Random Thoughts On A Long Weekend (05/17/13)

Okay I am just going to post some random thoughts here as I have a serious sinus headache thing going. Not sure where that came from but I sure as heck have one! Many of these will be in question form and one day I will delve deeper a la Jacques Cousteau and come up with a blog about some of the tidbits I am about to type about.

Q: What is with the current or recent mayors of Toronto, Montreal and Laval?

A: A drunk and crackhead and two guys out of the Sopranos cast shaking down contractors. I think they missed the civic lesson from JFK's famous inaugural address from 1961.

Q: Why is Danny Espinosa (current 2nd baseman of my Nats) still in the majors? He has a .177 BA, .208 OBP and is striking out every 4th at bat and has 10Ks for every walk.

A: There is no rhyme or reason why he is on the roster. Kind of like SC voters on the coast voting a liar and adulterer as a conservative representative of the House.

Q: Why does low on a gas stove top range really mean you are pretty much cooking at medium heat?

A: Is it a conspiracy from the natural gas companies to use more gas? I know an answer in form of a question.

Q: Are any Canadian hockey fans still watching the playoff games if they aren't fans of the Ottawa Senators?

A: Not anytime soon is the response from my purely anecdotal survey of Canadian ex-pats in the South.

Q: What is with SC drivers texting while driving without seatbelts on local interstates?

A: Perhaps the family gene pool is rather shallow and they think accidents won't happen to them despite all of the stats (i.e. facts) that back up their argument to the contrary.

Q. Why does HuffPost think I care about what the Kardashians are up to be it in their clothing choices, their latest 2 week bedroom fling or whether or not they have more nip slip incidents or panty lines in their clothing choices?

A: Purely rhetorical question. There is no answer!

Q: Who is Kendrick Lamar and Kid Ink and why are they playing at the Charter Amphitheatre on June 21st?

A. See answer to previous question.

Q: $8 for a large beer at the Bi-Lo Center or Charter Amphitheatre? Yuengling is bottled in Florida and it is not considered a domestic beer in Florida? Swill like Budweiser, Miller, Coors, etc. etc.?

A: To paraphrase Spock: "Your logic was impeccable, Marc. We are in grave danger!"

Okay I need to get outside and get rid of more weeds. While I have grass growing where it never grew before I still have an inordinate amount of weeds flaring up.

Peace out from the Bald Guy!

Up Early And A Bit Sore (05/11/13)

Well I am a bit sore this morning after spending yesterday on my feet building a sign and wall and bracket supports out at one of the Habitat for Humanity sites in Taylors. I have muscles that are sore that haven't been used in a while. It was impressive to see the 20-25 Michelin employees work on two homes at the same time. The amount of progress made was amazing. I worked with my manager for most of the latter part of the day and you should see her expert touch on a miter saw. LOL. She had us swear not to tell her hubby that she learned how to operate that tool when we have our department pig roast offsite in a couple of weeks.

I stuck to wielding a hammer from time to time and using my brawn to bang in nails from really uncomfortable positions and spaces. I am just too big to be working in construction. LOL.

I am hoping that a couple shots of Kahlua in my morning coffee will help ease the soreness as I have a 4 hr. shift manning a beer booth downtown this afternoon at Artisphere.

It's going to be 80 and humid so I will likely be busy and on my feet for most of that shift. I am used to sitting on my ever-expanding derriere in my office job and here I am volunteering to stand up for inordinate amounts of time. Brilliant!

It looks like we are finally going to have a nice weekend after having two back to back rain weekends where only ducks were happy. It will give me a chance to work some more on my lawn. I bought some lawn topsoil, fertilizer and more seed to start working in the back. I have to remember the sunscreen. I forgot about it yesterday and my neck is red. Yep I am officially a redneck. In appearance only mind you!

I need a coffee. Or maybe I need more Kahlua. Ha. Peace out rock music lovers!

Bee Gees "Lonely Days" (05/03/13)

So I got home after work after stopping in at FL to say hey to the Schlewing With Hair and picked up some fresh veggies, chicken thighs and some Negra Modelo along with some Coronas for the weekend. Bought lots of limes as well. You just can't have Mexican beer without lime. If it isn't a capital offense to do so, it should be!

