Cynically Optimistic

After recovering from Friday Night's Halloween party, I caught the LIRR into NYC and eventually met up with George, Jeff, Dave, and Edgar for dinner. But first, I swung by the Apple Store in SoHo to check out the video iPods and laptops with brighter screens. I couldn't do a side-by-side comparison, but the new ones looked a LOT like the last model, although they're a bit cheaper. Maybe. MAYBE, if this TiBook dies I will pick one up, but I'd like to wait for the Intel chip laptops.

Saturday night we hit 4 bars and then I ate some form of curried street meat at about 2 or 3 AM. Love that daylight savings time change to add to the drunken confusion. And don't hate on the street meat. Like you've never had a F.G.E. (Fat Girl Episode, shamlessely stolen terminology). In fact, I think I have previous photo evidence of such activities.

After brunch on Sunday morning, which included Eggs, English Muffins, Bacon, Turkey Bacon, Sausage, Coffee, and Juice, we decided to get out and enjoy the weather. Not 2 blocks out the door, we encountered this 5 month old Boxer puppy in a Superman Costume. He was SO excited to get attention from us, as you can tell from the photo. The reason for the costume: An 80 dog costume party at the dog park.

Instead of checking out the doggie party, we took a leisurely stroll through Central Park. It was such a beautiful day, we sat a spell in Sheep's Meadow and then battled the tourists at the street fair in Times Square. Victoria Secret bras for $10. Get 'em while they're hot. Don't believe me? Check out the photos. Jeff and Dave headed back to DC on the infamous "Chinatown Bus". The rest of us continued our stroll and ended up in a Starbucks for almost 3 hours just chatting.

Then I met up with David and his friend Dev outside the Virgin Megastore and we nearly sprinted to the Belgian Beer Bar for a couple of drinks. Dinner followed at John's Pizza on Bleeker Street. I'd seen that place with huge lines before, and there was virtually none on Sunday - so we ate. This place has been voted the best pizza in New York. It was very good, with a crispy thin crust, but I almost felt like it was a bit burnt. If there was no line again, I'd probably go back, but I'm not waiting in line to eat there.

I would have loved to make it back to the city tonight for the parade, but it just wasn't happening between the issues at work recently, and the worst excuse for a flag football playoff game that anyone could ask for. Yeah, let's START the game at 5 PM after daylight savings time ends, that way no one can see you throw the elbows.

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Encarni, Naoko and I tore up the pumpkins tonight. I picked up a carving kit last week when I was stocking up on low-grade crack candy for the trick-or-treaters. Extremely sharp knives were my tools of choice in the past, so this was kind of a nice change. The little saws in the kit are extremely handy for the detail work necessary on the patterns the kit supplied. Yes, I used a pattern for my castle, although I tweaked a couple of things. Encarni used the template for the witch, and Naoko used an original design of halloween kitty (it even had a tail). Much photography ensued after the last chunk of pupmkin hit the ground. I hope they last until Monday, but I kind of doubt it.

This weekend I will be hitting one Halloween party, out in the woods like previous years. Creep-tacular. I have given in to my tacky-yet-hilarous and easy costume idea. You'll just have to wait and see. Saturday and Sunday I'll probably be in NYC, and Monday I'm going to miss the big NY Halloween Parade. So sad, I loved it the previous times I've gone. But now I have to be home for trick-or-treaters, and it's televised (out here anyway).

Happy Halloween Kids!!!!

Posted by Jeff Smith at 11:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

This is a public service announcement regarding my favorite Yank (and recent Apple convert) residing in Ireland. All is well, as you can see below.

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I had a few more photos from my trip last weekend that are worth posting.

This is the gangsta' treehouse across the street from the house where we stayed. Notice the siding that makes room for the branch.

This TV is Ginormous! And don't you love the giraffe print footstool?

This lion was totally stoned, although the lighting was great.

Here's Mommy and Gwen, a.k.a. Gwen-Munch, G-Munch, Baby-Munch, and The Munchkin.

