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2009-06-07T22:05:00.001-04:00

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My Life in Film: Part 2

2009-05-25T09:28:00.003-04:00

1983 - National Lampoons Vacation
The early 80s was a time when half of the movies produced were teen sex comedies...and since I was 11 in 1983, they were the movies I wanted to see the most because I wasn't supposed to. Sure I could have picked a number of movies from 1983...Eddie and the Cruisers, War Games, I recall going on a date of sorts to see Two of a Kind (remember, I was only 11 so that stands out in my mind, even if it was a girl movie)...and oh geez...Return of the Jedi came out that year. But it was a National Lampoons movie that wins the prize for this particular year (although I probably didn't see it until a couple of years later. I probably still shouldn't have seen it as early as I did. What teenager could ever forget the Christie Brinkley swimming pool scene. I would learn later that there were so many funny moments in that movie.

1984 Beverly Hills Cop
The list gets more difficult as I go through the 80s. There was Ghostbusters, Gremlins, The Karate Kid, the beginning of the Police Academy series, and another Star Trek movie…The Search for Spock…and a plot. But it was Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop that wins…funniest movie I had ever seen at the time with action to top the cake. The original BHC is still a favorite…others have tried and failed.

1985 Back to the Future
Sure, when most people think 1985, they think Brat Pack…Breakfast Club, St Elmo’s Fire, and Weird Science…there was also Rocky IV (the US vs the Soviet Union was an obvious shadow over that movie), and Rambo: First Blood Part II (doesn’t it seem like Stallone is always releasing Rocky and Rambo in the same year? Must be easier to only get in shape once for bothor those franchises). And Fletch could easily have won this year, but the original Back to the Future (now pretty much a classic) was THE movie that got me interested in time travel stories.

1986 Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Stallone was making Cobra, Eddie Murphy was the Golden Child, Star Trek took The Voyage Home, I remember going on another “kid” date to see Platoon of all movies (how did I get tickets to THAT at 14)…but Ferris Bueller took the day off. And because my brother was in high school with me for that one year…I took the day off too. Sometimes. But not too often. OK…maybe more often than I should have.

1987 Lethal Weapon
At the time, I think The Pick Up Artist with Robert Downey Jr was one of my favorite movies. I was trying to learn…I was 15. Superman IV had just disappointed me…Rocky had beat the Russians two years earlier so we didn’t need Superman for that. Although Mel Gibson is apparently an ass in real life, the original Lethal Weapon defined the buddy cop action comedy movie to me, and that genre would continue to interest me for years.

1988 Die Hard
I’d like to give some credit here to Rain Man and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, each which could have won if it weren’t for the introduction of John McClane in the original Die Hard. The was my action movie phase…when action movies were allowed to receive an R rating…when society wasn’t so sensitive and everything had to be “kid friendly”. It’s an action movie…with killing and swearing and explosions. It’s not supposed to be “kid friendly”. Stop ruining my favorite genre movie studios…take chances like 2008’s Rambo did.

1989 See No Evil, Hear No Evil
A lot of sequels came out this year. Back to the Future II was good, but not quite as good as the original. Batman came to the big screen that year as well, but it’s been done better now so it doesn’t get credit. I choose See No Evil, Hear No Evil because out of the list I’m using of movies from 1989, it was just funny. Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder, neither of which I had enjoyed in movies before, cracked me up as a “blind guy” and a “deaf guy” caught up in a wacky caper. If you’ve never seen it, it’s worth a rental.

1990 Back to the Future III and Die Hard 2
Sorry…I’m picking two for this year. It’s my prerogative…and I’ll do what I want to do. I loved Ghost…who didn’t in 1990? Another 48 hours reunited Murphy and Nolte, which was awesome, but much like the original 48 hours. The 5th Rocky movie doesn’t even exist. And sure…Arnold made Total Recall, which was pretty awesome, but at 18, I was sticking by my favorite franchises and loving them.

1991 Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
I was going to give this to Terminator 2, but I probably enjoyed the Star Trek movie more at that age. Trek VI also was the end of the original series Trek movies and a new beginning for the movie franchise would soon begin. That kind of gives it something of a win in a category of memorables. I also moved away from home and joined the military at the end of 1991 making it the end of a chapter of my life and the beginning of a new chapter would follow….the “Undiscovered Country” indeed.

