March
30, 2007
Last Sunday Kari and I met one of
her blog friends in Northampton and went up to Montague to have
lunch at the Lady
Killigrew Cafe at the
Bookmill.
It's hard finding the place, but man, it's worth it.
Today was Kari's last day working
for the big theater place. We had a very fun night
celebrating with her co-workers in a
local hot spot that has a
small front yard where Baxter likes to poop. From there, a
few of us moved on to another
local hot spot.
Kari has great (former) co-workers.
Every day I drive past a large
local lake (hooray for alliterism - my spell check says this is
spelled wrong, but I disagree because it's not offering any kind
of substitute) which is mostly frozen. Each time I pass it,
it gets less frozen and more watery, yet I still can't help
wondering if some local yahoo decided to go four-wheelin' on the
ice and, oh my!, discovered that the melted ice can't support his
several-ton truck and it fell through the ice. When I grew
up around here it was a yearly occurrence, and I find it somewhat
disturbing how my eyes almost hopefully scan the icy horizon of
the lake for any big holes caused by some dumbass' Hummer that's
now sitting 30 feet below the surface. Nothing quite says
"Spring" like a townie's truck sitting at the bottom of a lake.
What I'm listening to right now:
Scout - It's
All Downhill From Here
March
29, 2007
Man, I need to update this site
once in a while. It's getting dusty around here.
So now my drought of concert-less
nights will soon be at an end. I am currently petting the
(strangely oversized) tickets for us to see Yo La Tengo at the
Academy of Music in Northampton. I'm excited for several
reasons. First, I discovered Yo La Tengo a year ago and they
quickly moved to the top of my mental "Bands I Want To See Live"
list. Second, I was unable to see them in Toronto last fall
like I had planned, so it's about time to see them. Third,
I've never been to the Academy of Music. I went to school in
the Happy Valley for five years, walked by the building hundreds
of times, yet sadly, I've never been in there.
We're also the proud owners of
two tickets to see Morrissey at the Pines Theater in Northampton
this summer. This will be my fifth time seeing him, and I
can't wait.
Sadly, another band I love to see
live, They Might Be Giants, is doing a "warm-up tour" in advance
of their big tour planned for this summer. They're playing
in Northampton too...two shows!...on the same day Kari and I are
getting married. Hmm. I've seen them 33 times, and
Kari's seen them 16 times, so I guess we can miss them just this
once.
We might be adding another member
to our growing family. And before I get a call from my mom
getting all kinds of crazy speculative on me, it's a dog. A
rescued mini-dachshund to be exact, but more on that in a few
weeks.
What I'm listening to right now:
Lincoln
- What Up
March
17, 2007
Tonight we had a lot of
non-planned St. Patrick's Day fun. I'm mostly Irish, but
I've always been very "whatevery" about the day (must be the Czech
in me that balances it out by saying nyet
to the holiday).
Our
friend Alex called and she said
she had cabin fever and wanted to get out of the house and meet us
for a drink. We said sure, but we didn't want to go far.
Thank goodness for
Rumpy's
Tavern that's half a block down the street. She happily
drove the 10 miles over here while we managed the arduous 200 foot
journey from our apartment. We hung out, had some Chapins
(Shirley Temples with a citrus-flavored vodka), and enjoyed the
fireplace and the empty bar (we even invited the guitarist over to
our table to hang out with us). A short time later, the
place filled up with people we knew and buckets of fun was had.
I've always thought of St. Patrick's Day as a non-holiday...one
that everyone makes a big deal of, but also one you don't really
do much with; although tonight was a lot of fun.
Also the Village Inn painted the
snow on their property green. That was wicked cool.
That, and all Chapins ordered tonight were served in a
self-illuminating glass. That was even cooler.
Great news on the
Kari front. Smiles abound.
What I'm listening to right now:
Dropkick
Murphys - For Boston
March
13, 2007
A few days ago Kari tried to
paint Ira Glass
from NPR's This American Life.
