Gray Sunday

Sunday was cold and gray. Jon and I went for a neighborhood walk. Yesterday's final destination was Socrates Sculpture Park on Vernon Blvd. in Long Island City. On the way there we discovered this wall painting by De La Vega, a street artist that leaves similar paintings all over New York City. It was surprising because the wall it is painted on is attached to a dreary, worn out old building. We walked through a pretty run down and somewhat scare part of Long Island City near the water front. The Sculpture Park seemed to pop up out of nowhere. When you first approach the park, you notice that there are blocks lining the outer gateway. They look like letters collected over the years from other signs, but who knows? They could have been created as part of some installation. Jon took a picture of three blocks that spell out a funny word.

We continued on into the park and facing us as we walked in was a replica of the Paramount movie insignia. It's kind of hard to see in these pictures because the sky was so grey but I'm posting them anyway. That is upper east side of Manhattan far off in the background.

For the most part, the park was pretty dismal with the exception of a wind chime sculpture which has been in the park since 1991 or so. I also liked this rusted pile of scrap. The picture on the right is a mere detail. The man in the foreground is Jon.

S-A-TUR-DAY (beat) NIGHT!!

After yesterday's fascinating post about finding new ways to be lazy, I decided to take a little walk around the neighborhood to see what I could see. With camera in tow, I headed to the Rite Aid to see if I could find some Xmas cards. Normally, it's not that hard to find our local Rite Aid but this year it was hard to see because this happy fellow was positioned in front of the store by the Xmas tree vendors. He's big and frightening and looks like he wants to squeeze you into submitting to buy one of his trees.

While there, I decided I wanted to buy a fancy, scented candle. The ones at Rite Aid were far too expensive. Fortunately, in my neighborhood, there are multiple 99 cent stores. When I got out of Rite Aid, I looked across the street to the Bargain Stop. The store being all tarted up for the holidays and looking warm and inviting, I was anticipating a fight with large crowds once inside. I sallied forth. It was worth it. Not only was the story blisfully uncrowded but I found a beautiful, scented candle for 99 cents. I walked a little bit more to see what else I might photograph and I came upon the butcher shop. I've been looking into the window of this butcher shop for over 10 years now and every time I've looked in the past, I've thought I'm going to take a picture of this one day. So, I took two. Here they are. One sign encourages you to order your holiday meat early, the other advertises goat meat. Yummy.

On the way home, I found this "treasure" for sale at the local thrift shop. It is a doll's cradle with one of the Unicorn tapestries painted on the side. I shit you not. I would have bought it except I'm not crazy. When I got home, I finished preparing dinner. I bet you are wondering whether or not I am going to tell you about the meal I prepared last night. Well, put your wondering aside. I made pasta with meat sauce. The tomato sauce came from a can of Sclaffani pureed tomatoes. Okay, here's what I did.

I diced one medium yellow onion and sliced a container's worth of stuffing mushrooms. I sauteed the onion until it started to get trascluscent, then added the mushrooms. Once the mushrooms started to shrink, I added 1/2 a cup of old wine that's been sitting on our counter since our last party (corked of course). Once the mushrooms absorbed some the yummy wine, I added the chopped meat which I had sauteed and drained of fat while cooking the onions. Once the meat was a browned, I added the 16 oz. can of tomato puree. I let that simmer for a while on low heat, about 2 hours (I love slow cooking) and then I made some shells and the rest is dinner history.

It turned out pretty delicious.

Silence on a Saturday

This is turning out to be my laziest Saturday in some time. I started out the day with serious activity. First I posted a fascinating entry about hubris, below. Then I made breakfast. It was no ordinary breakfast. I made steak and eggs. Okay. I let the meat soak in a dry marinade of chili powder, Old Bay, salt and pepper for the hour it took me to bake a quiche. The quiche contained eggs, cream, seasoning and parsley (my favorite herb ever). After the quiche was finished, I cooked the steaks in a hot pan full of butter. Sounds good? It was.

But since Jon left for work, I've just been bumming around. Napping.

I started to watch Reservoir Dogs but had to turn it off when Madsen started torturing the cop. I didn't want to get "stuck in the middle" of that.

Then I found Silence of the Lambs while flipping through the myriad HBO stations that come with DTV. I caught it 20 minutes into the movie. I missed the Chianti and that creepy guy cumming on Starling but did catch the first "quid, pro, quo Clarice"; the flaying and displaying of Charles Napier (one of his guards) in the courthouse scene; the scene where Gumb insists "It puts the lotion in the basket" when Catherine Harris, his victim, discovers nails in the walls of the well where she is being kept; and where Starling accidentally happens upon the scene of the crime. I love that scene. When she first walks into the house, she has no idea. Then, as she waits for Gumb to get her the phone number of Lipman's son, she starts putting it together. The discovery is sealed when she sees that odd moth.

I love that movie.

Now, I'm writing. Sure it's here and not on some other blank canvas but at least I'm writing.

If I stop writing, I'm going to have to decide what I should do next that doesn't involve napping.

Cure for Hubris

What is a good cure for hubris? Walking into a second interview expecting to be offered a job and then NOT GETTING IT. Yes. Yesterday, I made that huge error. I walked in expecting full well to be offered a job and then was interviewed for another hour and a half. I can call back on Wednesday. Mr. W keeps telling me to think on it. I said all sorts of things to assure him I wanted the job like "You sound like an interesting person and I'd like to work for you." or "Well, if you feel you need me, I'd be interested in working here." What I'm sure he meant by telling me that I need to think about it, is he needs to think about it. What do you think? Should I call back on Wednesday? Besides, he said, I wouldn't be starting right away anyway. It's the holidays.

When I walked away from him on the street after saying our goodbyes, I walked by a store with some frightening manakids.

Take this one for example. He looks like a little birdie waiting for his mother to drop regurgitated food into his mouth. Or like he has no bones in his face. Or like someone is about to beat him up for his lunch money. Or like someone just ripped out his tongue and he's still in shock. I was very disturbed when I saw this manaquin, that I didn't even notice what he was put there to sell. All I could see was that slack jaw and pair of frightened eyes. But he wasn't as scary as this next one.

This one is downright deranged. This mana"kid" looks like a snake unhinging its jaw in order to eats his pray. Or like he's laughing at me to distract me while something comes up from behind and eats me. Or like he thinks my outfit is so ridiculous that his laughter will shame me into coming into his store to buy something new to wear. Or like he's been driven mad because he learned the truth about Santa Claus. Or because he knew that I wasn't offered the job like I mistakenly thought.

Knowing that I was going to write about these characters, I took a wider shot to help you place these manaquins in the larger setting. See that creepier teenage manaquin in the back. Imagine a whole display of these creepy and mocking dolls. Standing together like that, they resemble a live action Twilight Zone nightmare sequence. They look like someone slapped them on the backs and froze the stupid looks they had on their faces, like their mothers warned.

