Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Vacation's End
This is a disjointed post. I'm sleepy and sore, the result of swimming 600 meters using only my legs and 200 meters using only my arms.
The Cape was cold, sunny and spectacular, a perfect place to spend the Thanksgiving holiday. No photographs this year, as I was too busy having fun and allowing my mind to remain empty for five straight days.
Thanksgiving was spent reading Philip Pullman and watching J prepare dinner. We went non-traditional this year with garlic mashed potatoes, roasted carrots and quail stuffed with sausage. An uncooked quail looks like a dancing bird from Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer video. In a moment of goofiness, J picked one up and made it dance before stuffing and cooking it.
Friday was more of the same, sleeping, reading and cooking. Friends joined us over the weekend, clam chowder on Friday, wild caught salmon on Saturday. Bike ride, reading and Scrabble. My friend convinced me to join Facebook so we could play Scrabble against each other on-line. He is currently beating me by one point.
Sad, that I am lured into social networking by the call of the Scrabble board, no?
Sunday a long drive home, insane traffic in the Poconos, uncooperative spark plugs, a late arrival with all four tires intact.
Speaking of tires, how about a set of Hello Kitty bicycle tires for Christmas this year?
The Cape was cold, sunny and spectacular, a perfect place to spend the Thanksgiving holiday. No photographs this year, as I was too busy having fun and allowing my mind to remain empty for five straight days.
Thanksgiving was spent reading Philip Pullman and watching J prepare dinner. We went non-traditional this year with garlic mashed potatoes, roasted carrots and quail stuffed with sausage. An uncooked quail looks like a dancing bird from Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer video. In a moment of goofiness, J picked one up and made it dance before stuffing and cooking it.
Friday was more of the same, sleeping, reading and cooking. Friends joined us over the weekend, clam chowder on Friday, wild caught salmon on Saturday. Bike ride, reading and Scrabble. My friend convinced me to join Facebook so we could play Scrabble against each other on-line. He is currently beating me by one point.
Sad, that I am lured into social networking by the call of the Scrabble board, no?
Sunday a long drive home, insane traffic in the Poconos, uncooperative spark plugs, a late arrival with all four tires intact.
Speaking of tires, how about a set of Hello Kitty bicycle tires for Christmas this year?
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Cape Cod 2007 - Day 1
My foot hurts. The rental house is heated via a single, large metal grate in the living room floor, installed right outside the master bedroom door. I made the mistake of walking over it in bare feet as hot air was blowing through and was rewarded with a lovely set of burn marks on the bottom of my left foot. Another random, stupid accident to add to my list.
As last year, we packed up the car and left late Tuesday afternoon. It was a longer drive then last year, as we stopped for an hour to eat (at Sheetz), it was very foggy in places and J decided to take I-79 to I-80 instead of the toll roads suggested by Google maps, causing an unplanned, hour long detour. It is very important to read driving directions in context.
The strangest sight? Crossing the Tappan Zee bridge and seeing New York without lights, as the city was shrouded in a dense, black fog.
The strangest moment? Stopping for gas at a Shell super station. The kitchen was unfinished, counters were only partially installed, there was no hot water for tea (or for washing my hands) and the beverage dispensers were a series of pipes sticking out of the wall. According to the attendants on duty, the owners elected to open the station early, without bothering to verify that the credit card readers were hooked up to the diesel pumps or that all the inventory was properly scanned. J's Pop Tarts had to be cashed out manually and added to a handwritten list of items-that-need-put-into-computer.
Once again we elected to miss the sunrise in favor of catching a few hours of sleep before getting cleaned up and finding a grocery store. We ended up at Trader Joe's and had to resist the temptation to buy out the entire store. This was accomplished by repeating the mantra “Pittsburgh has a Trader Joe's now” over and over again. As I paid for our groceries I took a moment to idly wonder how I always manage to spend 67 dollars and change every time I visit a store, no matter what state I happen to be in.