The chicken thighs will be going into the slow cooker tomorrow morning along with some fresh lime juice, cilantro and salsa to make some absolutely dynamite shredded chicken fajitas or quesadillas. Only thing I will have to do is clean the thighs as they didn't have any skinless ones on sale. This "live well be well" thing of mine means I have to cut out the fatty skin of the chicken. Hmmmm. It probably also means that my good beer intake should be drastically reduced but I am sorry that will only happen when I meet a Republican member of any level of government that I actually don't want to hit with my late father's slipper if I had my late father's slippers to begin with in the first place. Insert appropriate snicker or laugh right here. Hehe!

Anyways I got home, fed the cats, cut some lime, popped open a Negra and dialed into WDRV's Deep Tracks where the classic 1970 Bee Gees "Lonely Days" started coming through on the PC stereo speakers. This may have been the 1st Brothers Gibb track I ever heard. This one or "To Love Somebody". Not sure as we're going way, way back in the Schlewing time machine. All I know is that from the first time I heard the soft piano intro and the blend of Maurice, Robin and Barry's voices in the first couple stanzas of the song I was hooked. I was what; 8 or 9 years old and I was wondering "where I was going to be without my woman". LOL.

It doesn't matter what version I hear. The original from 1970. The live version from the Vegas "One Night Only" that is quite popular on YouTube. They all are magical versions. This song has always hit a chord with me. The music itself isn't too elaborate and the lyrics don't overwhelm anyone but the total package strikes a chord for all of us sentimental people. It was nice to hear it on the Drive tonight!

Time for the Habs game. You know it. Go Habs Go and peace out everyone.

Typing Away While Having My 1st Coffee (04/21/13)

So it's around 430am and I have been awake for the last hour or so and I decided to brew some coffee and start on my day. My coffee is yum though I was bit heavy-handed with the Kahlua. If I keep it at this pace this morning I may be cited for MWI (Mowing While Intoxicated).

I did some volunteer work today at Greenville 2013 Para Cycling Open and to be honest that wasn't really work. The organizers had me manning the intersection of Salters and Old Sulphur Springs roads making sure that normal folk wouldn't be on the closed road course. Given that I was located in the middle of the course I pretty much did nothing but cheer the athletes and get a sunburn.

For hours after the event and even now as I type, I am on a high from seeing the incredible feats of strength, determination and daredevil-ness of these athletes. Things like seeing someone with cerebral palsy cycling up an incline while their arms are shaking madly as they strain to get up that hill or witnessing a blind person on the back of a tandem bike being coached by the front rider who has vision see as they work as one to go up and down a hill at the fastest speed that they can. Or seeing the former F1 racer Alex Zanardi now a double amputee as a result of race accident now as a hand-cyclist attaining speeds on a downhill stretch that would have me worried on a regular bike is amazing.

The most incredible thing I saw today was the female athlete #189 in the race. She was riding a trike and suffered from cerebral palsy. Her first lap going up the hill I was working was inspiring. She just couldn't get up there. Her trike was stuck in too low of a gear and she just didn't have the strength in her legs to push up the hill. At one point she went backwards at least 15 feet and I was worried that she was going to end up in one of those roadside ditches that are so prevalent on the sides of Greenville county roads. She managed to stop right at the side of the road and grass while we were watching her and the one rule we were told from the outset is that we were not allowed to assist in any matter with the riders. Somewhere deep inside this lady found the willpower to get up that hill. It took her a long time (minutes and minutes) which assured that in her time trial she was just trying to finish. The other guy I was working with told me that he had never seen such a feat of determination. It was amazing! I literally had tears in my eyes when she made it up the hill and looked at us and said "that hill was tough".

This was her first lap. In her category they were doing two laps. I figured that she was only going to do one as her time would obviously not be a podium one. That was a learning lesson for me as for #189 it was about finishing the time trial and not about the time. She came back down on lap two of the trial and we were overhearing on the race radios to keep an eye out for her to make sure she was okay and to call for help if required. On the downhill part she flew by and then had the 1 km circle to do and then come back on the uphill on the other street. On her second try she had figured out her gearing which allowed her to make it up that hill at a decent clip. It was like it was another rider. She gave us a big smile as we were cheering her on. So cool!

