Work, Trek and The Amityville Horror

I got up at 5:50 this morning as I had to be in work for 7 for the launch of a site update. When I got up, it looked like it was going to be nice day. However, I then checked the weather out only to find that it was going to start raining midday. Great.

We got the update launched all good and well. I got out of there around 1ish. Then since I had my truck for once, I decided to drive around and explore a bit. I didn't find too much as it started pouring out.

Got back to find some asshole with a Benz parked in my spot, so I had to park down the street, walk in the rain, only to watch him get in his car and drive off once I got in. hmmm not nice you canuck shit.

From there I did some cleaning up, ate and watched the new Enterprise episode. I must admit, Enterprise, much like Voyager, has kind of blown. A big disappointment. However, this season has been much better. Still not great, but probably some of the most interesting Star Trek since Deep Space Nine went off the air. This was the 2nd part of a Two-Parter that too place in the mirror universe (a la 'Mirror, Mirror'). In fact it referenced a few other classic Trek episodes namely the aforementioned 'Mirror, Mirror' , 'Arena' (with the Gorn) and 'The Tholian Web'. The crew of the mirror universe Enterprise steal the Defiant, which was lost in an interspace rift in 'The Tholian Web'. They did a nice job recreating some of the old sets. Pretty darned cool if you ask me. Check it out.

So after that, I was sitting around pretty bored so I decided to head over to the theaters to catch The Amityville Horror. Now, when I found out they were remaking one of my favorite horror movies, I was quite skeptical so I didn't have High Hopes going into it (if you know the story, you'll catch the pun). But I wasn't disappointed at all. The story was a little different from the book, which was a little different from the original film which was a little different than the Lutzes account, but oh well it was still able to get a few chills out of me. It actually reminded me a little more of The Shining than the original Amityville Horror. I think having seen the original so many times actually made this one a little scarier cuz you were expecting certain things to happen at certain times and they'd change them around just enough to keep you in suspense or make you jump. There was a part, kind of a backstory that they added that kind of killed it for me. I'm going to spoil it for some of you so don't read this if you want to see it for yourself. But, if you do some research on the actual subject of the haunting there, one of the stories is that there was an Indian (or is that Native American) burial ground there and insane Indians (or is that Native Americans) were tortured and buried on that site. That wasn't mentioned in the original movie, but they got into a little more detail here which would have been cool. However, instead of George finding "the red room" which was supposedly the "gateway to hell" he found this dungeon where the Indians (or is that Native Americans) were tortured as well as all this gore and imagery that really just ruined the whole thing for me. I can see why they added that, but it just didn't work for me. The ending was a little different also and would have been cool had I been desensitized.

Ok, those of you not wanting it spoiled can read again. But all in all it was much better than I was expecting.

So that was my Saturday. I'm watching the Sox, who are up 4-1 against the Rangers. I'll probably turn in early since it's been one hell of a long day.

With that... some parting wisdom from Vin Diesel:

"Vin Diesel says its only considered domestic violence if it happens at home!"

Oh Yeah.. I Almost Forgot!

With all my pissin' and moanin' the last couple days, there were a couple more positives this week. I finally brought my bass and amp up from Chicopee. My neighbors should like that! Although I forgot my book, long cord and tuner. I've got a short cord that will do for now. And for tuning, well, I've got the strings tuned by ear to the right intervals, or as close as they're going to get with my ear, but since my starting point probably wasn't correct it won't be just right. But oh well, I'll live.

Lots of people coming and going to and from my building as of the past couple of weeks. The two apartments across the hall from me are now filled. I haven't met any of the neighbors yet. And the Asian family at the end of the hall is leaving. Too bad, they were nice Asians. Hopefully they'll be replaced by more nice Asians.

I also got this 10% discount card for the McDonald's near my office. A bunch of us went there for lunch on Wednesday and the chick behind the counter gave me one. No one else got one so I guess I'm special. She was being all sweet and stuff, but I really had no interest in anything other than the discount card.

Still Not Learning

Jesus Christ on Crutch!!! These toolboxes still haven't learned. Yesterday was pretty much a repeat of Wednesday. However, my counterpart in sales, the one who's been turning a blind eye to his departments behavior acknowledged for the first time he's going to have to do something to keep them in line. Woohoo! But I haven't even brought the big stuff up yet. That comes Tuesday.

