Manjoyment Monday: Yeah Tiberius

This weekend my sister and I got got home to find my father in the driveway unloading his car. What had he bought himself?

A Bluray player.

What two movies did he come home with on Bluray?

The Mummy Trilogy and the new Star Trek, which I have never seen. So in honor of that, please enjoy some Chris Pine:


From sweetheart prince wannabe to Captain James Tiberius Kirk, he's just so beautiful.

No one believed me that Winona Ryder played Spok's mom but I was vindicated during the credits. And I must say although a creeper as Sylar in Heroes, Zachary Quinto does a fantastic job as Spok, honestly.

Now can someone explain to me how they managed to completely re-write Star Trek from the beginning with one movie? Did anybody get it? How do we get to there from here?!

Dance Party Friday: Happy Black Friday!

There is a possibility I might have to work today. I haven't worked retail on a Black Friday in two years. Hopefully it isn't as bad as I imagine it might be.

But please enjoy this clip of Monica from Friends dancing with a turkey on her head:



Happy Friday! And Happy Long Weekend!

Turkey Pardoning

In the words of my brother Dan, "The air smells of tasty smelling smells!"

Happy Thanksgiving!

Now I'm going to go watch the parade!

Please enjoy this clip from The West Wing, and consider to skip the turkey like I do every year.

"I'll marry you Puckman!"

Ever since my first hockey game at RPI, I've been hooked.

I seriously just can't get enough of Puckman. I realize this is probably one of my most ridiculous loves, but he's just such an adorable mascot in a ridiculous way. He's a puck, with the RPI bullet as a body, and an engineer's hat as a head. That's it. Plain and simple.

But I LOVE him!

I also love the Zamboni. It's probably one of my favorite parts of the hockey game. For a long time my dream was to ride the Zamboni in the Puckman costume. Quite a lofty dream if you ask me.

This weekend PC's theme was Celebrity Jeopardy. Instead of Sean Connery and the inevitable "Penis mightier" joke the Celebrities were Puckman, Shirley J, and a Girl. When Nick told me this I almost wet myself with excitement...James HAD the Puckman costume on loan from the Athletics Department. From that moment on it became my mission to get inside it and take photos and videos of myself doing my best Puckman impression.

After sound check we were wandering around backstage (because you know as PC alums we're allowed to do whatever we want if we bring snacks), and there he was, face down on a desk in the warm-up room.

Giddy as a school girl I ran over to one of the n00bs and merely said as I threw my camera at her, "It is my dream to be inside that thing!" And ran over to pull the costume over my head. She snapped away some photos and even took a video of me doing Puckman's signature move, the crowd cheer competition.

Dreams really do come true!!!

Afterward I legitimately introduced myself to the n00bs, all of whom didn't think it was odd of me at all to run in and attack the Puckman costume. The n00bs are great and I'm so excited to see the group thrive on its own!

Truly...
My Life = COMPLETE

Now all I have to do is ride a Zamboni!

(1st photo borrowed from smelikian's flickr)

The Lulu Saga: NEVER ENDS!

After an utterly amazing weekend enjoying the PC Show, and the PC Kid's company, as well as making new friends with some WPI guys from Simple Harmonic Motion...I woke up this morning dreading going to work just because I was still exhausted from the after party Saturday night. (Yeah, we started drinking at 4pm on Saturday, and yeah, I'm not in college anymore so I need a full day to recover apparently.)

I get into Lulu and turn the key...*click click click click click* and the dash board does it's own rendition of a light switch rave.

Battery = Dead.

My Dad's away on business so he suggests calling our local mechanic to come around the corner and jump the car and check the battery connections. Gene saves the day and I load Lulu's trunk with some jumper cables (just in case) and drive off to work.

But seriously? They righted Lulu's windshield wipers but didn't connect the battery correctly?! WILL THIS EVER END?!?!

So now I have to make another phone call to the dealership and I'll probably have to drop the car off again and I just want to scream at this point.

(P.S.-Although I'm old and can't party like I used to, James MADE MY LIFE this weekend. Photos and explanation to follow...)

Manjoyment Monday

Back in my college days one of my roommates Belinda posted a new b&w picture of a super sexy guy every Sunday night on our apartment door.

Even though we were upperclassmen we lived in an apartment that shot off from a freshman residence hall, so please understand that the first floor (where we lived) was entirely populated by freshmen boys, and some of them didn't realize women lived on their floor. Needless to say, they were always confused as to why so many images of hot sexy men kept on popping up on a door that they thought freshman dudes lived behind.

