Recently in Family and Friends Category
Home and Safe.
With Pictures...

I'm trying. Took a few good ones of the Eiffel tower tonight. It was lit up in purple and white. So cool. It's a lot bigger than you might think. Totally impressive. I'm glad I went there at night. It was awesome to see the city lit up below. And the crowds were not so bad. Though we did get caught behind a gaggle of obnoxious british teenagers in line to the escalator. I think I made friends with a Greek restaurant owner. I showed him some pictures of New Jersey on my iPhone. We found this awesome little street called Rue Andre D'arts. It had lots of neat eateries and shops. I love the way so many of the shop fronts are carved wood. Yesterday on the way to see Delacroix's studio, we went into a wine shop. Turns out it was owned by a woman from California. Today we went to the Pompidou. Saw lots of Picassos and Matisses...that sort of thing. Tomorrow we're going to the Musee D'Orsay.


Plane was delayed a little, but we still arrived on time. Go figure. Was kinda bumpy, but mostly ok. I handled it well. So much so that the French kid sitting next to me said, "Wow, I'm really impressed! I've been riding in planes for years and I'm scared. You're so calm and it's your first flight." I said, "I had no idea I should have been scared." HAHA! Ignorance is bliss sometimes. Landing didn't bother me at all. The take off was kinda weird. Made my stomach flip, but I just told myself to relax into it and that seemed to work. The apartment is small, but super nice. It was recently remodeled. The neighborhood is very bohemian cool. There's a cafe right down stairs. Write more to you later. PS did you know that people speak a lot of French in France? Crazy, right?
Dad: I watched you on a flight tracker website crossing the Atlantic until It got too late. Have Fun.
We also looked at the Rue du XXX on Google streets. Looks cool. What's the name of the Cafe?
Keep forgetting to look when I walk down there. It's right on a corner if that helps. I'll try to get it tomorrow. Just got back from Monmarte. Stood on the steps of the Sacre Coeur and overlooked the city. Lots of young people hanging out there listening to music smoking weed and making out. Kinda like kids in Toms River do on the boardwalk. Ha! Only these kids are making out in front of a medieval structure. There's a staircase that leads up to it that has little fiber optic lights set into the stone that mirror star patterns. It was simple but kinda cool. Also I learned that the French call Paris La Guyere, after the cheese with a lot of holes in it. It's because Paris is so full of holes and tunnels underground. Funny huh? Apparently they make a lot of cheese references here. Like they call a pie chart, a Camenbert. Gonna get some sleep finally. Bye for now.

At the Pompidou right now! The name of that cafe right near where I'm staying is Cafe du Metro. Saw Notre Dame yesterday, along with Delacroix and Brancusi's studios, walked over the Seine, and through the Quartier Latin. Had a Pain au Chocolate and ate an expensive dinner.

I have been informed by my wife how lucky I am.
Amazingly enough, for once I agree with her.
She's been with me when I was seriously hurt in a car accident.
She's been with me when I was arrested.
She's been with me when I was laid off.
She's been with me when I was diagnosed with diabetes.
She's been with me when I had a stroke.
I think she's bad luck.

It never ends.
Teenager + Period + Mother + Argument + Lost Cell Phone = Splitting Fucking Headache
I want to kill somebody, anybody.
What a summer it's going to be.
She chose Imagine by Lennon.
Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one
She came to me for my ideas. You'all would've been proud of me. I hardly even mentioned that this was a lyrical interpretation of the communist manifesto written by a socialist fellow traveler. I just stuck with the standard utopian 'one world' tripe.
Silky ponies and fuzzy bunnies. No religious strife, no nationalistic turmoil, no greed and separation of economic classes. All the standard stuff that the schools want to hear nowadays.
Of course, I got a little deeper. I couldn't help myself. She certainly wouldn't get an alternate take on this from the school.
Update: She did so well on the report that it put her over the top for placing out of the English final.
Here is another take on it.

