Oh I just ate so much kielbasa
I'm convinced now that they only win when I'm drunk. Holy crap- that's a heavy burden.
This is what happens when you screw around too long.
Been all over the place recently. First, we went to a wedding in beautiful New Jersey, which is not at all the cesspool the Sopranos led me to believe. Special shout out to the town of Basking Ridge, where every single person I met was the friendliest person I ever met. When the janitor at the temporarily closed train station drops what he's doing to provide you detailed instructions of the best way into New York for an overnight stay you know you're in a friendly town. You may say he was just painfully lonely and happy to have somebody to talk to, but I say he was painfully friendly, and since I'm an excellent judge of character I know I'm right and you obviously have trust issues you need to speak to your therapist about. Anyway, some pics from the reception.
PLANTS
MARRIEDS
We went on our usual
vacation last month to the OBX, and that was just
super. There was this tropical storm that was
supposed to give us all sorts of problems, but that
was some weak sissy storm if I ever saw one. It was
good & windy for half a day and that was it. I'm
conditioned to wake up before God does, so I was able
to get this sunrise. He can't sneak 'em past me
anymore.
YOU HEAR ME GOD? I'M WATCHING YOU
More to come soon- my
Indians are coming on to stomp the Yankees again.
Better start drinking!
Finally, a break in the fantastic action!
You might be thinking that this
girl's feet are impossibly tiny. That's because the
hot sauce guys have absolutely no interest in feet.
Boobs? You bet. I recall several conversations the
first time I drew this- "This is really great.
Really. But, uhh-" "Let me guess, you'd like to see
bigger boobs." "YEAH!, I mean, yes, the boobs could
be bigger."
Yay! My pizza just came. BRB-
Okay, I'm back. A few things about Mark's Time Out
Grille, the bar at which I currently sit. First, it
never seems like it should be the right place to go,
but invariably it is. I don't know why exactly, there
are a few closer places I like just fine, but
something is always wrong with those places. It's not
like I get out a lot, and certainly almost never
without the wife & kids, so I've learned not to
take any chances when it comes to sitting someplace
drinking by myself. The music here is never something
I would pick myself, but it's always just right, They
just played the whole first disc of Billy Joel's
greatest hits, most of which I haven't heard in a
long time (mostly because I was never that big a
fan). I must say that old Billy (as opposed to the
"new" Billy songs that came out after 1982. God I'm
old) sounds better every year as pop music becomes
more soulless and generic. Can you believe that these
were "pop" songs when they first came out? Weird.
Another thing- they are totally disregarding the new
Ohio law that says there can be no smoking in public
buildings. At all. Under Penalty of Law and fines and
public stoning and all that. But there are people
lighting up all over. I actually voted for that law
(which I regret now because it's a fascist hypocrisy
and a lot of businesses are hurting because of it)
because I don't like to smell bad when I get home.
But, for some reason, Mark's wouldn't be right if I
didn't smell bad later. So that's all good. AND- the
pizza is excellent. No lie- some of the best around.
I've been on internet hiatus since basically October,
so I've missed a few things. Mostly boring things.
Xmas was good, except that Becky bought WAAAAYYYYY
too many toys for the boys. I was actually mad at her
for it, but not because of the money- toddler toys
really don't cost very much. It was just so much
stuff, they'll never play with it all. They aren't
even into opening presents yet, so Becky spent like
three days wrapping all the presents and she & I
ended up opening all of them as Ty & Casey jumped
on couches and spilled apple juice. Casey especially
couldn't care less about any of the new stuff, he
liked the abacus that was the very first thing we
opened for him and still hasn't played with any of
the other crap. And all the new toys take up so much
room in our house, you can't walk anywhere anymore
without tripping or breaking an ankle on something
plastic that was made in China or India or Mexico. I
have broken five ankles since New Year's. Of course,
Becky was upset with me because I was upset with her,
and words like "SCROOGE!" and "YOU HATE CHRISTMAS!"
were thrown around, but whatever. I have a feeling
that no matter what agreement we come to before Xmas
about a limit to what we're getting the kids, it will
be egregiously broken by the wife every year, so I
guess it's best not to fight it.