Today started off a little rough, but quickly got better. I got a pay raise today! April is usually the month the company does their annual increases, however, do to being promoted twice since last April, not to mention my relocation bonus, I wasn't expecting anything. Well, I got a 4% increase. Good times. That was a nice end to an otherwise tumultuous week. Well not really, I have to be in the office tomorrow for 7am with Melanie, Andree-Anne and Jolyane for the launch of the new site release. As bad as getting up that early on a Saturday is, well, at least I'll be in good company. ;-)

After work I had to run up to the underground malls as I was in need of some more vitamins and the only GNC near me is that one. Ya know, when I first moved up here I thought to myself how cool it is to have everything so close by and stuff so I could walk there. Well, I'm getting kinda tired of that. I guess I'll live though, unless of course I get hit by a car or something.

There's a men's store right next to the GNC that had these nice spring jackets on sale for $20. They were originally selling for $60. What a deal! And since it's Passover, it would be kind of anti-semitic to pass up a deal like that. So I'll be all set for the spring.

As for tonight, well since I've got to be up at like 5 to get ready and get into town for 7, it's going to be an early night. I'm doing a load of laundry and the Sox start in a few minutes so, that's my night in a nutshell. Tomorrow after work, however... well, we'll just have to wait and see!

Some People Never Learn

It's already Wednesday, but it feels like it should be Friday. Though, I have to work this Saturday so I don't know if this Friday is actually something to look forward too. It's been a pretty shitty week so far. When I left Friday after work it looked as though it was going to start raining. And it has rained up here ever since! Tomorrow or Friday were only supposed to get "scattered showers" but then back to straight rain until Monday or Tuesday. Lucky for me I have about a mile walk everyday outdoors.

Work has been pretty shitty this week as well. I've mentioned in the past about some of the run-ins I've had with the sales team. Their shit is ongoing, but there are peaks and valleys to their constant flow of shit. The past few weeks, we seem to be peaking. And just when you think you hit the peak, the prove you wrong and bring it up a notch. I've worked with some assholes in the past. But I have to say this group is the biggest bunch of assholes I've ever had to deal with. And their boss is an ok dude, but he never seems to learn. They bitch to him that customer service is making their life hell, he bitches to my boss, who comes to me, then I give him proof that it's not me or my team, its them and that we're just the scapegoats. He then goes back to the other dude, tells him it's his team's fault and then it just gets lost. Nothing gets done with it. I first came into control of some of the Canadian functions for my company almost a year ago and problems in his part of the organization were common then. They've gotten worse over time and much worse since we've moved operations here to Montreal. But one would think that gee, your team bitches to you, without hard concrete evidence, and you run calling for my head, then you get bitchslapped cuz you're wrong and you should have looked into things more first. Nah, not in this case. At times its amusing but many times its just a pain in the ass. Cuz I end up spending a good amount of my valuable time digging through issues to prove it's not my teams fault.

It's great cuz he'll go to my boss and use the "well John's young, and his team is inexperienced" ploy and when I come out the victor in 90% of these battles, I look even better. But what the fuck!? We work for the same company. Instead of working with me, they work against me. My boss is definitely aware of the situation as he doesn't come to me as often, though I know the sales VP goes to him just as often. But yet, I still spend time doing this just in case there is actually something we did wrong and that will just make his case stronger. But still its a huge pain in my ass and I don't think they'll ever learn. Kinda like a tard sticking his hand in a fire, getting burned, then doing it again right away and repeating the process.

The thing is that being the sales team, him and his department actually make the revenue that runs the company. Customer Service is a cost center that doesn't directly bring in new revenue. So if my boss was ever put in a situation where he had to choose between me and the other dude, well, I'd be sent packing. That's another reason why I play the game carefully.

Which brings me to my next gripe... I mentioned last week that I was going to try to have a discussion with the boss regarding my future up here. Whether I should just not renew my visa and stuff in October, or plan to stay on for the extra year. Well, he was out on Tuesday which is when we were supposed to have our weekly meeting and today I could have had that meeting, but with all the sales bs, I didn't want it to seem like I was using that as the basis for my wanting to discuss this topic. As in "solve the sales problem or come October, I'm gone". And there was no way I could have brought both things up in the same meeting and not sounded like one was going to influence the other. So I chose against having that discussion. The sad thing is, I can put up with the bullshit. What concerns me is what plans are going to be for next year and everything. So hopefully this shitstorm will start to bottom out soon and then I can broach that subject carefully in the coming weeks. Again, I honestly would love to stay up here longer than just the next 6 months (wow, I can't believe I've had a place here for 6 months already), but my status in the country is dependent on my job status. And if I have no job status, then well, I have to get out of the country with relative haste. That means, I have to cough up the money to move, break my lease, start a new lease in the States, again have to file taxes in the US and Canada. A lot of extra bullshit that I'd prefer not to be thrown into if I don't have to be. So hopefully it works out for the better.

