Books I read in January 2007

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
Ruins by Scott Smith
In the Company of a Courtesan by Sarah Dunant

Another trip to the airport

This morning Jim and I said good bye to Lorraine and Rob who were visiting from Ireland. It was an early start to the day, packing up the car at 5:45am. It was sad to see them go; Fred really enjoyed their company too. Jim and I wish them the best for the rest of Lorraine's pregnancy. We look forward to seeing photos of Baby Slowey when he or she arrives in June.

By the way, today marks my fifth trip to the airport in the past five weeks.
1. Drop off Denise in early January
2. Pick up Helen and Martin mid-January
3. Drop off Helen and Martin late-January
4. Pick up Lorraine and Rob late January
5. Drop off Lorraine and Rob early February

Ignignokt's finger causes trouble in Boston

There was a big bomb scare in Boston today after several 'devices' were discovered magnetically attached to bridges, highway overpasses, etc. Turns out they were flashing ads for the upcoming Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie, which we're very excited to go see when it opens in March. The picture above is Ignignokt, (of the Mooninites) giving the finger, which he does quite often on the show.

Here's a shot of Ignignokt's finger in full glorious color:I want one! I'd better close this window & go check ebay

On second thought the Err one is much cooler - look how pissed off he is
I think I just figured out what my next tattoo is going to be.

Fred's not too happy with Mom

I gave Fred a bath the other day, and he's still not "talking" to me. He sometimes have a problem with dander so I have to use a special shampoo that the vet recommended. The big problem is that I have to leave the lather on for 10-15 minutes which seems like an eternity when wrangling a wet cat. Sorry I couldn't provide pictures of Fred in the bath, but I think this photo sums up what Fred thinks of his Mom.

Thanks for the memory

Sorry to see Helen and Martin leave today, but they were ready to sleep in their own bed after being away for 2 weeks. We're going to miss these guys, especially Fred since he seems to like their company (at least their warm laps).

Hard to tell who's related and who married into the family, eh?

pats lose, stream of visitors, Garfunkel, giant squirrels, etc

Hi there. Yeah I know, I haven't blogged in a while. In case you haven't heard: The Pats lost to the Colts in the AFC Championship game 9 days ago, after blowing a 21-3 lead. But I'm over it--I swear.

Irene's sister Helen and our brother-in-law Martin were visiting us from Ann Arbor for the past 2 weeks. They were in town for a Librarian conference (they both work in the University of Michigan Library system). Hot on their heels, our friends Lorraine and Rob from Ireland arrive tomorrow evening. We're not used to having back to back guests this time of year but it's been a fun and hectic month. My sister Geegy was also in town from Christmas thru January 8.


These 2 funny articles from The Onion both mention Beefside, a legit Concord fast food place we used to go to in high school - they were the only local place open past midnight:

10-Percent Tip Teaches Waitress Valuable Lesson

Area Family's Trip To New Hampshire Sparks Rumors Of Presidential Bid


If you've noticed how Irene likes to list the books she's read each month on our little blog here, she's not the first one to come up with the idea. We learned recently that Art Garfunkel has been keeping track since the late 60's. Seems like he's had a lot of time on his hands.


Last thing: Lorraine sent me this pic today - they've had some trouble with R.O.U.S.'s in the Cork area recently:

Click here if you don't remember what R.O.U.S. means

Amazing Race All-Stars

CBS officially announced the teams racing for their All-Star version. I'm happy to see the return of Team Cha-Cha, but there are more teams that I don't personally like. There's only one winning team, Uchenna and Joyce that made the cut. Check out the CBS website to learn who's in play.

More snow

The weather in Seattle has been colder than usual. Today we got more snow; I think this is our third snowfall for this winter, but I've already lost count by now. Luckily for me, the snow stopped in time for me to pick up Helen and Martin at the airport. They're both happily napping now since they had an early flight from Detroit this morning. Let's hope the weather will improve for their visit.


Here's a photo of Carkeek Park from a reader of the Seattle PI.

Fat cat found - and it's not Fred

Who wouldn't want to adopt this cuddly monster of a cat? According to the paper, this kitty weighs about 20 pounds, about 2 pounds heavier than Fred. I guess Fred is just big boned. Click here to read the article in today's Seattle Times.

Becks coming to America

You've all heard by now that David Beckham is moving to America to play for the L.A. Galaxy. I'm sure Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were part of the reason for the move, as they're working to get Posh and Becks to join Scientology. You may recall that Posh and Becks were in attendance at TomKat's nuptials. Let's not forget that JLo and husband #3 were there too. Boy, I guess it's hard to say no to Scientologists.

Seattle = COLD!

