Tag: Daily Life Stuff

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A few things

I’m on vacation now, so I won’t be posting until Sunday at the earliest and Monday at the likeliest! Anyhow, a couple of things:

:: Hecklers can ruin comedy shows — but sometimes comedians get the last laugh. (Salty language alert!)

:: Inside Steven Spielberg’s JAWS vault. A look at ephemera from the making of the movie. Awesome!

:: Interesting video about hot sauce and hot sauce labels:




For the record, my favorite hot sauces are Franks, Cholula, and Sriracha with the rooster on the bottle. I have no use for Tabasco. It tastes funny to me.

:: All 32 NFL team helmets imagined as Star Wars-themed. I, for one, would proudly root for the Buffalo Banthas!

::  Interesting article about near-death-experiences and what they tell us about dying. I’m not sure I totally buy into everything here, but I don’t know nearly enough to say one way or the other. I’d like to believe that something endures after death, but…well, there’s only one way to know and no way to report back, thus far.

::  The Baltimore Orioles are pretty cool in that when they do a post-game pie-in-the-face for the game’s hero, they don’t put shaving cream on a towel. A local bakery makes their splatting pies for them, out of real edible stuff. I respect that and partially root for the Orioles on that basis alone! (Although I think I’m rooting for the Royals now, since the Pirates got bounced by the Giants in the wildcard game. Get ’em next year, Buccos!)

::  Finally, speaking of pies in faces, you may recall from when I did the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge that I expressed hope that a pie-in-the-face challenge would come around next. Well, a bunch of them have been going on, pertaining to a number of ailments: depression and suicide awareness, Huntington’s Disease, Parkinson’s, Childhood cancer, and even cerebral palsy. (Obviously that last would hit too close to home for me.) Well, seeing as how a lot of the good in these “viral” fundraising bits of goofery lies in the idea of “raising awareness”, I was fascinated to see a pie challenge for a syndrome I’d never heard of before: Porphyria. This thing is both nasty and rare, so I decided that’s what I was going to do. Yesterday morning I launched my vacation by taking the Porphyria Pie Challenge.




Pies and a good cause: you can’t go wrong with that. (Yes, I donated as well.)

::  Oh wait! Really finally: check out my Official Author Site, if you haven’t done so already! The ACTUAL TITLE is revealed!

That’s really it. See you all in a few days!

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So this happened….

We adopted a retired racing greyhound.

A dirty secret: I have never been around dogs much at all, having never owned one, and therefore I have always been very uncomfortable around them. I’m a cat person, through and through; some part of me deeply sympathizes and even empathizes with all the Crazy Cat Ladies out there. Dogs are mysterious beasts to me.

But now, we have one. His name is Hurricane. No, that name does not make me less nervous about this whole thing. I’d quite frankly be more comfortable with a fat bulldog named Wilbur, but that just wasn’t in the cards.

As I write this, he’s been “our dog” for, oh, an hour or so. I’m sitting in my library while he whines from inside his crate. I guess we’ll figure this out. The Wife and Daughter are really excited. I’m just thinking I’ll hang out over here for a little while. I expect dogs will be like kids for me: actually having one will make me fine with the one we have, but I’m unlikely to be comfortable with others.

So, here’s Hurricane.

And here are Lester and Julio not being all that cool with Hurricane quite yet.

This ought to be one of my more interesting autumns, eh?

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Instaweeks!

Time to disappear again down the photographic rabbit hole!

Let’s get the Flummoxing Felines out of the way first, shall we?

And then there’s some recent food and such. The Daughter nagged me into deep dish pizza (I already don’t make it all that often because it’s fairly labor-intensive, and I make it even less now that The Wife is on a gluten-free diet and this is a virtual memorial statue to gluten):

Ramen with fried egg. I only have Ramen a few times a year, because of the salt. But I do love it once in a great while. (Hey, you know what makes Ramen really awesome? Having it with some buttered rye crispbread on the side. You dip the rye crisp into the broth and it’s heavenly. That’s a combo I learned from my father, way way way back when. To really be emotionally authentic, it has to be the round rye crisp, with the hole in the middle. It comes wrapped in paper and you break off the piece you want. Not the nicely-cut rectangular rye crisp! That gives you the right flavor, but shapes matter, folks!)

I really love sugar-sweetened Dr. Pepper. It’s pricey (almost four bucks for a four-pack), but it’s a bit of a luxury. Just awesome stuff, though.

Labels on Asian food products make me happy.

The coming of fall means the reappearance of candy that isn’t easy to find other times of year, like Oh Henry bars.

The Daughter also confronted her first day of tenth grade with the requisite enthusiasm.

Fall is coming quickly! September was, like the months before it, cooler than usual (after an odd burst of hot weather to start the month). As the weather starts to turn cool, my fascination with the sky usually fires up a bit. I love the sky, and my normal shift at work starts each day when the sky is often doing some amazing things….

