Monday, 26
FEB
07
Beck
- 'Cellphone's Dead'
- The Information (Interscope)
I know, it's been quite awhile since our last
update. A little over a week ago on our off-Friday we went over to New
Orleans during the day (before all the parade traffic madness started).
For lunch we went to a new Thai restaurant in the Marigny district
called Sukhothai (because the African restaurant we planned to go to
appeared as if it wasn't open). It was a small, but quaint place (I
think there was a coffee shop or bar in the same location previously).
The menu had lunch specials as well as dinner items, and a nice variety
of curries, soups, noodle dishes, and stir fried dishes. I ordered the
pad thai and Kelly had the drunken noodles. Both were really good and
definitely the best Thai food we've had in New Orleans. We'll
definitely go back and take Jason and Ellen sometime. After lunch we
caught the first showing of the documentary 'American Hardcore',
which interviewed some of the 'icons' of the early 80's hardcore punk
rock in the United States (including Henry Rollins, H.R., Ian MacKaye,
and Keith Morris). It was interesting and entertaining, although it
left out a lot of the women in the punk rock movement, didn't interview
Jello Biafra (maybe he declined or wanted too much money), and wasn't
very critical or in-depth in what it covered. There is also a book that
the film was based on, but I haven't read that yet. Kelly and I both
grew up listening to some of the groups in the film, although I admit
that I was pretty young and discovered many of them after they had
'peaked'. We were the only two in the whole theater (although it was
the 12.45pm showing on a Friday afternoon) so we were able to cheer and
have some good laughs at the film, as well as critique and criticize
some of it out loud. After the film we went to Whole Foods and headed
home.
The rest of the weekend was spent on cleaning up the guest bedroom. We
threw out a lot of junk, plus we put many of our books into some
stackable bins we had purchased at The Container Store in Dallas. It
was nice to stow all of the books we have already read and put the
stacks from the floor onto the shelves for future reading. The room
looked 70% better after our cleaning. We wanted it to look a little bit
better for when Matt and Tymbre visited.
During the week we watched the Avs play inconsistantly as they have all
season. They won a couple, then lost the next few. It really doesn't
look promising for them to make the playoffs at this point. Kelly has
already said she's going to root for Pittsburgh all the way to the
Stanley Cup. I still haven't decided who I'd really like to win the
Cup. Since Nashville picked up Peter Forsberg from Philadelphia, I
wouldn't mind seeing them hoist the Cup. In April we're hoping to be
able to take a hockey playoff road trip some weekend and go see Atlanta
play then go up to see Nashville play. At this point both teams should
make the playoffs, although Atlanta is a little bit more questionable,
although with the big trade acquisitons they made this past weekend
(Keith Tkachuk and Alexei Zhitnik) they may be able to move up in the
standings and go deeper into the playoffs. The annual 'playoff picks'
tournament should prove to be interesting this year.
Thursday night my brother Matt and his partner, Tymbre, arrived from
Colorado. Tymbre had a convention in New Orleans over the weekend, but
they rented a car and stayed at our house. Tymbre left early Friday for
the convention, then Kelly, Matt, and I went to New Orleans and had
lunch at Commander's Palace. After lunch we took Matt on the 'New
Orleans eco-devistation tour' driving through the Ninth Ward and into
Chalmette, then back into the city so Matt could meet Tymbre at the
hotel where they were having the big awards banquet that evening. Kelly
and I went to Whole Foods and the mall, then headed home. Saturday
Kelly baked cookies (two kinds) and made spinach and artichoke dip for
poker night while I took Matt to the coffee shop with free Wi-Fi access
so he could get some school work done, then down to Bay Saint Louis to
pick up lunch at Trapani's and drive down the beach and show him some
of the damage there. The rest of the afternoon Matt came back to our
house to work since the router at the coffee shop wasn't working
properly and I watched some hockey. We had a good sized group of 16 for
poker on Saturday night. Matt ended up taking me out before we merged
tables, but Kelly, Matt, and Tymbre were all at the final table,
although Kelly and Tymbre went out kind of early. Matt ended up in
fourth place while Jason took first, his brother Darrin took second,
and Alan took third. It was a fun evening.
