from Make:
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Bliss
We have returned after our blissful weekend at a lovely B&B, The Log Country Inn. It was a bit of a drive but well worth it, and worth every penny we spent on the room and the hour-long massages. The owner, Wanda, is a fabulous cook and a very lovely woman who knows how to make her guests feel at home. Her family lives on the premises, and we met her daughter and her husband, who is an award-winning documentary producer. Small world, indeed; I'd heard of Slawomir years ago when a friend of mine was an editing assistant for one of his productions. I had no idea when I reserved our room that Wanda was his wife.
The massage therapist who came to do our amazing massages is also a chiropractor and yoga teacher. I've already set up an appointment for an adjustment and to get orthotics (my right arch is fallen, and as I've been told before, I need inserts to get my spine in order). The difference is the orthotics she's selling are $50 as opposed to the $250 fuckerz I bought ten years ago. I stopped using the old ones because they weren't very comfortable and didn't seem to do much. I had had a pair before those that did make a difference, but they eventually wore out, as they do.
I will also be joining her yoga class. I've been wanting to start up yoga again but was overwhelmed at the variety of classes and teachers in the area. Now I have a personal connection with someone who I think has a great energy about her, and I'm excited to add yoga to my pursuit of mind-body health.
Anyway, it was a most restful, relaxing weekend. The sulpher spring-fed jacuzzi was incredible for the skin and the mind. We spent as much time in the bath as possible!
Coming home was delightful; we eased back into reality with a log nap and then we finished up our decadent victuals (bris, crackers, grapes, etc.) and the last of the wine. Ahhhhh...
This is what vacation should be. We have each benefited from this sorely needed respite, and I believe we will be doing it a couple times a year, if at all possible. It was good for Bizarro to feel what a real vacation is like, rather than visiting family, which is usually how we spend breaks and vacation time. From now on, we will tend to our own needs as well as the needs of our families.
It's 9:00 p.m. I will settle down with a book and then try to get to bed at a decent hour. Tomorrow's another day, and I'm ready to take it on!
The massage therapist who came to do our amazing massages is also a chiropractor and yoga teacher. I've already set up an appointment for an adjustment and to get orthotics (my right arch is fallen, and as I've been told before, I need inserts to get my spine in order). The difference is the orthotics she's selling are $50 as opposed to the $250 fuckerz I bought ten years ago. I stopped using the old ones because they weren't very comfortable and didn't seem to do much. I had had a pair before those that did make a difference, but they eventually wore out, as they do.
I will also be joining her yoga class. I've been wanting to start up yoga again but was overwhelmed at the variety of classes and teachers in the area. Now I have a personal connection with someone who I think has a great energy about her, and I'm excited to add yoga to my pursuit of mind-body health.
Anyway, it was a most restful, relaxing weekend. The sulpher spring-fed jacuzzi was incredible for the skin and the mind. We spent as much time in the bath as possible!
Coming home was delightful; we eased back into reality with a log nap and then we finished up our decadent victuals (bris, crackers, grapes, etc.) and the last of the wine. Ahhhhh...
This is what vacation should be. We have each benefited from this sorely needed respite, and I believe we will be doing it a couple times a year, if at all possible. It was good for Bizarro to feel what a real vacation is like, rather than visiting family, which is usually how we spend breaks and vacation time. From now on, we will tend to our own needs as well as the needs of our families.
It's 9:00 p.m. I will settle down with a book and then try to get to bed at a decent hour. Tomorrow's another day, and I'm ready to take it on!
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
I made it thruuuuuuu the rain...
I kept myself together...
Barry Manilow said it best, I'm afraid.
My observation class went pretty well, I think. I didn't tank, at least. The observers were very gracious and relaxed, which helped put me at ease. But I was still pretty ramped up with adrenaline and was maybe a bit over the top. Still, with the crummy gray rainy day, the students were low energy, so my antics were probably a good thing. Anyway, we'll see what the fallout is.