Someone at the party handed me an Ann Coulter doll. ICKY!

You never know who you might meet at a Lebanese restaurant.

In other news, I will again be laptop-less this weekend, so you'll have to resort to using the phone or text messages to get in touch with me. I'll definitely be watching the Iowa v. Michigan game on Saturday. Go Hawks!

Posted by Jeff Smith at 12:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Or as it is also known, The Wolfman Jack Memorial "I'm totally gonna win the lottery and do all this cool stuff with the money" post. How many times have I had this same telephone conversation? At least 10 times with Jack, probably the same number with Wendy. This time, the question was posed by Jeff Utech. At a bookstore in Coconut Grove in Miami a couple years ago, I thumbed through a book titled, "How to Win the Lottery and Still be Happy" (or something close to that). This book offered several bits of wisdom that I never would have thought of had I just seen my numbers flash on the TV screen when I won that amount of money.

First off, you cannot tell anyone. Not your wife, not your mom, not your best friend. Nobody. This has got to be the hardest part, because I'd be ready to explode with that kind of news. Second, hire an attorney and make him sign a non-disclosure agreement right away. Wait at least 3-6 months before having the attorney claim the prize money without using your name (you have up to 1 year in most cases). Third, Do not quit your job for 1 year (although I bet after a few months it would be ok).

The book also offered advice on how, after the initial shock wears off, smarter ways to reduce your tax burden and donate to charities without bringing a lot of publicity to yourself. One thing the book stressed is that it's hard to keep your family and friends on good terms after winning, because money changes things. Everybody thinks they deserve a piece of you, and folks will come out of the woodwork asking for a hand out. Imagine being called every day by dozens of charities, each deserving, and having to constantly tell them no (or some of them no, anyway).

I'd donate some serious cash to fund research on diseases such as diabetes and AIDS. The amount would have to depend on what's allowed with the tax code, but probably around 50% of the lump sum amount.

All that aside, after the dollar bills settle, and I've got a huge wad of cash (because obviously I'd take the lump sum) I would hire a financial advisor to help set me up. A team of financial advisors, actually. Preferrably led by Suze Orman (LOVE her!). It's been a pipe dream of mine to have homes in various fabulous locations around the world, so I would make some smart investments in places like Manhattan in a fabulous pentouse in a classical building with fantastic architecture, but completely modernized. In San Francisco I'd have a nice Victorian home made out of old redwoods. A comfortable flat in Seattle. I'd buy a nice big ranch in Jackson, Wyoming, and staff it to care for the horses and grounds. Finally, I'd buy a villa in Lake Como, Italy, for when I want to go pretend to be fabulous.

Instead of flying commercially, I'd have to become a member of something like Marquis Jet so I could collect people on a whim and jet off to fabulous worldwide events. From now on, I travel in style. I get myself a personal trainer and private chef, but no hair plugs. I'm gonna be rich AND hot.

One of the crazy things we end up talking about is buing some big house near the HMB practice field to house the Saxophone section. Also, completley re-do the practice field so it's level and there are no holes in which to twist your ankle. You know you've got to give back to your band geeks. Also, I'd have a private box at Kinnick stadium, and good parking place. I wonder if the hospital would let me land a chopper on the roof?

Now, when it comes to giving things to people you love it gets tricky because you must draw the line somewhere, and people will invariably get pissed off. But I'll try anyway. I'd pay off my family's debts. I'd buy them all fancy cars. Wendy gets a Mini Cooper S. Actually, everyone gets a Mini Cooper S. Except Jack, he gets a Harley and lessons on how not to die while riding it. If you've got a baby, he or she gets a college fund. If you are childless and fabulous, you get plastic surgery (if you want it). And somebody is gettin' a platinum grill, yo. Fo' Shizzle!