Yes. It was strange to walk by these laughing figures as I walked out of that interview. Hopefully, I opened a large enough window for you to understand the weird things that go on in my head.

Friday

TGIF. Well, Friday has kind of blended into the other days being that I'm not working and all. I have to admit it's kind of nice not to have to worry about going to work. I like it. But later this afternoon, I have meeting that will most likely lead to a job. Or at least that's what I'm kind of hoping. I'm also kind of hoping it doesn't lead to a job so I can be off for a couple of more weeks. I'm finally getting relaxed.

I know. I can't stay on vacation forever and I had enough of that when I was out of work last year but the truth is having to go to work is hard. Most likely, no one really likes working unless they are working on something for themselves or their family, or at something they truly enjoy.

I like not working. I like taking care of the house. I like being able to take naps in the middle of the day. I like playing with our new camera and discovering the great things it can do.

This is probably my last day off in a while. I'm glad my mom could come and visit with me this morning. We exchanged holiday/vacation gifts and had a nice time catching up.

Insert further rambling here.

Christmastoria

On our morning walk today, we discovered many beautiful (not) Christmas decorations in Astoria. I'll keep you posted as the neighborhood becomes even MORE beautiful.

Interview

The interview went much better than I expected. Instead of walking into a bleak and cold office staffed with vapid 22 year olds, I walked into a small office with four desks and two employees. I impressed K with my skillset and charming personality. K is going to get me an interview with a small company on Wall Street for Monday. Wahoo!!!! I don't always like to wear makeup but today, I think I did a pretty good job for the likes of me. It doesn't always come out as nice as it did ealier. To show you what I mean, I took a couple of pictures of myself in makeup.

I've developed this weird fascination with photographing myself. Can anyone explain it to me? Does anyone else have the same weird solopsistic fascination?

Yodelay Da-Hee

Easy Thursday. Just got ready for a job interview. I'm made up, wearing my new pink sweater, listening to the sound track of Oh Brother, Where Art Thou and looking at Jon lovingly every two minutes or so. I look very pretty. The interview is with an agency for a job as Assistant to VP of Marketing for an online education company. I think it's one of those fake jobs designed to bring you into an agency so they can humiliate you but I have something else good lined up for tomorrow so what can this hurt. Two hours of my life.
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This morning, before our walk, I made a yummy for your tummy breakfast. Eggs in the nest or Maryjanes, toasted bagels with butter and lemon curd picked up in England and Turkey Polish Kilbassa.

Tonight we'll be eating the leftovers of last night's dinner. Sorry to those of you who wanted me to bring the leftovers to you for lunch today, but time didn't allow for it today.

Recipe

I surprised myself. The shephard's pie turned out pretty yummy.

First I boiled 5 medium red potatoes and 5 chopped carrots until soft and let them cool.

Then I sauteed 1/2 pound of chopmeat with 1 chopped medium onion and 2 diced tomatoes.

Once the sautee was soft and nice, I emptied everything into a bread pan. Then I mashed the carrots and created a mushy carrot layer on the meat mix. Then I added the mashed potatoes to top everything off. I placed the bread pan into a preheated oven which I turned down to 200 degrees so the pie could slow simmer.

It was done by 10-ish, when I enjoyed a piece before Jon came home.

For seasoning, I used salt, pepper and OLD BAY to taste.

Yum.

Back on the Block

Guess who's back. Back again.

We're home. Jon is at work. I am chilling out. I was just looking over our oodles of photos. I'm trying to figure out which ones are truly worth printing. Digital is great.

This morning we went for an hour long walk in Central Park. In London, I started enjoy walking around daily. It's incredibly relaxing and invigorating so I want to keep it up. The walk was certainly invigorating. It was cold out there today. After our walk through the park, we found our way to Whole Markets in the Time Warner Center to pick up some food for dinner.

This afternoon, after Jon left for work, I watched ELF on DVD (hee hee - funny, funny) and then I went for a pedicure/manicure. Ahhhhh. That was nice. I chose Pink Slip for both toes and fingers. It's a light, pink color usually used as the base for a French manicure. It looks incredibly natural but very neat.

Tonight, I'll be making shepherd's pie. Our host, Mark, made it for us during our visit and I remembered my mom making it when I was younger. Being the stubborn person that I am, I refuse to look up the recipe in a cookbook so I'll be making it up as I go along, based on memories from my childhood and my vacation.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Bags are packed. I'm ready to go. . .

We are ready to go. We will be leaving in about 40 minutes to begin our long commute home. We've had a marvelous time.

For those of you who are positively sick of reading about my happy vacation, you will be pleased to know that as of tomorrow, I will be resuming my regular mixed emotion writing. After all, I have to find a job which is where we first met when I started this blog.

Dear Reader. Thank you for indulging me as I kept a journal of my first real vacation.

See you soon.

Westminster Abbey/Elgin Marbles

Today, our last full day in London, we went to Westminster Abbey and then to the British Museum to see the Elgin marbles.

Westminster Abbey is amazing. The most famous English Kings, Queens, scientists, poets and other impressive citizens are interred here. There are more amazing sculptures here than I have seen in any of my travels. Of course, photograph taking is banned there. I noticed that all the sites we've had to pay to see forbid the taking of photographs. That didn't ruin the experience for me but it would have nice after paying 15 dollars a head to get in, if I could have taken some pictures of Isaac Newton's statue, or Shakespeare's statue or Mary Queen of Scots effigy, etcetera.

After an overwhelming tour of Westminster we walked north to the British museum. There were two exhibits Jon wanted to show me. The first was the Rosetta stone. Pretty cool. But as cool as it was to see the Rosetta stone, the Elgin marbles were 10 times better. Of course, since this museum was free, I could take as many pictures as I wanted, which I'll download when we get home. I don't know how to describe them to you. They are the oldest sculptures I have ever seen, rescued from the Parthenon by Lord Elgin.

I was pretty pooped after absorbing all that info, so Jon and I came back to our home base. 10 minutes after we got back, Jon went off alone to play at apub quiz with Mark. As much as I wanted to go, I really needed to hang back. After all, I have packing to do. We are leaving tomorrow. We are going home. (sniff and hoorah!)

The Palace of Holyrood

One of the more romantic places Jon and I went was Holyrood Palace. The Holyrood Palace is the official residence of the Royal family when the pass through Scotland. It's really old and is the setting for some pretty historic events. One of my favorite historic residents was Mary Queen of Scots. This is where she lived when her wicked cousin, had her friend/lover? murdered. The story of Mary and her cousin Elizabeth is probably a favorite of a lot of anglophiles, which I am slowly becoming. Anyway, there is a room that contains many, many personal effects of the Mary and other famous members of the British royalty. One of the creepier things we saw in this room was a cast of Robert the Bruce's skull made from his found remains which were interred somewhere else, perhaps at Edinburgh castle but I don't really remember. My head is pretty crammed with royal knowlege.