Sunday morning Tymbre went back over to New Orleans for the closing at
the convention while the rest of us slept in some. Kelly made waffle
batter and I baked the waffles for the four of us when Tymbre got back
home. She took a nap, Kelly and I sat on the patio and read a bit, and
Matt worked on the computer, then I watched some of my anime programs
because it was getting a bit too warm outside. We left the house at 4pm
and drove down the coast from Pass Christian to Biloxi to show them the
damage and progress (mainly new high-rise condos). We ended up at Beau
Rivage where we had dinner reservations at Jia,
the multi-Asian food restaurant. We ordered a variety of appetizers,
noodles, and sushi. It was all really good, plus some of the sushi
specialty rolls were familiar because the former sushi chef at Shiso in
Ocean Springs works at Jia. We're planning to go back with Jason and
Ellen on my birthday and look forward to trying some of the other
dishes on the menu.
Matt and Tymbre had to leave early this morning (3am from our house to
drop off the rental car and make Tymbre's 5.30am plane), so we said our
goodbyes and they went to bed. Kelly watched some of the Oscar Red
Carpet show that she had recorded plus we watched the Avs lose again,
and I got on the computer for awhile. One of the sites I enjoy
frequenting often lately is Danny
Choo's site. He's an otaku in Japan who sometimes wanders around
wearing a full Stormtrooper outfit. He has numerous awesome photos of
his adventures around the city of Tokyo as well as an impressive
collection of anime figures (which he reviews), and reports from the
anime and toy events, plus much more. Gary and I plan to go find him
when we take our own otaku trip to Japan.
Now it's a new week and back to the old routine. I have a list of shows
collected for the shows list, but I'm not motivated to add them
tonight. Maybe later this week. This coming weekend I'll be helping out
at the Briar/Badlands
Battle mountain bike race. I'll be at the registration table
calculating times. Should be nice weather for a race. I was considering
racing before my ankle injury, but maybe later in the year. My goal is
to be riding again by May 1. I go to the orthopedist in two weeks so he
can tell me it's okay to put weight on my ankle again and continuing
with the physical therapy until my leg is strong enough to get back to
near normal. Man, I sure was stupid to break my ankle.
-posted by Chris
Wednesday, 14
FEB
07 Happy Valentine's Day!
Jack
Jones - 'I'll Never
Fall In Love Again' - DJ Andy Smith's The Document II (Classic/Illicit)
So for Valentine's Day I decided to list some
things that I love as of late:
I love the new NHL commercials with the players being "just like me
& you." (Alexander
the Great vs the candy machine & Fun with the
All-Stars)
I love Justin Timberlake's SexyBack song...yep, I admit it.
I love when Jon Stewart does his President Bush imitation laugh.
I love the
book I'm currently reading
(Lovely Bones). Thanks, Matt! Now if
only I could manage to stay awake long enough to read more of it.
I love the new The Shins
record...even if I haven't listened to it nearly enough.
I love trying new recipes. Like Dorie
Greenspan's World Peace cookies. They're awesome!
I love John
Buccigross' weekly NHL article. Even if he never answers my e-mails.
I love waking up in the middle of the night and finding Josie curled up
next to me, sound asleep.
I love going to new places, even if they turn out to be not the
greatest place to visit (like Bahrain).
I love playing poker...at least when I feel like I'm playing well. Oh
yeah...and am getting good cards.
I love the song I posted for Valentine's Day. I listened to it over and
over again on the ship...not because of the lyrics so much as the
skippy drum beat.
And of course...I love my husband & kids. Even if Chris is
temporarily crippled
and the kitty-girls are monsters.
Hope you had a nice time celebrating what you love today. Or even if
you chose not to celebrate (like me & Chris). Well I guess I kind
of
celebrated with this here blog and I will at least toast the day with
some chocolate!
-posted by Kelly
Wednesday, 7
FEB
07
Cut
Chemist - '(My 1st) Big Break' - The
Audience's Listening (Warner
Brothers)
I was hoping to have a picture of my Stormtrooper boot and my
Frankenscar, but the batteries in the digital camera died so I am
recharging them today. Maybe later I'll add the photos.