It is quiet here, blissfully silent. The dark falls quickly. Aside from the badly located vent, the house is a cozy little place and heats very well. The Cape is almost, but not quite, deserted. We are staying in South Yarmouth off of Route 28, a road built up with more than its fair share of old and abandoned tourist hotels and closed-for-the-season summer eating shacks.
As last year, we packed up the car and left late Tuesday afternoon. It was a longer drive then last year, as we stopped for an hour to eat (at Sheetz), it was very foggy in places and J decided to take I-79 to I-80 instead of the toll roads suggested by Google maps, causing an unplanned, hour long detour. It is very important to read driving directions in context.
The strangest sight? Crossing the Tappan Zee bridge and seeing New York without lights, as the city was shrouded in a dense, black fog.
The strangest moment? Stopping for gas at a Shell super station. The kitchen was unfinished, counters were only partially installed, there was no hot water for tea (or for washing my hands) and the beverage dispensers were a series of pipes sticking out of the wall. According to the attendants on duty, the owners elected to open the station early, without bothering to verify that the credit card readers were hooked up to the diesel pumps or that all the inventory was properly scanned. J's Pop Tarts had to be cashed out manually and added to a handwritten list of items-that-need-put-into-computer.
Once again we elected to miss the sunrise in favor of catching a few hours of sleep before getting cleaned up and finding a grocery store. We ended up at Trader Joe's and had to resist the temptation to buy out the entire store. This was accomplished by repeating the mantra “Pittsburgh has a Trader Joe's now” over and over again. As I paid for our groceries I took a moment to idly wonder how I always manage to spend 67 dollars and change every time I visit a store, no matter what state I happen to be in.
It is quiet here, blissfully silent. The dark falls quickly. Aside from the badly located vent, the house is a cozy little place and heats very well. The Cape is almost, but not quite, deserted. We are staying in South Yarmouth off of Route 28, a road built up with more than its fair share of old and abandoned tourist hotels and closed-for-the-season summer eating shacks.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Road Trip
Writing Update: The Bad News: I'm not going to make 50,000 words. I've barely broken 10,000 words. Unless I get snowed in over Thanksgiving, it is not going to happen.
Writing Update: The Good News: I'm going to keep going anyway after the end of the month. Even if nothing comes of it, I'm pleased with what I have created so far and want to keep going.
J and I attended the Penguins/Rangers game on Saturday night. It was a frustrating experience. One period of near brilliant play followed by two periods in which they allowed the Rangers to run the rink, five minutes in which they morphed back into an amazing team followed by an abrupt overtime ending, as the Rangers scored, winning 4-3.
Fans are becoming anxious about Marc-Andre Fleury and are beginning to pile on criticism that he is not the franchise player the Penguins think he is. He is in a significant slump and having some trouble breaking out of it. Watching him play last night it was obvious that his heart (and head) was not in the game. But neither was the heads and hearts of the other 22 members of the team. It is patently unfair to demand that single player pay for the sins of an entire team. The relationship between a goalie and his defense is symbiotic. A breakdown on the part of one will lead to a breakdown on the part the other.
Goalies take longer to develop then players in other positions. Fleury is 23 years old and this is only his second FULL season in the NHL. He has publicly acknowledged that some of his trouble is a direct result of not developing some of the fundamentals of his position (such as controlling rebounds) earlier, and relying too much on talent and instinct. He has also publicly stated that he is committed to breaking some of his bad habits. And when he is on his game, his playing has improved. He is calmer, more in control and less likely to allow easy goals. He also spend more time out of the net.
But he is not on his game right now. His confidence is lacking, he drops into position too early, his movements are slow and he double checks himself too often. The bad news is that in the short term it is going to get worse as he starts applying some of the fundamentals and questions his instincts. The good news is that if he can get through this bad period he is going to be fucking brilliant to watch.
Tuesday night we will be packing up to spend Thanksgiving on Cape Cod in a little rental property. Rumor has it that the house is wired for the inter-tubes, but I shall be making a best effort to stay off line, work on my book, go for bike rides in the freezing weather and read Philip's Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy in anticipation of antagonizing J's extended family at Christmas Eve dinner.