1992 Waynes World
Sure, I was officially an adult off on his own for the first time; I was in the military, but spent 2 months of this year in Basic Training and another 8 months in tech school. Sure, I was studying a lot during the week (they say the amount of material covered is equivalent to 4 years of college in 8 months), but the weekends are a bit of a blur. If you were there…you know why.

So that's the second decade for me. Comments anyone?

More Creepy Crawlys

2009-05-24T08:25:00.000-04:00

Just when we thought the house of clear of pests with the "removal" of the mice, we find ourselves inundated with much smaller crawlies in the form of PAVEMENT ANTS. At least with a mouse, you can snap them into a trap and get rid of them quickly and quietly. The pavement ants apparently have a colony of up to 4000 and they bite. I know because one bit me and left a red itchy welt which has since gone away. I thought it was a spider bite, but no...no wall crawling and web spinning for me. If I turned into what bit me, I would simply turn into a pest that looks like this.

So once again, I throw my hands up in surrender and spend more money on something I have no choice over...it's exterminator time. And what BETTER time to lay poison down in the house, than 5 weeks from having a baby!!! Good thing there will be plenty of time to air things out before that happens.

Oh look...there are two in my sink right now. GET THEM!

My Life in Film: Part 1

2009-05-21T21:04:00.022-04:00

A list of the movies that had some impact or has left me with a memory of some sort. I will break this up into chunks by decade.

1972 - The New Scooby Doo Movies
Although not really movies, this is what I watched every morning before school for a long time. This and the 1960s Batman television show.

1973 - The Exorcist
To date, one of the scariest movies I have ever seen and I still will not watch devil possession movies because of this. No picture here because it was creeping me out.

1974 - Magnum Force
Dirty Harry Callahan...the first cop movie hero that wasn't really a hero in that he didn't follow the rules.

1975 - The Rocky Horror Picture Show
I've only seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show once, and that was THIS night...at a strip mall in Biloxi, MS at midnight in 1992.

1976 - Rocky
Because it's Rocky and who didn't love Stallone movies of the 70s and 80s

1977 - Star Wars Episode IV
Remember when we all wondered why Star Wars started with Episode IV?

is this a boring and predictable list?

1978 - Superman
The original Christopher Reeve version of Superman is still one of the best Superman movies and it did not spend hours on the origin that everyone already knows. I'm stillreading new Superman comics today.

1979 - Escpape from Alcatraz
Although my obvious choice here would have been Star Trek: The Motion Picture, that was a REALLY boring movie. Escape fromAlcatraz was just pure gritty prison escape.

1980 - The Empire Strikes Back and Superman II
Is it possible that both of those movies came out the same year? I can't possibly be expected to pick just one and I don't have to. Best Star Wars movie and Best Superman.

1981 - Raiders of the Lost Ark
Of all the movies in 1981, I only choose Raiders over Taps and Stripes because I remember going to see the first Indy flick with my grandmother. I actually didn't love the movie. Taps was a much better movie. Stripes was just funny.

1982 - Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
So now I'll pull out Star Trek for my last pick of this decade...one of the best Trek movies of all time. But what about 48 Hours, First Blood, and Rocky III? This was a great movie year.

New Carpet for Baby's Room

2009-05-13T15:31:00.005-04:00

We're getting closer to this whole new person in our house that we're totally responsible for, and we're finally getting his bedroom together. On Monday, we had the carpet installed in his room and it looks fantastic...nicest room in our house now.

Nathan is not even born yet and he gets the best room...he's already the king. Funny how that works. I know there is no furniture in here yet and no decorations on the walls...we're not going to make him sleep on the floor...all of that is coming on Friday this week. we'll decorate on Saturday and hopefully be done by Sunday.

I know...seems like I've been working on this room forever. It is third time in as many years that it's been painted. Once because Katharine wanted it to be a purple color that she liked. That turned out pink. Then we decided it was an office and it should be a darker color...like brown. And brown was OK, but pretty dark and a little dank. And now it's a baby room, so it's happy colors and jungle animals.

This is just a preview since it's not done yet...more on this over the weekend when it's more decorated!

