i hate thanksgiving

and 1 more reason i hate turkey

click!

thanks to dcblogs.

the weather is here, wish you were beautiful

if this is global warming, i like it. actually, i love it. the last 2 weeks have been so damn nice, with the exception of today when it rained like we were in a typhoon, that i want it to continue all winter.

2 weeks of weather in the mid-60's? and last saturday i actually had to put my air conditioning on. in the middle of november? awesome. i seriously feel like i live in south carolina or something.

so thank you, george w. bush, because the effects of your horrible environmental policy will definitely make me happy years down the road. i mean, hey, i won't be alive in 100 years, anyway.

where students, tourists, and townspeople...

despite my best efforts to start eating slightly healthier this week... yes, i actually went to the grocery store and bought stuff my nutritionist says i should be eating (puffin cereal actually isn't as bad as i thought)... andy forced me to eat lunch at popeyes today.

actually, saying he forced me to eat there would be a stretch. i love popeyes. just not that crawfish crap that andy got. yuck... there's something about eating something you could pull out of the creek growing up that really grosses me out.

anyway, popeyes is probably the most diverse place i've ever been. seriously, black, white, asian, hispanic, indian people... everybody. there was somebody from just about every ethnic group there while we were. i guess people from everywhere really love popeyes. did anybody ever think that maybe we could solve all the world's problems with popeyes? think about it.

yes, Virginia!

counting down the minutes

less than 24 hours now before the "unveiling" of the john paul jones arena and the 2006-2007 version of UVa men's basketball.

since this season has been a complete wash so far... the hoos are in a rebuilding year, and who the hell knows what's going on with the redskins, i'm particularly excited about uva basketball.

throughout my undergraduate years, our basketball team was pretty much terrible. despite being ranked #4 in the country (ha!) first year, we didn't make the dance a single time. however, i really have a connection with the basketball team. the likes of which i don't have with the football team.

where does that come from? i'm not sure. but i think it has a lot to do with my mom being from north carolina, where, growing up, basketball was life. we were always really big into college basketball as a family growing up. so that's my best guess.

i'm so ready for basketball to start, and i hope that this year's zona game turns out to be a lot like fourth year, when we crushed them and the headline on espn.com read, "yes Virginia!" that was sweet.

sunday night. 7pm. go hoos!

maybe i like sexually explicit novels, punk

so, now that the election is (mostly) over... what did you think?

i voted for jim webb. even though he seems like somewhat of a donkey kong, i had to part with george allen on two issues. first, the war in iraq. let's face it, to put it nicely, iraq is a clusterf&%@. second, stem-cell research. allen simply won't support it. i mean, come on... just today it cured blindness in mice. the potential for this kind of research is incredible, and for people like me who have degenerate diseases (no, not alcoholism or gambling, but diabetes), this is quite a pressing issue.

i also voted no to the amendment suggesting that we define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. in my mind, this whole issue is symantics anyway. i've talked to many people who have different views on this... one of the most interesting? was somebody who said they supported civil unions for same-sex couples, but that calling it marriage was unacceptable. honestly, i really don't see the point? who gives a damn. most of the marriages in this country are way the hell too messed up anyway. marriage, civil union, what's the difference? but why amend the constitution? to me, it just seems like a bunch of religious right crap.

in terms of logic, it simply makes no sense. and i like my decisions made logically.

and what about this election? i love "horse-race" politics as some professor i had in college used to call it. what is more fun that seeing jim webb go from being down 3000 votes to ahead by 3000 votes in less than 30 minutes on tv? at midnight. i feel really bad for chris matthews... i think that guy has been awake for days.

and tucker carlson? seriously, that guy looks like he stepped out the front door of a UVA frat house.

oops

silly me! i've been boycotting my blog ever since i drunkenly accosted connor to link up my blog from his.

i've been sulking for days as i was certain that indeed, connor had forgotten to link me and as such had defaulted on his promise.

how did this make me feel? sad. very sad. i have always trusted connor, and the lack of linkage, in the blink of an eye, completely shattered it. i was really shattered and torn, and was really not sure how i would get out of bed in the morning. i drank bourbon. heavily.

then, while surfing the internet and cursing connor, i came across connor's blog, and alas, i had been linked. several days ago. i feel like an idiot. thanks connor. i'll still be drinking bourbon heavily, however. you can even have some if you want. and it was in clarendon. not the corner.

yeeeehaw!

i'll be at west virginia university all weekend for a swim meet. should be fun, hopefully the kids will swim fast.

hey, maybe if one if my kids goes a top-16 time, i'll burn a couch! it's normal practice at west virginia, anyway.

although, i am actually scared that couch burning might occur. did you see wvu get beat last night on national tv? to louisville? uh oh.

where's my ferrari?

so this will mark my 5th weekend in a row away from home. next weekend will be my 6th weekend away from home. and then i'm considering going down for the miami game, which would make 7. my life is tiring me out, and i realized today that i'm definitely having a quarter life crisis.

