Tears.

I wasn’t going to say this but I figured what the hell. I’ll admit that when I got up this morning, turned on CNN and saw that the Democrats had gained control of the House and are thisclose to doing the same with the Senate, I got choked up a little bit with happiness. When I saw that Elliott Spitzer, a proponent of gay marriage or civil unions, was elected as the next Governor of New York, I shed a few tears of joy.

The winds of change are here!

Now we should have some realistic checks and balances going on in Washington again. It feels like the insanity cycle is finally coming to an end.

8 November 2006 by Political BS. 0

Eat Your Veggies.

I’m finding myself in good spirits today. I’m a little surprised by this because Earl is out of town on business and in order for him to catch his flight this morning he had to get up at 3:45 a.m. and make a lot of noise in the bedroom and bathroom. And flash a few lights on and off too. I was able to catch an hour or so of sleep after his departure, but it was still early when I got up and I’m easily not a morning person.

I’m attributing my good mood to vegetables. You see, Earl and I went on a desperately needed grocery shopping run and stocked up the cupboards and refrigerator with moderately healthy stuff, including a nice variety of raw vegetables. Earl packs the lunches in our merry little household and always slices up some vegetables and packages them up as a daily compliment to my lunch. I love eating raw vegetables, even onions (to the dismay of my co-workers) and I suspect they contribute to a sunnier disposition.

Maybe Mom was right when she said to eat my vegetables.

8 November 2006 by Food. 0

Voting Day.

I just got back from voting. All in all the entire process took less than five minutes. I was voter number 211 at our Town Hall today. I was disappointed to see no baked goods for sale; before we moved in 2003 our old voting place always had some civic organization selling baked goods. At the primary elections in September I was voter 59 at 6:00 p.m., today I was 211 a little after noon so I think there’ll be a good turnout. I was sure to thank the voting officials as I left the building. I admire them. I hope to be one someday.

Growing up we rarely talked about politics in my family. There were no heated debates at home of who was a good candidate and who was a bad candidate. At the family owned business was another matter, there were often loud, boisterous discussions amongst the older generation, but not at home. My Mom and Dad would always do their part and vote. We’d get into the car and drive down to the local fire/bingo/meeting/recreation/voting hall. We’d see the local folks from the grocery store or whatnot in their capacity as “election officials”. Mom and Dad would check in and sign the big book and then go into the machine with the curtain. Jennifer usually went in with Dad to watch, I was allowed to go in with Mom. Afterwards, she wouldn’t reveal who she voted for and I believe my father just hit the buttons across his party’s row. To talk about it would go against the unspoken “politics are not to be discussed” rule that applied at home. I think this was his way of maintaining peace and quiet because there were so many arguments at work about politics.

When I voted today I was happy to see the tried and true mechanical voting machines that have been present in this part of the state for a long, long time. I also smiled as I cast my votes, because while I was making what I thought were informed, intelligent decisions and it ended up that I was doing as my Dad did and going right across a party line.

I think it was a different party though. I could be wrong. We never talked about it much.

7 November 2006 by Political BS. 0

Decision 2006.

Turn on the television and you can’t avoid the advertisements for why Politician X is the best choice for Office Y. Tomorrow is Election Day here in the United States and Earl and I encourage everyone to get to the polls and make informed, thought out decisions for the candidate of your choice. Some say “they’re all crooks, they’re all liars, there’s no good choices.” If you don’t vote, you don’t have a voice.

Speak out on Election Day.

6 November 2006 by Political BS. 0

Decaffinated Monday.

So here it is the first Monday of November and the day before Election Day here in the United States. There are many things to be happy about, including the fact that the weather is absolutely gorgeous for this time of year and that it’s the last day of election ads for a while, thank goodness.

As part of my “Healthy Living Yo-Yo Practices”, I’m suffering from a bit of caffeine withdrawal today. Over the weekend if I was drinking beer or chocolate martinis, I was drinking unsweetened iced tea or soda pop. So today I’m paying the price for my work habit of drinking lots of water and avoiding the caffeine.

Consequently, I was becoming a litle irritable. So I had a Diet Pepsi and I feel loads better.

Now if we could just do something about all these political ads we’re being bombarded with today.

6 November 2006 by Ponderings and Musings 0

Boston, Mass.




Boston.

Originally uploaded by bluemarvel.

Earl and I decided to head back into Boston before heading home today. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, so we parked under Boston Common and then went for a walk through the park. We then headed over to Boylston St. and walked up to Massachusetts Ave., stopping at Au Bon Pain along the way.

Earl always cracks me up because when he says “Au Bon Pain” he sounds like Charlie Brown’s teacher. I guess that’s his version of a French accent.

Once on Mass. Ave., we stopped at what I’ve always known to be Tower Records but apparently it had become a Virgin Megastore. And today was it’s last day of business apparently with everything 75 to 90% off. I used to always look forward to going to Tower on Saturday afternoons back in the late 1980s as I was always eager to add my growing 12-inch single collection. I got a little choked up to see that it was closing down.

When the walked up Newberry St. before jumping on the T at Boylston and heading over to Government Center. I tried to talk Earl into walking all the way to Government Center but he remarked that it was much too far. I reminded him that everytime we’ve done that exact walk he’s said it was much too far but I like riding the T so we took the T. We ended up at the Bell In Hand tavern on Union and Marshall for lunch before jumping back on T at Haymarket and grabbing the Jeep and heading home.

Truth be known, I wouldn’t mind living in Boston again. For now I’ll have to be content with visiting from time to time.

We’re going back in two weeks.

5 November 2006 by Flickr 0

Please Come To Boston.




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).

5 November 2006 by Flickr 0

w00t!




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.

4 November 2006 by Flickr 0

Little Surprises.




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.

3 November 2006 by Flickr 0

About J.P.

Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.

Weird? Eccentric!

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