Fun and Games Dept

Tree., originally uploaded by iMachias.

We are in Marlborough, Mass. for the night. It is our annual “get away from the regular mall” holiday shopping excursion. Every year Earl and I go to a mall that we are unfamiliar with to knock out the bulk of our shopping list. Even though the stores are usually the same as what we have in our general area, the different scenery and such makes for a fresh look on things that we see on a regular basis back at home. The mall of our choice this year was originally going to be in Hagerstown, Maryland, but we didn’t find any excitement to head in that direction so we opted for the Natick Collection in Natick, Mass. instead. We are staying in Marlborough because I’m very familiar with this area and Earl has spent the night in this hotel before.

The Natick Collection is part of the old Natick Mall. I used to go to Natick Mall back in the late 80s to eat at York Steak House; it has changed considerably in the past 20 years. The Natick Collection is quite nice and on the upscale side. There was a nice blend of people shopping and the mall wasn’t so packed to be uncomfortable but it was busy enough to keep it interesting.

We decided to buy a netbook but didn’t find any store selling them at the mall so we went to a nearby Best Buy in Framingham. We found a really nice one on sale for $249.99. When we went to the checkout, it ended up ringing for $299.99 with an additional charge for $140.00. The additional charge was a courtesy fee because “The Geek Squad” had wiped out all the software that came preinstalled on the netbook and had brought it back to the bare bones.

This fee wasn’t mentioned anywhere on the signage around the netbook.

For $439 we could buy a decent computer if we wanted to, so we decided to opt out of the purchase and headed back to the display to find a netbook that hadn’t been modified by The Geek Squad. All of a sudden all the customer service people swarming around the computer department came up missing and no one seemed like they wanted to help, so we said screw the deal and left empty handed.

Last week I tweeted that the Ithaca, N.Y. Best Buy gave me the best Best Buy experience ever. Their evil twin store is in Framingham, Mass. Major suckage.

We didn’t let the bad Best Buy experience ruin the day. It has been a great shopping experience and day all in all. Mother Nature is giving us some snow to make it all festive tonight. I forgot how amusing it is to watch folks in this area drive in the snow. They go slow but they’re not unreasonable.

A stop at the fairly new P.F. Chang’s topped off the experience on a pleasant note. All in all it has been a very good day.

I am worried that with this blog entry I am going to lose my membership card to The Ghey but I can not deny my feelings any longer.

I don’t really enjoy “Glee”.

I didn’t watch the first few episodes of the show. It took a couple of weeks for Earl to convince me that the show was worth watching. So one night I sat down and tried to sit through the episode without glancing at my iPhone or hauling my laptop up onto my lap. I survived the struggle but I didn’t really enjoy the experience. I decided to give it another week.

Again, I survived the struggle but I didn’t really enjoy the experience.

There are a few reasons as to why I don’t enjoy watching the show. First of all, I think that they need to ramp back Sue Sylvester’s hatred a little bit. I love watching Jane Lynch do her thing in just about any role she has appeared in but I have to admit that she actually frightens me as Sue Sylvester. Watching her makes me heart fall into my stomach. I don’t enjoy the experience of seeing her character on the screen. Perhaps it’s routed in some purposely forgotten experience from my middle or high school years but I just don’t enjoy her hatred, and the comedy involved with that hatred, for the Glee club at all.

Don’t even get me started on the fake pregnancy thing. I was so happy to see that storyline go away tonight that I almost said a little cheer. Not a fan.

Earl tells me how much he enjoys the performances on the show and I have to say that I have only enjoyed three performances out of the entire season thus far: “Defying Gravity”, “Jump” and “Say A Little Prayer”, and honestly I only enjoyed “…Prayer” after I saw the bears do it on YouTube.  The “Defying Gravity” performance was really good and I had fun during “Jump” but the rest of the performances smack of mediocrity for me. I’m a perfectionist when it comes to performance, heck I have never enjoyed my own performances in my 41 years of trying, but when numbers are performed on “Glee” all I hear is a lot of autotune. I think I would enjoy the performances more if they were real. I know the actors can sing (for the most part), I don’t know why we have to electronically enhance them. All I can hear is that damn autotune.

