Food

Recently I've noticed that food and beverage service has been sub par in recent months. A few examples:
I recently dined at a restaurant that serves many different types of cheesecake. The menu happens to be a novel so you can have whatever you are in the mood for at the time. I wanted chicken. I flipped to the Chicken chapter and there were the twenty choices in front of me. I know had the daunting task of choosing just one. I was not looking to spend a great deal of money, the choices instantly narrowed to 15 or so. Through descriptions and counsel from a friend who happens to be a connoisseur of this particular establishment the choice was narrowed to two. Two chicken dishes that I have forgotten the names of. One of the items was the restaurant's "most popular chicken dish." I had my two choices and was ready to make the selection after a simple question to our waiter.
The waiter was a tall, thin man in his late twenties or early thirties. Except for the first visit (the introduction), before he came to our table, he would have a cigarette. I was seated at the end of the booth and therefore had the pleasure of smelling fresh cigarette smoke every time he graced us with his presence. Perhaps we were the first table he visited in his rounds. He should try to mix it up and let everyone get the pleasant whiff. This cigarette break also made the service slow.
I had just one simple question to ask the waiter and my decision would be made. He came back, reeking of cigarettes and started taking orders. He came to me. The time had come to ask this question and make the decision that could make or break my dining experience. I asked of the two selections, "Which one do you think is better?" A simple question that I assumed would have a simple answer. The reply was simple however, it did not answer my question. "The [whatever] is our most popular chicken dish." was the answer I received. Wrong! I asked what he thought was better, not which dish was most popular. I told him that he did not answer my question and continued to repeat what I had asked. He did not know. I decided on the "most popular chicken dish." It was fine. I was unhappy though.
Yes, I can see how his answer was acceptable to some. One would think that because a dish is "most popular" it is the best tasting chicken dish. I don't think that is necessarily the case. It could be most popular because it has the most appetizing description on the menu. I don't recall ever having every chicken dish laid out in front of me and a survey provided. And I have never heard anybody mention that this establishment did that. If that were done with thousands of participants and the result was that this dish claiming to be the "most popular chicken dish" in fact was the most popular then the waiter's reply would have been acceptable.
I think that any waiter or waitress should have a knowledge of the menu. That doesn't mean solely a knowledge of what is written on the page itself (I can read, thank you) but an actual knowledge of the food itself. When I ask a question about taste, I want an answer about taste. I do not appreciate receiving the discussion from sales data that I have already read.

Last weekend I traveled on an airline. In order to cut losses with the rise in oil prices this particular airline has halted the free beverage service. Instead, if you want a refreshing can of pop, or even water two dollars is required. Fine. Alcohol is seven dollars. Whatever. Same as Tia's. I'm not happy with the service. The flight attendants don't really have to do anything on this airline. Unless a call button is pressed, they walk the isle four times throughout the flight. And depending on the size of the plane they may or may not take the beverage cart. When I heard them announce the prices for the drinks, I immediately decided that was not to buy a drink from them. Even if I were thirsty. No Way! So on their second trip down the isle (the first being before takeoff to check seat belts, tray tables, and seat backs) they were without the cart and the woman was asking everybody if they would like to "purchase a beverage."
The woman was older and had a fake little grin on her face. It looked like she was trying too hard to be nice and understanding. I don't know how else to describe that dumb face.
I had my earphones in and my head buried in my book during the flight. I was the only person in my entire row, the only reason for her to stop at my row was to ask the question. It seemed pretty apparent to me that I didn't want anything to do with purchasing a beverage. I saw her coming. I could tell she was receiving no after no after no. When she got her only order she immediately filled it and continued up the aisle. She was at the row in front of me and was denied. My turn. I thought I could just keep my head down and she would walk by. I was wrong. The earphones I have are amazing, they are sound isolating which means they are basically earplugs with sound coming out. I can't hear what anyone says with them on and the music playing. Here she came. She stood over me for roughly 30 seconds. She could have been saying something along the lines of, "excuse me sir." I have no idea. I kept my head down, not reading at this point, just waiting for her to pass. Nothing. She went nowhere. Finally, with some contempt, I looked up at her. She motioned to her ear. I unhappily removed an ear bud, listened to her ask if I'd like to purchase a beverage, responded no and dove back into my book. I understand that she was just doing her job but I think a flight attendant for this airline should realize that as soon as payment is required for a beverage that had been free for the 23 years I have been flying very few people would buy. In fact there was only one purchase on the entire flight. Just one. And not even pretzels.
I am okay with the airlines now charging for little things that used to be free. They need to stay in the black. On my return flight, they did not have enough change. I don't know how many people bought drinks, as I was near the front of the plane. They came over the loud speaker and asked if anybody had one dollar bills that they could exchange. Good grief. If you are going to have this service and make people buy these beverages for two dollars, you should have the change necessary. The man seated next to me responded to the call for ones. For some reason he was unable to get our call button to work until it they almost had enough. But he got it. The flight attendant came to our row and he asked how much she needed as he pulled out a stack a couple inches thick of paper money. I couldn't see the denominations, but I was able to determine that the man had a good amount of cash on his person. She only needed five. He obliged and told her that he had more if she needed it. The man must have been going to an establishment of questionable ethics with the intent of "making it rain" on women of ill fame. I was astounded.