Monty's Latest Visit to the Emergency Vet (Not for the Squemish)

2009-05-01T20:39:00.010-04:00

Monty is a clumsy dog. I think I've talked about this before...how he runs around the yard in the rain and slips and falls. And how he jumps up and down like a jumping bean, only to slip on the kitchen floor and fall like Bambi on the ice. Oh, and that one time when he tried to jump into the back of our car before the door was open and whacked his spine on the corner of the door...bruising his back. So right now, Monty is walking around with a bandage on his back right paw...and I'll tell you why.

Thursday night, Monty was running around the yard like he always does, and when he came back into the house, puddles of blood formed around his back paw. I tried to get a hold of said paw, but he kept moving away from me...walking around the kitchen...slipping and sliding on his own blood. He pretty much turned my kitchen into a scene from a horror movie (I have pictures, but I've refrained from posting them). I tried to catch up to him so I could put pressure on his paw, which was literally spurting blood as I called the vet to find out what else I was supposed to do. Not easy to make phone calls while you're putting pressure on a paw spurting blood. I finally got the blood to stop after applying pressure for about 15 minutes and Monty laid down on the floor for about a half hour after that. When I walked away from him in the direction of his food...a hungry Monty jumped up to his feet and whoosh...more blood. Spurt...spurt...spurt. Back to the kitchen that I had already cleaned once for more bloodbath. It stopped again with additional pressure. The vet had previously instructed me to put pressure to stop the bleeding and put him in his crate for the night so he would be lying down and that I should bring him to a vet in the morning if it continued to bleed. To make a long story short...it did continue to bleed throughout the night...we brought him in first thing in the morning, and about $300 later, we discovered that he punctured an artery in his paw.

So after spending all day Friday at the Emergency Vet, Monty is now lying comfortable on his pillow with his paw bandaged, complete with antibiotics and pain meds in his system. He's tired...he's had a long weekend.

34 Issues of the Current Run of Superman Comics

2009-04-27T20:43:00.005-04:00

I just thought I would share my good fortune to have found every issue of the comic series I was just looking for in it's complete current run on Ebay for $21.50. That's right...Superman Comics #650 - 683 plus an Annual for $21.50 which would normally run $119 if I bought each one in a comic book store.

Now typically I don't read the mainstream Marvel and DC superhero books, but for this price, and because I've always been a Superman fan, I'll certainly make an exception.

Those Annoying Alarmy Things at the Front of Most Stores

2009-04-25T16:24:00.000-04:00

Does anyone know why they have those magnetic alarms at the front of department stores?

Does anyone really pay attention to them when they go off? When I've been in stores such as Best Buy and Target, I have witnessed, when people walk out the door through the security gate and set off those alarms...nobody even looks. Some of the stores that have those theft indicators even have security guards, whose sole job it is to stop you from stealing and they don't even look up when the annoying beeps sound. Maybe those guards know that the person at the register usually forgets to demagnetize the security tab or that the demagnetizing machine at the register usually doesn't work. What's stopping people from taking things (aside from general honesty of course)?

I went to a club once that had the same kind of thing only it was a metal detector. It was 3AM...it was an "after hours" club and the detector was going off like crazy...people kept shuffling in. Nobody stopped them to check. So it seems, whether you're sneaking something out or sneaking something in, this type of detector deters NO ONE! I guess I feel the same way about car alarms and virus protection. All useless tools that nobody pays attention to, so why do they exist?

Records, 8-Track, and Cassettes

2009-04-22T23:29:00.000-04:00

When a band releases new music, it is referred to as an album. An album used to be a phonographic record, but has now been updated to be defined as "A set of musical recordings stored together in jackets under one binding". As time marches on, people will forget that music used to be released only on vinyl albums. I barely remember it myself. I may not even be right, but this is my space so I can say whatever I want.

My parents had albums...a few of which I can recall included Roger Miller (King of the Road is the only song I can remember off of it), The Bee Gees (maybe it was the Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack), Kenny Rogers something or other, and likely Elvis. Myself...I had KISS Double Platinum in vinyl...and later on it was a DOUBLE CASSETTE. Somewhere in the middle, I had Aerosmith's original album on 8-Track.