I keep hearing how dreamy Mr. Schuester is, and I will admit that he is rather attractive but I guess he’s not my type or something. I don’t swoon. I like to swoon when I’m watching a television show but he’s just doing it for me. Puck, on the other hand, comes closer to making me swoon and I was quite relieved to hear that he is closer to 30 than high school age.

Speaking of which, they have this whole Stockard Channing on Grease at 35 thing going on with some of the students, which is fine I guess, but knowing this kind of kills any attempts at realism for me.

So there you have it, I’m not a fan of “Glee”. It doesn’t inspire me to join a chorus nor do I feel the need to tweet breathlessly about the latest episode. Take my toaster points, take my membership to The Ghey but I speak only the truth.

300.365, originally uploaded by iMachias.

I have been riding the exercise bike in the basement in an attempt to keep my cycling legs in shape. I find riding in the basement to be excessively boring and even blasting music doesn’t help.

Enter video on my iPhone.

On days where I’m doing ONLY cardio, I watch an episode of “Xena:Warrior Princess”. I have always loved me some Xena. On days where I do cardio in addition to strength training, I tend to ride the bike for a shorter time, so I watch an episode of “Josie and the Pussycats”.

How gay am I?

Tonight’s episode was the second one from the first season. It’s called “A Greenthumb Is Not A Goldfinger”. It’s the one where the gang runs into a mad scientist.

Best line of the episode? Josie mistakes Alexandria as a plant creature and beats her up before Alexandria reveals herself, prompting her to say “Who were you expecting, Scooby Doo?”

I’m sorry, I just find that funny.

Earl and I just got back from a ride through the local shopping haunts to see how many people are in line for the various deals on Black Friday. The tally:

1. We don’t bother looking at Wal*Mart.
2. Around 30 people in line at Best Buy.
3. Target, 0.
4. Poor K-mart. You used to be so much fun.
5. One couple at Sears. Apparently there is a great deal on a washer/dryer combo and the folks at Sears are handing out four tickets at 3 a.m.

The little adventure was fun but you will never catch us in line waiting for a Black Friday sale.

I’m just sayin’.

299.365, originally uploaded by iMachias.

I am thankful to be able to wake up like this each morning.

Happy Thanksgiving.

I have to admit, the Cubster takes really good photos. This was taken at Chimney Bluffs State Park almost two weeks ago.

Even after over 13 years we still like to hold hands.

This is one my favourite tracks from the 1980s and I have to admit that I have always found Shannon Rubicam kind of hot.

This song has been going through my head for weeks and when I saw it on Joe My God I had to share with the masses.

Here is “Waiting For A Star To Fall” by Boy Meets Girl.

Chimney Bluffs State Park., originally uploaded by iMachias.

Yesterday we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and go for a drive. One of the guys I work with, who appreciates being out in nature as much as I do, told me about a state park that we had never been to before and how different it was from other parks along Lake Ontario and how it was just a beautiful place. So amongst our travels I decided to scout out and introduce Earl and Jamie to Chimney Bluffs State Park.

My friend was right, it is gorgeous.

Chimney Bluffs State Park doesn’t offer any camping facilities nor does it offer swimming (though it seems like it would be a great place to swim). There is a very small picnic area and one building with bathroom facilities. Other than that there’s a bunch of hiking trails and a beautiful shoreline along Lake Ontario.

It seemed to get warmer the closer we got to the lake, so we walked up and down the rocky and pebble covered shore. Due to my timing we got there a little later than planned, so we didn’t venture to the end of the park boundary. We are planning that for a future trip.

If you click on the photo above you’ll probably find more shots from the visit on my Flickr page.

273.365, originally uploaded by iMachias.

There’s no turning back now. I’m a country boy and I’m damn proud of it.