Saturday, March 31, 2012

It is Spring

Sure it's chilly out, but it is definitely Spring!

BBQ

I picked up a new can of gas for the gas grill today. We are about to start cooking steak on the grill.

I saw two blue jays, a little yellow finch, and a little chickadee. Of course they had all bailed on me by the time I got my camera.

It seems the hawk hasn't scared anyone off yet.

Back yard bird photo goals for spring/summer 2012:

A cardinal (after I kept missing them last year)
That little yellow finch
Oh yeah, and that HUGE FREAKIN' HAWK!!!

What Will They Think of Next

A cup holder on a supermarket shopping cart?

What will they think of next?

Lunch

We ate Thai for lunch. I did NOT want a lemon in my soda.

Watch the Birdie

I got up this morning a little after sunrise. When I looked out the window into the back woods I saw the hawk again.

Maybe this summer the birds using our bird feeder will have more to worry about than the squirrels.

The plan for this weekend is simple: finish reading The Hunger Games as fast as possible so that my beautiful wife Jen and I can go see the movie together.

That and maybe try to grill up some dinner on the gas grill, if the weather cooperates. That's it.

Lazy weekends are sometimes the best weekends, don't you think?

Friday, March 30, 2012

Italian

New favorite Italian restaurant?

Lottery Madness

I just bought a mega-millions ticket at what might be the luckiest store in the state, the Mobile station on the MA/NH line on route 28.

It is mobbed in there, and channel 5's news truck is watching the whole thing.

The Love of My Life

I love my wife very much, and I am also extremely proud of her. She is amazing.

Birthday

Hey, today is God's Birthday!

No, not that God... Eric Clapton!



Here are a few Cream videos from 1967ish to celebrate!







Happy 67th birthday to Eric Clapton.

Ron B Makes an Announcement

If this doesn't make you the happiest person in whatever town you are currently in, then you have no soul and you are a communist and you think Hitler was a swell guy...



Anchorman 2, anyone?

March Payday

I get paid once a month.  It's not so bad usually, but for some reason the March payday is painful.

In December you blow all of your money on Christmas but we get paid at the end of the month, so it's almost like emergency medical care... the paycheck comes right when you need it most.  It goes fast though as you have more bills to pay in January due to Christmas-on-Credit, but when January's paycheck comes it is accompanied by my company's annual bonus, so January's paycheck takes care of pretty much all of the Christmas troubles.  Following that, February's paycheck comes seemingly immediately because February is a short month.  Granted, it's not that much shorter, but somehow it always seems like the paycheck comes fast.

Then there's March.

31 days.  It seems like the longest month of the year.  It seems like 100 years goes by between getting paid in February and getting paid in March.  It's only 2-3 days longer, but it seems like a lifetime.  It seems like the entire family economy... hell, the entire economy of the United States of America hangs in the balance, waiting for the end of March to arrive.

Perception is a bitch, you know?

Today is payday.

>insert sigh of relief here<

Thursday, March 29, 2012

An App of an Evening

I was listening to the Bruins game on the NHL iPad app and reading World War Z on the iBooks app when Washington broke the 0-0 tie in the third period. My wife and step daughter have been hounding me to read The Hunger Games for a few days now, but I have put it off until I finished World War Z. I only had 50 pages or so left so with the game seemingly blown I turned off the NHL app and turned on the iPod app. I picked a Genius Mix (60's Psychedelic Rock seemed like a good choice at the time) and buckled down on the book.

As the Genius Mix fed me a steady diet of Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett, Traffic, Jefferson Airplane, and Paul Kantner/Grace Slick music I finished the book. I then opened up the Kindle app and started reading my wife's copy of The Hunger Games. After four chapters I needed a break so I jumped onto the Twitter app and learned that the Bruins did indeed lose, but that they tied the game at two before losing in the shoot out. So they did not clinch their playoff spot, but they did move one point closer.

I think I'm done reading for the night so I thought I would open up the Blogger app and write a little blurb about all of the apps I've used tonight.

Now as the Genius Mix brings up Pink Floyd's High Hopes, maybe I'll open up the Netflix app and watch some South Park or something.

Night everyone!