Now that the mid-semester crunch is over, I can take a breath and get ready for the weekend. I'm doing laundry now, which is way overdue, and then I think for the rest of tonight I'll work on a story I've been piecing together. I don't want to say more about it until I get some response from a small publisher I've already contacted. I'm sure they'll want me to go through an agent, but I'm hoping that I can at least hook their interest and then can find an agent who will want to represent me, given the spark of interest. We'll see... it's a bit ballsy, but what've I got to lose? Nuthin.
By the way, I know spring is in the air despite the dismal weather - the birds are singing and that makes my heart sing, too.
Barry Manilow said it best, I'm afraid.
My observation class went pretty well, I think. I didn't tank, at least. The observers were very gracious and relaxed, which helped put me at ease. But I was still pretty ramped up with adrenaline and was maybe a bit over the top. Still, with the crummy gray rainy day, the students were low energy, so my antics were probably a good thing. Anyway, we'll see what the fallout is.
Now that the mid-semester crunch is over, I can take a breath and get ready for the weekend. I'm doing laundry now, which is way overdue, and then I think for the rest of tonight I'll work on a story I've been piecing together. I don't want to say more about it until I get some response from a small publisher I've already contacted. I'm sure they'll want me to go through an agent, but I'm hoping that I can at least hook their interest and then can find an agent who will want to represent me, given the spark of interest. We'll see... it's a bit ballsy, but what've I got to lose? Nuthin.
By the way, I know spring is in the air despite the dismal weather - the birds are singing and that makes my heart sing, too.
Waiting...
Right now I'm in my office at school, waiting for a student to show up for a conference. I already had one person blow off a conference. I hate it when they do that; they assume it's a breeze to reschedule something like this when it's really not.
Then during class today I will have my observation. Ugh. I hate these things - now more than ever after the fiasco of an observation last semester at Out of Town University. Today I have not one but TWO observers, neither of whom I have ever met (IOW - not a supervisor, just assistant profs doing their duty towards obtaining tenure, no doubt).
Can't wait for today to be over with. This weekend is our anniversary and we will be blissfully off the map at a B&B with a double jacuzzi, spring fed, and we will indulge in the European-style breakfasts prepared by the Polish owner.
Just about time to head to class...more later...
Then during class today I will have my observation. Ugh. I hate these things - now more than ever after the fiasco of an observation last semester at Out of Town University. Today I have not one but TWO observers, neither of whom I have ever met (IOW - not a supervisor, just assistant profs doing their duty towards obtaining tenure, no doubt).
Can't wait for today to be over with. This weekend is our anniversary and we will be blissfully off the map at a B&B with a double jacuzzi, spring fed, and we will indulge in the European-style breakfasts prepared by the Polish owner.
Just about time to head to class...more later...
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Arthur C. Clark Dies
One of my favorite SF writers. A sad day.
Writer Arthur C. Clarke Dies at 90
By RAVI NESSMAN – 47 minutes ago
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Arthur C. Clarke, a visionary science fiction writer who won worldwide acclaim with more than 100 books on space, science and the future, died Wednesday in his adopted home of Sri Lanka, an aide said. He was 90.
Clarke, who had battled debilitating post-polio syndrome since the 1960s and sometimes used a wheelchair, died at 1:30 a.m. after suffering breathing problems, aide Rohan De Silva said.
Co-author with Stanley Kubrick of Kubrick's film "2001: A Space Odyssey," Clarke was regarded as far more than a science fiction writer.
He was credited with the concept of communications satellites in 1945, decades before they became a reality. Geosynchronous orbits, which keep satellites in a fixed position relative to the ground, are called Clarke orbits.
He joined American broadcaster Walter Cronkite as commentator on the U.S. Apollo moonshots in the late 1960s.
Clarke's non-fiction volumes on space travel and his explorations of the Great Barrier Reef and Indian Ocean earned him respect in the world of science, and in 1976 he became an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
But it was his writing that shot him to his greatest fame and that gave him the greatest fulfillment.