When she showed it to me I was thinking, "No, that's not Ira
Glass. It looks like someone else." We spent a while
trying to figure out just who it looked like and then came to the
same conclusion:
Zach Braff.
What I'm listening to right now:
Tanya Donelly
- Moonbeam
Monkey
March
10, 2007
How to make a mini-Dachshund fall
asleep instantly... Step 1: put a basket of warm clothes,
fresh from the dryer, on the floor where he can get at it.
Step 2: little dog burrows into clothes. Step 3:
sleeping dog.
Two days ago it was -10 degrees.
Today it was almost 50, and now it's raining out. Judging by
this, I think it'll be 110 tomorrow with scattered meteor showers.
Don't forget to
change your clocks!
What I'm listening to right now:
Rainer Maria -
Life Of Leisure
March 8,
2007
Diddy calls Bjork.
What I'm listening to right now:
The Lemonheads -
Rudderless
March 3,
2007
Yesterday I heard about the lunar
eclipse that was scheduled for tonight. Well, eclipses
aren't scheduled, but you know what I mean. I was all kinds
of excited to see it and even brought my camera and tripod to work
so I could run out and capture it. There were three small
problems...1st - my work is surrounded by large mountains which
blocked the view of the eclipse; 2nd - it was very cloudy and sort
of snowy; and 3rd - I forgot about it until two hours after it was
over. Crapola. Oh well, there's always the next one in
August.
I was surprised today when I
pulled into the gas station at the local Stop & Shop and saw that
gas was $2.58. I said screw that (actually, I said that
mostly to the long lines, and only partly to the high prices).
I went elsewhere and got enough gas to get me through until
Tuesday. Why Tuesday? Because I'm a follower of the
Hathaway Theory of Gas Prices.
Ok, it's not so much a theory,
but more of a detailed series of observations. A former
co-worker of mine (Hathaway) once noted that she kept close watch
on the prices of the gas stations she drove by to get to work, and
every one of them had their lowest prices of the week on Tuesday.
The prices then went up and peaked on Thursday or Friday (I'm not
sure which since I kinda stopped paying attention after the
"Tuesday = cheap gas" portion. The rest of her theory
blended into the non-descript trumpety "Wah-wahh-wah," sounds of
adults on any Charlie Brown special). Um...where was I?
Oh yeah, gas is cheaper on Tuesdays.
Patrick, a former columnist on
here, has recently started
his own site chock
full of tough SAT words and the sugary happiness of maple syrup.
Check it out.
For all of you who were saving up
to buy
this painting I put up on
our Etsy
store, well, tough luck because it's been sold. So
sorry. Gosh, I just noticed that our store is looking pretty
sparse. Time to fancy-up some canvasses.
What I'm listening to right now:
The
Mighty Lemon Drops -
Rollercoaster
March 1,
2007
Man, things are good.
Yesterday I did a photo shoot of a local neat-o funky store
that'll be in a feature in the local paper. That's my second
professional photo shoot this year; the first being a shoot I did
in January of a local upscale salon that'll be featured in a
national spa magazine. Yay, me!
So much going on right now
between planning our wedding, writing the book (which, after a
lengthy work-related pause, is now being written at a frantic
pace), another super-secret project, and thinking about taxes,
time is of short supply as of late.
All along we've thought that Mr.
Baxter was a hater of all things snow-related, but it turns out he
loves it! Well, he at least loves the heavier, denser,
snowman-making kind. The other night we spent a whole hour
throwing snowballs towards (which he jumped up and caught like a
championship frisbee-catching dog), and away from him (which he
chased down like a puppy possessed). Essentially, he went
frickin' nuts.
Why am I not winning this Mega
Millions thing? I put it on my list of things to do, but it
never seems to happen. Hmmm.
I hope each and every one of you
has a stunningly exceptional day.
What I'm listening to right now:
Bloc Party -
I
Still Remember
© 2007 Eric Nixon. All rights reserved.
|
