's College, and as such my return to the debate coaching ranks. All three were pretty decent experiences. I drove a mini-van full of college kids (full being a generous term) about 4 hours into the Pennsylvania valley. My van arrived first of course, so after checking in to the Holiday Inn and the like I managed to cut at least a couple pages of cards. Katie and I combined to put out 41 pages by the following day at 11:00, which included my contending with the old people in the tour group to get a couple waffles from the deluxe continental breakfast. While I recognize that not everyone spends as much time as I do in mid-level hotel breakfast areas, the inabiility to work a waffle iron with instructions clearly printed on the base makes you an idiot. Not only was this old chick a waffle-iron illiterate, but she had actually jumped in front of me in line. I ate a bowl of frosted flakes standing up behind her just to demonstrate how unhappy I was with the situation. I think my message was somewhat undercut by helping her to work the damn waffle machine, but I couldnt risk her trying to make another one when the first came out raw on one side and burnt on the other.
We coached some rounds, I judged a couple blah blah. We cleared 4 teams, two in jv, an open, and a novice. I didn't coach any of those in prelims, notably, but regardless. It was a pretty good showing for the first weekend of the season, of Ken's tenure as Rochester's DOF, and mine as a college debate coach. Drove back just barely in time to get my car from the rental joint and drive back to Buffalo. Hippo was very excited to see us, especially since she had gotten used to us not going out of town for 4 days every couple weeks. She jumped up onto Katie's lap, read some blogs and checked email with her, then meowed around the house for a little while. She really does enjoy the crisp fall air thats developing here in Buffalo, so the windows are of even more interest than they used to be. That got messed up yesterday afternoon when Katie and I decided to turn the air conditioning back on, in response to 80+ temperatures in the first week of October, but she digs a last taste of the human induced freeze for 2005.
The week that followed was pretty much all prep for the Buffalo tournament all the time. I got a good amount of work done on several of these days, finishing and sending off an article I had written on the premiere of CSI: NY and approaching completion on the paper I'm presenting in Rochester on the 15th. The dissertation hasn't gotten quite all the attention it deserves, but still working on the whole multi-tasking affair. Still on track, but a little sidebar for the week. Jonathon Culler, whose book On Deconstruction is really quite incredible, came to UB to speak on Thursday. His talk, which notably had a great title "The Most Interesting Thing in the World: Derrida and Literature" was pretty informative and admittedly did alot with material I am far from familiar with. If you ever get the chance you should drop by and hear him speak. He may end up being unfairly overshadowed by Jean-Luc Nancy's appearance in November, but the point being that it was good. In many ways it was a break from the avalanche of activity which was to come soon afterwards.
Friday was technically my birthday, though I am not quite sure why I inserted the word technically in there, since it was my birthday by all accounts. Katie was obviously more than slightly occupied by the tremendous amount of crap involved in running a debate tournament for 180ish people, but managed to make it a very happy day nonetheless. The first part was really quite wonderful by all accounts, as we left at 10:00 and drove out to the apple orchard to pick a bushel's worth of Cortland, JonaGold, and Crispin apples as tournament snacks. It was a beautiful fall morning, cool with a bit of a breeze and bright sunshine. We got some fresh baked cookies and were able to drive ourselves right into the orchard. The Crispins were not my favorite, but had a good balance of sweet and sour. The Cortlands were at the very end of their season, as the trees were nearly bare, but were incredibly sweet, like candy almost. The JonaGold's were incredible however, only a step away from the Golden Delicious which I adore. They were tart and delightful, so I think I ate at least 3 of them standing amongst the trees. Its a little ridiculous how odd an apple orchard feels, like I don't really cognitively understand that apples grow on trees until I am removing them from said trees and eating them directly. We only had that 30 or so minutes to enjoy the morning and then it was a mad dash towards Monday morning.