"Sometimes I am asked how I would like to be remembered," Clarke said recently. "I have had a diverse career as a writer, underwater explorer and space promoter. Of all these I would like to be remembered as a writer."
From 1950, he began a prolific output of both fiction and non-fiction, sometimes publishing three books in a year. He published his best-selling "3001: The Final Odyssey" when he was 79.
Some of his best-known books are "Childhood's End," 1953; "The City and The Stars," 1956, "The Nine Billion Names of God," 1967; "Rendezvous with Rama," 1973; "Imperial Earth," 1975; and "The Songs of Distant Earth," 1986.
When Clarke and Kubrick got together to develop a movie about space, they used as basic ideas several of Clarke's shorter pieces, including "The Sentinel," written in 1948, and "Encounter in the Dawn." As work progressed on the screenplay, Clarke also wrote a novel of the story. He followed it up with "2010," "2061," and "3001: The Final Odyssey."
In 1989, two decades after the Apollo 11 moon landings, Clarke wrote: "2001 was written in an age which now lies beyond one of the great divides in human history; we are sundered from it forever by the moment when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped out on to the Sea of Tranquility. Now history and fiction have become inexorably intertwined."
Clarke won the Nebula Award of the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1972, 1974 and 1979; the Hugo Award of the World Science Fiction Convention in 1974 and 1980, and in 1986 became Grand Master of the Science Fiction Writers of America. He was awarded the CBE in 1989.
Born in Minehead, western England, on Dec. 16, 1917, the son of a farmer, Arthur Charles Clark became addicted to science-fiction after buying his first copies of the pulp magazine "Amazing Stories" at Woolworth's. He devoured English writers H.G. Wells and Olaf Stapledon and began writing for his school magazine in his teens.
Clarke went to work as a clerk in Her Majesty's Exchequer and Audit Department in London, where he joined the British Interplanetary Society and wrote his first short stories and scientific articles on space travel.
It was not until after the World War II that Clarke received a bachelor of science degree in physics and mathematics from King's College in London.
In the wartime Royal Air Force, he was put in charge of a new radar blind-landing system.
But it was an RAF memo he wrote in 1945 about the future of communications that led him to fame. It was about the possibility of using satellites to revolutionize communications — an idea whose time had decidedly not come.
Clarke later sent it to a publication called Wireless World, which almost rejected it as too far-fetched.
Clarke married in 1953, and was divorced in 1964. He had no children.
Disabled by post-polio syndrome, the lingering effects of a disease that had paralyzed him for two months in 1959, Clarke rarely left his home in the Indian Ocean island of Sri Lanka.
He moved there in 1956, lured by his interest in marine diving which, he said, was as close as he could get to the weightless feeling of space.
"I'm perfectly operational underwater," he once said.
Clarke was linked by his computer with friends and fans around the world, spending each morning answering e-mails and browsing the Internet.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Clarke said he did not regret having never followed his novels into space, adding that he had arranged to have DNA from strands of his hair sent into orbit.
"One day, some super civilization may encounter this relic from the vanished species and I may exist in another time," he said. "Move over, Stephen King."
On the Net:
* The Arthur C. Clarke Foundation: http://www.clarkefoundation.org
Writer Arthur C. Clarke Dies at 90
By RAVI NESSMAN – 47 minutes ago
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Arthur C. Clarke, a visionary science fiction writer who won worldwide acclaim with more than 100 books on space, science and the future, died Wednesday in his adopted home of Sri Lanka, an aide said. He was 90.
Clarke, who had battled debilitating post-polio syndrome since the 1960s and sometimes used a wheelchair, died at 1:30 a.m. after suffering breathing problems, aide Rohan De Silva said.
Co-author with Stanley Kubrick of Kubrick's film "2001: A Space Odyssey," Clarke was regarded as far more than a science fiction writer.
He was credited with the concept of communications satellites in 1945, decades before they became a reality. Geosynchronous orbits, which keep satellites in a fixed position relative to the ground, are called Clarke orbits.
He joined American broadcaster Walter Cronkite as commentator on the U.S. Apollo moonshots in the late 1960s.
