CafeChatNoir

Once again, I have many things to be thankful for this year.  A spectacular little brother, food on the table (and enough to share - even better), a roof over my head, a great dog and terrific friends.

We’ve got a ton of food and enough to share with friends who are stuck working today and I’ll be packing up a dinner in a cooler tonight.

And yes, I laughed at the RickRoll in the Macy’s parade this morning.

Hope everyone has a great day.  Much love from the Group W bench.

If you missed Alice’s Restaurant Massacre on the radio this morning, you can hear it here.

Despite the barbecues and sales, I do genuinely beleive that the vast majority of Americans do understand the real reason for the long weekend.

Frankly, I’m not sure how you couldn’t understand - when every other day you turn on the news and there is another picture of a soldier in his dress uniform who has been killed in action, you know why we stop and remember the fallen. It may look like many are using the weekend as an escape, but when you’re near constantly reminded of the ultimate sacrifice made by so many, it starts to feel like every day is a Memorial day.

It might not always look like it, but people do take the time to remember.

Man, I love poppyseed bagels. (Has the medical establishment ever worked out that little “opium positive” quirk for poppyseeds? Or was that an urban legend all along?)

Ahhh, a new year. And so starts the race to see how quickly I can break my resolutions. I suppose I shouldn’t call them resolutions, they’re really more nice ideas that never get a lot of traction.  Maybe I just need to come up with better resolutions, like “drink more beer.”

I had a lovely evening sitting here with my kitty by my side.

I think I may save the champange and have mimosas tomorrow morning.

Much to be done in 2008.  I suppose I shouldn’t stay up until 3AM so I can get things off to a good start.

Child’s Play is at it again!

Over 45 participating hospitals around the world this year.  330K donated already this season, they’re shooting for 750K by Christmas.   There’s probably a children’s hospital near you that’s participating.

Little bro liked the turkey and had no arguments when I informed him that the leftovers were allllllllllllll his.

Other than the rolls being a touch *too* golden brown, everything was good.

Target, who normally doesn’t pay a bit of attention to any kind of human food, was rather perplexed. I lost count of how many times he walked into the kitchen, head high smelling the turkey, and then ate his food and looked at me as if to say, “Why doesn’t this taste like the rest of the kitchen smells??” At one point I had to put the roasting pan on “his” counter for a moment, and it’s a good thing it was only a moment, cause he was ready to take a header right into it. So, he got a tiny bit of turkey with his dinner and was a VERY happy cat.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Group W bench.

At the rate things are going, we’ll be eating around midnight, but we’ve never been big on hard and fast schedules around here.

As usual, the pub was packed last night - everyone comes into town and after about 3 hours realizes they’ve already had too much family time and then it’s time to escape for beer and sports.

Enjoy the day.

I just saw an advert for Kohl’s after Thanksgiving sale. Though I still do not want to hear a damn thing about Christmas until after Thursday, I can’t fault the stores for advertising the sales, as they have this little thing they like to do called staying in business.

What killed me is this - they’re opening at FOUR IN THE MORNING. I just can’t even fathom being up and at a store that early in the morning for anything or anyone. I’m fairly certain I don’t like anyone that much in the first place.

I realize that there are people that DO go out to these sales at the crack of dawn - what I can’t quite fathom is who and why. What gift or recipient is SO critical that you would get out and torture yourself that way? You’ve just survived a major family holiday and now you want to go deal with insane crowds and risk an elbow in the eye because some store only has 5 of this season’s hottest toy actually in stock?

For full disclosure, my brother & I usually venture out on Black Friday. Wander around, check out the Santa Claus to see if he’s decent and get a late lunch. It’s more a spectator event for us, never before noon, and I’m fairly certain I don’t remember a single time we’ve actually bought anything that day.

Hope everyone was able to get in touch with their inner Irishman today.

Sláinte.

Or Pancake Day, depending on from where you hail…

There will be pancakes here today, which could be interesting given that I can’t even remember the last time I made pancakes. If nothing else, there will be bacon - made up a bit of the paprika bacon I picked up from the butcher shop yesterday and it is GOOD. Properly thick sliced bacon is oh so, so good. Mmmm, bacon.

Nope, not Catholic - just appropriating the fun parts of Lenten season for myself.