In conclusion, I offer up the most interesting moment in Saturday night's game.
Writing Update: The Good News: I'm going to keep going anyway after the end of the month. Even if nothing comes of it, I'm pleased with what I have created so far and want to keep going.
J and I attended the Penguins/Rangers game on Saturday night. It was a frustrating experience. One period of near brilliant play followed by two periods in which they allowed the Rangers to run the rink, five minutes in which they morphed back into an amazing team followed by an abrupt overtime ending, as the Rangers scored, winning 4-3.
Fans are becoming anxious about Marc-Andre Fleury and are beginning to pile on criticism that he is not the franchise player the Penguins think he is. He is in a significant slump and having some trouble breaking out of it. Watching him play last night it was obvious that his heart (and head) was not in the game. But neither was the heads and hearts of the other 22 members of the team. It is patently unfair to demand that single player pay for the sins of an entire team. The relationship between a goalie and his defense is symbiotic. A breakdown on the part of one will lead to a breakdown on the part the other.
Goalies take longer to develop then players in other positions. Fleury is 23 years old and this is only his second FULL season in the NHL. He has publicly acknowledged that some of his trouble is a direct result of not developing some of the fundamentals of his position (such as controlling rebounds) earlier, and relying too much on talent and instinct. He has also publicly stated that he is committed to breaking some of his bad habits. And when he is on his game, his playing has improved. He is calmer, more in control and less likely to allow easy goals. He also spend more time out of the net.
But he is not on his game right now. His confidence is lacking, he drops into position too early, his movements are slow and he double checks himself too often. The bad news is that in the short term it is going to get worse as he starts applying some of the fundamentals and questions his instincts. The good news is that if he can get through this bad period he is going to be fucking brilliant to watch.
Tuesday night we will be packing up to spend Thanksgiving on Cape Cod in a little rental property. Rumor has it that the house is wired for the inter-tubes, but I shall be making a best effort to stay off line, work on my book, go for bike rides in the freezing weather and read Philip's Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy in anticipation of antagonizing J's extended family at Christmas Eve dinner.
In conclusion, I offer up the most interesting moment in Saturday night's game.
Monday, November 12, 2007
A Very Vague Post
Don't you just love when people tell a story and leave out what seems to be, to you, significant details? I do. And I have one of those stories to tell.
J took his Miata (a standard shift that I can not drive) to hockey on Friday night as I needed the Volvo. On the drive out to a location I must not name, he noticed that one of the wheels was rattling badly. He left the car in the parking lot and caught a ride home.
On Saturday morning, before we left for Columbus, he drove back to the rink to meet AAA to have the car towed back to the garage. As it turned out, a tow was unnecessary as the mechanic put the bolts on backwards when replacing the wheel. The AAA mechanic put the bolts on properly and J left the car in the lot. Our plan was to stop on our way back from Columbus to pick it up.
For weather related reasons, we did not pick up the car on Sunday evening. This afternoon we caught what we thought was the correct bus to the lot where the car was parked. Except that it was not quite the correct bus. It was the correct bus number, but it took a different route. We found ourselves at the end of the line several miles from our intended destination with a long walk ahead. As the weather was decent today, it would not have been too much of a hardship, but we were still looking at least three miles.
The bus driver, who has to rename nameless, took mercy on our stupid souls and drove us back to a point where we could reach the car with only a short walk. This is significant as it was the end of the driver's shift and he would have been in a great deal of trouble if the Port Authority learned of his detour.
So I can not name the location, bus route or the name of the driver. I can't write to the Port Authority and compliment them on having such a great employee. But I can say, once again, that Pittsburgh has some truly great bus drivers and they deserve every penny they earn for putting up with such stupidity.
J took his Miata (a standard shift that I can not drive) to hockey on Friday night as I needed the Volvo. On the drive out to a location I must not name, he noticed that one of the wheels was rattling badly. He left the car in the parking lot and caught a ride home.