I will accomplish only one more event, and hence one more rant, on my attempt to blog at a reasonable pace. That one will involve the grocery store. We stopped at our friendly neighborhood LaPerna family Tops to pick up certain amounts of condiments and the like. Beyond just mustard and chips and such, we also had to purchase all the things which would ostensibly enable the vegan folks to "eat reasonably" for the weekend. That included vegan cream cheese, vegan cheese slices, soy milk, and possibly a couple other things I don't remember. My rant is simply this: I hate being considered a dirty hippy for dirty hippy elements I don't even subscribe to. I have no problem with people eating whatever it is they choose to eat, those choices, to my knowledge, have no impact on me at all. I can even understand not wanting to eat meat. What I don't really understand is the decision to not eat animal products for ethical reasons, but to eat things that "taste like" animal products. I recognize that it has no effect one way or the other, but it doesn't feel right. My obviously somewhat inaccurate analogy was that if you thought that killing people was wrong, but you really liked killing people, and they started making cloned psuedo-people whom you could kill and it would sort of seem like killing a real person, would you be killing them. I think the point in both situations is to confront the fact that there is something that you like which you shouldn't like, rather than to just find ways to eat it that don't hurt anything. I'm sure I would feel differently if I was a veggie, but pork, beef, and chicken taste good. Hippo agrees, though she would like to add that whatever additional ingredients are used to flavor Cat Chow are just as tasty as any prime rib.
Peace,
MB-K
A couple days after my last posting was the departure for Wilkes-Barre, King's College, and as such my return to the debate coaching ranks. All three were pretty decent experiences. I drove a mini-van full of college kids (full being a generous term) about 4 hours into the Pennsylvania valley. My van arrived first of course, so after checking in to the Holiday Inn and the like I managed to cut at least a couple pages of cards. Katie and I combined to put out 41 pages by the following day at 11:00, which included my contending with the old people in the tour group to get a couple waffles from the deluxe continental breakfast. While I recognize that not everyone spends as much time as I do in mid-level hotel breakfast areas, the inabiility to work a waffle iron with instructions clearly printed on the base makes you an idiot. Not only was this old chick a waffle-iron illiterate, but she had actually jumped in front of me in line. I ate a bowl of frosted flakes standing up behind her just to demonstrate how unhappy I was with the situation. I think my message was somewhat undercut by helping her to work the damn waffle machine, but I couldnt risk her trying to make another one when the first came out raw on one side and burnt on the other.
We coached some rounds, I judged a couple blah blah. We cleared 4 teams, two in jv, an open, and a novice. I didn't coach any of those in prelims, notably, but regardless. It was a pretty good showing for the first weekend of the season, of Ken's tenure as Rochester's DOF, and mine as a college debate coach. Drove back just barely in time to get my car from the rental joint and drive back to Buffalo. Hippo was very excited to see us, especially since she had gotten used to us not going out of town for 4 days every couple weeks. She jumped up onto Katie's lap, read some blogs and checked email with her, then meowed around the house for a little while. She really does enjoy the crisp fall air thats developing here in Buffalo, so the windows are of even more interest than they used to be. That got messed up yesterday afternoon when Katie and I decided to turn the air conditioning back on, in response to 80+ temperatures in the first week of October, but she digs a last taste of the human induced freeze for 2005.
The week that followed was pretty much all prep for the Buffalo tournament all the time. I got a good amount of work done on several of these days, finishing and sending off an article I had written on the premiere of CSI: NY and approaching completion on the paper I'm presenting in Rochester on the 15th. The dissertation hasn't gotten quite all the attention it deserves, but still working on the whole multi-tasking affair. Still on track, but a little sidebar for the week. Jonathon Culler, whose book On Deconstruction is really quite incredible, came to UB to speak on Thursday. His talk, which notably had a great title "The Most Interesting Thing in the World: Derrida and Literature" was pretty informative and admittedly did alot with material I am far from familiar with. If you ever get the chance you should drop by and hear him speak. He may end up being unfairly overshadowed by Jean-Luc Nancy's appearance in November, but the point being that it was good. In many ways it was a break from the avalanche of activity which was to come soon afterwards.
