November 2005     November 30, 2005   There are several facts that I finally have to accept.  I live in the "Deep South" now.  I will never see snow here.  I accidentally left my several gigantic boxes of Christmas decorations in my brother's basement in blissfully snowy New Hampshire.  One thing I will not accept is letting my surroundings (and lack of proper seasonality) interfere with and dampen my damn holiday cheer.  We're determined to recreate the magic of the Christmas season here in Huntsville.  Kari strung up lights above the fireplace (which happily burns all evening), on the patio railing, all over the shelves above my desk, and of course, the Christmas tree.  The cat's been resistant to wearing a string of lights, but I'm sure she'll come around.      Since all of my ornaments are 1,000 miles away, we used some of Kari's from when she was a kid.  The only ornamental thing I had to offer was the little plastic goat from a bottle of Ayinger Celebrator Dopplebock...                                                The tree is real and while it's small, it smells nice.  Because I firmly believe that smell has a huge role in memory association, we bought a shitload of Yankee Candle Balsam & Cedar jar candles and we have one going in every room.  They smell just like a big ol' fragrant Christmas tree.   Tonight we watched A Christmas Story on tv, and the past couple of nights we played Scrabble with Christmas songs playing in the background.  So yeah, despite the area's best intentions, we're determined that Christmas will live here.     What I'm listening to right now:  Superchunk - Does Your Hometown Care?       November 28, 2005   Tonight I found the coolest thing ever.  Go to Pandora.  Now.  Just put in an artist, band, or song into the box and it'll play a song by them, and then play songs by similar bands based on dozens of criteria.  You can mark each song "yes" or "no" if you like it or not.  If you say yes, it'll play more like that, if no, it won't play that song again and find more that are similar to the ones you like.  Tonight I've heard songs by a dozen bands that I've never heard before, but really like their songs a lot.  Hooray for unlimited cool music while at work!        What I'm listening to right now:  Ad Frank - The World's Best Ex-Boyfriend       November 27, 2005   Today we went to the 10am showing of the new Harry Potter movie.  It was good, but there were a lot of problems with the movie (disjointed scenes where it seems like they cut stuff out, unnecessarily dark, areas that were different than the book, etc).  Afterwards we went out and got a tiny Christmas tree.  When I say tiny, I mean 2.5 feet tall.  I'm sure my father is rolling over in his grave contrasting and comparing this weensy tree with the 14-foot gargantuan ones we used to get when I was a kid.       What I'm listening to right now:  Harvey Danger - Sometimes You Have To Work On Christmas (Sometimes)       November 25, 2005   Yesterday was Thanksgiving!  How was yours?  Ours was pretty good.    Sometime in the early afternoon Amanda, Mike, and Fat Louie (the dog) showed up and we snacked on some spicy party mix and some dip stuff that Amanda brought while playing Monopoly.  When the turkey was finally ready (submerging it in a tasty brine solution for six hours before cooking it made it the juiciest and flavorful turkey ever), we had our feast...while still playing Monopoly since it had turned very cut-throat (hotels everywhere) and no one wanted to stop playing.   After I won (hey, it's my website and I have the right to re-write history as I see fit), we poured some more drinks (I broke out a couple bottles of Ommegang Three Philosophers that I was ageing) and then Steven arrived.  We then played Taboo.  I had never played the game before, but, again, I won it every time (please see the above Monopoly "winning" disclaimer).      Then it got late, and everyone left.   This morning we met Amanda and Matt at my hotel and went to show them downtown Huntsville.  After a 5-minute tour, we got lunch at Humphrey's, and then wandered over to Harrison Brothers' Hardware Store.  Don't let the pictures fool you, it's a very dark place, but neat since they've never taken down most of the things on the walls which span the 100+ year history of the place.  We said goodbye to Amanda and Matt and we headed over to a three-story antique market.  I bought an antique Konica camera.  I dunno why, other than it looks neat and it was cheap.   We then dove home (careful to avoid the street with all of the shops and malls) and had a Harry Potter movie marathon.  We're going to see the Goblet Of Fire on Sunday.     What I'm listening to right now:  The So And So's - Westside       November 24, 2005   Happy Thanksgiving!    Even though we're a thousand miles away from our friends and family, we're having people over for Thanksgiving!  Kari's friend Amanda (you might have read her master's thesis: "Mass Transport of Potassium Permanganate in Low Permeability Media and Matrix Interactions"), her boyfriend Matt, and Steven (a friend of Kari's from the theater they worked at in Vermont last year), who is from Huntsville are all having turkey with us.  Amanda and Matt are driving over from Atlanta this morning.      After watching Alton Brown's Thanksgiving special on the Food Network, we're adequately prepared for the food festivities of the day (the turkey's soaking in the brine as I type).  Time to get back to the kitchen, but have a great Thanksgiving!     What I'm listening to right now:  They Might Be Giants - Experimental Film       November 23, 2005   Soon we'll be opening the mail and seeing one of these...                      Yup, a toy Dyson vacuum cleaner.  I know that's a weird thing to get but it came free when we got this today...                           When the movers "moved" us (and when I say "moved", I mean "destroyed most of our possessions") from New Hampshire to Alabama , one of the things that was "moved" into many more pieces than it started out was our trusty Filter Queen vacuum.  