So every Monday morning on my way out the door I got a glimpse of a new hottie.

To continue that tradition, I will institute Manjoyment Monday. And without further ado...

Uh...yeah I'm Team Jacob. Don't judge!

No, I didn't go to see a midnight showing. And no, I'm not a crazed fan. But seriously, these men are hot!

Dance Party Friday

I'm not sure how many of you work full time jobs but for those of you who have the dreaded 9-5s (or in my case 7:30-4:00), the week definitely drags on.

So when Friday comes, it's time to celebrate!!!

My friend Ashley (of trashy novel swapping fame) usually posts a ridiculous dance party every week. I have to admit, I look forward to Dance Party Friday. It gives me a good little giggle to start the day off with.

Here's one in celebration of New Moon's release:

ORANGE MOCHA FRAPPUCCINOS!!!

In other news, I'm headed back up to Albany/Troy this weekend. If you're in the area, you should totally come to the PC Show Saturday night! Be there or be L7!

I realize, I'm ridiculous

For a few days this week my good friend Matty was in the city on business. Since I had work at the beebeedubbs Monday night we decided to do dinner last night instead.

So Matty, the Beaner and I hopped into the newly (and finally) fixed Lulu and grabbed some dinner. But oh look, the Swan Princess soundtrack was still in Lulu's player...so Julibean and I serenaded Matt. Yeah, that's right, we sang to him until he could almost figure out the words himself and sing along too!

But *gasp* Matty had never seen the Swan Princess! So after our early bird dinner (yeah, we're old ladies now) we went back to our house and sat him down and put in the most fabulous movie ever.

I'm serious people, long before he was ever transformed into a frog in Shrek, John Cleese was a French frog in the Swan Princess named Jean-Bob. And he is hilarious! Plus I'm thinking Jean-Bob might be an excellent name for a dog, but I digress.

As the plot unraveled Matt had a few choice comments. When the evil Lord Rothbart appears Matty exclaimed, "There's nothing scarier than a handle bar moustache!"

Later, when Derek and Odette are finally reunited under the pale moonlight and have their first kiss in a long time: "That's kissing with partially open lips...are we sure the children should be watching this?"

I love you Matty, especially since you sit through 2-D animations I love without even a second thought!

If you don't go out and rent the Swan Princess and watch it, "I'll have you whipped, flogged, put on the rack and have your back legs fried in butter!!"

I suck at life

I am literally the worst blogger in existence right now. I swear, I'll be better...in fact I'm working on some back-posts right now which include:

1. An actual wedding recap.
2. A washed out Halloween
3. The Lulu Saga
4. My first casino experience
5. The inevitable continuation of the Lulu Saga
6. An engagement party (complete with sing-alongs)
7. A dinner/movie date with the gbf

So that's a whole lot I need to start catching up on...and then some.

The Lulu Saga...still utterly ridiculous

When last we left, Lulu's windshield wipers were wired backwards. (Wow, try saying that five times fast.)

I dropped my car off at my local dealership. First off let me just toss out here Hassett Subaru is awesome. If you are in the market for a new Subaru, check them out, their customer service is excellent and we've (my Dad, my Mom, myself and my cousin) bought/leased new Subes from them this year and we couldn't be happier.

Anyway, I drop my car off Monday morning explaining that another body shop completely dropped the ball and made this ridiculously hilarious mistake that only would happen to me! The service guy chuckles a little (I mean wouldn't you?) and tells me it should only be an hour's worth of labor.

"Great", I tell him, "the other body shop is paying for it."

I call Tom, the manager of the body shop at Mr. G's and he tells me he'll call and give Hassett billing information so I don't have to worry about charging things...because we all know how that turned out...

Get to Hassett after work (the upside to all this is I get to carpool with my Dad and conversation is always well above par in addition to the fact I get to drive my Dad's Legacy Turbo which is incredible) and low and behold...of course the original body shop fails me again.

Seriously guys?

Had to charge the hour of labor on my own credit card and fax the receipt over to Tom the next day. (Reminder to self: double check he got the fax and has sent reimbursement check.)

First thing I do when I get into Lulu is check to make sure all the fluids are coming out the right place (wow that sounded wrong), and hooray! She's back to new!

...how long did this all take?!

Good morning Baltimore!

In case I hadn't mentioned it, my sister Julianne and her boyfriend Chris got engaged! Currently Chris is living outside of Baltimore while Julibean finishes out her first year of law school. She's looking to transfer to another DC/MD area school next year.

