Week 9, Getting stuff done

Well, tis week 9, and I'm trying to get back on track here.  

Today was a fun little Thursday.  The BBB has been upgraded from crutches to a cane, which makes things much easier.  Of course I'm still manservanting for her, carrying her bags to her office and whatnot, but i don't have to be the runner every second of the day, which is nice.

Today she had an early meeting, so I dropped her off at the office at about 830. Nice early start.  Wish this had happened on a day I was headed straight home, because I'd get a lot done.  But, its Thursday, and I read to my little 4th grade buddy at noon on Thursdays.  

See, the deal is this.  BBB's office is about 5 or 6 miles from my house.  When I had a job, it was right around the corner.  And I read to this kid at a school right in the same area.  So, since I still drive the BBB in to work, I still do my fun volunteer reading.  It makes no sense to drive all the way home, just to go back an hour or less later.  Thus, I need things to do in on Thursday mornings that are in the area.  Sometimes I just sit at Flour bakery with a bottomless cup of coffee, my book, and maybe a breakfast sammich.  Today, I decided to finally go to the Institute of Contemporary Art, which opened a year or so ago in the same area, and I have yet to go.

The ICA is currently hosting an exhibit of Shepard Fairey, an 

iconic street artist who's work is pretty well known in this area.  For those of us who grew up in the 80's in Mass and RI, we all remember the stickers of Andre the Giant has a Posse.  The skateboards, posters.  It was all very punk rock.  Well, this guy became a serious artist, and has done some really cool work.  I definitely recommend heading over the the ICA and seeing his work up close.  You've all seen the Obama picture that became an icon and a ma

in part of the campaign.  Well, that was him.  

There was certainly some other great work in the museum, and the building itself is pretty amazing inside.  Loved it.  There was some art that was just crap, but most of it was fantastic.  

The rest of my day was somewhat mellow.  Read to the kid, drove back home, stopped and got a veggie burger with fries at this place called the Real Deal that I hadn't tried yet.  It was pretty good.  Brought it home and watched last nights ep of LOST, which I didn't quite get through last night.  Did some housework, picked up the BBB, came home, made vegetarian chili and lots of it, and watched last nights episode of America's Midol.  Now I'm watching tonights.  then Hells Kitchen.  

Yesterday was eventful.  Last week Burnt Fur's PA blew up.  Apparently 8 inch flames shot out of it (I wasn't there yet).  So, we needed a new one, and I'm the one with the car.  So my day started, after dropping off the BBB, with going to the new Guitar Center store in Boston, waiting till 10 when they opened, and buying a new PA.  Only had open box ones, so I got a nice discount, a rack for it, and a good warranty.  Then, off to the Apple Store in Chestnut hill, so they could help me with my email problem.  I just set this laptop up, and everything seemed to work fine, except email.  I love the Genius bar.  They help you, its free, answer questions and are cool.  Love it.  Got a new bit of software for this baby, and signed up for the One to One program.  For a nominal fee, you get weekly lessons in whatever you want. Loves it.  Doing it!  Left there, headed over to Furspace, dropped off the new PA, and worked for an hour programming drum tracks on the keyboard for a cover we're working on.  Then home, l

itter boxes, shower, eat.  pick up BBB, and head back to Furspace for practice.  PA works, yay.  short practice, but good.  Also last night was my buddy Jamie's birthday, so I went out to Central Square to have some late night celebratory drinks.  Didn't leave until about 1 am!!!!  Got home at about 130, and tried to watch Lost.  Passed out.  Ah well.

I know theres a lot I missed sharing, but why go back at this point?  if its important, i'll remember it and share it.

Oooh, on Monday, I finally started one of my unemployed goals by watching the first extended Lord of the Rings movie.  I've seen the first 2 extended before and own all three (they're all at least 3.5 hours long, up to I think 5).  My goal was to watch all 3 in a week.  Well, that ain't happening, but maybe one a week will work!  pretty damn amazing, I'll tell you.

Oh, and you should all watch this Jon Stewart serious interview where he rips apart this financial douche from CNBC or something.  Pretty amazing.

