Ramble On I Say, Ramble On

So it's been a few days since I lasted posted so this may be rather disjointed going here to there and back to here. That would't be any different than my other middle of the night or middle of the day ramblings anyways.

It's 414am and I have been awake for the last hour or so and I'm on my 2nd cup of coffee already. I'm effen stressed trying to meet my targets for year-end at work. I really need to prioritize my time better. I think I may have to go into the office tomorrow (31st) just to get the last couple spreads done. I can work remotely but it is so much slower than being on-site and I get frustrated with the system hanging up. Anyways enough of that. LOL. It will be there still in another hour or so when I head into work at some ungodly hour.

So H made it back from brrr Montreal yesterday evening. Turns out it was -28c or some ungodly temperature like that when he got up in the morning. I don't miss those days. I left for work yesterday morning wearing a short sleeve shirt. Okay I may have been the only person in Greenville dressed that way given that the grass was frosted up but I knew the temps would get to the mid 50s so I wasn't about to get all bundled up.

It was great getting H back here though he wasn't thrilled to be back I think. He misses Montreal. He misses his Mom. It has to be tough for them being separated by this distance of a thousand miles or so like they have been for the last 11 and 1/2 years.

The first things he mentioned to me was that the night before he was in a bar drinking legally in St-Bruno somewhere and that the women in Montreal are so much prettier. I did mention to him that given Montreal has a population of around three million; chances are that there would seem to be lots of pretty women around. I also mentioned that he had just spent ten days hanging out with his Mom and her female friends so he was around women a lot more than he is down here. I think he has a Montreal bias going on. LOL.

He did bring me back some Tim Horton's coffee. That is a pretty good gift for me. I miss my Timmies. Spinx coffee is just not the same.

I am listening to some Peter Gabriel (In Your Eyes, Biko) and Boz Scaggs (We're All Alone, Lido Shuffle) as I am typing this. These songs are playing in another window via YouTube. It is something to see the late Jeff Porcaro playing the drums on this version of "Lido". He was an amazingly talented drummer and the list of artists that he played drums for before his death in 1992 is long and noteworthy. Besides all his work with his brothers in the band Toto; he played drums with Pink Floyd, Roger Waters, Michael Jackson, Christopher Cross, Steely Dan, David Gilmour, Jon Anderson, Eric Clapton, Roger Hodgson, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Dire Straits among others. Pretty impressive list.

I have the Jynx/Jinx monster using my left foot as a back rest as she goes through her cleaning routine. How often do cats clean themselves in a day? Sheesh they are like clean freaks. It's funny watching her as she is kind of, strike that, okay well she is a chubby cat and she really has to contort herself in order to get everywhere.

It's been great traveling to and from work with the light traffic on the roads this week. It's nice not to have to deal with stop and go on 385 like I normally do. I still get stressed though with the drivers. It's like I get behind the wheel and any calmness that I typically have in me is immediately gone as soon as I start driving. It is one WTF after another coming out of my mouth or as we say in good French "cris de calis". I'm telling you I am a lunatic. Stark raving mad when I am on the road. LOL.

Okay enough for now. I need to brew some coffee!

Christmas Eve Day

Started the day off with a cup of coffee and then I was off to Massage Envy to get this long body of mine pampered for an hour. As per usual B did a wonderful job on my neck, shoulders and right leg. After walking out of there I wanted to bottle up that moment because that is the loosey gooseyist that I will feel until the 3rd Saturday in January when I go back for my monthly massage. The best $39 I spend in a month I think! I used to spend that in a week on smokes. Hmmm. Maybe spending that on a therapeutic thing would be a smart move on my part. My stopping to sleep on too short couches would be a cheaper thing to do. LOL.

After that I went to pick up a colleague from work and brought her for a late breakfast at Stax. A belated birthday breakfast. Hands down Stax on Orchard Park has the best breakfast in Greenville that I have had so far. I haven't done any of the hotel brunches yet so the voting isn't quite complete yet. Stax is hard to beat though. I love their Denver omelet and home fries!

Just before dropping V at home, we went to BiLo to buy lotto tickets. It seems that the prizes are huge right now on the MegaMillions and Powerball lotteries. I stopped buying tickets a few years ago when I found it too much of a pain trying to get paid back by work colleagues for the tickets I was buying. Some thought I was offering payment terms. LOL. Well I wasn't. Anyways I now have lotto tickets for tonight's and next Friday's draw it seems.

While V was buying the tickets I figured I would get that spiral ham for tomorrow's Christmas dinner. Well I was getting it at BiLo until I got peeved at their shady marketing ploy. Really peeved! I picked up an 8 lb. ham at the BiLo bonuscard price of $15 something however that price wasn't really the price it seems. Had I looked at the weekly circular I would have seen some crap ass pricing gimmick of the spiral ham being $1.69 a pound rather than the rip off price of $2.69 or something like that if I spent a total of $35.00.

First of all I don't look at circulars though I guess I should and secondly it didn't effen say that where the hams were being sold. The price tag said this price without card and that price with the card. I had to ask for the manager just to make that point. Even when you read the ad it doesn't make sense. Anyways I was peeved. The poor young lady monitoring the self checkout didn't know what to say to me to explain it. It didn't help that her first language wasn't English.

I am open-minded, however if you have a job dealing with the public it's probably a good thing if your command of the language of your public or customer is more than adequate. If you can't, perhaps another position would make sense. It isn't like you are able to solve any issues given that you can't understand what your customer is saying. That's just me though. Anyways needless to say BiLo is not on my list of places to shop for the next little while. Glad H doesn't work there anymore. LOL. So I decided I was going to get that ham elsewhere!

So after dropping V off at her place, I headed back towards home and had to stop at a couple of places to get some wrapping paper, labels, gift bags, a Christmas present or two and that dang spiral ham. Well I did all of that and spent more money than I planned to do. I think sometimes I would be better off if I carried more cash around and then I would have a better idea how I am spending money. I know that so far today I have spent money at Stax, Big Lots, The Great Escape and Food Lion. I know I spent more than I should. Again! LOL.

