Burt Reynolds is making a comeback

Or perhaps Mr. Burt is making a mistake rather than a comeback. He will be appearing in this spring's new movie, The Longest Yard, as the football coach of a team made up of prision inmates that play versus the guards. The tag is something like "364 days a year they're not in charge of their lives - they have 1 day a year to make up for it" during the annual guards vs. inmates pigskin game.

Um yeah. Inmates/players include Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, and Nelly. I saw the trailer for this movie yesterday and can't explain how bad it looked...

However, the movie I saw, Million Dollar Baby, was so good. Reminded me of American Beauty, not that it's at all the same movie. But when you see it you totally understand why everybody's been talking about it and it's up for so many awards. I highly recommend seeing it.

Real news vs. fake news

I have posted the pictures of two people below - I think they look similar enough to be confused. The problem is that the man in the top picture is Dan Abrams, the top legal correspondant for NBC. But when he appears on shows like the Today show and makes comments, I initially think he's a correspondent from Comedy Central's Daily Show. The picture of that person is the second one below, Steve Carell.

Just think - the idea of a fake news correspondent appearing on a real news show is a little startling and confusing.

Dan Abrams 

Steve Carell 

In case you were wondering...

I looked up how to spell nauseous and found this "usage problem" listed on the website:

Usage Note: Traditional critics have insisted that nauseous is properly used only to mean “causing nausea” and that it is incorrect to use it to mean “affected with nausea,” as in Roller coasters make me nauseous. In this example, nauseated is preferred by 72 percent of the Usage Panel. Curiously, though, 88 percent of the Panelists prefer using nauseating in the sentence The children looked a little green from too many candy apples and nauseating (not nauseous) rides. Since there is a lot of evidence to show that nauseous is widely used to mean “feeling sick,” it appears that people use nauseous mainly in the sense in which it is considered incorrect. In its “correct” sense it is being supplanted by nauseating.

It looks like said "Usage Panel" votes on the correct usage for certain words. Who knew? And how to you get on the Usage Panel?

I feel like my HS English teacher would've liked to have done that if she wasn't sitting in Jackson smoking 3 packs a day and striking fear into HS seniors that if we spelled a word wrong or used a word incorrectly in our college papers we would fail out.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Jonny Lang. He turned 24 today.

Wisconsin Skiing?

Ski Magazine says the new hotspot for Midwest skiing is...


Wausau.

Can anyone corroborate?

Free credit report

I hadn't heard about this new law that gives everyone a free credit report each year. Different areas of the country get it starting on different dates - as of today peeps in the Western US can get it - the Minnesota people can get theirs starting March 1. Check it out.

The Geto Boys summed it up well

Damn it feels good to be a gansta. That is if you are Warren Buffett today, after making $645 million today after the P&G purchased Gillette.

On another $ note, this guy penny pinches a lot. I guess you need to live in Kansas in order to be able to afford a large enough house to have the room to "only buy toliet paper and paper towels in bulk once every other year." I'm sorry but that's weird.

Oh - and his "Drinks are now limited to once a month with a two-glass limit" is the lamest rule I've ever heard. Even Muck isn't that cheap.

I'm not being sacrastic - I agree with President Bush!?!?!

I didn't think I'd ever say this, but I agree with this statement the President made regarding decency on television. It can be summed up by him stating "if you don't like the program content, turn off the TV."

Sad story, white trash

Here's a sad story about a kid who died in a car accident. I'm not making fun of the death, but make note of a few items in this story that make it so white trash.

• Kristopher with a K
• [the kid who died] dropped out of school because he'd rather go out and work than rather than go to sit in a classroom, relatives said.
• Kristopher, the driver of the car who lived, now has a tattoo of the name of the kid who died (one month later)

I found what you've been looking for

I know you've been looking for the Top 10 Gay History Landmarks in America. I found it for you. You're welcome.

Some of these are fun, too.

I like-y

I really like the idea of this pre-paid travel card - you give them the $ upfront, they give you elite status and you purchase tickets with your pre-paid card. I obviously don't have $5,000 to give United right now but as I stated above - I like the idea.

Also liked - a bulletin board showing bad pickup lines. My fav - "Excuse me, are your parents terrorists? Cause you are THE BOMB." Um yeah.

