Holiday Cheer

What I'm thankful for

Happy Thanksgiving America! Everyone else, happy Thursday!

This year I'm thankful for:

The Red Sox winning the World Series, AL East, and tied for the best record in baseball.

My loving wife who does so much, you are appreciated very much.

My sweet daughter who astounds me with new things everyday. Daddy wishes he could be with you more.

My friends at Survivinggrady.com, I can't get through a workday without you. Also all my other friends throughout the world, the world is a better place with you in it.

Mike Lowell re-signing with the Red Sox, and Dustin Pedroia winning the Rookie of the Year award.

Good health - I haven't gained any weight in years and I haven't been sick since last winter.

My extended family who is always there for me and my family.

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Don't eat too much turkey, you'll gobble your way into a tryptophan coma! Stay safe you travelers.

photo from: Kansas City Library www.kckpl.lib.ks.us/YS/crafts/

Winter Wonderland

The snow Friday nearly melted as soon as it fell in my town, but Saturday we took a drive into the hills. Just one mile up the road from our home one can see the snow-capped majesty of Mount Mansfield, highest peak in the state.

Sledders already take advantage of the slippery powder.

It's snowing again this morning.

Snow or No Snow

I woke up a few minutes ago, hoping to see some snow on the ground. It's still dark outside, so I can't see that it's falling, but there's none on the ground. In a way I'm relieved; driving home near freezing on wet roads make me fear for black ice, that invisible slick icy spot on the road that sends me careening into a ditch.

The bulk of my 70-some mile round trip commute goes through some valleys and hills (at one point rising to 1100 feet of elevation where it has snowed while rain settled in the valley). One valley I drive through is a 15 mile stretch of 4-lane interstate which is essentially a gorge, with 2 of the tallest mountains in the state on either side; Bolton Mountain and Camel's Hump. This stretch is notorious for accidents in the winter. In the 3 winters that I've worked there, I've avoided disaster, sometimes on bald tires. Here's hoping for one more accident-free winter; supposedly next summer the company will move closer to my home, which will make my life so much easier.

Tomorrow Beowulf comes out!

I've never been this excited about a movie in a long time, I'm really looking forward to Beowulf. (As I'm writing this they are reviewing this on 6 Music.) I know I won't be able to see it until next week but hopefully I will be able to see this in a theatre as it was meant to be seen. We don't have an IMAX near us (nearest one is in Montreal, almost 2 hours from here), but I hear it's coming out on IMAX. My mind would be blown to bits if I could see it there, but ah well.

I've made my mind up, I'll go up to the PS3 when I get my tax refund next year. And the first game I want to check out after it comes out later this month is Assassin's Creed. It really contains the elements that interest me. Also there's a Beowulf game coming out, and that interests me also. The main thing I don't like about that type of game is getting stuck, and I don't like using cheats. I like playing the game honest, but yeah, there is a level of skill-learning that one must adapt to playing most games. Then FIFA, next year's baseball version, and the current Madden(08?).

We saw Shrek the Third last night, excellent film, as good as, or if not, better than the first and second Shreks. 3.5 stars out of 5.

Tonight we are to get the first snow in the valleys, 1 to 4 inches. Yippee!

Changes, Awards, and Spurs

I've been doing some changes to the blog as you can see - new layout, new titles. I hope you, the reader, like the improvements.

Congratulations to Dustin Pedroia, Red Sox 2nd Baseman, for winning Rookie of the Year for the American League yesterday. Today the AL Cy Young award comes out for top pitcher, and really no-one deserves it more than Josh Beckett, the league's only 20 game winner, and probably most improved pitcher from last year. Next Monday 19/11/07 the AL MVP is announced, which with any luck should be another Red Sox.

Also I should mention congrats to Tottenham on their win over Wigan on Saturday. Clearly they don't belong in the bottom 3 and Wigan was an easy victory. Hopefully it's the kind of rebound win they can use to propel them back to the middle seven and finish somewhere in the middle of the pack and avoid relegation. I chose Spurs at the beginning of the Premiership season as my team to follow because it wasn't one of the big 4, their proximity to Cambs, Bucks & Lincs and my ancestry, but they placed within spitting distance of the big 4 so I had hopes that they would be able to make for some great upset games, although the season under Jol seems to have been lost, and now with one win and one draw under Ramos they are beginning to make strides.

