half a cat

So… in the interest of keeping this alive - I’ve shamlessly stolen this idea from someone else

What’s your favorite thing to do when no one else is around? Work late on computers, watch tv, read, scratch,take a long bath with a bottle of wine.

Name a guilty pleasure. Ordering delivery pizza when I don’t feel like cooking; staying up til 3 or 4am reading.

What’s your greatest fear? Being alone forever.

What’s your favorite part of your body? My brain, though after a year of working out my arse is making tracks.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? Better money management.

What’s your idea of perfect happiness? To do what I want to at a whim — eternal vacation.

What’s something you’re good at that’s totally useless?Making a mess — one of the best!

What’s your favorite album for a night of steamy monkey love? It depends on the mood — could be Coltrane, Dave Matthews, Korn, White Zombie, John Mayer, Norah Jones, Pink Floyd, Doors, &c. Country — not so much, the beat is too varied for a whole album.

What was your most memorable celebrity encounter? Edward Herman was at the Union League one night — quite interesting and tall. I think that is the only person I’ve rubbed elbows with — his wife was pretty fascinating as well. I’ve been in the same room with Tom Ridge (former head of homeland security — secret service agents are amusing), several big whigs from the powerbroker part of Philadelphia - polictics and such.

Who would you like to trade places with for a day?Brad Pitt. I would be a shameless slut that day — and make a lot of unsuspecting ladies happy too!

Who’s your favorite fictional character? Jack Ryan ala Tom Clancy, Jason Bourne from Ludlum,

What Hollywood star would play you in a documentary based on your life? Wow — a documentary on my life…that would be a snoozer. If I had to choose — someone in the rugged (as in can do farm work yet does know how to shower) good looks category.

What song(s) best represents the soundtrack of your life? Most songs coming to mind seem to short or only address a certain part of my life — maybe that beer comercial “back in the high life again..”

If you could choose what to come back as, what would it be? Ooooh — one of my favorite naughty jokes! A whale - 14 foot tongue and the ability to breath out the back of my head. grin

When you were a kid growing up, who did you imitate when you stood in front of the mirror? Nobody that I can remember — probably someone tough with lots of muscles.

Name a book you’ve read recently and liked. I’ve been reading a ton lately — right now I am most of the way thought MuCullough’s (sp?) John Adams — before that was the B. Franklin “The First American” — both are FANTASTIC biographies of amazing characters from our American Revolution…and you thought party politics were nasty today! The lily white pussies in D.C have nothing on the founding fathers — espeically when they had to vacate the capital (Philly in those days — D.C was still a swamp) due to Yellow Fever. Modern day pansies… I’ve also got a few new Indian cookbooks that are teaching me well.

Name a film you’ve seen recently and liked. A week of vacation is awesome — Serenity today (great flick), Pirates of the Carribean.

Name an album you’ve heard recently and liked. Portana is right — Nickelback & the John Mayer Trio new ones are great — got a Weekend at the Rocks with Dave Matthews that wasn’t too bad, Brad Paisleys newish one is pretty good too.

Finish this line: “If we can send a man to the moon, then why… ?” isn’t our culture (American) less focused on material possesions and more on character merit?

What will you remember most about the ’90’s?High school and puberty. Fun stuff Wade.

So — today is going to be a recollection of things I miss about living in Philadelphia.

• Food. There are a few decent restaurants here in Billings, but to get good quality food you have to pay for it, sometimes dearly. What I miss about Philadelphia is that there were tons of local places that had a dish or 3 that were really spectacular — the Lamb Curry at Tangiers (an otherwise completly shabby and tiny bar, entirely fantastic) , which was a total of .5 blocks from my apartment. Pine St. Pizza, and your tasty, tasty cheesesteaks, my hangovers miss you and your greasy goodness. The places are too many to mention — I just miss the sheer numbers and variety.

• Cultural events. Call me a snob (oh quiet you..) but donning a tuxedo ala Bond, spending $200+/ticket and heading out for a really good fun time in the upper crust of societal events was a thrill. I think part of it was the “Young Professional” scene — a self-fufilling dream where just being in a crowd with 25-40 something folks who all were at least psuedo interested in seeing the theater/opera/ballet/symphony and not just nailing the open bar for the ticket price equivalent in booze. Just being there made you feel that you were on the top of the ‘game of life’ and had truly made it — mainly because that is what everyone there thought. Perhaps it is the conversation with folks that had drive and passion for work or life or achieving something that at least appeared good and honorable with their lives. I don’t take anything away from people here — life is just different and I truly think the character of people here is far above and beyond that of the East Coast — but I miss the discussions about politics or art. I do get a large amount of this thanks to a few friends here, but perhaps what I really miss are the events dedicated to it. It is true to a certain degree that you had to be at least partially successfull to attend such events — you had to have the extra Benjies to blow, but the real trick was getting invited on someone elses bill — a feat that was accomplished more than once. BTW, yes I look like a younger-but-manlier Bond in a tux.