yup, a quarter life crisis. actually, since i'm diabetic, it's probably more like a 1/3 life crisis.

even still, it's time for a serious re-evaluation of what i'm (not) doing.

mexico, anybody?

sure brings new meaning to "barbershop quartet"

ok, so i seriously have tried to post a couple of times in the last week, but was unable to do so because apparently the blogger server was down. a lot.

oh well, back to normal now, i suppose.

your topic for today? or tomorrow? or whenever you read this... haircuts! but not just any haircut, a haircut from paradise cuts. yes, this is a real place in fairfax. and trust me, when i need my hair cut again, i'll be there. i actually have a friend whose husband tried the place out (upon hearing about it from his wife) - he asked the girl whether it was advantageous to cut hair in a bikini/sarong/hot pants/whatever they where in there... i mean, in my mind, i'm sure it's totally different than what it really is... kinda like a sorority house pillow fight, if you will. anyway, i digress. the stately young woman that cut his hair told him it was very easy because she could simply go home, slip off her bikini top, hop in the shower, and be done. no hair getting stuck to clothing, etc. interesting take. i wonder what my women's studies class would think about this whole idea?

sweet.

this might be the one time in my life that i wish my hair would grow faster.

read more about it in a wapo article here. another cool part about the article? the UVa shout-out, of course.

a weekend in new jersey

i went to new jersey over the weekend. no, i didn't choose too... well, not really - it was a little bit of that and a little bit of being forced to. i went to a conference for work. it was interesting. we ate at all the famous new jersey places such as mcdonalds, chili's, and bob evans. yes, i said bob evans, and yes, it is absolutely incredible. i should eat there more often.

anyway, the big news out of new jersey this weekend? no left turns! what the hell is that all about? i've never really spent time in new jersey other than when i've been to atlantic city, so i was quite shocked at this traffic regulation. i can only guess that it cuts down on traffic accidents... but talk about inconvenient.

it goes something like this:

person 1: "wow, we're in new jersey and look, there's our hotel ahead on the left."
person 2: "cool, i'm so glad we finally made it. new jersey traffic sucks."
person 1: "yah it does. phew. where's the turn?"
person 2: "right ahead i think, yah right there..."
person 1: "wait, what the fuck? there's a no left turn sign there!"
person 2: "what? whose stupid idea is that? i mean, we are in new jersey, but come on!"
person 1: "so now what do i do?"
person 2: "i guess you have to turn right up here and then circle through 2 residential blocks..."
person 1: "and then what?"
person 2: "pray that you come out in the right spot so you can turn left at the light"
person 1: "ugh."

that's pretty much how the whole weekend went. just change the word "hotel" to "bob evans" or "dunkin donuts"

the armpit of america

i will be in new jersey all weekend for the eastern states swimming coaches clinic. neato.

so, read connor's blog in the meantime. i told him i would link him up.

i'll be sure to try to get my picture taken with michael phelps.

seriously, some people

if you actually read these posts, you could probably infer that i actually hate most people. that would be accurate. i have a friend who we used to say didn't actually like anybody, he just hated some people less than others. i'm not quite that bad, but the general public annoys me most of the time... whether it be umbrellas (see yesterday), ipods (that's a topic for a whole different day), or what happened today...

andy and i went on our usual pilgramage to smoothie king. everything was going normal until some donkey kong walked in the door. andy and i were casually chatting and minding our own business, but it was very difficult to ignore how much of an idiot this guy was. first of all, it's 4 o'clock in the afternoon - if you're not like andy and i (i work construction... we start/finish early, andy manages and sets his own hours), a teacher, a real estate agent, a swim coach!, or a lawyer, what the hell are you doing at 4 o'clock in the afternoon not working? he wasn't dressed like any of the above, so i will just assume that this guy sucks.

the same lady is usually there working when we go in, so i assume that mr. self-important actually thought that he mattered to this lady. when she politely asked him what he would be having, he said, oh you remember what i want, right? she chuckled with a little bit of nervous laughter, and actually managed to remember probably half of what this guy wanted. who knows what it was, but, since she didn't remember it all, mr. important figured that she MUST know, because he is so important. so instead of just telling her, he kept prompting her with, "with? wiiiiiith? wiiiiiiiiith? you know what i like it with!" until finally his dumbass realized she just didn't know, and quite simply, didn't care. "extra honey," was his final command. seriously, this guy had like an extra-hot tall skim no-foam latte with extra whipped and room for cream kind of order going on.

so, as the smoothie was getting made, he made sure he hovered right over her, and even said, "don't forget to hook me up with that honey! yah, yah! there you go! right on!" except, not in a nice way, but in a, "i'm just making myself look like an ass" way.

as we were on our way out, i overheard him say to her, after she had made his smoothie, that he was hoping she could hook him up and give him an extra punch on his smoothie king frequent buyer card, since he forgot to get it punched the last time he was in, and since she served him, she definitely must remember him, right? right?