How much would you have bet against this??? I bet Vegas odds would've made us winners

I watched a TV ad saying Are We There Yet? is the #1 movie in America. I assumed this was some sort of untruth in advertising, until finding out that it is true. With over $18M in profit, with an average ticket price of $10, that's 1.8 million people who went to this movie over the weekend. For the love of god, people need to read more books and quit going to crap movies - I'm going to declare it an impossibility that this is a good movie.

Along Came Polly

I had been avoiding adding Along Came Polly to my Netflix Queue but ended up watching it last night on HBO. I surprisingly found this laugh aloud funny! Don't be confused - the plot is blah and expected but the characters, jokes, and situations are honestly comical. I really liked watching it but don't expect the plot to change your life. Funny movie though - "shart" was my favorite. If you agree with my movie review, please comment :)

Quote of the Day

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
P.J. O'Rourke

Actually I like most of Mr. O'Rourke's quotes. Read about him here - sounds a lot like Alicia in terms of right wing economic views combined with liberal views on sex and drugs.

Nicely stated

I agree with Hillary's stance on abortion, summarized here. I like the way she thinks.

On an unrelated note, several people asked me about the bar where the crowds of people were shown celebrating during the Sox series - they always had live TV from the Greatest Bar in Boston. I was mystified because I'd never heard of this bar and when I stalked it on Citysearch, it came up blank. Today I found out their website and it's near the Fleet Center (the new Garden). What's weird is that they're having their grand opening and are now inviting people to join them when they "open their doors" next month. Except obviously they were open in October during the Series. Weird.

The street in front of my building. 2 ft of snow + drifting = good times.

PS These 4 pictures were taken with my Nokia 7610 - which has a 1.3 megapixel camera. It's not as good as a digital camera but is certainly better than most camera phones. Sorry for the shameless advertising but it's a hot phone.

When you dig your car out, this is how you save your spot - it's a Southie tradition. 

From the front steps of my building. 

My car is buried. 

A saying I hate

I wish I had never heard "Once you're thirsty, you're already starting to get dehydrated. Drink water before you're thirsty." It's because the only time I ever think of it is when I'm thirsty without reason - without physical activity or hot weather to make it make sense to be thirsty.

And when these times happen (one just a few minutes ago) and I go for a drink of water and think of this saying, it makes me pissed off. I know that water is good for you and you should drink a lot, but sometimes when I randomly get thirsty, I'm disappointed in myself for not thinking of drinking something sooner. But the only way for me to have thought of it sooner was if I got thirsty earlier which puts me in the same position. It is a catch-22.

And, on a totally different note, I forgot that I created another catch-22 in which I found lots of humor - I was discussing the scenario with Bejota in reference to him and I don't think he found it funny. You be the judge. (as a disclaimer - this started b/c Bejota was talking about being straight not about hooking up with a dude)

So you say you're a straight man. "How do you know you're straight?" Because you like women. But, as we know, some gay men used to like women. And they didn't go gay till were with a man. So comes the catch-22 - in order to prove you're really a straight man, you need to be with a man to be sure you don't like it. Otherwise you may be gay but just haven't found out through a little man-on-man action that you like men.

So, essentially, to prove you're straight, hook up with a man and hate it. Then, you're straight for sure.

And finally, Mischa Barton was in Notting Hill as "American Starlet". Can anyone remember that?

What you've heard is true

It's true, it snowed. A lot. I'll post pictures once Hello (the program that posts my pix) stops sabotaging me and starts working.

Like you needed one more reason...

One more reason not to move to the South. These new rodents are s-c-a-r-y - but don't worry, if you can catch them you're encouraged to eat them.

From the makers of the Butt/Face towel

Yes, the lovely folks at the Lakeside Collection not only make the Butt/Face towel - now discontinued so you'll have to visit Missy and Tim to see it - they also make several other fascinating products, including the following:

• A stapler that doesn't acually staple
• Horribly ugly art
• Dryer brushes - what the f?
• The leopard print Over-the-Door Cat Play Tunnel

And last but not least

• Decorative wall words - "Buy all 3 for an enlightening display!"

As Michael would say, these items are all C-L-A-S-S-Y!

On an unrelated now, I confuse Meryl Streep and Glenn Close. I'm sure Alicia will scold me for this, but I'm just confessing the truth. Also, bravo to Bravo for replaying the Golden Globes tonite, I like the award show replay.