I don’t want the earth to feel neglected as I look up at the sky a lot, so here’s the ground.

I continue to do stick-figure doodles in my occasional free time at work. I make no claims to the genius of xkcd, but it’s a good way to make a few little points here and there. For instance, there’s a trope that shows up in fantastic fiction now and again that irritates the hell out of me:

(I’m looking at you, The Dark is Rising sequence!)

Diagramming the wisdom of Kenny Rogers:

I’ll be posting a review at some point, but this one sentence perfectly sums up my love of science fiction in general and my admiration for the series The Expanse in particular:

Patience, grasshopper!

I didn’t care for this book:

Our next door neighbors are doing construction on their house. Looks like they’re adding on so their elderly dad or dad-in-law can move in with them. It started with the removal of a couple of trees that would have encroached upon their house’s expanded footprint. Which meant…lumberjacks!

And let me tell you, folks, it’s always fun to listen to guys like this talk. No swearing, just a funny run of comment through the job. At one point, a fellow who has climbed thirty feet up and is cutting branches off shouts down, “Uh, I think I cut the wrong thing!” Whoops.

My next car will likely be something bigger than my current Buick Century sedan (although not monstrously huge, just a bit bigger). Still, if I had money right now, I’d find this jalopy enticing. It’s sitting at a VW dealership just down the road.

I sorted my washers and bolts. Actually, I didn’t sort all my bolts, just the quarter-inch, twenty-count thread ones, because that’s what I use the most at work. This is exciting shit, folks.

Here’s a screw I ran up against at work. I have a set of bits for tamper-resistant screws, which are basically normal screws with really oddball heads so they’re tamper-resistant simply by virtue that very few people own the drivers to budge them. This thing was even too obscure for me, though. I got it off using needle-nosed locking pliers and a lot of salty language. I don’t recall what it was on, but there was nothing about the gizmo that screamed out “Holy shit, we gotta keep the riffraff from removing this screw! Grab that center-pegged pentagon screw! That’ll stop ’em!”

I knocked off one major project at New Casa Jaquandor: replacing the dining room light fixture with something better. The old fixture was a perfectly nice fixture, but it was misplaced. It wasn’t well-suited for hanging above a dining table, being a low-hanging fixture with a single halogen lamp that shone straight down, casting a fairly small pool of light on the table instead of illuminating the room. No such problem with the new fixture, which is (a) awesome, and (b) so bright that the next big project will be converting the existing switch to a dimmer.

And, of course, there’s the usual stuff of my life…writing, overalls, writing in overalls, et cetera and so forth.

And these last, because even though I’ve posted them here already, I think I’ll need them in the future:

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Buckets, the Bills, Stadiums, Pies, Sharkheaded girls: Some random opinions on some random stuff

Just a grab-bag of some thoughts on stuff going on….

:: I posted the following on a Facebook exchange debating the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. This wasn’t really in response to anything anyone specifically said, but more in response to some more general negativity I’ve seen about it. (As such, it was probably out-of-place on that particular friend’s feed, for which I feel a tad guilty.)

Here’s my thing: fundraising of every kind, everywhere, is more successful when there’s something “fun” involved. It’s why charities have big galas and parties. It’s why churches and small town organization have chicken barbecues. It’s they the Jerry Lewis Telethon isn’t twelve hours of scrolling text with telephone numbers. It’s why people trying to raise money to help individuals with massive medical bills have events with basket raffles and Chinese auctions. It’s why PBS stations air their really popular shows and specials at pledge time. I can’t remember where I read it, but the other day I read an article where some charity in some city had an annual gala which was their BIG fundraising event each year, but one year they decided to not hold it and simply ask for the donations anyway, and their fundraising fell through the floor. We may not necessarily LIKE this aspect of things, but it’s simply the way things are. All the ALS people did was figure out a way to tap into one of the newer avenues people are having fun with, and frankly, if it hadn’t been this, it would have been something else.

That said, I cannot for the life of me have any problem with this whole endeavor. It’s a horrible disease (my wife’s grandfather died of it, just a few weeks after we started dating), but really — they ALL are. If we approach fundraising with the solemnity of the disease itself, nothing would ever get funded much at all.

I stand by all that, even if my posting was rather badly misplaced.

:: As I write this I’m basking in the afterglow of my first-ever Buffalo Bills preseason game. Oh wait, did I say “basking in the afterglow”? I meant to say, “waiting for the stench cloud to dissipate”. I know, it’s just preseason and it’s the last preseason game, so it’s not like either team was really trying all that hard, but boy howdy, the Bills just looked fundamentally awful. They attempted no long pass plays, they were bumbling and mistake-prone, the backup quarterback hit exactly one guy on the numbers, and I saw four punts in the single half of football we bothered watching. (The tickets were free; no way do we pay to get in there.)