Lastly, last night I was at a catered event for work. There was a raw bar. Shrimp, oysters, and clams were the selections. The shrimp tasted like shrimp as expected. eating the clams was like eating salt water. Not the greatest taste in the world. I'm sure it would be different when cooked. The oysters, pretty much the same. The man tending to the bar seemed to think I had no knowledge of seafood and that I would not enjoy the taste of oysters. I asked what everything was, just for the sake of asking. He told me, and proceeded to give me a couple oysters after I had a few shrimp. He put cocktail sauce on them and said try it. I tried it, and he said, "See, tastes just like shrimp." I thought to myself, "No, it tastes just like cocktail sauce." I happen to know that oysters do not taste just like shrimp. But if hidden by a condescending chef and eaten by an ignorant patron, then yes. The oysters and shrimp tasted exactly the same. i decided I would have a little conversation with the man about the food. I proceeded to ask if the shrimp was farmed or wild. He responded by telling me that the shrimp was cooked at 500 degrees or something for some amount of time and that I had nothing to worry about, anything that was on the shrimp would have been burned off. I didn't really care for the answer I got. If I thought there was reason to worry about the safety of the food I wouldn't have eaten it, especially not before asking some questions. I told him that I wasn't worried about getting sick and asked again whether they were farmed or wild shrimp. He told me they were farmed and again told me that they are perfectly safe and I shouldn't worry about eating them. The man didn't listen. That is one thing that irks me very much. I then told him again that I was confident in the safety of his product and was only asking the question for reasons of taste. In my experience with shrimp, wild shrimp is far better than farmed. I don't know why, it just is. Again, the man told me the food was safe. What the hell! Listen. He then told me that everything he serves is farmed and that he always keeps the tags and if the FDA came up to the table he could whip the tags out and show them. Otherwise they would shut him down. He was still driving the point that the food was safe. He couldn't comprehend that I was okay with the food and was eating it regardless of my knowledge of weather it was truly safe or not. The rest of the event was great, open bar, some live music, and people.
I've had to do actual work for the last hour and therefore lost the train of thought about this. Basically for the first and last example here, they just needed to listen to the question and respond with the answer I was looking for. And if they didn't know, they should've said that. Oh well, hopefully my next dining experience will be a good one. Of course, I've had a good one here or there in the span of the last few months but those were particularly annoying. That is all.

"I don't know what that is..."

Totally high school: I went bowling with some chick I met in a bar and whooped her ass because she had never bowled the big ball before.  So she sucked at that.  I didn't bowl my greatest game because I haven't bowled in a while not because I couldn't function due to how striking this girl was (no pun intended...bowling, striking).  Let's just say that the beer goggles had taken effect that night at the bar.  I didn't remember her being only 5'0 tall, maybe shorter for one thing.  The good thing about bowling was that some old guy gave us a coupon for two free games.  I paid for the other two games, naturally.  It was more money than expected but whatever, I love bowling.  Man she was not good.

Bowling took all of half an hour.  As far as I was concerned the date could have been over but I decided to be nice.  As we walked out of the alley I noticed a hotel room next door.  "Want to get a room?" I asked jokingly.  She said no.

Then we were driving and passed a playground.  The girl said she likes playgrounds so we went.  There was also a beach that had great skipping rocks and no waves. Money!  I skipped rocks for an hour or so while we talked.  And now we get to the interesting part.  I don't know how it came up exactly oh wait I remember a little.  I was asking her what certain buildings were that we could see.  (Mind you, she grew up in South Boston)  We were looking at UMass and I asked what are those big red buildings and she responded "UMass...???" I knew I was in trouble.  So then pointed to the Pru and the Hancock and asked what they were.  She said "The Prudential and...I don't know that one."  A brief pause followed during which I gave her a look that said "are you kidding?"  Then she said "Hancock!"  Unbelievable.  Now thinking about it, it would have been funny if I grabbed her hand and put it on my cock.  Hancock > hand to cock.  She probably wouldn't have thought that was funny.  Then somehow the conversation went towards politics.  I asked her if she was Democrat or Republican to which she responded, "I don't know what that is." Jesus Christ!  I gave her yet another look of are you kidding me.  We talked for a little while and then left.  I took her home, went to Anna's, and deleted her number from my phone.

That is why I don't want to meet girls in bars.

Also, did you see the woman at the Red Sox game who MO'ed with the woman sitting next to her while the woman sideline reporter was talking?  It was really funny.  They were cougars.

Cali

I would move to California just for the chance of meeting Natalie.

Results

There were no results. I made the slightest move to see if there were any bites. As far as I could tell there were not. Who knows why, could have been the dirt bag in the chair behind or the other guy. It doesn't really matter, nothing would have come of it anyway.