20,000 Miles

The Altima topped 20,000 miles today. We've had it for just under 10 months.

Magic Number

I knew this day had to be coming soon, but I was not aware it was here already.

A win by the Bruins tonight against Washington will clinch a playoff spot.  That's all well and good, but I want the division.  I don't want them to settle for just making it into the post season, I want that #2 seed.

Go Bruins!

Why Oh Why

Why oh why is today Thursday and not Friday? It's already feeling like one of those days and it's not even Friday yet.

I just saw a squirrel out in the back yard. How will I go about having a bird feeder this year with out those damn dirty squirrels eating all of the food?

Spring is here.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Nada

There isn't much going on today.

The Bruins won last night.
Our van is in the shop getting its air conditioner fixed.
As far as I know we have no plans this weekend.  That's really weird.
Major League Baseball's regular season opened in Japan today with a game that wasn't aired on television in the United States.  The real opening game is Boston at Detroit next week.
I folded all of our laundry on Sunday.  It's still sitting in the living room waiting to be put away.  Urgh.
Very exciting, huh?
I have this urge to scrap my current music project in favor of writing and recording an ep or so using nothing by Garageband on my iPhone.  Basically, the same thing I did for RPM last month only with a much smaller touch screen.
I want to go away for a week to San Diego.
I want to go away for a week to a lake in Maine.
I'm crazy about my wife.
I get to see my step kids today.
Life is good, even if there isn't much happening today.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Seven Games Left

When the Bruins ran up a huge lead in the division back in November and December one of the positive things for us the fans was that if the lead was as insurmountable as it appeared then the rest of the regular season would be more or less stress free.

Nope.

Seven games left.  The Bruins have a three point lead in the division over Ottawa.  We have two games in hand, but I never consider that as a positive.  Sure there are four potential points for the Bruins that do not exist for the Senators, but whenever you start banking on games in hand the team always tends to lose those games.  I focus on what has happened instead of what might happen.  I guess.  As it stands now, if Ottawa catches us we would drop from second in the conference all the way down to sixth which is terrible, but last week it would have been seventh.  Sixth sounds a whole lot better than seventh.

In the conference we are in second place, 10 points out of first so we can forget about that.  Florida is four points back.  It's close, but frankly I am a whole ton more worried about Ottawa than Florida.  I want to win the division.  I don't care if we're second or third seed.  Second seed guarantees us two rounds of home ice, but they have been so frustrating over the past couple of months that I am only caring about the first round.

They play Tampa Bay tonight.  Tampa embarrassed the Bruins a couple of weeks ago.  May Boston's finest right that particular wrong.

Go Bruins!

Monday, March 26, 2012

Moon - Venus - Jupiter

The Moon, Venus and Jupiter are all within a few degrees of each other tonight.  I took a few iPhone pics and one D90 pic.



photo

photo


...And the one that I took with the real camera that did not come out as a blurry mess.



Moon Venus Jupiter

Sodalicious

Shangri-La

Well... The Tex/Mex restaurant version of Shangri-La, at least.

1959 Les Paul Documentary Trailer

Best guitar ever made.  Best musical instrument ever made?  Best anything ever made?

Weekend Recap

This weekend was a winner.  On Saturday my step daughter and I went to her softball try outs.  Family members were not allowed to watch the actual try out (will we be allowed to watch the games?) so I didn't see her shag all of the grounders and hit all but one of the pitches.  After we got home the kids went bike riding for a little bit and they met two other kids who might have recently moved onto our street.  That would be awesome if they had some friends in the neighborhood.  Next the kids and I did a little yard work.  We live at the end of the wind tunnel that is our street and when trash gets blown out of a neighbor's yard there is a good chance it ends up in ours.  That accounted for a small percentage of what needed clean up.  Most of the trash in the yard came from those damn dirty squirrels who raid our trash cans and spread stuff around the yard.  The kids did a fantastic job cleaning up all of that stuff while I took care of the mountain of downed branches that have landed in our yard over the winter.  We rewarded our job well done by taking a hike through the woods behind the house.  After that we had a wonderful turkey dinner that Jen prepared for us.  Everything was delicious (especially the stuffing... drool...) After dinner we all just hung out together in the living room until bedtime/Bruins time.