Not to be overlooked is the abbey at Holyrood. It was built by King David I after he saw a white stag when hunting. It may have been some kind of vision or something. Again, I'll have to study the story a little further (crammed head needs much sorting). He built this abbey which is now a romantic ruin. Here is my photographic contribution.

Sunday in Greenwich -The Cutty Sark

Sunday, Jon and I spent some time in Greenwich, near the meridian. The first site we visited was the Cutty Sark (see below). We also went to this charming open market because Sunday is Market day in Greenwich. Then we walked up to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich Park where we stood on the meridian. We saw where Haley did most of his work. We saw cool equipment and took photos of each other on either side of the line. Later that night, we went ice skating with some friends, also in Greenwich. We had drinks at Trafalgar pub which was full of Lord Nelson memorabilia. I did not try the ale named Lord Nelson's Blood. After our drinks we went skating at the Old Royal Naval College, although I did more wall grabbing than skating. Jon and our host Mark both impressed me with their skating, especially Jon who was actually quite good at it. The other people we met, Steve, Annie and Shonny were just lovely. They were such nice people. We had a very nice time. After skating, Jon, Mark and I went out for Indian food. Yummy. I've had some pretty amazing Indian food here, better than New York City even.

That was enough for one day. After that we pretty much called it quits and packed it in for the evening.

We got home pretty late.

Quite a few people suggested we see some theater but when I saw what our choices were, I ruled out seeing anything. For those of you who suggested that we see Jerry Springer, I give you this photograph of the theatre's marquis.

Tower of London

Here is a self portrait of me near the entrance of Tower of London. Mark and Jon were on line waiting for the tickets and I was getting a little restless. I tried to to take some shots of the wall I'm standing in front of but the light wasn't quite right. The haziness at that moment made the light bounce everywhere so all my shots kept coming up all washed out.

About 30 minutes after I took my brilliant self portrait, the sky changed completely, clearing up wholly producing a brilliant blue sky. This happened about 3 minutes after we started our tour. Here is a picture of the first gate. I think it's the North Gate but I could be wrong.

This is a head on shot of the building that houses the crown jewels. I don't know what else to say about that except they are utterly breath taking. Sadly, the casual tourist is forbidden from taking photographs in here for security reasons. You'll just have to trust me. If you haven't seen them they are everything you've heard they are and more. Just breathtaking. If you have seen them, you know what I mean.

One of England's more interesting kings was King Henry VIII. You have probably heard of him. He's best known for having had six wives and for being an overall jerk with an appetite so large that only his greedy ego could top it. The most fun I had was observing this enormous cod piece from one of his later suits of armor. I hope you enjoy it as well.

Dog and Bell Pub Quiz

Here is Jon, asking questions as host of the Dog and Bell weekly pub quiz. As I mentioned before this went over very well. People were pleased with the questions and it helped us connect with London on a more personal level.

While I was walking around the pub with my camera, Charlie the owner of the pub, asked me to photograph his most recent award of Regional Pub of the Year. I requested that he hold the award to give the photo a nice human touch. He was just the loveliest man ever. He explained to me how proud he was because there is a real art to running a neighborhood pub. Activities, types of ale, food and ambiance are all part of it. He managed to put it all together which is why he won the award. Here is a picture of proud Charlie.

A Happy Val

Here is a picture of me before takeoff.

Photo Update

Well. I managed to get some more pictures off this disk onto Flickr into this post. Our first day out, Jon and I went on the London Eye. Here are the pictures. Enjoy. I won't bore you with the details when you can just look at them. You may have figured out by now that we are having a good time. This is also apparent from our enormous smiles.

Friday in London

Jon and I split up so he could spend some time with his friend and I could be on my own a little bit. I thought it would be interesting to visit Harrod's, you know that big department store owned by the Al Fayeds. It was interesting to see the exterior but the interior was as busy as any New York department store two weeks before Christmas. I did use the luxurious bathroom but then I headed out to get some lunch and to see the Victoria & Albert museum.

Lunch was delicious. For £9 (about 18 dollars because the dollar is crap right now)I had a huge bowl of soup, chicken and four different vegetables. Yummy.

Then I went to the V&A. I walked around for about 2 and a half hours. It's a museum of decorative arts. There didn't seem to be any really famous artworks there but there were some lovely pieces.

Here is a photo of the church we saw in York.



Here is a picture of Jon in front of above church.

Woman Walking In Shot

Here is a picture of that walking into our shot.

Last Day In Edinburgh

We slept well last night, our last night at the Hotel Ibis on the Royal Mile. Today is our last day in Scotland and we plan to squeeze in as much as humanly possible. The main focus of the day will be visiting the Holyrood (sp?), a palace of some sort or the other. I'm sure I'll learn plenty from our tour guide.

Scotland is a beautiful place and I recommend vacationing here highly. It's not too expensive and the people are friendly enough and mostly everyone speaks English. Edinburgh is lovely.

This is probably the last chance I'll have to blog for a while so until next time . . .

Happy Chanukah!!!

For those of us who are celebrating the miracle of lights, happy holiday to you and yours. Just so you know, there is no indication at all over here in Edinburgh that Chanukah is even in play. Nor was there any indication in London for that matter. One would think there weren't any Jewish people around here.

About the Pictures

Okay. I've moved our pictures to disk but forgot to pack them before leaving our hotel. I promise there will be pictures soon.

Time to go. We're going to go have some scotch and dinner.

The Scotch Whisky Heritage Centre

That nap was absolutely wonderful. After spending the morning in the crisp, mountain air wandering around the Castle, I was quite nackered. I slept peacefully and deeply. I've gotten to the point on the vacation when you've finally relaxed after several days of not working, except this time, I don't have to leaave yet. This is my longest and most fun vacation since I was 14 years old and spent the summer in France.

One of the activities I looked forward to when we were planning our trip was visiting The Scotch Whisky Heritage Centre. Here, for a small fee you are taken by a guide on tour of the history of Scotch Whisky. This was worth every pound. Our guide was an adorable 25 year old, Spanish woman from Seville who spoke with Scottish English with a thick Spanish accent. The tour started with a taste of single malt Scotch called Teachers. Then we were led to a room where we watched a movie on the history of Scotch as told to an American tourist by a Scottish bartender. After one sip, he was magically transported in time to when his great grandfather worked in a Scotch destillery. The movie shows the several stages of production from germinating the malt to aging in the casks. Then we were led to a second room where we saw a movie on the different geographical regions where Scotch is produced.

Did you know that there are 90 distillerys for single malt whisky butt only 7 that produce the grain whisky they use to make blended whisky? Then we watched a holographic image of figure from the past who was the first to blend whisky. He explained the importance of blending whisky and of gathering years of experience developing a nose for it. Blenders are the one who make sure a particular brand of scotch or whisky is consistently the same for quality control.

As you can see, I learned a lot about the process of making Scotch and Whisky.

The best part of the tour was the ride. We rode a car through wax figures depicted from different times while a voice from the speaker on the dash explained the history of the Scotch industry. I took many pictures on this ride, perhaps foolishly but I'm sure you will like the once I get them posted.