120 busch lights,5 blueberry vodka bottles, 5 growlers and more in three days

Nantucket is a very glutinous island. It is where I spent my Memorial Day weekend.
Surprisingly the traffic down to Hyannis wasn't bad and the ferry to the island was not as crowded as we expected, there was plenty of space to hang around. While Vickie and I waited for the others in Hyannis we decided we would get some food due to the time of day. It was somewhere between five and six in the evening. Ice cream was first. Two of the most delicious ice creams I have tasted. I went with the Milky Way ice cream while Vickie went with the Pomegranate Chip. Yes, we were unsure of it too until we tasted it. Best described as an explosion in the mouth, the ice cream was pomegranate with chocolate chips. We decided that we would follow the ice cream with a proper dinner of hot dogs seeing as how Hot Diggity yDog was next door. I went with the Chicago Cubs Dog that was an attempt at a Chicago style dog. Not a great attempt but I must applaud the effort.
The ferry ride was uneventful and went by smoothly, partly thanks to the rum and cokes we enjoyed about half was across the bay. When we arrived we said our hellos and the nine of us went straight to the house and broke out the first of the four 30's. Roughly 11:00PM. Due to an oversight it was necessary to play beer pong with bowls. Harder than you might think. Drunk...bed.
Saturday. Egg sandwiches for breakfast and off to the brewery and distillery. Cisco brewery beer tasting and 888 Vodka tasting. Both great and always a good time. It started to get a little chilly around midday so we decided to bypass the beach and hang out back at the house. Btw, 3 growlers and many bottles of blueberry vodka were purchased. We arrived at the house and somehow the first bottle of vodka was cracked open. Pour that in some lemonade and you have one hell of a drink. We drank and played Croquette for the day. We were all a little tipsy by the time we had to start showering to go have drinks with a friend's parents. If you have never taken a true outdoor shower you are missing out. One of the times I showered in that puppy was one of the few times that my penis has seen direct sunlight. After cocktails it was back to the house to start up the BBQ. Burgers, steak, and sausages were on the menu along with salad, baked beans, and potato salad. Pretty good dinner. Some things got a little burnt due to impatience with the grill. Oh well. Time for more drink...or so we thought. A show was suggested to get people in the mood. It is a show called "Three Sheets" and it is very cool. The host travels around the world and learns about drinking cultures. There is a drinking game associated with the show. That was fun and it was over. Some people went to play beer pong (cups were found in a cabinet, oops) and somebody got the great idea to turn on the office on DVD and that was that. A little partying occurred but not much. A needed break yet still a late night seeing as how dinner was not consumed until 9:30.
Sunday was interesting. Awake and breakfast eaten after a game of Croquette, it was decided that we would have a Floralia since most of us missed it this year. Floralia is Conn's spring day of drinking and music. It was a late start for Floralia but a good one none the less. A couple of our host's friends stopped by for a little while. Two girls and one guy. Unsure of the relationships to the guy I was not yet prepared to serve up any macaroni. One girl better looking than the other I was hoping she was free. The three of them left after a little while, we would see them later for dinner. The day continued with some outdoor beer pong that didn't happen. Six people were the only ones who were going to play so it was decided that we attempt a new game that was presented to us. (I won two games of Croquette, it is a great game and I wish I had a lawn here to play.) This new game, called Civil War, was tremendously fun. Three people aside, three cups per person, four ping pong balls and six beers. The point of the game, like most others containing cups and balls, is to deplete the opposing team's cups. There is no break in the action, you shoot when you have the ball. The only time that you cannot shoot is when you've been hit, that is, a ping pong has landed in your cup. Three hits and you are out. We played many rounds of that until some were unable to continue due to an abundance of beer and alcohol in the system.
The decision was made earlier in the day that we would head to town to find something to eat for dinner. We were notified that we were invited out for drinks again by our friend's parents, we happily obliged. We arrived to find a fifth bottle of blueberry vodka waiting for us to demolish. We did and it was off to eat pizza. We met the two girls from earlier at the pizzeria. During the day I had ascertained that they both were not dating that guy...put on your hairnets and grab your ladles. Before we sat down I needed the bathroom. I finished, zipped up and came out to two separate tables where no choice could be made. I was assigned to a table with my Conn friends. Fine, no serving of mac and cheese but good times anyway. Post meal, some of us went back to the house to have a bonfire on the beach while our two friends who usually live on island during the summers went to a bar to hang out with a bunch of people they haven't seen in a while. Understandable. Ladles racked and Hairnets tossed in the garbage, it didn't look like anything was going to be served. Bonfire was pretty dumb. Could have been cooler but some people wanted to leave sooner than I. I had just found the best wood that would have kept it going for another hour but as I returned with it, there was sand being tossed onto the fire. Time to go. Oh well.
On a side note, one of my biggest pet peeves is the use of a flashlight at night when unnecessary. If one would allow their eyes to adjust to the ambient light they would find that you can see fine. Seeing stars becomes more difficult and seeing anything other than what's in the light is impossible.
Back to the house, timing was good. Our two friends were there and were about to come find us. My friends smoke a lot of weed and they decided to smoke. Another friend and I went to see about another party where the two girls were. Back in action? We ended up bringing the girls back with us and some other guy who turned out to be from Illinois and goes to school with Fiona. Who's Fiona? A gal from high school. I found him to be a bit of an idiot.
The majority of people went to smoke on the porch. I did not. I picked up my wood spoon to taste the macaroni, and to see if anybody was hungry. Hard to read, some looks of potential interest but no bites. (The reasoning could have been the guy, the one that I think was hitting on the girl. The cock block if you will.) The smokers returned and by that time it was getting late. Some people wanted to play some sort of drinking game, I opted to watch the cool show we found Saturday night. The Internet was not working so we couldn't watch. Juno was put on and I was happy to watch, seeing as how I was next to the person I wanted to be next to on the couch. I had not seen Juno, the other opportunity I had to see it was in theaters. I messed that up by going at the wrong time so I saw Rambo instead. Anyway, we watched Juno, some people got board and left. That included the guy. A 'friend' who I really don't like(long story) set up behind us on a chair, how unfortunate. Small portions would have to be served, if any. All of a sudden she grabbed a blanket. Who's testing who here? I saw the blanket and excitedly said something like, "oooooo." She offered to share. What now? You know as well as I do...
What will happen next? Will I make a successful move? Will my plans be thwarted by guy I despise? Or will I win the lottery?

I'm tired and am going to sleep, will continue tomorrow after work. Stay tuned!