I'm not telling you all this to age myself...I think it's fascinating to see how the release of music has changed in my lifetime alone and wonder how it will change again. Digital downloads through iTunes and other such services are the thing of today. I owned Twisted Sister "Stay Hungry" and Quiet Riot "Metal Health" on cassette...I now own them in CD quality digital download formats via iTunes. Oh...in all the confusion, I forgot about CDs. I swore I would never rebuy my cassettes on CDs...I lied. I guess it's the same as not rebuying all my VHS tapes on DVD. I lied about that too.

It's fascinating to me that not only can you find popular artists from yesterday all over the Internet today, but that so much more music is available from independent artists such as Hope Roth, who I happen to know personally and recommend that you buy her album from iTunes. See how I did that? I promise you that this was not paid advertisement...I bought a copy myself and it's quite good.

Maybe one day, if you're lucky, the new music format will be "beamed directly into your brain" out of thin air just by thinking about a particular artist. And after that...who knows!?

Painting the Baby's Room

2009-03-15T18:56:00.009-04:00

The only thing harder than trying to name a baby boy (which we've already done) is to figure out how you want to decorate his nursery. Yeah, I'm one of those husbands that wants a vote. So last week I bought some paint...I bought a quart because I'm also one of those people that doesn't think you can tell what a paint color looks like in a 2'x2' square. So I bought this dark green paint. And then Katharine and I went to Babies R Us and figured out that we were going to go with a jungle theme...and that the dark green paint might be a bit too dark. It totally would have gone with the furniture we picked out, which looks like this:

But it wouldn't have gone as well with the wall decals, and decorations we've chosen, which look something like this:

We kind of felt like that was going to make for a dark room so we started looking at lighter and brighter paints. Afterall...he's a baby and he's going to like bright colors. So I went back to the paint store today and bought another quart of paint...another "test" color, and I slapped that on the wall today. It's hard to tell from this picture because it doesn't look exactly like this on the wall and dry (it actually looks more yellow in the picture, but it's not). This is the green we're going with.

I'm totally standing on a ladder here...I'm not a giant.

Hopefully it'll all go together well enought. And maybe we'll use the dark green for something...you never know.

A Little Something About Lily

2009-03-14T19:12:00.002-04:00

Katharine and I had the misfortune of having to say goodbye to our cat Lily this weekend. Instead of trying to write something myself, I thought it better to let Katharine tell you a little something about about her:

http://letmetellyouaboutmy.blogspot.com/2009/03/heart-break.html

Although Lily and I didn't always get along (you'll see what I mean when you read Katharine's post), she was part of our family and I will miss her.

10 Years and Counting

2009-03-05T19:21:00.009-05:00

Recently I attended a luncheon celebrating the 10 years that I've been at my job. I wasn't sure I really wanted to go, but it turned out to be fun (thanks in part to the friends that were also in attendance). Out of the approximately 80 people there, we found ourselves sitting next to the university president, and I believe it made the luncheon a bit more interesting that it would have been if we hadn't. He made a comment about waiting to sit because nobody wants to sit with him...having been in the military and working alongside squadron commanders/high level military officers, I've never been one to shy away from those in positions of authority in any organization. Whatever. He's a person...I'm a person.

I had butternut squash ravioli on top of some vegetable thingy, a glass of wine to go with that, and finished it off with a chocolate cannoli. Oh...and I almost forgot the marble bookends commemorating 10 years of service (on either side of my coffee...which is totally Starbucks because it's cheaper than Dunkin Donuts).

Catwalks, Attics, and Rooftops

2009-03-04T17:11:00.000-05:00

Anyone that thinks the job of IT management is glamorous, wasn't with me the other day when I found myself spelunking around in the attic area above one of the largest campus auditoriums. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Part of my job deals with maintaining AV systems in technology classrooms and working with such vendors to install new equipment. There was a problem in this particular auditorium and we were trying to get some work done in short time. To know if this was possible, we needed to investigate the "crawl space" above said auditorium. Getting there was an adventure. It started with a climb up this ladder. Shouldn't I be wearing a safety harness?

This was only the first part of the obstacle course. The second part of the challenge required me to whack my head on a steel beam in one of the musty passageways. THUMP! This is a recreation of the actual whacking of the head.