Clarke's non-fiction volumes on space travel and his explorations of the Great Barrier Reef and Indian Ocean earned him respect in the world of science, and in 1976 he became an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
But it was his writing that shot him to his greatest fame and that gave him the greatest fulfillment.
"Sometimes I am asked how I would like to be remembered," Clarke said recently. "I have had a diverse career as a writer, underwater explorer and space promoter. Of all these I would like to be remembered as a writer."
From 1950, he began a prolific output of both fiction and non-fiction, sometimes publishing three books in a year. He published his best-selling "3001: The Final Odyssey" when he was 79.
Some of his best-known books are "Childhood's End," 1953; "The City and The Stars," 1956, "The Nine Billion Names of God," 1967; "Rendezvous with Rama," 1973; "Imperial Earth," 1975; and "The Songs of Distant Earth," 1986.
When Clarke and Kubrick got together to develop a movie about space, they used as basic ideas several of Clarke's shorter pieces, including "The Sentinel," written in 1948, and "Encounter in the Dawn." As work progressed on the screenplay, Clarke also wrote a novel of the story. He followed it up with "2010," "2061," and "3001: The Final Odyssey."
In 1989, two decades after the Apollo 11 moon landings, Clarke wrote: "2001 was written in an age which now lies beyond one of the great divides in human history; we are sundered from it forever by the moment when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped out on to the Sea of Tranquility. Now history and fiction have become inexorably intertwined."
Clarke won the Nebula Award of the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1972, 1974 and 1979; the Hugo Award of the World Science Fiction Convention in 1974 and 1980, and in 1986 became Grand Master of the Science Fiction Writers of America. He was awarded the CBE in 1989.
Born in Minehead, western England, on Dec. 16, 1917, the son of a farmer, Arthur Charles Clark became addicted to science-fiction after buying his first copies of the pulp magazine "Amazing Stories" at Woolworth's. He devoured English writers H.G. Wells and Olaf Stapledon and began writing for his school magazine in his teens.
Clarke went to work as a clerk in Her Majesty's Exchequer and Audit Department in London, where he joined the British Interplanetary Society and wrote his first short stories and scientific articles on space travel.
It was not until after the World War II that Clarke received a bachelor of science degree in physics and mathematics from King's College in London.
In the wartime Royal Air Force, he was put in charge of a new radar blind-landing system.
But it was an RAF memo he wrote in 1945 about the future of communications that led him to fame. It was about the possibility of using satellites to revolutionize communications — an idea whose time had decidedly not come.
Clarke later sent it to a publication called Wireless World, which almost rejected it as too far-fetched.
Clarke married in 1953, and was divorced in 1964. He had no children.
Disabled by post-polio syndrome, the lingering effects of a disease that had paralyzed him for two months in 1959, Clarke rarely left his home in the Indian Ocean island of Sri Lanka.
He moved there in 1956, lured by his interest in marine diving which, he said, was as close as he could get to the weightless feeling of space.
"I'm perfectly operational underwater," he once said.
Clarke was linked by his computer with friends and fans around the world, spending each morning answering e-mails and browsing the Internet.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Clarke said he did not regret having never followed his novels into space, adding that he had arranged to have DNA from strands of his hair sent into orbit.
"One day, some super civilization may encounter this relic from the vanished species and I may exist in another time," he said. "Move over, Stephen King."
On the Net:
* The Arthur C. Clarke Foundation: http://www.clarkefoundation.org
Saturday, March 15, 2008
"Spring Break"
Notice the quotation marks in the title. They represent the fact that this week hasn't been much of a break.
Our trip to Cleveland was truncated because we had to leave a day late. Although we had a good time there, it was too short. If I have to be in a car 5.5 - 6 hours, I want to be at my destination more than 1 full day. But it was what it was, and was mostly enjoyable. I have pics of us celebrating my 40th and Dad's 80th, which I'll post later.