The Castle at Edinburgh

I transferred our first 150 images to disk so I could take some more pictures today at the castle at Edinburgh. Our hotel is only a 10 minutes walk up a steep hill to the castle. The whole town is built on a series of steep hills. All the houses and buildings are built with the terrain in mind. Entrances on one street lead to exits on another street behind and above.

The castle was very pretty. Aside from having the usual castley things, it has a very special chapel devoted to the memory of St. Margaret. She is a former queen of Scotland who was known for her kindness to the sick, poor and infirmed. I guess that's why they made her a Saint.

We also spent some time in the National War Museum of Scotland, also located at the castle. AWESOME.

This is a very pretty and special place. Jon's off to see the history museum and I'm heading up for a nap. We started out pretty early this morning and I could use a nice nap after my nice cup of tea.

The the Two Women Who cursed at me in York.

I am sorry I got in your way looking at your beautiful city. When you walked past me, uttering the phrase "Jesus, F-ing Christ" in your Irish accent, I instantly understood where you were coming from. If any New Yorker has had to work in Times Square over the holidays, they also understand.

You also taught me that people are a bit edgier in York. If you see the woman I accidentally cut in front of at the bakery, please express my sincerest apologies to her as well. I didn't realize the loosely formed mob in front of the counter was actually a well organized line and certainly didn't mean to cause you any inconvenience. But you really didn't need to be so nasty.

But you really should relax.

Dear Woman Who Walked into my shot of Jon and Mark at North Greenwich Station:

I'm sorry we were posing a photograph on your way to your bus. No. Really. I am. I understand what it's like to have tourists everywhere mucking up your evening commute. I never thought I would be one of those people yet somehow it has happened.

I apologize for getting in your way.

And I will save that picture forever. The cross look on your face says it all.

Tower of London and more

The pub quiz went great. We were a big hit. People applauded us when we were finished and complimented us as they went out the door.

Monday we visited the Tower of London which took hours and was endlessly interesting. The history of the royals is violent and fascinating. The Crown Jewels are gorgeous. Henry VIII's armor has an enormous codpiece which I photographed with and without a flash.

Last night we walked around Covent Garden, the Seven Dials and finished our trip out with some delicious Indian food, the best I've ever had. When we got back to our friend's house, some friends of his had already gathered to watch the finale of "I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here", featuring Huggy Bear and Paul Burrell, Princess Di's former butler. Fascintating. We've also been introduced to "LITTLE BRITAIN", the funniest show I've ever seen.

Today we travelled north to York where we spent the afternoon and then continued on to Edinburgh where I am writing this post.

Tomorrow we plan on seeing Edinburgh castle.

There are pictures to post for sure but I forgot my USB cable and figure out how to get them out of the camera.

Talk to you soon.

Valerie

Travelling

We travelled on 4 different modes of transportation over the course of four hours before we made it to our final destination. We are here. Everything was going very well until we went to transfer for the bus at the North Greenwich Station. Yes. We took a bus in the wrong direction. No. It wasn't that bad in that added only an hour to our travels but it was a long hour. Our host had a full and delicious dinner waiting for us when we got in and we stayed up until about 1:30 in the morning eating and catching up.

This morning, we kippers for breakfast. Then we rode the train to Central London where we rode the very impressive eye. At first I thought it was a pretty cheesy thing to do, being so touristy and all. But it's pretty amazing. An enormous ferris wheel that takes you way up into the air, provides amazing views and gives you a chance to map out your trip before starting out for the day.

We walked over to the National Gallery and spent an hour looking over their early Renaissance section. Incredible.

Then we went to get some curry and now we're taking a little break at an Internet Cafe before heading over to the Dog and Bell to host a pub quiz later tonight.

I'll try to upload pictures as soon as I can. Don't be deceived by the posted time of this entry. It's five hours ahead here.

Gotta' go.

Bye.

Lottie and Wally Darling

One of my favorite places in Madison Square Park is this bench near the Northeast entrance on to Madison Avenue. It's a bench dedicated to the memory of Lottie and Wally Darling. Every time I see it, I think about an elderly couple going out for their evening walk then sitting on this bench watching the sky turn colors at dusk; watching young people in love while thinking of their early years together; watching families strolling through the park on their way to a nice restaurant, thinking about the children they have raised and how proud they are of them.; watching a grandmother pushing a stroller, discussing memories of their college bound grandchildren. Together they watch people walking their dogs, sneaking kisses, looking at sculptures, begging for change, thinking all the while about how good life has been to them.

When I see this bench, I think about a lovely couple - well loved by their children and grandchildren; friends and neighbors - who lived a life so enriched and enriching to others that a bench was dedicated to their memory.

I find myself sitting here often, looking out on to what they must have looked out at while Lottie nestled her head into Wally's shoulder and he put his arm around her to pull her closer.

If you know anything about Lottie & Wally Darling please write to genxmisanthrope@aol.com. All my searches have produced nothing.

Thursday Night Laundry

Tonight I went to the 24 hour laundromat todo some last minute laundry before our trip. Perhaps I'm going a little overboard with the camera but I just love, love, love it. Even a mundane chore like doing laundry becomes fun when you can record your experience through the lens of a camera. Here is a picture of me in front of my favorite washing machine. I just washed a few things. A comforter, some undergarments, some socks but it was thoroughly enjoyable. I like our local laundromat. There are two televisions and they are always on separate channels.

I learned some interesting things watching laundry TV. I think the lead singer of Sugar Ray is hosting an entertainment news show. I know that Eric Roberts thinks his niece and nephew are beautiful. I learned that Julia Roberts did a sexy photoshoot while she was pregnant but before she was showing. I learned that Tom Brokaw was well loved but will be easily replaced. I learned that The Simpsons is still better than anything else on television between 6:30 and 7:30.

I am so excited about our trip. So, so excited.

Caption Contest

Night iron

Blog is THE word

The word blog is number one on Merriam Webster's top 10 list of words of the year.

Let's Hear it for The Blog

Blog is the Word

I Wanna' Hold Your Blog

Blog to Blog Ya' baby!!

Haas Happening

For those who love Haas avocadoes, the most wonderful thing has happened. The Bush administration has loosened restrictions against Mexico avocado farmers, allowing more imports from south of the border.

I'm sure California, Hawaii and Florida (where sales of imported avocados are still restricted) avocado growers are saddened,even angered by this news. But not I. With an increased supply of avocado, the demand is going to go down and then hopefully the price.

Wahoo!!!

Reefer Madness

Do you remember that paranoid film from the 30's Tell Your Children also known as Refer Madness?

Here is the plot summary from IMDB:

Propaganda film that relates the story, as told by high school principal Dr. Carroll to parents at a PTA meeting, of the scourge of marijuana. The tale revolves around Mae and Jack, accomplices in the distribution of marijuana, who manage to entice the local high school kids to stop by Mae's apartment to smoke reefer. The lives of all who are involved with this menace are inevitably shattered. One youngster becomes so addicted to the killer weed that a judge orders him to be committed for life to a mental hospital! Dr. Carroll advises us to not incur the same tragedy.

