(Via Little F-ing Ray of Sunshine.)

This man rescued himself by drinking 60 bottles of beer and melting the snow from the avalanche that buried him with his own urine.

Iraq and Roll

Today is Monday, Monday, Monday . . . .

How about those Iraqi elections? I watched a little bit of the coverage yesterday and it was compelling. Long, snaking lines of people voted in the face of violence.

They looked pretty happy about it too.

Maybe President Bush wasn't completely off base?

Last Sunday Jon and I were frolicking in Central Park playing in the newly fallen snow, checking out the new Time Warner Center (see right) and taking pictures for our memory files. This Sunday is completely different. Now that the snow is completely yucky and gross the last place I want to be is outside. Besides, I pinched my lower back this morning using the leg press and I don't want to leave the house for fear of throwing out my back. Working out at 37 is much different from working out at 23. When I was younger, I could do anything without worrying about hurting myself. Now, I have to be a little bit more careful. It doesn't make me sad or anything. It's just one of those realities of getting older that is better to except than to fight. One must know and respect his/her limitations. Even with the tightness in my back, this morning's workout was the best one so far. I feel very relaxed at ease right now. I really like how I feel. Sometimes when I workout, I feel aggressive and angry. Does that happen to anyone else?

Saturday

Working It Out or Gym Update

As promised and foretold by the wisemen who were present at my birth, I started working out two days ago at a nice, local neighborhood gym. (It's actually part of a larger chain of gyms. I don't want to give up my privacy on this one for now that's all you get).

So far, I'm having a good time - two days may be too soon to tell. Two mornings in a row, Jon came with me in a show of support. You know that's love because we woke up at 6:30 both of those mornings. Both mornings, I used the treadmill for 20 minutes and then I used the machines. First morning, I focused on legs. Second morning, I focused on upper body. This morning, I felt the burn and took the morning off.

I'll be going in later to try one of those stationery gliding stairmastery type machines. Jon used it today and said it was AWESOME. Then I'll be going to dinner with some friends to put those calories back on.

As long as the habit is there and I do a little working out every day, I'm good.

Not Snow Pretty

Here is what all that snow looks like in New York City, two days after the fact. It looks like this 4 days after the fact as well and will continue to look like this until the next warm rainy day. It's been wickedly cold, typical of this time of year for this part of the world.

What are you looking at?

Get back to work.

Go on now.

Trivia - Two Days Later

Sorry. I just didnt' have much of a chance to write about trivia yesterday.

Round 1
General Knowlege
I looked to the Presidential Inauguration as inspiration for the General Knowlege round. I also looked to my kitchen wall where Curious George looks playfully down on our table. Every question had to do with George. There was a question about Phyllis George, where I asked in which state she was the first lady. There was a question about when King George II stood up during a performance of George Freidrich Handel's Messiah. There was question where you had to finish a lyric for the song Georgia by Ray Charles. You get the idea.

Round 2
Current Events
I introduced Jon with a poor impersonation of Ed McMahon introducing Johnny on the Tonight Show. Jon focused his Current Events round on one current event by making the round a tribute to the recently deceased Johnny Carson.

Round 3
Top Ten
We asked for the TOP TEN Oscar nominated films as announced that morning.

Round 4
Audio Round
All the acts/bands had 4 letters in their names. We asked for the name of the band/act and the title of the song sung. 1 point was awarded for the band name, 1/2 for song title.

Round 5
Visual Round
Jon put together a beautiful round. He went up to the Bronx and shot busts of famous Americans at the original Hall of Fame, then he wrote clues under each picture. The task was to the name the famous American. People did pretty well on that round. We were pleased.

The winning team had 45 points or so, 10 points ahead of second. For those of you have been coming for a while, ENEMIES OF ELOISE finally finished in the money, coming third.

Trivia Went Well

Jon and I did a fair job presenting five rounds to a decent sized crowd. When the evening began there were empty seats scattered everywhere but by the end of the game there were only a few chairs available by the stage.