On Saturday morning, before we left for Columbus, he drove back to the rink to meet AAA to have the car towed back to the garage. As it turned out, a tow was unnecessary as the mechanic put the bolts on backwards when replacing the wheel. The AAA mechanic put the bolts on properly and J left the car in the lot. Our plan was to stop on our way back from Columbus to pick it up.
For weather related reasons, we did not pick up the car on Sunday evening. This afternoon we caught what we thought was the correct bus to the lot where the car was parked. Except that it was not quite the correct bus. It was the correct bus number, but it took a different route. We found ourselves at the end of the line several miles from our intended destination with a long walk ahead. As the weather was decent today, it would not have been too much of a hardship, but we were still looking at least three miles.
The bus driver, who has to rename nameless, took mercy on our stupid souls and drove us back to a point where we could reach the car with only a short walk. This is significant as it was the end of the driver's shift and he would have been in a great deal of trouble if the Port Authority learned of his detour.
So I can not name the location, bus route or the name of the driver. I can't write to the Port Authority and compliment them on having such a great employee. But I can say, once again, that Pittsburgh has some truly great bus drivers and they deserve every penny they earn for putting up with such stupidity.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Writer's Block...
... and procrastination as I figure out where to take my characters next.
J and I went to Columbus, OH on Saturday to have dinner with a friend and some of his people. The drive down was pleasant except for the involuntary detour we ended up taking on the way to the motel because of an error in Google Maps. Even that turned out well, as we were able to stop and do a little bit of shopping while waiting to check into our room at 3:00 PM.
Dinner was at Buca di Beppo, a most excellent place to share a meal with a group of nine. It was one of those rare encounters when strangers became friendly quickly as we compared notes on wine and passed the appetizers, salads, main course and desserts around the table for everyone to share. The food was good and the hostess took us on a walk through the kitchen so we could see what the staff was cooking.
This afternoon our friend took us to Katzinger's Deli for lunch and down the street to one of the most amazing independent bookstores I have ever set foot in. Thirty-two rooms of new books, all genres represented. I wanted to purchase the His Dark Materials trilogy (more on why coming up), but a new hardcover set was $60.00. I also checked out a Half Priced Books to see if I could purchase a used set, but it was not to be found.
While in Columbus, my friend gave me the coolest Penguins hat E.V.E.R.
J and I went to Columbus, OH on Saturday to have dinner with a friend and some of his people. The drive down was pleasant except for the involuntary detour we ended up taking on the way to the motel because of an error in Google Maps. Even that turned out well, as we were able to stop and do a little bit of shopping while waiting to check into our room at 3:00 PM.
Dinner was at Buca di Beppo, a most excellent place to share a meal with a group of nine. It was one of those rare encounters when strangers became friendly quickly as we compared notes on wine and passed the appetizers, salads, main course and desserts around the table for everyone to share. The food was good and the hostess took us on a walk through the kitchen so we could see what the staff was cooking.
This afternoon our friend took us to Katzinger's Deli for lunch and down the street to one of the most amazing independent bookstores I have ever set foot in. Thirty-two rooms of new books, all genres represented. I wanted to purchase the His Dark Materials trilogy (more on why coming up), but a new hardcover set was $60.00. I also checked out a Half Priced Books to see if I could purchase a used set, but it was not to be found.
While in Columbus, my friend gave me the coolest Penguins hat E.V.E.R.
The Front
The Back
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Monday, November 05, 2007
Updates
National Novel Writing Month
The Bad News: It is only five days into the month and I am all ready seriously behind on my word count.
The Good News: I am having a total blast writing this and have consciously decided NOT to worry about the word count. It has been almost ten years since I had this much fun writing something longer than a blog entry. The last time I felt this kind of creative joy was graduate school. I know why I gave it up for so long – I was terribly burned out when I finished my M.A and needed a break. But I wish I had not taken such a long break.
Attack of the Email Fascists
I honestly can not stand most of my coworkers right now.