It's true...I asked someone to take pictures simply so I could post them here. So along I walked with a small group of people...feeling like we we were in the type of space you would see in a Saw movie, and nobody was more surprised than me to open the next particular door and find myself outside on the rooftop...the day after a major snowstorm!

I don't know if you know me or not, but I'm not a particular fan of heights, and you don't get much higher than a building rooftop...again, without safety gear. Sure I'm exaggerating this a bit, but what's a blog post without slight exaggeration, hmmm?

Spellcheck Fail

2009-03-03T20:44:00.005-05:00

Hahahaha. No seriously. I know that we all rely on spellcheck a little too much these days. As a matter of fact, it's likely that I'll spell something wrong right here and now because I'm making fun on this. But seriously still...if I'm a sign maker...which I'm not. Wouldn't I be more careful than this?

This is real. I'd tell you where it is in Massachusetts, but that would be mean. It is definitely at a Dunkin Donuts near me. Can't see it? It took me a few tries too. Don't just look at it...really read it! Hahaha.

Sports Games

2009-02-23T08:25:00.006-05:00

If you know me at all personally, you know that I hate sports. Hate sports. I don't usually care which team wins the World Series, the Superbowl, the Stanley Cup (if there even is a Stanley Cup anymore), and whatever it is that basketball has...but for some reason playing certain sports games are fun. I recently picked up NBA2K9 for the XBOX 360 (for free since I traded in a few games I was finished with) and I've played several games. One of the fun parts is that you can save clips from your game online and share them. How fun is that?! You can also edit them to look like professional footage...like this one for example. My first ever dunk in the game:

http://community.2ksports.com/community/media/viewer.cfm?mediaid=21187

And my win against a real person who shall remain nameless because I don't even care that I won the game. It's only cool because it happened in the last tenth of a second as you can see by the slow motion replay:

http://community.2ksports.com/community/media/viewer.cfm?mediaid=21186

As cool as this is...there's no need to worry; I still hate sports.

The Baby is a...Don't Read this Post if You Don't Appreciate a Good Spoiler

2009-02-20T13:56:00.008-05:00

Katharine and I went the other day to find out the sex of our baby that is due sometime around June. Neither one of us really cared whether we would have a son or a daughter...I think we each had reasons for wanting a boy and an equal number of reasons for wanting a girl. So we poked and prodded at the baby until he revealed his gender to...oh...I just gave it away, didn't I? :-P

It's true...we're having a baby boy. We're going to have a son. It took a little while to get the answer. I think he was hiding on purpose...he must get his stubborn streak from his grandfather and great-grandfather. It certainly is not from me. He even apparently yelled at us to stop looking through his window at him.

Or maybe he's just yawning.

For me, there's all kinds of weirdness now in knowing what my child is going to be. I never thought I'd be planning a future for my son...especially not before he was born...and that's what I've been doing since Wednesday. We've started planning out a nursery, and buying books, and thinking about what baby's first comic book is going to be...and which sports/activities he might participate in. Yeah, it is all a little premature, I know, but it's kind of fun and it'll make things easier later.

No Heat

2009-02-16T02:28:00.002-05:00

I sit here awake at 2am on a Sunday night with a hoodie sweatshirt on in my bedroom. Katharine is under 4...or is it 5 blankets now, trying to keep herself and baby warm. The dog and cat are covered too. We're waiting for an oil company service technician because we have no heat and the temperature is dropping in the house. It's not FREEZING yet, but we don't want it to get to that point...pipes filled with water being what they are and all. Hopefully it's something stupid and we end up paying $150 for a fuse or something. Yeah, it's $150 for a half hour and $30 each additional 15 minutes so I hope the tech works fast. And if the furnace is dead...well, that will suck, now won't it? Why doesn't this sort of thing happen in the summer? Oh right...we don't use heat in the summer...how would we know.

Pink or Blue?

2009-02-03T21:32:00.002-05:00

The baby is not due until June, but we're only 14 days away from finding out if we're having a boy or a girl. Two weeks left before the great reveal...probably one of the biggest surprises I'll ever have. The big question on everyone's mind...do I want a boy or a girl? Most people are guessing girl at this point, but Katharine and I don't even have a guess.

