Month: January 2011

Monday, Monday

My condolences go out to my brother in law Ken’s family. He lost his grandfather last night. By all accounts he was a remarkable man. I think about my nephew and how, although he won’t remember it, he can always know how lucky he was to meet his great grandfather.

Please forgive the abruptness in which I change the subject, but it’s Monday and I hate Mondays. The worst Mondays are, of course, those that are followed by a day off on Tuesday. I took a vacation day tomorrow. Jen and I are going to the Bruins game and I used that as an excuse. Turns out that my brother and his wife are going too so we can hopefully meet before the game.

Basically what it amounts to is me wanting to go home and go to bed right now. My three day weekend has a work day stuck in the middle of it.

Also… those damn Bruins had best not roll over and die the way they have done in two recent games. Protect that lead, you losers!

The TD Garden has a no-cameras-with-detachable-lenses policy. That means if I take a camera tomorrow it’ll be my point and shoot. That’s probably a good thing. Otherwise I’d be stressing about the damn camera instead of enjoying the damn game.

Did I mention we have club seats? My wife got me the best Christmas presents.

Love ya Jen!

Busy

Today has been a busy one. I went to my parents house to steal some furniture. They got a new dining room table and we took the old one for the cellar. Now we have to figure out where it goes, and where the air hockey table goes in relation to it… and there is always the spectre of a drum set off on the horizon.

While at my parents I got to see my sister’s family. They were dropping of my nephew (who calls me Uncie Rob, which I love tremendously) to be babysat while they went to Maine to visit my brother in law’s grandfather who is very ill. My best to Ken and his entire family. I hope things go as peacefully as possible for Ken’s grandfather.

I just got off the phone with my brother and we are going to have a brief visit from him and my niece. This is turning into toddler day!

I still need to clean out the fireplace before we can start a new fire today, and oh yes we will be starting another fire today. Also, Jen… you know Jen, right? She’s the love of my life… is going to make a big Sunday dinner.

This is a good day.

Saturday Night Distractions

My step son got an air hockey table for Christmas. We put it together today. It was actually broken in the box. Each leg needs to screw onto the table in two places. One leg was missing the board that one of the screws connects to. He was devastated when I told him. You’d have thought I just kicked his dog in the head. He was convinced that the item was returned to the store in that condition and then resold. I’m not sure what prompted that response, but he was right. (I didn’t tell him that because I didn’t find the definite proof until later, but the instructions said the paddles needed to have a felt base attached to them, and both paddles already had the pads.) It doesn’t matter, the leg in question still had a place to connect to the table, and it seems to be pretty steady. I played once game against him and beat him 10-8. I had been up 4-0 to start, but he came back and made a fight of it. Next he played a game against my step daughter and he beat her 10-9. Last I played against my step daughter and she was up 9-8 when mom called us up for supper so I conceded the game to her.

The Bruins just blew their 2-0 lead against Montreal. 41 seconds left in the game and the Canadiens tie it. I hate the effing Canadiens. I hate them.

We lit a fire in the fireplace today. Two of them actually. We had been 0-1 on attempts to start a fire, but we lacked kindling and we couldn’t get it to catch. Today we used a slow burning something or other that is a kindling substitute and it worked better than our previous attempt, but after about 30 minutes it was dead. Jen also bought a thing called enviro-log today. They are artificial logs made out of recycled cardboard. We started our third fire with a couple of those and it worked perfectly. After about two hours or roaring fire I put a real log on it and we had a brief happy time of burning, crackling wood in our fireplace. We’re letting the ashes cool now, but I want to start another one. I think I am officially a fireplace fan now.

Basically, I am spending the day trying not to think about the events in Arizona today. My best to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her family, and to the families and victims of the shooting. I expect to be beyond furious over this, but I want to get more information before I start losing my shit, politically speaking.