I got home around 4pm and H was sitting on the back deck and I started showing him of the pics on my phone and telling him about what I had seen during the day. He made the comment that it seemed like I was high on life as I was babbling incessantly for 15 minutes or so. LOL. It was true as I was at that point. I will definitely be there next year when the world championships are held!

Kind Of Felt Like Typing (03/30/13)

Okay it's 9:10pm and I still haven't had supper. Just finished watching a great RockDoc on the Foo Fighters on VH1 Classic. When Dave Grohl started the band way back when I was hesitant to embrace the West Coast hard rock n grunge sound made popular by the Foos, Soundgarden and Stone Temple Pilots. Over the last ten years or so I have jumped on the bandwagon and actually like going back and listening to the earlier material. One thing I have noticed is that these bands and their sound remains true and not formulaic at all.

A couple weeks ago the Drive out of Chicago was playing classic album sides and a couple of the sides they played sounded so boring, trite and passe. Back in the 80s I liked Van Halen amd Bon Jovi. Listening to 1984 or Slippery When Wet in the 2010s was way boring. Frankie and Gina can go jump in a lake for all I care to paraphrase a song or two from those albums.

Okay I'll stop slagging the hair bands now. LOL. I used to love the hair bands. Perhaps my baldness has created a hair band aversion of sorts. Who knows? LOL.

Anyways while watching this RockDoc, I did my usual channel surfing during commercials and happened upon an episode of Guy Fieri's "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" where Guy was in Rhode Island watching the chef prepare "Littlenecks, Roasted Corn, Chorizo and Tomatoes over Spaghetti" and it looked absolutely delicious. I have never made clams at home. In fact I never have ordered clams in a restaurant. I have had some but not often. They were of the fried variety which is probably blasphemous to many. I looked up the recipe and have it saved and I may try it out next weekend. It looks really tasty and not too complicated.

It was a beautiful day here. I was pretty productive. Well I was for me on a weekend. Funny how my monthly massage does wonders for my "esprit de corps".

I went to another funeral or graveside ceremony today. It absolutely sucks that as I get older more and more people I know or know of are passing away. The count over the last year or so is reaching double digits and that truly saddens me. I get all pensive at these things and it brings me back to my immediate family losses like my Mom and Dad.

Hmmmm. All of a sudden I don't know what to type. I think I need to head to the kitchen and dazzle. Ha. It's too darn clean there anyways as I cleaned up last night. I have some medium size shrimp thawed that will go well with something. It can't be bad to eat shrimp at 10 pm can it? Hmmm. I think not! Besides I did say and write to someone today that starting Monday I will be a little more normal in my eating habits. As it is still my birthday month it is therefore my prerogative to do as I want. Anybody knowing me well would say that I must have a birthday every month as I pretty much do what I want when I want. It's the Canadian in me!

Peace out!

Ramble On I Say, Ramble On (03/28/13)

So we are getting real close to starting the 2nd quarter of the year and looking back it seems that I haven't done much so far besides perhaps cleaning up my backyard pretty nice though I still have some to do. I will likely finish that up this Saturday and Sunday if the weather holds out. It will at least be milder.

I was re-reading this blog for typos and I realized that I am so accountant-like. Rapidly approaching the end of the 1st quarter. LOL. Normal peeps would say something about spring being sprung and here I am dropping fractions at the drop of a hat.

I did start planning a nice week off at Sanibel Island at the end of June. I have the condo reserved, a deposit down and beach chair at the ready. Between now and then I need to get a beer cooler. Well a larger one at least!

It might be a good idea to lose some weight between now and then because NASA may be reporting white whale sightings off Sanibel and Captiva in late June. NASA would have had they still a budget! So I guess I am safe! LOL. Seriously though I made the great choice to quit smoking 3 years ago but since then my metabolism has slowed down to the same rate as the average rate of brain activity in a typical Republican in the year 2013. Yes pretty much non-existent.

I was thinking about it this morning as I got dressed for the office that my wardrobe is really lacking in clothes that still fit me somewhat. One of my co-workers actually said that I looked dressed up today and looked sharp. Truth in fact I had just come back from getting my head shaved and was wearing decent fitting clothes that was a step above my usual shorts and T attire or short sleeves and khaki attire.