I know that everyone says that they don't care as long as the baby is healthy, and I agree with that. I honestly don't have a preference. It seems that most guys want boys so they have a son to do boy stuff with. It also seems that most girls seem to want girls so they have a daughter to buy girly stuff for. We already know that we're not having twins (unless one is hiding) so it's going to be one or the other. We have a boy's name locked in already...we're not sharing quite yet. We're down to 3 girl's names at this point...having trouble settling on the one that sounds the best. If we really get stuck on the girl name and we find out we need it, we might put it out there at some point for opinions so we can blame other people if she grows up hating her name.

We haven't bought a lot of stuff yet because we're waiting for the pink or blue question to be answered first. After that mystery is settled, we're off to the store to figure out all of the baby stuff we'll need to get by. And then it's all the other planning...building the baby's room, figuring out schedules, daycare, and college. I'd say that I'm getting used to getting little sleep, but I've ALWAYS gotten little sleep...since I was a teenager. There's so much to do in a day...you can use all of the awake time you can get. That reminds me...there are about 100 things I should be doing right now, so I better get to it.

Some Drunken Idiot Hit My Mailbox

2009-01-25T20:22:00.010-05:00

It anything but a typical Sunday morning. It was the first time in weeks that it wasn't snowing and I was planning to go on my weekly shopping excursion. It was cold...I think it was 8 degrees when I woke up to the sound of a tire spinning out of control. WHIR. WHIZ. ZREEEP. That was not the sound my alarm clock.

I jumped out of bed and looked out the window to see a large pickup truck spinning it tires, stretched across my driveway...inches from my car and next to my obliterated mailbox. Don't believe me? Check this out.

I ran out to find out what had happened and there's this young guy who explains that his brother was at my neighbor's house for a party the previous evening and he apparently was too drunk to drive, so he asked his brother to get his truck. Apparently, the brother realized he was too drunk to drive AFTER he jumped a giant snowbank and ran down my mailbox. Poor judgment on his part I think.

So here I am, trying to help this guy remove his brother's truck from my property. We're shoveling, sanding, and salting. And then I learn that the truck is out of gas. OK, it was bad enough that he crashed my property to pieces, but we couldn't remove his vehicle because it was OUT OF GAS. I don't know about you, but this makes me think that the guy is just an idiot and I'm ashamed of my neighbor (who is a nice guy) for being friends with such a loser.

After an hour of trying to dig out this car, I demanded that we waked up my neighbor...the one who had the party...and see if he can tow the truck out of my yard. Both of my cars were trapped. So that's what we did...and he did...and then my neighbor promised to take care of the mailbox. I wonder what that means? And how am I supposed to get my mail in the meantime? I don't think they'll deliver to THIS.

Thanks to Ethan for the photographic evidence.

The Oldest People in the Theater

2009-01-25T20:01:00.007-05:00

Last night, we went with friends to see My Bloody Valentine in 3D...it was the good 3D and not that crappy blue and red glasses 3D. So we sat down in our seats, and I looked around the room to realize that we were likely the oldest people in the theater. Seriously, this was a rated R movie...nobody under 17 admitted without a parent or guardian. I didn't see a hell of a lot of parents or guardians, but there were a plethora of children under 17.

Anyway...we enjoyed the movie, and the 3D was fantastic. The story is actually a good slasher story with a suspenseful ending...and there was full frontal 3D gratuitous nudity and gore, so if you're squemish about that sort of thing, so be warned. Have you seen any good horror movies lately? Or maybe you have thoughts about this particular horror story. Do comment.

I {HEART} Peanut Butter

2009-01-21T23:26:00.006-05:00

If you're like me, you love peanut butter. And now our government is telling us that the Peanut Corp. of America plant in Blakely, Ga has been responsible for producing peanut butter products loaded with salmonela. To be fair...I don't know if something can actually be "loaded" with salmonela, but apparently just having it is enough. This is hitting me hard.

My favorite candy is Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, my favorite sandwich is Peanut Butter and Jelly, My cereal of choice is Peanut Butter Crunch, and my dog loves peanut butter buscuits. I know that some of this has not been recalled...yet...but I don't want to find out the hard way that one of my products has been recalled later. Does that mean I can't eat peanut butter this year at all? There are peanut butter products on the shelf that will last months. What about thai peanut sauce? Crap, I had that for lunch today without even thinking about it. Is there a way to tell if your peanut butter product was born at the Peanut Corp. of America plant in Blakely, Ga? As it is...I lived in Georgia for a few years and hated it...now I have a new reason to hate it.