According to this article, the notion that pot can makes you crazy is not far from the truth. In it, researchers claim that excessive smoking to pot in your youth, leads to a break down of you mental health in later years. People who are already suffering from mental illness seem to be most at risk.

A Pretty Picture

I took this tonight, on my way to the subway.

Smoking Update

I am going to confess that my break from cigarette smoking hasn't been 100% clean. On Saturday night, I smoked a cigarette with one of our party guests. And maybe a week before that I had smoked with the same person. Before that, it was months that I went without.

The cravings and mood swings have disappeared. The only bad thing I that's come from the smoking is some weight gain. But I don't mind because I generally feel better all around. It's a pleasure to experience breathing through non-irritated sinuses. My complexion has improved in that I look healthier. I don't cough up gunk every time I go into the shower.

It's hard to quit. The way I did it, cold turkey, is the hardest way to quit physically, but psychologically it is the best was to do it.

Here is why. I started thinking that people are not naturally smokers. So therefore, it is unnatural for me to be smoking. I put myself in the mindset that I am not a smoker, so it would be silly to smoke. Eventually, my body started to believe it as well. And when I catch a whiff of someone else's cigarette now, with an occassional exception, the smell makes me sick to my stomach.

My advice is to quit. There is never a good time to do it, you just have to do it.

The Game

So, we had people over on Saturday night to play The Game (not this game). The Game was not invented by us so we don't take any credit for it. I'm not sure who was the creator but we had been planning to throw a gathering in honor of The Game for quite some time. Finally, we did.
We have the space and we have the friends.

The Game combines elements of Charades, The $20,000 Pyramid and Password. We had enough people to break up into three teams, but perhaps too many people for the game to be thoroughly enjoyable. Our party broke up about midnight which isn't bad for a Saturday night theme party.

Some of the evening's highlights include: the locust style consumption of the meat I roasted for the party as well as the the rest of the food and drink (it is good and endlessly satisfying to feed people completely); Jon and I spending 1/2 an hour explaining the rules to our friends; one of our guests doing his best impersonation of Mick Jagger for the entire minute of his turn while his team guessed every answer but the correct one; another guest performing a clue for the movie The Incredibles by pantomiming sitting and staring; my use of the word SCRUNGER to elicit the answer PLUNGER from my team (called foul by Jon) during the Password style round; various guests performing clues having to do with crack, Uranus, atrophy, President Jimmy Carter, and shitzus.

Some of our guests included LFROS, akaChris, Caren, Phil from Phil's Entertainment Spot; Sarah from Sarah's Entertainment Spot; Vidiot and a cameo by Evil Twin Theory. Those weren't are only guests either; it's just that our other friends don't have websites or journals.

If you were our guest, thank you so much for coming. If you couldn't make it, I'm sorry we missed you. If you weren't invited and feel left out, I apologize.

Monday Again

Yes it's Monday again. Wahoo!!!

We should have 1 four day weekend every month. I feel great. Jon and I had a great and wonderful weekend.

Thursday, Friday and part of Saturday were spent in Cortland with Jon's family. Saturday night we had friends over to play The Game.

Sunday afternoon, we went to Central Park to play with our new digital camera. We're practicing shooting digital pictures for our trip to London. We picked a good afternoon for it because the sunset was beautiful. If you look at the pictures below, you'll see for yourself. The picture, under the below heading of pretty, was taken at Tavern on the Green. We were both enchanted by the magical effect of the small white lights on the tree. When combined with yesterday's sunset, the effect is surreal.

This first picture to the right was also taken near Tavern on the Green. I was trying to capture the animal topiaries behind this lamp but I discovered that if I tipped up the camera, I could make this eerie photo. There are many interesting street lamps in Central Park. That's another photo essay I started yesterday but for now, let's focus on yesterday's magical sky. The second photograph to the right was taken about 1/2 an hour before sunset, just when the light was beginning to turn.

Pretty

Happy Day After!!

Happy Day After Thanksgiving!!

I am in Cortland, NY and there is snow on the ground. Yes. Actual snow. We are visiting Jon's parents and the weather is closer to winter than I've seen in some time this time of year.

Last night we had turkey for dinner. Also on the table one could find baked sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, green beans and salad. For dessert we had pumpkin pie.

Our trip up was blessfully quick and easy. I am thankful for that. We awoke at 6am and were at Port Authority by 7:25 for our Greyhound upstate. Our bus left at 8 and we were in Cortland by noon. Our busdriver skipped the rest stop outside of Binghamton shaving 30 minutes off our trip. I am also thankful that the bus was half empty.

We aren't the only guests this weekend. Jon's aunt and uncle brought two of their grandsons (children of Jon's cousins). I am very impressed at their behavior. The children are sweet and loving and I am reminded yet again how holidays can be ruined or improved by the behavior children. Had they been on their worst behavior, last night would not have been as enjoyable.
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I was reading over my Thanksgiving entries from last year. Do you remember how I was thankful to be employed at my current job because it meant that I didn't have to move home to my parents in shame.

Well, one full year later, the opposite is true. I haven't been happy in my job. Clearly, it's been showing because I was given a month's notice to find another job. Granted, this is a gentle firing, but it is a firing none the less.

And do you know what? I am thankful for it. I was getting stagnant in my dead end job. I needed it last year and was grateful at the time to have it. Yes. I still need a job. Now, I have to find something else; something more interesting. I had already lined up a job interview before it happened.

I'm not quite sure how it went. The person who interviewed me didn't give me much of a chance to talk. Nor did he ask me any questions about myself. It's my feeling that he made a spot judgement upon seeing me and just decided outright to phone the interview in.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Any suggestions?

Jewish Woman Gets Desperate

This woman's approach sounds like trouble. I personally have likened the process of finding a mate to initiating a marketing campaign, but this lady is actually doing it.

Marry Blaire

I'm scared of this approach and what precedent this is setting. Why? Because it's hard enough to be competing on the bar/temple/social activities/jdate/match.com level. Now, Jewish women, it would seem, have to actually go as far as starting there own websites.

What's next?

• Direct mail campaigns?
• Full page ads in the Sunday Times?
• Full scale infomercials?

Are we really so disconnected from one another that this is what life has come to?

Ech!

Tuesday Night Trivia

Last night, I went to Tuesday Night Trivia, for the first time in weeks. Our team name was Now playing Center for the Pistons, Sponge Bob Square Pants. We finished in fourth place. Our prize was getting to play as a team.

My team consisted of Bob plus 3 friends who for now shall remain nameless, Sarah and Mr. and Mrs. A. We had fun when we could hear each other. As nice as it was to play with my team I was very uncomfortable because the bar was uncharacteristically loud - so freakin' loud. We couldn't hear each other before, between rounds or afterwards. It was also very hot. Admittedly, I'm not a big fan of being in a very crowded, small space. Most people aren't. So, the crowd, the heat, the noise all produced a very uncomfortable Val.