More to come . . . . .

Tuesday

Today is Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday
It will be a fun day, fun day, all day long.
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Jon and I are hosting trivia tonight, together at the Baggot Inn.
Be there or be there.
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Second (or is it the third?) week on the job and still loving it.
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Reportedly, my nephew is still cute.
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Joined a gym this morning. Now that I've conquered my craving for cigarattes, I've got to start thinking about building up my cardio vascular system. Now that I can breath again, I can really start to get back into shape. It's about time too. The weight gain from my smoking cessation is hurting me. My back, my feet, my shoulders, my neck. . . you know. You've heard it all before and quite possibly have felt it. IT HURTS TO GAIN WEIGHT!!

Johnny Carson - Urban Legend

Tonight Show Fact # 281
After 30 years, rumors surrounding certain Tonight Show guests have grown to near mythic proportions. One of the most famous involves Mrs. Arnold Palmer, the legendary golfer?s wife and a question about what she does to bring her husband luck on the links. To this day fans of the show not only repeat her answer, (?I kiss his balls.?) but also Johnny?s quick-witted comeback (?I bet that makes his putter stand up.?) However, the truth is that the exchange never took place as Mrs. Palmer was never a guest on the show.

Today is Monday

Today is Monday, Monday, Monday.
It will be fun day, fun day
All day long.
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It's already been a fun day and it's only a quarter to eight. Woke up around 7 or so - the house was dry. I went to the kitchen to fill up our humidifier and stepped on broken glass. During our extremely deep slumber, a glass fell off the dish rack and shattered onto our kitchen floor. I was lucky. I responded quickly enough to NOT spear my foot and escaped with a mere flesh wound. It could have been so much worse. I could be writing this from the emergency room.
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I already have my coffee. I'm hardboiling a couple of eggs. I cooked four pieces of veal bologna. This is my breakfast.
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Have a nice day!!

Johnny's Final Signoff

Sadly, Johnny Carson passed away. Scary. He died after suffering for years from emphysema. I wonder if he quit and still came down with it anyway. It's a very scary thought. He was only 79 years old but he had been married four times and had a few kids. So, that's not so bad.

I loved Johnny Carson's show and was sorry when Jay Leno took over the show because I can't stand Leno. I had serious crush on Carson in the 80's. He could no wrong. I thought he was sexy and something about his monologues made me feel at ease. I dreamt of him often - more as a father figure than a lover.

I remember when his line of clothing came out, feeling sorry that I could never be a man who could dress like him. He was a good dresser. He was a class act. Good timing, good jokes, good natured.

Blizzard 2005

Jon and I spent the afternoon outside to see what kind of trouble we could get into. We didn't get into any trouble at all. But we did take a lot of pictures and we did get cold. My legs are still warming up and we've been indoors for two or more hours.

Here are the obligatory "look how much snow fell" shots.

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Around1:30 the sidewalks were pretty much cleaner than the streets. We worked our way through the mush and slush. We took the subway to Central Park South. Here are some shots from Central Park.

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After my toes started to go numb we went to the Time Warner Center where we ran into Uncle Sam. He was working the lobby on behalf of some benefit antique show. He wanted us to spend $15 per person just to look at antiques, so we went down to the Whole Food Markets instead.

There we finally used a gift certificate given to us by our friends for the holidays. What did we buy? Ostrich meat, lime shrimp and mesclun salad with goat cheese. Last night I prepared this delicious sauce and served it over Barilla farfalle. We'll be eating the left overs with the shrimp and salad. I'm saving the ostrich meat for another night. If we don't eat the leftovers now, they'll never get eaten and I hate throwing away food.

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We waited 35 minutes for an N train to bring us back to Queens. Then at Queensboro Plaza there was another delay. They announced the delay was because of a scheduling situation but they were really waiting for the 7 train for the transfer. But we finally made it home.

