Monday, August 14, 2006

A Simpler Time

A Fan Of All The Ladies
Who? Me? Oh, right, I was going to tell you about my weekend. Friday evening, just like every other day, I rode the train home from the office. A handsome devil such as myself can never go long without attracting the attentions of some winsome lasses. It wasn't until I made quite a show of bawling out the foreign red-cap you see behind me their that these three stopped eyeing my rugged visage. There's not much in this world that a few well placed profanities at someone whose different won't take care of.
Pee-Shaw
Whilst watering the lawn, the mailman paid me a visit. That son of a bitch got bawled out as well. Delivering the mail at six o'the clock like that. He did bring me an invitation to a neighborhood cook-out, however, so I stopped short of turning the hose on him.

That Bucktoothed Neighbor Kid
I did, however, turn the hose on that bucktoothed little scamp that lives next door. Shouting and carrying on like that over sugared confections. The gathering of neighborhood children did remind me that it was time to pick the children up from their extra-curricular activities at the academy.
Crossing Gaurd Feely McGrabberson
I arrived just in time to see Crossing guard Feely McGrabberson attempting to "help" the children across the street. The smarmy old bastard didn't stop winking at the children the whole time I was shouting at him about his choice of "hand signals."
The Big Game
After a large dinner of steak, and several glasses of scotch, the misses and I retired to the bedroom for a round of what I call "The winner of the big game." I don't know who took this picture of us, but I'll shoot the fop if I catch him peering through my bedroom window again.
Grams
The children's grandmother, and her "special friend" Hattie drove in Friday afternoon to watch the children while we were away at the barbecue. Judging by the speed at which they entered the driveway, it's about time to adjust the old gammer's medications again.
The Children Watch Television
When we left, the children were settled in to watching their stories on the television. I took a photograph - I was so proud to see junior enraptured by the killing of indigenous Americans, just like his old man. Filthy savages.
Sweet Ride
After a short drive of a few blocks in the trusty precision velocipede, we arrived at the much anticipated cook-out. That thirsty machine went through nearly a quarter of gallon of gas in the three or four hundred yards we traveled. It's a good thing our great country has more than enough fuel to last through the times of our grandchildren's grandchildren!

Silly Pig.
As we parked the car, some silly constable of the peace ran up and shouted at me for parking in the wrong zone, or somesuch. "I pay taxes, good sir, I shall park on the side of the public street anywhere I want." I told him. "Hmmm, smells like old Jim is barbecuing some pork chops!"
Hooray For Beer
I had the house boy bring in my contribution to the evening's repast. Nothing like a tall, cool, high-quality macrobrew from the good old U S of A to go along with some delicious smoked meats! There's no beer from strange, foreign lands served in my neighborhood - who knows what goes into that horse urine! Barbecuing
"So I said, 'Bill, you sallow cad, of course it was MY hand.'" The barbecue was a complete success - a good time was had by all, as is to be expected after eating so much good red meat.
Get Your Date Drunk
And, finally, a tip to my fellow gentleman. Not only are delicious American beers a welcome addition to any cook-out's menu, give a few to your spouse in the privacy of your own home. Many a game of "The winner of the big game" can be started in this fashion!
I hope you chaps and lasses had a pleasant weekend as well!

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

This Is The Last Of Them, I Promise!

Finally, pictures from our narrow loss to Syracuse...

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Damn that guys long arms! I think I won one of our line outs, and maybe put a hand on two of theirs - aka shitty winning of the ball from Brandon.
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Here I am, seen at the bottom of a ruck. I wonder if this is where I got my hand stamped on...

More Rutland Pics

All pictures in this post and the next are graciously stolen from the ADE. Click the link to see more team/tournament pics.

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Much better lineout pics. The guy gripping my creamy thighs is "Uncle" David Gregoire.

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And one from a distance.

Is This Too Much?

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Hopefully, he's following the ball...
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Intensely eyeing the opposition, or doing the peepee dance?
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Dishing the ball to a teammate...

Good Eye, Good Eye!

From the front page of the Adirondack Daily Enterprise:

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Nice picture, but why is that guys wiener hangin' out? You don't need your penis to play rugby...

Monday, August 07, 2006

I'm A Man Who Discovered The Wheel And Built The Eiffel Tower Out Of Metal And Brawn. That's What Kind Of Man I Am.

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You're damn straight about that!

This last weekend was the 33rd annual CanAm Rugby Tournament, right here at home (er, Saranac lake - close enough). Which mostly just means that I got the hell beaten out of me more than at any other point this season. I have:

  • A sore neck
  • A sun burn
  • No feeling in the last two fingers of my right hand
  • More bruises than I can count


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It's much deeper in color (and I'm less hairy) in person.