Darling Granddaughter: I have a date.
Doting Grandpa: Not on a school night you don't.
Darling Granddaughter: Rag, rag, rag, rag, rag, rag...(channeling her grandmother).
Doting Grandpa: OK, but be home by 9:30.
Darling Granddaughter: Rag, rag, rag, rag, rag, rag...(channeling her grandmother).
Doting Grandpa: Ok, 10:30 max, a minute longer and I go for my shotgun.
So the prospective datee gets lost on the way to the house and I have to give him directions. That didn't bode well for getting her home on time.
Anyway, he got her home within the limit. Obviously cleaning my shotgun when he came to pick her up helped.
LDL = 110
HDL = 47
BP OK as always
Stroke symptoms receding slowly (too slow for me)
No other problems.



...and now I'm making my famous Kristmas Kringle for tomorrow. Yet Another thing that I can't eat.
The traditional roast beast Christmas Eve dinner was nice....
The Kringle is baking - filling the house with the smell of almond - everyone has a glass of port and they're watching the Emmett Otter Jug Band Christmas. The mooch is gnawing on a greenie and enjoys having company down. Hard to get better than this.
My friend and former student Kyle Cassidy, author of Armed America is getting play in the New York Times. From what I can see on Google, he has been well received by the gun community also. When my copy shows up, I'll review it from the perspective of an unreconstructed gun nut. I got my copy from Amazon as well as a book of Smith&Wesson serial numbers.
So I goes and attends a party about 8 years ago at Kyle's Philly digs. The reason for this party (as if he needed one) was the purchase of a meat-locker sized main-frame which was sitting in the middle of his living room cuz it wouldn't fit anywhere else...and surrounded by academic types mainly from the Annenberg and various Philly area universities.
Eccentric to the max, one of the highlights of the night was a digiridu concert, not a solo you understand...everyone but me it seemed brought an instrument. To spend a lot of time with Kyle is to see the other side of the looking glass...and not in a bad way. Even back then, with photography not yet his main focus, you could see in his pictures that his eye saw the world at a 90o angle.
His new book will be called War Paint.
Check out some of the photo's he has so far and see if you can pick out the famous warrior in there. I was able to help a bit getting him pointed at some Vet groups, and he has more trips coming up for War Paint.
My own tattoo has faded away, as red ones tend to over time...and dorsal male pornography wouldn't be appropriate anyway.
She: Walk the dog with me, I don't like to walk in the dark on a Saturday in the Summer.
Sucker: I'm not much protection in my present state.
She: That's OK, you can fall on them.
Nice to know I still have value. Leave it to a wife to remind you of it.
I need to rest.
We had my 16 year old going on 30 granddaughter this past week.
New Hope, Boardwalk, Fireworks, Mall, Pool, Ocean, Where is She now?, Pool, Boardwalk, Mall, Fishing, Fireworks in the Yard, I'm Hungry, Aren't there any Boys in this Neighborhood, Crabbing, My iPod Died, Where the Hell is She Now, Take me for Ice Cream, No you can't use my work laptop to get on MySpace, I Lost a Fishing Hook in the Back Yard, Miniature Golf...
I love you Grandpa
Yeah, you can come down for another week later in the Summer.
So my grand-dotter drops her ipod. It's actually the one thing she has taken care of for an amazing 3 years. The hold button gets stuck and it locks the device up.
Banging it on a table didn't help (Hey, I'm a guy - try percussive repair first), so I took it apart and reconnected all the little bits that had become separated when she dropped it. I didn't even know you could take them apart - but it was coming apart whether or not it wanted to anyway.
I notice that I am a hero. For the moment.
I let this face recognition software check out my picture, and give me comparisons to 'famous' people.
Robin Williams 73% (Used-to-be funny comedian)
Ang Lee 72% (Rikes)
Yitzhak Rabin 71% (Israeli politician)
Sergei Bubka 70% (Ukrainian pole vaulter)
Roman Polanski 68% (Director and Rapist)
Francis Crick 68% (of DNA fame)
Greg Bear 68% (SciFi author)
Mikis Theodorakis 68% (Greek composer)
Sir Edmund Hillary 67% (Mountain climber)
Edsger Dijkstra 66% (Computer guru)
J Robin Warren 66% (Nobel Pathologist)
Hugh Hefner 66% (Double Yikes)
Marco van Basten 61% (World Cup Soccer coach)
Jackie Chan 61% (Triple Rikes)
Magic Johnson 61% (Quadruple Yikes)
Bobby Charlton 60% (World Cup Soccer player)
Some pertinent notes:
I am not Chinese
I am not Black
Younger I looked like Richard Dryfus in Jaws and now I look like Dick Chaney in terminator.
My wife scans as Sally Field (68%), Kathleen Turner (54%), with Julianna Marguiles, Miranda Richardson, Susan Sarandon (Gak - divorce), and Blake Lively as lesser matches.
She actually always reminded me of Sally Field in Gidget.
Obviously this program is crappola for men and fairly accurate for women. My wife agreed with the female renditions, but knows I don't look anything like Robin Williams...the terminator picture got an agreeful laugh out of her.
My daughter came out as 75% Scarlett Johansson, 71% Eliza Dushku (from Buffy), Elle Macpherson, Jennifer Aniston, and a bunch of other starlets.
Thru Xavier's Thoughts, I find that one of my old students is getting quite a bit of play lately.
Kyle is the author of Armed America: Portraits of Gun Owners in Their Homes - Krause Books.
He is a character. One night at his place we all got serenaded by his didjeridu while drunkenly celebrating his acquisition of a mainframe computer for his home - a large gray box sitting in the middle of his living room due to the lack of space elsewhere. Half the college faculty of the Annenberg Center showed up. I always wondered if his wife was going to paint it to match the walls.
Even back then he had published graphic novels - my favorite being a short 'sin city' type effort using Barbie. It doesn't go well for poor Barb.
From Cowboy Blob comes....
We will be driving to rural upstate New York for family business in the AM Wednesday. Be back Thursday evening.
I built some Almond Pecan Danish Kringles tonight in between wrapping, etc. They've got too many death pellets in them for me to eat one, but apparently they were a hit. Not bad for a first try.
And a cartoon from R. Crumb that pretty much captures our family Holiday dinners....close, but he left out a few types of nutbunnies.