Saw this come across the wires this morning: Twelve step program aims to cure email addiction. Put down the crackberry and back away slowly - you’re just not that important. I can only speak for myself but I’ve found over the years that when you’re having problems managing god knows how many emails, it’s usually because of carelessness on the part of the sender. How many emails have you gotten that have been sent to everyone and their brother and have absolutely nothing to do with you? Yet, you still have to take the time to read it and discover that it is meaningless. So, lets have some classes on how to properly send email so it gets to the necessary parties and doesn’t bother anyone else…

In other news, JetBlue is setting out a customer bill of rights. Now, I’m glad they’re addressing the problems on the tarmac from last week - this is a good thing. However, didn’t something like this happen just recently to another airline? (American, I think?) I’d say when something like that happens, even if it’s one of your competitors and not you, wouldn’t you want to have a little sit-down with folks and say, “Hey, what do we have in place to make sure something like that disaster doesn’t happen to our airline?”

I understand how they got out on the tarmacs in the first place - they got information (unfortunately incorrect) that the weather was going to change in short order and they’d be able to take off. OK, I can see going ahead and leaving the gate for that. However, I still can’t understand why it could take upwards of 8 to 11 hours to realize that the weather isn’t going to change after all… And I do understand that when you’ve got planes coming in, planes on the tarmac, a limited amount of gates you can get to, it becomes a logistical challenge to be sure. But dayum, have a hard go/no-go point and if it’s no-go, then get the wheels turning to get that plane back to the gate - don’t just sit there and keep hoping the weather will change.

from the “not so much into Valentine’s Day” side of things…  (SFW)

I know so many people that just despise today, but I’m not one of them. Sure, it’s marketed to the point of absurd, and no, I don’t think a guy should feel like he has to buy diamond earrings for someone on their first V-day together, but I like it nonetheless. And lord knows, I’ve been on my own more often than with someone over the years, and I still like it.

C’mon, it’s about love!!! And not just romantic love - my grandfather used to send me & my Mom Valentine’s day cards. (I always thought that was so sweet.) And then there was the Valentine’s Day Massacre of 2001 - about a dozen of us, a lot of Guinness and a LOT of love among friends.

Hell, be your own Valentine. Make yourself a nice dinner. Go snag that favorite bottle of wine and open it and enjoy it.

And as always, consider yourself smooched.

and a damn good one. Actually, it was one I had suggested earlier this week, but my brother apparently hadn’t heard me when I said it.

Next year, we’re going to Phoenix. We can get there a day or so before Christmas, leave the day after her birthday, she’s in HER house, her comfort zone, doesn’t have to travel, doesn’t have to worry about ANYTHING, we can drive her all over town, take her out to dinner every night if she wants and everyone will be much less stressed out in general. (And we get New Year’s back. Bonus.)

Sure, traveling so close to the holiday will be a little nuts, but still MUCH easier for us to head out there than for her to come here.

My brother is going to be the one to broach the subject to her - I think it will go over better coming from him than from me. Cause everything goes over better coming from him than from me.*

I am so very, very happy that he brought this up this evening, cause it had been going through my head. (And I swear I said it out loud earlier this week, but it could have also been the voices in my head.)

*Case in point: Her coffee cup is empty. She’ll start to get up (mind you cane + coffee cup = mildly awkward), and my brother will say he will get it and she says, “Yes, I think I’ll let you get this one.” I hop up and tell her I’ll get her a refill and I get, “Oh, you don’t need to be jumping up for me.” I am starting to think that I am making crap coffee for her.

We have to leave here to pick up my grandmother in approximately 20 hours. Now is not the time for the vacuum cleaner to break.

I’m in a completely foul mood and it will likely not change for the next two weeks.

I honestly can’t remember at this point when this time of year was actually about Christmas, instead of being about surviving my grandmother. Christmas is just this additional piece of stress on top of it that gets really no attention because everything has to be focused on her.

If I thought that she would ever accept that I have different priorities and just be happy to be here, it would be nice. Instead, it becomes putting aside everything that I care about to cater to her damn whims.

Makes for quite the meaningful holiday.

So, Christmas is in a week.

I’m still sick as a dog and trying to slog my way through getting things ready around here, with pauses to debate, “Pass out or throw up?”

I’ve been fucked over by a couple people I trusted. (You would think I would have learned with 34+ years on this planet to not trust people, but apparently not.)

My grandmother is pissed at me and she’s not even here yet.

What I need is about a week of uninterrupted sleep, which obviously, I won’t get.