Sunday started out with a few chores inside the house.  Jen went food shopping, I cleaned the kitchen and the kids straightened up the living room.  Once the clean up was done the kids and I went outside to play catch for a while.  When my step son got tired of that he rode his bike and for the first time ever was able to stand up on the pedals.  Just before we broke for dinner I was buzzed by a hawk.  That was so cool.  After that Jen had to spend a couple of hours working so the kids and I went down stairs to veg for a while.  As soon as Jen was finished working we played a few kid-friendly card games.  Rack-o, I Doubt It, and Spoons.  We will probably suggest a couple of those when we're on our vacation to Maine.  They were all fun.   Once it was time for the kids to go to bed Jen and I hung out in the living room where I watched the Bruins while folding laundry.  The Bruins won... I wonder if me folding laundry was what put them over the top?  This is how superstitions get made.

All in all it was a wonderful weekend.  I had a blast.  I am the luckiest guy ever.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Coolest Wild Kingdom Moment Ever

My step daughter and I were out in the front yard playing catch when a bird buzzed me. It passed about five feet in front of me, about waist high. It was close enough that I could hear its wings flapping.

It flew straight at our living room window before pulling up and flying over the roof.

After my heart started beating again I looked to see if it had landed. I found it on a tree branch on the edge of the back yard.

It was a huge red tailed hawk.

We tried sneaking up to the tree but it calmly swung its head around and looked at us. It then flew very low across the yard and then into the woods.

Coolest wild kingdom moment ever.

Another Losing Hand

Loser Hand

Pondering a Bruins Thought

With the exception of the Maple Leafs, the Bruins have had a nasty habit of playing poorly against bad teams, but playing well against good teams.  Take this road trip thus far as an example.

Thursday against 10th place San Jose... they play like zombies.
Saturday against 7th place Los Angeles...  they win 4-2 and look pretty good.

Tonight against Anaheim will probably be another turd.

But it begs the question... if this continues into the playoffs, will they go on a monster tear because they are only going to be facing good teams?

I hope so, because the last few months worth of Bruins hockey have been seriously frustrating.  Will the real Bruins please stand up?

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Wilderness Explorers!

The kids and I did some yard work.  They picked up some of the wind blown/squirrel distributed trash that was lying around the edge of the woods while I dragged the last of the downed branches over to the woods.

This is the result of two storms.
HipstaPrint

After the work was complete we headed out into the woods behind the house to do some exploring.  There is actually a little path back there that leads to one of the houses on the next block.  We had no idea.
HipstaPrint

Usually my woods pictures are taken from the house.  The trees look bigger up close.  (har har har)
HipstaPrint

Yesterday I turned the shuffle-to-randomize function on in Hipstamatic.  Yeah, I think I'll turn that off now.
HipstaPrint

The kids chose our first destination, a hill to the right of our property, and on the other side of the hill were a lot of bark-free dead trees.
HipstaPrint

There were also downed trees all over the place.  A number of them were magically transformed into balance beams.
HipstaPrint

Artsy, eh?  The randomize function gave me black and white film.  Was I aware of this?  Nope.
HipstaPrint

At last, the settings I actually chose!
HipstaPrint

My step son was really digging how much ground this tree pulled up when it fell over.
HipstaPrint

Please note that after we got back into the house, Mommy searched the kids for ticks and Robbie made everyone get changed so he could wash all of our clothes.  Yeah, deer tick paranoia runs rampant in our house.

Deer Poop

Is this deer poop?

Obligatory Conversation

Almost every time I go to a kids event in New Hampshire I over hear small groups of parents having what I now consider The Obligatory New Hampshire Conversation.

It goes something like this:

I can't believe the school system is making us do this. (where this is any number of things. Usually it is relating to either class room sizes or some fee)

The response to the first statement eventually comes around to something along the lines of, they had that referendum on a tax increase but of course we voted it down. (where a tax increase would have either eliminated or greatly alleviated the issue being discussed)

Today's version was three parents bitching about next year's class sizes being significantly larger than this year's. The referendum in question voted down funding to add class rooms to one of the elementary school buildings.