Check out the weather section from my.yahoo page today - Seattle is the coldest place on my list, even Concord is warmer, though not by much, and not for long either, I bet:That doesn't happen very often during the winter, though it's pretty common the rest of the year. It's very sunny out though--great view of the mountains today

Reading list for December 2006

Snobs by Julian Fellowes
Jennifer Government by Max Barry
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

ELVIS UPDATE

UPDATE to yesterday's Elvis Birthday post: I was looking for a better image of the Nixon/Elvis photo and found this site from GW University, which shows every(!) photo from the roll that was taken from, including a few where EP is clearly showing off the cufflinks he received as a gift from Spiro Agnew:22 photos, all in vintage, glorious Black&White (makes me think the muddy looking one I posted yesterday has been colorized). This once again proves how great the internets can be!

Sweet dreams

Apple iPhone Announcement

Well they've done it again, Steve Jobs and those smartypants engineers at Apple have come up with a new ipod/phone/web browser, as announced at the MacWorld expo this AM. Not that I'm a huge MacNerd, but this means that the 80Gig ipod that I bought as soon as it was announced, and have had for less than 4 months, is now officially obsolete.

But check this thing out--pretty cool:
and this is the how the iTunes CD search looks:just like a jukebox--sweet!

I thought it was pretty cool that Jobs quoted Gretzky in his closing:

"I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been."

OK I'm done gushing now.

The bad news? Not available til June.
The worse news? 4GB model will be $499, 8GB will be $599.
I'm betting you can't fit too many Pirates of the Caribbean sequels on a 4GB device.

HAPPY 72nd, ELVIS!

Yep, today would have been The King's 72nd birthday. Check out this article about the meeting that gave us this iconic photo (one of the most requested documents from the National Archives), and the story of how the King got his Federal Agent badge that day:

The chain of events that led to the meeting began when a stretch limousine carrying Elvis pulled up outside the White House. One of his guards handed over a letter from Elvis addressed to Nixon requesting a meeting to discuss how the rock star could help Nixon fight drugs — including getting credentials as a "federal agent at large."

"I will be here as long as it takes to get the credentials of a Federal Agent," Elvis wrote. "I have done an in-depth study of drug abuse and Communist brainwashing techniques and I am right in the middle of the whole thing where I can and will do the most good."

I wish I could add something to that last paragraph to make it funnier but that would be impossible.

Elvis Note #1: I have a black & white postcard with that same photo on the wall of my cube at work. I bought it at Graceland when Irene and I went for my friend Morty's wedding in 2003, intending to send it to my dad, but liked it too much so I kept it. Sorry, Dad.

Elvis Note #2: I am now the same age Elvis was when he died. Kind of scary to think of that. I was going to make a dying on the throne joke here but I think I'll hold off on that for now, maybe even until I turn 43, just to be safe.

Oops -- my bad!

With the news of laptops going up in flames last year, I returned the defective battery on our ibook when Apple offered free replacements. Who knew that months later that I would accidently torch the laptop?





Beware of using laptops near any open flames. I'm glad I realized the laptop was on fire before it did permanent damage.

Ipod Project A-Z & NFL wildcard weekend

As I've mentioned over and over again, I started listening to my ipod in alphabetical order at the beginning of 2006, with the goal of hearing every song on it by the end of the year.

I might have made it too but when my original 30Gig model (with ~6500 songs) crapped out in September, I bought one of the new 80Gig ones, which had 11,940 songs on it by the end of '06.

As of 12/31/06 I was up to song #6457 of the 11940, just beyond half way. The song was "Money" by Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas from the "Future Soundtrack for America" CD released by local label Barsuk Records in 2004 to raise money to beat Bush. Didn't work but there are some good songs on it anyway.

Shameless namedrop: Barsuk was founded by Emily Alford, who I worked with at Amazon, and her husband Josh Rosenfeld. They've got lots of bands we like on their label: The Long Winters, Nada Surf, They Might be Giants, and originally signed Death Cab for Cutie (who just moved to Atlantic for major bucks).

Now where was I? oh yeah, since the new one is 80G, I've continued to load lots more stuff on it, like all the Cds Irene and I got for Christmas, and now have 12,486 songs. I don't think I'll ever actually listen to everything on it, unless I stop loading stuff now, but I love buying Cds too much to do that

Pats-Jets playoff game is this Sunday. My prediction? PAIN! sorry - went a little Clubber Lang for a sec there. seriously though, pats will win.

PAIN!

I'll be at the Seahawks-Cowboys game tomorrow night - seems like we'll have another monsoon blowing through this weekend - AWESOME - BLACKOUT BOWL II! Time to break out the long johns & trash bag raingear.

New year's resolutions

1. Get into shape.
2. Try to eat better.
3. Visit a country I've never been to before.
4. Send a birthday card and present to my mom on time.
5. Try a new restaurant each month. Of course, this is something I agreed to do with Jim and our friends, Pat and Robin.
6. See a movie in the theater each month.

Happy new year!

Let's hope there'll be more peace and happiness around the world in 2007.