J and her girls are on their way back from Orlando, Fl after being away for a week and I figured that I am going to prepare a light Christmas Eve meal of sorts for when they get back to their house. So I better wrap this up and start prepping the food. On the menu are some nice Italian-style cold cuts, shrimp, fresh salad, a veggie plate that I am prepping and cleaning, bruschetta (homemade), some brie and gouda and fancy crackers, egg nog and some adult beverages. Heh heh. I also have to wrap presents. I bought two thingees of scotch tape. The way I wrap stuff I may need them both.

In finishing this up I would like to express my holiday sentiments here to everyone that reads my ramblings. I know some of you that read these and some of you are strangers. The thoughts below are for everyone.

This time of the year is especially an important time for families. Some of us have large families and some have smaller families. Some of us are fortunate enough to have our parents still alive and well. Some of us sadly don't. Sadly I don't but that is life. What I have learned is that you have, you must and you need to love of your loved ones that are still around. Family and friends alike. You never know when things can change. Arguments, disagreements, spats and misunderstandings are things that happened in the past. We learn from the past but we live in the now. Be happy, be free, be healthy and tell all of your loved ones that you love them be it in person, by phone or by email. Peace out.

Favorite New Songs

Okay first of all they're my favorite new songs. It doesn't necessarily mean that they are brand new. The second definitely isn't. At least it is from this century. Ha!

As I have mentioned before I don't listen to much radio here because it annoys me to no end; however lately I have been listening to CHOM online quite a bit and like the way they tweaked the format. They still play tons of classic rock but they have added some new rock. Bravo! CHOM rocks once again!

The first song that caught my ear is Young The Giant's "My Body" which was released as a single in January 2011. This is one of those songs that the very first time I heard it; I immediately had to listen to this song again and again. It just has this driving beat and this catchy chorus. I have no idea what the songs means. I read that it was a song that took them ten minutes to write after a particularly bad day at the recording studio. Well they nailed this song that's for dang sure.

Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQYpF2pCkLI&feature=bf_prev&list=FLWSkrZT-kF2QIBHW9w6bHqQ&lf=plpp_video

The second song that caught my ear is the Pearl Jam song "Just Breathe" released at the end of October 2009. I know. I know. I have jumped on the train a little bit late. Whatever! This song is gorgeous. I am such a sucker for an accoustic guitar song and the lyrics are so heartfelt to boot. I always have thought of Eddie Vedder as a front man who makes weird faces, contorting his body in bizarre ways and making his eyes flutter madly and then he comes up with an absolute gem like this song. Plus he plays a nice accoustic guitar on top of that.

Here's the link for this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aePWkeDxRjE&feature=bf_prev&list=FLWSkrZT-kF2QIBHW9w6bHqQ&lf=plpp_video

The other song that is bouncing around my head lots these days is Mumford and Sons "The Cave" that came from an album released in late 2009. I first heard of this band when I saw them on stage with Bob Dylan and The Avett Brothers at the Grammys. The song was a hit in Ireland when the album was released and then a hit down under in 2010 making it to the hottest 100 charts in Australia and New Zealand. It then started getting airplay here in the States in 2011. Let's face it a folk rock bluegrass group is going to take a while to get a following here on rock radio. A band with a keyboard, a couple accoustic guitars, a banjo, a stand-up bass and drums doesn't exactly strike me as Van Halen or Journey like. Hey I like Van Halen amd Journey! Just making a point. I don't know if they play them here in SC. I discovered their stuff on YouTube. A great place for old and new music. Hearing it online makes me go out and buy the CD. I don't do ipods. LOL.

Here's the link for this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnmIGWW_pv4&list=FLWSkrZT-kF2QIBHW9w6bHqQ&index=125&feature=plpp_video

Anyways enough typing for now. I need to grab a bite to eat. Time for some Guadalajara.

Middle Of The Night Musings

Well here I am awake at the keyboard at 254am Thursday morning. I don't think this is what U2 meant when they released "Wide Awake in America" in 1985.

Quick segue to that EP from 1985. I just had this idea about the EP when I mentioned U2 up above. I wasn't going here but now I am. LOL. Hey coherency in the middle of the night is not always prevalent. Smiles.

"Wide Awake In America" is when I was introduced to the live U2 classic "Bad". From the chiming guitar to the lyrics of heroin addiction which touch me deep down inside; I have always found this song amazing. There is a part in the song when Bono pleads, laments, wails "wide awake, I'm not sleeping". Man oh man that just gets me every time.

The link below is the live performance of "Bad" from Live Aid in 1985. I remember watching this performance and being spellbound. This too many was when U2 became the band that mattered.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zIW8qDPhos&feature=related

Just another one of those nights. I fell asleep on the couch reading a Michael Crichton book and the next thing I knew it was 1am or so. It's going to be a long day tomorrow.

It will be a busy one later today. Have to work. Have to go to the post office. Have to get Princess at the kennel. Have a team lunch to attend.

I wonder if today will be a good day. :O)

Grilling Outside on December 19th

This will most likely be a short blog as I have to get H in 20 minutes or so as he finishes his last shift at Food Lion before leaving for Montreal in the morning.

I am going to do some grilling after I get him. Supper at 9pm. Why the heck not? It isn't like my body clock is very normal these days anyways.

I've been a foodie in the last month or so looking up recipes to prepare just to add to my repertoire. Initially my intent in all of this was to add to what I already do well on the off-chance that I was going to really look into leasing that space where the Zone was but alas poor Yorick I think that the start-up costs would be prohibitive at this time with the slow season about to start for people socializing. You never know though. Perhaps once spring rolls around the opportunity may present itself.