I had a day to do errands on Wed. and then Thursday before the sun came up I was on my way to Momazoo's. She had fistula revision surgery as an outpatient, and although the surgery itself went very well, there were other complications. She'd been short of breath for a couple weeks, which everyone seemed to be ignoring. Finally the physical therapist she sees thought to check her blood oxygen levels early in the week, and they were startlingly low. But they didn't do anything about it. Next day, Wednesday, the pain management doctor also tested her O2 level, and it was still way low. They wanted to send her to the ER but she refused, thinking that she was going into the hospital the next morning, anyway (Mom's infallible logic, eh?).
Needless to say the day surgery people were halted in their tracks when she told them about the low O2 level and sure enough when they tested it, it was arond 76 (a healthy person's should register around 98). They gave her oxygen and did a chest xray, which showed fluid on her lungs. But they were able to get the O2 levels up enough so that the surgeon could do his thing. But after surgery they sent her to the inpatient dialysis unit. As a result, it was a 12-hour day for her. I went home to Mom's apt. to get a bite to eat and a short nap, then back to the hospital around 6:00.
She saw the lung specialist who wants to see her this coming week. Last night at dialysis her O2 was down to 74 again, so they sent her home with a prescription for and O2 tank, which she hates. For one thing, they didn't have any small portable tanks so she's pretty much house-bound until they can get that for her on Monday.
I am going to do her shopping for her tomorrow and spend some time with her. I know this is disheartening for her, but at the same time, at least steps are being taken to get her situation under control. My brother is calling her PCP on Monday to demand she be switched to another physician in the group. Her PCP has long been a neglectful asshole, and it's time for something to be done. When she and I asked about switching a year or so ago, we were told that they don't allow patients to switch doctors within the group. Well guess what? They can kiss my ass and go to hell because that jerkface who calls himself a doctor has ignored my mom's symptoms for the last time.
I now have 40 papers to grade and mid-term grades are due Tuesday morning. Yeah. Right. Well I'll just have to do my best. I slept a lot last night and today, since I haven't slept well the last few nights, in Cleveland or the night before mom's surgery, or the night I spent at mom's. I have to make sure I'm taking care of myself as well. Tomorrow before I go to mom's, I'm supposed to go to a free Reiki workshop that a friend of mine is doing. I really want to go, but I may have to beg off. We'll see how it goes.
Right now I am eating a snack of cottage cheese and pineapple, and later will get up to the exercise room. That's my plan.
And that's about it for now. More pictures and other tidbits as time permits in the coming week...
Our trip to Cleveland was truncated because we had to leave a day late. Although we had a good time there, it was too short. If I have to be in a car 5.5 - 6 hours, I want to be at my destination more than 1 full day. But it was what it was, and was mostly enjoyable. I have pics of us celebrating my 40th and Dad's 80th, which I'll post later.
I had a day to do errands on Wed. and then Thursday before the sun came up I was on my way to Momazoo's. She had fistula revision surgery as an outpatient, and although the surgery itself went very well, there were other complications. She'd been short of breath for a couple weeks, which everyone seemed to be ignoring. Finally the physical therapist she sees thought to check her blood oxygen levels early in the week, and they were startlingly low. But they didn't do anything about it. Next day, Wednesday, the pain management doctor also tested her O2 level, and it was still way low. They wanted to send her to the ER but she refused, thinking that she was going into the hospital the next morning, anyway (Mom's infallible logic, eh?).
Needless to say the day surgery people were halted in their tracks when she told them about the low O2 level and sure enough when they tested it, it was arond 76 (a healthy person's should register around 98). They gave her oxygen and did a chest xray, which showed fluid on her lungs. But they were able to get the O2 levels up enough so that the surgeon could do his thing. But after surgery they sent her to the inpatient dialysis unit. As a result, it was a 12-hour day for her. I went home to Mom's apt. to get a bite to eat and a short nap, then back to the hospital around 6:00.
She saw the lung specialist who wants to see her this coming week. Last night at dialysis her O2 was down to 74 again, so they sent her home with a prescription for and O2 tank, which she hates. For one thing, they didn't have any small portable tanks so she's pretty much house-bound until they can get that for her on Monday.
