April 28, 2005

One Ring to Screw It All Up

This past Sunday I had one of the most terrifying moments of my married life. We were playing kickball on a very, very cool afternoon. During the first inning in the field I successfully scored an out by throwing the ball at a runner. What I didn't know was that I also threw my ring at them. Of course, I didn't notice this until the next inning when I was standing on second base. Instead of telling my wife that I'd lost my wedding band I kept my mouth shut, hoping that I could find it before she noticed. As three innings passed I did my best to keep my mind in the game. That proved difficult because I kept scanning the ground for my ring. Inbetween innings I would walk the field scanning the grass. At the top of the 4th I finally found my ring along the 2nd and 3rd base line. As I walked over to pick it up, my wife asked me where I was going since I was walking away from our 'dugout'. Fortunately, since I found my ring I didn't have to lie.

After I explained the timeline of events to her, she told me that it was best I didn't tell her until I found it because she would have burst into tears and probably stopped the game to make everyone look for it. There were time where I thought I to do the same (without the crying, obviously)

April 27, 2005

Teenage Mutant Ninja Kittens

Yesterday evening we were approached by the smaller of the two neighborhood sewer cats. For the first time she didn't run away. In fact she was very playful and spent most of our time together rolling around in the street as we pet her. It was during this time that we noticed she had a larger than usual belly; we thought she might be pregnant. So we coaxed her into our kitty carrier and took her to the same shelter where we adopted our Bean. The shelter took her in and promised to check her out. They too thought she might be pregnant.

It’s debatable that she may lead a better life, being locked in a cage. However if she is pregnant her litter - not knowing a life on the street - will be good candidates for adoption. During our brief time together she seemed like a gentle, quiet cat. I hope that she is sociable and will land herself in a good home.

I will call the shelter and find out how the cat is doing. Personally, I believe we did the right thing. Yes, I did put a cat in a cage that previously had the whole world to roam. But I believe that the temporary confinement will lead to a better life for her and her litter.

April 25, 2005

One Happy ShaBot

After experiencing my first Passover this weekend, I am now educated in what elements comprise a Jewish Passover dinner. Not only was the experience educational, it was also delicious. Every plate was a tasty treat and there was not a gefilte fish in sight. It also helped me understand - and thoroughly enjoy - this.

April 22, 2005


Something Is A Foot Posted by Hello

April 20, 2005

Bacon Dog of Youth

Last night we made a trip to Springfield Mall. While many of the stores I shopped in as a teenager are gone, It was comforting to see that Frank-N-Stein is still in the food court. I ordered what I always order - a jumbo bacon dog - and thought about my dad.

When I was in high school, my father owned a vending machine company. On Saturdays I would get up at 8am and help my father stock the machines at the Bus Repair Depot in Newington. We'd finish around noon and since Springfield Mall was on the way home we would stop at the food court for lunch. I am sure that we ate other things from time to time however it is the bacon dogs from Frank-N-Stein that I remember.

April 18, 2005

Grand Theft Reaction

I recently received an email from my a good friend, and former roommate. During the time we roomed together I must have played a lot of GTA3 because I created the following association in her brain:

"
I almost called you on my way up for the silliest reason. i was sitting in the airport waiting, as there was a 2 hour delay, when a pay phone started ringing. it reminded me of grand theft auto, which made me want to call you. i'm not really sure what that says abut a person, when the conditioned response to a pay phone ringing is to pick it up to see what your mission and next meeting location is."

To heap extra shame upon myself I will note that this association is slightly flawed. While you could receive missions via telephones, you could not enter the airport in GTA3. That level of interaction was not possible until GTA:VC where there was an airport you could roam through freely. That is until you sliced someone with a katana and the police came after you.

April 14, 2005

Video Bowling


I thought I'd close out this week's postings with another picture. This is taken at a 'production meeting' a few weeks ago. We did discuss work-related issues....for about five seconds! The conversation was dominated by the number of ace bowlers in the video department. Four of the six of us were bowling 6-7 strikes/spares a game. My personal best was strikes/spares into the 8th frame where I missed one pin. Not bad for a guy that would spend the weekend drugged out of his mind. While the evidence above does not support this, we honestly do actual work at my job. I swear.Posted by Hello

April 13, 2005

Easter weekend


This picture is from Easter weekend. Notice how I am not looking at the camera. Why? Because I'm drugged out of my mind, a side effect of the cough medicine I was on that weekend. I am posting this picture because it was the only other photo on our digital camera from last night. Also, because I have no recollection of the wife taking it. An alternative theory to my apparent spacy-ness is that were are watching Futurama Vol. 4 (notice the DVD case next to me) and all my attention was bent on Bender & the Gang mirthful tales of futuristic merriment.Posted by Hello

April 12, 2005

Turnpike From Hell


The New Jersey Turnpike is a wasteland. All sorts of travel inconveniences occur on it. Traffic will come to a dead stop even though there are six lanes available; there are cellular service dead zones; stopping for gas at any of the rest stops results in a 30 minute wait to get to the pumps. Its a freaking nightmare as the above picture can attest to. This is our wait for gas, after 10 minutes had already past. This delay is why we missed our kickball game on Sunday afternoon. Curse you, turnpike!Posted by Hello

April 11, 2005

NYC no.1

The wife and I returned to NYC for some firsts - the 1st time to NYC as a married couple, 1st time to NYC this year, and (inadvertently) my 1st time driving a manual transmission through gridlock. For being a hastily planned weekend out of town - the decision was made Friday afternoon - everything went swimmingly. Friends were meet, shops were shopped, tea and snacks were consumed. Saturday night the wife stayed back with her girlfriend and I went bar hopping in Brooklyn with the guys.

It was a nice trip out of town. Plus it couldn't have come at a better time. This weekend we will spend at home, hopefully taking in the cherry blossoms and maybe some of the protesting (World Bank, I think). Then the following weekend it will be my 1st time celebrating Passover. Mazel Tov!

April 08, 2005

Hardly Ever

Hardly ever do I win things in a raffle. At bake sales I go cupcakeless, with the lotto I'm always the chump with a useless ticket. So imagine my surprise when I won a book last night. I attended a post-production workshop on After Effects where I won a free copy of "Final Cut Pro On the Spot' by placing my business card in the raffle box. Actually I placed three business cards in there. It seems membership and stacking the deck has its privileges.

April 06, 2005

Old Schooled

This year of kickball got off to a good start. We won our 1st game, which means out current team - Kicking It Old School - has tied the winning total of my two previous teams. Given that, I am feeling good about this year's team. Everyone turned in a stellar game, including the wife who held down 3rd base like a champ. She made two outs in a single inning, plus she loaded the bases on a sacrifice out. That set up the start of a monster scoring drive. I was told our end result was 6-2, quite a decisive victory.

April 04, 2005

Rainy (Satur)day

It rained to beat the band in DC this Saturday. What did we do? We cleaned out the garage. I wish I had taken before and after pictures because the difference is amazing. Before, if you needed to get something in the garage you had to step/crawl over so much junk. Now everything is organized against two walls. There is a pile of boxes ready for the coming yardsale, a neatly stacked hardware/painting supplies shelf, and a stack of furniture to sell. Now, when we store trash bags in the garage in anticipation of trash day, I no longer fear walking barefoot in the garage. Or worse, putting something out with the trash that we meant to kept!

I know this doesn't seem like that most exciting thing to post about, however I am amazed at how great it looks in there. You should come over and see. It's really freaking clean.