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Waiting for the Funny Guy.

Originally uploaded by bluemarvel.

Earl and I jumped in the Jeep today and went for a ride. Pulling out of the driveway, I said to Earl “east or west?” His response was “east”. So I drove east until we reached ocean.

We’re spending the night in Boston.

While we both love our spontaneous trips, it’s hard to meet up with others we’ve chatted with online with no advance notice. So I guess we’ll have to come back in a couple of weeks.

We set up shop at a DoubleTree just off Storrow Drive, got ourselves situated and then headed into the city. After stowing the Jeep under Government Center, we headed to Quincy Market where we had a great dinner at Ned Devine’s Pub. Great food. I had Irish stew.

Afterwards we headed to the Comedy Connection and picked up some tickets to see the last performance of the night. Tonight’s comedian line-up included Anthony Clark. Since the show wasn’t until 10:30, we had some time to kill so we walked all around Faneuil Hall and then jumped on the T and went to the theatre district to walk around there (and to warm up on the train). After a bit of walking we headed back to the Comedy Connection for the show. Anthony Clark was a riot and we had a really good time. The only thing about the show that was making me crazy was the woman at the next table who laughed uproariously at everything. “Ma’am, would you like a cocktail?” She laughed the waitress like she was Joan Rivers before the plastic surgery. And when she laughed, she sounded like Phyllis Diller. So there she was, cackling on and on. Her husband Fang didn’t seem as impressed.

After the Comedy Connection we went to a real, honest to goodness bear bar called The Alley and had one last drink before heading back to the hotel.

We’re installed for the night, waiting for a little room service and then ready to call it a night. We’re planning on coming back very soon (like in two weeks).

Gosh I miss Boston (I used to live here).

New haircut.

Originally uploaded by bluemarvel.

Earl surprised me this morning by coming home from the barber with a high and tight flattop. I find this look to be very nice. Very, very nice.

Submit.

Originally uploaded by bluemarvel.

Earl ordered this t-shirt for me before our trip out west last April. It arrived this past week. Talk about being back-ordered a long time! Tonight was the first opportunity I had to wear it. I love it.

We’ve also been debating about adding another computer to our merry little household. I need a, gulp, Windows based computer for school. I had seriously considered upgrading my PowerBook G4 (Mac) to a MacBook Pro so that I would have the latest and greatest Mac notebook that would also be able to dual boot to Windows as needed. However, we found a great deal on a kick-ass HP notebook at Circuit City which made purchasing the MacBook Pro a little bit unnecessary. After all, I’m still in love with my PowerBook and I kind of like having the separation of a “serious” computer (the HP) for school and my “play” computer (the PowerBook) for everything else. So I’ve taken a small leap into the Windows world for educational purposes. But I’m still a Mac boy at heart.

Mother Nature’s Beauty.

Originally uploaded by bluemarvel.

This morning Earl and I awoke to a little bit of a Winter’s Wonderland. Parts of our area are predicted to receive about a foot of snow today.

Surprisingly, I’m very excited about it.

November 1.

Originally uploaded by bluemarvel.

The tricks have been treated. Er, no, I don’t think that’s quite right (that’s a weekend thing). The treats have been tricked? No, that doesn’t sound right either.

Another Halloween is behind us and now it’s November. The neighbors (that you can’t see in this picture) are outside putting up their Christmas decorations. They put up approximately 65 lighted snowflakes on a stick, sixteen or so blow up contraptions and assorted lawn littering objects. No worries though, as it’s all brought together with countless strings of flashing icicles in blue.

At least their “chasing lights” finally blew up last year and won’t see the light of day again.

When Earl and I were at the mall this past weekend we both were dismayed to see that JC Penney had all their Christmas decorations up already. “Jingle Bells” was playing in ear-splitting Muzak goodness. And it wasn’t even the Barry Manilow with Exposé version from the 1980s.

People! It’s November 1! Here in the United States we have a selection of holidays coming before Christmas. Isn’t it a little early to be decking the halls? I can’t imagine that at that first Thanksgiving feast that the Pilgrims and Indians were rushing through their dinner so they could put up the Christmas tree. And before Thanksgiving we have Veterans Day and how could we forget Election Day with all the mudslinging going on all over the media.

People need to chill and enjoy the moment. Even if it’s just a plain, ordinary, beautiful sunny day on the 1st of November like today.

Just Like Kindergarten.

Originally uploaded by bluemarvel.

I believe our southern neighbors have it right. I think the workday should be split up by a siesta. Everyone, working or not, deserves a nap in the midst of their workday so they stay on their game and are in tip top shape when they need to be. I’m all for supper late at night too, but that would make me fat.