I am going to do her shopping for her tomorrow and spend some time with her. I know this is disheartening for her, but at the same time, at least steps are being taken to get her situation under control. My brother is calling her PCP on Monday to demand she be switched to another physician in the group. Her PCP has long been a neglectful asshole, and it's time for something to be done. When she and I asked about switching a year or so ago, we were told that they don't allow patients to switch doctors within the group. Well guess what? They can kiss my ass and go to hell because that jerkface who calls himself a doctor has ignored my mom's symptoms for the last time.
I now have 40 papers to grade and mid-term grades are due Tuesday morning. Yeah. Right. Well I'll just have to do my best. I slept a lot last night and today, since I haven't slept well the last few nights, in Cleveland or the night before mom's surgery, or the night I spent at mom's. I have to make sure I'm taking care of myself as well. Tomorrow before I go to mom's, I'm supposed to go to a free Reiki workshop that a friend of mine is doing. I really want to go, but I may have to beg off. We'll see how it goes.
Right now I am eating a snack of cottage cheese and pineapple, and later will get up to the exercise room. That's my plan.
And that's about it for now. More pictures and other tidbits as time permits in the coming week...
Saturday, March 08, 2008
Through the eyes of a child...
Last post I was just moaning about the lack of SF in my life. Here's a recap of Star Wars that reminds me how it was to see it for the first time:
Denied!
The shitty weather is keeping us home-bound today instead of heading off to Cleveland. We're planning to leave at the ass-crack of dawn tomorrow (Sunday) instead of this afternoon. I guess it's actually for the best anyway, as we both have stuff to do and this way we don't have to be quite as rushed.
Two weekends ago I ordered a DVD set of Space: 1999's first season (the first 6 episodes - they were all I could afford). I am still waiting for them to arrive and every day that I check the mail and find them absent I get more and more aggravated. Supposedly they were shipped from NYC and sent via U.S. mail. I can't believe they haven't arrived after 2 weeks (10 business days).
Meantime, I've found this hilarious parody of LOLcats: LOLthulu.
My craving for SF media is unrelenting. I have to wait until next month for Battlestar Galactica, and god knows when Doctor Who will start up (and I heard a very disturbing rumor that David Tennant will be leaving after next season), and of course I haven't seen a SF movie in forever. Wanted to see Cloverfield, but didn't. I want to see something that will blow me away and have me obsessed for weeks. Where has all the good SF gone?
Two weekends ago I ordered a DVD set of Space: 1999's first season (the first 6 episodes - they were all I could afford). I am still waiting for them to arrive and every day that I check the mail and find them absent I get more and more aggravated. Supposedly they were shipped from NYC and sent via U.S. mail. I can't believe they haven't arrived after 2 weeks (10 business days).
Meantime, I've found this hilarious parody of LOLcats: LOLthulu.
My craving for SF media is unrelenting. I have to wait until next month for Battlestar Galactica, and god knows when Doctor Who will start up (and I heard a very disturbing rumor that David Tennant will be leaving after next season), and of course I haven't seen a SF movie in forever. Wanted to see Cloverfield, but didn't. I want to see something that will blow me away and have me obsessed for weeks. Where has all the good SF gone?
Friday, March 07, 2008
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Pork Cabin
I wish I could give credit where credit is due for these pix. Someone posted them on my brother's message board, and when I asked the source, he said he couldn't find it any more.
Gives a whole new meaning to The Three Little Pigs tale. "I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll eat your damned house!"
Monday, March 03, 2008
Birthday Photos
...this drink is the "Tiki Bowl" -- notice the plastic cup and utter lack of anything tiki, but also notice the tiara, provided by PMP, of course!
...and finally...the Stigmata Hula Girl:
Dinner with Mamazoo:
Pu Pu Platter and Tiki Temple (my version of a Shirley Temple):
I couldn't get a decent photo of Bizarro all night, so that's why there aren't any here.