Nothing

The past few weeks have been relatively uneventful. Yes, I started my job and what a job it is. For one week I have been paid to read a book. I finished one and am now on to the next. I sit in an electrical closet in the basement of a research facility and read. My boss, the super, has moved to an other job site and left me to run what is left of this one. Sadly there isn't much else to do other than read. On occasion, I will receive a phone call from the boss asking how things are going and I give him the report. I also get to boss around people older and more experienced than I, I don't often. One guy was slow so I had to push him to get the ceiling finished. He did in a timely fashion. I am a glorified babysitter. Thankfully this job is coming to an end. Supposedly I will be out of there on Monday and over to the next site. I doubt this will happen only because there are supposed to be three or four subs in on Monday and there is no way they will all be able to get their work done. Something will not work out and I will be stuck there for yet another day. And that is that.
The only other thing that has happened in the last few weeks was the acquisition of the latest hot video game. Is it wrong that I smile while mowing pedestrians down? Killing 10 or 15 in a row. And then there is the rush of running from the cops with 5 or 6 stars. It's nearly impossible but so gratifying when you get away. It took me a few days to find the hookers, and you can still beat them up and take back the money you spent on their services. Good times.
Even the weekends have been uneventful. Friday nights have been pretty slow, even Saturday nights. We haven't had the best rounds of trivia. We didn't even play this week, next week might not happen either.
I've turned focus to the tv and have nothing else to say.

What now?

To be completely honest I have no idea what I am doing. I think that went well tonight but I don't know. But what do I do now. I probably should have figured this stuff out in high school or college...oops. So hard to read. Why does it have to be that way?
Anyway, the green line sucks, there was a disabled train just past Boylston so they made us get out of the train. People were pretty upset, I was not. A little walk across the park is no big deal for me but they had to walk to Park and get on another train going where ever they were going. Sorry peepes. What happens next? Only time will tell. That is all.

I just need to ask you two, how old are you?

Another solid weekend. It turned out that I didn't sleep in my bed at all this weekend. That is usually the sign of a solid weekend of good times. Another tell tale sign of a good weekend is that it feels as though four days have gone. In my mind, Friday night happened two nights ago. Good party that night and the crepes the next morning were quite delightful. My track meet was cancelled so I spent some of the day wishing everybody a happy spring. And I mean everybody. Driving to Best Buy and Home Depot a pal and I yelled to people on the sidewalks and in other cars. There were a few standard reactions to a couple of guys yelling "happy spring" while giving the thumbs up. Some people would look very confused. Others returned the sentiment and some payed no attention. One mother told her toddler to wave and say "hi." Enough of that.
The guy that works the door at the Best Buy in Newton is a really cool guy. I think his name is Joe. He walked my friend through a Best Buy card so that we could get a spin on the wheel. He won 10% off. YES!! As we left the store we asked Joe if he would tell everyone to have a good day and a happy spring over the PA system. He did. He said, "Attention Best Buy costumers. Please have a happy day in the spring time, have a happy spring in the spring time." We were pleased and then we left.
Saturday morning was absolutely beautiful.
When it was time to figure out what Saturday night was going to be I made some calls and it turned out that my friends from college were back there for the night. So I called up some other friends. One of which is the guy that is a better dancer than I. We decided we would go to the casinos. Those being the two casinos that are about 15 and 30 minutes from the very same college I attended and the same college where my friends happened to be. When we made it to the casinos around 10:30 we looked around and all the limits were far too high. I suggested a change in plans. That change in plans was to go party at Conn, go to the changing of the guard dance and possibly serving up some macaroni. The plan was successful. One problem, we had no booze. Luckily the changing of the guard dance traditionally has free booze for people with a stamp on their hand. In order to get a stamp two forms of ID are needed, one of which needed to be a Conn ID. I didn't have mine and my two pals never had them. Luckily the other way to get a stamp is to be friends with a girl who has a green sharpie and the knowledge of how to draw the stamp. Thank you Catherine. Success. Free beer. Too bad the line is ridiculous and the temperature is quite high at the standard Conn dance. We got one and decided we needed a new plan. Luckily my friends at Conn rock and were willing to hand me their room key for me and two guys they've never seen to go and drink some booze.Thank you Ashley. We got there and drank beers and did some shots of the ever wonderful vodka. Some with vanilla. We also hung out with a girl we knew from high school who is still at Conn. She brought a little booze. Keep an eye out for a picture in the next Acorn. The dance was in Cro's nest which was weird but well done. The best part about dancing in that room is that you can dance on a counter top for everyone to see. I ended up dancing on that with a couple friends dancing next to some girl. Turns out she was a freshman. We got down and danced for a bit, she bit my cheek and...yada, yada, yada...I was drinking a beer in the dance. Thank you Brian. Dance over. Now for the after party in front of cro. My pal and I were leaving but were called back by our third man. We went to chat with him. And I saw two gals that I was very happy to see. Large Marge and Smellin Ellen. Track members. Totally cool and I got to hang with them for a few minutes. Now it's bedtime and we haven't a place to sleep. I had previously locked up a couple couches but they were a little bit of a walk away so I was trying my darnedest to get Large Marge and Smellin Ellen to let us stay in their rooms. They would not. I'm a little offended but it's fine. So we walked to the couches had another beer and went to sleep. Thank you Steve.
We woke up for the ever wonderful McDonald's breakfast and decided we would return to the casinos in hopes of lower limits on a Sunday morning. As the three of us walked onto the floor we were stopped by the nice old lady security guard who I think I recognized from another visit. She stopped my two friends and said, "I just need to ask you two, how old are you?" They responded and we went on our way soon to realize that she didn't ask me. We were bewildered to say the least. So we asked the reasoning and she said that the two of them look younger. It is funny however because I am in fact the youngest of the three. We couldn't find any lower limits so we went to Ben and Jerry's to discuss our next move. I got the Mango and More Smoothie. My friends didn't get anything. That smoothie hit the spot. Oh was it good. We made our decision about our gambling. We pooled our money and one person would play. "How do we decide what person that would be?" You might ask. It's easy, Rock, Paper, Scissors. Winner would play. First go around, two papers and a scissors. I had scissors. I would play. So we went to the only ten dollar table we could find in the vast sea of humans and green felt. No seats available, we watched. A seat opened up and I went for it. It was mine. I put my money down like I was a high roller. And we played. I won a fair amount of money and decided it was time to go when they raised the limits. Celebration? Yes, TGI Fridays for an early dinner followed by some basketball. What a weekend. Now bed. This week should be an interesting one. I think Tuesday will be a big one. Why? just because.