The game itself was well planned. Caren hosted with Barry. Barry's general knowledge round centered on turn of the century trivia, 8 out of 10. Instead of a top ten list, Barry had us match famous sex quotes with their owners. That was quite challenging. Barry's audio round consisted of songs that he thought were weird. I think we scored about five out of 10 on that one. My favorite round was the visual one, designed by Caren. In honor of Thanksgiving, she produced copies of a Chinese Restaurant menu with 10 words blacked out from either the name of the dish or the dish's description. We scored about 8 out of 10 on that.

In spite of our best efforts, we still only placed fourth, but that's okay. My teams have had pretty good winning streak there for a while. I guess it's only fair to spread the joy. And any opportunity to hang out with friends should be taken advantage of.

I'd like to send a public thank you to the hosts of the dinner I attended late last night. You know who you are. It was a pleasure to see both of you and I hope you have a good time watching the Thanksgiving Day parade with your beloved from the office of our mutual friend.

Spartner

Last night, Jon and I went to the Russian Turkish baths. We arrived around 6:30. There weren't too many people there, which was nice. When I came down from my massage at 8 it was very, very crowded. This bothered me because I couldn't find a place to sit in the Russian sauna which is their hottest one. From there, it's nice to jump into the ice cold pool and people seemed to be in the way everywhere. But I did manage to get a nice sweat in two of the four different rooms they have.

This time, I went to P. for my massage. She didn't talk too much (bonus) and when she did talk it was to explain what she was doing. Using a combination of Reiki, Shiatsu and Swedish, her approach was a little bit different. We started the massage on my back. She worked on my neck first and then on a spot in front of my armpits where all the muscles join up. Then after a while she asked me turn over, to do work on my back. She found a lot of tender spots.

Lower back, ouch. Left hip, ouch. Shoulder blades, ouch. Shoulders, ouch.

She definitely made progress, gradually working out my knots but due to the time constraints of my 45 minute massage, there was only so much she could do. She really could have worked an hour on each of the above spots. But it's not good to get that much work done at once anyway.

As soon as we got home, I turned on The Swan. Last night, the plastic surgeon found cancer on a contestant's nose. It was pretty serious. A specialist removed it and the contestant was thankful for the right reasons. This season, the transformations are a little more natural. Last season, everyone looked like they'd been through a conveyor belt. This season, the surgeons seem to be keeping more with the contestants' natural looks. Don't get me wrong. They don't look that natural but they look more like themselves than the ladies from last season.

Saddest Story in the World

This sad story comes to us from Texas. A mother, suffering from postpartum depression, cut the arms off of her 11 month old daughter, resulting in the baby's death. Covered in blood, she called the police and waited for them to arrive.

My heart goes out to the family and the police and paramedics who were called to the scene. The person who will receive the least sympathy is the mom and that's too bad.

I don't know what happens to a woman when she is suffering from post-natal depression. I don't know what goes on in her head. When this woman snaps out of it, if she was sane to begin with, she is going to feel so guilty, we'll probably hear about her suicide in days to come.

It's a sad story all around.

Literer-Arabs

I'm confused. Very confused. Saudis and other Arab nations contributed lots and lots of money to the new Clinton Library. Doesn't that mean that Clinton has an unscrupulous connection like the one Michael Moore accused the Bushes of having in his inflammatory cockumentary film (pun intended) Fahrenheit 911?

The Clinton Library

(Looks a little too much like a trailer from a trailer park if you ask me.)

Video Game in Bad Taste

There is something inherently distateful about a video game that allows players to reenact the assassination of President Kennedy.

But still probably oodles of fun.

MONDAY. . . AGAIN?!?!

Wasn't it Monday just last week?

It was a cool and rainy weekend. Perfect for the likes of me.

I did my ritualistic food shopping on Saturday at the local supermarket that used to employ me. I talked to one of the young women I used to work with - nice person, very bright, degree in nutrition and food preperation. "Why are you still here?", I asked her. "Because I can't find anything else and besides, I'm starting full time next week", she replied. I encourage to get out of there as soon as possible. She's worked with them through most of her adolescence and early 20's.

Shopping was as satisfying as it always is except I spent more than I usually do. The idea is that spending more money on food for the house, will save us from spending money outside of the house. I celebrated my food shopping spree by preparing a huge meal. I roasted chicken with my famous stuffing, using pita bread for the starch this time around. I made a scrumptious potato-leek soup, variation on mom's recipe and I made pasta with a sauce made from 3 different kinds of mushroom and cream. I also made a pound of pasta. Everything was so rich we couldn't possibly eat seconds.

We did spend a quiet weekend at home. Although some of it was spent out on Sunday afternoon as we cavorted at an arcade/pool hall on Steinway Street. Shoot 'em up games and driving games are a great way to play with your mate. We found one driving game that linked two machines so we could race each other through a fictitious New York City landscape. That was fun, way fun, too much fun.

We also tried a new eatery near the Astoria/Kaufman Studios called CUP. I had an GINORMOUS portobella mushroom burger which was a pile of delicious veggies on a roll accompanied by some regular ole fries and an EMONGOUS cup of coffee. A real bonus was the actual cream in the cream dispenser. It's very stylish and a nice place to go on a rainy, Sunday afternoon.

Friday stuff

I read recently that cows are becoming very angry in Canada and that this is a big problem for their beef industry. This is becoming an American problem because the cows from Canada are encouraging the American cows to become angry as well.
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Here is an example of a prosthetic with a porpoise in mind. The story presents the heartwarming "tail" of a tire manufacturing company that came to the aid of a dolphin that lost of part of its tailfin to necrosis.
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In other animal news, rats everywhere are getting relief from their constipation through the miracle of rat enemas via Vidiot via someone else)
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Cynics are made, not born.
- Max

You're Fired! You're Fired!

Trump fired two people from the Apprentice last night, but I had to read about it online this morning. I was watching the show when all of a sudden NBC just cut out as well as most of the other channels. I'm guessing TWC was having some trouble with their digital output or whatever. No bother. I read about this morning. I have to say I kind of saw it coming. There was so much buildup this past week on NBC about last night's episode having the most exciting boardroom scene ever.

Who was fired? Maria and Wes.

All generalizations are dangerous, even this one.

--Alexandre Dumas

Rice for Lunch

President Announces Nomination of Condoleezza Rice as Secretary of State
The Roosevelt Room
12:33 P.M. EST

DR. RICE: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. It has been an honor and a privilege to work for you these past four years, in times of crisis, decision and opportunity for our nation. Under your leadership, America is fighting and winning the war on terror. You have marshaled great coalitions that have liberated millions from tyranny, coalitions that are now helping the Iraqi and Afghan people build democracies in the heart of the Muslim world. And you have worked to widen the circle of prosperity and progress in every corner of the world.

