3/26/07

Dear Blog,

Well, another weekend has gone by the wayside. This one didn't even include a trip to the Cape, but that doesn't mean they're weren't any adventures had.

On Saturday, after I got up at about 4:00, my sister called to tell me that she, her coworkers Tish and Kelly, and Kelly's boyfriend Eric, were going to have dinner at On The Border, and that Mark and I were invited to come. OTB is a Mexican restaurant that is conveniently located right over the New Hampshire/Massachusetts state line - although the restaurant is apparently a chain. I have no idea how widespread the chain is, or if this one was the first one, but it seems like a wierd coincidence if that is indeed the case. Anyway, we all had a good time shooting the shit with each other - mostly the teachers (that would be everybody but Eric and I) talked about teacher stuff, but there was some other good conversation as well.

Yesterday, Kait had the Dracut High women's varsity lacrosse coach over. Kait is coaching the JV squad (there is a dearth of lacrosse knowledge in this part of the country and so Kait, who played the sport for quite a few years and through high school, is as qualified as anyone else to coach the JV team, even though she has never been as much as an assistant coach before), and so the two of them were getting some of the paperwork and things liked that finalized. In the evening, we saw Mark again, and the four of us had dinner; a recipie for sloppy Joe's, Italian style, that I had never tried before. Obstensibly, it was really meaty spaghettie sauce that was served on garlic bread rather than over pasta, but it worked really well - I'll be throwing that one into the rotation. Jessica seemed like a nice eough person. Really cute, too, but Kait says she has a boyfriend (although, she may have just been saying that to keep Mark from hitting on her).

Anyway, my to-do list is still chalk full of items, so today I'll try and get at least a few crossed off.

Apparently, Carlos Mencia is being accused of plagarism. It seems to me to be a bunch of circumstancial evidence, but it also seems to be mounting. I'm going to hold judgement, because I don't know how other comics would look if they were put up to the same scrutiny, but there does seem to be smoke. I don't find the guy to be very funny, either way, but that is beside the point.

Ok, I'd better be getting to sleep. Tomorrow I'll be talking about the Final Four in the sports blog. Till then...

3/22/07

Dear Blog,

It's been a while, so I've got some catching up to do. Last weekend my sister and I went back down to the Cape where we met our folks for St. Patrick's Day weekend. On St. Patrick's Day, we had corned beef & cabbage, and watched hoops. Well, I watched hoops, anyway.

The week has gone by revaltively uneventfully, except for an on-line poker tournament I won Monday morning. Paradise Poker has three daily hold-em tournaments, all for play money, at 5 AM, 1 PM, and 9 PM. Because of my work/sleep schedule, the only one I can play is the 1 AM one, which also happens to be the easiest one to win, because only 220+ people can play. I have actually won the 1 AM tournament twice now - once on Monday, and once a few Sundays ago, although which Sunday exactly I can not remember now. Anyway, I'm pretty stoked I was able to win it twice, even if there isn't really cash involved.

I was unable to get a bracket pool going at work (no college basketball fans up here at all), so the only one I am in is Tristan's pool on Yahoo. I'm in 9th out of 10 after the opening weekend, but the scores are really tight, and I have all 4 Final Four teams still alive: North Carolina, my champion, Florida, my other finalist, Kansas, and Texas A&M. This actually puts me in pretty good shape; 5 of the other brackets are already missing at least one Final Four team - one of those five is actually missing two. However, my position is somewhat tenuous. If Texas A&M isn't able to win this evening, I won't be able to win the pool, because someone else has pretty much the same bracket I do except he has Ohio State in the Final Four instead of the Aggies. So, I'll be cheering pretty hard for Acie Law IV and company tonight.

Yikes. My to do list is chock full of items. I hope to knock several of them off tomorrow, but I doubt I'll be able to get more than one or two. We'll see.

I'm going to do my sports post right now, and I'll do the politics blog tomorrow. next week, I hope to resume my regular schedule.

Later...

3/12/07

Dear blog,

Monday, Monday, Monday.

I ended the week this week on a bit of a movie binge, which lasted through this weekend. On Thursday evening, Kait, Mark, and I went and saw Breach, starring Chris Cooper and Ryan Philippe. It was a movie about a real-life double agent in the FBI working for the Russians who was caught in 2001. Apparently the guy and my dad were friendly, which is kind of, well, weird. I could tell watching the movie though the appeal he would have for my dad, who obviously was not aware of his secret activities. Anyway, it seemed to me to be a fairly good movie. I would be very interested to see what dad would think about it.