It's like effing clockwork. They are furious with the way the schools are handling their tiny budgets but absolutely insulted by the very concept of giving the school system a larger budget.

It's almost as if they are incapable of seeing the connection.

As Ronald Weasly once said, "How thick can you get?"

Grown ups not allowed.

Denied

I've been denied a happy step dad moment. My step daughter is trying out for youth softball today. They are doing it indoors and parents/family members can't go into the gym.

No videos today.

Bummer.

Friday, March 23, 2012

Wonder of Wonders

For the second time in recent weeks the Montreal Canadiens beat the Ottawa Senators. Final score tonight? Canadiens 5, Senators 1.

That's twice now that the Canadiens have won a game that seriously helped the Boston Bruins. They brought their most bitter rival closer to winning the Northeast division.

Blasphemy, eh?

Thanks, Habs. I still hate your filthy guts, but I appreciate the help.

Go Bruins!

Hipstamatic Goofiness

photo by robj_1971
photo, a photo by robj_1971 on Flickr.

So I took my lunch break and went through all of the pictures I have on Flickr that are tagged "iphone" and sorted out a set of just Hipstamatic pics.

I think.

It's sometimes hard to look at a thumbnail and know if it is Hipstamatic or Instagram or some other camera app.

Anyway... I took this on 4/17/11 and I am reposting it because I like it.

That is all.

They Lost Again

I managed to stay up for some of the Bruins game last night, but I was listening to the radio feed on my iPad at the same time I was starting to read the book World War Z by Max Brooks and I found myself more engaged by the book so I wasn't paying too close attention to the game.

Part of the reason may have been that the Bruins were barely there.  17 shots in a 2-1 loss to a 10th place San Jose Sharks.  Remember all of that optimism generated by the win against Philly and the massacre against Toronto?

Gone.

They get L.A. on Saturday and Anaheim on Sunday.  You have to figure Marty Turco is going to play goal in one of those games.

This road trip can't be as ugly as the last road trip... but it could still be ugly.

Go Bruins?
Go Bruins!

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Three Hipstamatic Combinations

Here are examples of three Hipstamatic combinations that I kinda like.

First, the stock set up...
Lens: John S
Film: Ina's 1969




Second, my favorite set up pre-Hipstapacks...
Lens: Jimmy
Film: Kodot XGrizzled




Finally, my favorite so far, following the purchase of a few add-ons...
Lens: Lucifer VI
Film: Float




It's funny you should ask, but yes I do need a vacation.

I went crazy buying hipstapacks tonight. I decided it was time for a new go-to Hipstamatic combination.

Playing with a New Hipstapack

Venus & Jupiter

P23

West Coast Trips Suck

I hate it when my favorite sports teams have to travel to the West coast.  7:30pm local time games air at 10:30 Eastern time.  That sucks.  I hope to be long asleep before that time comes (although if the last few weeks are any indication, I might be awake for the first period or so).

The Bruins play the Sharks tonight.  After two impressive wins in a row, the Bruins need to continue the momentum.  San Jose has been slipping this year, and there is a good chance they will miss the playoffs.  I would greatly enjoy it if the Bruins contributed to their collapse with a convincing, dominate win tonight.

Go Bruins!

Testing cross posting Hipstamatic pics.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Boots

So the new Rush record is due to come out on May 29th or so. I'm excited. Obviously.

A few months ago I started a goofy Google Music projectoid. I wanted to take all of the billion or so Rush bootlegs I have found on the 'net and rip mp3 copies of everything and then upload them all to a free Google Music account and make a series of playlists each containing every show I have for each tour.

I uploaded everything I had already ripped for iPod use and then started catching up one tour at a time. I ran out of steam after finishing the 1979 Semispheres tour.

I have been inspired to pick it up again, and tonight I finished the 1980 Permanent Waves tour.

Why oh why are there so few good audience boots from this tour when there are so many good ones from '78-79 and from '81? It's such a puzzle to me.

I'm listening to the 5/13/80 show from Hershey, PA. It sounds like drool, but the performance is stellar.

I can't wait for the new album.

United Airlines Can Bite My Big Fat Hairy Ass

So we are going to San Diego next month. A couple of months ago we booked our flight. It was a UA flight from Boston to Los Angeles with a puddle jumping connection to San Diego.