• Shopping. (In a manly sense. Like some folks I am not a woman deep down inside — at least not completely.) I’ve been accused of being part old woman (I have plants, birds, can cook, knit, crochet, cross-stitch, like to garden and generally hold an intelligent conversation while looking a large breasted woman in the face), but that is not really true. I was just raised to be open minded– yeah that’s it! Anyways… how freaking hard is it to have shopping for things that just approximate current styles? Am I now required to purchase casual shoes with a minimum sole thickness of 2″? Why OH F@#$#ING WHY is there not a good place to get a hot shave ? (Ok, that one appears slight dandy, but if you have never experienced one — shut up. You know not of what you ridicule. Besides at somepoint we men get married and need equal ability to spend $50 on “spa treatments” — I prefer mine to be functional as well.)

• Housing. Ok — here is the big one bugging me of late. Perhaps I was just spoiled in my apartment, but is it really that hard to build a house today that does not look like either a complete cookie-cutter subdivision nightmare or that the “architect” (and I only use that word because they insist on calling themselves that..) went to the Helen Keller Corel Draw School of House Design by Number? Good god — let us take 10 parts fucked up layout, knee walls, vaulted ceilings and pre-fabbed furnishings, mix with 42 parts assbarn derived roof lines (seriously — 40% of your front eleveation is shingles — Hellllooooo!), toss in a sprinkling of insanity with siding choices — honestly, neutral brick and greyish-beige steel siding. HAVE SOME DAMN imagination. The real horrors come on the inside of these places — carpets, gas fireplaces, odd shaped rooms, sanitized wall coverings, and just BAD decorating. I’m just about to put the pool of architects designing these monstrosities into the same pool as laywers — Flabby Hunks Of Whale Shit, Inc. Also — would it be impossible to design a large house that doesn’t take the GNP of a small country to heat and cool ? For fuck sake.

This weekend was interesting.

Friday night was very relaxing and needed. The Portana picked me up after we both finished up work earliesh — like 4.30 pm or so. We headed down the Copper Colander to drool over the real kitchen gadets and appliances. The store is pretty solid, but it was missing my favorite brands for knives and cookware. I’m a big fan (for no reason really) of the Henkel 4 Star and for really good reasons the Calphalon One cookware. I’ve got a few of both and have been extremely happy with them. After CC, a nice dinner at the 11 cafe, then headed out to the new Furniture Row to gawk at stuff. Nothing much of interest, save for a $174 bean bag (it was not $174 nice, more like $75), and a really nice $300 leather coffee table that might have to come home with me some day. I think I found my next mattress set too, but that is a year or 3 off. A stop to the Petsmart and Costco for Dog, Cat, and Bird food, toys, bedding, etc. Sigh, little buggers are expensive. Cute, yes but expensive.

Saturday night… gift exchange with my usual group of friends. There was a ton of Elk related foods (Kris got one too!) and the usual liberal quantities of booze. I made some Tandoori drumsticks for the crowd, seemed to go over pretty well. A good time had by all, and some quite interesting gifts. One was a dildo-catcus, died green and needles for spines. I am still shaking my head over that one. We all drank enough, some cough cough more than others. Thankfully I had a lovely person to give me a ride home. At least I think that is how I got home.

Sunday morning sucked. I was quite well hung, and not in the Enzite way. Recovery was a bit slow in coming, but a nice long day of sofa denting was a proper reward for doing battle against the evils of alcohol over-production. Watched a ton of football — some good, some bad. It was a nice relaxing day and I’m glad to get back to work for once

BTW — did I put out some sort of sign? Today is the second time in as many weeks that I’ve gotten an email asking me if I’m interested in a new job. I’m not looking, really, but the offers are flattering and it does give me some options should I choose to move along there. Intersting days…

So — nothing much on a personal note. It is cold & snowy. Elk tastes good. Christmas shopping time.

But! I do have a few gems from this week that made me chuckle:

• In general, if you don’t watch the Daily Show you should. Really! Trust me. It will make you smarter and reduce unsightly back hair.