Another Decent Pic. Please notice our sponsor in the lower left corner. Ronnie should sponsor more polka happenings. He could make a killing! Pardon the Pun. 

Lenny, Rich, Nick and Joe 

Hey that's me decked out in my green shirt. Notice the functional GK Head on top of the Hartke cabinet. To your right you'll also see the back side of Mitch Biskup's classic Fender Amp. Just in case! ;) 

Piwo, Push and Pottery

What an excellent weekend. I drove back once again to Massachusetts. Got in Friday around 10ish, just chilled out. Saturday morning I got my hair cut at Jacks, then headed over to St. Stan's for their Polish Fest.

Lenny was supposed to get there around 10, so I got there at 10, brought all my stuff in, helped the people who were setting things up bring in beer and wine from the truck that delivered it (for a nominal fee of free libations of course) and also helped them move some other things around. Lenny still wasn't there, but Estelle and Michelle got there with their pottery so, well, I helped them bring their stuff in. Then, Lenny showed up, and we unloaded and set up the band's equipment.

The gig went pretty well I thought. They had about 600 people there. Ran into some people I hadn't seen in a long time neither which was cool. Getting comfortable was a little tough at first but the last half of the job, things started to settle in. Playing with them was a pretty cool experience. Very laid back, everyone seemed to be having a good time. It was also nice to play with a bass player who actually owns a working GK 800RB (doh, low blow). I definitely wouldn't mind picking some more work up with Lenny at all. I'll have to have my friends call their friends to have their friends make Dave an offer he can't refuse. haha yeah right. It was good times though.

Then on a break I was going to purchase some pottery as the Frenchies up here love it (and I only have the cheapo Christmas Tree Shops stuff). However my Cioci Cynthia beat me to the punch and got me a nice piece. Thanks Cioci :-) .

I also ran into this chick Amber who I used to hang out with in High School. Hadn't seen her in like 7 or 8 years. That was cool. and that's all I have to say about that ( a la Forrest Gump).

Sunday we listened to the recording Dudas made of the job. Came out pretty good. Then I packed my shit up and went to see Eddie Forman. They had a pretty good crowd there. I was hoping to leave around 5 or 6. Well, I stayed until the end, then stopped home, grabbed my bass and the amp, then hit up OTB with Putnam so I didn't get on my way until close to 10. I got into town around 3.

So needless to say, I'm pretty beat.

Vin Diesel

Vin Diesel once taught a woman to love again by repeatedly punching her in the face.

Getting Ready for Some More Travel

Not too bad of a week. Sales is up to their usual bullshit again. I swear its like trying to handle a spoiled bipolar retard but oh well. It rattles my cage for a bit, but then I get over it.

Other than that, work hasn't been too bad. Week seems to be going by kind of quick. My chest was all congested and I was running a bit of a fever Tuesday so I left early, and took the first half of Wednesday off. I'm not 100%, but still much better than I was.

Managed to get some laundry done. I have clean clothes now. Very interesting huh?

Today was probably the most interesting day of the week for me. As you know, Saturday I'm going back to Chicopee to play with Lenny Gomulka at St. Stan's (yes it was a shameless plug and yes you better go there). He wants us to wear a solid color shirt and a "crazy" tie. Well, my wardrobe of solid color shirts consists of 1 white, 2 blue (different shades), 1 purple and 1 black. I have an olive colored shirt but it's way to big nowadays. And well, I've been getting tired of wearing the same shirts all the time for gigs and other occasions where I need to dress nicer. So I decided to go shopping.

Andree-Anne and Emilie took me to La Maison Simons which is "Simon's House". Imagine, if you will, an overpriced Filene's. But one of the benefits of taking the French girls shopping is that they have pretty good taste. In fact, when shopping for nicer clothes even when I was in the States, I tried to take a femme or two with me. As you all know I'm more of a jeans and t-shirt kinda guy, but when I have to look nice, well, I wanna do it right. Kinda like Queer Eye for The Straight Guy without the queer part. This Simons place was wicked pricey. $80 for a dress shirt. Yeah right. Considering I'm going to be sweating my ass off while I Push It To The Limit, I don't feel like spending that much money on a shirt. So we found a nice green shirt that was $30. I can live with that. We ended up also hitting up The Tie Rack where I picked up 2 more Jerry Garcia ties to add to my collection.