Shit, and I JUST remembered that I have to meet with a contractor at 2PM. Rescheduled due to car trouble. Never thought I’d be happy for someone’s car crapping out.

God, I hate this time of year.

Everything sucks.

I’ve been sick all weekend. I have another contractor to meet with tomorrow. Still don’t have a replacement light for the lamppost. My DSL crapped out again and they are just sure it’s the modem and sending me a new one, which won’t arrive until Tuesday, so I am stuck on dialup or a hijacked connection. The earliest I would be able to switch over to cable would be January.

My grandmother called and gave me her flight info today. If she hadn’t done it before now, I would have asked her today anyway. Apparently I should have asked ages and ages ago from the attitude I got on the phone.

So help me god, if for some reason the storage container doesn’t get picked up on Tuesday like it should, I’m gonna have an aneurysm. I have a research abstract due on 12/31 - looks like I’ll be writing that during the wee hours of the nights over the next 2 weeks given that I don’t imagine my actually doing any work on it during the day will go over well.

God, things had better take a good turn here soon, cause I am at my wits end today.

, you need Christmas ideas? 4 more red wine glasses. Wegman’s has them in the downstairs wine shop for a reasonable $4 a pop. (Thing is, I almost bought 4 of them today when I was over there.)

Yes, I busted ANOTHER wine glass and again couldn’t do it in anything resembling a quiet incident. This time I was just trying to handwash one from last night and managed to drop it in the sink. And this time I managed to have a piece of it hit my finger and I had to have help me tape it up…

Of course, there was a bit of miscommunication when I called him up for assistance. Somehow all he heard was the part about “be careful with the garbage, there is broken glass in it” and missed the “I need help with not bleeding out” part - he is dutifully getting the trash bag tied up and out and I am standing there going, “Um, thanks, but I’m still bleeding.” “Huh? OH!”

And being the sympathetic sort he truly is, his next concern was that I had not somehow bled into dinner. No, dinner is safe. Goulash soup, tastes pretty good at the halfway point and smells heavenly.

ETA: This was all before any wine was actually consumed…

A slew of books are headed off to Children’s Hospital for Child’s Play, and I did my Toys for Tots shopping today. (, I’ve mislaid my camera - it’s 4 big squishy bears and a lion. If I can find it before I take them to dropoff tomorrow, I’ll get it posted.)

This is the part of Christmas I love. The rest of it doesn’t really matter.

So you don’t think I’ve gone completely mushy, I’m still fighting the urge to go out in the middle of the night and put some lawn ornaments in compromising positions…

Stumbled across this on my FoF list - pretty novel idea.

The Alternative Gift Catalogue

Someone has set up a community for it: Holiday Wishes

Easier than stalking your f-list.

This may end up sounding rather angry, but really, I’m feeling quite good about things right now.

So, I had a little revelation this evening, which has been years overdue, but hey, I always have been a procrastinator.

I’ve struggled with Christmas for many years. It’s not that I don’t like Christmas, I do. Lots of things I don’t like (Macy’s decorating before Halloween, people getting in fistfights in malls, the whole $$ spent on presents = love), but there are lots of good things. Giving. People actually being decent towards their fellow man, even if they can’t manage to carry it past New Year’s. Christmas cookies. Christmas lights. Spending time with people you care about. (Yeah, that goes on all year, but there’s something about it at Christmastime…)

The struggle comes with my grandmother. She has stayed for a month every year. This year, it’s only two weeks. We’ve never had anything really approaching a good relationship. I sort of understand the reasons, but she’s basically been a thorn in my side my whole life. How many 6 year olds ask their mother, “Why doesn’t grandma like me?” Yeah. There is nothing I can do that is right in her eyes - never has been. I’m used to it, but I still let it get to me. But it makes it incredibly difficult to enjoy a holiday when you have someone in your life who pretty much disapproves of everything you do, and lets you know it, and you can’t avoid them.

A while ago, I told someone who was letting some jackass get to them, “Do you really want to give them that kind of power to screw up your whole evening?” Hmmm, physician, heal thyself.

Tonight I decided, I don’t care anymore. When she arrives, I am sure she’ll find something wrong in the house in the first 24 hours. She will resent every time I leave the house, be it to go get groceries or actually go spend some time with friends. She will tell me “I’m trying to do too much” the minute something burns on the stove, and then obsess about the oven blowing up. I am sure she’ll have some choice words about my decision to go back to school. There will be fantastic dinners but the portions will be too large.