And I think I'd still keep my job.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I tried for 4 hours tonight my MovableType setup to MT 3.2 (keep up with the Joneses... or the DeCoras as the case may be). And it ended badly. Luckily I learned my backup lesson from earlier this week, and neatly compressed all my old archived stuff. One quick command-line entry and we're back to where we were 4 hours ago. PHEW!

I may try again tomorrow, but if so I'm doing a completely fresh install and re-importing all my old entries. Excited yet? Yeah, me neither. This is the reason I only dabble in true computer geek-dom. 1 A.M. Time for bed.

Well, maybe a little eye candy for you. Did you think Iowa City was the only town with a dust buster (a.k.a. The Bionic Bus)? Think again!!!

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As you may know, we've been having a lot of rain here in NY. I'd say we had 9 days straight of heavy rain, not scattered showers, or mist, or any of those wimpy kinds of rain. It was nearly time to begin rounding up pairs of animals and constructing a large ark. As many of you may also know, the roads and drainage systems here in NY and Long Island are not exactly what one would call "modern" or even "decent". En route to NYC on Thursday night, I hit a very large puddle near an overpass and curtains of water shot out from the sides of my car as I shouted "FUCK!" at the sudden speed decrease. In my rear view mirror I noticed there was what appeared to be a chunk of a tire where the puddle was. The next morning I realize that was actually my front spoiler. Damn. Guess that'll have to be replaced.

The next morning it took George and I a while to get out of the city and onto the NJ Turnpike, but from then on the drive was mostly uneventful. Lunch brought us to Chick-fil-A and we were in DC by 2:45. This was not a trip to see monuments and museums, it was a trip to meet new people (for me) and catch up with old friends (for both of us). First, we ran some errands, had coffee, then met a bunch of guys for drinks at Titan. We arrived early, but the place quickly filled up with friendly guys. We had to leave pretty early to see our hosts for the weekend in a community theatre performance of "Once Upon A Mattress". I was actually quite impressed with the performances and the show itself (not really being one for musicals, necessarily). Very fun.

Saturday started off a little slow, with a late breakfast and a parental visit for George, but quickly got moving as we met more friends and walked around the city. The weather was great, the company was great, and the city was great. Eventually we met up with more folks at a restaurant called Lebanese Taverna which was a treat for me, since I love trying new food. Assmunch and family made it out to dinner as well. Some of the company at dinner exchanged halfway through, as folks had to get to haunted pumpkin patches for the remainder of the evening. The rest of us (sans les Muches) opted to stay together and head to a house party. We hit the pavement in an earnest attempt to kill our buzzes.

Luckily the situation was quickly remedied upon our arrival at said party. The drinks were flowing, and the party host was trying very hard to get everyone nice and drunk. Except for the guys from dinner, I only knew one other guy at the party. It was a pretty good time, but we decided around midnight to head to the Eagle for a lung-full of secondhand smoke. *hacks up a lung* Reports from here on out get fuzzy. My phone began to ring off the hook, as apparently I was a pawn in a drinking game in the next time zone over. I feel special. Truly, I was shown the "Guaranteed Good Time" that DC has to offer. And then some.

After bagels for breakfast on Sunday, George and I split up so I could go see the new Ihde place in Fairfax, and get some more quality time with baby G-Munch (a.k.a. "The Munchkin"). We lingered for a bit later the afternoon at the home of our splendid and generous hosts, finally getting out of town around 5 PM. To wake up, we stopped at a Waffle House and I drank 3 glasses of sweet tea (I looooves me some sweet tea) and got some grits (hold the cheese). After dropping off George in NY, I made it home by 11:30 and asleep by midnight.

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I can name that sound in one note. "The Click of Death" by Maxtor. Being sans laptop yesterday, I decided to fire up the old reliable G4 Sawtooth and burn a CD or two and look for some older photos for a friend who requested them. I was greeted with the horrible grey screen, and nothing more. Quoth the hard drive, "nevermore". Le Sigh.

