Remember no man is a failure who has friends.
Anyone can tell their story, but an artist will make it a story worth telling.
Damn, this is good. Sometimes I wonder how I keep from going under.
While you’re here, be sure to check out my new gravatar. It is much older, grayer me. Times change, and so do I.
Miss K. celebrates her 3rd birth day today! She’s been anticipating this day all week… she would ask if “tomorrow, when the sun pops out, will it be my birthday?”
Today was finally the day. She celebrated with her friends at school yesterday, and today we hosted a party with her cousins: 7 kids between the ages of 1 1/2 to 8, running amok around my house… I need a drink.
OK, I also know I vowed not to be a re-publisher of content found at other Internet sites, but this one has been consuming my thoughts for the past few days. At lunch the other day, a co-worker was talking up that morning’s Howard Stern show; the show was “discussing” for lack of a better word a BBC documentary on persons with a very rare condition: objectum-sexuals whereby the afflicted fall in love with inanimate objects, and not the kind that you might necessarily be thinking of… we’re talking about things like The Golden Gate bridge… The Berlin Wall… a high-powered compound archery bow… and the object that gives the film its name I Married The Eiffel Tower. I was compelled to find this film on YouTube, and was absolutely mesmerized by this film (it’s available in several parts – I don’t have a link to point to just yet, but I’m sure you can find it yourself if you search YouTube for the movie title.) The main character of the film is a woman, about my own age, who seems completely normal, coherent, etc., … I would never be able to tell by looking at or listening to her that she’s got this condition, but wow! Anyway, if you’ve got the time, I suggest you take a look – again, I found it very, very compelling.
Once again this year, the Hamentaschen fairy has delivered a batch of freshly baked hamentaschen to my desk at work, in celebration of Purim… thanks so much to Mr. and Mrs. Clark for making these fresh baked goodies possible.
Wondering about hamentaschen and Purim? Click here for more info.
OK, so I vowed to be more prolific in 2009, to write more frequently, to be forward-looking, etc… So where have I been for the past month? Let’s just say,things have been, um. busy… Yeah, it’s not much of an excuse, but take it for what it is…
Anyway, now that I’ve got a few minutes, let’s catch up, shall we? The weather around here is finally getting warmer, although it’s been a bit overcast/drizzly for the past three days, which kind of stinks. I’ve already mentioned that I’m not a big fan of this Daylight Savings Time thing. I do appreciated it around June 22nd or so, but the loss of an hour’s sleep, on a night when I’m already up until 2:00AM, does some serious damage to my well being and peace of mind, i.e., I get cranky.
At this rate, I may be cranky all the way through the 1st Sunday in November, when I get my hour sleep back.
What’s been going on? Not too much, really. Things tend to slow down around here in the Winter, and it’s been pretty much the get-up-go-to-work-do-some-work-come-home-do-stuff-go-to-bed syndrome. March is when things start to warm up, the crocuses and snowdrops start to bloom, and the grape hyacinths, mini-daffodils and tulips start to push their heads through the soil. The house gets cooler, since the thermostat doesn’t need to regulate the daytime temperatures as much, and the windows start to open to the first warm breezes of Spring.
W. made his first reconciliation on 02/21, in preparation for his first Holy Communion on May 9 (which leaves plenty of time to commit a few more sins…)
W. and I had a Cub Scout sleepover at the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City… All of the packs in the Patriots Path council had the museum to themselves from 6:00PM 02/28 through 9:00AM 03/01. We slept in our sleeping bags on the floor of the Breakthroughs exhibit (albeit lights out was at 11:30PM – lights on at 6:30, so maybe I got 4 hours sleep??) which was a unique experience, to say the least. All in all, it was a fun time.
March is also the birthday month – both K. (on 03/14) and Mom (on 03/29) will be turning the page on another year…
I’m not the morning person, so this waking up in the dark is simply not helping things this morning…
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Valentine’s dinner was truly something to behold – the remoulade turned out perfectly, and the Piper Sonoma was the perfect complement. I was able to find the wine at Vine Republic over in Mountainside, so I picked up a couple of bottles. We (I?) finished bottle number one last night with dinner, and we’ll save bottle number two for our next dinner for two.
