A final visit

saturday, march 29, 2008 11:51 am
♫ tim hecker - rainbow blood
travel, news, introspection
comments?

This may be the last chance I get to blog from the house I grew up in, so I’m going to take advantage of it. We’re here because my dad is getting remarried this evening (congratulations, dad!).

Last night was the rehearsal, of course, followed by a delicious dinner catered by amazing caterers who must have had magic powers. There were only two of them, but somehow they were everywhere at once and managed to keep everyone’s drinks full and empty plates cleared immediately.

Now we’re at my dad’s house, enjoying the wonderful dial-up one last time. It’s weird realizing that I’ll probably never be coming back here again. Even though I haven’t lived in this house for years, there’s still part of me that is going to miss it.

Helvetica

sunday, october 7, 2007 7:56 am
♫ maps - make yourself exist (demo)
movies
comments?

After hearing great things about it for months, I finally got to see Helvetica last night. It was every bit as good as I had hoped. Informative, insightful, and (somewhat surprisingly) funny, it’s a fascinating look at the visual language that surrounds us every day. I highly recommend adding it to your Netflix queue immediately.

Yum yum come get some

sunday, september 9, 2007 11:41 am
♫ antony and the johnsons - crazy in love
news, friends
comments?

Courtney and Hilary came to visit this weekend, and we had all kinds of fun. Between museums, wineries, eating, and bowling, there wasn’t a lot of time for sleep. I’ve posted some pictures of the debauchery for your enjoyment.

I can has upgrade?

wednesday, september 5, 2007 8:07 pm
♫ le castle vania - trouble in daylight
mac, geeking out
comments?

WANT

Sure, iPod Touch is very cool and all, but there are a couple of things that make iPod Classic much better for me. First of all, I love having all my music with me, all the time. That’s definitely not an option with iPod Touch yet. The clickwheel on the Classic is also nice for use with gloves in the winter. Which we tend to have a little bit of around here.

I’m still rather amazed that the low-end iPod Classic has more than twice as much storage as my 3rd generation for half the price. I think it’s about time to upgrade. Of course, once I do, I’ll have to think up a new tagline for my Last.fm page since “Running out of space on my iPod” will no longer be true. Such is the price of progress.

The mystery dog

wednesday, august 8, 2007 8:48 pm
♫ tv on the radio - i was a lover
randomness, weather
comments?

Last night, Bryan and I were sitting outside on the porch swing watching the thunderstorm (which had some quite impressive lightening) when a beagle came trotting up the driveway… and right onto the porch. She proceeded to jump up on the swing and make herself at home, staying for the duration of the storm. When we went back in the house, she really wanted to come inside with us and refused to leave the porch. I finally had to gently escort her to the sidewalk, after which she headed off (hopefully) back to her home.

Today, I asked one of our neighbors if they knew anybody with a beagle, but unfortunately they didn’t. We were almost hoping that a dog had adopted us, but she seemed too well-groomed to be homeless. I guess she was just a little scared of the storm and wanted somewhere to stay dry. Maybe we’ll figure out where she came from one day.

Racously sensible

wednesday, july 11, 2007 6:42 pm
♫ feist - honey honey
randomness, friends
comments?

Last night’s downtown bowling outing turned out to be quite an adventure. An adventure where we learned that apparently Tuesday nights are secretly no-bowl nights at most places. Let me explain.

We set off in high spirits for a night of bowling, following Aurda’s directions. First, to get to the parking lot, we had to pull around the back of the building between some run-down warehouse-ish places. As we were rounding the corner, a minivan parked in front came into view. A minivan with all four tires flattened (and maybe a broken window or two). There was a grand total of one other car in the parking lot. I immediately noticed the two signs in the entrance’s front window - “Closed July 4” and “Closed July 15 through Aug. 8.” Um, ok. Nothing about being closed last night, even though it didn’t look very open.

Audra went to investigate and returned with news of yet another sign in smaller print saying “closed Mondays and Tuesdays beginning April 18.” Right. Awesome. As we started to pull away, a guy came to the door looking like he wanted to invite us in but we were all a little creeped out ready to move on at that point.

We figured that this place must just be weird (and scary and run-down), so we decided to go back to Ambassador Lanes where we had bowled before. Ambassador Lanes, which happens to be on top of a parking garage. This time, we weren’t even greeted by signs, just locked doors. Apparently there’s a secret law that no bowling is allowed in Cleveland on Tuesday night?

The only other bowling alley anyone knew of downtown was The Corner Alley, which had been described to Audra as “martinis and bowling.” That prompted the following exchange:

Megan: That sounds like a recipe for disaster.
Me: No, no. It sounds like a recipe… FOR AWESOME.

We did a drive-by to make sure that our last hope was actually open, and shockingly enough they bucked the trend. In addition to being open, the place is really cool and they have nice comfy couches for sitting while bowling instead of those uncomfortable plastic swivel chairs. They also have a hell of a martini menu, with forty choices. In short, it is indeed a recipe for awesome.

Unfortunately, we were far too sensible and only bowled one game and didn’t have any drinks, what with it being a work night. But we have promised to go back and partake of the full experience. Because that cajun martini? Has my name written all over it. But not, apparently, on a Tuesday night.

Best magmu ever

thursday, july 5, 2007 9:29 pm
♫ feist - 1234
music
comments?

New Underworld, Oblivion With Bells, coming in October with fantastic cover art! Squeeeeee!

Scorecard

saturday, april 21, 2007 8:16 am
♫ major swellings - flavoursaver
news, randomness
2 comments

Days spent moving: 7

Hours spent shoveling on the day after we moved in thanks to a lovely April snowstorm: 4

New washers and dryers: 1 of each that are amazing and make cute noises when you turn them on

New (very cute) lawn mowers: 1 (seriously, it’s so small and awesome and battery-powered and cute)

New rugs: 2 (“Phoenix” and “Matisse”)

New vacuum cleaners (needed for cleaning said rugs because they shed like a german shepherd named Captain Sheddy): 1

Hours spent cleaning two bathrooms: 5 or 6

Fluorescent light bulbs installed: 14

Terrifyingly ugly gold chandeliers replaced: 1

Drawers/shelves re-lined with new contact paper: 8

Drawers/shelves yet to be re-lined: 18 (or maybe more)

Rooms painted: 2

Rooms left to paint: 4 (for now)

Ceilings painted by me: 1

Ceilings I hated painting: 1

Fingers mashed in windows: 1

Cuts on hands: I’ve stopped counting

Times shocked while changing outlets: 2 (damn badly-labeled breaker boxes)

Money spent at The Home Depot and Lowes: I don’t want to know

Money not yet spent on new furnace and maybe a new roof: You don’t want to know

We own a house now!