Friday was technically my birthday, though I am not quite sure why I inserted the word technically in there, since it was my birthday by all accounts. Katie was obviously more than slightly occupied by the tremendous amount of crap involved in running a debate tournament for 180ish people, but managed to make it a very happy day nonetheless. The first part was really quite wonderful by all accounts, as we left at 10:00 and drove out to the apple orchard to pick a bushel's worth of Cortland, JonaGold, and Crispin apples as tournament snacks. It was a beautiful fall morning, cool with a bit of a breeze and bright sunshine. We got some fresh baked cookies and were able to drive ourselves right into the orchard. The Crispins were not my favorite, but had a good balance of sweet and sour. The Cortlands were at the very end of their season, as the trees were nearly bare, but were incredibly sweet, like candy almost. The JonaGold's were incredible however, only a step away from the Golden Delicious which I adore. They were tart and delightful, so I think I ate at least 3 of them standing amongst the trees. Its a little ridiculous how odd an apple orchard feels, like I don't really cognitively understand that apples grow on trees until I am removing them from said trees and eating them directly. We only had that 30 or so minutes to enjoy the morning and then it was a mad dash towards Monday morning.
I will accomplish only one more event, and hence one more rant, on my attempt to blog at a reasonable pace. That one will involve the grocery store. We stopped at our friendly neighborhood LaPerna family Tops to pick up certain amounts of condiments and the like. Beyond just mustard and chips and such, we also had to purchase all the things which would ostensibly enable the vegan folks to "eat reasonably" for the weekend. That included vegan cream cheese, vegan cheese slices, soy milk, and possibly a couple other things I don't remember. My rant is simply this: I hate being considered a dirty hippy for dirty hippy elements I don't even subscribe to. I have no problem with people eating whatever it is they choose to eat, those choices, to my knowledge, have no impact on me at all. I can even understand not wanting to eat meat. What I don't really understand is the decision to not eat animal products for ethical reasons, but to eat things that "taste like" animal products. I recognize that it has no effect one way or the other, but it doesn't feel right. My obviously somewhat inaccurate analogy was that if you thought that killing people was wrong, but you really liked killing people, and they started making cloned psuedo-people whom you could kill and it would sort of seem like killing a real person, would you be killing them. I think the point in both situations is to confront the fact that there is something that you like which you shouldn't like, rather than to just find ways to eat it that don't hurt anything. I'm sure I would feel differently if I was a veggie, but pork, beef, and chicken taste good. Hippo agrees, though she would like to add that whatever additional ingredients are used to flavor Cat Chow are just as tasty as any prime rib.
Peace,
MB-K
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
California Here We Come, Right Back Where We Started Butt
This was the final weekend that we were debate commitment free for the year 2005. I mean, there are other weeks that we don't have tournaments, but everything begins in two days when we officially embark on the voyage to King's College. Anyway, we took advantage to do some reasonable normal human things. We went, for instance, to the mall on Saturday for a mercifully brief bout of shopping and a viewing of Reese Witherspoon's new film. It was somewhat more interesting than I thought it would be and since I've resigned myself to seeing all Reese Witherspoon's romantic comedies anyway, it wasnt bothersome. There were some sad parts and all, but mostly just fluffy and humorous. I did however realize that the previews they show with these films are not at all directed towards me. The Iron Range sexual harassment film with Charlize Theron and Woody Harrelson was the one I was most likely to see and that one really only because it is set in Minnesota and has Woody himself. I wanted to see this animated flick about birds that they were showing a preview for but then it turned out that it wasn't really a movie but just a fake promo to tell people to turn their cell phones off.
The lack of football on Saturday (I mean, it wasn't a total lack of football, but less than the previous week for certain) set me up for a football explosion on Sunday afternoon. The bar where we watched the Pack last week was less than adequate, since it was totally lacking in food, had a beer selection slightly below that of Shenanigans and was somehow less comfortable then just standing up. While all the games were on, we had horrible sound and low quality televisions with small screens to boot. So you would imagine my excitement in discovering this fact: Casino Niagara has erected (hehehehe) a SPORTSBOOK!!!!! That is correct, sports gambling is now legal in Ontario, at least Niagara Falls. Meaning that about 30 minutes away, when you include the bridge into Canada, I can watch my Packers play on this:
That is part of the 6 plasma screen TVs and two larger screen HDTVs that compose the primary TV wall which was, on this wonderful Sunday afternoon, full of the NFL's best. Well, there were some technical glitches and for a little while one of the plasma TVs was for some reason on a rerun of Just Shoot Me. The rest of the time it was good though. There was also a wholly seperate racebook area and at least 5 random plasma screens scattered around the seating area. The chairs were pretty comfortable where we were sitting, there was a tasty cheap food assortment, and while I am too poor for it now, there is sports gambling, which is an even cooler way to lose money than poker. BTW, they also opened a poker room, which means there are three places to play cards within a half hour of my apartment, at least one of which has 2-4 hold em tables, and thats in Canadian dollars.