I picked up H at school at 5 and forewarned him that we were going to stop for some cold beers and nachos at Bailey's. It was sort of a reward for almost getting to the almost end of the work week as well as it being sunny and in the 60s which hasn't been seen here in the last couple of weeks.

As I had Led Zep's Celebration Day blasting on the car stereo with the windows down; the usual drive home conversation would have to wait until we reached Bailey's as Zep's Kashmir was on the player.

Once we got our large ice cold Yuengling drafts with nachos on the way our conversations took off. Either we have the attention spans of amoeba or we just like to wander when we converse which explains the way I write these blogs and the meandering that I do.

Inside of an hour we had talked about the Boston Bruins, Pittsburgh Penguins and the Montreal Canadiens. We touched upon his paternal grandmother and his maternal grandmother. We hit upon his long distance charges on my cell phone bill as well as how many gigs his Pandora usage is on our shared date usage plan with Verizon. Shared? Ha kind of like Romney/Ryan's economic plan. Sharing my effing derriere. We then segued into bad draft beer tap choices at Bailey's which led into conversation riffs on the drum skills of Jason Bonham, Keith Moon and the Mike dude from Dream Theater. That led us into a conversation about John Entwhistle's bass playing as well as the bass players from Muse and Kasabian. Then we went into a conversation about Chia Pets that would grow into "Jesus" look-alikes and how that would be a big seller in SC. Then the conversation turned to how I can never keep track of his friends besides Eean, Matt, Sam and Aaron I guess. Turns out that he has four friends name Nick. It's like what the eff! Is there that many people that name their sons after a gambler or a Russian czar. We then talked about the cons of jalapenos being drowned in some vinegary solution pretty much guaranteeing that they lose all their sizzle. We also of course had the obligatory "Dad you are such a doofus" moment when I asked him about the bass and keyboard player that are quite invisible in Black Keys videos. Turns out the the guitarist plays those instruments as well so they only have touring keyboard and bass players so the group could be called Two Black Keys and that would be apropos.

Hmmm. Well I went off on another tangent here as I am wont to do at times. I have also lost my train of thought as I have the last ten minutes scratching Jinx Jynx's tummy so I am going to sign off for now and try to be a little less scattered the next time. Ha!

Peace out!

This And That And The Other Thing (03/17/13)

Well Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! This day is also known worldwide as Marc's Birthday Eve. Ha! Yes I am celebrating another birthday tomorrow. All I can say about that is man oh man the years go by fast after you hit forty. I am flipping over to 2nd half of my life officially tomorrow.

After spending a quiet Friday night at home making chicken curry (thumbs up from the younger Schlewing) for the first time on my own and getting semi-sloshed on a bottle of Italian red; I was quite busy yesterday. The morning absolutely sucked and I don't think I can make it any prettier than that.

I got super busy in the afternoon in my backyard cleaning up as much of remaining leaves and sweet effing gumballs that have accumulated in my yard for the last couple of years. Literally hundreds and hundreds. I filled up at least 12 to 15 wheelbarrow loads of stuff that has fallen off the trees in my yard or are leftover grass clippings from last year I guess. Surprisingly my back is okay today. I have a sore spot on my right hand caused by the manner that I rake which will probably get worse in a little bit when I head back out to finish what I started yesterday and on several other weekend days. It's great having a large and tree filled backyard but it is work keeping it well maintained.

After doing this work I felt I should reward myself with a trip downtown to the West End and have myself some great chicken wings and craft beers on tap at Mac's Speed Shop. A bonus was that a great traditional Irish band named Kellee (www.kelleemusic.com/#1) was playing there at 8pm. I have seen Kellee play at Fitzpatrick's at least 5-6 times over the last couple of years and have always enjoyed their versions of traditional Irish songs from yesteryear. I stayed for the first set and as usual loved their music. Unfortunately Mac's crowd was not very appreciative of the efforts made by the band. Most weren't listening and hardly participating. Kellee's music is truly an interactive affair to really enjoy.

