Mommie's allright, Daddie's allright, they just seem a little weird

Cyber-greetings to all. Some cyber-apologies as well for dangling a Boston Part Deux Monday edition and then not posting a dang thing.

My parents were in town this past weekend.

Anyone that knows me or them should need no further explanation, and will be happy to know that my fists are now in down and unclenched positions and the wrinkle between my eyes is a mere crevasse.

They drive me crazy, as most parents do...but they take this enforced psychosis it to such bizarre extremes that I can usually win any "My parents are kookier than yours." contest with the amount of energy it takes to run a hotplate.... on low.

Disclaimer: It should be also duly noted, that I love both parents very much and realize that this over exuberance is merely delight in their firstborn.

Some fun tidbits from this bedlam visit:

A highlighted vacuum cleaner manual: Because sometimes the bold manufacturer's print is just not enough and who knows what anarchy might arise if the 'Hose Wand' is not firmly attached!

2 plastic Milk Crates: Normal enough yes, but the kicker is these were snatched from an alley behind Pier One by my mother while we waited for them to load a table in the car. Apparently she used these at home for my brother's jeans and they are 'a godsend'. To her credit, she also spent an hour scrubbing them out in my bathtub. That elbow grease will undoubtedly come in handy when she's convicted for petty larceny and put in charge of the prison laundry.

A clean 9-inch skillet: Both folks got in on this culinary contest. A pan I had used for grilled cheese was slighted scorched (I'm used to gas stoves) and harmlessly sitting in my drainer until I could remedy the problem. No less than 7 cleansing products and 4 attempts by each parent were involved. There was also a panic-stricken cry for a Jewel visit to bring in reinforcing cleansing troops, as it appeared the offensive pan was winning. In the end, I have a clean pan and a lecture on "How to properly cook on a electric stove" to show for this.

All and all it was a pretty successful visit, they are lovely people to see in short doses and no major structural damage was done. (The chuck to my drill was 'missing ' for most of the weekend!) As an added bonus, I no longer live like a savage and have properly alphabetized spices on civilized shelf liners.

And people wonder why I'm strange?

Just For Wookies with 50% Grey Coverage!

Okay, I promised Boston Part Deux, forgetting I had an appointment this morning! So here's a little Photoshop Phriday Phun! This came about when I realized Chewie had to be at least 50 years old by the original series...turns out by Episode 4 he's 200 according to the StarWars.com databank. He's looking good, but I don't think those highlights are natural!

Now in and Kashyyyk Khaki and Bantha Brown!

 

A Wicked Good Time: Part I

Pictures from my trip to Boston are finally up here! Here's Part I of the journey (Part II tomorrow):

Friday
Arrived at Chicago Midway around 4ish to beg for an earlier flight...which we received only to have it be delayed out of Minneapolis/St. Paul (my hometown) of all places! It is common knowledge that on a good day I'm a nervous flier, and I was not looking forward to the 2-hour purgatory sans ground to Logan. Bosco stepped up and kept me distracted and remarkably calm though, and as a bonus we can both recite the entire contents of the AirMall magazine! (It fascinates me that only when airborne it would occur to a person "HEY, there's that weed thrasher I've been meaning to get!")

Our arrival was once again delayed courtesy of the airport shuttle to the T, which runs with the frequency of tree sap. Upon embarking on the Blue Line T to the city, it was discovered by my rattled nerves that THIS particular train had an alert signal that strongly resembled an air raid siren. It's un-mellifluous *WWHHHAAAAAA* sent my teeth jittering every stop all the way into the city. The first "real" bit of Boston I saw was the steaming kettle on Court St. Thankfully, my beloved has endless patience and was a good sport while I stood slack jawed in front of said spectacle while pointing and jumping "IT STEAMS!!!" We then quickly dumped baggage at the Parker House, and went looking for dinner. (It was a nice place, though not as impressive as one would think for having hosted The Saturday Club and employing Malcolm X.)

Saturday
An early wakup call awoke us for a journey down to the workout room to accrue some mileage on the exercise-bikes (it's too close to the MS 150 ride to skip even a weekend of training!) We then ventured out to scavenge for breakfast, which was found at Finagle-a-bagle. This is the funniest, most ultra-violent bagel shop on earth...when you place you order, they send your bagel on a conveyor belt, which goes through a spinning 12-inch discus of doom to be sliced in half. Finally, cartoon violence has a place in real life!

The walking tour began and we whipped through downtown, up to Fenway for lunch at the Boston Beer Works and then on to Harvard. We were tempted to swipe some juice from the Physics Club Open House, but decided to obey the law and make goofy faces in front of the giant magnifying glass instead. A quick train ride back to Faneuil Hall then produced some tourist watching and a trip to the wicked cool toy store, Zoinks! (It was absolutely wicked cool and featured a life size Boba Fett!)