Gay Bob

The Right doesn't like Sponge Bob cause he's gay. Surprise.

Not only are Boston drivers bad...

Bostonians are bad at getting parking tickets. The example. Please note that this incident happened at the Starbucks 1 block from Pottery Barn - these are the type of people I have to deal with there - Hummer-parking, coffee-throwing assholes. Good times.

Jose Ernesto Beltran Quinones

So you've heard about the terror plot by the group in CA aimed at Boston. I just listed to the 11 o'clock news report about this, where they stated that 9 Chinese people and one man with a Hispanic sounding name are now wanted by federal investigators.

A Hispanic sounding name? Wouldn't it be a Spanish sounding name? - not that guessing his ethnicity when it has not yet been confirmed is necessary. Regardless, I think that assuming Mr. Quinones is Hispanic is overstating things. Am I being overly PC? Let me know what you think but a "Hispanic sounding name" doesn't seem like the best way to put it.

No sympathy I'm sure

Right now it is 20 degrees in Minneapolis and 16 in Boston. Rare for us to be colder so it must be a warm-up in the Cities. (this was written at 10pm)

UPDATE: It is now 20 degrees in Minneapolis and 4 degrees in Boston. F me. (10am)

Not only can she clap...

Vanna White can spin letters (or press them as it's now done) and still finds time to write about crocheting. Good work.

Best Buy Pharmacy?

In my recent (bad) experiences at Best Buy, I was told the rebate for my laptop "didn't exist" and that when returning an item at MA that I had bought in CT, they weren't able to refund my sales tax and I'd have to go back to CT if I wanted to get my sales tax back.

So I don't think I'm going to trust anyone at Best Buy (even if they're working independently) to fill my perscriptions in their new concept store. I think that having a smaller store aimed more at women makes sense, and they can test things before rolling them out nationally.

However, I agree with the healthcare consultant who stated that "I will be a monkey's uncle if this thing works."

A PR nightmare even Samatha Jones might not be able to handle

I'm sure the Harvard President, Mr. Summers, has never spoken in front of a large group while drunk. In a setting where what he said could be held against him later. Outside of his Gentleman's Club (the smoking cigars drinking bourbon kind, not the stripper kind). These are the only possible explainations for the comments he made on Monday regarding womens' "innate differences" that limit their performance in the fields of math and science.

I wonder if he's a lot like Dan Hansen because that's the only person I could imagine saying these types of things and then defending himself. In one sense, I grant to Mr. Prest hat he was commenting on others' research, but still - he should've known it would be misconstrued and thus just kept his fat yammer shut.

And on an unrelated note, check our Urban Dictionary. Save it to your Favorites when you want to waste an afternoon at work.

Mommy and Daddy Pottery Barn

Is it wrong for me to be disturbed by the fact that my PB store manager and our district manager have nicknames? And that those nicknames are Daddy and Mommy, respectively? I've meant to rant about this in a while - my second week at work I overheard a manager telling another manager "Daddy was on line 1 and wanted to talk to him". Later that day, there were rumors that "Mommy" was coming to visit next Wednesday so everybody needed to dress up.

Is this a retail thing? A PB thing? A when-your-manager-is-gay-everything-makes-sense thing? I can't imagine district manager Diane knows her nickname is Mommy, or does she?

Thoughts of the day

• What % of the population spends their morning drive flipping between NPR and Howard Stern? I'm 1. I'm guessing there's about 82 of us nationally for appx 0% of the US with this routine.

• I was driving in flurries today when a red, late model Mazda Miata convertible drove by me. I almost drove by blaring my horn at them and flicking them off with the sole reason being to let them know they're stupid. There should be a law stating that North of the Mason Dixon line, Miatas are illegal unless you have a winter car which you'd be required to drive October-April.

• Aaron Karo needs to abandon the email list distribution and start a blog. I might just email him to tell him to join the rest of the world (of bloggers).

• Dirty Airplane Water. I thought they meant the water served on the drink cart (which they're not) but still icky. Ick.

• During Here and Now today, commentators discussed Laura Bush and the twins' influence on the presidency, how they've changed over the last 4 years, etc. The takeaway - part of the reason W is not planning a big anti-abortion movement in term numero dos could be because in his household, he'd be outvoted on abortion 3-1. I'm not sure if I believe this is true but if NPR says so it is.