"Do Not Touch Her!"

Oh Man, what a weekend. I had some people in town. One of which I've known for 12 years, the others were his college pals. Friday night started off pretty routinely, went to Kenmore and had some local beers. After that, the fun began. Normal T ride back here to the BHP. One of the greatest places on the Hill. My friend and I were ahead of the others and decided we would challenge two guys at a game of Foosball. We got destroyed. It was mostly my fault due to terrible defense and goal tending. So that was fifty cents down the drain. In fact it was only twenty five cents because I asked some girl on her phone if she had a quarter and she gave me one. Great gal. I didn't attempt to serve up any macaroni because she was on the phone and I was mentally preparing myself to dominate the Foosball table. (Serving macaroni is a phrase I like to use in place of macking on chicks.) So we lost as the rest of the crew showed up. Great timing. Nice guys we lost to. We shook hands and congratulated them on their triumphant victory. Some guy tried to console us by telling us that the team who had dominated us was pretty good. Thanks pal, I didn't realize that when they scored five goals in two minutes.
On to the next sport. I mentioned that we could play basketball in the back so we went. It was a big hit. We spent somewhere near twenty dollars on this game. It's fifty cents a person to play one game. We played a lot. There was this one guy who noticed the Cubs hat and it turns out he was from a place near home. He was phenomenal at this basketball game. I think we saw him miss once, maybe twice. I don't think his shot frequency could be matched by many. A ball would leave his hand before the last ball hit the net. Yes the net, I don't think this guy ever touched the rim. He was good. There were some other mentionable match ups. Two tie games were played. One by me, I went on to lose the tie breaker. Darn. My pal played against some girl who had a decent jump shot, but a good jump shot does not usually equal wins in this game. She was able to win however. She did this by playing defense. This is not a game for defense but she did and won. And that goes to show that defense wins championships. That pretty much was the culmination of the night. I also saw some of the biggest ass holes Conn has ever seen but I did not speak to them in college so why do it at a bar after college? Ah...bed time.
Saturday started in the afternoon. Took the guys on a stroll around town seeing most of the sights. We ended up at the local pub which is awesome. Had plenty of drinks there. We came back to my place to watch the beginning of the basketball games and drink some bears.
Here comes the funny. We had previously decided that Hong Kong was the destination of the night due to six dollar pitchers and TVs. We got there and the TVs were not on. The bartender was a woman who said they were trying something new. That was stupid so a couple people asked different bouncers. They said they lost their entertainment license for a few days. Wondering how you lose your license to have a TV on they asked how they managed that. The response was that they were selling chicken on the street. I assume it was to people in line. Stupid so we left after getting free shot glasses for being the only people to try some new coffee vodka.
On to An Tain. For more cheap beer and basketball. There is also dancing there on the main floor which is a huge plus in my book. So we get there and I ask the bouncer if they have the $1 Miller light deal and he says he doesn't know. I thought to myself that is a lie. It was. For some reason he would not tell us the price of a cup of miller light. Someone asked "Well how much is a beer. The dude said $4 bud lights. Not the answer we wanted. Then he asked if we would not pay the cover charge and turn around and walk away. We said yes and he still didn't give us a straight answer. We went in anyway and sure enough they had lots of Miller Light and it was cheap. Also, they had the games on. Too bad they were not great games. So after talking to some guy about the basketball, I went to the bathroom and decided I would try my hand at a little dancing. A danced a little and stopped and on my way back to my pals I started talking to some random girl about how good of a dancer I was. I told her "I can beat every guy in here in a dance contest except for him." I pointed to my friend who is a good dancer. She didn't believe me and I didn't care. I stopped talking to her, took a little break and started to dance again. Now I wasn't dancing all over girls and I certainly wasn't being a creep. But all of a sudden this dude comes up to me and tells me I'm not aloud do dance with a certain girl. I said "Whatever, I'm just dancing." For some reason he started to get angry. Maybe because he was really insecure about himself and he was intimidated by a guy dancing with his girlfriend who wasn't even close to her and never even thought about dancing with her. I continued to blow him off and he continued to get angrier about it. He said "You can dance with whoever but don't touch her." as he pointed to some girl. I said fine and attempted to dance some more. He said something again and wouldn't give it up. I thought about asking him to dance and see if he in fact wanted to dance with me but I'm sure that would have enraged him further. So then his friend came over and talked to me. And as far as I can remember, he was a reasonable guy and was on my side. My friend came over because we were going to leave and the first guy tried to push through him to get back to me again. What an idiot. So we left and went to get some pizza. And that pretty much ended the night. And that ends this. Let's go Cubs!

MMMBop

They are all married and two are dads. Wow! Hanson rocks. I love Jeopardy. Too bad it comes on after I have to leave for trivia. This week in trivia there was a bit of a negative nancy on our team. She was also your typical arrogant Bostonian. Kind of brought the mood down a little but oh well. There is nothing you can do about that.
Anywho, a funny thing happened on my was home from trivia. Just as I left my team I was going to attempt to jump a thing sticking out of the ground. I ran up to it and I, as a horse would do, refused the jump. I made a split second decision based on the conditions. That's not the funny part. So I walked towards my appartment and, in a construction site, came to a street I needed to cross. I noticed that I had a great opportunity to cross due to the lack of vehicles. What I didn't notice was the chain just above ankle height. So as I started to pick up my pace to cross the street I hit the chain. I went down. It wasn't your normal trip though. It was if a rug had been pulled out from under me. My feet were swept away. As I caught myself I exclaimed, "Oh man!" I ended the fall in the lowered pushup position with my face looking towards the non-existant on-coming traffic. So I did a little push up, stood up, and kept walking. The really funny part is that I passed a relatively attractive young lady who was on her phone just before doing this. I think it goes without saying that I didn't look back after I got up. I laughed the rest of the way home. Good times. Face plant averted.