Again the Packers lost, but that really doesnt come as much of a surprise at this point, since they suck. It doesnt help that we lost Brett's new go to guy for the year, but thats beside the point. I've adopted an attitude which makes watching the games pretty much just as enjoyable as always, and that is this: I just want to watch Favre play well. If I get to watch #4 throw for some touchdowns and enjoy the game, than Sundays are worthwhile. He looked good in the 2nd half this week, after the two interceptions, one of which was a fluke, but his fault, and the other, which was about half his fault and half the facft that Ferguson hadn't expected to be the new speed-honcho and hence, was not ready to get the Walker-like fade route. While one of the touchdowns was an all but pointless almost game ending drive, it was still a good time. The rest of the NFC North sucked potentially even harder though, with the VIkings taking it from Cinci and Daunte looking like he did 3 years ago. Might put the Moss trade into perspective.
Beyond that I am writing and thinking about debate and trying to get all ramped up for the first tournament of the year. I've put out some decent arguments and I think we could have a quality season opener. Hippo is not excited about us leaving for the weekend, but she is very excited about the fact that she has made a good amount of Persian friends on her new catster account.
Peace,
MB-K
The lack of football on Saturday (I mean, it wasn't a total lack of football, but less than the previous week for certain) set me up for a football explosion on Sunday afternoon. The bar where we watched the Pack last week was less than adequate, since it was totally lacking in food, had a beer selection slightly below that of Shenanigans and was somehow less comfortable then just standing up. While all the games were on, we had horrible sound and low quality televisions with small screens to boot. So you would imagine my excitement in discovering this fact: Casino Niagara has erected (hehehehe) a SPORTSBOOK!!!!! That is correct, sports gambling is now legal in Ontario, at least Niagara Falls. Meaning that about 30 minutes away, when you include the bridge into Canada, I can watch my Packers play on this:
That is part of the 6 plasma screen TVs and two larger screen HDTVs that compose the primary TV wall which was, on this wonderful Sunday afternoon, full of the NFL's best. Well, there were some technical glitches and for a little while one of the plasma TVs was for some reason on a rerun of Just Shoot Me. The rest of the time it was good though. There was also a wholly seperate racebook area and at least 5 random plasma screens scattered around the seating area. The chairs were pretty comfortable where we were sitting, there was a tasty cheap food assortment, and while I am too poor for it now, there is sports gambling, which is an even cooler way to lose money than poker. BTW, they also opened a poker room, which means there are three places to play cards within a half hour of my apartment, at least one of which has 2-4 hold em tables, and thats in Canadian dollars.
Again the Packers lost, but that really doesnt come as much of a surprise at this point, since they suck. It doesnt help that we lost Brett's new go to guy for the year, but thats beside the point. I've adopted an attitude which makes watching the games pretty much just as enjoyable as always, and that is this: I just want to watch Favre play well. If I get to watch #4 throw for some touchdowns and enjoy the game, than Sundays are worthwhile. He looked good in the 2nd half this week, after the two interceptions, one of which was a fluke, but his fault, and the other, which was about half his fault and half the facft that Ferguson hadn't expected to be the new speed-honcho and hence, was not ready to get the Walker-like fade route. While one of the touchdowns was an all but pointless almost game ending drive, it was still a good time. The rest of the NFC North sucked potentially even harder though, with the VIkings taking it from Cinci and Daunte looking like he did 3 years ago. Might put the Moss trade into perspective.
Beyond that I am writing and thinking about debate and trying to get all ramped up for the first tournament of the year. I've put out some decent arguments and I think we could have a quality season opener. Hippo is not excited about us leaving for the weekend, but she is very excited about the fact that she has made a good amount of Persian friends on her new catster account.