I'm going to grill a london broil cut that has been marinating for the last 24 hours or so. I've found in the past that whenever I get deals on london broils I tend to cook it too fast without allowing for the meat to soften or whatever the word is for that. LOL. I had bought a two-fer at Costco and I slow-cooked one yesterday that made a great stew so I have new recipe in my arsenal. Hopefully this grilled one will turn out well. As Bruce Springsteen once sang "I'll be grilling in the darK" in a little bit.

I also need to prepare some bruschetta with the last of the roma tomatoes I have. It came out real well the last time but I think I have to be a little more careful with the "liquid" measurements. I'm going to use dried basil this go-round though as I am out of the fresh variety and I ended up tossing some out the other day. I hate tossing food out. I work way too hard to be wasting money. More on that on a later blog.

Okay time to get the prodigal son who is super excited to go visit his Mom up in Montreal. He is so excited that he packed his suitcase yesterday night. If it was me I would have been packing at 630am tomorrow morning an hour before leaving for the airport. I can definitely learn from him on that point. Way less stressful that way. O:)

It's An Effing Game!!!

Well here I am at 518am and I am already peeved and I haven't had my first cup of coffee yet. It's brewing right now. I made the mistake of reading Philippe Cantin's article on the Cyberpresse website in regards to the Habs hiring the unilingual Randy Cunneyworth as their head coach yesterday morning to replace Jacques Martin.

Let's back up here for a second first and go through some recent history. The Canadiens haven't won the Stanley Cup since the 1992-93 season. They've had a couple of good runs in the playoffs with 2009-10's almost miracle run the latest. That year we made it the conference final basically on Jaroslav Halak's back. When he was on his game, the Habs won. When he stunk up the joint, he was pulled but quick.

Since the 92-93 Cup winners, our general managers have been named Serge Savard, Rejean Houle, Andre Savard, Bob Gainey and Pierre Gauthier.

Since the 92-93 season's end, our head coaches have been Jacques Demers, Mario Tremblay, Alain Vigneault, Michel Therrien, Claude Julien, Bob Gainey (on a temporary basis twice to replace coaches he had fired), Guy Carbonneau and Jacques Martin.

So in close to twenty years aside from Bob Gainey, our general managers and head coaches all had in common the fact that their mother tongue was French.

Bob Gainey was deservedly named GM of the Habs after spending 16 years playing for them and earning his coach and GM stripes with the Dallas Stars.

The Habs have always been an organization that bring up their storied history in their promotional efforts. Habs' fans readily and eagerly buy into that fact and they have had sellout after sellout at the old Forum and at the Bell Centre.

When things are going well and the team itself is playing a fast-paced offensive crowd-pleasing style, the Bell Centre literally feels like it is shaking in its' foundation.

This is a throwback to the glory days when the Habs had the first dibs on all French Canadian players due to territorial rights. Even when they didn't as the NHL expanded, the Hab GMs were able to make the deals to get the best of the best of the French Canadian players. Case in point were the deals that were engineered by Sam Pollock to get Guy Lafleur.

Except for maybe the jobs with the Toronto Maple Leafs as we know that they are the center of the Canadian universe, being the GM or head coach of the Habs are the toughest jobs in hockey. Making it even tougher is the language bullshit. That is the correct word to use here.

The language issue is always there in the background. It happened a couple of years ago when the talented and uber-courageous Saku Koivu had his team captain credentials questioned by some sycophants in the French press.

It seems to come up every year come the annual draft when the Habs sometimes have to make picks based on the French-Canadianism of the player rather than the talent.

It comes up when the Habs make trades or don't make trades and whether or not the player being traded or obtained is French-Canadian or not.

Being the head coach of the Habs is a tough job. The fans expect winners even though present and previous management continues to make some questionable decisions on personnel.

Decisions like letting quarterbacks of the power plays signing elsewhere. Players like Sheldon Souray, Mark Streit or Marc-Andre Bergeron. Trades for players like Scott Gomez and Tomas Kaberle among others. Draft picks like Guillaume Latendresse, Terry Ryan and the whole 2008 class. Rejean Houle as GM. Mario Tremblay as head coach. Letting Saku Koivu go as a free agent. Firing some of these French Canadian head coaches that all of a sudden found glory elsewhere (Therrien, Julien, Vigneault). One marginal decision after another one could say.

But here's the point and that is something that Philippe Cantin and others of his ilk and thinking completely miss. They are hockey decisions. They are not language decisions. They are not political decisions. Hockey is a game. Nothing less nothing more. Sure we take pride when our team wins. It happens in many towns and countries around the world. We get to wave the banner. We get to strut and we get to crow that we are the best. We get to play Queen's anthem at the end of the season. But if we don't win; life goes on. Bills have to be paid. Children have to be taken care of and shown the right path. Jobs have to be done. Etc. Etc. Etc.

People ask me if I miss Montreal. There are things that I miss and I have written about some of them on here. One of the things I definitely don't miss is the language bullshit. It's neverending. It has nothing to do with being the head coach of the Canadiens. The Habs have French speakers on staff to help deal with the media. The fact that Randy Cunneyworth doesn't speak French may be a blessing. It may actually make his job easier not having to please the French press. All the fans want is a winner. It's always been that way. They could be "les gars de chez nous", they could be English Canadians, they could be Europeans, Americans or wherever else the players come from; all the fans want at the Bell Centre is team that will win the Cup so that we can have a parade down St-Catherine street.

Philippe Cantin can continue to be a navel-gazer, an individual suffering from myopia and a person so afraid to let his language prevail on its' own that he needs to politicize or aggrandize an event that should be left solely in the arena on La Gauchetiere and others around the NHL.

Productivity Is Not My Middle Name...

So what did I do today? If this blog is to be as lengthy as my productivity today I would have stopped typing this one at my first I here. LOL.