Dudamel

I wan to see Gustavo Dudamel conduct very very very badly. This means I may have to make a trup to LA sooner or later.

Unbelievable

Abysmal night of dodgeball. We only won three games. This matches our worst week. This however was one of the most important weeks of dodgeball. A week before the playoffs, we needed a solid performance to secure a high seed. This did not happen. Sadly, we were down two players this week and were forced to pick up a guy who helps run the show but does not play. He did alright. But even with him, we were forced to play with three guys and three girls. There was also some poor moral this week which certainly did not help. Some team members did not have a winning attitude going into the night. Ah well, next week should prove to be a great experience. That is that.
Lost tonight blew my mind. Those people at Grass Skirt Productions kill me every week. I love Lost. Love it! I tend to rate how good episodes are by how well they rip everything I thought I knew out of my head, blow it up, grind it into a paste, add some tobasco sauce, eat it, poop it out, freeze it, and shove it back in to my head. And this one did all of that very well. I'm going to have to watch this again in order to wrap my head around some things. What the hell did he want with the Black Rock's Ledger? Why him? To help Penny's research and search for Desmond? What the heck? I won't be able to sleep tonight due to my mind racing.
I am so amped up now. I've realized that I get a huge high from exercise and competition. It has been such a huge part of my life, my entire life. I had not gone very long with out it and that is a bit of a problem. After dodgeball these last few weeks, I have been so wired. Tonight my hand was shaking after dodgeball, I was unable to dial a telephone number. Good grief. I've lost my train of thought. Dodgeball is crazy, Lost is crazier. I love them both. And here I will leave you with a list of team names I came up with tonight seeing how we are deciding on a new team name for the upcoming spring season. Also good names for Trivia night.

The Manic Moose
The Brain Dead Banshees
The Squishy Cow Pies
The Red Handed Lamp Shades
The Gallivanting Geese
The Pancake Pushers (as in drug dealers)
The Frolicking Field Mice
The Terrible Twosies
The Block Headed Bishops
The Panicking Flamingos
The Half Full Glasses
The Wood Chuck Chuckers
The Towering Lumberjacks
The Ballistic Bunions
The Hung Jurors
The Gimme Britneys
The Coy Cows
The Confederate Yankees
The Pickled Plantains
The Lake Michigan Swimmers
The Mackinac Island Racers (Sailors would understand this)
The Mr. Prime Ministers
The Goulash Eating Aardvarks
The Daisy Dollops (Dollop is from "dolpur" Icelandic for fat man)
The Crusading Conquistadors (Yes, I know the conquistadors didn't Crusade)
The Japanese Foot Binders
The Rice Patties
The Tantalizing Tootsie Rolls
The Smelly Footed Mud Slingers
The Moon Jumping Monkeys
The Life Saving Enemas
The Viva Matematicas
The Huffing Puffing Wolves
The Contenders Ready? Ready!
The Evangelical Elk
The Couch Surfing Moochers
The Dieing Dandelions
The High Rise Window Washers
The Pig Nosed Oinkers
The Agile Alligators

That is all.

Scouting

Dodgeball is very interesting. Good mix of people. A couple D-Bag teams, one of which we beat consistantly. The other we have yet to beat. They've beaten us four times. Tonight, with some good scouting, however we got them down to there last two while we had three. A guy and a girl against a girl and two guys. Easy money, you would think. I went for a catch bobbled a little and a teammate caught it. In this league that means that only I am out. Bummer. And this is a team I really do not like. We ended up losing to them. But now we know how to play them. They hold the balls until you are out. (That is illegal, it's stated in the rules.) I noticed what they were doing and told my team to hold our balls until the refs yell at us. We did that and after we were yelled at the other team was forced to not play that way. We still lost but we did dominate them until the end. I've started to get very amped for these games. I love dodgeball.
I forgot to run the dishwasher, time to watch lost. Out

Oh Jack

If Jack grew up by a lake, as he said he did, he would understand how to get on that door without flipping it over.

Lesbian Snow Ball Fight

Jerry Springer's show today was entitled "Lesbian Snow Ball Fight." (It happened to be on when I turned the TV on). There was no snow and no lesbians on stage. Instead there was a bumbling little man complaining about how his 30 something wife has twenty or so stuffed animals on their bed and they have to arrange them every morning. The men was fed up. So Jerry brought the lady out and they had a very tame discussion and decided that she will set up her stuffed animals somewhere else in the house. That was it. What happened to Jerry?

It worked

I think pick up lines are hilarious and believe they should be used everytime someone is looking to talk to someone in a bar. One of my favorites is: person 1) "Hey, do you have a bandaid?" Person 2) "No sorry...why?" 1) "I scraped my knee when I fell for you." Isn't that great? I have used that one and it did work. The lady was some 30 something year old gym teacher on Nantucket, so she was a little outside of my target zone. But conversation was good and my friend Joanna got her wish of me using a pick up line that night.
Last night while out with a couple pals we inadvertainly used a pick up technique and were succesful. We were at a bar and standing behind a girl. One friend, Nick, asked Aaron and I how tall we thought she was. We guessed and of course assumed that Nick would then ask this girl who had no idea this was going on behind her how tall she was. Aaron won and we went on to talk to this girl for quite a while. Somehow integrity came up and she rated us on a scale of one to seventeen. In her mind I had the most integrity. That was funny.
We then met this girl who told us Chicago was land-locked. WRONG! On our way back we ran into a girl I met the other night who went to Conn but I had never known before. She was with some friends and some dude who was acting a little possesive as to say, "She's mine and there is no way you're going to take this from me." I think that explains it. But he had his arm around her and seemed pretty upset that we offered her chips and pretzels. That type of attitude just shows that the dude has big self confidence problems. If he knew that the girl was his (I don't know if she is but it didn't look like it was a bf/gf thing) he would have been cool with it and had some laughs with us rather than putting his arm around her and trying to usher her away. And I'm done.