That bruise is actually a result of our match a week ago against Rutland. Part of my knee swelled up just after the match, went away by the following morning, then the bruise started to appear. Doesn't hurt, much. Here's us vs. Rutland:

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The gentleman seen reffing in that picture is Terry, one of our player/coaches/old boys. He called a great, flowing game. Hands in the ruck? Offside? No problem. As long as both teams were bending the rules equally, play was allowed to continue.

Here's some shots from CanAm:
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I'm second one in the line out, tape around my ears. At this point, I had two good lifters, so when I jumped, I soared. And I was safe. Earlier in the game, the guy that was my second lifter EFF'ING DROPPED ME. Six feet in the air, make the catch, then flat on my back. I threw a punch at the dumb-ass as I was getting up.
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This is from the Plattsburgh paper - the guys in green are the second team we played. The black guy was about 6'4", 270. I only had to hit him once (he was a freaking center - which means not only was he big, but he had wheels), and I managed to knock him out of bounds so he couldn't score a second try. Okay, I did have some help with that...
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The boy got to play some touch rugby...I should have some more (and hopefully better) pictures of this tomorrow.

Finally, apparently my dad got the head from my brother's latest deer back from the taxidermist. Take a look at my parents living room.
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I think they should put up some knotty pine trim and furniture, get a couple of throne like chairs and some beer steins, and make it look like an authentic Bavarian hunting lodge. They'd have to move the treadmill, too.

I'll be back tomorrow with some more pictures, and some more inane chatter.

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And then something went terribly awry...

Thursday, August 03, 2006

OK Go - Here It Goes Again

I'd never heard this band before. Heard of, but not heard. But tell me, is this not one of the best ideas for a music video ever? Simplicity wins the day once again.

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Heartache Is A Bitch, But You Know What's Worse? Catching Fire While Barbecuing Drunk...It's No Contest.

No one but Peter has been blogging lately, and I've been spending many busy hours parked at my trusty FACSVAntage SE, going out of my skull because:
  1. I have a hard time getting into a book at work.
  2. I don't know.
So here's some BS.

Go to IMDB.com, look up Thomas Cruise Mapother III's biography, then laugh your ass off.

My favorite:
"While filming Days of Thunder (1990) at Daytona International Speedway, he enjoyed playing football with the truck drivers. He was the receiver - he loved going deep to catch a pass."

Then read this, and realize that young people might be smarter than we give them credit for. And the school board in Indiana might be dumber than we give them credit for. (It was Indiana, right?).

Then look at my pictures:
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It's a damn shame that this doesn't happen in his crib, between the hours of 8pm and 7am, more often than it does.
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Ma wife gots me some purdy wine glasses what're made outta some antlers. Did I marry well, pa?
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Connor, aka "PoopTooth", eats an oreo.

BTW - if you google "Pooptooth," among all the bad things, you come up with this gem. Here.
Visit the gallery in that link...

Monday, July 24, 2006

You Tubery

Does doing it this way work better? I don't know about this.



Watch past Mariah's shit to get to the good stuff. All I have to say is - Who Knew?
Star Wars on a Banjo

Amazing. Turn up your speakers, then dance around like a crack addicted hill billy, then cry at what a nerd you are for liking this as much as you do.

Shut Uppa You Face

Another weekend - did B accomplish much? Lets see...

Saturday, I played a whopping 4 hours of video games with the boy. It was raining, so we couldn't do the fishing that we wanted to. So to spend time with Ethan, I dulled my brain to point of it leaking out of my ears with hours of Halo2.

Sunday, I cut my hair (no time for a real haircut, and, hey, it's summer):
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Then I cut the boy's - he pulls off the short look far better than I:
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And then, since we now have a spare set of clippers, I cut the dog's hair:
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Turns out, he's afraid of the camera so not a great picture showcasing the new 'do.

Clipping the dog was...Interesting. And I'm not completely done with it. My first thought? Woah - it's like cheering sheep. Once I trimmed of the outer hair, the underfur was fuzzy, soft, dense, and white. So he's a different color now. My second thought? If I'm strategic about this, I can make my dog look like a lion...

Monday, July 17, 2006

Weekend Recap - Oops, I Crapped My Pants

Friday night saw me celebrating my recent promotion by blowing a good chunk of the associated raise on dinner with my lovely wife. We went to this little place on Upper Saranac called the Wawbeek. Fantastic duck, and the guitar player even mashed out some Neil Diamond for me.

Saturday saw mowing, getting fed by Cindy at her place of employment, then picking up the last of the crap that the roofer failed to take care of. I really can't complain though. Bombing stuff off of the roof and seeing how many pieces of wood I could get to stick up out of the ground from that height was kind of fun.