I look forward, with the consent of the Senate, to pursuing your hopeful and ambitious agenda as Secretary of State. Mr. President, it is an honor to be asked to serve your administration and my country once again.

And it is humbling to imagine succeeding my dear friend and mentor, Colin Powell. He is one of the finest public servants our nation has ever produced. Colin Powell has been a great and inspirational Secretary of State. It was my honor to serve alongside him, and he will be missed.
It will, of course, be hard to leave the White House, and especially to leave behind the terrific NSC staff who have served their President and their country so ably in this most challenging of times. Yet, I can leave confident in the knowledge that they will be led by the consummate professional, a man I know and admire, my colleague and friend, Steve Hadley.

Finally, let me say that in my 25 years of experience in foreign affairs, both in and out of government, I have come to know the men and women of the Department of State. I have the utmost admiration and respect for their skill, their professionalism and their dedication. If I am confirmed by the Senate, I look forward to working with the great people of the Foreign Service and the Civil Service. And one of my highest priorities as Secretary will be to ensure that they have all the tools necessary to carry American diplomacy forward in the 21st century.
Mr. President, thank you again for this great opportunity, and for your continued confidence in me.

THE PRESIDENT: Good job. Thank you all.

Friday Night

So, yeah. I had a bad week at work. What of it? Haven't we all? What did I do last night? I cleaned our house more than it needed to be. (What's frustrating is that I know it's clean but it still looks cluttered but att least I know it's clean). What's amazing is that I felt 2000 times better after cleaning the house. I channelled all of my anger and aggression from the week into the cleaning of the toiilet, scrubbing of the tub, repairing of the vaccuum cleaner, preparation of dinner, straightening out of the kitchen (finally putting away the plates from our party), etc. Then after an exhausting two hours of non-stop cleaning, I vegged in front of the television to watch WHAT NOT TOWEAR (extra good last night) for two hours.

Now, it's Saturday morning and the house is clean. All that remains is making the bed, cleaning last night's dishes and I no longer have a reason to procrasinate instead of looking for a new job. This Saturday belongs to me.

The most fun part of Saturday is that tonight, Jon and I are finally going to see The Incredibles. YAY!!!

Today is Friday

Friday, Friday
It will be a fun day, fun day
All day long


NOT

Anonymous Bloggette

Oh great and nameless friend. Why hast thou forsaken us?

We have not heard from you since September.

I look everyday to see if you have wise words to share with us but alas I am always disappointed by the permanence of your September 29th post.

Will we ever hear from you again?

Sunday

We slept late. We went to Long Beach for dinner. Some friends of the family are visiting from France. My brother, sister-in-law and nephew were there and my parents' neighbors.

Did you know that my cherubic nephew can cry loudly for long stretches? My poor brother and sister-in-law . . .they had to leave early. My nephew just couldn't get comfortable.

After they left we visited for a little while, had dessert and we got an early start home where we watched the season premier of the Simpsons on tape and of course, played more Scrabble. I lost but to a worthy opponent. Jon is truly a master SCRABBLE player - utterly the best I've ever played.

Weekend

Brad aka The Anonymous Blogger wrote about his delightful weekend.

And now, I'd like to tell you about mine.

It started sometime after 5pm Friday night when I went home and puttered around the house until What Not To Wear's new episode at 9 pm. I honestly don't remember anything specific that I did. I could have read a book, done a facial, bathed, cooked, cleaned and I just can't remember. But I do remember the show. Afterwards, I think I hitched a ride on the Internet Super Highway until I couldn't stay awake any longer. Pretty exciting, huh. But that's okay. You guys know how I feel about downtime. It's completely necessary and restorative. If you go, go, go all the time you either get physically ill or soul sick.

Saturday was the day to get things done. Grocery shopping, cooking and clean were all high on the list as well as playing several hours of Roller Coaster Tycoon 2. If I don't pay attention to the time, I lose hours playing that game. Does that sound sad to you? Well it shouldn't. After typing mindlessly for a week, processing stupid bills and running errands for the owner of the company which he wouldn't even ask his mother to do I need some serious decompression time on the weekends. I did get the girly stuff done early, like preparing food for dinner and cleaning. My only regret is that I didn't nap because I was cooking and I didn't feel comfortable going to sleep while my chicken soup was simmering. When Jon get home, there was dining, Scrabble Playing, Simpsons watching and hours of quality time staring deeply into each other's eyes.

Sunday. Well that's a horse of a different color.

What Not to Operate On

There are several reality TV shows on this season that make ignoring television virtually impossible. I've spoken about two of the shows I'm thoroughly enjoying, "The Apprentice" and "Survivor", in previous posts. Both shows are very similar in that once a week a contestant is eliminated. Both shows are very similar in that the players have to ultimately betray people they are teamed up with. Both shows are entertaining because it's endlessly interesting to see how far people will go to make it to the top of the heap. But that's not what this post is about.

The two shows I'd like to discuss here are also very similar in that they encourage the participants to improve their innerselves by making changes to the outside. The two shows up for discussion are "The Swan" and "What Not to Wear".

"What Not To Wear" on the The Learning Channel (TLC) is quickly becoming my favorite of the four programs mentioned. Here, two fashion experts encourage someone to improve their lives and their look by helping them to revamp their wardrobe, hair and makeup. The recipient of this service is secretly videotaped by their family and friends. Then the friends and family send in the tape to show the producers of the program what dreadful taste their friends have and beg for help. The two fashion experts then surprise the soon-to-be recipient with a $5,000 credit card for a new wardrobe that can be theirs if the fashion criminal is willing to turn himself or herself over to the show, body, soul and wardrobe.

There are several good and positive elements to the show. Not only does one get a $5,000 gift card but the fashion victim is flown to New York City for a week where the hosts of the show give the person tips on what clothing looks good on them specifically, treats them to a hair consultation and hair cut above and beyond the $5K, and then given a lesson on how to apply makeup properly or to groom themselves properly in the case of men. Everyone I've seen on that show has come out the other end a happier person. They all say same thing. . .that knowing how to take care of themselves and shop for themselves ultimately makes them feel a little bit better and a little more confident. I love this show and understand why it is on The Learning Channel. I learn a lot about fashion and makeup etcetera and I enjoy the social psychological aspect of the show that secondarily allows you into the process of improving one's self esteem. Good stuff.

The other show that I'm fascinated with and horrified by at the same time is "The Swan" on FOX. As in "What Not To Wear", the viewer is learning that by making changes to one's outer appearance one can feel better on the inside. Unlike "What Not To Wear", almost every contestant has to undergo radical plastic surgery, compete with other women all suffering from the same, very sad self-esteem and depression issues, to get into a beauty pageant at the end of the show where they will compete once again to be win the title THE SWAN. Every week, the stories get sadder and the Dr's get more cocky. Generally I watch in horror as the experts on the show end up looking like a bunch of Dr. Frankensteins because of the amount of plastic surgery they insist the contestant get. Tonight one of the contestants was bullied into receiving dental work she didn't necessarily want although she really needed it. Another plastic surgeon expressed his interest in this poor woman's snake like and twisted nose which he then broke to correct. These women undergo serious plastic surgery, to the point where they are no longer recognizable. I don't this a good lesson.

