Author: Thom

These are the days that Lisa acts as a mother to me. For some reason, I hate zipping my jacket shut despite the frigid temperatures. Actually, I know the reason – it makes it more difficult to reach things in my pocket. It’s not so much that I hate zipping my jacket as it is that I am too lazy to have to deal with unzipping and then re-zipping it whenever I pay for a cup of coffee. Yes, this is the type of laziness that one must plan out in advance.

I must admit that I’m enjoying a return to real winter weather. Nothing kills your optimism for the new year like watching An Inconvenient Truth (by the by, an incredible movie) and then walking outside in short-sleeved shirts in the middle of January. Oh no, global warming is totally a myth…

The real issue is the constant changes. When we used to have real winters up here, and the temperatures would somewhat gradually get colder until you just became accustomed to not feeling your extremities for months at a time, it wasn’t a big deal. Now we get spoiled by beach weather for a week only to have the temperature plunge down enough to freeze the vodka in your martini the instant you set it down in your car’s cup holder…

That’s enough to make me want to buy a fleet of SUVs and keep them running 24-7 around my house… But then I find out that adorable little penguins are disappearing all around the globe and I snap right back into my normal frame of mind and start forcing Escalades off the road and slashing the tires of Hummers…

Site5 has been a fantastic host for me so far, and they’re about to get even better. I’ve decided that paying for web service like a reseller is just plain silly, and it’s time for me to switch to a sensible plan. Thanks to their $5 deal, I’ve cut the cost of running this (and other sites) by 75%.

Unfortunately, the switch might not be so smooth. So don’t be surprised if you experience some wonkiness around these parts tonight or tomorrow.

See you on the flip side….

EDIT: Everything appears to be go! I’m sure it’ll take some time for all DNS servers to update, but at least I’m getting the new site.

Since my last post was a bummer, here’s one to cheer you up:

I’ve probably watched this 20 times or so over the last two days.

Yesterday was… let’s just say it was bad. I’m not foolish enough to post the problems of my work life on my blog for just anyone to read, but let’s just say that I felt like I got sucker punched yesterday. And it really hurt coming during a week when I really felt like I had patched up a lot of loose issues and moved forward. Fortunately I had already taken today as a personal day – of course that could be why I was already somewhat emotional.

Yesterday was also the third anniversary. As much as I might pretend that the loss doesn’t hurt as much, this time of year always brings it to the forefront. So today, Lisa and I are heading down to have lunch with my Mom and pay our respects at the cemetery.

Nothing overly dramatic. No wailing or gnashing of the teeth. Just getting together to talk about what’s going on. I definitely need some sort of release, so if I’m still not at ease by tonight, I fully expect the rest of that bottle of wine to disappear before bedtime.

But it still has the entire second album by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah to listen to for free two weeks before it’s released.

Dear god, it has begun. Again. I’m still trying to swear off the show. Again. Unfortunately, Lisa wants to watch some of it. Actually, the first bit I caught was simply because I was stuck behind my laptop when the premiere episode started. But after they spent 10 minutes talking up the first contestant and her love for Jewel only to humiliate her immediately, I was ready to throw a rock at the TV to make it stop.

Tonight I decided to be a good husband and let Lisa watch some to satisfy her curiosity. And it confirmed that the show is going downhill REAL FREAKIN’ FAST. I once admitted my admiration of Simon Cowell, but somewhere along the way he either snapped or (more likely) was told by TV execs that he wasn’t being enough of an asshole. Now he just tries to insult people outright without even listening to their abilities. It’s truly pathetic.

One guy from Venezuela came on and had a very good voice, and was told by Simon, “Absolutely not.” He was better than the majority of the finalists from the last few years, but Simon is far more concerned with his own image than the talent in front of him. The fact that he criticized the one Indian girl as not being unique when he supported Carrie Underwood so much emphasizes the hypocrisy.

Ugh, I’m totally rambling, as the show is even negatively effecting my own ability to write. If Lisa insists on watching anymore of this, you can bet I’ll be in the office for it.

I love geek humor. I love music humor. Therefore I love this:

I was all set to write some rambling rant about how pissed off I was that Andy Reid quit on the team with 2 minutes left and ordered a punt when we needed to go for it. Alright, I just summarized my bitching there, but that’s all I’m going to do. I got my frustrations out on the Eagles’ Message Board, and I’m sure friends will hear all about it, too; but I’m not doing it here.

Instead I’ll just rave about what an awesome time I had hanging with my pals in the Hoboken Eagles Club. We packed around 160 screaming fans into only half of Mulligan’s (our usual back room had already been rented out for the night prior to the club moving there) and had a blast. Much like we have all season long. Here’s a big, hearty thank you to Sean from Philly2Hoboken.com for organizing this each year and bringing all of us displaced fans together. You can check out his pictures from last night which, since he’s a way better blogger than I, are already up on flickr. If you squint, you might even be able to make me out in this one:

The end of this season makes me a little sad, because I’m just not sure if I can make the club next year. I’m hoping by then to have a better setup for the game here at home, and the half hour drive and subsequent search for parking can just be too much of a hassle sometimes. It’s not like I’ll never get to see any of my buddies there again, but it won’t be a regular habit. Just another part of my crazy 20s in Hoboken gets ready to be laid to rest.

Well, it’s time for me to prepare for life after football again… hey, isn’t the Bears game on?

Check out the roads on this list! I’m not sure how Bolivia’s “Road of Death” isn’t #1, though.

And then she’s all mine. Not that my new Corolla isn’t mine yet, but in 13 miles I break that first 1000 mile barrier. And you know what that means? No, me neither…

Well, it’s been suggested that you shouldn’t drive over 50 or 60 or 65 MPH during that “breaking in” period. Much like not running too fast for the first month in a new pair of shoes. What? You guys don’t do that? Whatever, I went with 65 MPH because the few times I hit the highway I wasn’t about to ride the shoulder at 49. Of course, if I had RTFM I would have also found out that I shouldn’t have been using the cruise control, either. Whoops…

Since it’s about 7 or 8 miles between home and work, and I’ll also have to run out for lunch, there’s a good chance that none of this will mean anything come later tonight. Which means that the next time I hit the open roads of New Jersey, hello 75 and goodbye granny driving style.

Driving my old crapmobile really hindered my driving ability – well, that and the aftershock of my accident way back when. I have honestly not been as assertive ever since. But driving a car with real acceleration and braking ability certainly goes a long way in bringing back ye olde confidence. However, forcing yourself to brake the entire way down the crazy hills of I280 certainly goes a long way in keeping that confidence shaky. We’ll see how well she opens up for me on my way into Hoboken Saturday night – then she’ll be all mine. Honestly, there was no way for that last sentence to not come out dirty…