Note how I said, "was".

UA saw fit to cancel our connection and rebook us with a connection in Newark with a whopping 30 minutes in between landing and take off.

Oh, and none of our seats are together. I guess the flight attendants will have to deal with the vomit-prone nine year old because the airline thought it would be best to separate him from his family.

Oh, and they didn't see fit to tell us that they canceled our flight and moved us to a totally unacceptable replacement.

My wonderful, beautiful wife spent some quality time on the phone with a UA representative today, and I think things will be worked out, but still... Thanks for the kick in the nuts, right?

Invisible Car

I feel a little scummy posting a commercial here, but the idea of an invisible car is too cool to ignore.

Now if they can just do something about the whole humans-see-in-three-dimensions thing so that the inviso-car does not pop out from the background.

Oh yeah, I guess they have some work to do.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Good Day

Did you enjoy today? Today is one of my favorite days of the year. Today was the first day of Spring. Today officially marks the day when the world starts coming back to life. The weather starts to improve. Attitudes start to improve. Things just start getting better.

Today is that good day. It is the opposite of the first day of Fall. It all gets better now, at least for about six months or so.

Just saying, I hope you enjoyed it.

Daringly Adventurous

When I left work tonight I was feeling daring and adventurous. I took off my coat, turned on a Rush bootleg (from the Hemisphere's Tour) and turned right instead of left.

The right turn took me away from my back roads route home and took me toward the all-highway route home.

The result? I was in the house at 6:30. 15-20 minutes earlier than normal. Awesome.

I bet if I do the same tomorrow I'll get home at 7:15.

Clockwork Angels

New album coming in late May? Possibly a new single in late March? How about a tour starting in the fall?

I'm ready for it when ever they are.

Eight to Nil

Oh it's amazing how a visit from the Maple Leafs can cheer us up.  We, the unhealthily obsessed Bruins fans, have been lining up to jump off the Tobin Bridge for a couple of weeks now.  A good win against Philly on Saturday calmed us down a little, and then the Leafs came to town.

Final score, Boston 8 - Toronto 0.  It was, in a word, glorious.  It was like the November Bruins coming back to remind us of how awesome they can be.  There are 10 games left.  We have a three point lead over Ottawa in the Northeast division.  We have a four point lead over Florida in the Eastern conference standings.  If they keep playing the way they played the last two games we should be able to hold onto second place in the East, and maybe... just maybe... we'll have a little momentum going into the playoffs.  I've been spoiled by all the playoff advancing we've done over the last few years.  I don't want to be eliminated in the first round this season (or ever again).

Go Bruins!

Monday, March 19, 2012

Surprise

Finally, I can write about this.

10 years ago my cousin Tom put together a vacation for much of our extended family.  His mother and my mother are sisters, and both of their families spent a week in a house on a lake in Vermont.  We had a great time and have been wanting to do something similar ever since.

My mother dropped a hint a few months ago that she wanted to do something like that this year.  My brother took the point and after a few days of back and forth between the three siblings and their spouses, we settled on a place in Maine and booked it.  That was a week ago.  We were all getting together at my sister's for our annual St Patrick's Day dinner yesterday so we decided to spring the surprise then.

That meant that I had a vacation to be excited about and couldn't blab about it here for a whole week!  Torture!

It will be my parents, me and my wife and two step kids, my sister and her husband and their two kids, and my brother and his wife and their two kids.  One full week in a huge house on a huge lake in the middle of nowhere in Western Maine.  That sounds pretty much like heaven to me.  I can't wait.  Everyone is very excited.  My not-quite four year old nephew even had a song to sing about it, but he got shy and decided to hop in place instead.  It was pretty cute. 

We have one thing to take care of before we can start concentrating on Maine though.  Me and my wife and step kids and my wife's mother and step father are all going to San Diego for a week. 

Oh yeah, did I mention?  Two monster vacations for us this year?  We are spoiled rotten and I Love It!

Spring in Southern California.  Summer in Western Maine.  Yeah, I'll take that.  We have to start planning ideas for San Diego.  The Zoo is obvious.  The beaches are just as obvious.  Should we go to a Padres game?  You won't get any argument from me.  I would love to see the seals in La Jolla.  Wild animals are cool, don't you know.  There are 100 different museums in Balboa Park and so far, in three trips since our wedding two years ago, we've made it to one.