Sunday, Cindy and I drove Simon and his wife, Heather, and a dog named Woofit down to the Newark airport so they could all leave for the greener pastures of Porto, Portugal. Pretty pleasant drive, and I got the closest to NYC I've ever been. The skyline is kind of a cool thing to see, even for a city hating simpleton like myself. That also means that in the last month, I've visited three states and two provinces that I'd never been to before. Neat.

Lets see if I accomplish anything much this weekend.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Round Two

Okay. Finish this up. So last weekend was Montreal then Ottawa. Montreal. Quebec. One province in Canada that, for some unknown reason speaks almost exclusively French. It would be like going to the Midwest to discover that they speak ONLY German. Makes no sense, and they're complete dickheads about it (for the most part - we did run into one or two nice people that REALLY helped us out). On top of being strangers in a strange land, the car battery shit the bed the second day we were there, so we had to seek out a car part store in this land of the frogs. Turns out that it's "Car Pieces" in French, and the guy at Monsieur Muffler was very nice, once we found them, and really helped me out. The other people we talked to before we found them? Not so much.

That taken care of we made it to the bio-dome, which I'll have to find pictures for later, but was a lot of fun; and the Jardin Botanic - Botanical Gardens to you and me, which had an insectarium. Also a good time.

Ottawa - a much nicer, friendlier city, that might have less to do but has a better attitude about doing it. I played in four rugby games Saturday and one Sunday and now have a) A deep, dark tan in those areas not covered by my kit and b)A hip that won't support my weight when I do certain things. But we played well, taking second place in our division, and I even got the lovely wife away form the kids for a few hours one night.


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Canadian Parliament - we took pictures at night as well, when I was along, but those must not have come out so well.
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Parliament. I think this is looking across the canal.
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I tol' that woman "Woman, ya better not be takin no pictures of me," and lookit wha' she did.
Or.

Brandon after a full days rugby, a stomach's worth of delicious Indian cuisine, and about three (expensive, damn, Ottawa) beers.
This, too, is looking out across the Canal. Or the Ottawa River, home of ...oh, nevermind.
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Ethan, shown here with his great-uncle Fugganon.
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The little one models his swimming dipe at the community pool (I was at the pitch when this was going on).

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Iranian women ruggers. In Burkhas. How cool is that?

I demand you go see Keith and his awesome slideshow that showcases a few of the great things about Washington (Those pictures are nowhere near Seattle).

Then go check out this guy's microscopic slideshow. Ticks? Really? But fluorescent stuff...I know a bit about that...

Then read this, and wonder why everyone can't be as friendly as the Baha'i (who also encourage their followers to learn Esperanto!).

According to sitemeter, I have had several people doing GIS searches and looking at my enigmatic Santos guy. Why? Because he is Santos.

Finally, a tear for Syd Barrett (Read that if you've got the time - it's long - the telepathy stuff trips me out a little). I'll meet everyone at the planetarium with some blotter for a remembrance...

I just farted.

Three Simple Words: I Am Gay

At least, that's what I told the military recruiters. They didn't seem to care, though.

Well now, since last we spoke I've been a tit bit busy. Went to Montreal. Discovered why no one likes the French. Went to Ottawa and played a lot of Rugby. My supervisor, Simon, has left the employ of The Institute to seek better things in Portugal, so right now I'm flying solo in my lab. So far so good but wait until something major breaks, I've got a Post-Doc screaming at me, and a sugar crash because I didn't have time for lunch, and I'm sure I'll be found in the corner with the lights dimmed, sobbing gently to myself. Was that a run on sentence? Here's a picture of Simon:
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The only thing I ever did with the machine that's in the picture is scavenge it's old, dead corpse for parts before throwing it out.

Remember the road trip to Maine and the New Hampshire for some learnin' and some ruggers I mentioned a while back? Cindy finally helped me (the delay is my fault, not hers - she's to thank for throwing these pictures up!) get some pictures flickred, which I present now, for your boredom.
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A little rock play, while the young one shouts "Baby!" over and over.
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Geez, ya try to share the OxyContin with the kids, and the party just stops. Amateurs.
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That gay joke earlier? After looking at this picture...
Note the Hound of the Baskervilles and awesome Dodge Neon rental car in background.

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I think this is just before (or after) my buddy Shawn (Captain America in the picture) and I stopped the other team's maul (our forwards are brutes), then Shawn told one of the meatheads he was fat. God bless ye, Shawn.
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I really can't be seen at all in the scrum from this angle/distance, I'm packed in there somewhere pushing.

I've gotta take this opportunity to complain about digital cameras. They're great in most respects, but you just can't shoot action with them at all. Too much delay - you miss the good stuff photographically.

I see that Cindy's busy putting up more pictures (of Montreal and Ottawa, I think), so I'll post/ramble some more later today as well.