That said, I am obviously no expert, but I still do not see why it’s taken for absolute faith around here that Ralph Wilson Stadium is an awful place that needs to be retired in favor of a spectacular new facility that’s “easier to get to”. RWS is plenty easy to get to, and I found it perfectly nice and structurally fine. Maybe some significant work to the exterior, like they did in Green Bay with Lambeau? Anyway, for my money, RWS is fine, and anyway, I’m loath to spend upwards of a billion bucks of public money on a facility just to help a collection of billionaires rake in even more cash. As for the current renovations to the Ralph, I like the place, although there could be some more signage directing where to go in the area between the ticketed entry queue and the actual concourses.

Oh, my prediction for the Bills this season? Well, they’ve gone 6-10 in four of the last five seasons, so why stop now? 6-10, it is!

:: Nobody ever gets to bitch about Presidents and their vacations again. I’m done listening to that shit. It’s just plain dumb, seeing as how in this day and age, with the technology we have, a President could run things from the Unabomber’s shack if he or she wanted to. Enough.

::  Speaking of vacations and such: it’s Labor Day Weekend, which reminds me of something I read once: three day weekends are better when the extra day off is on Friday, rather than Monday, because that way it feels like two Saturdays followed by a Sunday, as opposed to a Saturday followed by two Sundays. I kind of agree with that — July 4 weekend this year broke that way, simply because the 4th was on Friday — but I also rather like having the long weekend and then a shortened work week on the other side. Short weeks are nice, which is why I always try to schedule my vacations to straddle two different work weeks, essentially taking a six- or seven-day weekend, bracketed by two two or three-day work weeks.

:: The other day, Buffalo’s new-and-improving waterfront area became home to a sculpture originally from Cincinnati, called “Shark Girl”. It’s a little girl with the head of a shark. I am not making this up. Behold:

As art, I kinda like it. It’s not really my cup of tea, but it is a whimsical thing and definitely unusual enough that it will have people going to see it and talking about it and so on. My only complaint, such as it is, was that such a high-profile art installation here wasn’t seen as an opportunity to feature a local artist. However, I’m told that this is only the beginning, and that local artists will be featured at Canalside. Good.

Head of a shark. What will they think of next.

:: I’m not sure who I want to win MasterChef this year. I’m leaning toward Leslie, because he’s really gonzo, but he’s also best taken, I think, in small doses. Who I do not want to see win is Courtney, who has the single most annoying “Fake perfect Good Housekeeping wife” thing going on, along with incredibly annoying arrogance regarding her own kitchen skills. True, she has yet to screw up in any way at all, but land sakes alive, is she annoying.

:: A new law: If you have any kind of special request as regards bagging your groceries at all, then I don’t care if you’re only buying five things, go through the other line. Your “I want this item in double paper, double plastic and then roll it up and put it in a third bag” bullshit forfeits your right to use the express lane.

:: Finally, on a topic near and dear to my heart, I posted the following on Tumblr earlier:

Squirty whipped cream on a paper plate ain’t gonna cut it, folks.

So I’m seeing that on the heels of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, some folks are trying to make pie-in-the-face challenges the next thing. As you might expect I am TOTALLY on board with this, but I fear the well may be somewhat tapped, and folks are trying to do this in “honor” of several different diseases, such as depression and Huntington’s Disease. Again, this is great, but I suspect this might have the effect of diluting things.

More to the point, though, is that the “pie” is often a bit of whipped cream from a spray can on a paper plate. This is well below the standards we should be willing to accept as Americans, folks! If you’re going to experience the joy that is a pie in the face, make it happen with a REAL pie and not just a dollop of canned stuff! A thing worth doing is a thing worth doing RIGHT. Come on, America! We invented the pie-in-the-face routine! Let’s show the world how it’s done!

[Insert picture of Sam the Eagle here. Or something suitably pompous.]

Remember, folks, don’t do this:

Do this instead:

Or follow the instructions in the “A Pie in the Face is a Wonderful Thing” page to do this:

That’s all that’s running through my head right now, folks. Have a great Labor Day weekend! (I’m not taking off from posting, though.)

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Of buckets and the dumping of the water therein

If you’ve lived beneath a rock of late, you may have missed a viral fundraising activity that’s going around the social media sites. I’m not even sure of the exact “rules”, but it’s all voluntary anyway, so it’s not like the rules matter all that much. It involves dumping, or having someone else dump, a bucket full of ice water over your head, after which you challenge a few other folks to do the same, whilst making a small donation to the ALS Assocation. ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) is a particularly awful way to go, and like all awful diseases, its defeat is a worthy goal. There’s been an awful lot of tut-tutting over the thing, and to my way of thinking (along with Roger, who as always has some good links), that all pretty much misses the point. Donations are way up, and people are having fun doing it, so what’s the problem? Why be such a Muggle? Fuhgeddaboudit!