So we got my stuff and I'm ready to rock and roll Saturday. Too bad it's a polka gig. We ended up walking around the malls a little bit for their sake but not too long. One of the other positives about getting them to come shopping fo rme is that they pick out the clothes, I buy them and they not only feel like they've done good by me but it also helps feed that female need of shopping with someone else's money.

So I'm all packed up and ready for the weekend now. I'm gonna hit the road right after work. I'm supposed to have a French lesson but I think I'm going to reschedule for next week as my mind won't be on it and I don't feel like getting back to Chicopee after 1am. So hopefully I can hit the road early enough.

I've also started putting some thought as to what I'm going to be doing next year. As you know, I have a 2 year contract to work up here. But it was presented as the company hoped I'd be here for at least a year then see what I wanted to do. So in November I need to decide whether or not I want to renew my lease, visa, health and social insurance or pack up my shit and head back to Massachusetts. One thing I need to consider is some of the changes going on in the company and that are scheduled to happen in the next 6-12 months. Will there be a need for me for the full duration of my contract? At this point, I don't think so. There might be but I don't know. Additionally, even if I stay on, how much BS is it to break my lease if I have to do that early? Some of the many things I need to really mull over during the next couple of months. I'm definitely enjoying it up here still. My place rocks, the people at work are all very cool and the work isn't bad at all. Not the best, but certainly not the worst and gaining some valuable experience. The problem is that I'm not in Massachusetts where if I got laid off, or canned or something, I'm near family and friends or could potentially find another job. My status in this country depends on my work status so, I need to be careful there too. So we'll see, but it's something I'm going to really have to put some thought to. I'd like to stick it out, but if it looks like I'm going to screw myself in the longterm by doing that, well, I'll probably be back later this year. Perhaps I'll find another job within the company, or another one, or maybe even go back to school and finish a degree. I'll keep you all posted on that.

Oh yeah, I updated the sports blog tonight. I won't be writing until Monday at the earliest. Stop by St. Stan's and say Hello to Someone in Massachusetts! See ya there.

This was our view of the game. No wonder why these seats were still available when the rest of the game was sold out.  

A nice view of right field.  

Ah The .406 Club, which is getting renamed and next year, they're getting rid of the glass.  

Back To Work

What a cool weekend. I took off from work early Thursday, got back to Chicopee around 7 or so.. Hit up On The Border for some Mexican, Beer and the Sox. That was Thursday.

Friday I started off in Ware to visit the grandparents. While I was in the area, I stopped at the Polish Hall for about an hour, had a couple beers then was on my merry way to Randolph.

It was very cool to go back to Fenway again. Charles and I went a few times last year. Hopefully I can score some more tickets this year, though they are selling out very fast from what I understand. Got to see the World Series Banner and some of new things they've done to the park. The new playing field looks a lot better (greener) than the old one. One thing I found odd was that a little while before the game started, the announcer went through a list of rules and stuff, which was ok but they way he read them was what was weird. "Red Sox Fans don't interfere with play", "Red Sox Fans are courteous", "Red Sox Fans do not litter". Very Third Reich if you ask me. "Good Nazi's burn their books", "Good Nazi's clean their ovens after every use" etc etc. And they even now have a number you can call from within the park if you observe someone doing something that hinders your enjoyment. hmmm... I should have saved that number. The Sox killed the Devil Rays. Which was not a suprise. We left around the 5th inning and headed over to that new Game On sports bar which is part of Fenway (on the outside) for food and drinks. Food there was good. I was disappointed though in that watching the game in there wasn't all that easy. They need some bigger TVs and in spots where to don't have to stretch to see.

Saturday was relatively laid back. Chilled with Charles and JoAnn. Had some food and drink and some fine Cuban Cigars. Very classy.

Sunday I had my first experience playing with Joe Pasieka. Quite the experience it was. It was a good time though. Perhaps I'll be able to pick up a couple more here and there with him. Then after the gig, I dropped my stuff off in Chicopee and got back here at around 1-1:30. Oh well, it was worth the trip.