I cooked some things, but whatever.  Little creations that were fun and yummy.

ooooh yeah, i forgot to mention, I GOT A RAISE!!!!  Love this.  I guess part of the stimulus or whatnot, but anyone on unemployment gets $25 more a week, and its retroactive for a month or so.  Amazing.  No job, and I get a raise.  I'm doing a great job. 

peace

Week 3, Day 1

Here we go again!!!!

and again, CRAP, now i have to remember the last 3 days.  I thought remembering would be easier when I stopped smoking the wacky stuff, but....well.......

So, Friday, Week 2.  What was to be done?  CLEANING!!!  

Yes, it was time!  The house really needed more work, and so there I went.  Vacuuming like a madman with my Dyson Pethair Vacuum, which is phenom!  Loves it.

I cleaned the living room, hall, stairs, and dining room, which is no small task, especially when you haven't vacuumed in quite a few weeks and you have 6 cats!  

I did manage to squeeze in watching Hells Kitchen from Thursday night, which was quite enjoyable.  OOh yeah, and I ended up finally watching Grindhouse: Planet Terror.  A silly little zombie movie from Robert Rodriguez, from the double feature he did with Quentin Tarantino (Death Proof, which I enjoyed!).  It was pretty good, damn funny, totally silly, but it has the guy from Six Feet Under, the assistant mortician (I think his name was Rico) as a total badass, and Rose McGowan with only one leg!  Nice.  Plus, the end scene is an arial shot of the Tulum Ruins, right down the road from where I go in Mexico, and where I was just a few weeks ago.

Anyways, so I cleaned cleaned cleaned, put this new RugStayFriggenPut tape on the bottom of one of the rugs, and just did a number on the mess.  House looks much better!

Picked up the BBB at about 630, and off to Ten Tables, as usual.  Yet another fantastic dinner!  Now, I've become about 92% vegetarian, but not on Fridays, which are Ten Tables night!  There was a new sausage on the menu I hadn't tried, so I wanted that.  I had the steak last week, so Sean recommended I go with the Pork Chop, and since that's 2 dishes of swine, he said 'Hell, lets do Porkapalooza!'  So, I had Pork Rillet for my first, the Sausage over yummy creamy mustardy lentils, and finally, the excellent Pork Chop with 2 potato gratin and spicy broccolini!  Yummers.  And some nice stinky cheese for dessert!  Another fantastic meal.

Saturday was a nice calm day, didn't have to leave the house.  Had a nice roaring fire in the fireplace all day, did some laundry, a little cleaning, made smoothies (banana, soymilk, peanut butter, ice, and protein powder), ate leftovers, didn't really watch TV, just hung out.  

Saturday night we met our friend Heather, who manages and teaches at O2 Yoga, for dinner, since we hadn't seen her in a while.  We met for a nice early dinner at Tremont 647.  They have a 5 course dinner for $45 bucks, which ain't bad.  BBB did Vegan, I did vegetarian, and Heather did a bit of fish.  A good meal.  I probably would've been still hungry, but I also order the yummy cheesy tater tots and the momo's, which do have meat, but oh well.  Very yums!

When we got home, we watched Wanted, that movie about assassins with Angelina Jolie.  I actually thought it was pretty bad ass, though it did have some dumb stuff (The Loom of Destiny?  Lame).  I need to read the Graphic Novel, because that is apparently much better.

Sunday was another quiet day.  Laundry, leftovers, and lots of television.  I did watch the movie Vantage Point, which was ok.  Fun to watch, but way too overblown, the rewind thing was too repetitive, and the ending was unlikely based on the rest of the movie (like that bad guy would swerve, after all those other people he killed?  Please.)

OOOh, yeah, the BBB made me put on the grammy's for a little while.  I HATE THE GRAMMYS!  NO RELEVANCE TO REAL MUSIC!!!  But, as I posted to my facebook status, its nice to watch that stuff every once in a while, just to BE REMINDED THAT I'M RIGHT!  So much Crap.  I am sorry I missed M.I.A.  but that was not my favorite track from her anyways.