This past weekend was their engagement party down in the MD. Julibean and I packed into the newly fixed but still not perfect Lulu, and drove down. It was painful. I'm sorry New Jersey, but learn how to drive!

We finally made it into Maryland and to celebrate Julibean swapped a bunch of ridiculous cds into Lulu's 6-cd changer and I was shocked, but not all together surprised that she had chosen the Swan Princess soundtrack. Yes friends, I love the Swan Princess and a lot of other non-Disney animated movies! *gasp*

Our favorite tracks include the opening number: This is My Idea and Far Longer than Forever performed in all it's 90s glory by Jeffrey Osbourn and Regina Belle. I'm always the man in that duet. If you haven't heard this magical song, the best I can do for you is this video of the credits.

Anyway, when we finally got to Chris' apartment we enjoyed some good pizza, some good beer, and some good company as our friends began to pour in. It was a good night of frivolity, as you can see by the happy faces of Rich and Morgan as we played Uno Explode or whatever the Uno game is called where it spits cards at you.

The engagement party was also a great time. A bunch more of Julibean's friends showed up who happen to live in the Baltimore area or who were visiting family there that weekend. And since we had about 8 former PC Kids we even sang a few songs a cappella for Chris' grandparents.

The whole gang (minus Cynthia *sadface*)

All in all a great weekend, plus I got to see Jason since Baltimore is half way between Virginia and LI and that was simply wonderful!


I had to tack this last photo on at the end because Chris is the least photogenic person EVER and he actually looks pretty good in this shot!

The Lulu Saga...reunited

After a weekend without her. I finally heard back from the body shop on Monday. Lulu was all fixed and painted and they just needed to put her back together again. She would be ready for pick up on Tuesday.

Huzzah!

I quickly made plans to leave early from work Tuesday afternoon, jump on a train from my office into Penn and grab an Amtrak to Albany. Once there, Laura would pick me up, we'd retrieve Lulu, have dinner at Smokey Bones and I'd drive back home.

The best laid plans...

Since the body shop closes at 6pm on weekdays I asked the kind gentlemen to bring my paper work and keys up to the cashier on the sales floor because my train would be getting in at 5:45 and I didn't want to cut it too close. I seriously must have called the body shop six different times in a two hour period during the day to fax things over and make sure Chrissy's insurance company paid and all that jazz and at least two out of those six times I confirmed that my keys and paper work would be waiting for me on the sales floor.

Guess what wasn't there when I got to Mr. G's dealership at 6:10?

So we're explaining to the receptionist/cashier that I have to go back home to LI so I can get to work in the morning and that I was told everything would be set for me by the guys in the body shop. She makes a few calls and finds that even though it's only 10 minutes after quitting time the entire body shop is empty.

Well shit.

Finally she calls her manager and asks if there's anything he can do and to please come out and speak with me. Out strolls Mister G himself, the owner of all the dealerships along the strip. We explain the situation, he whips out his iPhone and starts calling the body shop manager and a few other guys to see if any of them can come back to the shop and get my poor little Lulu.

Eventually, after failing to reach anyone, Mr. G rolls up his monogrammed cuffs and breaks into his own body shop to retrieve my paper work and keys. Laura and I sit down and I help myself to some coffee, assuming it's going to be a really really long night.

In walks Mr. G carrying what looks to be my paper work! He shuffles through the pages and tells me that the insurance company hasn't paid yet. Well fuck. What in the hell am I supposed to do? He tells me to put the almost $3k on my credit card and he will hold onto the paper work personally and credit my account once they get the insurance check.

I have no choice but to charge it.

Eons later, I pull Lulu around next to Laura's pretty little Black Bitch (yeah that's right, we named her Sunfire the Black Bitch because she's oh so saucy), and we inspect the repairs in the dim-lit parking lot.

Other than the fact Lulu wreaks of nail polish, everything appears to be fine. We drive off in search of sustenance and after dinner I get back on the road to get home.

Around the Tappan Zee Bridge, I go to clean my windshield. No fluid comes out. Those fuckers, I think, they didn't refill my wiper fluid after they replaced the tank! Oh but no dear readers, NO! Those fuckers did indeed refill my tank, but what they didn't do was check the connections.

Yes, yes my friends...that's right. As I pushed the button to spray my windshield, the wipers did a happy little dry dance, and the fluid came out the back reservoir. Baffled I turned the knob to wash the back windshield and away the wipers went but the fluid sprayed on my front windshield.