Peace,
MB-K
Friday, September 16, 2005
I Know That You're Gonna Have it Your Way or Nothing At All, But I Think You're Moving Too Butt
The summer reality shows are winding down and it has not been the best season ever. Thats not a diss on the programs, since Big Brother and Rockstar (the two most noteworthy certainly) are both deserving of their respective props. I was too broken up when last writing to mention that Jordis Unga, the queen of rock and roll, was completely fucked over by the boys of INXS, not to mention the voters, who I think are being unfairly dominated by Australian bastards which would be the only possible explanation for Mig's success. Yeah, the night he did Peter Frampton was good, but besides that he is a Russian fighter jet who is 100% mediocre. It won't color their old music for me, but I'm not listening to any new stuff if they choose Mig. J.D, while an asscock, is at least a talented and livewire-y artsy asscock. Mig has nothing going for him besides 1) the fact that when he played the lead in Grease, they prolly didnt need any wardrobe or makeup and 2) he could also be a circus ringleader.
Anyway, Jordis rocked out, with a quality version of We Are The Champions and a original that she wrote with Marty. I know people loved J.D.'s original and it has grown on me now that its been on the show 4 damn times, but I think Jordis singing "baby, baby" over and over to a decent tune beats it every time and there was absolutely no doubt that Marty's "Trees" was better. It sounded, in ways, like great early 90s grunge rock, the first genre of music I really truly loved. Regardless, the point is, we miss you Jordis. Whenever I am next in the TC I will be on the look out for Jordis Unga. She was one of my favorite reality contestants of all time, not just cuz she was from St. Paul, not just cuz I can totally imagine running into her at the Turf some night, not just becuz dredlocks are hawt. She just rocked all around. We miss you Jordis.
Tonight was a funeral ceremony for the other great reality woman of the summer, though she was only my second favorite member on the show. Yep, Janelle took it on the chin when Ivette, who if it were not for Jan's girlfriend/wife, would have less reason to exist than anyone else in the universe, won the final HoH. I should also note that while Katie disputes my claim that April is the dumbest houseguest in history, there is no doubt that Ivette is in that conversation. She confirmed it by selecting--despite, mind you, constantly reminding all of us how much her family could use the money to the point that I kinda want to shoot her family in the head out of general principle (not her girlfriend though, whose comment that she liked Janelle and thought Cappy was a tool made my night a couple weeks ago)--Maggie to accompany her to the final two and solidifying her complete inability to win. If she only loses 6-1 she did well with this jury. Reality TV for the fall has just begun, with Survivor's inagural Mayan adventure this thursday, but I will withhold comment until I can remember at least a couple people's names.
Had a nice conversation with one of my professors this week who was more optimisitic for my options on the job market than anyone else has been. He confirmed for me that even in the event of an unusccesful search I would get some quality experiences out of the deal, so I think all is going according to plan. Other things are falling into place too, since the convos I've had with debaters seem to be yielding fruit and the article I have been writing about CSI: NY is within about 2 hours or so of completion. It turned out better than I expected, actually, I impress myself. Writing critically about TV rocks, btw. I wish there was a Cultural Studies and Television department out there somewhere, cuz I would pwn.
We made some really tasty jumbalaya a bit ago and I am still coming down from a shrimp-sausage-okra induced high. I swear to God that Tops has been stocking fresh okra every time I have been in the produce department until the one night I actually intended to buy it. The canned stuff is fine, but I don't believe I've ever cooked with fresh and it would've been fun to try. I spose living in Minneapolis and Buffalo hasn't put me in the fresh-okra belt of the country, but I've stayed away from a good deal of racist rednecks too I suppose. Thats prolly not really fair to the South, since while they've gotten to avoid a tremendous number of hideous Ole and Lena jokes, they've prolly never had legitimately incredible sweet corn. Though there is no freaking comparison between okra and sweet corn, so thats not really fair to the midwest. Fact of the matter, the Midwest is cooler than the South, and the fact that I have never really been anywhere more Southern than St. Louis, Lexington, or Charlotte does not affect that fact. I mean, even KC has great barbecue. This paragraph turned out way more vicious than I intended it to. It reminds me of one of Mitch Hedberg's old joke (RIP Mitch): "I wrote a letter to my dad and I wanted to write "Dear Dad, I really enjoyed being here" but I screwed up and accidentally wrote "rarely" instead of "really." But I didnt want to start over so I just wrote "I rarely drive steamboats, Dad. There's alot of shit you don't know about me. I know this letter took a real harsh turn from the start."