So much to plan!  So much to do! 

Two vacations and I can't wait for either of them!

I can't wait!!!

Sunday, March 18, 2012

St Patricks Day Wins

Yesterday was a top notch St Patrick's Day. Really, it was a great day regardless of the Irish celebration, it was a great day for any day.

We had a very busy day planned. I was going to start cleaning out the garage while Jen made a fantastic corned beef dinner. I had expected the garage job to require the full weekend, but somehow, despite the overwhelming appearance, I managed to get everything on the to do list done by the start of the second period of yesterday afternoon's Bruins game.

I had enough time to help Jen cut up the veggies and we had a solid A+ Irish dinner at around 5:00. After that we went to Larry and Nawal's and just hung out shooting the breeze and getting caught up until almost 11:00. I had a lot of fun.

Today we slept in. Did we ever sleep in! We woke up after 10:00am! Glorious! Best Sunday Ever!

This evening we will go to my sister's house for another wonderful Irish dinner, and we will get to see the nephews and the niece. I'm looking forward to it.

The only thing separating this weekend from complete perfection is that it is not a kids weekend. Other than that, this weekend has been as good as weekends get.

Next weekend is a kids weekend so it will be even better!

Enjoy While it Lasts

Bruins fans, enjoy it while it lasts. You see what good things happen when you win games?

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Fun Night Out

We just got home from a fun night visiting Larry and Nawal and their adorable two year old son.

Question: how do you know when a two year old is smarter than you are?

Answer: when said two year old can translate Moroccan to English for you.

Done for Today

Even if I had more to sift through I would still be done as the dumpster is full. All that's left to do is find a place for the things that are still in there.

And now? Bruins game, it's 2-1 Boston with nine minutes left in the second period, and then some corned beef for dinner to celebrate St Patrick's Day.

Enjoy it While it Lasts

The Bruins game is nearly half over. They are up 2-0 over the Flyers. I'm not feeling optimistic or anything crazy like that. I'm just enjoying this while it lasts.

Go Bruins!

Progress Report

Number of garage walls reclaimed from the forces of entropy: One. (Check it out, there's a door there! I haven't seen that in ages!)




Status of the next step in operation garage reclaim: Total freakin' chaos.




Woah

See this little patch of garage wall? We haven't seen that since the day we moved in!

Seventh Place

Ottawa won in overtime last night and that drops the Bruins from second in the East to SEVENTH!

Hooray! (sarcasm)

Today the have an afternoon game (ie automatic loss) against Philly. They will get slaughtered again!

Friday, March 16, 2012

What Does Our Weekend Look Like

Our weekend looks like this. It took me 10 minutes to fill about 30% of it.

Lunar Videos

NASA released a couple of new Lunar videos.  Here they are...

Friday

It's Friday, which means the Bruins lost again.  I mentioned that before though.

I just bought a CD online.  I did it for reasons unrelated to the music.  I've been listening to a band from Texas called King's X since the early 90's.  Musically they are unreal.  Lyrically they are often terrible.  They are often lumped in with christian rock which makes me want to vomit, and it's not unusual for that to show in their lyrics, again that makes me want to vomit.  They fight the christian rock label, and I am happy about that.  There are reasons that they have made public that make it obvious why they would try to distance themselves from it.  (I remember reading once after a band member publicly outed himself that a chain of christian record stores pulled their music off of their shelves.  How very christian, indeed)  Anyway, none of that has anything to do with why I listen to their music (the guitar god in the band was enough to pull me in, the outstanding vocals including the three part harmonies were enough to keep me there forever) or why I bought this particular record.

Their drummer, Jerry Gaskill, suffered a serious heart attack a few weeks ago.  From all reports he is recovering well.  Last we heard he had been removed from ICU.  That's good to know.  The band has been playing together in the current incarnation since at least 1987, and from what I hear the three band members have been together in one form or another since 1980.  In all that time they had one... maybe two... sniffs at rock and roll success.  Not even stardom, just success.  A couple of songs that made it onto FM radio across the country, and a couple of videos that got some play on MTV.  That was back in the early 90's.  The rest of the time they have wallowed in relative obscurity.