H decided to do a load of his laundry so I figured I better empty the dryer at 615ish. There were two shirts, two pairs of socks and a pair of briefs. At the beginning of the week the dryer was pretty full. LOL. Yes that is correct! I am guilty of taking items out of the dryer as I needed them this week. So that is one thing I did today.

I brought H to work at 145ish and picked him up at 545ish. That is another thing I did today.

Another thing I did was to warm up some leftover spaghetti that I made on Thursday night. That involved using the microwave. After two minutes in, I opened the container and stirred the noodles with my homemade sauce. That was tiring. I detect a blister developing due this activity.

Another thing I did was to drive to J's house and check on her mail. Five miles there. Five miles back. I did get out of the car to check the mailbox. Wearing out my shoes at this rate.

To top off this strenuous day I emptied the garbage bin in the kitchen and put it in the garage in its' container. I am trying to psyche myself up to replace the bag that I took out but the kitchen is a good four or five seconds away from me at this time so I will have to build up energy for that unenviable task. I'm almost there. O:)

Today's workload will be hard to beat tomorrow. I'll have to get up real early just to think that I have a chance to be as good tomorrow as I was today.

America - I Need You ('74)

So the other night in another one of those "I can't sleep once again" so I may just was as well get up and putter around for a bit. So the TV comes on and I am off to the races trying to find something that will occupy my time and mind for a little while until I can get back to sleep.

One of the channels was running a Time-Life 30 miniute promo show on singer-songwriters from the 70s and it was hosted by Dewey Bunnell and Gerry Beckley. Unless you grew up listening to their music on CKGM back in the day; you probably know them better as America.

As I was listening and watching to the show which has a pretty amazing setlist by the way, I started thinking about the band and their string of hits back in the early 70s.

My older stepbrother M had their eponymous 1st album "America". At least I think he did. LOL. Memories get a little hazy when they are nearly four decades old. I know that he had Jethro Tull's "Thick As A Brick". I'm pretty sure that he had the "America" album as well. I was in grade three back then living on the corner of Notre Dame and 100th in Chomedey, Laval.

Anyways the first hit off the album was "A Horse With No Name" which has the unforgettable "la la, la, la la la la, la la la, la, la" chorus which became a million seller when actual 45s were released in a format that you see and touch. This first hit became a precursor to the signature "America" sound. The accoustic guitars, the harmonies, the catchy choruses and the story song.

You'd be surprised at how many words you know to their songs. It's as if the lyrics seeped into your subconscious to be promptly remembered when you hear an America song on the radio or TV somewhere.

The second hit off the album was this beautiful and sad ballad written by Gerry Beckley that inspired this blog. I've noticed that it always seems to be the sad songs that affect me or touch me. Does that mean that I suffer from melancholia or some other affectation? Or does it just mean that a song like this triggers a memory? You know even a sad memory typically is rooted in a good memory. Take this song. It talks about losing or having lost one that you loved. You wouldn't have the sadness without having experienced the happiness. As the lyric goes " I need you like the winter needs the spring". The good and the bad.

Another track that got airplay was "Sandman" which is one of the heavier songs that the band released. This song was tailor-made for album-oriented rock stations.

Less than a year later, America released "Homecoming" which featured Dewey Bunnell's "Ventura Highway" which featured the accoustic sound, the catchy chorus, the harmonies and the story. I think I see a pattern here. LOL.

Their third album "Hat Trick" was released in 1973. Three albums released in 33 months. That is prolific. This one though didn't do as well commercially as the first two. They had a minor hit with a song written not by a bandmember called "Muskrat Love". That song was remade and was a bigger hit by The Captain and Tennile. The less said about this song the better. It's actually about muskrats. Ranks right up there with Michael Jackson's "Ben" as an ode to a rodent. The hallucigenics in the 70s must be the reason for these songs dedicated to rodents. LOL.

Less than a year later, America released "Holiday" which found them near the top of the charts once again. They had brought in the Beatles producer George Martin to help out and this resulted in the top ten hit "Tin Man" which had the "America" formula down pat once again. This album also had the inspirational "Lonely People" which was also was a top ten hit. This one was written by the third key member of the band Dan Peek. This was the first song that featured him singing as well and becoming a hit.

America had a unique way of writing for their albums. Their albums typically had ten songs. Three written solo by each member. Sometimes credit would be given to the other members if they added to the song when it was being recorded. They would also bring in a song from a non-band member to round out the album.

In the spring of '75, America released another George Martin produced album named "Hearts" which featured another huge hit. This being "Sister Golden Hair". Another one of those super-catchy singing along songs.

They tried to repeat the formula a couple more times with George Martin but the albums didn't last long on the charts. They hit the top twenty on Billboard album charts with songs being played on AOR stations but they only had minor radio hits so these didn't generate huge sales for the band.

They underwent some changes as bands do when things slowdown with Dan Peek leaving the band to become a fulltime Christian-themed artist. Dewey Bunnell and Gerry Beckley kept releasing albums and they made it back to the charts in 1982 with the Russ Ballard penned "You Can Do Magic". Listening to that song is as if Ballard wrote it specifically for them to sing. It has that "America" sound.

About a year ago, we used to drop in on a pretty regular basis on Friday nights at Fitzpatricks on Laurens Rd. for sweet potato fries, Harp or Gaelic ale on tap and to listen to the 2 or 3 person bands that they would bring in to entertain on Fridays. One of the bands was a couple of guys a little older than I that would always have a couple of America tracks in their set. As I mentioned above, immediately the words would come back as they would play the songs.

A good remember when. Smiles.

Twas The Week Before Christmas...

And not a creature was stirring. Oh well unless of course you consider that I being a human creature have been up and at 'em for an hour or so which on a Saturday morning is a rarity indeed.

So J and her girls are on their way to Kissimmee for a week. H is going to be around for another couple of days until I bring him to GSP for his flight to Montreal on Tuesday morning and then there will be just me and Jynx/Jinx for the rest of the week.

