Baccharlnalia 2006
Carl. Mustaches were a little weak this year, but otherwise it was great!
Consolation
I've been watching this neat PBS series Philosophy: A Guide To Happiness from a few years ago. It's based on a book called The Consolations of Philosophy, which is definitely a more appropriate title. It's presented as a marginally cheesy self-help guide, but what I really like is knowing that people had all the same problems two thousand years ago.
I guess it is good to be reminded of things you already knew, like "buying lots of shit won't make you happy" and "make time for your friends, really" and "lower your expectations and bad drivers won't make you so crazy."
Dumery-Rie BBQ
Does walking 20 feet to the neighbors' backyard count as leaving the house? Spent most of my week off building cabinets; didn't take too many photos.
Switched back to RCN for cable today, and decided to upgrade my Internet connection while I was at it. I was skeptical that their new 20Mbps thing would really work (and so was the installer). But it does! I get a little more than 20Mbps down / 2Mbps up to their servers, 17.3 / 2 to a server in NYC.
So the bandwidth is here, why does on demand tv still suck? Why can't I legally download that old episode of Kidd Video? I'll pay!
Blah
Tough week at work. I wish I hadn't given away my "I Am Okay" self-affirmation poster, though I hear Moose is doing well.
I gave Rodney this poster a while ago but he didn't think it was that funny.
Bailey-Boiani Wedding
James and Kay got married! Good times were had, brisket and Coors Light were consumed. We finally met a couple of his high school buddies, and it was a good excuse to hang out with college friends we’re lame about seeing.
Stupid airline mangled two of our bags beyond repair. And infant in lap isn’t as good a deal as you think it is.
It's The Right Thing
Wow, thanks Carl for showing me my new favorite web site. Check out Plan59 for lots of not quite played out yet retro goodness.
Wee
I finally met Walter's posse today. I'm covered with drool, but had fun taking photos.
House Guest
An old friend rolled into town this weekend, drunk as hell. He polished off my Knob Creek, scared the kids at the park, urinated on my couch, and was gone when I woke up on Sunday. We've missed you, big guy.
Ralph XXXI
Ralph only likes to see us on his birthday, so it had been a while. Erik and Renee happened to be in town too, so they got a nice preview of parenthood. Good luck guys!
2. Always break up w/ girlfriend before faking own death. Keeps things simple.
3. Your boss' boss is a dick.
4. Badass secret agents trained in the art of death have feelings, too.
5. There's always a mole. Always.
6. America loves the torture.
Freaking Genius
I just tripled my productivity. Note the baby-distracting "decoy" keyboard directly in front of the "business" keyboard. Now the little homie can enjoy the full keyboard-mashing experience without unexpected application quits and file deletions.
Happy Birthday C
After last year's failed attempt to make a Casey-style birthday cake I settled on some fancy cupcakes. Went with genoise buttermilk cupcakes with firm ganache frosting from The Secrets of Baking. Man, that book has some complicated recipes...
New Year 2006
Wow, a lot's happened in the last year. New baby and job for us, Chris and Laurie got married and moved Back East. Then Seth and Hope got engaged today! It was good to catch up with everyone and toast to auld lang syne.
John's Xmas Party 2005
The bonfire was called off due to foul weather, but we had so much fun we almost forgot to take photos. It was a big year for procreation, with parents now in the majority! I'm glad we're not the only ones who don't go to the movies anymore.
Expecting
We got to see Amy, Kate, and the J’s tonight. Two more babies, any minute now!
Good show! He played a mix of groovy instrumental stuff and updated tracks from his rap album. Skipped out on Styrofoam so I can get up retardedly early and drive to NJ...
On the way home, the BBC was talking about some study showing that people with good memories just excel at filtering out useless information. Now it all makes sense, I'm a useless information sponge. The part of my brain that evolution carefully tuned for storing phone numbers isn't actually broken, it's just full of 80s television trivia. Could be worse.
I was a little surprised at the lack of political correctness, what with all the shotgun-wielding black guys terrorizing suburban families. Suburban families, of course, where little Kenny is secretly a hardcore drug user.
"10cc's of China White, speedballing with pure flake? [slapping, sobbing] Now maybe I can't save your tail man, or maybe I don't even want to... but I want Waxer's! [more sobbing] Now you don't tell me where I can find him, I'm gonna kick it until you do, buddy to buddy."
I don't know what that means, but it sure does rock coming from dewy-faced bad boy Johnny Depp. And remember Doug? He so crazy...
- Craig Finn is really, really drooly.
- Craig Finn loves the word hoodrat (okay, I already knew that).
- Thunderbirds Are Now have the most enthusiastic tambourine player in the world.
Food scientist 1: "I love French fries. I mean, GOD DAMN do I love French fries!"
Food scientist 2: "Amen, brother."
FS1: "Still, there's got to be a way to take it to the next level. If only we could crank the fat up, maybe double the sodium..."
FS2: "Whatever dude, that's impossible."
FS1: "Wait a minute, think about it. Shit, we could do this..."
FS2: "Meat."
FS1: "Chicken fries!"
Happy people. Happy people sitting, eating, watching, smiling. Ha ha, pathetic happy television people with their stupid special tables. Watching these people on my television, eating my dinner, on my couch. Except I'm the before picture. I have crumbs on my belly. And that free remote/snack organizer looks pretty useful...
Oscar
Erik and Renee were in town this weekend, so we got to meet Oscar!
I got a totally unexpected email from Alias of anticon recently, someone I hadn't spoken to in more than ten years. The really weird part is that I had been getting into Atmosphere recently, and discovered Sage Francis a few days before he got in touch. Little did I know that my music purchases were zeroing in on Brendon Whitney's corner of the world.
Anyway it's cool that he's making a career out of music. Walter and I have been head-bobbing to Alias, Sole, and Sage Francis tracks for a couple days now...