So, today.  

dropped the BBB off, and headed to Cambridge to check out the New TEN TABLES CAMBRIDGE!  Its looking fantastic in there.  Not opening for another 2 weeks I guess, but they'll be ready.  Hung out with Mike C the Sous Chef, who gave me the tour and we just hung out and chatted.  Co-Owners Krista Kranyak and David Punch, chef extraordinaire showed up, and I hung with them for a bit.  KK headed out, and there was a million things for them to do, so I didn't want to be in the way (though I was there about 3 hours).  Dave had to pick up his broken car, and Mike was gonna drive him, but I wanted to help, so I gave him a lift to Medford.  We were both starving on the way, so we stopped at Dave's Fresh Pasta in Davis Square, which I miss terribly.  Dave's Fresh Pasta is amazing, has great sammichs, cheeze, ravioli, and lots of fancy foods, and free samples (I love the basket of hot peppers by the register - just take one and warm your belly!).  We both had Muffalata sammiches, which rocked.  Then I drove him the rest of the way and dropped him off.

Back to home, stopped at CVS to pick something up, Blanchards for beer (6pack of Blue Moon spring seasonal, which is eh, and a 6 of Harpoon Celtic, which used to be called Hibernian - i like that name better), and a losing scratch ticket.  HOME

Got some unemployment stuff in the mail, so signed up for the web stuff and direct deposit, called a potential band photographer, and here i am.  Not much accomplished, but I'm still having fun

Now, its off to pick up the BBB.  Dinner will probably be leftover soup RECIPE COMING SOON, but who knows.  And Heroes is on tonight!  YEYYYEAAAHHH!!!!

lates

Week 2, Day 3

So, Tuesday tuesday tuesday...

what the hell did I do on Tuesday?  

Well, I guess we have to start by finishing up Monday.  We went to that Veggie Planet special Monday night dinner in Cambridge (I guess the first Monday of the month is always a special prixe fix dinner there), and it was entirely Vegan.  The food was not bad.  I've had and made better, but overall I was happy.  Good soup, yummy aoli on the salad, entree was ok, desserts were phenom.  We got there just past 7 because we didn't leave early enough, I stupidly didn't use the GPS (I got us 9/10ths of the way there, but screwed up the last block, damn one ways!), and there was a problem with the gate at the parking lot.  But we got it.  This is the type of dinner that they seat you with other people you don't know.  Shudder.  BUT, it turned out we sat with an excellent couple, Lora and Eric.  We had a lot in common with them.....music.......good beer........bad eyesight, and we had a lot of fun.  Then we came home, had a fire, watched some TV.  The poor BBB accidentally knocked over a glass with some ginger ale in it, and wouldn't you know, right on the Modem.  NO INTERNET.  Oh well.  TV, Fire, Bed, Monday - Done.

So, Tuesday tuesday tuesday.....

What the hell did I do on Tuesday?

Ah yes, left a bit late as usual.  Had a rough commute, cuz we were both a bit grumpy.  Ladies, don't take offense to this, but you gotta understand something.  Men will always defend themselves.  It amazes me that when a woman is grumpy, and she snaps at the man, and he defends himself, HE is accused of being the grumpy one.  KILLS ME!

DIGRESSION!

Dropped off the BBB, El Starbucko's, stopped by the Xoffice again to visit friends, then called the evil Comcast to find out if their stupid South Boston location was open and what the address was.  Amazing, it was.  Got the address - NO PARKING - double parked - HATE DOING THAT - and a nice big sign on the door - ALL OUT OF MODEMS!!!!!

awesome.

Had to drive past my house to go to Roslindale, but luckily, NEW MODEM!

Went home (was going to run a few other errands, but F that), and installed Modem.  Took forever to work, and finally had to reinstall Comcast for whatever reason (didn't have to do that with the last new modem that wouldn't work because someone spilled someI MEAN just stopped working for some reason).  GREAT!

So, then, what else.  

AH YES - my first attempt at filing for UNEMPLOYMENT!!!!

The great beast!  The government teat that so many of us are currently forced to suckle.  