I have also followed Everton and West Ham this season as secondary favorite clubs, and they have been doing better than Spurs, but I won't give up on my Spurs and Robbie Keane. I also considered following Fulham, just being over the bridge from Putney, where some of my ancestors lived for a time, but Fulham is a downright awful club. To dare is to do!

"You have to be Catholic to be a nun."

Leave it to my wife to come up with such Joe Morgan-esque brilliance. We were talking about something, I can't remember what exactly, and she said that to create some sort of expression. I thought maybe she was taking the piss for a second, then I thought, well no s**t Sherlock, and we both ended up having a laugh. We had some great moments that we haven't had for a while, and now she's taken to calling the red beard "Pepperoni" and that gets me giggling.

The kibbe was good. It's not so much spicy as it has the herbs in it that makes it safe to eat raw ground meat. But I missed the toom, they didn't make any this time but it was ok with just the olive oil.

I watched 4 movies over the weekend, and I've reviewed them out of 5 stars:

Afraid of the Dark: 1.5 stars
The Winter Guest: 4 stars
Meet the Robinsons: 3 stars
Deck the Halls: 2 stars

Well, it's Monday, very busy work day so it's a shorty today.

I've never been so happy to see a Friday

Honestly, this has been the longest week ever. And it doesn't help that we're broke either, having paid rent this week and already done our grocery shopping. Mike Lowell still hasn't been signed for the 2008 season. Gasoline/Petrol is at an all time high (I try to remind myself it could be worse - 3.10 per gallon in the US is better than ~8.00 per gallon (£1 per litre) in the UK) . The laundry list goes on and on. Trying to see some positivity despite all this is difficult, but finally! The weekend! Now that's something. I can catch up on my DVR recordings, play with my daughter, search the internet for downloadable music.

Also, we're going to my wife's Lebanese aunts for Sunday dinner, featuring Kibbe (pronounced kub-buh as they did in the Bekaa Valley), which is spiced ground meat eaten raw with olive oil and Toom, a spicy garlic dip. Mmmm... yummy. Of course this took some getting used to for this white boy with Northern European roots, but it didn't take long for me to overcome my fears and leave my palate's comfort zone behind.

If anyone has any genealogical inforation regarding Dalbey/Dalby from Glens Falls, NY and Mechanicsburg, PA, Waddington from New Baltimore, NY, Adach or Lackowicz/Lackowitz from Schenectady, NY and Poland, or Anderson/Andersen from Glens Falls, NY and Sweden, please leave me a comment or email me. So far internet searches have led me nowhere for these ancestors; any and all information would be greatly appreciated. Have a lovely weekend!

And the picture above, also from Halloween, my Lebanese in-laws as Austin Powers and Fat Bastard.

Writer's Block

Life lately has consisted of: Wake up. Commute. Work. Commute home. Eat dinner. Catch a couple hours of television. Sleep.

Not much more than that. Stick season in November doesn't really get interesting until Thanksgiving time, a couple weeks from now.

No wonder I never made it as a writer, not that I ever really tried. So in the meantime until I get another dose of inspiration, enjoy these Halloween photos of Sierra. Cheers.

World Series Champs

I know it's 6 days late in coming. The champagne had all been drunk. The celebrating has quieted to a hush. The confetti has been cleaned from the paraded streets of Boston. The appearances on chat shows have all been made. And what more can be said about this year's illustrious championship run from our pirate band of personality? What a year it was, and now we await the presentation of this year's awards.

I am not a huge American football person, even less basketball or ice hockey or soccer/football. Nothing quite stirs the soul as baseball, that thinking man's game, as my beloved Red Sox. And the hot stove appears to be interesting with all the free agent sweepstakes. Less than four months until Spring Training, my friends, until it all starts again. You may resume normalcy now.