• Contest #2 (don't miss the Presidential quiz) If you have not flown Northwest Airlines for WorldPerks miles since Jan 1 2004 (or if you never have) let's talk. There's a promotion - you win, I win. Plus you will get a free beer at Mary's wedding (again, doesn't carryover if you're skipping out on the festivities).

• Speaking of Mary's wedding, am I the only one that RSVPed and was almost surprised I didn't get to see other people's responses. As in Evite. If you have not yet RSVPed, do so but have your expectations adjusted. You've been warned, it's no Evite. Classier but no Evite.

• Word of the Day - defrocked. As in "Defrocked Boston priest goes to trial for allegedly raping little boys".

Don't forget J-town

News from Jackson this week - another stoplight may be added in town, bringing the grand total to



3.

Well, don't you know, the mayor has noticed "a host of mishaps at the Kemna-Asa intersection". Especially since Last-Deck and the AmericInn have been developed. No McDonalds but we have a "Last-Deck" (whatever that it is). Where's the love?

I'm going to send a holler out to Jefferson, SD- beat my J-town's website. Not gonna happen- this is all you've got.

All the President's Men

All the President's Men takes on a whole new meaning when the History Channel's series on The Presidents (which I'm watching right now) announces that James Buchannan was likely the nation's first gay president. Um, you think - he lived with a man for 16 years and his nickname was Nancy. But, as the show's commentators note, "It's hard to prove these types of things today, let alone looking back at a man 150 years ago."

Nancy? I say it's not that hard.

PS Highly recommend the series, chronicles each president's term and gives fun trivia notes. Here's one now: What President never was registered to vote prior to being elected Pres, and didn't even vote in his own election? 1 beer at Mary's wedding to the first person to get it right. If you're not going to Mary's wedding, don't even bother answering cause it doesn't carry over.

Been to Prague? Don't be surprised

Don't be surprised that Prague taxi drivers are trying to screw you. In addition, they are crazy crazy crazy. And our Czech cabbie also wanted to screw us after showing us his calendar featuring nakied ladies. Marc was the only one interested, oh wait.

New Supreme Court justices appointed every 2 years?

I've been hearing discussions about revamping the Supreme Court, specifically the way justices are appointed and how long they serve. Unless the Constitution is changed, they have to serve for life. A new theory is to have the President elect a new justice with each new Congress (every 2 years for those of you who flunked Social Studies) and the most recently elected 9 would be the Surpeme Court of the land. What would you do with those elected who are not part of those 9? They'd be doled out to federal courts where needed b/c the Constitution doesn't say they need to serve on the Supreme Court for life, just that they get lifetime terms as judges.

I think this is an interesting theory, I like it. Or, they could have mandatory retirement ages. Or have 20 year terms. Or whatever. The discussion today on NPR was that when the founding fathers gave away lifetime terms, the life expectancy was only 39 so the idea of a person serving for 30+ years was practically unfathomable (Alicia - did I use that word correctly? I think I did...). So adjusting the system makes sense since the way it is now encourages "convenient" retirements when the party in power is your friend.

Here's an article that talks about what the justices think of changes in the Court (read it, it's funny not dry).

Conspiracy Theory

I could kill Boston cabbies. Literally. I'm pretty sure that they've had a bad time in recent cabbie union negotiations, and because they are unhappy with their rates (even though they're higher than just about anywhere), they have decided to stick it to those they drive. In the last month, I've encountered 4 count 'em 4 cabbies who don't have change for my $20. And I'm not taking $3 cabs - I've taken $14, $8, $9, and $12 fares for which they've not had change. And, for example with the $9 fare, they had $0 in change. They only have a $10 but not a single, I understand (sort of). But just driving around with nothing but $20 in their pockets. Damn them.

Tonight, I encountered a parking attendant who not only did not have change for my $20 for a $12 parking fee, he also parked my car in with 4 cars and then yelled at me that I didn't go to dinner longer (I parked for 2 hours). When I parked, I told him I was going to dinner. He thought I'd be at dinner for "4 or 5 hours" so he parked me in the inside. I couldn't decide if he was an idiot or an asshole when he was bitching at me for not having change and for having a short dinner. He should start being a cabbie.

Vacation = happy 

Towel animals 

More fun pictures :) 

John and I got dressed up - he got a free tux rental since his luggage was MIA. 