Since I have class tonight, I’ve swapped work shifts with a co-worker (thank goodness it was a co-worker instead of a gardener or something), leaving me with the early shift. My on-call duties called in the middle of the night last night, so I don’t have a lot of sleep under my belt today. Normally that’d make me cranky, but I decided to circumvent the cloudy, cranky feeling that was moving in by put my head down on the kitchen table for a few moments.

Since Earl was at work, I grabbed the closest bear I could find: a stuffed animal from one of our many roadtrips. Perhaps that was a little silly, but the few moments of closing my eyes did wonders for my deteriorating mood. I feel like I can get through the afternoon now.

I remember taking naps back when I was in kindergarten and getting yelled at by Mrs. Mosher (“No child is really any different from any other child”) because I kept sneaking a leg or foot onto another boy’s rug when he was trying to sleep. Oops! I guess I was frisky in a kindergarten sort of way back then.

Maybe we’d live in a better place if people took naps AND got frisky during their lunch hour. I know it’d make me smile through my afternoon.

All Hail The On Call Pager.

Originally uploaded by bluemarvel.

Tonight we feature my electronic leash. Here’s a cryptic message from one of my co-workers. All hail on call.

Pumpkin Cake.

Originally uploaded by macwarriorny.

Today at work is our “Fall Festival”, a gathering for the area employees with food and conversation and little competitions to earn an extra day off. One of the contests includes a bake-off. So I batted my eyes and showed a little leg to Earl, and he whipped up this little creation.

He calls it “Frost on the Pumpkin.” It’s a spiced pumpkin cake, sprinkled with confectionary sugar with a cream cheese frosting filling.

It looks heavenly. I can’t wait until it’s time to try it!

Erie, Pa. Sunset.

Originally uploaded by macwarriorny.

I have decided to stop for the night in Erie, Pennsylvania. I’ve checked in with Earl, who’s in Tampa for the Eagles game. He’s been drinking with his brother, I can just tell. He told me to go out and enjoy the nightlife tonight. I think he forgets that I used to live not too far from here and I’m quite familiar with the nightlife of Erie, Pa.

Maybe there’s a good movie on somewhere.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Originally uploaded by macwarriorny.

I’ve mentioned in the past that I am a big road geek. I’ve always been fascinated by maps and roads, especially the interstate system. I’ve recently started studying to become a real traffic engineer, making my life long interest into my “final” career.

When I started out on my long trip yesterday, I had intended to drive down into Virginia and spend some time in *Pulaski, Va., since I had grown up near *Pulaski, N.Y. and I had always been curious as to what Pulaski, Va. was like. Due to traffic conditions and whatnot, I wouldn’t really have made it down there in time to do anything but drive through, wave a bit and then head back home along Interstate 81, with my expected arrival to be Sunday night around 8 p.m.

I must be getting old.

So when I got up this morning, I decided that I would take a different route and drive the entire length of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Earl and I have traveled on various portions of the “Nation’s First Superhighway”, especially the eastern end since his family lives just off the last exit of the turnpike, but I had never driven all the way to the western end where it crosses into Ohio and becomes the Ohio Turnpike. As a road geek and aspiring traffic engineer, I’ve always been quite fascinated by this road because a good share of it’s original design from the late 1930s is still in place and in use today.

So I drove from Carlisle, Pa. to the Ohio line (and beyond) along the Pennsylvania Turnpike today. And while it’s “just a road” to most, it’s a creation of civil engineering beauty to me. It’s very fun to drive in that there’s a lot of scenery, especially this time of year with the autumn colors painting the mountains, plus there’s curves and hills and straightaways and everything that makes driving the RSX on this roadway fun. Plus it has tunnels!

One of the things I especially like about the Turnpike is that it was built, for the most part, along an old railroad bed. So unlike it’s northern counterpart, the New York State Thruway, it passes close to civilization rather that far away from it. There’s things to see along the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

I was in road geek heaven today. The Pennsylvania Turnpike is officially my “favorite road”.

Here’s a very detailed history of the roadway, courtesy of fellow road geek Jeff Kitsko.

Here’s my blog entry from last year (complete with photos), from when I visited an abandoned portion of the original Turnpike (including an abandoned tunnel) near Breezewood, Pa.

And here’s the official site of The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.

* The “ski” in Pulaski, Va. is like pronounced like a ski slope, and the “ski” in Pulaski, N.Y. is pronounced like the clear blue sky. Pulaski, N.Y. is the only one that does the odd pronounciation.