On Friday I watched Sling Blade, which was on Starz On Demand. I had never seen it before, and I was ver impressed. Not only with Billy Bob Thorton, who was very good, but with the rest of the cast, as well, even though many of them never went on to do anything else that approached the scale or quality of this work. That same day, I also saw Lost In Translation, which I had seen but my sister hadn't. She got a kick out of it, although we both think it kind of dragged in the middle.

This past weekend was a very pleasant one. After we got off of work, Andy, my supervisor John, and Matt, who was our training supervisor, went off to IHOP for breakfast. IHOP on Saturday morning has become a weekly ritual for Andy and I, and sometimes John has come along, too, but this was the first time Matt came with us (we did see him there last week, but he arrived and ate separately). Anyway, we had an absolute blast - it was easily the most fun we've had there in a long time, and probably the best visit thusfar. Hopefully Andy and I can get the other two to come more often.

We, that is, my sister and I, went down to the Cape on Saturday afternoon. The weather was absolutely ridiculous this weekend - well, ridiculous for here, anyway. I was between 45-55 degrees all weekend long, which was something, considering I had been out in 3 degree weather only a few days - err, nights - ago. When we got there, we met Mark, Eric, Eric's wife Adriana, and their son Andres. We had some good discussion, and then Eric and I went out to pick up some pizza for dinner. After we ate, Mark, Eric, and I watched Get Shorty, which has been a favorite of mine for years.

Yesterday, the 6 of us, along with our Aunt Martha and Uncle George, went out for brunch and then a nice walk through downtown Falmouth, which is one of the towns along the southern coast of the Cape - in the summer, it is host to the Commodores of the Cape Baseball League. Before we knew it, the evening had come, and it was time to get back to the folks' house and get ready to go.

When Kait and I got back to Lowell, I watched yet one more movie - The Chronicles of Narnia, which I hadn't seen, although I had had the book read to me as a child, so I was somewhat familiar with the story. It was done very well, and although it was a Jesus movie, it wasn't heavy handed with any kind of religious message, unless you were looking for it.

I've got one more movie On Demand that I need to watch before Thursday, when it will dissapear, and that is The Aviator. I''ll probably have seen it by the time I make my next post on this blog, so you have that to look forward to.

Of course, yesterday was Selection Sunday. I got a chance to peruse the brackets, and I have some gripes and some predictions - you'll get all of that good stuff tomorrow in the sports' blog. Till then...

3/8/07

Dear Blog,

This entry is going to be a little longer than usual, mostly because, after countless posts about how my week or weekend was relatively unevenful or unexciting, this week some new and different stuff actually happened to me. Some of it was good, some of it was bad, some of it was neutral. But all in all it made for an evenful week, which is different for me. Now, it strikes me that someone could read this entire post and think at the end, "wow - THIS is what passes for an eventful week in Kevin's life? What a poor bastard." That's fine, too. But if you read all my other posts in this blog, you'll understand why I think this way.

Anyway, I'll start with the weather. It is damn cold up here right now, especially at night. The low has been in the single digits all week, and it's supposed to be another icer tomorrow. It is supposed to warm up considerably on Friday, however. I have my fingers crossed.

Now for the good stuff. On Tuesday, the cable guy showed up at the apartment to install our land line, which is through Comcast. So, now I have another phone number in case for some reason you absolutely have to get ahold of me and I'm not answering my cell or IM. If you want it, ask. But the exciting thing isn't the phone. With the phone service, we're also getting a discount on a better TV package, that includes a slew of new channels - including the NFL Network - as well as HBO and Starz. And better yet, because we have digital cable, we have HBO and Starz On Demand - which means we get a shitload of movies to watch at any time, at no additional charge on our cable bill. Along with Comedy Specials, HBO Series, etc. I could literally park my ass on the couch for a month and not get through half of the shit I have On Demand. Definately recommended for anyone who can shell out the cash.

Right after the cable guy left, the fire alarm went off, which was quintipully annoying because a) it was fucking freezing, b) I was in my pajamas, c) I was low on sleep, d) I just got HBO and Starz On Demand and I wanted to see what was up, and e) I was trying to get into a poker tournament on ParadisePoker and this made me late for it. Fortunately the fire truck was right near the apartment when the alarm went off - the truck was already pulling in as I was leaving the building and heading for my car - and so the ordeal didn't last too long. But it was still a monumental pain in the ass (I got jack shit for cards in the poker tournament and got booted early).