In other words, they have been doing this for over 30 years and they haven't made any money.  I have read interviews in the past where they openly worried about making car payments and rent payments.  These are not rich rock stars in any way shape or form.  They also work in an industry that does not provide health insurance.  If you are a professional musician and you want health insurance it's pretty much guaranteed that you're going to have to buy it yourself as no record label is going to waste money providing health benefits to the employees that they routinely screw over in order to make their billions.  (Not much longer though, my dear record companies.  Your much deserved collapse is imminent.)

So Jerry Gaskill is in a band that is successful enough to make ends meet, usually, but not successful enough to be wealthy... and at the moment his health care bills are piling up at a terrifying rate.

To help counter this, the band has made available a sort of low-fi-ish live recording for sale with all of the proceeds going to help pay for Jerry's medical bills.  For 20 bucks you get a recording of most of a show from June of 1991 at the Channel in Boston, and one of the band members gets 20 bucks closer to paying his medical bills without losing his house. 

You can go to this link to help out:
King's X - Burning Down Boston - Live at the Channel 6.12.91

One of the reasons I support universal public health care is because I never want to have to do this again.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

June 6, 2008

Blast from the past pic of the day...

My lovey in Epcot's parking lot. Almost four years ago.

I loved her then and I love her even more today.

Yet Another

The Bruins chose to ignore my pleas tonight. They got blown out once again. This time they lost to Florida 6 to 2.

Red Sox opening day is April 5th in Detroit.

That's about all we Bruins fans have going for us right now.

Urgh.

Game On

Game on in Florida tonight...

Please don't suck tonight, Bruins.
Please don't suck tonight, Bruins.
Please don't suck tonight, Bruins.
Please don't suck tonight, Bruins.
Please don't suck tonight, Bruins.

Operation Garage-Reclaim

Subject: Operation Garage-Reclaim

Details:  On Friday Dumpster Depot will be dropping off a dumpster in our driveway, in front of our garage.

Mission:  Your mission, if you chose to accept it, is to take all of the crap in the garage that needs to be disposed of and move it into the dumpster, thus throwing it into the garbage where it belongs and allowing us to use that very large space attached to our house that currently cannot be used for anything.

Questions:  Is there anything in the garage that cannot be thrown away.  Two items come to mind.  One is a smallish kitchen appliance (I'm guessing it's okay) and the other includes a small internal combustion engine (I'm guessing it's not okay).

Caution:  This message will self destruct.

Bruins Suck Update

Ottawa lost to Montreal in a shoot out last night which means the Bruins lead in the Northeast division is down to one measly point.

One point. They play in Florida tonight against the Southeast division leading Panthers. Ottawa's next game is tomorrow night against Montreal again. The Canadiens suck so bad this year that we can not expect them to win again. The Bruins need to get their collective shit together today or the drop in the standings will feel like an elevator free falling down from the top of the Prudential building.

This collapse is starting to feel Red Soxian in nature.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Did You Catch the Bruins Game Last Night

So, did you catch the Bruins game last night?

Neither did the Bruins.

That was the worst performance I've ever seen. The game was virtually over before the five minute mark when Tampa Bay scored their third goal. We learned definitively why Marty Turco has not been in the NHL for over a year.

I've never seen a team suck like that, and I used to go to 50 or so minor league games a year when it was not unusual for teams to just not try every now and then (usually on Sundays at the end of a three game weekend).

What's worse? They have now legitimately sucked for three straight games. When Ottawa catches them in the standings this week they will drop from second in the Conference all the way to seventh, and they deserve it. At this point they don't deserve to make the play offs. Teams that suck this bad have no place in the post season, and there is no reason for anyone to believe they will ever turn things around.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Bruins Fear

Okay, Bruins.  You can stop teasing us now.  McQuiad, Pouliot, and now Bergeron?  All day to day with injuries?

Oh crap!  A Bergeron-less Bruins team?  There's no hope!  If he's going to be out for a while, we are screwed.

I'm Scared!
Go Bruins!
I'm Scared!