Snowing

This blizzard seems to be on the up and up. I went out earlier, when the snow started to pick up some groceries because that is what I do on Saturdays. The fact it is snowing is a happy coincidence. Who doesn't want to pick up supplies when the weather starts to get bad? I headed over to Keyfood and it wasn't so cold out. Actually it was quite lovely. I walked down the block a ways and after a few minutes, I realized I did need to pull up my hood. It was colder than I thought. The wind had a bit of a bite to it.

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I don't know why I thought everything would be business as usual at the supermarket. It never seizes to amaze me how people in New York City go into an utter panic at the mere suggestion of bad weather. It's not as if all commerce in and of New York is going to come to a stop. It will continue. Even with 12 inches of snow on a Sunday morning, New Yorkers will still be able to pick up their coffee and bagel with a shmear.

But noooooo. I walked into Keyfood and went to get a wagon. Here is what I saw. Not a single wagon was to be had. Every single one was in use and the lines were completely out of control. You would think we had just been invaded and all highways and byways were being patrolled by hostile forces. Don't worry, New Yorkers. Zabar's will still be open tomorrow. You'll be able to pick up your lox and white fish chubs and blueberry bagels.
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Here are a couple of snowy street scenes:


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What is The Meaning of Life?

The answer to that question can be found on pay-per-view for $1.95. I've got to go now. The background, incidental movie to my blogging has just become very interesing. I'm going to go enjoy Mr. Creosote.

The Snow has Started Falling

Well. The snow just started falling and it's coming down pretty hard. Perhaps the weather forecast was right. I'm heading out to the supermarket. We'll see how that goes. Hopefully, it's not too crowded and everybody freaked out earlier in the week.

I Have Toes

. . .and they almost froze off tonight. Had dinner with my new boss. . .went for sushi. Yummy.
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Here is a picture of me after getting in out of the cold this morning. It was very cold this morning. Extremely cold. The weather is going to be snowy this weekend. Extremely snowy. Or so the weather men would have us believe. According to the forecasts we are going to receive 3" of snow per hour for two or three hours tomorrow afternoon. I doubt bery, bery much that we will receive that much snow. Well, back to the Simpsons. We just received season 3 the other day. Right now, we're watching Lisa's Pony with commentary. Commentary. I'm big on commentary. Love commentary. Commentary rocks. It's the absolute best.

Apprentice 3

The Apprentice 3 started tonight. This week has been full of all sorts of good TV. American Idol, Law and Order SVU (the creepy twins episode), Law and Order featuring the new DA and now the Apprentice 3.

The show is off to a good start. Product placement reared it's ugly head, as the teams battled to promote one of Burger King's 6 new burgers. This season, the teams are divided between those with and those without college diplomas. The kids without college won the first task which involved operating cash registers, flipping burgers and working together as a team.

I thought for sure that the eccentric, guitar-playing, ersatz hippy would be the first contestant fired based on his guitar-playing, antennae wearing antics but no. The project manager that couldn't control him was the lucky one. I have to admit that it was funny watching the spoiled rotten, hyper sensitive lawyer struggle to use a cash register. And there was something oddly validating about watching NET WORTH (book smart team) unite as one against the MBA's.

What was most impressive was watching how the producers of the show keep trying to finagle the format of the show to keep it or make it interesting.

I'm looking forward to watching more of it.

Lunch Break

Eating Caesar salad.
Too much dressing.
Eating Caesar salad.
They added tomatoes?
Eating Caesar salad.
Not as filling as a cheeseburger.
Eating Caeser salad.
Thinking of you.

Point Pleasant

After a second night in a row of American Idol, I stuck around for Point Pleasant's season premiere. When I pushed the info button to find out about the show here is the description that came up.

"A half-devil woman's search for her mortal mother turns a quiet beach town in New Jersey into a battleground of good vs. evil."

I give it four episodes before it's off the air.