• Phil is again writing again, to his usual high bar of hillarity. If you want to pee yourself laughing, read the trials and tribulations of showering while tired. Good stuff Meynard. If you’d like to waste a few days at work (not that I would know…), just read the archives.

• Discussion of things you’ve done while tired — stemming from Phil’s post:

  • Into the shower with glasses, underwear
  • Face lotion in the hair, gel on the face
  • Falling asleep on the toilet, in the shower
  • Clothes on backwards, mismatched socks, etc
  • OJ on the cereal, milk in the glass
  • Bowl of cereal in the cubpoard, milk in the frigde, drag the box of cereal to the desk
  • Keyboard marks on the forehead
  • Got any more — add em in the comments!

• Monkeys and well…just read it.

• Work:

<brian> nic: here’s something else to learn… there is something worse than having to take the vetting bitch hat and thong from the hook and put them on…
<nic> oh ?
<nic> brian: do tell
<brian> having to take them from somebody else and put them on.
<nic> ewww. warm thong

• Pickups and snow are fun — nothing like driving sideways on purpose. Some people are less than amused sometimes. Is it wrong that is a bit amusing in itself — or just mean? I can’t decide …. I’m gonna be sleeping alone for a while…

• Don’t lock yourself out of the house in a t-shirt, jeans and slippers. Especially when it is -6F outside and there is 6-8″ of snow… and you have to scale a metal and concrete balcony to get back in. Cold. And hands stick to metal when the snow melts.

  • Part 2. Don’t tip-toe through snow with bare feet to close the gate so the dog doesn’t get out. It burns us!

Well — she is tall, blonde, sexy as all get out and most importantly here — so catch ya later folks!

Have a good weekend folks, I know I will Just remember — only 12 shopping nights left until my birthday. If in doubt, send bottle of Port and a promise to visit.

Fug….fug….FUG. What a day, hell what a week. Work has been sucking a bit of the life out of me this week — just stressful issues with testing and such. Kinda one of those weeks where you look at what you got done on Friday and say “gee, that almost is visible”. I think there should be a large mark on my forehead by now too from all the of the head-against-wall whacking.

But I digress… TGIF! So — it has snowed every day this week. Snow makes me a happy man. I’ve got a fireplace, a dog, a canoodling gf and ample quanities of food & booze. It is gonna be a good night I’m looking forward to a nice slow-brained evening, possibly getting hammered flat. I could do it, I swear. This weekend is looking up - I’m on the hunt in the house here for my Christmas Tree decorations…I’m really hoping I got those in the move. If I find those, gotta get a tree — something about that smell. You people with your fake trees and fake holidays — BAH!

The “group of us” is heading up to RockDodge town for a night of drinking in a small town. Why? Someone needed to burn a gift certificate to a hotel up there…and the rest of us are going too. Not staying in the same room though, I don’t like anyone that much There has been promise of snowshoeing on Sat, and I’m sure I will freeze, fall over, get snow in very unfortunate places and have a generally fantastic time.

Well — here is to you and your weekend, now get the fug out of my way, I’ve got time to waste!

So — the butchering was actually done Monday, but I’ve been so scatterbrained and busy with work that I didn’t get up to the Heights to pick up my Elk meat. It turns out I lost a good chunk of meat , perhaps 10-15lbs or so, from the neck due to spoilage. It was just too warm when I got it and the subseqent days for anything else to happen. Bummer, but these things happen. The good news is that I got a ton of meat from it, I mean wow! I had two big boxes — probably close to 200lbs total. About 100lbs of it is just steaks and roasts. I must have 30 or 40 packages of just steaks and roasts. There were ~50 packages or better of burger too. I froze ~15 or 20 of them, but still managed 62 lbs of burger into the Meat and Poultry Palace here for sasauge. I am getting 40lbs each of sweat and hot italian, 15 lbs each of smoked summer and polish. (They add 1-1 for fresh and 1-2 for smoked from ground pork). All told, a $400 butcher bill, but I should have 200-250 lbs of meat. Thank goodness for the Portana and the Mom for letting me use freezer space. Pilotman is getting a good box of Elk once it is done for the immense amount of help he and his father gave dragging this thing out.

I also got the skull from the butcher too — he skinned it and left it just right so I can take it to the taxidermist and get mounted. Now that it is all cleaned up (for the most part…) — boy is that going to look great on the wall. Hopefully it fits in the office, or I’m going to have to find room on in the living room or bedroom. Nothing says sexy like a big set of horns over the headboard. Grunt