I saw the TLC truck in Key West. They were filming Paige's opening as we were leaving so I didn't get to see her.

Scary sushi bathroom ceiling - I referenced this in a November blog but just figured out pictures on this thing... For work I was in CT (which sucks) and this was the decoration in the bathroom of the sushi restaurant I ate at. Scary.

Let the blogging begin

So here begins the tale of our Caribbean vacation... Here are the highlights:

• As I mentioned before, John's luggage was lost - mind you, we flew non-stop BOS-MIA. It finally arrived on our boat on Wednesday night (4 days after we landed in Miami). Nice work American Airlines. We found out that it went from Boston-Costa Rica-Miami-Mexico City-Cozumel. I wish John got the frequent flier miles for the trip his bag took.
• American gave us $250 to buy clothes for John to get him through until his bag showed - on Sunday night they granted us this $ but when I spoke with them Tues afternoon, they wouldn't give us any more since we still didn't have the bag. Oh, there'll be some letter writing about that, don't worry.
• In Miami, the weather was nice, we wandered the beach, ate at the News Cafe (which gives iDine $, I just found out), and avoided the Khaki Pants/Navy Blazer gang that had overrun South Beach. From reading their nametags they wore 24/7 (classy, guys) it appears they were part of an insurance meeting. Literally, hundreds of guys wandering (bars, clubs, the beach) wearing Khaki Pants and Navy Blazers. Scary.
• On to the ship, to be continued.

In the Boat (like In the Club)

A few upgrades to the ship vs. my last cruise - I was on a different boat so maybe that accounts for the differences, who knows. On this one theree was a sushi bar (open 6-8 prior to dinner, yummy app) and hot tubs on the decks. Both good upgrades. Don't worry, they didn't drop the towel animals in order to bring us these upgrades :)

The other notable from the ship was winning at Roulette - I started on the table with $40 and left with $200 within probably 45 minutes. Good work, Laura. 7 hit 4 times in a row which was crazy.

Key West unimpressive

We only had 2 ports of call, Key West and Cozumel. I'd vote Key West is a don't, Cozumel is a strong do. I drove by the hotel we stayed at in Spring Break '99 (Casa Del Mar) which was fun. John and I rented a Jeep and went down to a beach south of San Miguel which was great - free parking, free beach chairs, waiter service, and I got a cheap massage on the beach. It was a happy place.

In Key West, we stopped at a few bars and John consumed many of his new favorite drink - top shelf silver tequila with a splash of lime. They make him happy. On the trolley back to our ship after visiting Key West, we sat by this group of 4 people from Ohio. They were missing teeth, looked just a tiny bit inbred, and were just a little weird. All I wanted to do was curse them for electing W. Damn them. It also made me very surprised that my friends Amy and Natalie could be from the same state from which this group hailed. Weird. Well, I guess it's also strange that a super homo could grow up in Delafield, WI.

What the F?

My final postings - 3 What the Fs?

#1 - Prince Harry wearing the Nazi Uniform. Did Eton skip over WWII? Bad form Harry. PS The punishment - cleaning pig pens? Hmmm...

#2 - The Miami airport. This airport is pure hell. I'd rather have the Panama International Airport as my home airport over MIA. Sucks. I swear that every single person there is flying for the very first time. And doesn't speak English or Spanish. Everything is in both languages yet there are still people proceeding through security with 4 carryon bags each (are you kidding me) and not taking off jewlery/shoes (and I'm talking big ass jewelry). I hate them all.

I can't decide if the set-up of the airport makes people there stupid, or if stupid people designing the airport thought that their set-up would work well with the stuipd people who would by flying out of Miami. You get off the plane, walk into the main lobby, go past the crowds of people meeting their parties, past ticketing, past the security line, past the line for sending your bag through the fancy machine that scans your bag, and then find the escalator that brings you down to baggage claim. Oh, surprise, baggage claim also sucks.

And, when your bag never shows, the people who file your lost bag claim also suck. They got John a piece of blank copier paper, and told him to write down all his info. It was the entered into the computer incorrectly. Crappy service. The highlight was that I got to see what Cher will look like in 50 years. The lost baggage supervisor literally looked like an old Cher. Scary. I wish I had a picture to show you. Except I still haven't been able to figure out how to post pictures on my blog :(

My final Miami airport note. Two flights were going to places I'd never heard of - Tegucigalpa and Quito. Located in Honduras and Ecuador, respectively.