WHO DOES THAT?!?!?!

Honestly.

Honestly, who else would this happen to but me? I seriously wish this were the end of the story...

Atlantic City or Bust

Months and months ago (sometime in May methinks) while we were at Chris' beach house we somehow came up with a large colossal idea. Our friend Jim is probably one of our best and closest friends from college (and when I say our I mean collectively my sister and I). He's an audiophile, brilliant, has a good job with a renown company, has a fantastic voice, an insane memory for roads and transportation systems, a sharp sense of humor and can imitate an irritated old lady perfectly. (If any of these qualities appeal to you, please inquire about dating Jim, he'd make an excellent boyfriend if you like nerdy guys.)

Playing mini golf on the strip...
this was when we decided AC would be a nice change from the OC

Problem is, now that we've all graduated we live so far apart and only get to see everyone together once in a blue moon. So we thought it would be a good idea to plan ahead and decide what we'd do for Jim's birthday in November. Somehow in our celebratory drunken wisdom we decided renting a suite in Atlantic City and dressing up and acting like high rollers would be the perfect way to go.

We put out some feelers to see who of our friends could join...this was back in June...and sometime in October we realized we're poor and can't afford a suite. So our plans switched gears and we wound up crashing at Jim's place in Philly and driving the hour to AC for the day.

Friday night found us in a pub a few blocks from Jim's apartment and we had a delectable dinner with a sprinkling of local beer. Might I interject here with a raving review for PBC's Joe, it is fantastic and if you are a fan of dark beers and/or coffee...TRY IT. We headed back after dinner, more friends arrived and then we took a nice stroll to a bar approximately 2 miles away from Jim's apartment. Hey, it was his birthday, I was going wherever he damn well wanted to go and SEPTA was on strike...again...so like responsible motorists we walked instead of flipping a coin to see who would DD.

Enjoyed another nice stroll approximately 2 miles back to Jim's apartment at around 3am. To which in the morning we all admitted "We're getting to old for this shit."

Saturday was the day! We decided to start off the day like true champs and have some Jim's. If you've never been to Philly, or have never had the pleasure of consuming a true Philly Cheesesteak in all it's glory, Jim's is truly the place to go. Don't be afraid if the line is down the block...it's worth the wait!

No it isn't cannibalism for Jim to eat a Jim's Steak.
But he likes his with extra wizz and onions if you're wondering ladies.

Morgan and Andrew chow'n down.

Then it was off to Atlantic City! I've actually never been there before, in fact it's on my 101 in 1001 list so I was super excited. We started over at the Trump Plaza and I was determined to lose no more than $40 for my first casino experience. Which limited me to the slot machines, err electronic gaming machines, the penny slots specifically.

I sat down at a fun looking machine and put in my first $20 and wailed away on the button! Too quickly for my friend Andrew to stop me since I had played the max bet on like 20 lines. *sadness* I had lost $5 on my first spin! Frustrated I printed out my ticket and moved on. How dare they not explain the rules of the game clearly before I play?!

Wandered on and watched Andrew play craps for a good half hour. The nice high school math teacher next to him at the table explained the rules to me and what the bets meant. As Andrew put it later he got me a $140 education. He wasn't so lucky.

Afterward I cashed out my $11.95 and we met up with everyone else who had gone over to Caesar's. Julibean and Chris (and one of Jim's friend whose name I cannot recall) were over by the penny slots and having a grand old time playing the fishy themed one.

I decided to try my luck at put $5 into the random machine next to my sister's. Now I was down to $2.45 on this ticket. We were about to give up, I was rather content with my ~$9 loss for my first experience...hey, it could be worse, I could have lost $140 at the craps table...and we soldiered on to find everyone else.

Except once we got to the aisle Julibean sat down at another machine, determined to either win big or just lose all her $40 she came to play with. Bored, I sat down at a cute little Hindu Goddess themed machine and decided to just throw my $2.45 ticket in and piss away the last of that $5.

This machine actually made sense and the pictures were really pretty and after two spins I found myself in a bonus round giving me 10 free spins. Woohoo! Exciting! I sat there watching the game literally play itself...woohoo! Another 5 free spins! The game continued and continued and I just sat and watched...$30.95....$49.45...$60.75!!!

At this point I had gotten my sister and Chris' attention and they came to see what all the fuss was about and were in awe as the game continued to play all by itself and rack up more and more money for me. By the end I was looking at $79.75 and immediately hit the cash out button and skipped over to the ATM/cash out contraption to grab my prize!