The meal was wonderful. Our holiday tradition is for Roast Beast. I think this is my wife's favorite recipe as you can cut this thing with a sharp remark. We cook two beasts - one for those who show up on Christmas Eve, and another for those who are still here on Christmas afternoon. There was literally one inch of Kringle left - even with it competing with two types of cheese cake and pecan pie. I have been honored by a request from the wife to make it for a New Years Eve party we are trekking off to...believe me, that's a first. We also make several vegetarian entrée for those who require it, but they change every year - and are supplemented by noodles, stuffing, veggies, and the like.
Presents were exchanged with great anticipation and everyone did just fine. I kept up my 10 year tradition of giving the kids something useful for avoiding becoming prey - and I'm already thinking crossbows for next Christmas.
Now for the wrapping...
Update: Gaaaa, will it never end?
They also got her an amp, so it was a bit noisy for a while....
She kept her energy level up most of the day, and got a bit pooped out at the end. What a doll.
The food was catered by Famous Dave's....ribs to die for. A good time was had by all.
Clipped a car, but no one was hurt.
Apparently it got tangled in the sign it was trolling along the beach. Another one came down on the lawn of the middle school the same day.
The sky is falling.
The neighbor is putting a 'for sale' sign on a late model SUV.
The neighbor's daughter just got divorced and wanted to sell her car for what she owed on it. A red 2004 Blazer with 20K milage, trailer package, auto 4x4, and full length side step rails, and 18 months left on the bumper to bumper warrentee....$12,000. They were $18 - 19,000 with 50K milage at the dealers...with no extras.
I bought it on the spot.
Not only do I have an SUV back (I miss my Trooper), but it'll piss off the extreme tree-huggers. Oh, and I've got wheels again that can carry this...the Buick was havin' none of it.

