I ♥ pomme frites

It's Bastille Day! The weather is gorgeous outside, with great weather for the coming days. To get things started right, I had lunch at Cafe Campagne in Pike Place Market. They set up food and drink stations so you just pick out what you want, find a seat, and enjoy!

Liberté! Égalité! Fraternité! Parté!

Here's to the French man of the moment, Zizou rocks!

Baby - it's what's for dinner

from today's Seattle P-I: "The $7.50 Burrito Grande at Gorditos in Seattle's Queen Anne neighborhood, billed as the burrito as big as a baby, is almost as big as this 11-week-old. You get a choice of meat in this double-tortilla-wrapped monstrosity."

I was going to make another baby meat joke here but decided to restrain myself

Zizou you've been a bad boy

come on, give us a hug

PC Load Letter! @#@##@!

From: "Boss"
Sent: Monday, July 03, 2006 7:43 AM
To: "Peon"
Subject: printer

Please put paper in my printer…. It is out

I'm sorry that I can't claim to be the peon requested to comply with this boss's command. But I have worked for this person before and I can attest that he makes similar requests all the time and he demands immediate attention whenever asked. The person requested to put paper in the printer doesn't sit closer to the printer than the boss. The peon just happens to be financially "closer" to the printer.

Sox Lose in 19

Apparently the Red Sox suck at 19 inning games. They lost another one tonight, blowing leads in the 9th with 2 outs (Papelbon with a rare blown save) and again in the 11th, this time a 2-run lead, when recently acquired ex-White Sox Jose Lopez and normally reliable Timlin couldn't shut the door. Only Timlin's 3rd bs of the year, so I ain't mad at him either

here are the gory details. Also, from the game recap: "It was Boston's longest game by innings since going 19 innings on Aug. 1, 2000, against Seattle"

Irene and I were at that game & stayed for all 19--It started Tuesday night & ended past 1AM Wednesday. Favorite moments: the Mariner Moose dressed in his PJs after 11:00, and the 14th inning stretch. Apparently we get a stretch every 7 innings according to the latest collective bargaining agreement.

Our old buddy Jeff Fassero surrendered a lead off HR to Mike Cameron leading off the 19th to end it. I think we were out of Safeco before Cammy touched home plate. After flopping with the Sox Fassero went on to become a closer(!) with the Cubs in '01 and is amazingly still pitching in the majors, with SF this year. He's been a strictly NL guy that whole time, providing more evidence to support my latest baseball theory: The NL Blows. Tune in to the All-Star game Tuesday night for more proof

OK I'll stop whining now - go Big Papi in Monday night's HR derby

Irene's Reading List for June

The Torment of Others by Val McDermid
fallen by David Maine
The Lost Painting by Jonathan Harr
A Million Nightingales by Susan Straight
The Wives of Bath by Wendy Holden
The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly

A little coffee with your drink

Welcome to Seattle where everyone, including their mother, loves coffee! My office building has three Starbucks, and there's always a line in any one of them no matter what time of day. This morning I really needed a caffeine fix so off I go to guess which Starbucks is the least crowded. Boy did I guess wrong! There were people ahead of me picking up coffee for their office -- Grande Vanilla Latte, Grande Chai Latte, Grande Latte with no foam and extra hot, Pomegranate Fruit Drink, etc... Not a single drip coffee or Americano in the bunch. It reminded me of the scene in L.A. Story when everyone at the restaurant ordered espresso but with something a little different from everyone else. I know anyone who's ever stood in line at Starbucks, Tully’s, Peets, {insert any corporate coffee monger}, you've already heard what you may think is the most pretentious coffee drink ever. After the 15th drink, I thought I was going to have a cow but luckily they exclaimed that they were done. They left Starbucks joking that they should bring a marker next time to put names on the drinks. Snarky assholes! They didn't even have apologized for making everyone wait for their coffee.

I love coffee like everyone else but I think people are getting out of hand with ordering specific coffee drinks. Starbucks is enabling people to become coffee assholes.

overheard at delaurenti's deli counter today

tourist wearing Buffalo Bills polo shirt, eyeing deli meat counter: Excuse me, do you have any blah-blah-blah (I didn't catch what he said) ham?

DeLaurenti's deli counter guy, blankly: No, what's that?

Bills fan: Wild Boar from Sicily or Corsica

Deli guy, even more blankly: no

Bills fan has nothing further to add to this, looks down & walks away.

Not sure why I even remember this kind of stuff or why it strikes me as funny, but I do and it does. I have my doubts the guy would have bought any, and that he was just trying to show off his advanced level of ham-sophistication, though he apparently forgot that kind of ham is illegal to import to the US.

I learned that when I was in Spain. See--I'm pretty ham-phisticated too! or maybe just ham-fisted? ham handed?

Next topic: here's another way ze Germans are celebrating the World Cup. First wild bear seen in Germany in 170+ years - QUICK - KILL IT!

Can there be anything cuter?

Jim and I had the pleasure to have Bonzo stay with us for the weekend. We stopped by Kris's house while on a walk. Bonzo just got groomed and Kris couldn't resist taking a few pics.

Record Breaking Ball

Who knew there was a world record for largest ball of rubber bands? There's a guy in Medford, Oregon who's hoping to break the current record holder, a 3,120 pound, 5 foot tall rubber band ball. Check out his MySpace page to donate to his cause. The ball is up to 563 pounds.

If you didn't know, I have my own rubber band ball which I started years ago. It's been so long (plus I'm bad with dates) that I don't remember when I started it. Check back later to see the size of my ball. It's no where near 3 foot tall but it does have a mean bounce and will leave a bruise if it's thrown at you.