At this point exhaustion began to creep in, and it was decided to return to get our bags and take a nap in the Common before meeting "The Sister." The now 'blog-famous' Fried Dough stand was found and documented, as was a nice green space with squirrels to snooze. The travels the continued with a trip up to Brockton for dinner. "The Sister" was there waiting to pick us up and greeted me with "Ya Haat Him an' Ah'll Kill Ya....Hi, I'm J." Introductions over, we then continued to dinner at Christos, the local Greek restaurant.

A low-key Saturday night was spent in Taunton, Mass. with some friends and I was thrilled to just sit and ventilate for awhile.
-----------------------------------
Part II: Revenge of Sunday/Monday tomorrow!

and Paul Revere sneezed here....

Back from Boston! It was more fun than a boat full of tea! Full pictures posted tomorrow, apparently Chicago did not handle itself well in my absence and there are some messes to be cleaned up!

Follow the red brick line!

 

Meet the Keatings

Happy Friday to everyone! In a mere 10 hours I will be in flight to that Cradle of Modern America commonly known as Boston. I will also be meeting Bosco’s family for the first time. This has my stomach pulling loop-d-loops faster that a whole boxload of matchbox racers. I have been warned in particular about his sibling who hasn’t stopped sharpening her knives over his ex-wife, and of the fact that if she does threaten me such as:

“You haht mah brudha, and you betta book outta here or Ah’ll take ah clabbid to ya quayah skeeza skull.”

...that I would be pretty much helpless but to nod and say, “Mmm, okay then, what you said.”

(FYI: Blogger's spelling editor just about coughed up a formatting lung on that sentence above, RIP Lingo!)

That aside, I’m salivating over this mini-vacation, it will be my first one in about 3years! (I do NOT count going home (MN) as a vacation, that is a daughterly duty…when my parents move to the Virgin Islands, THEN it will be a vacation!).

Lastly, for those who are also trying to come off as a passable Boston Native, here’s a site I’ve been using to cram for this weekend.

Eat Your Heart Out, Architectural Digest!

Well, it might be a month or so before I can make so bold a statement! Pictures are up of the new place here. It still has that light film of moving dust on it, but various people that I share more than a chromosome or two with have been loudly bemoaning, "When can we see the new place?!" (Most of these people are a minimum of 400miles away, and due to their great fear of Chicago (as opposed to nice safe Zion?) and my incessant need to move, will only see my digs in cyberspace.)

So, the virtual welcome mat is officially out!

Issue 01: Tales from the Bike Trail

It is my intention to make this a regular feature on the blog, and I am a mere 5 moving boxes from making this a reality (I should really be cleaning, not blogging!) Over the past several weeks of riding I've noticed there is inevitably a moment of hilarity and one of such absolute stupidity, one would never imagine it could be topped...until the next weekend of rides when it is. So here's the first installment!

Funniest Moment: I had been conversing with mopundow Co-captain T about my purchase of an uber-comfy bike seat with gel padding and a love canal to relieve muscle stress. His reply?

"Love canal? Now all I can think of is Jimmy Carter and those silly yellow booties."

...and if he was wearing gel-insoles it would make the evolution of thought complete!

 
Stupidest Moment: A 50-year old couple, walking in the MIDDLE of the bike path. (There are 2-lanes one north, one south to be SHARED by foot, bike and other non-motorized transportation) This is a common occurrence, but what puts this in the Annals of D'OH is the fact that they were both carrying full cups of steaming coffee.... not paper from a coffee shop, but ACTUAL ceramic cups, no lids. This is next to bikers, joggers and rollerbladers whizzing by; anyone else smell the fresh grounds of a lawsuit?

Well, Ya Shure! You Betcha!

Unfortunatly, these phrases were not offered in the quiz, otherwise I'm sure my total would reflect "You might be a Midwestern hick if..." Funny nonetheless, although not to surprising that it's mostly Midwestern as I grew up in Minnesota...the Dixie makes somewhat sense as I was born in the Maryland/Virginia/DC vicinity, the Yankee I have no idea other than knowing quite a few folks from the Northeast, my beloved Bosco included!

Your Linguistic Profile:

50% General American English

20% Upper Midwestern

20% Yankee

5% Dixie

5% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

PS: Thanks to Logan'sDave for the tip on the quiz!

VH1 presents: Team mopundow, behind the riding

Our bike team for the MS Ride now has a team page, much thanks to our rider and programmer in residence J for doing a rockin job! She also, guessing correctly that it would take 5,000 emails and threatening of body part removal to get our loveable, but laissez fair members to write their own bios and submit pics, went ahead and gave us a "start". Mine is remarkably accurate, quite amazing considering she only met me for about 15min. There's even a picture that bears a remarkable resemblance to your humble author. It's quite fitting that all the captains are shown drenched in blood...that's right we will bleed for this team, and if it means eating live chickens, so be it!

Here's the link for the curious: team mopundow web site