#3 Southwest has taken up ATA routes and will now fly to both Minneapolis and Boston. However, in a strange twist of fate, you are unable to fly between the two cities.

Used cooking oil cars

Check this out - converting your diesel car to an engine that runs on used cooking oil. Sounds like something my ex-boss would've done...

Jamie Foxx

I'm watching Inside the Actors Studio with Jamie Foxx. It's fun. What's scary is that Jamie Foxx was explaining that his grandma liked Lionel Richie's hair so he started growing it out. When he said that he didn't use Jeri Curl, but Cali Curl instead, James Lipton knew that Cali Curl produced larger curls than Jeri Curl. I don't know much about either one, but Jamie looked as surprised as I did that Mr. Lipton was up on Curl products for ethnic hair. Funny.

Jamie Foxx quotable- "Bill Clinton is the closest thing to a black president we've ever had."

On a related black comedian note, I listened to this piece with Dave Chapelle rebroadcast earlier this month. When Dave Chapelle is on public radio, you sort of do a double take - it is funny. Take a listen.

I'm back!

I have a list of subjects about which to post so you'll see them all coming in the next few days. Let me say that vacation was v. good - nice and warm - though MA was significantly warmer than MN while I was gone. In December Pitito said MN wasn't as cold as he thought - I wonder what he says now...

Let me quickly rant in response to Alicia's post on Moss -

I, not entirely suprisingly, completely agree with you. So he fake mooned people. So what? I go back to my quote "I'm offended that you're offended." Anyone who is having a conniption over this issue is a baby. And along with people who drink white wine in crowded bars, you're not going to be my friend. Moss' action shouldn't damage children - any decent/marginal parent should've explained to their children that just because something happens on TV doesn't mean it transfers to real life. So what the f? "Should teams put up with actions of players like Moss because they are such good players?" Stupid question. No big deal in my book.

What is funny is that KARE 11 interviewed Moss after a practice later this week and the quote went something like this:

KARE: "Randy, are you going to appeal the fine?"
Moss: "No, 10Gs ain't nothing to me."
KARE: "How do you feel about this incident?"
Moss: "Shit, this doesn't matter. I'd do it again. Shit, next time I think I'll shake my dick and see what they do."

That's funny. Moss = superstar footballer and comedian. Keep him.

My favorite = fun + informative

I think this Planned Parenthood website captures the essence of the title of this blog. Find out who are the good and bad supreme court justices - one of them has cancer now and I learned he's a baddie so if he goes it's not as big a deal as if a goodie leaves (dies). Learn your justices.

Ok this link doesn't exactly mesh with the blog title but it is funny. Check out this guy's blog. I find it quite comical. Is it just me or does he look a little retarded with the way he smiles in the pictures?

Test me

Quick, somebody test my IQ. I just watched Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle and feel very smart now. Oh wait. It was actually better than I thought - but I was disappointed that none of the trailers highlighted the fact that Neil Patrick Harris is in the movie as himself. Knowing that would've pushed me towards wanting to watch this movie - this was John's Netflix pick.

And big news of the day, Brad and Jen are splitting. I heard from two of my US Weekly addicts in the last week that these rumors were bull, turns out Heather and Nat were wrong... I didn't know Mr. Pitt used to date Juliette Lewis, I think she'd be fun to date, or just know. Happily, prior to breaking up, their production company brought this movie to life: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory due out later this year. I hope they don't f this up - cause Willy Wonka is a good movie.

Not to end the blog on a bad note, but my espresso machine is done. It's boxed up and being returned because sadly it seems to be defective as the milk won't heat when steamed/frothed. That makes me crabby so I'm sending it back and hoping to have my new one here by the time I get back from vacation.