House Rules

Not the show. Last night I went to a house party where beer pong was taking place. The two people whose place it was were idiots. People from the other apartment were cool, but these guys were morons. My friend Nick and I were on the list behind his girlfriend and her roommate. When it was the girls' turn we were informed of the "house rules" from the two idiots. First, probably the stupidest of the rules, the new team has to set up both sides. This wasted tons of time. After much hubbub about that rule the idiots did it themselves. And went on about other rules including "on fire." However they called it "NBA Jam" which is fine but when they hit two in a row they said "He's heating up!" nothing like in the game and when someone became "on fire" at least five guys standing around decided to yell very loudly and were astonished that somebody could make three cups in a row. What a feat. The other stupid rule was that if you miss the cups and table completely, you have to take one of your own cups. Supid. There are variations of that rule that I prefer that if someone catches the air ball, then a cup is taken away. Much better and takes more awareness. The last rule that was interesting, kind of stupid though and not thought through as far as I would have hoped was the "Segal Rule." This rule stated that if a ball is rimmed, you can swat it back to the other team while saying "Segal." If the ball hits anyone on the team they need to take a cup. Aparently there becomes problems when the ball is caught after the swat. Arguments occur. I would have called it the "dodgeball rule" and the swating team would be penalized for a caught swatted ball. Again, when this was succesfull the two idiots and their friends decided to go crazy like this kind of thing never happend. So naturally, I was not a fan of these two we were playing.
When Nick and I played we lost pretty badly because Nick was too drunk and I had a terrible game. But we were able to attain a rerack. When asked if we cared whether it was centered or not, I imediately responded, "Yes" with a stern look. We lost that game and left the imediate area.
We were upstairs having a decent time, and one of the idots shows up (stumbling a little, I think it was an act) and states that they were able to sign the table because they went 7-1. I'm a little perplexed because they also said that they retired the table due to being too drunk. How do you retire if you lose. But the other stupid thing is that they signed the table because they had one five in a row. Again, big deal. It's been done before. I and my firnd Charlie went 11-1 one night and never deemed it neccessary to sign anything. Sure we would have signed a few autographs if we were asked but nobody really cared when something happened that happens frequently enough. Whatever, they are idiots and I probably won't return there. That's enough.

What a night.

Let us begin with dodgeball. Tonight was the first night of the season. It was fun. I can't wait to play next week. The team did well, 5-2 for the night. The ref was decent, there is a lot of action going on so I could not expect him to make all the calls. Because the ref couldn't make all the calls, I expected (as I think you would too) people to have honor. This was not the case however. People would get hit by a ball, the ref wouldn't see it and they would stay in the game. That, to me, was terrible. I've been brought up to play fair, these people obviously were not. It pissed me off to get out by a ball thrown by a player who was out. And there is no way to argue with a call, it is just to hectic. Anger, that is all I can say. But, as I have said before, this is a social league. That is something I can have a problem with, solely because of my intensity and drive to win.
So that was that. Then I got off the T and as I walked towards my house I saw someone I knew from Conn. Meghan is her name. We said hi and talked for a bit. (This is just filler) She and her roomate invited me to a bar. I showered and went. There were quite a few Conn people there who were almost all sailors. Not a group I ever hung out with at the old Alma Mater. So I went there, talked to some people. Others who knew me ignored me while I ignored them. Met some kid who was also from the Chicagoland area. What a tool. I couldn't believe what a prick this kid was. But I don't really care and I probably won't see him ever again. Also, he had a red sox hat on even though he is a cubs fan. To say the least, I was not happy about that. Finally, I decided it was time to head home.
I got back to my apartment went in and locked the door; two locks, one of which I don't have the key for (that is important). I needed to do some stuff that is too complicated to say and not important. I walked out another door, with my keys, and shut it behind me. I don't have the key for that door either. So I go upstairs, pull out my keys, look at the door, and think to myself, "Fuck, I locked that lock." 12:30AM and I am locked out of my apartment. There is no way I am going to call the land lord at this time of night. Luckily, I know a little something about a lot of things. One of those things is getting into a locked door, as long as the lock is a certain kind.
Side story: While on vacation with the family (not the mob) We were not given the right keys for a condo. This was in high school. I pulled out my school I.D. and went for it. I had never carded a door before but I had seen it. It took us all of a minute to get it done. We were in! The rest of the vacation I used my I.D. to get in even though they gave us new keys.
And back to the story. I pulled out a card of mine, and went for it. I was unable to get in. Damn it! I was screwed. It looked like I was sleeping in the hall tonight. But I couldn't give up, there was hope. I searched around and found some makeshift tools that I could attempt to use. I tried using these to no avail. A little success but not nearly what I needed. Then it dawned on me. I could use these "tools" in a diferent way and I think I can get it. So I did and it worked. I'm in! Thats is all.