I started to watch Star Wars: Episode I tonight (HBO on Demand). I hadn't seen the movie since it came out in theaters. I hated it then, but I thought to myself that maybe I needed to give the movie another chance. After all, I was REALLY jacked for it when it came out, and it was possible, I surmised, that I had been too critical of it because I expected greatness and had gotten mediocrity. In other words, while it wasn't a great movie, maybe it wasn't as bad as I remembered. Turns out, that isn't true at all. Good God, did that movie suck some serious ass. I'm not going to go into what makes it so bad - God knows that subject has been beaten to death - but I will say this: everyone wants to blame everything on Jar Jar Binks, and while his character is nothing short of horrifically annoying, he has been made a scapegoat for an entire movie that was really just one lousy scene after another, whether Jar Jar was in it or not.

The ACC Tournament starts today - I am excited. Because Boston College is now an ACC school, I'll be able to catch all the games on TV, which is great. A relatively new guy on the aisle, Joe, is from just outside of Chapel Hill, NC, so he is a big Tar Heels fan, which is extremely cool, because at least I have someone to talk about college hoops with up here, especially the rest of this week and Monday.

Cousin Mark called today - he is going down to the Cape this weekend, he thinks his brother will be going down as well. This means that Kait and I will probably go down, too, especially if Mark and Eric are going to be there. Oh yeah, Eric and Adriana are having a second child this summer - a younger sister for Andres. Adriana likes Sara for a name, but Eric isn't so keen on it - we'll see, I guess.

One more thing - they've moved a couple of unloaders up to the aisle this week - God only knows why. To borrow a phrase from Patches O'Hoolihan, these two are about as useless as a pair of poopie flavored lollipops. The sooner they get these goobers off the aisle and back in the trucks where they beling the better.

Ok, that is the sum of my adventures this week thusfar. I have a lot of basketball that needs to be watched between now and my next entry. We'll have to see what other sorts of excitement I'll get to deal with this weekend. I promise you you'll get the full report right here. Sports blog tomorrow...tons of college hoops shit to sorth through. Till then...

3/5/07

Dear blog,

And so begins another week. This weekend was fairly solid, as far as weekends go. I was not able to catch the Maryland game, as my sister and I were driving to the Cape while it was going on, but I was sure I woldn't be missing much, and it turns out I was correct. I like DJ Strawberry, Ekene Ibekwe, and Mike Jones well enough, but missing thier final game at Comcast Center is not going to be anything I will regret for the rest of my life, especially since Maryland ended up winning by 20.

We got to the Cape and were met there by our cousin Mark, which was pleasant. We had dinner and watched Murder By Death (an old comedy starring a slew of famous actors from Hollywood of yesteryear, like Peter Sellers and Alec Guinness, for just two), and then on Sunday afternoon drove down to Orleans for lunch.

When we got back, I caught the last few minutes of the Duke/UNC game - more on that in the sports blog tomorrow - and then it was time to pack up and get back to Lowell.

So, nothing too very exciting, although it was good to see Mark again. You would think living up here I would see more of my cousins, but it is, in fact, rather infrequent. It's a shame, too, because I usually have a pretty good time, when I do.

Anyway, I got in touch with Dan, and he seemed receptive to the idea of coming up for St. Paddy's. I'll have to keep on him about it, but I think I can make this happen.

Well, that's all I got for now. See you tomorrow in the sports section.

Till then...

3/1/07

Dear Blog,

Today I had to call out of work for the first time since I started last September. I'm not sick or anything; rather, the bridge of my glasses snapped late in the evening and I'm quite useless without them. It was kind of a mixed blessing, however, as calling out allowed me to stay at home and watch all of the Maryland/Duke game, whereas I would have had to leave for work when the game was still very much in doubt had I not (no, I did not break my glasses on purpose).

So, tomorrow I have to go up to Tewksbury and get a new set of frames. I hope they don't cost too much, as this incident is already setting me back a day's pay and, I believe, my weekly perfect attendance bonus (although I'm not sure if I'm still getting that). At least, if it had to happen, it happened on the same night Maryland was playing Duke at 9:00 on ESPN. I can't overstate how much easier that is making my whole experience.

In other news, Kait had me cooking some recipies out of a low-fat cookbook that we have this week. So far, the results have been fairly good. I plan on adding all three meals I've cooked so far into the rotation, although I am going to have to figure out a marinade fot the chimichungas I cooked Tuesday night.

Other than that, it hasn't been a particularly eventful week. Nor do I have any special plans for the weekend. I did talk to Mark tonight and I'm going to try to get in touch with Dan tomorrow about seeing if I can't get them up here for St. Patrick's Day. Mark was resistant (apparently he is very busy), but I know with enough strong-arming I can get him up here. He can be a pain in the ass to get going but I know he wants to be up here for St. Paddy's. And Dan is always up for a good party.

Well, that's about it. Tomorrow I'll be in the sports blog - oh yes, you will be reading more about the Maryland game, you can count on that.

Till then...