And in other news... I'll be coming back to Massachusetts again this coming weekend. Lenny Gomulka was in need of a drummer for a Church festival in Chicopee so, that's where I'll be. All of you reading this should go there!!!

This Is For The Birds...

Wow 8:05 on a Wednesday morning and I'm writing to you from work. Every Wednesday I have a conference call with our office in Massachusetts. The call rarely pertains to anything I do, but I'm part of it anyway. It's always good extra info. The only problem is I have to get up at like 6 to get ready and get on the 7am train to get here in time.

So while all this chatter is going on, I'm blogging.

It's gotten cold again up here. Not too too cold but it's been below freezing the last 2 mornings. Annoying is what it is.

Finally got my card for the new laundry machines. Now I need to get some laundry done tonight. Someone beat me to the machine last night. That bastid. Hopefully I can do at least a load tonight otherwise, it's gonna be a long weekend. Tonight I've gotta pack and pick up some smokes for the weekend. Tomorrow, I'm hoping to get out of work a little early, haul ass down to Massachusetts. Friday morning I'm hoping I can get my hair cut and oil changed (if time permits), then run to the mall, stop by my grandparents in Ware and then out to Randolph.

Obstructed View seats to watch the Sox play Tampa Bay but, they were the last 2 available together so I went with them. The Devil Rays set up shop in 1995 I believe. I've seen them more times than any other team, besides the Sox obviously. It's kind of sad. But oh well, just going to Fenway is a great time in itself. Not to mention, the local taverns that rely on me for them to make their revenue goals for the summer.

Saturday is an off day. Not sure what's up yet with that. Sunday, Charles and I are playing with Joe Pascieka. Then back to Montreal. Should be a damned fine weekend.

Oh yeah, back to our headline today... Yesterday, when getting my laundry card, I spoke to my landlady about the pigeon problem on my balcony. She was pretty cool about it, said she'd check it out. Surprising enough, she did. She caught me on my way in after work. Apparently they disinfected everything and sprayed so that the birds stay away. Though she didn't see the dead ones. Those are under my step. She's going to take care of that today. Cool cool. Hopefully we'll get some rain in the next few days to wash the rest of the shit away and I can begin enjoying that. Have the bbq going, while lounging, smoking a nice cuban mmm. Good stuff.

Well back to work for me.

Fever Pitch

Ok.. 4 Posts in 48 hours this is it for at least a little while...

Today was going to be an uneventful day but it turned out to be quite productive. I got up like at 6 cuz I forgot to turn my alarm off Friday night and slept through it Saturday in my drunken assedness (new word for you).

So I sat around on the computer, wrote in my blog, and sat around up until around noon. Then I showered and headed over to the Cage, where I had lunch and watched the Sox on the big screen. Not a good showing. Clement looked like he was struggling with his control, but he didn't do too bad. Just didn't get the run support he needed. In the 8th inning these dudes offered to buy me a beer if I'd let them watch golf on the big screen and put the Sox on all the smaller TVs. Well, since it is April, and they were playing the Blue Jays (and losing) it was a win win scenario for me. I accepted.

The first barmaid kept bothering me while I was trying to watch the game. She was nothing fun to look at. So I ended up telling her "as long as the game is on, if you ever see my glass empty, come and fill it with beer, don't ask". She followed those instructions and I tipped her well. The 2nd barmaid is there fairly often. She's much better looking, but has a bit of a peculiar look to her. I was having trouble placing it until today. If my cousin Dan had longer hair, weighed 110lbs and had a gigantic rack that hung down to his stomach, he would look exactly like her. Except she'd still be female and more fun to look at as a result.

After all that excitement, I had a decent buzz on. I decided to head over to the Cinemas Guzzo to catch Fever Pitch. I figured I'd be the only guy there by myself but I wasn't. The lone dudes there were either from Massachusetts, had a good plan to meet girlies or were gay. Judging from what I saw, you could probably rule out the first two. Someone yakked during the previous showing. The whole theater wreaked of stomach butter. It was nasty. Luckily, I had just gotten out of a bar and wreaked of tobacco and booze so I buried my nose in my shirt and was ok.