Thankfully, the FDA has now published a searchable list of recalled products for those that are still willing to eat peanut butter products...and here it is:

http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/peanutbutterrecall/index.cfm

Good luck to all of my fellow peanut butter eaters! Let's hope this gets resolved at some point soon. At least I can still eat Planters Mixed Nuts...or can I? How is this peanut butter recall affecting you?

Hong Kong Boston, The Best Karaoke Crowd in Town

2009-01-19T12:18:00.000-05:00

If you haven't already figured out by the article I just posted 3 days ago, "Jeff with a Microphone", I like to sing. I like to sing even more in front of a crowd. Because I have no original music talent and can't perform songs that I might write myself, I turn to karaoke to get my fix. My venue of choice...at least once a month since last October (and sometimes twice) I spend about 5 hours at the Hong Kong in Boston's Fanueil Hall.

What's nice about going there, is that now I'm a regular. I know the DJ, the waitresses, one of the bartenders, a couple of the bouncers, and the manager. If I'm lucky, I get to sing 5 or 6 songs per night, but it's usually more like 7 or 8 since I now know other regulars and they'll invite me to sing with them. The waitress knows to start bringing water at the end of the night (which wasn't the case last week when there was a different waitress which is likely why I had a headache the next morning). Typically when I go, I usually go with my cousin...sometimes with another friend of mine...and we always make friends with strangers. There hasn't been a night yet, where that didn't happen. Everyone cheers on everyone, which makes it more fun. Nobody is really annoyed when someone sings something horrible, which means you can experiment a bit and still get support.

My songs of choice, lately have been mostly 80s songs...some 90s...nothing recent. A typical playlist for me includes: Mr Jones by Counting Crows, Nothin But a Good Time by Poison, Pour Some Sugar on Me by Def Leppard, We're Not Gonna Take It by Twisted Sister, and a variety of others. Last week, I was invited up to sing Mr Robto by Styx, oh...and we will never sing Guns N Roses again...right David?

Jeff with a Microphone

2009-01-16T08:05:00.001-05:00

It has been brought to my attention that half of the pictures I take are pictures of me in some way, shape, or form, holding a microphone. I am not a professional singer, but apparently I play one in bars, clubs, and at parties (oh, and in my living room now, thanks to Rock Band)....even more apparent is the fact that I've been doing this for years.

So I have decided to browse through my history in photos and find every instace in which I'm holding a microphone. I thought it would be fun to present some of them here (if I posted all of them, we'd be here all day). Don't worry...there won't be any audio included in this feature.

In 1992 at Keesler AFB, Biloxi MS, with Bob.

With the band at a squadron party, also at Keesler AFB later in 1992

A cruise ship on the North Sea in 1993 on my way to England from Holland. I think I may have presented a challenge to the person that was singing before me here.

Why do I always have to be singing to have a microphone. Here, I'm giving the toast at my brother's wedding in 1994.

Wait...this is Jeff with a Hulahoop. Skip this one.

Yup...karaoke again in 2007 in Boston.

And 2008 at the Hong Kong with a crowd looking on.

And it didn't take me long to jump right into to 2009 following a pattern.

SO yeah, I guess you could say that I've always got a mic in my hand...how could I argue with all of this evidence.

Commentary on the Bathroom Vending Machine at the Purple Shamrock

2009-01-15T23:59:00.001-05:00

Going where no other news correspondent dares to go...I must discuss with you the vending machine I discovered in the Men's bathroom at the Purple Shamrock in Boston. Now it's not the first time I've seen such a vending machine, but I don't typically have a camera with me and this time I did. This is the ONLY picture I took in said restroom.

So here it is. Let's discuss the variety of items here and how I imagine that the bar hopes they all go together.

Tic Tacs. Obviously...nobody wants to have bad breath when you're chatting someone up in a bar. That makes sense, right? I don't get the need for two different selections of the same flavor, but perhaps they couldn't think of a fourth item that went with the other three.

