Tis the season...

The winter vacation is great for quiet time. While you're at home visiting family, unwrapping the Wii or on a beach somewhere, I get to enjoy a quiet city. This is the only time nobody's in the stores, on the street, in museums, galleries, or theatres. Sure the bars fill up at night, but since the mid-morning is a more appealing time of day, no worries. I've got a stack of books to read, cookbooks from the library, a few internet radio stations, and the heat's on (the tradeoff for two sweaters is a sore nose- a deal well worth the price). Years ago I did Christmas Eve at the movies... could be a good time to resurrect that one. Agreeing to visit a pal's cat 2-3 times a week will liven things up too.

toy boat, toy boat, toy boat, toy boat

I wrote a toungue twister. It's not that great but I came up with it by accident. I was walking through chinatown and noticed how it has spread north past Canal street and how the San Gennaro Festival gets a little smaller every year. Anyway JPR had the one-smart-fella number listed on her blog so I thought it would be fun to share. Here goes:

Little Italy is getting littler; literally, a littler little Italy.

a farewell to kitty

Some bad news. I had to put down the Orange Cat yesterday. He'd gotten into something he shouldn't have eaten on Saturday, was really sick most of Sunday. We spent the evening and most of the night in the Emergency Room. It apparently obstructed and strangled his insides, and the doctors were talking about a long and complicated surgery with a hard recovery for him. Remembering '04, he completely freaked out with a soft cast on a broken paw, I decided it would be too rough on him and had him humanely euthanized.

I have surely complained about his faults, for he had several. He couldn't slow down and enjoy his food, or be content to live and let live with any non-humans, or sit on laps for more than two minutes. Territorial, instigative, moody and would not be denied, whether it was getting into a closet or breaking a monitor by pushing it off a desk.

Past all that, he was a happy pet that kept me company for 8 years. A talented hunter and climber, he had caught and killed houseflies, horseflies, roaches, ants, centipedes junebugs, moths and mice. He was on a first name basis with all the nooks and crannies (and the ceiling!) of the last four places I lived scared the crap out of one dog. He was an excellent page-holder for all kinds of reading materials, enjoyed watching tv with me, and curling up for one of a thousand naps. He never failed when it came to doing dishes, helping to clean up leftovers, and pointing to sinks that were left running. There can be no replacement for him and he will be missed.

I killed my kitty.

I killed my kitty.

hall-light green

well, I just saw a doctor.

anyway he said my leg is not seriously injured, just tight. All I have to do is some heat therapy and stretching, and it should be better. Same thing with my neck- and he showed me some stretches for those. So I'm going to take my friggin vacation after all. Get the friggin out of Dodge. Play me some leg-ball. Get me some sunburn. Mebbe get me a little bloody. sweet.

Obsess. repeat. repeat. repeat.

Wow again. I look back and see there's no continuity here. as of last august 28, I had no job. 

Okay, so the really short update. Get the job, start mid-september with the expectation to be looking for work again in six months. In december I asked to be taken on full time, and they take me. more yay. I had half of my last dental visit reimbursed, have a physical this tuesday which will also nicely be paid for. 

I read some books... "this book will save your life" by a.m. homes, two by murakami (wind-up bird is the one to read- skip 'norwegian wood'), a few short ones I can't quite remember, six different hats, the 'lord of the rings' trilogy (again), one about money, one about fasting, the Death of Vishnu by Vikram Lall was pretty good, 'hypochondria can kill' was entertaining, Dylan Thomas' collection called "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog" (amazing!), something by Phillip Roth...  the Human Stain. The best one I read so far was called "Apathy". I was laughing on the train every freaking morning. I had a  few false starts with de Toqueville and Proust, one called 'the extreme future'. That's pretty cool actually. I hadn't realized I'd been reading so much lately. Thirteen in nine months. Not a lot, really, but more than I'd read since college. But there was too much back then. sixteen in one semester for one class? 

This update otherwise is by no means chronological. Went to practice sessions until late november when it got too cold and one two of the group started to get more annoying. Cease exercise until when, february? not entirely. I have been doing a lot of walking. Been doing 1-3 bouts of practice a week since feb, averaging 2.25/wk. So that's good. My game's *finally* improving too- more good. Was asked to play guitar at a wedding in december. I have to learn how to play those songs. Soon.

I started obsessing about espresso. obspresso. I read lots and lots of forums, reviews, articles, I go out and drink it a lot, as NYC has officially been hit with what they call the 'third wave' which means (in very short order) drinkable espresso is available. Since I don't have $1400 to drop on a reasonable grinder/machine for the house so I've been using an aeropress, which is made by the same guy who invented the aerobie. The current setup cost $225. The big part of that was the med-level grinder which hopefully will last forever or keep some resale value. The AP It uses twice as much coffee as espresso, frenchpress or melitta. not a lot of extra dough but it will add up in seven years.  I made up a whole cost-analysis spreadsheet. insanity. And the available kitchen space? forget it.

I just had a good chat with my dad and I'm easing down. priorities, man- priorites. he reminded me that he gave me a check last year to get the bottom row of my teeth straightened and naturally haven't done that yet either.  *That* explains why I haven't gone and dropped a dime on the machines. Okay, off for another cuppa joe and then laundry. and lunch!

Bleh-ish-ly blog. Hibernate. Repeat.

wow. last post was awhile ago. helpful. I started posting to another about this time last year, and haven't posted to that either. Funny! What is is about the late spring that makes me wanna write it down?

It's been so long, the text-editing page has been updated with that auto-saving-drafts. Too bad I can't make the page look more like that soft blue in Gmail.

Okay, so the reason for this post is that I did something for myself and felt like telling someone but without wanting a pat-on-the-back. Tuesday I crashed my bike, and my helmet was a little goofy- the plastic cradle-web thing in the back popped out, and the foam was malformed so it wouldn't go back in. I luckily had another helmet (same model, coincidentally) I took the working cradle off and popped it into the other one to make one functional, nicely fitting helmet. I'd bought the second one because the visor had cracked off the first one from... now, what was that- did I walk into a wall or a door or something? I can't recall. Doesn't matter. I was in Maryland and randomly walked into a bike shop, and they had a Giro Mojave '02 (size:small) on sale for 20 beans. A perfect backup- and now I don't have to buy a new one. Of course, since I'm using the one without the visor, so it's not as cool looking. That's okay.

So, the bike crash. Not sure how it happened. When I left the house I got about 50' out, swerved right, swerved left, and fell on my right side. I felt shaken but OK. The next day I was tight, swollen, and all twisted up, but took it easy (including a half-day of work on Wednesday) and now it's Sunday, and I'd say I'm at 90%. Lots of eating and sitting around waiting to convalesce is a pain in the bathroom scale- and it's tough to stay limber when you're avoiding stretching and light cardio for fear of reinjury.

Very psyched for the upcoming the green cup tournament, the partner thing will hopefully work itself out. We'll see what happens. Onto today: light cardio and stretching (as auto-promised) and some laundry! What a weekend. How is anyone who's not totally in love with their job satisfied with three nights and two days of not being there? Part of me is already at Thursday, 5am and getting to the airport.