Dessert was prepared from a recipe I found on epicurious: Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cheesecake Brownies. Very rich, and these do take some time to prepare, but are worth the effort.
All in all, probably one of the best Valentine’s Days we’ve had in many a year.
I’m right now at Bridgewater sports arena for a laser tag birthday party for one of W.’s classmates. This place is pretty big and has several ice rinks for hockey parties and leagues. I just watched one game that ended in a 4-4 tie thanks to a late goal by the home team. I’d forgotten just how much I enjoyed playing hockey as a kid and I kind of wish I could skate better nowadays (shin splints limit my ability to skate too long.)
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I really do know that this Saturday is Valentine’s Day – I’ve known it for the past several weeks, and I know enough to let E. know that I know. So, in letting her know that I know that Saturday is Valentine’s Day, I had suggested that we stay at home and I will prepare dinner for her, which she thought was a great idea. Back in the day, when we were younger and had much more time, it was not an uncommon occurrence for me to prepare dinner for my significant other, but in the past few years those occurrences have really been few and far between, which is really a shame, since I do enjoy preparing a special dinner, and I am usually pretty good at it.
Anyway, so now that the plans are laid, the critical decision of what to prepare remains. I’m thinking perhaps shellfish… I recently read from a friend a recipe for a remoulade, which caught my attention as being something I’d love to try (thank you, Bubs); another friend recommended a Piper Sonoma Brut sparkling wine, which I believe will be a perfect match (thank you, missmew.)
I must admit at this point I am totally intrigued and pretty damn excited about getting back to work in the kitchen.
My uncle, and godfather, passed away this past Monday…
February 2, 2009 Joseph P. Walto Sr., 72, of Syracuse, passed away peacefully Monday at his home surrounded by his family. Mr. Walto was a communicant of Holy Family Church. Joseph is survived by his loving wife of 49 years, the former Donna Sofia Walto; three daughters, Rose (David) Campagnone, Chris (Michael) O’Brien, and Niki (Michael) Mahar, all of Syracuse; two sons, Joseph (Lauren) Walto Jr. of Syracuse and Dennis (Donnette) Walto of Ethiopia; six grandchildren. Funeral services will be conducted Friday 9:30 a.m. at PIRRO & SONS FUNERAL HOME and 10:30 a.m. in Holy Family Church where a Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated. Burial will be private. Calling hours will be held on Thursday from 4 to 7 p.m. at the funeral home, 1500 park Street. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Hospice of CNY, 990 Seventh North Street, Liverpool, NY, 13088 or Holy Family Church Food Pantry, 119 Chapel Drive, Syracuse, NY 13219. Dignity Memorial
Published in the Syracuse Post Standard on 2/4/2009
When I was growing up, I always thought of Uncle Joe as the “cool” uncle: he was the youngest of my father’s brothers, he played the drums, and listened to The Rolling Stones… he lived up in Syracuse, and on a few occasions our family would take a long ride up to visit with him and my cousins. I remember a trip in the Summer of 1967, when my brother bought the latest release from the Beatles, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, another trip in the Fall of 1975 when Uncle Joe asked me who I thought would win the World Series that year, the Reds or the Red Sox, and my last trip in the Summer of 1977 after my freshman year in high school. We hadn’t really stayed close, but I continued to send him a Christmas card each year. Apparently, around this past Thanksgiving, a lump was found…
Despite the fact that we were not terribly close for quite some time, I will miss him.
More snow yesterday… a light snow fell pretty much all day yesterday, melting on most roads and sidewalks, but sticking to lawns and trees. Last night and today the temperatures have dropped quite a bit, so the landscape on the way into work this morning was a Winter Wonderland. I snapped a few pictures from the car with my Blackberry Storm…
The picture quality is not too bad. Click on the thumbnails to see the actual photos…
Phil saw his shadow – six more weeks of winter.
Welcome to February.