I know I am off on Monday. I think I am off this coming Friday also. I've spent the last two months trying to get my vacation day carryover down to the max 10 days that I can bring into 2012. I really don't plan those very well. I should be taking these days off during June and July rather than November and December. Hmmm. I wonder if this old dog can learn a new trick.

Well I know that I have time to do my Christmas shopping and I even have time to finish raking the leaves out front. If I am real energetic or insane I can start with the backyard as well. I guess when you buy a house that has 8 mature trees and 2 trees that are early in their lifespan you get to enjoy the exercise that they provide. Enjoy is probably not the word I wanted to use there but it is too early for me to start swearing.

So I had mentioned that I was going to talk about my beloved Expos slash Nationals in an earlier blog. The winter meetings have come and gone just like my hairline and 32 inch waist have and all that happened was a trade for interchangeable parts. We obtained Ryan Perry in exchange for Collin Balester. It could have been worse. We could have gotten that brainwave from Texas also named Perry and he could have been named team chaplain or something.

Anyways the trade is between a couple of guys that are better known for their exterior attributes than their stats in the majors so far.

Balester is best known for having the facial hair that was common on the faces of 1970s male porn stars. LOL. I can't believe I just typed that. I didn't come up with that line. It has been a running joke that I have seen somewhere. Perry so far is best known for the intricate tattoo that he has on his right forearm.

Once November arrived, the rumblings were that the Spos/Nats were looking for a veteran starter, a centerfielder and some pop for the bench. A month or two into the offseason we made that trade and non-tendered Doug Slaten and that's pretty much it. I can barely contain my excitement. LOL. I think I needed to get some coffee. Going to type some more later as I will come up with anything to avoid raking!

12/12/11 ramblings

Next year I will be able to type 12/12/12 ramblings. It will be like an Iron Maiden song and album times two! LOL.

So I made it through another Monday. Tomorrow is another one on one day. I just can't wait.

I am the proud parent of a young man that just finished his last final exam for the semester. H had his last exam tonight in Calculus. It had a weird start time of 730pm and it was supposed to last 2 and 1/2 hours but H aka Einstein Jr. finished it in an hour and half. He says that he did well. So far this semester he has two A's and two B's and a GPA of 3.75 so he is doing rather well. Good thing as the scholarship money comes in real handy.

While he was taking the test I decided to stop in at Bailey's for some wings and beer. I just didn't feel like driving back home and then driving back to get H at Tech. It was much closer hanging out at Bailey's while he took his final. It wasn't cheaper mind you. LOL. $4.50 for a dang pretend beer like Miller Lite. Just another WTF moment in my life. I guess it was better than a $6.50 Yuengling.

I got to watch a bit of the Devils-Lightning game at least. It was 5-2 Devils when I left. That seems like a week of goal-scoring for the Devils at the best of times. I didn't recognize half of the names on the ice and I found out tonight that a diamond merchant coaches the Devils. LOL. It seems that someone named DeBoer is the head coach. I think he purposely mispells his last name so that we don't (or I don't) mistake him for the South African diamond merchant family. I am pretty sure I was only person in the place watching the hockey game. All of the other screens were devoted to the NFL and the NBA. Toto we are not in Montreal anymore!

It was pretty cool turning onto Chinaberry Lane and seeing my Christmas lights from the corner of the street. No one else on my side of the street has any at least until halfway down the street so my 400 lights look pretty darn cool.

Okay it doesn't look quite like the lights that I saw last night in Butler Station. H drove by them on Saturday night and told me that I had to see this display. This house has over 250,000 lights. It's absolutely incredible! I went by last night. They even had a Santa Claus there for pictures. They were given out popcorn that you could munch on as you walk around their property as well as their neighbor's property to see these lights. I should have taken pictures. It was amazing. The couple that lives there has been doing this for the last couple of years. There are some baskets that they set up requesting donations to help defray the electric costs. Their bill must be an astounding amount. 250,000 lights! It is something to see. Even my jaded son was impressed. He doesn't impress easily!

I better stop typing as I have clothes to fold and a bed to make. LOL. I have way more things to do but I am having a Noche Beuna now so whatever else I intended to do tonight is pretty much out the window.

Yay For Saturday (II)...

Okay made it back to my computer finally. H has his new glasses. They look great on him. I need to get a pic of him on here with 'em. Especially considering that he recently got his haircut so you can actually see his face.

So we did that and then both did a little banking then headed over to Waffle House for an 11:30 breakfast. Welcome to H. Schlewing's World. Breakfast at 11:30am. LOL. The only available seats in the place were in the smoking section. Ugh. I wouldn't have sat in that section 18 months ago when I was smoking and here I am 600 days or so after quitting sitting in the smoking section. H liked it as he promptly lit up. Ugh. Double Ugh. It isn't like I have much of an argument after setting a bad example for 95% of his lifetime. I couldn't eat fast enough to get out of that place. I was surrounded by smokers. Now I know what I made people endure back in the day when I smoked. Sorry people.

I dropped H at Food Lion for his 6 hr. shift and then went outside and raked some leafs or leaves in the front when J and A dropped by to hang some Christmas lights around my garage door. I am looking forward to seeing what they look like later on when it gets dark. It should be pretty nice. I don't think they will be visble from outer space though.

Next year I am going big-time on the light display. LOL. I wonder how my neighbors would react. On the right it is a Muslim family. Nice people. Next time I buy a car I should drop in and see him if I can a good deal on a Chrysler. He's the manager at the Spartanburg location. At least I think he is the manager there. I see him on the TV ads all the time. I think it is pretty darn cool that their ads feature a Muslim guy and a black guy. I guess I should say African-American guy shouldn't I? I'm wondering though would I call my ex-landlords growing up in Chomedey African-Canadians. Political correctness at times frustrates me.