As I have alluded previously, I spent the last four weeks working insane (for me) hours. Three of the four weeks were spent in training and actually doing all the PM duties. The fourth and final week was spent catching up on all the testing that was not completed because I was, um, managing the project.
It was, hands down, four of the most hellish weeks I have ever spent in any organization's employ. Which is saying something as I have quit jobs, with nothing else lined up, for working conditions that were downright intolerable. The coke fiend of an assistant manager comes to mind.
It was not the plethora of meetings, with no advance notice, I discovered I had to attend in the absent Project Manager's stead. Or the lectures on why I needed to be up to speed on hours/defect rate for the project (I had no idea). Or the questions about planning out the resources for the week, which were supposed to be handled by someone else so I could squeeze in some testing. Or the statement “I expected you to have more testing completed before my return.” Or even the realization that I had all of the responsibility and none of the authority necessary to compel other testers to do their job, leading to a mind numbing, pain inducing thirty minute conversation with one tester on why it was necessary to run an additional set of tests to confirm a defect.
It was the email. The constant reminders to select “Reply All” and carbon copy an entire lab on an issue that should be an A/B conversation. It was the hundreds of project emails I had to wade through every day. It was the smug sucking up on the part of one coworker every time it came up that email had been used improperly.
Today, after remembering to notify and copy the correct parties on my planned tasks before leaving on Friday, I received a snide note from my manger about making sure I kept everyone informed on a response from what I thought was an A/B conversation. This came on the heels of a painful fall on the way to the bus stop this morning, one that resulted in torn jeans, a bloody and bruised knee and no time to return home and change. It was unwarranted and misdirected, as the manager was taking out his anger towards several project managers on me. Because they did not keep him “in the loop”.
Thanksgiving cannot come fast enough.
The Bad News: It is only five days into the month and I am all ready seriously behind on my word count.
The Good News: I am having a total blast writing this and have consciously decided NOT to worry about the word count. It has been almost ten years since I had this much fun writing something longer than a blog entry. The last time I felt this kind of creative joy was graduate school. I know why I gave it up for so long – I was terribly burned out when I finished my M.A and needed a break. But I wish I had not taken such a long break.
Attack of the Email Fascists
I honestly can not stand most of my coworkers right now.
As I have alluded previously, I spent the last four weeks working insane (for me) hours. Three of the four weeks were spent in training and actually doing all the PM duties. The fourth and final week was spent catching up on all the testing that was not completed because I was, um, managing the project.
It was, hands down, four of the most hellish weeks I have ever spent in any organization's employ. Which is saying something as I have quit jobs, with nothing else lined up, for working conditions that were downright intolerable. The coke fiend of an assistant manager comes to mind.
It was not the plethora of meetings, with no advance notice, I discovered I had to attend in the absent Project Manager's stead. Or the lectures on why I needed to be up to speed on hours/defect rate for the project (I had no idea). Or the questions about planning out the resources for the week, which were supposed to be handled by someone else so I could squeeze in some testing. Or the statement “I expected you to have more testing completed before my return.” Or even the realization that I had all of the responsibility and none of the authority necessary to compel other testers to do their job, leading to a mind numbing, pain inducing thirty minute conversation with one tester on why it was necessary to run an additional set of tests to confirm a defect.
It was the email. The constant reminders to select “Reply All” and carbon copy an entire lab on an issue that should be an A/B conversation. It was the hundreds of project emails I had to wade through every day. It was the smug sucking up on the part of one coworker every time it came up that email had been used improperly.
Today, after remembering to notify and copy the correct parties on my planned tasks before leaving on Friday, I received a snide note from my manger about making sure I kept everyone informed on a response from what I thought was an A/B conversation. This came on the heels of a painful fall on the way to the bus stop this morning, one that resulted in torn jeans, a bloody and bruised knee and no time to return home and change. It was unwarranted and misdirected, as the manager was taking out his anger towards several project managers on me. Because they did not keep him “in the loop”.
Thanksgiving cannot come fast enough.
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