There was a group of 6 18-20 year old girls who were accompanied by an Eldredian God (some 40+ year old pervert. Good man). I was making conversation with and playing the game at first. That was until they laughed at Tony Conigliaro. Jimmy Fallon had the cover of Sports Illustrated with Tony on his dresser. These chicks thought it was funny. Not appropriate. I was seriously disenchanted. In fact, in retrospect, half the stuff they were laughing at, they had no idea. Like, what its like to be on Landsdown Street, eating a hot sausage grinder. In fact, they have no idea what a grinder is. They also laughed at a part where Drew Barrymore commented about the Tobin Bridge. Ummm hmmm. I dunno. The whole thing struck a bad chord with me. Not cool.

The movie over all was pretty good. The one part that seemed kind of farfetched was where Jimmy Fallon was ready to sell his season tickets just to be with Drew Barrymore. Now, Drew Barrymore isn't bad. She has that cokewhoreishness (another new word for some of you) about her that most of us like, but come on... A lifetime of season tickets for that? No way Jose. Sorry. The guys that made the movie know their shit though. Finishing the movie off with "The Parade" and Tessie playing was pretty cool. Good stuff. I'll see it again and probably add it to "The DVD Collection" once its available.

That's my update. C ya...

Going Loco (or Local)

I have since recovered from Friday night's debauchery. Accomplished a few things in the process also. I managed to clean up the apartment a bit, including mopping and bringing a brillian luster to my wood floors (exciting eh?). I also went down to the park and shot some hoops for a little while. Basketball, by the way, was invented by a Canadian living and working in Springfield, MA at the time. Who cares right? Well, there's one local reference for you. I then played a shitload of NHK 2k5 on the XBOX. Finally finished the season. My Bruins swept the competition in every round of the playoffs to win the Stanley Cup. Now I'm in the offseason where I need to re-sign players whose contracts are ending, scout young, acquire free agents and trade with other teams construct an even better team for next season. However, I'm going to take a break on that for a little while. Since it is now Baseball season, I need to pay attention to that game. Although, it may make more sense to play Hockey in the summer and Baseball in the winter, but too late for that, the mind has been made up already.

Speaking of sports... I created a sub-blog yesterday as well. You'll find the link to the right. I know when all of you think of me, you think of atheleticism (as opposed to say... sarcasm) so I created a separate blog just for sports talk. With the Sox on now, I'll have some commentary to provide, plus with my involvement in a few fantasy leagues, it will allow me to digress a little more on that topic without cluttering up Canadia Mania more than it is. So, you can always feel free to check that out when you want.

Last night I also watched the season finale of Battlestar Galactica. Mind-blowing. It was unbelievable. Anyone who has not seen that show yet has no idea what they're missing at all. It's the best show on TV. Period. And probably one of the best sci-fi shows EVER.

Now onto Local (or Loco) matters. I get the newspaper delivered here on Saturdays and Sundays. But during the week, and even on the weekend, I like to stay up on what's going on in the Boston Globe and Springfield's Republican (it was better when it was the Union News). Two articles caught my eye from the Sunday Republican today: "Diocese unveils plan for Latinos" and "German-Americans strive to keep heritage". At first I wondered if they were related in anyway. But alas, there are no free train rides in store for Western Mass' ever-growing "latin" community. Now what I just wrote seems pretty harsh, and no I don't really think we should use the Germans like that, but man, well... I could actually write a book on the topic but I won't cuz, I don't feel like it right now. But I just found the two headlines, when put together, appealed to my sense of humor!

That brings us to today. What shall I do? Well, that's a great question. I need to do laundry but they just replaced the machines with these new machines that need a card as opposed to coins. And since I haven't been able to get a hold of my landlord to get a card, I guess I won't be doing laundry just yet. I may go out for a walk or something, play some more bball. I'll probably play some XBOX Baseball too. I've got 2 DVDs sitting on my TV I haven't watched yet (Shawn of the Dead, and The Godfather) maybe later I'll watch those. We'll see.

Ouch... Here's a recap

So last night was quite a blast, but right now at 8:30 in the morning, I'm not doing too well.

Surprisingly I had my wits about me last night. Well enough to write a couple paragraphs without hoarking the spelling too much. Though I must have liked the phrase "I dunno" from what it looks like.

Work went well yesterday. Took care of the problem I brought up Monday. So I decided to go out for a beer. Where else would one go for a beer? Dieu du Ciel. I think I messed that one up in my chronicals last night. I started and finished with their Deesse Nocturne, which is my favorite stout. A wise man I know refers to Guinness as "mother's milk". That's close, but this is better. From there I had their Fumisterie which is a Hemp Beer. Not too bad. They also had a pepper ale which was kind of spicey (no shit huh?), I liked it.