Seriously...it was awesome. I was the only one who walked away from AC with extra money, Jim broke even, and everyone else lost anywhere from $10-140. We drove back to Philly and had some dinner at Nodding Head which again had some excellent house beer (and one of the largest collections of bobble heads I've ever seen). I especially liked the Grog, delightfully dark, and the dessert we got Jim by surprise was one of the most delicious things he had never eaten.

Meandered after dinner to another pub with some live music (couldn't tell if the two front men were twins or just looked really really similar), and then eventually scampered back to Jim's apt.

These are the weekends dreams are made of...literally, it was that amazing a time.

The Lulu Saga...beginnings

If you haven't noticed by now, I give names to everything. Inanimate objects are my favorite things to name. The most popular things to name on my list are computers and cars...mostly because there are so many of both in my household.

My first car, The Tank was an '85 Ford Country Squire Station Wagon, complete with faux wood paneling. You're jealous, don't lie. The Tank is still around, it has literally become the garage meaning we drove it in and started piling things inside The Tank inside the garage. I have lofty plans of restoring The Tank come next year when it's technically a classic, but for now he waits, a sleeping giant.

My next car was the Hunter (seen in all his deliciousness right). Hunter is a 2000 Subaru Forester in, you guessed it, hunter green plus he has after-market wood detailing. I named him such after we found a rifle shell casing in the trunk that the detail guys missed. Hunter himself has been all penguined out and is still kicking around Virginia with Jason.

This year I bought a new car. A shiny black Subaru Outback Sport, when we first met I got inside, started the ignition and drove her off the lot. She said, "Hi, I'm Lulu!" To which I replied, "Hi Lulu, we're going to be good friends."

Lulu has been wonderful. She loves the snow and rain, has just enough trunk space for a long weekend getaway for two, and most importantly she's mine...all mine. I am very protective of Lulu, she is a lady after all and needs some taking care of. The Tank and Hunter were big gruff men and needed no tending to.

That being said, Lulu got her face knocked in, and I couldn't even be mad about it.

Let's jump back here a second. When I go up to Albany to visit my friends who are still living in the area after college, I typically spend most of my time with Laura and my now good friend Chrissy. Usually we park our cars at Chrissy's house and one of us volunteers to drive around town for the day. So I parked Lulu across the street from Chrissy's house in a little cut out near the dead end. This is where I always park when I'm at Chrissy's.

We have a fantastic evening and returned to Chrissy's house Sunday morning to go out together for breakfast. This is when a ridiculous series of events occurred within seconds of each other:

• We pile in Chrissy's car JeepJeep (yes she names her cars too)
• We're super excited and super hungry for breakfast
• Chrissy reverses out of her drive way
• Chrissy checks behind her to make sure the dog and little children haven't snuck out of the house
• JeepJeep comes to a screeching halt
• There is a violent shudder
• We all exchange glances thinking: wtf did we hit?!
• We all exchange glances realizing: shit, my car is back there!!!
• We all pile out of JeepJeep, Chrissy takes one look at Lulu and takes a minute by herself to tear her hair out
  

That being said, Lulu got her face knocked in, and I couldn't even be mad about it.

Chrissy is a ray of sunshine ALWAYS. I've seen the girl sad once in my life and within 10 minutes she's a ball of energy again. I love her dearly. Because of all of this and because of how horrible Chrissy felt, I couldn't be mad at her. In fact, all I could do was laugh.

There we stood, staring at Lulu with her headlight, bumper, and fender all mashed in...and all I could do was laugh!

After about a million phone calls (the least of which I wanted to make was the one to my father telling him my friend had hit my car in broad daylight accidentally), and with the help of Chrissy's Dad, we got Lulu's fender popped back out and zip-tied in place so I could drive the car over to the dealership and leave it to get taken care of. And then we had breakfast....well...lunch at this point.

Chrissy had to run off to work so Laura was kind enough to drop me off at the Poughkeepsie station so I could catch a cheap[er than Amtrak] train. So I finally get home after an hour in the car and a few hours on the Metro North train and another 40 minutes on the LIRR and my Dad meets me across the street from the station in the White Castle parking lot.

To put the icing on the cake, not only could I not be angry about my car being smashed and having to leave it in Albany for the week, but the backpack I borrowed from Laura to take on the trip home with me allowed my klean kanteen to slip out of the water bottle pouch on it. So that pissed me off a whole lot because I love my klean kanteen!

Tune in next time for another installment of the Lulu Saga!