Anyway, I received my challenge/nomination last week, and I finally got ’round to doing the deed. Aside from the efficacy of this as a fundraiser (yes, I did kick in a few Quatloos!), what are my thoughts on up-ending a bucket of water over my head? Well, it actually felt good! Luckily I got a fairly warm day. This particular summer hasn’t been all that hot in my neck o’ the woods, but I imagine this would have felt awesome on a 90-degree scorcher in July. It was over quickly, and if it had been really hot, maybe I wouldn’t have even bothered changing afterward — I could just hang out outside and air-dry. Alas, it wasn’t quite that warm.

So yeah, I got my challenge done. I’m not challenging anyone else, seeing as how I think I’m coming to this bit at the tail end of its potency (most folks I know have already done it, anyway). But my friends should be warned: if a similar fundraising challenge starts making the rounds that involves a pie in the face, oh, there will be some challenging going on!

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A Feline Love Story

Yesterday morning I brought my computer down to the dining room table, where I did some work whilst enjoying my coffee. At one point I looked down, to my left, and saw that my parents’ Persian cat was hanging out on our porch, right outside our sliding glass door. (They live next door now.) Along came Lester, and the following transpired:

First, a meeting. Shared looks and stares. He’s looking eager, while she, ever the Lady, is playing it cool. She’s avoiding eye-contact, and doesn’t want to seem eager. But she isn’t going away, either.

At last the eye contact comes…but alas! The infernal glass door is still there, forever separating the two feline lovers!

The intensity of Lester’s smoldering stare becomes too much. She must look away, lest she be drawn into his web of kitty passion!
Finally Lester decides it’s time for a dramatic gesture, displaying what he thinks is his best feature, his enormous gray belly. Sadly, it is, in reality, far from his best feature.
Her reaction to this? “Um…yeah. I gotta go do something now.” And away she went, seconds later, to return to her own porch. But see, she loves our porch, likely because of the chipmonks who live beneath it. She’ll be back. And next time, it may be Julio!
She’s a vixen, that one.

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Dispatches from the Fair, 2014 edition

As another August starts to wind down, another iteration of the Erie County Fair recedes into memory. The Fair is one of our favorite things, and a source of a lot of bright and happy memories, all the way back to the first time we attended, way back in, I think, summer 2001. Here are some photographic memories of our time at this year’s Fair!

You know how the biggest flags around are at Perkins Restaurants? Not so much!

It’s kind of hard to make out, but behind the flag, you can see the long wire that served as the infrastructure for this year’s Big Event, when highwire artist Nik Wallenda (who made big news a couple years back traversing Niagara Falls on one of those) walked over the Fair. Sadly, this took place the day after our day at the Fair. Oh well, maybe next time!

As always, we spent some time at the animal barns (which are now less ‘barns’ than ‘big metal buildings’, which are frankly a lot nicer than the old buildings). I didn’t take too many animal pictures this year, but I couldn’t resist bunnies.

There’s also a new building devoted to more general agricultural information and education, the chief attraction of which is this big machine. I don’t know what this Big Machine does, but those tires are taller than me.
And did you ever wonder how much cut lumber can come out of a single tree trunk? Wonder no more! This display fascinated me.
No, I did not buy this Audrey Hepburn print. I did consider it, but I did not buy it.
I did, though, get one of these NiftyLamps! (That’s not the official name. I don’t actually know what these are called, but they’re cool. You get to pick your shape, size, and colors. I got blue, yellow, and orange.)
We lingered in the horse barns:
And we met the Budweiser Clydesdales!
As well as their tried Dalmatian buddy.
Seeing the Clydesdales in action is always a thrill. They are gorgeous animals.
My favorite part of the Fair each year is the Creative Arts building, which is where all the things made and entered for judging are kept. Painting, sculpture, photography, clothing-making, quilting, the creation of place-settings — it’s all here, and I always spend the most time lingering in this wonderful place. Witness this amazing flower:
And then there was this creation, meant to illustrate the theme of Nik Wallenda’s wirewalk over the Fair:
The judges’ comments are always provided for the public to peruse as well, and I thought that their tone this year was a bit more, shall we say, douchey than usual.
My stock answer to comments like this is, “Wow, somebody open a window, man!”
The most amazing things at the Fair’s Creative Arts building this year were the quilts. Look at some of this work. I am amazed by this stuff!
Those quilts are amazing. This is just a stunning, stunning blend of art and craft.
And so the sun set on the Fair, as it always does, and we left. See you next year, County Fair!
Oh, and my new NiftyLamp? It looks awesome in my library!
It’s groovy, man.

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