Well, I called about 9 times, waiting to use that secret prompt someone told me about (thanks Blev!) (shhh, i won't post it, but i'll tell you it works.  fb me if you wanna know).  But NOOOOOO!  After entering in my GPS tracking chip id government slave number - oop, i meant Social Security number - it told me to call back Wednesday.  That poor office must be flooded like a gravy boat explosion (IT'SA FLOODIN' LIKE YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE - Brak).  So, with that done, and I did not watch TV, what the hell else did I do? At a Trader Joes tomato pesto flatbread which was mediocre, and I guess that is pretty much it.  OH YEAH, IT WAS SNOWING, so I shoveled a lot.  This is the revenge you all wished upon me while i was in Mexico updating my facebook status!  

Anyways, picked up the BBB, waited.......and went home.  She called me earlier in the day and asked me to soak some dried cannellini beans so we could make Tuscan White Bean and Rosemary soup, a favorite of ours.  So, we spent the evening chopping onions, garlic (recipe calls for 3 cloves, we were doubling the recipe, so we put in 12!  THATS RIGHT, 12!), and cooking.  I'm gonna post the recipe to the O2 Vegan Exchange soon, but its pretty damn easy to make.  The only thing I haven't done is put it through the blender, cuz hot soup and a blender generally = BIG MESS!  The soup came out good, and I made salad dressing so we could have a salad with it.  Not bad, too salty, but good.  Sat in front of the fire, no TV, and ate some soup and salad.  That's that.

TODAY is Wednesday, and I don't have a ton to show for it!

Drove in the BBB, kept a smile on my face the whole time, cuz i don't wanna be a grump (hate mornings and other drivers, she hates that i beep at people, but i was only beeping cuz the light was green), El Starbucko's, Xoffice, then went to CVS - the BBB's shower seat needed to be returned cuz she found a much better one online which we bought last weekend at, coincidentally with the BBB, bed bath and beyond.  At least this one can be a table and is made of wood), returned the seat, went to the convenience store to get money and buy a $10 scratch ticket in hopes of grand winnings - WON $20! Not bad, now i get my money back and another chance at LOSING!  Came home, and now, its time for UNEMPLOYMENT, TAKE 2!!!!!!!

UNEMPLOYMENT, TAKE 2!!!!! 2!!!!!! 2!!!!!!!!!!!!! (i felt the need for a dramatic echo)

So, its the day they said to call, and let me tell you, THANK GOD FOR CORDLESS PHONES THAT HAVE SPEAKER PHONE CAPABILITY!!!  BEST THING EVER!

 Sat at this damn old machine waiting for it to work (I really need to set up that laptop!), and had speaker phone going and games on my iTouch.  

After entering in my number of the beast secret government way of tracking insurgents and revolutionaries I MEAN social security number (hey, if a joke works once, why not twice.  IT DID SO WORK!  SHUT UP!), I actually got to enter my date of birth!  OOH, GOOD SIGN.

AND THEN, NEW PROMPTS!!!!

I used the secret prompt - ok, its not a secret, its just a prompt for if you worked a certain type of job that I did not work, but it gets you to an agent faster and they don't know what prompts you pressed, so I tried it, AND GOT THROUGH IN UNDER 30 MINUTES!!!!   amazing!

Debbie was a lovely woman, and we bonded.  We actually had a good conversation, and she got me all set up.  THATS RIGHT, SUCCESS!!  I CAN NOW COLLECT as soon as it processes.   Heaven knows how long that will take!

And here I am!  Plans for the rest of the day:

1. empty dishwasher and reload, thus cleaning up after last nights cooking

2. maybe watch Fringe, since I didn't last night

3. possibly play FIELD RUNNER, a most addicting game for the iPod Touch that just got an update

4. Maybe clean some of the boxes of stuff from my office up, or at least move them

5. pick up the BBB and go to Acupuncture

6. Band Practice!  Its been like a month!  Can't wait!!!!

7. Come home, eat, and watch Lost, and maybe more, and then go to bed!  

Speaking of eating, I need some Lunch!

gotta go

bye