Condoms. Another obvious one...after you've chatted up that newfound focus of your attention and you're all drunk enough, you'll want to take them home. Sometimes you'll be sober and want to take them home too, but whatever...the story isn't fun that way.

Tylenol. And not just ANY Tylenol, but EXTRA STRENGTH. This one is strategic. You've taken your Tic Tacs, convinced someone somehow that the condom you've pulled from a vending machine for a dollar is safe to use, and at that last minute...they have a headache. {POP}...there's no need to fear TYLENOL is here! And not just ANY Tylenol, but EXTRA STRENGTH Tylenol.

And there you have it. I wonder if they have similar vending machines in the Women's room. Maybe someone that has been in there will write a commentary on that.

He's Having a Baby

2009-01-11T11:29:00.013-05:00

It's a new year and I'll start right off by talking about something that's happening that's going to make this year unlike any year I've ever lived. I'm having a baby for those that didn't already know. Well, technically I'm not having the baby, but it I am indeed expecting a baby. This will be my first baby ever, so it's all pretty exciting and interesting and I'm sure that I will document a lot of this. I'll try not to make it the ONLY thing I talk about here so as to not bore those that don't care. I understand that some people don't care, and that's OK...I'm not offended. It's possible that one day, the baby will go back and read all this content that I've posted over the years...I would if my parents had done it. I won't count on it.

So here are things I've learned so far about having a baby:

Everyone wants to tell my wife horrible stories about their pregnancy. Please don't. It doesn't help, it's not cute or funny to tell horror stories...it only causes worry. Everyone likes to tell you all the horrible things about having a baby and nothing about the wonderful parts. I'm sure there are good things, right people with kids? If it was all horrible, there wouldn't be a point other than to keep our wondrous planet populated and that's not a good enough reason.

Most other women treat the husband/father like he's not part of the process. This isn't particulary true with my immediate circle of friends (thank you), but generally it's true. I have been treated in some cases like Katharine is having a baby without me and I'm supposed to totally focus on her. Now, it's true that she needs extra support and attention because she has to grow a human being, which is a pretty big and important job, but seriously people...she still has to go on with daily life as well. She can do (and does) a lot for herself, although she attempts the, "can you do this because I'm pregnant" when she doesn't feel like doing something, she knows and accepts that she's not going to get away with it. I clean the litter like I'm supposed to...I've been shoveling the snow mostly on my own...but Katharine can still do things like take the dog out in the yard and carry all of my heavy stuff (haha). She knows what I'm talking about and thankfully she's reasonable.

Daycare is expensive. Yeah, we've already started looking at daycare 5 months ahead of time because we were told to. Holy crap...it's $275 a week for a few days a week! So here's something you really don't want to skimp on, right? Nobody is looking for bargains when it comes to who is going to raise your kids while you're away. The jury is still out on this one.

3D ultrasound is pretty awesome. I wasn't supposed to see the 3D ultrasound...it was way too early and frankly, the baby looked like a cross between an alien and Skeletor, but the ultrasound tech was nice to me and showed me anyway. And gave me a picture...although the baby was covering his/her face with his/her arm.

A lot of people want to name your baby. I will happily listen to your suggestions, but when it comes to the actual naming, we're going to own that responsibility. If I can name a Warcraft character, I can name a human being. Here are my rules for names so far. Make sure I know what the initials spell and what nicknames that other kids will come up with because kids can be cruel. This coming with experience from the guy whose middle name is Howard...which was always linked with "the Duck" as soon as anyone heard what my middle name was. There...now you all know.

Everyone wants to touch Katharine immediately when they see her. Yeah...not OK, and you all know it, so stop doing it unless you ask first.

Everyone wants to feed the baby...he/she is not born yet...Katharine's got that job under control

Last thought for now...I want to know what it is so I can stop calling my child "it"...and so I can start buying him/her toys. Everyone has an opinion on what it will be too. I'll know soon because I'm impatient. Some have asked, "Don't you want it to be a surprise"? Sure I do...the day that I find out, it's still the same surprise only 4 months earlier. Anyway...isn't it a boy or a girl? No suprise there. The pictures here are from a month ago already...we'll get more in the middle of February when we find out the answer to the big question.

Do you have anything going on in your life that will make this year different than any other? New baby? New relationships? New house? New job? Whatever. Let's hear it!