Shoes, Ships, and Sealing Wax

Buy me a ticket on the last train home tonight

I've had the Simon & Garfunkel song Bookends going through my head this week.

Time it was
And what a time it was
It was
A time of innocence
A time of confidences
Long ago it must be
I have a photograph
Preserve your memories
They're all that's left you

I think it was prompted by the hockey game on Sunday, when the Capitals retired Mike Gartner's number, and when my sister and I were walking around the concourse, we ran into one of the guys who worked at the Capital Centre back in those days.

And of course there was the four-generation family Christmas party. The next day, I was talking to my brother and his girlfriend, and she asked who'd end up hosting the giant party when my grandmother no longer could. "Nobody," my brother and I said almost simultaneously.

And it's New Year's Eve.

And I'm turning 40 on Sunday. There are some people who make sound like I should be bothered by turning 40...oooooh, getting old.

After last fall, I'm happy to be getting old.

But there's still a sense of...damn, time sure is flying by. And sometimes I didn't even get a picture.

It was late in December
The sky turned to snow
All round the day was going down slow
Night like a river beginning to flow
I felt the beat of my mind
Go drifting into time passages

That's Al Stewart. Enjoy the lite rock soundtrack of my life, and happy new year.

I guess I'll exist in flashbacks and dream episodes

I can't play Mob Wars at work, so look what happens.

Oddly enough, even dead I was able to smuggle some liquor and buy a restaurant.

Why the dog hates Christmas

Every year...every flippin' year...some idiot thinks it would be cute to put a bow on my head.

When life gives you lemons

I just had one of those well...[darn] moments.

I took today off to cook for the holidays. I have a few things needing lemon juice, and since it is the holidays, I thought I'd be all gourmet about it and use fresh lemon juice instead of the bottled stuff. So I bought a bag of lemons.

I have just torn apart the kitchen looking for the juicer.

I even checked the china cabinet, hoping there was an antique juicer in Victor's Depression glass collection.

At this point I'm guessing that in one of my rare clean-out-the-kitchen phases, I got rid of the juicer because, c'mon, why would I juice a lemon when I can buy perfectly good lemon juice in bottles?

Talk about the gang that couldn't shoot straight

I still haven't opened The Sopranos box set (because I know that as soon as I do, all productivity will cease.)

I have, however, been playing a Facebook game called Mob Wars. I'm not a "gamer," and you can see why:

I punched myself in the face.

Paulie Walnuts didn't punch himself in the face. Even Brendan Filone didn't punch himself in the face.

I suck. Maybe seasons 3 through six will help.

Christmas traditions

I was listening to the Christmas music radio station today. I don't mind Christmas music, as long as it's in small doses and in December, but even in some of the classics, there are things I just don't understand.

For example, today I heard Andy Willams' Most Wonderful Time of the Year:

There'll be parties for hosting
Marshmallows for toasting
And caroling out in the snow
There'll be scary ghost stories
And tales of the glories of
Christmases long, long ago.

Who tells scary ghost stories for Christmas? In my experience, it's hard enough to get the kids to settle down and go to bed early, without creeping them out a la Halloween .

You heard it here first

There is a world-wide shortage of pickled red cabbage!*

(However, I found a jar in my pantry. Pickled food can't go bad, right?)

*Maybe there isn't a shortage, it's just that waiting until four days before Christmas Eve is not the time to buy what is apparently a Christmas Eve traditional food. I had no idea until I ran across this recipe, which prompted a little more Googling. So it is a Christmas staple. Makes sense, actually, since it is an actual winter vegetable, and the color is rather festive.

Maybe I had some subconscious notion of this when I planned my menu.

So I bought cole slaw, but it won't be the same

I've been eating red cabbage (the jarred kind) since I was a kid, and my mom never shopped anywhere but the local suburban supermarket. And while I've been known to make special trips to exotic specialty stores, I really wasn't planning on that between now and Christmas Eve, because everything I need for Christmas Eve is common and available at my local suburban supermarket. I planned it that way, because I. Don't. Need. More. Stress. In. My. Life. This. Week.

Red cabbage is now too exotic and special to be on the shelves of my local suburban supermarket(s). (I checked two chains in my neighborhood.)

They had beets, plenty of beets. They had sauerkraut. They had pickled asparagus, green and white.

I suppose I could learn to pickle my own red cabbage, but did I mention keeping my sanity by keeping this dinner easy? Now is not the week to play with pickling things.

Next stop: internet shopping.

White Christmas?

Scattered snow showers wouldn't be bad, I suppose. I hope it doesn't really snow--or ice, which is worse. I personally could spend the whole holiday weekend watching The Sopranos, but lots of people need to travel, and I always feel sorry for the salt truck and snow plow drivers who get called out to work on holidays.

Brotherly love

The family went to see my niece's ballet class do The Nutcracker this past weekend. This is a community ballet school, so there are kids from kindergarten through high school, and they don't throw kids out for lack of talent. (Which is good, I think. I was kicked out of chorus in sixth grade, which is a story for another day.)