Yesterday morning, while sitting on the couch in the living room, drinking my first cup of coffee in the warm sunlight that streamed through the front window, I noticed how the low angle of the winter sunlight brightly glowed upon the chest that serves as a coffee table. I sat and watched the shadows of the window muntins move across the side of the chest, and took pleasure in the seemingly simple process of our planet rotating on its axis.
Today brought another bright sunlit morning to the living room – this time I was ready with my camera.
This winter has been one of the best in recent years, and to me exactly what winter should be: cold crisp temperatures… snowstorms here and there, just enough to keep the ground snow covered… a few snow days for the kids to get the chance to use their sleds…
Finally, the backyard is frozen enough to skate upon! We had made tentative plans last night to skate early today, assuming that the overnight temperatures would be sufficient to freeze the ice to support real skating. This morning before the day got too warm I went outside to reconnoiter and found the the rink was frozen solid – there was absolutely no water sloshing up around the edges of the ice when I walked on it. I quickly went back inside, grabbed my skates and went back out to tie up the laces and take a spin on the ice. I must say, after being so disappointed last year, when we did not get to use the rink at all, and then feeling bad for putting up the rink so late this year and thinking I’d missed the opportunity for enough cold days to freeze up the ice, being able to finally step out on the ice and glide over the entire surface was such an exhilarating feeling. Finally!
Before long, W. came out of the house, and I helped him put on his skates. I got him a folding chair to use as a kind of walker on the ice to help him get used to keeping his balance. A little while later, out came K. and Mom; we had bought a pair of strap-on double bladed skates (imported from the Great White North, so you know they’ve got to be good, eh?) for K. to use, that go right over her sneakers. She was a little wobbly, and tended to walk, taking steps, rather than pushing off, but she’ll get the hang of it eventually. Mom, unfortunately, only took pictures and did not get to skate at all 🙁
We were outside for about 40 minutes, when I decided to dig through the garage and break out my hockey sticks (c. 1975, complete with the Bobby Clarke signature, and a 1979 Koho stick.) Although I am right-handed, I actually am a left-handed stick handler, so W. can’t use my sticks, but he has two small play sticks and a puck that Santa had brought him a couple of years ago, so we took turns skating around the ice and taking shots at each other’s imaginary goal. This was exactly the kind of fun that I had imagined we’d be able to have on a backyard rink when I first got the idea to build one a few years back. It is really great to finally enjoy our rink.
Eventually, the sun started to warm up the rink a bit, and the surface got a bit chopped up, so I had to bring out my rink rake to resurface the ice. The only problem was that last week, while resurfacing the ice, I had made an amateur mistake in forgetting to turn off the shutoff valve to the outside spigot, and open the spigot to drain off any water remaining in the line. The water instead froze up and I could not turn the spigot on for the rink rake. So, I grabbed Mom’s hair dryer and heated up the outside spigot just enough to melt the ice and get the water flowing again. Once again the rink rake worked perfectly and things should be pretty smooth for maybe some more skating this evening.
I really don’t know, but I do know that I’ve been trying to be a bit more prolific in my posts this year, and not let quite so much time go by between updates. I really want my reader(s) to get their money’s worth, you know? Trying to be more forward looking, or at least looking at the here and now, with occasional glances in the rear-view mirror at past people, places and events.
One thing I am deliberately trying to avoid is becoming essentially a republisher of second hand news stories just for the sake of filling up space here on the blog. My own experience is I personally lose interest in such blogs very quickly – if I want to read the local police blotter, I will. Sure, I could syndicate feeds from may other sites into the content here, but that really isn’t being fair to my readers or to the original site.
So, what makes a good blog good? What is of most interest to me and makes me want to come back to a blog again and again? It is those blogs that focus on the real day in the life activities of the blog host; bits of info about what is going on directly in the blogger’s world and going through the blogger’s mind; providing insight into the ordinary lives of other ordinary people with whom I share common interests. Maybe my blog isn’t the most exciting or chock-full of the latest from TMZ or smokinggun but at least it’s about me and my world.
Anyway, it’s been a long week at work, and I’m pretty darned tired, so I’ll be heading off to bed in a few. To those blggers out there like quodlibetic, chris, girlyunderwear: thanks, you all give me a lot of food for thought. Thanks for sharing.
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