Ode to Dolphins

Let's see what to write, what to write...

Wednesday, my wife told me to relax and go get myself a massage at the new place owned by Christiane Bourque, Ray Bourque's wife. "I don't know." I said. "Maybe I'll call in a bit."
"I'll swing by there on the way to work." she says.
"OK then".
I wait several minutes and she calls back.
"OK, your appointment is all set. Just bring your swimming trunks and something to read if you want."
"What did you set up?"
"You'll see."
Great, I thought. I got there and the place is very nice. I ended up getting in a whirlpool tub, a Swedish massage, and a pedicure. Yes, folks, a pedicure. My first one. It was quite nice actually and the people there were quite nice.

Yesterday, a bunch of co-workers had a big blowout lunch bash at a local Chinese restaurant. Around 50 to 60 people were there. Later that afternoon, I had my first regular eye exam in several years. Everything looks good and my perscription for glasses stayed the same, but the eye doctor adjusted the fit of my contacts and my right eye was bumped up a little because I have a bit of a stigmatism in both eyes. Nothing to be worried about she said. I've had on the new pair of contacts since last night and I'm not sure if I like them yet. My eyes have been sore, but it could just be because of the exam yesterday.

Today, was my last official day of work at my current job. Several other of my colleagues were being let go today as part of a three phase lay off. Hence, the big lunch yesterday. I've been at this job for almost 9 years and I'm going to miss all the people that I've known and grown great friendships with. The company... not so much. I'm sure we'll all be keeping in touch somehow.

Then why did you ask?

I was about to get in my car today from going to the ATM when some lady across the street in her car yells, "Excuse me, sir!". I looked up and saw she was about to turn onto the street from a convenience store parking lot and her head was sticking out of her window.

"Can you tell me how to get to Rte. 95 from here?" she bellowed.

"Hmm, let see." I replied and looked up and down the street to get my bearings.

"Take a right at these set of lights," I pointed, "then go onto Rte 128 South and you will pick up Rte 95 from there."

She looked at me with a puzzled look, then proceeds to ask a lady walking back to her car the same question. I looked at them as this person gives a totally different set of directions to God knows where.

Do I not give directions properly? I would have shrugged it off, but this isn't the first time this has happened to me. Was I speaking in some foreign tongue that confused the recipient? Was she expecting me to say, "You're driving on 95 right now! Congratulations!"

When the lady drove off, I got in my car and thought, "Did that just happen again? What the..." Maybe next time my answer will be, "You can't get there from here".

Mason heads to the Final Four

It was one for the ages. Top seeded UConn was single-handedly ousted in OT on Sunday by 11th seeded James Mason.

"I didn't think he had it in him, " said UConn coach Jim Calhoun. "I mean, I knew it wasn't going to be a cake walk for us because he made it this far, but come on, he's been dead for over twenty years now."

The feelings were mutual among his players.

"Coach told us not to play possum with this guy, " said forward Rudy Gay. "That dead guy got skills."

When asked of his performance, Mason went into a five minute soliloquy on the game. "I'd like to thank all my constituents back in Yorkshire. The University of Connecticut provide an excruciatingly tough match-up for me, but alas, with the grace of God, I came out victorious. I look forward to my next endeavor. God save the queen."

Chicken Balls told to pluck off

America voted... and they said enough of the Chicken Little kid. It was inevitable. American Idol's own Chicken Little, Kevin Covais, could only get so far with his cuteness and downright dorkiness. While his singing abilities are fair and questionable at best, Mr. Little managed to make it to the top 11 of this season's contest. After his performance on Monday night, Simple Simon Cowell was overheard saying to Paula backstage, "if that little chicken sh*t makes it one more week, I'm going to get incredibly annoyed." So ends the reign of the nerdy kid from New York. Stay tuned next week as Randy says, "Dog. Yo, dog. You dog know the doggity dog dog, ya dog."

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Oh the humanity!

Did someone plan this today?

My wife and I went to the 9's for lunch/dinner with her cousin and fiance this afternoon when I saw this on one of the TV screens while waiting to be seated. I mean come on...