Anyway, the kids were completely adorable, and it was the funniest production of The Nutcracker I've ever seen, although I'm not sure that was completely intentional.

I sat next to N₂ during the show. He is still learning to appreciate the arts, shall we say. He did enjoy the scene where the mice fight the toy soldiers (he was on the edge of his seat, literally), and at one point during either the Land of Snow or the Land of Sweets, he whispered to me "They are pretty good."

Afterward we waiting for N₁ to come out of the dressing room, and as soon as he saw his sister, N₂ practically shouted "I hated it!"

Any other reaction would have gone against all laws of nature, I suppose.

Story of the week

I was at the Caps game last night, and during the first period, they showed the backup goalie on the video board: Brett Leonhardt, making his NHL debut.

Ok, I'm not the hockey fan I used to be, but I still recognize most of the names of players in the system, and I didn't know his. But, first NHL game is first NHL game, so I clapped along with everybody else, and thought his slightly embarrased-looking smile was cute. The upside to all the injuries that are plaguing the Caps already this season is seeing kids get the dream-come-true chance to be playing in the big league.

So a bit later, when they showed Simeon Varlamov on the bench (his name I recognized), I was really confused.

Here is the story: Caps look inside to find emergency backup, as Web producer Leonhardt suites up

Fun story.

Operate?!?

Anybody remember the ad for the game Operation that was on television in the '70's? Mom overhears the children playing, and is horrified to hear one say "It's my turn to operate!"

I was hoping to find it on YouTube, and I did...sort of.

"Butterfingers!" sounds better in the bratty American voice, but Mom's "Can I have a go?" sounds all cool and BBC.

Picture this

When I was in high school, I remember asking my father if he had a photo of me in his wallet. He said he did, and pulled out my school picture--from fifth grade.

At the time, I was bothered by this.

I have a niece (N₁, age 10) and two nephews (N₂, 7, and N₃, 5). Today my sister gave me their school pictures, and when I got home, I thought I'll put these in the frame now, so they don't get buried under magazines or hidden in a drawer.

I even have a special 3-picture frame I use for the kids' pictures, and when I took it down, I noticed that N₁ is sure growing up fast, N₂ has lost those chubby cheeks, and N₃ is in kindergarten...not a stroller.

Why did the girl throw the watch out the window? She wanted to see time fly!

My watch broke today. It could be the battery, but from experience, replacing the battery of a cheap plastic watch costs more than buying a new cheap plastic watch. Buying and throwing away cheap plastic crap is a horrible way to live, so I thought: maybe I won't buy a new cheap plastic watch.

I do have the time in front of me whenever I'm on the computer, which is where I spend most of my waking hours. Plus the time is displayed on my microwave, my oven, my desk phone, my cell phone, the company cell phone I wear at the office, and I can display it on the TV with a push of a button on the remote.

My bedroom has a clock with a huge digital display, so I can read it without my glasses.

The only room in the house without a clock is the bathroom, and in the shower is about the only time I don't wear my watch.

All that said...my "maybe I won't replace this watch" sentiment is quickly fading, because I keep looking at my wrist and saying "Dammit!"

I just need to vent

"Mock guacamole" (using peas instead of avocado) is a crime against humanity.

It's a car! A new car!

Er, an old car.

We found this DeSoto during a hike a few weeks ago. The park where we do a lot of hiking used to be a farm, and apparently, back when people had lots of acres and no homeowners association to demand twice-weekly trash pickup, you burned what would burn and the rest you dragged out to the back forty to rust.

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

Another bad side effect of the Sopranos addiction

I never liked my next-door neighbors. They had four cars (in a townhouse with one reserved space), frequent guests who parked in my reserved space, loud parties that lasted late at night, and they always missed the recycle bin and threw trash into my garden.

They finally moved away last summer, and the house was empty for weeks. It was wonderful.

Somebody moved in a few weeks ago, and tonight it looks like they parked car #3 in our reserved space. I'm not 100% sure it's them, though (I didn't see the driver get out), and the lights are off, so I'm not going to ring the doorbell at 9:30.

Instead I'm going to glare out the window, thinking What would Tony Soprano do?

[Freakin'] temptation

We don't have HBO, and for years I was indifferent to the fuss over The Sopranos.

The weekend before my surgery, Victor picked up video tapes of seasons one and two at a flea market. It gave us something to watch while I was off work recovering. And I must say, it was a [freakin'] good distraction.

It was funny when I got back to the office, because people would come to my desk and say "Nic, how are you doing?" talking about the surgery, and I'd answer "How you doin'?" I forgot we don't live in New Jersey.

Anyway, looking at the cost of buying the rest of the series on second-hand video versus buying the new deluxe box set on sale at Amazon, we decided to splurge and get the DVDs for Christmas for each other.

The box arrived today, and I so so so want to open it and start watching. But if I do, I'll never get the Christmas cards addressed, the tree up, the cookies baked, etc. So we will wait, and while everyone else is sipping hot cocoa and opening presents on December 25, we'll be in front of the TV. Merry [freakin'] Christmas it will be.