The New York Times Project

If you know me, you know that when something doesn't necessarily go my way or I think it is stupid and not worth doing I tend to do mischievous things to undermine the project and/or whomever decided to force whatever it is upon me. Here is one of my favorite examples:
Let me take you on a short trip through time. Ninth grade of High School. The class was World Geography. Mr. Dachille was the teacher (in fact, he still is).
A little background of our relationship prior to ninth grade: In fifth grade (I went to the school k-12, 13 years) I and my friend Andrew were sent to the upper school to pick up a box for charity. We went to the two main floors and for the life of us were unable to locate this box. So we thought, maybe it’s on the third floor. So we climbed the stairs and started to walk down the hall from the South. We made it about half way down the hallway when we hear from behind in a New York accent, “Ah, excuse me...” We turned around and there he was. (This man is like T2, for those Camels who are reading this. I think he must have been at his desk looking out the window by the door, saw us, and wanted to pick a fight.) We didn’t know who he was, we had no reason to. Lower schoolers had no business knowing upper school teachers. We had better things to worry about like video games and other stuff. So we looked at him, he was ten foot tall if he was a foot. He asked, “What are two doing up here?” and we answered, “Looking for the P.R.I.D.E. Box.” With a very stern voice he responded, “Well it wouldn’t be up here, it would be downstairs.” That’s all I remember, apart from then searching through the rest of the upper school. To say the least, it was not a pleasant experience of the upper school. And that is all I knew of this man, Mr. Dachille.
So here I was, ninth grade and low and behold the ninth grade homeroom teacher was non other than Mr. Dachille. As far as Andrew and I knew he was the very same mean old man who had hounded us four years prior. We had World Geo with this man. (p.s. The year was 1999.) The first day he gave us a packet, the entire trimester of classes, dated May 1997. 2 ½ years old. He had been teaching the exact same material for 2 ½ years. Anywho, the year went on and Mr. Dachille was not very nice. Although behind the tough skin we could start to tell he had a softer side. But that was not to be tested. He gave us a project called the New York Times Project. This was a reoccurring project that we had to do every few months. This man collected the New York Times. When he gave us this project he would take a stack of the Times and pass out three to everyone, all from one to five months old. The project was to summarize all of the international articles.
The most number of points you could get was a 20. I never got 20’s, ever. So, this was one of those moments. I hated this project. I would always procrastinate until the last night. I had to do something to see if this man, this very scary (who might be human) man was actually reading this entire damn project. So I did some of the project and injected some things that were not in the articles. Here they are:

- Habibe’s political structure this is so annoying I can’t believe I waited this long to do this darn thing has been slipping over the past few years.
- This is so bad so very very bad because they need to come to an agreement before long or else the fight will be going on for a very very long time.
- This is so horrible I can’t believe I waited till tonight to do this.
- I hate this. I think it’s just a waste f time and so is that project where we have to go to the cia website and look up every individual country when we have so many countries to right about.
- I cant stand this it’s soo annoying its so incredibly annoying to me because I cannot figure out what is going on in the world and I don’t think it matters what went on four months ago or even 5 months ago.

I got a 20 on this one. I couldn’t believe it. This awful man didn’t read this at all. I merely filled each page and was rewarded for the bull shit.
Mr. Dachille turned out to be the man, as we grew through high school Dachille became a friendly guy who was funny. As I said before, this man showed a little of this during ninth grade. Molly, a girl who rights everything down, asked Mr. Dachille where they land Air Force one if there is no airport and Jamie answered, “Oh, they just clear a field and land it there.” Mr. Dachille responded to this, “Don’t say that, she’ll write it down.” He also motioned writing something down with his hand.
I recently saw him at a reunion and told him that I was going to send the project to him and he agreed to read it to the class. I will be sending it tomorrow.
That is all.

How It's Made

While unemployed here in Boston. My twelve O'clock hour often consists of sitting in my chair watching How It's Made on Discovery HD (great channel). Today on How It's Made they had how to make chocolate bears and rabbits and eggs and other stuff. I assume they are for the Easter Season. Now I am watching a production plant make capsules of some drug. How fascinatin. What's next, I wonder. This is a pretty typical thought during my days. What's my next meal going to be? What activity will I do next? Wha video game will I play next? What company I will apply to next? What's my next move in facebook scrabble going to be? (btw, the next is pasta on How It's Made.)
Stouffers' Lasagna with Meat Sauce is very good. When I don't feel like cooking an extravagant meal I go to the local 7-Eleven, only steps from my front door, pick up one of those lasagnas and perhaps a drink (fresca, sprite, or Arnold Palmer). The music on How It's Made is almost the best part of the show. Enough about that, as my mind has wondered onto what is next this day.
I really like the song in the Bank of America commercial.
I meant to go skiing today up in New Hampshire but when the alarm went off at 7 AM I couldn't get myself to do it. Frankly, that means that it was only a thought and not a serious one at that. Now I think I should have gone. I wish that I had a house that I could stay at without paying so that I could say, "I think I'll go skiing tomorrow" during the afternoon. Subsequently I would drive up to the mountain I ski, Loon, spend the night and be ready to ski early the next morning. But I don't so I don't.
I am in a Dodgeball League tha starts tomorrow. It should be interesting. I, of course, love dodgeball. You may remember that I won Camelympics dodgeball with the Ridge last year. I made a girl cry (I hit her in the face). Sorry. My team is an interesting bunch. I'm not sure of our abilities. Of course I trust that we will win. But we have three girls (two are not very athletic) and an effeminate guy. Not to say they wont be good, we shall see. The problem that I have is that this is supposed to be some sort of social thing. When it comes to sports, I don't do social. I play to win. Occasionally I will hold grudges so when the social thing comes around you can forget friendly. Also if my team turns out to be in it solely to have fun (meaning the don't care and therefore don't try their hardest I will get frustrated and that sucks. And we have to play in socks, I don't know why. I think it's for safety but I would think being shoemore (instead of shoeless) would be safer. So we'll see how that goes. Shit, I have to call Puni.