Final TCB Vocab

I finished the Inner Circle almost 2 weeks ago but have been lax at blogging lately

Here are the final 2 words I learned from it (he used them in the same sentence):

senescence n

1. the organic process of growing older and showing the effects of increasing age [syn: aging, ageing]

2. the property characteristic of old age [syn: agedness]

climacteric n.

1. A period of life characterized by physiological and psychic change that marks the end of the reproductive capacity of women and terminates with the completion of menopause.
2. A corresponding period sometimes occurring in men that may be marked by a reduction in sexual activity, although fertility is retained.

Kitty-Cam

Here's a link to a National Geographic video short about cats and mice. They strap a camera onto a kitty, and set it out to go hunting mice. Spoiler alert -- don't read this if you don't want to know the outcome! Cat 1; Mouse 0.

I'm squeamish so it's pretty disturbing (though educational) for me.

Irene's Reading List for May

Saturday by Ian McEwan
Death of an Ordinary Man by Glen Duncan
Wicked, The Life and Times of the Wicked of the West by Gregory Maguire
Veronica by Mary Gaitskill
No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

Carl Everett update

Everett a model citizen in Seattle -- so far

My favorite quote from the article: "I haven't had problems anywhere -- except Boston," Everett said. "Really didn't have problems there. They had problems with me."

Not to sound too much like a HS yearbook quote or anything here, but...as Eddie Vedder sang on Riot Act's Cropduster:

I was the fool because I thought
I thought the world
Turns out the world thought me

It's about a guy realizing he's the one who's 'off', not the rest of the planet

the point here? I have no idea. I've always liked that lyric & Carl's quote made me think of it

Tragic Andrews Antacid and Red Sox News

So I bought these Andrews antacids when we were in Ireland a while back . The reason they caught my eye originally was this bit on the wrapper:

"Andrew antacid chewable tablets neutralise excess acid and provide fast, effective relief from acid indigestion, heartburn and trapped wind" (emphasis mine)

So how could I not buy them, right? Anyhoo - turns out they work really well, kind of fizzy, so it's a little like what sucking on an alka seltzer must be like (but more enjoyable. I think. I 've never actually done that.)

I only have half a roll left so figured I should look online to buy some more & I found this horribly distressing news. (under the image of the box)

So now I'm not sure what to do about my dilemma. Any ideas?

In other tragic news - for some reason the red sox (my team) literally are incapable of beating the blue jays this season (unless the recently demoted Josh Towers is pitching - they're 3-0 against him but something like 0-8 against the rest of the team). Not sure if I can do anything about that, but I sure do love to complain about it. And somehow they're still tied for first place, so go figure.

That's it for now--no TC Boyle vocab lesson today

TC Boyle Vocab Lesson #5

Don't worry--not too many more of these entries to come--I'll be done with "The Inner Circle" soon

allision, n. The act of dashing against, or striking upon.
"The boisterous allision of the sea." --Woodward.

bo·lus n. pl. bo·lus·es [Medieval Latin, from Greek, lump of earth.]

1. A round mass.
2. A round medicinal preparation, such as a large pill or tablet, that is usually of a soft consistency and not prepackaged.
3. A soft mass of chewed food within the mouth or alimentary canal.

Vocab #4

2 more from the Inner Circle:

ac·cip·i·ter,n. A hawk of the genus Accipiter, characterized by short wings and a long tail.


crenellation, n. The act of crenelating, or the state of being crenelated; an indentation or an embrasure. [Written also crenelation.]

Not much help so far, right? Fortunately there's more:

1: a rampart built around the top of a castle with regular gaps for firing arrows or guns [syn: battlement, crenelation] 2: the action of constructing rampparts with gaps for firing guns or arrows

I also like how they point out that crenelation is a synonym for crenellation

that's it for today

TCB Words #3; Monkey News #3

here are 2 more I came across today in TC Boyle's The Inner Circle

hor·rip·i·la·tion Function: noun
The bristling of the body hair, as from fear or cold; goose bumps


mast Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English mæst; akin to Old High German mast food, mast, and probably to Old English mete food
: nuts (as acorns) accumulated on the forest floor and often serving as food for animals (as hogs)

Obviously I already knew the word 'mast', just not this usage


AND.....as much as I hate to do it again so soon, I just found some more monkey news. ''Something very unusual happened," said David Reich, one of the report's authors and a geneticist at the Broad and Harvard Medical School.

yup I agree--very unusual. I think this is more than enough for one day--my plantars wart update will have to wait til another day.

Monkey News #2

This one's not as funny as the story about the drunk monkeys from last week: Dutch Monkey Trouble

warning: does not end well for the monkey.

On the bright side, we finally have an answer to that age old question of what would happen if a bear fought a monkey (old school amazon types will get that reference)

no new words today

but I'm finally ready to post something about my tooth implant procedure that was started last Friday. It kind of sucks - I have a screw in my lower left jaw that's going to be the root of the replacement tooth, which should be done in the next 3-4 months. We need to wait for the screw to graft into my jaw before slapping a crown on it so it'll look like a normal tooth.

Here's more than you ever wanted to know about dental implants, courtesy of the American Academy of Periodontology. One note: I think they meant to say "Aesthetic" under those lovely photos. One other note: is Periodontology a word?

Maybe tomorrow I'll post something about my ongoing plantars wart drama

As my dad told me a long time ago ( I think it was maybe when I turned 18): "Jim, it's hell getting old"