I also made friends (as I usually do when I'm drunk) with these two dudes that were there. One looked like Tim Wakefield and the other like Quintan Tarantino. Seriously. They seemed to know quite a bit about beer. So the 3 of us split a $15 of the brewer's Barley Wine. That, I think, is what knocked me on my ass. It wasn't the best Barley Wine that I've had but it was ok. And it did the job.

After that, I had the Stout and left before I couldn't get home. The nearest Metro stop was about a 20-30 minute walk and I didn't want to deal with that so I took a cab home.

So yeah then get home, come online, watch Keith Foulke almost blow the game, which is bad on a few fronts because not only do I want the Sox to win, but he's on a couple of my Fantasy teams. Though, not the money one so I can live I guess.

So then I yakked it up on Instant Messenger for a while. I was listening to the Maestro's Men. 3 girlies inquired about your friend and mine, Mr. Bernier, which I thought was quite the coincidence and odd. Then again, me bringing up what I was listening probably sparked that off. Then Sandy and Matt invited me to Buffalo for Brett's party. Last night it seemed like it might have been a good idea, but this morning it isn't. I need my funds for Boston next weekend. Woohoo.

Then again, last night you could have asked me to drink a quart of Drano and it would have seemed like a good idea.

That brings us to today... I'm on glass #2 of Cranberry Juice and had a green banana for breakfast. That tasted kinda bad, but I needed the nutrients. I bought these bananas Monday and they're still wicked green. It's a conspiracy I tell you. More of the man holding me back. I think I may go over to the park and play some basketball today and do some cleaning. I also picked up EA Sports MVP Baseball 2005 for XBOX. Manny is on the cover. Maybe I'll play that all day.

That's it for now... Time to continue the recovery process...

Why Rich Bernier is The Man

Actually I dunno. But since like 3 chickies brought his name up tonight, I thought it would be a good heading. I'll do more research on the topic and report back as soon as I have more info for you all.

So tonight I got cocked at the Brasserie Du Dieu Ciel or however it is spelled. They like me there. and I like them cuz they give me beer cheap.

I got invited to Brett Lewandowski's Birthday Party tomorrow in Buffalo by Matt and Sandy. I may go I dunno. Scrubby will be there, which means I'll hear stories about Ikie. Then again, I can just make up shit about Ikie and it'll probably be just as bad Scrubby's stories.

I dunno. I'll report back when I'm sober.

Down Goes Rivera

Ha... The once invincible, unstoppable, mighty Mariano Rivera has proven again that the Sox have his number. This time we made sure Jeter wasn't going to be hitting any homers in the ninth thanks to Mike Timlin mistaking his helmet for the catcher's mit. OOPS.

What else do I have to say tonight? Not a whole hell of a lot. The weather up here is nice. It was 13 Degrees today. Which is probably high 50's perhaps? Not positive, but that's what it felt like. Then again, after weeks of -40, 0 feels balmy.

I dunno. That's about it for me tonight. Believe in Bob: http://www.subgenius.com

Another Monday At The Computer...

Last night was a disappointing ending to what was an otherwise enjoyable weekend. We'll get to that part in a minute or two, depending on how fast you can read.

Saturday I bought my curtains at Ikea. Only problem is Ikea sells curtains in either "long" or "short". Short is too short and long is too long so I got the long ones that I could shorten because lengthening the short ones is too complex. If I could have made that sentence more confusing I would have. They all come with this iron-on thing-a-ma-jig that will let me shorten them without cutting or sewing. Two problems... I hate ironing and they would look ridiculous that way. So I'm going to take them to a place and hopefully have them shortened this week depending on cost. I did, however, manage to hang the curtain rods so all was not lost.

While there, I also picked up a hot wattle kettle, pot or whatever you wanna call it. All winter long I thought to myself "wow, today would be a great day for hot chocolate", well since it has already gotten warm out, what better a time to buy one? So that's gonna collect dust for a while, but at least I have one... just in case.

I then watched a couple movies, sat around, and drank beer. For those of you counting calories, it has come to my attention that Samuel Adams Double Bock has 310 Calories in 1 bottle. 3500 Calories is equal to one pound of fat, whether you're looking to gain or burn. I can drink a 12er of that stuff with little effort and have done so on occasion... hmmm that's a bit of a concern. In fact, I'm pretty concerned about that. I'm gonna go have a beer to calm down. Be right back.