After fighting for a while with jumper settings (thanks George), I managed to see that my extra backup drive was still ok, but NONE of the partitions on my main drive were showing up. And now you're thinking, "big deal, he's got it backed up for sure". You might be right, but my backup strategy has been, shall we say, less than extensively organized. I'm fairly sure I've got most (if not all) of my music backed up somewhere. Even if I don't, it's easily replaceable (thank you BitTorrent and Limewire and friends with copies). The thing that has me really nervous is my digital photos. I'm fairly certain that I went through and burned all of them off to CD, I just don't know where they might be. We're talking 3000+ photos here. They were all nestled gently in iPhoto, and now, I'm hoping that I was smart enough to copy that folder over to my other drive as a backup so it'll be easy to replace them.

So here's your disaster stimulated reminder to backup your digital files if you have things you don't want to lose and can't easily replace. Hopefully I haven't lost 3 years of NY memories to a bad HD and lazy backup practices.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 01:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (1)

I probably should have. According to CNN:Money, Iowa City, Iowa is one of the top 5 places to retire (in the US). Personally, I think I'd like to retire to a villa in Lake Como, Italy. Except I think they have less college football there.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

And as Lewis Black says, "Fuck Fall!" Actually, I like fall. I like it a lot. College Football. Crisp evenings. Leeeaaaaves! I've been having a busy summer, and it's progressing into a busy fall. Halloween is almost here. Last weekend I went camping during a huge tropical downpour. It would have been easier to put up with the rain if there had at least been some exciting lightning shows to see. Oh the way home, we ate at a diner in Pennsylvania and as we were leaving we noticed some cats in the parking lot around back. And by some, I mean at least 10. One was the ugliest cat I think I've ever seen. Poor thing had a cleft palate and was all scratched up and scarred.

Luckily, there were cute little kittens hiding underneath the deck. Super cute. Hyper cute, even.

The weekends only get more busy from here on out. Every weekend is booked through Halloween, when David is coming to NY again. The Halloween parade is always fun, and I might have to miss it this year, since it's on a Monday. I'll do my best to be there, though. Just might not be in the cards this year, what with work and all. What does November hold?

In other news, I will be sans-laptop for a few days. The boss's daughter needs it until her new iBook shows up. So, annoying for me, I have to clean off all my... ahem... personal articles and let her take it to school for a couple of weeks. On the positive side, it's a good excuse to clean up my computer files and back everything up, and I'll get to play with a shiny new iBook for a couple of weeks. So, if I'm around less during the evening, you know why.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 08:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Wednesday night, not Thursday. I'm early. Photos have been posted. I was going to put up Wendy's photos, but she said she's going to take care of it. No pressure.

I could try to recap the weekend, but I think there are chunks that are a bit blurry. Like some of my photos. I shall do my best. Luckily my flight into town was uneventful, and I met people for dinner at El Ranchero. Good times.

Friday, after a little car trouble, Wendy, Doogie, Josh and I had lunch at Atlas, followed by frisbee golf at Turkey Creek at the Res. Wendy made it 3 holes before giving up with a twisted lower back muscle. I played very well, surprisingly. Then we hurried home to change clothes and get downtown in time to pre-parade Party at Gabe's. You've got to love it when you walk into a bar only once a year and the bartender greets you with "Lemon Drops?". Good times. I think we had Lemon Drops, Tequilla, JŠger, Pucker, and then Wild Turkey. Some folks had double shots... and some people should have stopped before the Wild Turkey.

Back to the parking lot, where there was the unfortunate incident with the chipped tooth. And there was the odd Hot Dog Sale sign that amused several people. The parade itself was a bit unclear in my memory. It went very quickly. I remember spinning around a lot in my kilt. Thankfully I had the foresight to protect small children from being scarred for life. With stickers! The same courtesy was apparently not shown to bar patrons later in the evening. Oops!

Pizza on Dubuque supplied a nourishing slice of pepperoni and then I joined up with the Beer Band at the Deadwood (having had car issues and people be taken home in questionable condition). Then Mickey's, where the sign listing specials said that they have "$2 Woo Woo" which sounds like a heck of a deal. You know you gots to have dat Woo Woo!