Anyways back to the coolness of the ads that they run. The reason I say this is that South Carolina and Greenville in some cases has not exactly been known as a hotbed of racial tolerance in 20th century thinking. Uh oh going to lose a few readers here and possibly some Facebook friends after that comment. Whatever! I think that it is cool that this Chrysler dealership is running these ads all over the place.

Boy oh boy I run off on some tangents sometimes. LOL. Originally I was going to comment on the trades that my teams made yesterday.

First off my Habs traded Jaroslav Spacek who had less than a year left on his contract for Tomas Kaberle. At this moment I would like to paraphrase Jim Mora from his famous press conference. In case you don't know about this event. Here's a link to the abridged press conference:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3-eavMSBnk

If I was at a press conference and asked about this trade I would use the word Kaberle each time that Mora used playoffs in the clip and use the same tone as Mora used. Classic.

I don't pretend to be an expert on the Habs or the NHL but this trade makes no sense whatsover. Kaberle has 9 points (no goals) so far this year and is -12 even strength. Late last year the Bruins traded for him to help as an offensive-minded defenseman. By the 3rd round of the playoffs he was their 5th defenseman. He's had a great career however he's on the downside now. He has another 2 years to go on his contract at over $4,000,000 per. So he and Gomez are tied to the Habs for a couple more years. Sheesh. Doesn't make sense. Basically he will be taking away ice time from the young guys like Emelin, Diaz, Weber and St-Denis. I think that this season is a lost cause unless we are striving for mediocrity. We have too many players that don't show up every game. We also have a coach that I think the players have stopped listening to as things have gone bad. I would much rather see the Habs play firewagon hockey taking advantage of their speed assets than the boring defensive trap style favored by Jacques Martin.

Tomorrow I will have to give my two cents worth on the Perry-Ballester trade.

Anyways enough typing for now. I have a Christmas soiree to attend at a Nova Scotians' house. Back here tomorrow. Same bat time same bat channel. As part I started with so it begins, I should follow up with so it ends. Smiles.

Yay For Saturday

So it begins. I just felt like typing that. Not really sure why but it sounds so serious. Starting off with that gives me the sense that this blah-blah-blog is going to be a momentous one. LOL. It sure sounds better than the start of my blog title. Yay. What am I? Five years old.

This is going to a rambling one as if often the case when I sit down in front of my computer. It doesn't help that Neil Sedaka is singing "Bad Blood" in another window while I am typing this.

It's hard to be coherent when the lyric you are hearing is "doo run doo run di di dit dit ron ron". Perhaps Gordon Sumner aka Sting was thinking about Neil when he came up with his song title and lyrics to "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da". Then that leads me to wonder who influenced the German band Trio in 1982 when they released "Da Da Da". Was it Neil Sedaka? Was it Sting? Or was it Phil Spector's 1963 wall of sound classic "Da Doo Ron Ron" performed by the Crystals. Quite the conundrum I think! Ranks right up there with the evolution of man/womankind theories unless you're a Republican of course because then we all know where we orignated. We were roaming the earth with the dinosaurs as hypothesized by the brilliant lady from Wasilla. Tongue firmly planted in cheek. LOL. I don't think I had to add that but just in case I did.

Back to Neil Sedaka though. He did write and compose some really catchy tunes but I don't think he would ever had been classified as cool. Case in point the promo video from "Calendar Girl" or his appearance on Burt Sugarman's Midnight Special performing "Bad Blood". Perhaps he was trying to be known as the King of Camp. He did that well. Then again Neil has way more zeroes in his bank account than I do so he "doo ron doo ron doo ronning" to the bank or investment house way more than I am.

Hmm. I have to stop typing for now. I need to bring H to pick up his new glasses. The prodigal son has decided that 11am is an appropriate time to get up on this "Yay For Saturday" day. As Arnold once said, "I'll be back".

Ramblings from TC...

Okay let's make this official for those that didn't already know. I just can not stop typing. The Allman Brothers had a song that defined me. So did Led Zeppelin for that matter. I am the "Rambling Man" that needs to "Ramble On". There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of something that I can babble on about incessantly.

The great thing about this is that it is a release of emotions at times. It's also a way of figuring out where I am at in the present day. For those that know me; I would think that they would think that I am pretty calm most of the time. I rarely get angry unless of course you ask H how I am when I am behind the wheel. I am an absolute lunatic. Pretty much every other driver on the road is an absolute idiot. As I said to H this morning; most of them are accidents waiting to happen. I sincerely believe that. Sadly.

So anyways it seems to be cold outside tonight. Okay cold for South Carolina. Not cold for cold's sake. The heater is starting and stopping and starting and stopping and my wallet is getting thinner and thinner.

I am still struggling with my sleep patterns. I am asleep at 7pm. Awake at 9pm. Asleep at midnight. Awake at 2am until 5am. And so on and son on. You can pretty much bet that I am not too darn productive at 2am. Basically listening to music online, catching up on baseball news, reading about the GOP nominees and their trials and tribulations and watching documentaries online on the National Film Board website. I get to watch stuff in French at least. It allows me to hear my kind of French on a daily basis. It's different at work now. There used to be three of us from Montreal and now there is just me. I know I am losing my written French. Not using it much. I still get to call my accounts up in the real winterland at least so I am not losing the spoken one.

I read that Dobie Gray passed away the other day at the age of 71. He was best known for the soul classic "Drift Away" that was all over AM radio back in the early 70s. I think pretty much everyone knows the catchy chorus when they hear the song being played be it the original from 1972 or the 2003 remake by Uncle Kracker that featured Dobie Gray. "Give me the beat that frees my soul, I want to get lost in that rock and roll and drift away." Everyone knows that line and I think that when we hear it we may even sing along to that lyric.