There were tons of people wearing green yesterday night but they were less Irish than people from Sri Lanka or the Solomon Islands. A bunch of posers drinking Bud Light in green bottles and having shots called Irish Car Bombs. Just the name of that shot revolts me. I can't be the only person that thinks that naming a drink after symbols of violence is just effing wrong. What's next? A shot named after 911 or Newtown. Think of it. Isn't that exactly the same as the name of that shot? Disheartening I think.

Okay enough of that vent. It just peeved me off.

I will say that the chicken wings were phenomenal. I always take the Red BBQ flavor. Delicious! I had a few pints of Redhook Long Hammer IPA and truly enjoyed that beer as well. First time having this beer that is brewed in Washington state. Definitely a keeper.

Well as I wrote earlier, time to get busy outside!

Peace out!

Okay I Felt Like Typing (03/02/2013)

Well I have not been exactly prolific in the last month or so on here. Have I? Yes that is a rhetorical question. No answering back required. Thank you very much. For some strange reason my blog when I am not updating regularly is more popular in Russia than it is back here stateside.

Instead of blogging in the middle of the night like I usually do when I wake up at 2am or 3am; I have been reading lots and lots of fiction. No not the fiction that the Republicans in the this country actually do any good. That would be considered fantasy I think. I have been going through my latest 8-9 books that I have bought at used bookstores and have been catching up on baseball news as spring training has started.

The Schlewing household has a new addition. Her name is BooBoo and she is a 6 yr. old cat that my ex-manager has been asking me to take for the last 3 or 4 months as they have a bunch of puppies that have overtaken their house. BooBoo compared to our 12 yr. old tabby Jynx/Jinx is one amazing athlete. This cat likes heights. I keep finding evidence of her adventures near the highest points in the house. Places like the cupboards in the kitchen, the fireplace mantle (Michelin Man in the snow globe is now broken), dining room table, bathroom counters, wall unit shelves and one of her favorite spots which is the top of the fridge where she scared the living bejesus out of me the first time when I went in the fridge to grab a cold one after work. Harrison had a good laugh at my expense that first time as he had seen her but I didn't. In retrospect it was hilarious. This is a pic of her at her favorite spot in the house. I will have to learn how to use my droid camera without the flash. LOL. Yes that is fish oil tablets, sunscreen and candles. Yeah yeah I am getting old. Or am old. Whatever.



Been to a couple of Road Warrior games in the last month or so. I keep wanting to call them the Grrrowl like the previous incarnation of the team but they're really called a wrestling tag team name. As OMC sang in the 80s "How Bizarre".

I bought couple of tickets for the Darius Rucker show at the local amphitheater at the end of May. That is a sure sign of summer when they start booking shows there. Harrison got himself some tickets for Flaming Lips / Black Keys show at the same venue a little bit later in the season.

I am looking forward to the concert acts that will be named in the coming weeks for the Aloft 2013 Memorial Day weekend. This event is pretty darn cool and was until this year called Freedom Weekend Aloft. I saw an amazing Eddie Money performance there last year which I blogged about in June of last year I believe it was. I'd like to see a show with Cheap Trick or someone like that this year. That would be pretty darn cool! Last time I saw them was the Dream Police tour way back in the last century.

Okay I have some groceries to get. Going to make some guacamole and I am short a tomato or two and going to make a chicken breast egg noodle casserole thing for supper tonight and I may be missing an ingredient I believe.

I'll be back.

Early Saturday Morning (02/02/13)

So earlier tonight I had some lime cilantro chicken leftovers that tasted even better than when I originally made it. I then watched the 2010 version of Styx perform "The Grand Illusion" and "Pieces of Eight" in their entirety on VH1 Classic Concert. I think that I appreciate their stuff more as I get older. Lawrence Gowan is great at doing the Dennis DeYoung parts and he is a quasi-Canadian to boot.

I got peeved at an inanimate object again today. My Droid Razor drives me nuts. The battery life on this thing is awful. It seemed that the last time I looked at the battery availability it was at 100%, the next time I looked at it a few short hours later it was at 10% and about to go to sleep. Back on the charger it went just so that I can get it juiced and then I will put in sleep mode when I try to finish off the Deaver book I started earlier this week.