Eventually we got to Brother's, where things kind of break down. I mean, it was 9:45 people! A few of us motivated kids meandered to Studio 13 and played a more limited set before the drag show started. The Dublin Underground was calling my name from earlier in the night, so I returned there to find a bunch of kids I knew and sat down to enjoy a Guinness pint after being accosted by a man from Northern Ireland. I had to promise him I did not actually have a position on the disarmament of the IRA. Honestly.

Then my phone rings, and 'somebody' needs to be picked up from the ER because she really didn't want to have a hangover and thought IV fluids were her best chance. Smart girl, except for not having shoes. Not one to waste a pint of Guinness, I hurried up and we fetched her and got home. 6:30 AM came waaaaaay too early the next morning.

Pre-game rehearsal was great. I'm so tired of the "hey let's march the S off the field" joke. Unfortunately our hurricaine-inspired vortex drill didn't go over well. Poor execution, methinks. Express tailgating followed. 20 minutes here, 20 minutes there, 10 minutes in-between time, 10 minutes late to line-up. Marching into the tunnel through the construction zone was really quite un-interesting. I hear reports that pre-game was right-on, but I wasn't watching myself on the jumbo-tron as I know some folks did.

The game was a lot of fun. We beat Illinois, and our special teams did well, although I was a bit disappointed by the defense in general. We did alumni-kickline with the pink-shirted junior-kickline. Oh, the pink shirts in the stadium in reference to the pink visitor locker room were too funny. Let's get over it people. It's a pink locker room, and it's not offensive to women or gays or anyone else. It's just pink. Get over it. I suppose all publicity is good publicity though.

A post-game nap was had, followed by a shower and dinner (where I wore the kilt again) with all the married kids, and their kids. Walking back to Wendy's from Boston's this girl completely gasped and squealed at me, "that guy's wearing a kilt!". I totally loved all the attention. Then I went and rounded up some people at the Vine and we rendevouzed at Frosty's place where there was poker. There was also Dr. Tran on DVD. I don't remember the website, but someone please remind me. And also send me a copy of that DVD, because that is HILARIOUS! Belive me, or I will dole out the harshness. Even Greg snuck out of his house to hang with us for the evening (along with Josh, Jenniffer, Donor, Micah, Julie, Nicki, Brad, Tara, Jamie, and Frosty). Very very sleepy Jeff went home at almost 3 AM.

As has become a Sunday tradition, everyone showed up later than agreed at Steak & Shake. Love that greasy meat. Surprise guests in the morning were Neal and Courtney! Sometimes wishes do come true. Slowly, everyone gave Reggie his or her order, and then re-ordered shakes and malts and he was amazing at getting nearly everything right. Then my parents showed up and we ordered more shakes.

Back to Wendy's for a bit of NASCAR racing car-crashing excitement and then on to the beautiful Eastern Iowa Airport. Flying home sucked, due to a thunderstorm in Chicago that caused my flight to leave CID 1.5 hours late and then I was delayed again at ORD. Luckily the pilot put on the afterburners and landed the plane at LGA at 11:55 PM. After midnight all LGA flights are re-routed to JFK and that would have royally screwed up my ride home. Safe and sound though, and my luggage was first off the baggage carousel.

Go, look at pictures. Leave comments with errors and omissions (or just randomness). And somebody get me a copy of Dr. Tran.

Update: Here's a clip for those of you who have no clue.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 10:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Equals SimmerDownNow, so Simma Down Now! Or, if you prefer, 1 cup rice, 2 cups water, simmer! The photos are coming. I do like to crop/red-eye reduce and tweak my pictures before posting them, so they'll be up when they're ready. And they're not ready. Check back on Thursday.

I had a great time seeing everyone. I just wish it could have lasted a lot longer. More to come.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 12:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)