Allow me to be blunt

Today is Bloggy's first birthday! Hooray! They grow up so fast. (sniff)

My wife and I just came back a little while ago from Boston. We came from a three song set performed by James Blunt at the State Room. This is part of a local FM station's Mix 98.5 Mix Lounge. What a great view of the city's skyline!! We were up on the 33rd floor and the room had about maybe 50 to 100 people at most. They served hors d'oeuvres that included cheese and crackers, grilled veggies, and we tried oyster florentine and spring rolls. yummy. My wife randomly won them yesterday when she was calling the station to request an Irish song they've been playing all day. She wanted me to hear it because I didn't know what it was. (still don't, lol) She kept calling and then finally someone picked up and said 'Please hold', then next thing you know she was talking to the DJ. Good job, honey!!

The show lasted half hour so we were in the State Room for a total of an hour, but it was well worth it!! We walked into Quincy Market afterward and had some lunch--clam chowder in a bread bowl with crab cakes. A wicked pissa!!!

It's not easy being green

And a Happy Evacuation Day to everyone in the blogosphere! I was trying to coming up with some witty words on this St. Patrick's Day, but I can't think of anything other than Happy Birthday to my sister who's name is not Patricia!

Priceless

MasterCard is having a contest to make your own Priceless commercial based on two commercials. This is kind of neat. You can put some silly stuff on there and watch them fill it in before submitting it.

Beware the...

Google's word (up) of the day:

Ides: the fifteenth day of March, May, July, and October, and the thirteenth day of the other months.

OK, that's strange...

Is it me or do these two guys look the same?

Hi, I'm not Casey Kasem

Ever wonder the #1 song was in the country when you were born? Well, thanks to this site now you can. Saw this off another blog and thought it was very cool.

So keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars... or something.

No whammies!

Son of a... I just read this on Yahoo that Peter Tomarken, host of Press Your Luck was killed in a plane crash yesterday. wtf is going on.

Celtic pride

I went to my first Celtics game on Friday night with my brother-in-law. His boss gave him a couple of tickets and we ended up sitting in a luxury box. Holy crap what great seats! That's the way to go to watch a sporting event. The game was actually good until the Celts pissed the game away at the end. Oh, how I wish I would have gone to see a game in the 80's when the Celtics were unstoppable. Ah well. It was a fun time though.

The Grouch

I didn't watch the Oscars on Sunday even though it was hosted by Jon Stewart. I did, however, catch a cold over the weekend which is quite sucking. My brain feels mushy. Time to get some rest.

What the heck is going on in Hollywood.

Yet another actor has passed away. wtf. Jack Wild, who played in Oliver Twist and H.R. Pufnstuf, died Wednesday of mouth cancer. He was 53.

But baby it's cold outside

I've been up since 3:00AM because I woke up and realized that there was no heat in the house. I called the 24-hour service line and got a hold of someone. (score!) The guy told me to hit the reset button and presto! the furnace turned on. Cool, I thought. So I waited until the upstairs and basement heated to the proper temperture. The basement heated up, but the main floor upstairs had still not kicked in. OK. I figured maybe the water wasn't heated enough yet to go through the pipes. A hour later, nothing. I called back. Got their answering machine this time. I left a message for them to call back. (On the message, it says if it's an emergency to leave a message.) A half and hour passed and no call back. I called them again. Left another message stating that I know that they are probably busy but if they can't make it then I'd try someone else.

Still nothing. I tried calling another oil company and got an answering service. The nice lady stated that if you are not a customer of the company, they won't come out to your house (wtf, I'm thinking). The lady told me that the answering service is for several oil companies in the area and that's how they operate. I hung up and called our oil company. I get the same lady on the phone. I did say that such-and-such oil company was our provider so she took my name and number down and waited for some to call back.

Someone finally did within the half hour and now we are waiting for them to come by to check it out. In the meantime, both upstairs and downstairs now has no heat as both are both the thermosat settings. Such a hassle. 24 hour service, my foot. It should say

"We provide 24 hour service.... but not in a row!"

Update: The service guy from the oil company came by as I was finishing this post and luckily it was not anything major. Air and dirt built up in the pipes so the water wasn't flowing properly to the furnace. The guy flushed out the pipes and everything seems to be working now. Whew. I was afraid somewhere the pipe was frozen.

The other good thing about it was that I was able to watch Monty Python on PBS while waiting for these guys.