In October my brother & I took sort of an
impromptu long weekend trip to Florida to visit our
grandparents. I drove the whole way from Cleveland
and back. That was a lot of driving, but I'm a
creature of the wheel on these things. We could have
flown, but it was cheaper to drive, plus we needed an
excuse to come & go when we wanted. I love my
grandparents, but a little goes a long way, know what
I'm saying? They aren't getting any younger, and we
felt we needed to get down there when we could. It
was a good trip overall. Here's a picture I got from
their neighborhood-
THERE'S FLORIDA!
I had written a whole long thing about how awesome
and transcendent the Fiesta Bowl with Boise State
beating Oklahoma was, but then my program here
crashed and I lost most of it. I'm not the only loser
here though, NO- it is you, dear reader, who is the
biggest loser now. But, shit happens and I apologize
for nothing. It was a really inspired paragraph,
though. Lots of drama and whooping like an idiot and
whatnot. Oh well.
Now it's Tuesday and I'd better post this thing. I
leave you with the Xmas present I made for the
grandparents this year, click this for the Tyler &
Casey 2006 movie. I was trying to embed it into
the actual text here, but I haven't got that
worked out just yet. So, it's a 28mb QuickTime
link for YOU! Might take a while to download.
Patience....
New Entry Please
Cavs finally lost to Deee-Troit! basketball team in a seven game struggle. Awesome- I had a great time watching basketball this year, and the future looks bright.
My Bettie and Will finally had their baby after a weekend of collective held breathing. Big problems, but all's good- go look at this thing if you like baby pictures. I hate baby pictures.
I've been unusually busy, and the kids have not been respectful of my time this week. Sleep back to brutal after weeks of making it until 7 a.m. every night for a month. Dad not happy, kids don't care- still cute. Jerks.
This unusual busyness, it's good, but also bad. See,
this is supposed to be my slow time- my sit back and
watch the checks roll in time. No- BUSY. And I know
that my traditional busy season is coming.
It'll be graphic design crazy go nuts soon! I can
only sit here and sigh. SIT... SIGH
I just watched the last Harry Potter movie- what was
that? Goblet of Fire? Think so. Anyway, I really
deeply enjoyed it. Very good movie. Best yet, they've
finally got that thing down. Still won't read the
books, that's for queers.
I opted out of Soupy's Wetpaint mod thing. I was
really serial about the LeBron James site, which I
think could be very fun if done right, but I just
plain don't have the time. I think I probably
could've done some simple shit and strung her
company along for a while to squeeze a few checks,
but I'd feel just awful about it. They're doing
nice things with our interweb over there and I
don't want to screw with their flow. Chainsaw is
still the smelliest girl in Smellytown though. I
saw it in National Geographic two years ago- the
Smellytown exposé. Those guys won awards for that
stuff, but at what price? Is an award enough for
the grieving widow and three small children (one
of whom is crippled or someshit) of the Smellytown
story photographer who lost his battle with nose
cancer? Is that going to bring that poor guy back?
No. No it won't.
Veronica Mars will be back next season! That brings
so much excitement to all parts of my being,
especially the shameful ones.
I WAS OUT
Anywhoo, I feel like I've let someone down. And I hate to turn this into a sports blog because there are much more entertaining ones than I could do, but I feel like I'm a traitor to my homer roots by counting the Cavaliers out against the smelly Deeetroit Pistons. I said they'd be "whipped" by those stiffs, and LOOKIE WHO'S GOT THE SERIES BACK TO EVEN TWO TO TWO. That would be my Cleveland Cavaliers and the mighty (and if I could be so bold to say supple) LeBron James. Series tied all up, BITCHES. That's right, I just called everyone on the planet a bitch FOR NO REASON. Playoff Fever! Catch It! Bitches!
Thousands of people write about what is happening with James every time he bounces a ball, but I'll simplify all that for you folks- we are watching the greatest basketball player ever in real time, not just in historical perspective. LeBron James is 21 years old and he is already ripping up records Jordan and Magic set- JORDAN and MAGIC. His teammates BELIEVE. This franchise was a fucking joke four years ago. Today they might be a few steps away from the NBA finals*. Shit.