Oh yeah, ready yourselves to be weaned from my blog for a week, John and I leave on Sunday for vacation oh yeah oh yeah. I'll write a send-off tomorrow before we depart, but from Sunday -Friday my blog will be out of commission unless I get the software that allows my phone to blog to work. If so, you'll hear about it :)

Michael

Good job on your new blog, Michael. Except you have to create postings on it, not just set up the pretty interface :)

Broken Hearts Club

As I was telling Julie yesterday, I've been having trouble sleeping lately. I think it's more likely linked to my caffine consumption than to Boston being not the best place to see (see my post from last week on this). It's not that I can't sleep at all, but most nights I wake up in the middle of the night at the very least to look at the time and roll over and go back to sleep. But two nights ago (sorry for not posting yesterday, computer troubles), I woke up at 3:30 unable to sleep and ended up watching Broken Hearts Club for about an hour before going back to sleep. While this sleep schedule is annoying, it was kinda nice to watch this movie which I hadn't seen in a few years (mostly since moving out from my apt w/ Heather).

I hadn't recognized that Zach Braff was the drugged up kid in the movie when I saw it last time. He makes a good homo.

It's crappy here today - the same freezing rain that hit MN a few days ago is now here. Ick.

Gophs

While the Gophs pulled it off on Friday at the Music City Bowl, Gopher hockey was only able to split against BU here in Boston over the weekend. They won 2-1 in the last game at BU's old Walter Brown Arena, but lost in the first game in the new Agganis Arena 1-2. I tried getting tickets for either of these games but found that tickets were hard to come by, and when they were on sale on Craigslist, they were super expensive. Oh, this could be because there are only 6300 seats in the new Agganis Arena, as opposed to the 3800 in the old arena.

I do believe Mariucci seats just over 11,000 - just think about that - old arena 1/3 of that size, this one about 1/2. Gee, Boston, I know there are a few college teams in this town but hockey's big here and people want to go to games. Oh hey, let's build a new arena that barely holds any people. Good plan BU, good plan. Bastards.

News of the Weird

In recapping 2004, I thought this was fun. It's a list of most read news of the weird stores from the Globe's website. My favorite, obviously relating to W, is this one. Second, relating to the Mormons, is this one.

Speaking of the world, I'm watching Michael Collins and want to ask everyone what year Ireland broke away from Britian's rule. Any guesses?


1922. AKA not that long ago. I feel dumb for not knowing this and can only hope that you, my contemporaries, also did not know this.

While enjoying my movie, I am sipping on a coffee drink I made myself using my new espresso maker. I am on drink #2 today and must say #2 is better than #1 but still not great. I think it will take some practice - I need to improve my frothing/steaming skills and my proportions of milk-espresso to achieve optimal flavor. I'll keep working on it and keep you updated :)

Here's a few more bits of HP trivia - this time about movie #4. Check it.

And finally, I know you'll all be happy to find out that I finally found a cute duvet cover for our bed - from Bed Bath and Beyond. Woo who the hunt ends. F Ikea for having the one I wanted but for being out of stock for the last 2 months :( I sure showed them by buying this one instead :)

Our friend Tommy

Our friend Tommy from Southie was doing the Polar Bear dip today. For a picture of him half-naked, check out Alicia's blog since I don't have his picture from today's swim.

Go Toyota!

So Toyota is set to take over as the #3 US automaker after GM and Ford in 2009. Right now, the numbers looks like this:

"Through November 2004, GM's total U.S. market share was 27.5 percent, Ford 19.7 percent, DaimlerChrysler 14.3 percent and Toyota 12.2 percent."

As I read the headline to this article, I was thinking "Hmmm, Honda, maybe Volkswagon, who else is the top 3?" before coming to the quote about GM and Ford taking up about 50% of the US market share. I realized that I've lived in the city too long and my image of car ownership is skewed quite a bit. Looking back at living in Jackson, there was 1 Volkswagon in town (a green Golf) and about 5 Hondas (including mine). There were a whole lot of big pickups (and not Toyota pickups mind you), Grand Ams, Lincoln Towncars, Ford Escorts, and minivans. I'd love to see a breakdown by state but I'm sure the Heartland's traditional buying patterns is keeping Ford and GM up there.

As you may know, I like to sleep. Unbeknownst to me, I downgraded when moving from Minneapolis to Boston based on this list of "Best Places to Sleep". So basically in Minneapolis I would be more rested and happier - good to know. Lo siento to the NY and SF crowd for the crappy sleep you've been getting.

Check out your neighborhood profile - giving statistical information by zip code. It's fun :)

For those of you who do not know the whole story on Theo Epstein, the youngest GM in baseball, read this profile. It gives his biographical information/background which is interesting...

Word of the day: peccadillos - a small sin or fault