Recently in Family and Friends Category

.
Home and Safe.

With Pictures...

Don't forget to take a lot of 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.

Today is my 37th Anniversary.
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.

...and my granddaughter is revving her engines.

What a summer it's going to be.

My granddaughter had a homework assignment tonight that was to interpret the lyrics of any song she chose. In effect, to analyze poetry.

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.

A1C test (3 month blood sugar level) = a bit below 6
LDL = 110
HDL = 47
BP OK as always
Stroke symptoms receding slowly (too slow for me)
No other problems.

Wrapping Gifties for wife, 3 kids, 2 main squeezes, one daughter-in-law, and one grand-daughter...stretching from the tube to the end of the piano. Not including 8 stockings stuffed with gag-gifts and weird stuff. (Plus 2 extra stockings that are for me and the dog - a telling comparison).





...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 90^o 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?

The advantage to having children in your early twenties, and grandchildren in your mid 40s is that you get to go to Sweet Sixteen parties for your grandchildren while you still have your own teeth. I've got yuppie friends my age who have kids just hitting 16. What a nightmare that has to be. We received a lot of abuse about getting married young and having children so early (I had three by 28 - the wife was 24)...

...but my house has been empty now for years. Who's sorry now?

Off we go. Pictures when we get back...

The school that Abbey goes to has been ravaged by the flu to the point where teachers were barfing up in the halls and everyone was wearing surgical masks. We weren't quite sure if she would feel well enough for a party, but she decided to gut it out. I mean, presents and all....

We got her clothes, jewelry matching what she always borrows from my wife, more jewelry, a jewelry box, and some other stuff. She got a freakin' ton of her favorite Estee Lauder makeup types from my daughter, perfume, and from her parents....

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.

My wife can't stop. She paints, sculpts, papers, sews, molds, bends, folds, staples, and mutilates. She's in the middle of completely refinishing the bedroom set - one piece at a time. I have to admit it's coming out pretty cool. So to take a break, she took this $3 garage sale clock and turned it into this. Believe me, in my house it's dangerous to sit in one place too long. You'll get improved.

My granddaughter gifted me with a book of Poems. The 100 Best Poems of All Time Edited by Leslie Pockell I thought I would share one with you. Waiting for the Barbarians Constantine P. Cavafy (1863-1933) Cavafy speaks franky to readers, expressing themes of political irony. What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum? The barbarians are due here today. Why isn't anything happening in the senate? Why do the senators sit there without legislating? Because the barbarians are coming today. What laws can the senators make now? Once the barbarians are here, they'll do the legislating. Why did our emperor get up so early, and why is he sitting at the city's main gate on his throne, in state, wearing the crown? Because the barbarians are coming today and the emperor is waiting to receive their leader. He has even prepared a scroll to give him, replete with titles, with imposing names. Why have our two consuls and praetors come out today wearing their embroidered, their scarlet togas? Why have they put on bracelets with so many amethysts, and rings sparkling with magnificent emeralds? Why are they carrying elegant canes beautifully worked in silver and gold? Because the barbarians are coming today and things like that dazzle the barbarians. Why don't our distinguished orators come forward as usual to make their speeches, say what they have to say? Because the barbarians are coming today and they're bored by rhetoric and public speaking. Why this sudden restlessness, this confusion? (How serious people's faces have become.) Why are the streets and squares emptying so rapidly, everyone going home so lost in thought? Because night has fallen and the barbarians have not come. And some who have just returned from the border say there are no barbarians any longer. And now, what's going to happen to us without barbarians? They were, those people, a kind of solution.

Son Jesse of wild adventure fame told me yesterday that the Marines had contacted him... "Wanna come back?" I don't think so. Working as a netadmin for Princeton has it's advantages.

A busy weekend of family obligations with some interesting highlights. We drove up north for a housewarming at my nephew's new home. Nice place...Designed for outdoor living and parties. They're a young couple without children yet so that's to be expected. Damn tho, they're paying more just in property taxes than I am for a mortgage and taxes. Jersey is a nearly impossible state to get started in...Stay away. On Sunday I went to the indoor range with the visiting Justin and Amanda, Jesse and Kim drove in from Princeton and went to the same range as we did but later in the day...We weren't able to hook up. They may be marginal moonbats, but I raised my kids to shoot and they've kept it up on their own. We had plans to run out to Fort Dix and work out the 30-30 and the AR but the weather didn't cooperate....Damn global warming. We took the marlin 1894 out to the indoor range with Justin's SAA's in .30 carbine and .45 colt along with the Makarov in .380. Interesting. Justin buys some reloads in .45LC from his local shop and the first time he tries to use them they drop straight thru the cylinder on his SSA. Turns out they were .44 Special reloads in a .45 LC box....That was one pissed off Okie. He had to buy a box of that stuff at $26 for 50...geeese. Dirty rounds too...He was always surrounded with smoke when he was shooting them. As soon as Amanda touched the Marlin, she decided she was in luv with it...Not unexpected. First time she grabs it she starts cutting the forehead out of a Q target. As the Marlin is going to Jesse, I have the sneaking suspicion I'm going to have to buy two more...One for me and one for Amanda. Damn that's a nice little carbine. I had one annoying jam with the Makarov, but it occurred when I released the slide (using the thumb release on the frame) to put a round into battery. It was fine when you jacked the slide by hand, and there were no failures to feed during firing. That's the first glitch I've had with that pistol in 3000 odd rounds. But that one jam locked the slide and the mag, so it was hard to clear. A busy weekend with lots of time in the car and not enough sleep. Oh well, I can always sleep at work.

and where my daughter likes to eat when she visits. 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.

Last Tuesday morning I woke up with a lump. Seein' I just had my yearly physical, and it appeared overnight, I figured it wasn't too serious...but it was still a lump. I figured a hernia altho generally one has to actually exert oneself to get a hernia and I'm not a charter member of the comfy-chair commando for nothin'. After living with it for a few days, without pain, It started getting sore...but didn't act like a hernia. Off to the doctor on Friday...(my first instinct is always to guts it out, rub dirt in it, grit my teeth, and be a Marine). That drives my wife crazy. It turned out to be abscess probably caused by a combination of a hot night, sleeping neckid on top of the sheets with the windows open, and an insect bite. Fucker got big...like 3 or 4 grapes under the skin. My doctor took one look (did the standard cough thing) and pronounced me abscessed (obsessed? - possessed?}. A soak in a hot tub brought it to a head and it drained away...antibiotics needed for a week ($90 bucks for 15 pills, thank you). I have been bit, beaten, battered, broken, stabbed, cut, and diced. I've got pins in my body and a shoulder held together by wire. I've lived a sheltered monastic life and still have a dozen scars on my hands and another dozen on my body. I've swallowed bees and got a wasp sting caught in my shirt and it let me have it in my armpit. Jersey mosquitoes have been known to sting thru concrete...and I can roll in Poison Ivy without getting a rash. One crummy little insect bite had me all swollen and crazy. I guess getting old makes all the aches and insults seem a bit more serious. Intimations of mortality and all that crap.

The wife's Buick is wacked...transmission shot, window cracked, and overheating. More to fix than I paid for it. 120,000 miles in two years on a '92 as a commuto-box was a bit too much for it. We started first by checking out the dealers, and I pretty much decided on a late model mid-sized SUV. My wife liked a Honda CR-V we looked at (for the color), but at $17,000 for a '02 with 98K miles on it...I was beginning to think about '92 commuto-boxes again for less than $2,000. Then we took the dog for a walk and as we rounded the corner.... 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.