*Getting ahead of myself? Maybe- but if... WHEN
the Cavs win this series against Detroit, does anyone
think the Nets or the Heat could beat them? I'll
answer "no" for you.
Well, let's see here.
Well.
My Cavs won their first round playoffs against the Washington Wizards in dramatic and intoxicating fashion. They're getting hammered in the second round by Deee-troit, but that's okay because there's no shame in getting whipped by the team that will go on to be the Champs. Nobody's gonna beat those guys, they're AWESOME. Next year, though- it'll be ALL CAVALIERS- BANG-POW!
I took a picture! Actually, lots of pictures! On Sunday when I was supposed to be working I went down to the 10 story LeBron James banner Nike has plastered all over the building across the street from Quicken Loans Arena. It is hard to take pictures of yourself and stuff behind you when that stuff is like a million blocks away. WE ARE ALL WITNESSES to my patchy stubble and greasy hair.
It is HOT at work- our AC
kicked back in my department, and we have no windows
or ventilation of any sort. Today I was very moist
and uncomfortable in all my Bad-Touch areas. Swampy.
Anybody hear the new Pearl Jam yet? Any good? I've
heard it may be good, but I can't trust the word of
strangers- I only trust the pretend people who live
in my computer and occasionally leave comments.
I now believe in magic.
Good golly I'm floating on air!
More newer better posts soon, my babies have been sleeping through the night for three weeks now. Before that I hadn't had a full night of sleep myself in over two years. I'm growing less retarded by the hour- it's completely alarming, like a heavy fog is lifting and in the clearing mist you suddenly realize that you're staring into the off-putting face of Ernest Borgnine, and he's been laughing at you for months. Jerk!
I totally forgot to tell you!!!!
But, on our way back to the car that we had parked in a garage several blocks away, we decided to take a detour up the street where they are shooting Spiderman 3. There wasn't any filming going on at the time, but it was pretty cool just the same. They have this three block section of Euclid Avenue cordoned off, and they've refaced most of the buildings with New York looking signage and details. They built a fake subway entrance into one of the sidewalks which looked completely real- it wasn't until we got right up to it that I could see that it didn't actually lead anywhere. The street itself was resurfaced with new lines painted on, which I can attest from driving on that normally potholed busted up stretch of shitty road just last week that this was all new just for the production. The best part was that a night crew was hard at work ripping a huge crater right in the middle of Euclid Avenue, obviously for the next day's shooting. Wrecked cars with New York license plates were lining the area, ready to be tossed around by interesting looking catapult doohickeys.
Not a completely wasted evening after all!
Put on that old magic top hat those kids found and... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Nothing really good happened today (yesterday*). Oh! Except that I got audited by the IRS and it seems I owe them a little over a thousand bucks from 2004! Hooray! It appears that my tax guy (stares at Beth who's dad is my tax guy) maybe forgot to include one of my 1099's on my return. OOPS! I have to get with him & straighten stuff out, but that certainly was good B-day news! I'm not gonna cry about it or anything, if it is indeed a mistake I'll just pony up the cash, it's not like I was not going to pay my taxes or anything edgy and anarchic like that. The government seems to realize it was just a mix-up, there isn't any penalty or anything. No harm no foul, except, y'know, the grand I have to drop to finance the military industrial complex. Oh well, Becky made cupcakes! Yellow ones with chocolate frosting. Mm-MMM.
Quick obligatory homer sporting reference- CAVS & TRIBE RULE... everyone else can suck it.
Real life conversation between me & my brother at work, where we have a lot of time to talk about the most god-damned retarded things:
Z: "Who do you think is hotter, LeBron James or Grady Sizemore?"
M: "Hmm. Well, if it's just for looking at, I say Grady. He's like a perfect angel I want to set on a shelf and stare at for a thousand years. BUT- if it's sex we're talking about- LeBron, hands down. Ooh! He'd just rip you up.
And then I made the same Mm-MMM sound that I had just made when we were talking about IRS audits and cupcakes a little while ago.
* Babies won't even let me finish an O.P. entry on my birthday.