I saw that the religious leader Pat Robertson is back again spewing his brand of hatred on the airwaves once again by warning that "God will punish the U.S. for Obama's gay rights support". How can one be so intolerant? How does the things that he says on national TV be considered differently than some of the radical crap that we hear from Islamic mullahs or some other political despot about people that are different than they are? This man is an embarrassment. The conservative right like Robertson, Santorum, Bachmann, etc etc really have an issue with gay people. It's unebelievable that this takes precedent over the economic problems we face, the environmental issues that we have going on, the wars that we are fighting, etc etc. These people consider themselves as leaders? They're ignorant without much humanity it seems. Live and let live already! Darn these people effing annoy me.

I see that it has been a pretty quiet week for my Expos slash Nationals at the winter meeting so far. They lost on Mark Buerhle as a starting pitcher capable of throwing 200+ innings a year and as an example to the younger guys to go about their business. I guess they weren't able to match the 4 years that were offered by the Marlins. I think he will be real solid in the National League if he has a strong defense behind him. It would have been nice to see him in a Nats jersey. I hope that they aren't the mystery team for C.J. Wilson. I really don't think that the starting pitching is an issue on the team. They did re-sign Wang who is only going to get better and stronger being further removed the shoulder surgery in 2012. Strasburg is there. Zimmerman as well. John Lannan is solid and then they have a bunch of competition for the 5th starter. The big need is a leadoff hitter that gets on base and sets the table. Not sure if Ian Desmond is the guy. I like Espinosa and Desmond up the middle. Defensively they are only going to get better. They have doubles power. They can steal bases. They don't walk much though so their OBP isn't high enough for the lead-off spot. Hopefully they can find someone to patrol center and lead-off. April is only 4 months away. Yay!

Okay time to make breakfast and get another coffee. It is 545am Thursday. H needs an early ride as he has his Physics final this morning at Tech.

Lazy Mode...

Okay I am about to pop a "it's not pizza, it's a Digiorno" into the oven as soon as it reaches 400 degrees and I figured I would get back online and type some more. Just popped into the CD player Bob Seger's "Live Bullet". Try typing and not singing along while listening to this album, or even toe-tapping; not bloody likely I tell you! Oh man "Travelin' Man" just started. Bow your head and defer to greatness. What a song!

So earlier today I went into lazy mode. I know big surprise there. My being lazy on a weekend. I could have been outside raking leafs or leaves. Which word is it anyways? I will have to look it up one day. Nevertheless I am pretty darn sure that they will be there tomorrow. The song just sequed into "Beautiful Loser". Still genuflecting before greatness! Anwyays back to the fall foliage on my lawn. There's lots of it. They may even reconvene or restart the neighborhood association and their first order of business will be the Schlewing lawn on Chinaberry Lane. LOL.

Anyways rather than being constructive I decided to watch Brian DePalma's "The Untouchables" which was playing on the Biography station. I had never seen this movie released back in 1987 which is kind of surprising because Kevin Costner is one of my favorite actors. I was one of the few that actually loved "Waterworld". Hey Jeanne Triplehorn was in that movie as well and I was kind of enamored with her for awhile. Okay back to Kevin Costner; "Field of Dreams" is in my top three films of all-time.

So anyways laziness beckoned and I laid down on my couch that Jynx/Jinx has pawed and scratched to death and decided to watch this movie even though it was playing on a commercial station with inopportune commercial break after commercial break. Turns out 20% of the running time or 30 minutes was commercials. Sheesh.

Oh man "Turn The Page" has just started. I have to pause. I can't think and type and singalong to this song at the same time. I am man and I can't multitask. Back in 5m1s.

Hmmmm. Okay fast forward to Monday as I am continuing this blog from yesterday. So anyways I finally watched "The Untouchables". Great cast with Costner, De Niro, Connery and Garcia among others. Even with all the commercials it was an entertaining way to spend a couple of hours.

It was interesting drive back home from work. I am not used to seeing fog at 6pm. 6am yes but not at rush hour. It did slow things down somewhat but then again it doesn't make to slow things down on the roads here.

I better stop here. I've got to figure out what to make for supper tonight. I think it will be fish with some rice and perhaps broccoli. That is reasonably healthy I think.

Christmas Is Coming...

Okay this is my annual seasonal blog about "Christmas is Coming". This isn't about the jingly jangly song by the under the radar Canadian band The Payolas though I could go on for a couple of paragraphs on this great song and the wonderful lyric "wish you were here". I do wish my Mom was here. Christmas for me was always a time that I would drive up to Montreal or Hopewell to see her. This will be the 10th one since her passing. Time really does fly. Unbelievable.

Anyways onto happier things. Yesterday I brought H to the optometrist to get his eyes checked and to get a new pair of glasses. He has the Schlewing eyesight gene that we all inherited from my Dad. When you're a Schlewing, you get the height gene (good thing) and you get the vision gene (bad thing). For some reason he chose not to tell me that he had duct tape keeping his glasses together. That is definitely taking the "Red Green Show" motto one step too far. So now I am $354 poorer but at least H will have a pair of glasses not being held together by Schlewing imgenuity.

I wasn't planning on spending that much yesterday so I said to myself I deserve a little something. So off I went to find myself some tealight candles that smell nice. LOL. Okay I know that looks weird reading that. Here's this guy almost 6 & 1/2ft. tall weighing 275 lbs of not rock hard muscle that shaves maybe once a week that likes nice smelling tealight candles. Queer Eye For The Straight Guy Alert!!! LOL. So anyways I bought 16-packs of Cranberry Mandarin, Pecan Pie and Pumpkin Spice tealights so chances are when you walk into my house it is spelling nice. So there! I also rewarded myself with new CD versions of Bob Seger's "Live Bullet" and "Nine Tonight". Going to be blogging on those CDs real soon. Smiles. So I spent all of $20 on myself. $7 each CD and $2 each tealight package. Okay promising never to use the word tealight in any future blog ever! I swear. LOL.

Okay some of you may wonder why I called the blog what I did when I am barely referring to the title so far. Well I am in charge of the typing here so I can type what I want. LOL. I do tend to go there and then here and then back there when I type.