Ok I'm back. Sunday morning I did my taxes. Looks like I'm going to do pretty well. However, I'm having someone double check them for me just in case. If all goes my way I'll be getting some serious ching back from Uncle Sam and Nitt Witt Mitt. I think I'm going to buy an iBook. My PC sucks. It's about 5 years old, has a number of problems.. and not really all that portable. I'll just use it as a file server. The other benefit of having an iBook is that it's video connector is compatible with that of my HDTV. Seeing I have a subscription to MLB.com TV, I'll be able to watch the Sox and pretty much any other game on my TV. Good deal huh? So we'll see how this works out.

After I did my taxes, I went back to Ikea and bought a bookshelf for my office/small bedroom. I need one for my big room too, but this is a start. I can put all my computer books, some software and pR0n there for easy access and display. It also let me get rid of at least 1 box I've had lingering around.

Later that evening I decided to head over to La Cage Aux Sports to catch some of the Sox and Yankees. Disappointing first outing for them, but hey, last season they did shitty the first half, then look what happened. The usual tart of a barmaid was not there. Her replacement wasn't bad but not the same. So after the 4th inning I came home and watched the rest of it on the computer.

And today, back to the grind. I'm beginning to see a pattern of behavior with our sales team that I'm not liking. Bad shit happened beginning of Q1 then it calmed down and Q2 is looking to be the same. Definitely not something I'm going to want to put up with long term. Lets see what the boss says about it. Hopefully he'll get involved before things got out of hand like they did last quarter. But it's not something I'm going to want deal with every 3 months. Still definitely loving it up here, but when it comes time for me to renew my contract, work permit and lease at the end of the year, stuff like that is going to have a major impact on that decision. But the boss has his head on straight so things should work out.

Oh well, that's life. No big whoop. But, we're less than 2 weeks away to my trip back to Beantown. Gonna see the Sox and Tampa Bay on the 15th with some Lush, though not Marion cuz he's dead. Saturday is an off day then Sunday I get to make some money playing in Rhode Island.

That's all for now folks! I'll post more tripe for you later this week.

More Memorabilia 

Odds and Ends

What's up? Well, tonight's get together didn't end up happening. Which wasn't a big loss. Perhaps this weekend. With end of month, end of quarter and everything else going on, only a couple people were going to make it so I kinda put the kybosh on the whole thing. It's all good though as now I've got tons of food so I don't have to go shopping for a little while. woohoo!

So what did I do? Well, not much really. I ended up going to Wal-Mart to buy a couple of frames. I had an autographed picture of Steve Grogan (former QB for the Pats) that I thought would like nice on a wall so I got a frame for that as well as one for this little piece of art that has the Ben Franklin's quote "Beer if proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."

Speaking of God loving us and wanting us to be happy, well, Terri Schiavo died yesterday and her nutjob family said it was "God's Will". That may be it. Or perhaps it was the fact that she hadn't been fed in almost 2 weeks. Kind of ironic in a way since an eating disorder is what rendered her a vegetable in the first place. Yes, yes, I could be nicer. Is it sad? To a point. Not sad enough for me to be crying my eyes out like these asshats you're seeing all over the TV. These are the same people that were for the war in Iraq where how many people have died for no f'n reason? I am willing to bet you that at least half, probably more than half, of those tards could do much more good by tending to matters they've messed up (like voting for W). This is no business of theirs. However, at least the courts did their job. One thing to be thankful for.

Frank Purdue died today.

And... The Pope isn't looking too good neither. That's genuinely sad news. There's a dude that did a lot of good, despite being hypocritical on a number of occasions, he did a lot of good things in his tenure... Moment of Silence...

Now onto... BASEBALL!!! Sunday night, Sox/Yanks, opening day. I'll be at La Cage Aux Sports swilling either Coors Light or Molson Ex as those are the only semi-palatable beers they have. But they have plenty of TV's, a big screen, and if all else fails... The bartender is fun to watch.

I'm also torn as to what to do tomorrow. I really want to go sign up for a membership at the local gym. But I am in desperate need of curtains for at least my bedroom. Preferably both of them. It gets brighter earlier which means that since my windows face east, I wake up to the blinding sun earlier and earlier every day. Not cool. So we'll see. I'm thinking I may go with the curtains, but we'll decide in the morning.

And that my friends is that for today.