Despite the lame-o "tiki bar," it was a great night. It didn't matter that there were no real tikis - we brought the tiki in our hearts! Thanks for helping me celebrate, Bizarro, SMJ, PMP, Echo & Phyl! And thanks to Mamazoo for taking me to dinner where I could finally get my tiki on.
My 40th birthday is winding down; only an hour to go of March 3. I'm not sad though, because next week is part III of the celebration in Cleveland with the Bizarro clan.
I'm ready for bed. G'nite.
The Sunshine is All Around Me!
Today marks my 4th decade on Planet Earth. It's 55 out, the sun is shining, and I've had a wonderful couple days' worth of celebration. I will post pictures tonight when I get home.
I am deeply thankful for all that I hold dear, especially my Mom and Dad, for bringing me into this world. I was a "surprise" you know, and at the age of 41 in 1968, my mother was brave to have a baby. Thanks, Mom!
For those of you who know me by name, please check out www.sixsentences.blogspot.com for a little surprise. It's a special birthday gift, indeed!
I am deeply thankful for all that I hold dear, especially my Mom and Dad, for bringing me into this world. I was a "surprise" you know, and at the age of 41 in 1968, my mother was brave to have a baby. Thanks, Mom!
For those of you who know me by name, please check out www.sixsentences.blogspot.com for a little surprise. It's a special birthday gift, indeed!
Sunday, March 02, 2008
40th Birthday Bash Part I
Yesterday I began what is to be a multi-event celebration of my fourth decade on the planet. PMP and I went shopping in the afternoon, which was a little more chaotic than either of us would have liked. Apparently everyone decided it was a good day to go to the mall since the temps were finally above freezing. I bought myself a pair of abalone earrings, and a couple things for mom and Bizarro. From there we picked up the things for dinner, including 2 bottles of chianti.
Dinner went off without a hitch, although there were 6 of us crammed around the table. Salty Miss Jill baked a delovely chocolate cake, which finished off a spaghetti dinner that I thought was quite passable, although certainly not my best work.
After cleaning up we headed out to Todd's Beach House. Now, understand that we live in Upstate New York. Cow country. Well, wine country, to be precise, but you get the idea. It was dark, it was snowing, and SMJ sorta kinda forgot to tell us about a crucial left turn that would have brought us to the bar within about 15 minutes. We were in two cars - Bizarro the designated driver in our car, PMP in hers. We realized when we crossed the county line that we'd gone too far in the wrong direction, so we backtracked and managed to find our way there.
Recall that this was supposed to be a tiki-themed bar, and bear in mind that I was trying really hard not to have any expectations. I couldn't help having a few expectations, but even those were thwarted. The place is essentially a towny bar with some crap from Florida hung on the walls and ceiling. There is a sign that declares it to be a tiki bar, but other than that, there was a cardboard hula girl, a card board tiki mask and maybe some vaguely looking Polynesian-esque strings of lights hanging over the bar. Most of the stuff was surf-related, which is okay, but not what I was hoping for, really.
Having been let down on the appearance angle, I thought, well, let's order a Mai Tai and see what they've got to show for themselves. I had a birthday drink on the house (they were expecting us after my conversation with the owner earlier in the week), but when I asked for a Mai Tai, the bartender had not a freaking clue. She was very nice but really didn't even know what a Mai Tai was. She went for the drink recipe book, and I just said never mind. Instead, she offered me the specialty drink of the place, called a "Tiki Bowl." (Keep in mind that they only had enough ingredients for four of these - I ordered two and my friends Echo and Phyl each ordered one, and then they ran out of pineapple juice.) The drink had Malibu, Admiral and juices. I'm not a big Malibu fan, myself, but I figured "What the hell." I was hoping hoping hoping it to come in something of a fu manchu mug, or at least an actual glass. It was served to me in a plastic cup. With an orange straw. That's it. No umbrella, no sword-with-a-pineapple-and-cherry garnish. But it was strong, and it took only 2 of those suckers to do the job (well, on top of all the wine I'd had before, during and after dinner).