After months of people coming to inspect the damage, we finally got a check for all of the stuff they couldn't fix (the antique furniture repair people did an amazing job - here are some pics of what it looked like before they came) and the first thing we got was a vacuum.  And boy, we needed it since we haven't vacuumed here yet (almost three months now).   I have to say, this model Dyson vacuum ("The Ball") is the coolest vacuum cleaner ever.  Not only does it clean super amazingly well, but it's so well designed, easy to use, and incredibly maneuverable.  Kari likes it because, "It looks like a robot."   Kari also thought she was hi-larious when she put the vacuum in my side of the bed last night.  I tried to get in and didn't see it at first and was thinking WTF is this, then realized that the Dyson was sleeping.            What I'm listening to right now:  Garbage - Push It       November 22, 2005   Funny Alabama Thanksgiving-related story (this really happened):   A woman bought a turkey from the supermarket, got it home and realized there was something terribly wrong with it.  She brought it back to the store and demanded to speak to a manager.  "I want to return this turkey, there's something wrong with it."   "What seems to be the problem?" asked the manager.  It seemed to be a normal frozen turkey to him.   "It's only got two legs!" she indignantly replied.   The manager, confused (and slightly bemused) asked, "Um, ma'am, how many legs do you think a turkey has?"   "Well, everybody knows that all barn animals have four legs!  This one's missing two legs!"   He then led her over to the meat section and finally convinced her that turkeys, in fact, have only two legs.  She was so embarrassed, she never returned to that store again.          What I'm listening to right now:  The Godrays - Shark Shaped Ship        November 21, 2005   Call me crazy, but tonight I realized that I really miss the long commutes I had when I was living in New England.  It took me about 45-minutes (no traffic), each way, for me to drive from the Manchester, NH area to my hotel in Andover, MA.  I used that time to think about what I needed to accomplish at work that day on my way in, or crank my music and wipe my mind clean on my way home after a long day that night.  It provided a nice window of prep or de-stress time, which I don't get now since I only live 6.3 miles from work and it takes me about 10 minutes to get there.      I spent a few months' driving solely thinking about my upcoming book and planning what was going to happen when in it.  I spent other days doing nothing more cranking my music, letting the wind blow through the windows and losing myself in a single song played over and over again.    In a way it sucked having such a long commute since it ate up so much time, and gas money (filling my tank two to three times a week), but I desperately miss the time alone with my thoughts and my music.  A lot of the poetry I wrote came to me while I was driving (as a side note, it's kinda not safe to be writing down ideas when you're going 70).    I've also noticed that I tend to get very inspired by music, which is why I probably felt so creative during my commutes.  In my mind I associate songs with certain feelings.  Like some songs I only listen to at night, or some I only listen to when I'm happy, or some only when it's raining, or when it's sunny, etc.  So, knowing this, I've decided to make the most of my writing time at home and I've begun sorting my 5,000+ mp3s into different categories based on the different emotions or feelings that I associate a particular song with.  So far I've got 23 different categories and I've only sorted about 10% of my total songs.  This way when I'm writing and want to project a certain feeling, I just listen to the folder of songs that I associate with that emotion.  This worked pretty successfully to a lesser extent when I would write poetry, sometimes I was inspired by a single part of a song, so I'd put it on repeat and let my fingers do the talking on the keyboard.  Now I'll be zeroing in on a particular feeling and swaddling myself in a sonically-inspired blanket of it.  Bottom line:  the book's gonna rock.        What I'm listening to right now:  Guster - Airport Song       November 20, 2005   For the past few months I've been getting increasingly bored with the layout of my site and as you can see, I finally got around to doing something about it.  I wanted to make it leaner and easier to navigate than the old site.  So take a moment and click away at the links to the left.      What I'm listening to right now:  Yo La Tengo - Cast A Shadow       November 19, 2005   The mail is mocking us.  Today we got two things...a Restoration Hardware catalog ("Ha! Ha!  You want everything in this catalog but can't afford to buy any of it!"), and an oversized postcard from Massachusetts' tourism office touting how awesome Massachusetts is during the winter ("Ha! Ha!  You live in the deep south now and are getting homesick for New England!").  I got on their mailing list last year when they were looking for a new slogan for the tourism office.  One of my better submissions (I sent in a dozen and, strangely, none of them were chosen) was "Massachusetts:  It's wicked pissah."   I also found out from a co-worker that despite all of the gigantic fireworks stores in the area, they are only open twice a year...around July 4th, and around New Years.  That kind of scares me because all of those loud popping sounds I've heard since moving down here most likely haven't been fireworks, but were actually gunshots.  Yippie!   Geez, I took about 350 pictures today (stuff related to the TOP SECRET PROJECT, so don't ask) and it took about an hour and a half to copy them all into my computer.  Now I've gotta sort through them all.       What I'm listening to right now:  The Sheila Divine - Perfect Day