Yes. This show has the same socio psycho aspect to it as "What Not To Wear" except it is a mean spirited show. Yes. Producers of both shows are creating entertainment as a commodity. But "The Swan" seems to have a more exploitative angle. They are giving the women who participate thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of physical training, psychotherapy and counseling and mucho plastic surgery. This is all good, but I would respect these people more if they did it without my ever knowing about it. They pretend to be doing these women some kind of favor while simultaneously exploiting them. The lessons are mixed and bad. It teaches us that it's good to be a victim, because victims get rewarded. It teaches us that beauty is the most important thing in life to get ahead.

What do we learn from "What Not To Wear"? That with a little advice, a good haircut and $5,000 shopping spree one can learn how to make the decision to look the best they can look with what GOD has given them.

I will continue to watch both and keep you updated.

You Are a Social Blogger!

Your blog is more of a semi-private affair for your friends. It's how you keep in touch... sharing stories, jokes, and pics.

What kind of blogger are you?

Human Lie Detector

The woman at this site claims that she has the supernatural ability to detect when someone is lying and asks that you write to her so she can help you determine who the liars are in your life.

Very interesting. I may have to blogroll her site.

Millions of Cures for Millions of Dollars

America is purchasing 75 million doses of a new anthrax vaccine for almost 900 million dollars. This should be enough to treat 25 million people. Maybe I haven't been paying attention but when did the new ANTHRAX scare arise that would cause my tax dollars to be spent on this? Not that there's anything wrong with having a vaccine but nobody asked my opinion or even mentioned it to me.

The Government is beginning to give me a complex - I'm feeling a left out of the policy making process.

Dollar Struggles Against the Euro

Not surprisingly, the dollar is at all time low against the Euro. Clearly this reflects the faith Europe instills in our fearless leader.

Hamas

Here is a link that supports the argument that Palestinians are raising their children to be terrorists.

http://www.haganah.us/harchives/003043.html

Trump Fired Raj!

He just made too many mistakes. I guess he'll just have to go back to being the successful real estate developer that he already was, having started a business with family money he inherited. Yeah. He's real salt of the earth kind of people. Clearly, he has struggled (not) to get where he is.

This guy already won life's lottery. I'm glad he got fired. Give someone else a chance. I miss Troy from last season.
Maybe he'll make a cameo appearance.

The task was to renovate two houses. The team that came away with a higher appraisal than the other won. The winning team kept it simple and just cleaned up what was already there. But the other team, led by Rah, complicated matters by ordering too much work be done.

For a real estate developer Raj sure didn't seem to know what he was doing. He turned a four bedroom house into a three bedroom (for which he got fired) and added a second bathroom to the second floor. The contract screwed him by not completing the work on the second floor. Well, if it were me, I would have had the contractor put the bathroom in first. Clearly, installing a bathroom takes a lot of work. Not only do you have to install the hardware but you have to grout and tile the walls. Why he left that until the last day is beyond me? Bad contractor or not, that should have been his first request.

This is why I hate business. You have to stay on top of people's shit all the time to make sure they are doing what you need done. If not, they'll slack off or fuck up. If you're too nice a person, it's just not in you to give someone else a hard time. Raj was too nice a person. It's also interesting to see how the teams set up other members for failure.

Gosh. I love that show!!

Open Letter from a Wounded Liberal

This self proclaimed Wounded Liberal sums up for all of Kerry supporters why this loss stings so badly.

I agree Wounded Liberal. I agree.

Arafat is in a coma

Yasser Arafat has slipped into a coma leaving hand selected people in charge of the P.L.O. At lease if he's in a coma, no one can blame him for sending teenagers to their self inflicted death in Israeli market places or on Israeli transit. At lease if he's in a coma, no one can blame him for inciting the Palestinians against Jewish settlers. Or can they?

I think the P.L.O., under the leadership of Arafat, made a long and abiding commitment to terrorize Israel for as long as it exists. I think the surrounding Arab countries made an agreement with the P.L.O. to keep the Palestinians living like rats in refugee camps as an army of avenging angels to rid the area of the Jewish scourge.

Perhaps, with Arafat gone, the Palestinians as a nation, will be able to settle in one or all of the surrounding Arab countries which are certainly wealthy enough to give every one of those terrorist homes and jobs. This has been going on too long. A true leader would have found these people homes and work a long time ago, but instead he continued to allow his people to live like dogs in the wilderness.

I invite discussion on this, so don't be scared to link and argue and do what you need to do.

Bush won

In case you hadn't heard, President Bush won and John Kerry lost.

It's a sad day for Democrats and their supporters everywhere.

We'll never know what kind of President Kerry would have made, because most likely he will not get renominated by his party to run another campaign. On the bright side though, if there is one, we won't have to deal with John Edwards or Theresa Heinz Kerry.

Another food myth has been debunked. Fruits and vegetables do not help protect you against cancer.

VOTE!!

I voted earlier this morning. It took longer than I thought. There were quite a few more people there than I'm accustomed to seeing. I saw my neighbors of the last 11 years; many familiar faces of people I have never spoken to.

All the voting is controlled by local volunteers. Why are those volunteers always 100 years old and hard of hearing? There were a few young faces but they were strategically positioned in places that weren't of help to anybody.

The police presence was a lot heavier than I remember in the past. Police were stationed every 20 feet or so. That made me feel safe even though I didn't really feel threatened. But that Bin Laden video, if you think about it, can be a little unnerving. So far, I haven't seen any reports of terroristic interference. That could be thanks to President Bush, but I still voted Democrat down the line.

Remember that your vote is private. It's the one privacy entitlement I know of that is legally protected in the U.S. I say this because if you don't want to get into a heated discussion at the office or the dinner table, you can quote me and avoid a sticky situation.

"You must remember this, a kiss is still a kiss". Your romance is Casablanca. A classic story of love in trying times, chock full of both cynicism and hope. You obviously believe in true love, but you're also constantly aware of practicality and societal expectations. That's not always fun, but at least it's realistic. Try not to let the Nazis get you down too much.

What Romance Movie Best Represents Your Love Life?
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Scary Costumes

Matt Drudge has done it again. He found a funny and obsure news site that both comments and amuses at the same time.

This time, he links us to a newspaper, that is offering funny Halloween costumes.

Here are some interesting facts about November 1, from the Wikipedia. Can you believe only 60 days remain until the end of the year.

Here are three questions for you to answer below or to copy and answer on your blog.

1. Has this year been going by quickly for you?
2. Has this been a good or bad year for you to date?
3. What would you like to see improved for next year?

Here are my answers:
1. Between 9 and 5 my days have gone by slowly. After 5 pm they have gone by quickly.

2. This has been a good year to date. Many positive things have happened in my life.

3. I would like to improve my work situation.