We made the best of the evening, though, and played some pool, thew a couple decent tunes on the jukebox computer, and generally had fun. The people were very kind and the locals were generous and friendly, although I had to stop one guy from playing Jimmy Buffet on the juke box because that would have set me over the edge, on top off the lack of true tiki atmosphere.
Most importantly, I had the good company and love of friends and Bizarro to help me celebrate. Yes, it would have been nicer to be at a cooler bar, but even so, I am grateful to everyone for being there. Thanks especially to Bizarro, who detests townie bars more than I do, and who was trying really hard not to get into any altercations with the three stoner frat-boys sitting near our table. He's a trooper!
I do have photos, which I will post later, along with more commentary. Right now I have to get myself pulled together for 40th Birthday Bash Part II with mom. We're going to our favorite Chinese restaurant, and you know I'm gettin' the Pu Pu Platter.
Dinner went off without a hitch, although there were 6 of us crammed around the table. Salty Miss Jill baked a delovely chocolate cake, which finished off a spaghetti dinner that I thought was quite passable, although certainly not my best work.
After cleaning up we headed out to Todd's Beach House. Now, understand that we live in Upstate New York. Cow country. Well, wine country, to be precise, but you get the idea. It was dark, it was snowing, and SMJ sorta kinda forgot to tell us about a crucial left turn that would have brought us to the bar within about 15 minutes. We were in two cars - Bizarro the designated driver in our car, PMP in hers. We realized when we crossed the county line that we'd gone too far in the wrong direction, so we backtracked and managed to find our way there.
Recall that this was supposed to be a tiki-themed bar, and bear in mind that I was trying really hard not to have any expectations. I couldn't help having a few expectations, but even those were thwarted. The place is essentially a towny bar with some crap from Florida hung on the walls and ceiling. There is a sign that declares it to be a tiki bar, but other than that, there was a cardboard hula girl, a card board tiki mask and maybe some vaguely looking Polynesian-esque strings of lights hanging over the bar. Most of the stuff was surf-related, which is okay, but not what I was hoping for, really.
Having been let down on the appearance angle, I thought, well, let's order a Mai Tai and see what they've got to show for themselves. I had a birthday drink on the house (they were expecting us after my conversation with the owner earlier in the week), but when I asked for a Mai Tai, the bartender had not a freaking clue. She was very nice but really didn't even know what a Mai Tai was. She went for the drink recipe book, and I just said never mind. Instead, she offered me the specialty drink of the place, called a "Tiki Bowl." (Keep in mind that they only had enough ingredients for four of these - I ordered two and my friends Echo and Phyl each ordered one, and then they ran out of pineapple juice.) The drink had Malibu, Admiral and juices. I'm not a big Malibu fan, myself, but I figured "What the hell." I was hoping hoping hoping it to come in something of a fu manchu mug, or at least an actual glass. It was served to me in a plastic cup. With an orange straw. That's it. No umbrella, no sword-with-a-pineapple-and-cherry garnish. But it was strong, and it took only 2 of those suckers to do the job (well, on top of all the wine I'd had before, during and after dinner).
We made the best of the evening, though, and played some pool, thew a couple decent tunes on the jukebox computer, and generally had fun. The people were very kind and the locals were generous and friendly, although I had to stop one guy from playing Jimmy Buffet on the juke box because that would have set me over the edge, on top off the lack of true tiki atmosphere.
Most importantly, I had the good company and love of friends and Bizarro to help me celebrate. Yes, it would have been nicer to be at a cooler bar, but even so, I am grateful to everyone for being there. Thanks especially to Bizarro, who detests townie bars more than I do, and who was trying really hard not to get into any altercations with the three stoner frat-boys sitting near our table. He's a trooper!
I do have photos, which I will post later, along with more commentary. Right now I have to get myself pulled together for 40th Birthday Bash Part II with mom. We're going to our favorite Chinese restaurant, and you know I'm gettin' the Pu Pu Platter.
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