One of my customer's passed away this week. This getting older thing sucks sometimes. It just seems that someone I know is passing away every other week. My friend (customer) Jack up in Milton, On passed away from the complications of an aneurysm that occurred on Monday night. I had just spoken to him two weeks prior and I had kidded with him that I was doing real good lately at answering his calls without him having to leave a voice mail. I would see those last four digits 4789 and I knew that Jack wanted to send us some money. I never met the man but I had spoken to him on the phone at least once a month for the last 5 years and prior to that I would speak to him when my then coworker Normand was out of the office. In my work world, character is one of the 4 C's. Jack had character. When he told me that he would do something he did it. I can't say that about everyone. 63 seems real young to me.

Going to finish this Guinness Draught and then do some reading.

Peace Out

Bad Drivers and Goulash Supreme (01/26/13)

Well now I feel like typing away this morning as I sip away on my 2nd coffee with Kahlua. I can star in their next TV ad that states that things go better with Kahlua. Never mind that Coca-Cola tag line as things really go better with my choice.

So it seems that yesterday was an adventure on the roads of the Upstate what with over 570 wrecks in 8 hours because of a little bit of freezing rain. The actual number is higher but the police stopped counting after 570 it seems. I drove by a couple of them on my way home back from the office after getting out early at noon to work virtually from home (whatever that means).

It's beyond me to see those statistics every time that there is some inclement weather here. One of the wrecks I saw involved at least 8 cars on a newly repaved 3-lane highway. It looked like a scene out of a demolition derby with 8 cars lined up one after another all banged up either front, side or back. You don't have to be a traffic road engineer to know that first they were likely driving too fast, too close and likely too preoccupied on their cellphones for the road and weather conditions.

Perhaps not all of them were but there were definitely a couple of them on their phones as it is epidemic here just like needing a 44 oz. soft drink to go with your chicken fingers at the local Spinx or QT. Don't get me started there. LOL.

Truthfully it is safer at times to stay off the roads than try to share them with these non-Einsteins down here!

So besides that occurring yesterday, I decided to try a new dish out that I received via email from allrecipes.com. The dish was called "Goulash Supreme" and differed from what my Mom used to make when I was child or teenager. Her recipe had beef that was oh so tender in a paprika and chili pepper based sauce usually served on yummy egg noodles.

The recipe I used yesterday called for lean ground beef, the requisite paprika, garlic, onions, tomato paste, chili peppers with stewed tomatoes. I used organic diced as I didn't have stewed ones and it also called for a macaroni-typed pasta.

The original recipe called for all of these ingredients to be blended and cooked together after browning the ground beef. There was no way I was going to do that. In my experience cooking any noodles or rice in a recipe all mixed up guarantees mush. LOL. This is in my limited cooking experience. We aren't talking Iron Chef skills. Yet! Ha.

Before I continue on here I want to make a point about organic diced tomatoes. What the heck does that mean anyways? I find myself buying stuff at Costco often because it says organic on the label as if that is some magic word that means super duper in taste and quality. I don't have a clue what the difference is between organic diced tomatoes and just plain ol' Del Monte diced tomatoes. Talk about being gullible!

It's kind of like seeing a label that says low fat or low calorie and thinking that it means something good. Low fat compared to what exactly. Low calorie compared to a huge bowl of rocky road ice cream made with real cream products or low fat compared to a carrot stick. After I finish writing this thing I will have to check out the definition of an organic diced tomato just so that I don't eff up my Saturday. I would do it now but then I may not finish writing this blog before my massage at 11. LOL.

Anyways back to "Goulash Supreme". It turned out okay. I think it was missing some oomph and the overall taste and aroma of the dish did not harken me back to days when my Mom used to make it just for me special. LOL. She probably told each of us that she was making it just special for us as it was a pretty much a well-liked dish in my family memory bank of things remembered. I will try the recipe one more time before adding it to the things I cook list but this time I will add some additional paprika, chili pepper and perhaps my new favorite jalapenos to add some oomph to the taste. I will let you know the results down the road. I am sure everyone is waiting with bated breathe or is it baited breath. Ha!

That's it for now as breakfast beckons and I need to shower before heading out to Massage Envy and later Barnes & Noble or Mr. K's.

Peace out especially to my blog readers in Russia. Pretty darn cool that someone or some people over there read these things of mine.