Oops I inadvertently hit "publish post" and I am not yet done. Time to edit.

J and I went to Greenville's Santa Claus Parade. Turns out that my 40-something yr. old GF is around 12 yrs. old at this time of the year. Smiles. She wanted to go to the parade so off we went.

The last Santa Claus Parade I went to was back in Montreal when H was a toddler and I only brought him to one of those. His Mom used to pick him up from my place and bring him to the parade with her friends. It became their little tradition.

Back to the present. So we went downtown for the parade that starts at 6pm and given that this is Greenville we had pretend winter weather. It hit 65 during the day so it wasn't exactly cold last night. It wasn't warm but it wasn't cold. I would not have said no to a nice warm cup of coffee to hold onto. It did get down to 45-50 degrees I would think. J had a scarf, hat, gloves and jacket on being the weather wuss that she is and I was wearing a henley jersey and that's it. Okay I was wearing levis also as only wearing a henley jersey would have been inappropriate attire for attending a parada. LOL.

The parade was fun. It isn't really supported by the business community as such from my viewpoint. There was one float from Target and one from the discount pharmacy Rite-Aid. There were lots of marching bands from the local universities and high schools and those are always fun to hear. I love the sound of drums. It's a primal thing I think. There were several church floats and this being the Bible Belt it makes sense. They're wholesome and they have nice choral singers and they aren't preachy then at least. There was a group of people that decided to walk the parade as a group representing one of the local female roller derby teams. That was interesting. Some of the ladies had KISS makeup on. LOL. Their group was walking right in from of Shriners' guys. Boy oh boy they had sourpusses on. Not a smile to be seen from those guys. Live and let live is a good motto to follow Shriner guys. The coolest float had a Star Wars theme. That was really cool. They had lots of characters from the movies like the random soldier guys, Ewoks and Darth Vader. No R2D2 though. Unless I missed him. Chewbacca wasn't there I don't think either. It was a cool float though.

This parade is a really a community thing rather than a commercial thing. Pretty much anybody can register to walk as a group or enter with a float. There were groups asking us to stop handgun violence and another one to stop family abuse. Weird to see that at a parade but it does open our eyes and remind us that in this time of joy and happiness there is a lot of crappy stuff that still goes on. J and I were talking afterward and thought that maybe next year we will partake as participants in the parade with a float and all. My only condition is that we have a bunch of people walking with us and our theme be a happy one tailored to the thousands of kids that were on the parade route. It is something to see the joy, the happiness, the curiosity and the glimmer in a young person's eyes when they see something they like passing by in the parade.

We need more of that in life!

Live - Lightning Crashes

So while waiting for J to get home after A's JV b-ball game I've been listening and watching some of my favorite songs on YouTube.

"Lightning Crashes" by Live is one of my fav songs from the 90s. I saw this band headline an amazing show at the Bi-Lo Center a few years ago. The supporting acts were Tonic and Collective Soul. The show was amazing. I got us seats 3 rows from the stage. Us being Harrison and I. It was H's first concert. Personally I think that line-up was a pretty good introduction to live music shows for him. I'm biased as Collective Soul and Live are two of my fav bands from the 90s and beyond.

Anyways CHOM in Mtl. used to play this song every once in a while back in the day but it never really made it big airplay-wise back home. I really came to know this band when I first moved to Greenville in 1999 and spent hours and hours chatting online while listening to new music stations either on my TV or computer.

This is where I was introduced to "Throwing Copper" by Live. To me it is one of the definitive albums of the new rock era of the 90s. There are 4 songs on this disc that stand the test of time. They are as memorable today as they were back in 1994. These songs being "I Alone, All Over You, Selling The Drama and Lightning Crashes". Songs I will never get tired of listening to. This CD is on heavy rotation in my car and I bought the DVD of their show at the Paradiso. Simply amazing. The audience was so into Live. I would have loved to have been there. I would have been one of the many singing the lyrics as Ed K. was doing the same.

Back to "Lightning Crashes" now. I have sang two songs karaoke in my life. This was my solo performance. This is how much I like this song! I got up in front of people and tried to do justice to do this song. I remember my hand in my pocket. My right knee bopping to the acoustic guitar. Okay many may have been inebriated nevertheless this was my song. A song about life. Birth. Death. It is a song about life.

It's Friday Night...Let The Weekend Begin...

So here we are Friday night starting another weekend. Hell Yeah! Last weekend I did a Costco run which I may have to do tomorrow and I picked up a case of Mexican beer which came with 8 of each Dos Equis ambers and lagers plus 8 Noche Buena bock style beers. I saved those for last. I like them quite a bit. It doesn't seem to be very popular with the beer snobs online. Most ratings are fair to middling. Well eff 'em. I like it and the price was right. I actually thought this beer was made by the same company that brews Dos Equis but it turns out that it is marketed together by Costco and not brewed at the same place.

How did I find this out? Good question. Well I went on the Dos Equis website to find out more about this Noche Buena beer. I got carded getting onto to Dos Equis website. They did an age verification check. LOL. They only allow 21 year olds and over to check their website out.

Okay I have to comment here and it won't be pretty. Which brainwave came up with this idea? Age verification for a beer company website. Basically you hover over dates and select your m/d/y and then you can access the website. Is this supposed to curb under-age drinking? Is this a Republican platform issue? This is effing stupid. A 10 yr. old can figure this out! Is there a law in regards to this? Holy Eff I went to a Canadian beer website and they age verify also. This is incredible. There are a lot worse websites that one can be surfing and those aren't age verified or brain activity verified for that matter but beer sites are verified. Goodness graciousness this is ridiculous.

I am hyperventilating. LOL. I think this is absolutely ludicrous. Age-verification. I was going to blog about Judas Priest originally. I'll have to do that later. They deserve their own blog. They can't be tied into age verification. I didn't intend to rant. Good intentions gone awry I guess. I have to figure out what's for dinner. I want Thai!