This is my life. The key word being there is MY. Not hers. If she doesn’t like what I do with my life, my time, my money or my house, that is HER problem. Not mine. Realistically, she has no power over me whatsoever - there is nothing she can do to me if she doesn’t like the way I live my life.

I will probably have to remind myself of this several times over the course of her visit. But, I like Christmas and I’m not letting it get fucked up yet again. I just want to enjoy this holiday, and I fully intend to.

Child’s Play

My absolute favorite Christmas shopping.

They’re now working with hospitals in the US, Canada, the UK, and one hospital in Egypt, and have managed over 1 million in donations of books, games & toys since 2003. Pretty spiffy.

And I, I walked over to the, to the bench there, and there is, Group W’s where they put you if you may not be moral enough to join the army after committing your special crime, and there was all kinds of mean nasty ugly looking people on the bench there. Mother rapers. Father stabbers. Father rapers! Father rapers sitting right there on the bench next to me! And they was mean and nasty and ugly and horrible crime-type guys sitting on the bench next to me. And the meanest, ugliest, nastiest one, the meanest father raper of them all, was coming over to me and he was mean ‘n’ ugly ‘n’ nasty ‘n’ horrible and all kind of things and he sat down next to me and said, “Kid, whad’ya get?” I said, “I didn’t get nothing, I had to pay $50 and pick up the garbage.” He said, “What were you arrested for, kid?” And I said, “Littering.” And they all moved away from me on the bench there, and the hairy eyeball and all kinds of mean nasty things, till I said, “And creating a nuisance.” And they all came back, shook my hand, and we had a great time on the bench, talkin about crime, mother stabbing, father raping, all kinds of groovy things that we was talking about on the bench.

Happy Thanksgiving, all.

Deep Fryer Mishap Destroys Mobile Home

Went and got lunch today and came home and crashed out hard - totally snoozed through the afternoon ride I had planned and when I got up, the storms were heading through. At first, I just figured the run & heat had taken a decent chunk out of me, but then I realized the problem. The problem is - I am a dumbass. I took sunscreen with me today, and neglected to actually put any of it on and hence, got a bit of a sunburn. Not lobster red by any means, and no pain, but I can tell it’s there - and that is what makes me sleep like a complete rock within an hour or so of getting in the house.

Assuming I don’t fall asleep on the couch again, I’ll spend the evening reassuring the dog that I will NOT let the fireworks outside get him. I wish he wasn’t afraid of the noises, cause I do miss being able to set fireworks off in the backyard.

The run today was fun, if warm - 77 degrees at the start with 63% humidity. Which you just don’t think of as being hot, until you’re moving in it. Then it’s freaking hot. But there were lots of little kids running and they were so fun to cheer on at the end - they have that great “I’m being chased by a monster” form that is just so adorable. The last of the race was a downhill, and it was so cute to watch their eyes light up when I would tell them “It’s really downhill!! I just did it!” (Amazing how quickly they learned that the volunteers will tell them anything to keep them going, but a lady with a race number is going to tell them what’s really up ahead.) One thing that just bugged the crap out of me was passing a father & son where the father was giving the kid a ton of crap about his form. Not, “Hey, bud, if you keep doing that, you’ll get shin splits, so try this” but more of the “You’re going to be the cross country star I never was” attitude. And the advice he was giving was bad. While I did resist the urge to give the guy a flying tackle as I went by, I might have muttered something about his information being incorrect as I passed.

It did bring something that I’ve always known in the back of my head into sharp focus, though. 21 years ago I did my first 5K, and managed to swing age group hardware to boot. My folks were both there for the race, my Dad riding his bike on the side streets of the course and tossing me wet towels (it was hotter than hell) and my Mom at the finish with big thermos of lemon honey tea. (The fine art of jockstrapping goes back many years.) I knew so many parents whose reaction to the race would have been, “Well, we’re signing you up for track/cross country now!” since the results were fairly good. Fortunately, mine knew that I wanted to do this for fun, to see if I could do it, and I did and had a good time and that was that. They were always so good about letting me do my own thing when it came to sports and such. Pretty much the only thing was if I started a season, I needed to at least stick it out. If at the end of the season I didn’t want to do whatever it was anymore, no problem.

I sure hope if I ever have kids I always remember that.