I'm sitting at home today because we took the Element in to the Honda
dealer this morning for the 60,000 mile tune-up. Probably a good idea
since we're heading up to Dallas this weekend. I've actually been a bit
more mobile the past week. I've been attending physical therapy 2-3
times per week and following up at home with my exercises, so slowly my
ankle is increasing the range of motion. I went back to work on Monday
after PT for the first time. It was only part time because it was a bit
difficult to get comfortable, plus the drive itself is a bit tiring.
Yesterday I brought a pillow and propped my foot up on my computer
table without the boot on, and it was much better than Monday. I got
more done than the previous day and it was good to get out of the house
and back into more of a 'normal' routine.
Over the weekend we kept busy. Friday was our off day (well, the past 3
weeks have been off days for me), but Kelly was off, so she headed over
to Lenscrafters in New Orleans to get a new pair of sunglasses while I
stayed home and went to PT and a planning meeting with the Gulf Coast Bicycle Club
for the mountain bike race we're hosting in a month. Sadly, I won't be
racing, but I volunteered to help out and will be sitting at the
registration/timing table for the day. While Kelly was in New Orleans,
she went to see 'The Last King
of Scotland', which I've wanted to see as well, but haven't made it
yet. She said it was really good and that Forest Whitaker should win
the Oscar for Best Actor because she really believed that he was Idi
Amin. In the evening after I got home from the bike club meeting we
watched tv.
Saturday afternoon we watched the Avs blow it against Edmonton and lose
again. After the game we headed over to Slidell. First, we got coffee
at Starbucks, then Kelly ran into Sam's Club while I waited in the car
(I still am not mobile enough on my crutches to be of much assistance
when shopping). One of the things we purchased, which I said I would
never do (and Kelly still laughs at me about it), is get me an iPod
Nano. It's only 2GB, but I've really gotten into the availability of
podcasts on iTunes. There are quite a few on that site for free, as
well as elsewhere on the web. It seems that everyone is creating
podcasts. I still don't like the fact that programs/music downloaded on
iTunes can only be transferred to an iPod player, but now I've bought
into the hype. It's actually pretty cool and I've filled it up with a
variety of the free downloadable programs such as 'All Songs
Considered', 'This American Life', and 'The Melrose Line'. When I was
driving to work yesterday I plugged my player into the AUX jack in the
car and listened to one of the programs. Nice. Anyway, after Sam's Club
we went and had dinner at Quizno's. Quick, inexpensive, and not very
crowded so I was able to put my boot up on one of the chairs at our
table. After eating we went to see 'Pan's Labyrinth'. It's kind
of like a dark fairy tale from the perspective of a young girl. What an
excellent film. It was very visually stimulating (including some
graphic violence) and told a good story, plus the acting was very good.
The theater itself was the Grand Theater that opened in late December
and has a location in D'Iberville. We sat in the front row of the
stadium seating section so I could prop my foot up on the railing. Very
nice.
Sunday we watched some hockey in the afternoon, then we watched the
Superbowl. Not that we were too interested in the teams playing,
although we wanted Peyton Manning to earn some respect and get his ring
by beating the Bears who put the Saints out of the playoffs. It was
horrible rainy weather which provided many turnovers, but overall it
was a pretty decent game. The commercials weren't too spectacular,
although there were a few that we had a good laugh at.
So, that's the condensed week in review. This weekend is my first big
challenge when we go to the hockey game in Dallas. Kelly thinks that
I'll have some problems hobbling down to our seats in row G, but I said
if we get there really early (before the main crowds arrive) and I
plant myself in my seat for the duration, it shouldn't be too bad. It's
the game of the week on NBC, so look for us if you're so inclined.
We're sitting in the lower level across from the player benches towards
the left corner section. We're excited after watching the Avs play a
bit better last night and defeat Florida in overtime. Dallas will be a
tough game, but with John-Michael Liles back in the line up last night
and tough guy, Brad May, scheduled to be back in the line up beginning
tomorrow night against Atlanta, we're expecting it to be a wild game.
Ian Laperriere has been the only one to fight with Brad May out, but
with May back maybe we'll get to see some retribution after last year
when a Dallas player took out Marek Svatos for the season. Either way
we're looking forward to it and will have a report when we get back on
Monday. We're also looking forward to seeing our teacher friend from
Corvallis, Mr. Day. He lives in Denton and said he'd have us over for
dinner when we get into town on Saturday night. Yee-haw!
-posted by Chris