Hippo always loves that one. Right now, for instance, she laughed and purred at the same time, which resulted in her snorting. Hella cute.
Peace,
MB-K
Anyway, Jordis rocked out, with a quality version of We Are The Champions and a original that she wrote with Marty. I know people loved J.D.'s original and it has grown on me now that its been on the show 4 damn times, but I think Jordis singing "baby, baby" over and over to a decent tune beats it every time and there was absolutely no doubt that Marty's "Trees" was better. It sounded, in ways, like great early 90s grunge rock, the first genre of music I really truly loved. Regardless, the point is, we miss you Jordis. Whenever I am next in the TC I will be on the look out for Jordis Unga. She was one of my favorite reality contestants of all time, not just cuz she was from St. Paul, not just cuz I can totally imagine running into her at the Turf some night, not just becuz dredlocks are hawt. She just rocked all around. We miss you Jordis.
Tonight was a funeral ceremony for the other great reality woman of the summer, though she was only my second favorite member on the show. Yep, Janelle took it on the chin when Ivette, who if it were not for Jan's girlfriend/wife, would have less reason to exist than anyone else in the universe, won the final HoH. I should also note that while Katie disputes my claim that April is the dumbest houseguest in history, there is no doubt that Ivette is in that conversation. She confirmed it by selecting--despite, mind you, constantly reminding all of us how much her family could use the money to the point that I kinda want to shoot her family in the head out of general principle (not her girlfriend though, whose comment that she liked Janelle and thought Cappy was a tool made my night a couple weeks ago)--Maggie to accompany her to the final two and solidifying her complete inability to win. If she only loses 6-1 she did well with this jury. Reality TV for the fall has just begun, with Survivor's inagural Mayan adventure this thursday, but I will withhold comment until I can remember at least a couple people's names.
Had a nice conversation with one of my professors this week who was more optimisitic for my options on the job market than anyone else has been. He confirmed for me that even in the event of an unusccesful search I would get some quality experiences out of the deal, so I think all is going according to plan. Other things are falling into place too, since the convos I've had with debaters seem to be yielding fruit and the article I have been writing about CSI: NY is within about 2 hours or so of completion. It turned out better than I expected, actually, I impress myself. Writing critically about TV rocks, btw. I wish there was a Cultural Studies and Television department out there somewhere, cuz I would pwn.
We made some really tasty jumbalaya a bit ago and I am still coming down from a shrimp-sausage-okra induced high. I swear to God that Tops has been stocking fresh okra every time I have been in the produce department until the one night I actually intended to buy it. The canned stuff is fine, but I don't believe I've ever cooked with fresh and it would've been fun to try. I spose living in Minneapolis and Buffalo hasn't put me in the fresh-okra belt of the country, but I've stayed away from a good deal of racist rednecks too I suppose. Thats prolly not really fair to the South, since while they've gotten to avoid a tremendous number of hideous Ole and Lena jokes, they've prolly never had legitimately incredible sweet corn. Though there is no freaking comparison between okra and sweet corn, so thats not really fair to the midwest. Fact of the matter, the Midwest is cooler than the South, and the fact that I have never really been anywhere more Southern than St. Louis, Lexington, or Charlotte does not affect that fact. I mean, even KC has great barbecue. This paragraph turned out way more vicious than I intended it to. It reminds me of one of Mitch Hedberg's old joke (RIP Mitch): "I wrote a letter to my dad and I wanted to write "Dear Dad, I really enjoyed being here" but I screwed up and accidentally wrote "rarely" instead of "really." But I didnt want to start over so I just wrote "I rarely drive steamboats, Dad. There's alot of shit you don't know about me. I know this letter took a real harsh turn from the start."
Hippo always loves that one. Right now, for instance, she laughed and purred at the same time, which resulted in her snorting. Hella cute.
Peace,
MB-K
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
And it Seems to Me, You Lived Your Life, Like a Candle in the Butt
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
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
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
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