damn i wanted to punch that guy. so did andy. now that's saying something.

les parapluies d'idiots

i have a paper proposal due at 430 today for my grad class. i came to the library way early today and now i'm done and have 2 hours to kill. ugh. sooo...

a couple of examples that i've seen, just today, of how people are idiots...

i hate people that walk around with umbrellas. walking around on a college campus this morning in the rain, it seems like 90% of people carry an umbrella. unfortunately, that is an 89% greater chance of getting poked in the eye than on any non-rain day. Maybe it's sorority girls who are too caught up on their cell phones to notice, or maybe it's the 3 people trying to squeeze under one umbrella, but damn it people, watch where you're going.

you might not have this problem if you are, say, 5'4" or 6'2", but as an average-height american male, 5'9" seems to be perfect poking height for every umbrella. i feel like, with my hoodie pulled up, ducking and dodging umbrellas, i must look like some kind of terrorist freak.

another example... like i said, i'm in the library. not a public library open to any old person, but a university library. today is my first day in the mason library, and i managed to find a seat, connect wirelessly to the internet, get a student id made so that i could check out books, locate every book i needed (it's no alderman, trust me...), and add money to my newly minted mason id so that i could print off everything i had worked up, and actually figure out how to print it out. that's pretty productive, i think.

however, as i was standing printing out my proposal, a young lady, standing at the computer terminal next to me, wanted to know if i could help her out real quick. "certainly," i said. i never turn down a good looking blonde. her question? "so, how do i find one of these books?" "with the call number," i replied. what came next? yup, you guessed it. this girl made it all the way to college and had no idea what a call number was. sad. further proves my point about george mason.

my new roommate

good stories sure to follow.

weekend of broken hearts

well, if you remember the rules i set forth several weeks ago in terms of having a good weekend, this weekend was, well, disappointing.

the skins dropped a 14-3 lead to the then-winless titans. ugly.

the hoos dropped a 20-0 lead to the hated couch-burning maryland terrapins. very ugly.

at least vpisu lost big time on thursday night. on national tv. to a national audience. to boston college. lost. badly. ugly, in a good way.

as somebody said to me tonight, it was definitely a weekend of broken hearts.

i also watched almost heaven tonight on hbo. while being incredibly predictable, it did have highlights... like reese witherspoon. and that guy from napoleon dynamite. but come on, who gardens in a cashmere sweater? the movie broke my heart because reese is really hot. and i have no shot. ever.

my obsession, no wait, addiction to text messaging has been taken to the limit the last couple of months. this morning, i finally decided to fight back. i know, i know, sending and receiving almost 900 text messages over your limit is somewhat incredible, but hey... i don't speak directly with anybody anymore. i'm hip. or maybe european? aren't those two things independent of each other? anyway, i got charged an extra $91.38 for texting this month on my (already high) cell phone bill. $91.38? that's like a pack of cigarettes or a mocha frappucino everyday... that's an expensive addiction.

so, i called verizon this morning and, when asked what i was calling for, i told the kind lady that i figured that upgrading to the next highest text messaging package (i was already at 500 texts/month) was probably much cheaper than the $91.38 i would be paying. indeed, i was right. an extra $5/month was all it would take to cover my dirty habit. i told her that was fantastic and to go ahead and sign me up.

then, i built up the courage and asked if she could apply that discount to this month's bill. i kindly pleaded that a large corporation like verizon wouldn't even notice the additional $72.40 on their bottom line, and that i had been a loyal customer for many (5+) years. after haggling for a few minutes... actually, no, she said as a "courtesy" she would be more than happy to do that for me. i didn't have to plead. but trust me, i had it ready. i wonder how many "courtesies" you get?

so boom, it was done. i made $72.40 today. on a sunday. that's pretty good - and i guess the only person's heart that broke was ivan seidenberg. he'll get over it. after all, it's just money, and certainly not as important as a football loss.

perils of being a swim coach...

coaching swimming is incredible. i love it. i honestly can't believe that i get paid to do it. however, there is one downfall... swim meets in the fall. why? well, because they force me to miss football. not just uva games on saturdays, but skins games on sundays as well.

i know, maybe it's just a small price to pay for doing something i truly enjoy, but it definitely disappoints me every time i look at the meet schedule and see that i'll be missing another game or two.

the bright side of this? well, fortunately, i didn't get to watch the redskins game last week (the terrible, terrible loss to the giants) and i also didn't get to watch (...or listen to) the uva/maryland debacle. so, i guess all in all, i'm able to avoid the frustration and disappointment of actually sitting through the miserableness that are my football teams.

on a lighter note, i hope i see some kid wearing this costume on halloween. hilarious.

thank you, reddit.

my apologies

damn this blog has been boring for about the last week. sorry.

between moving and swim meets and school and work, i've been crazy. but i've said that already.

anyway, here's a link i thought was interesting. it's in relation to the whole mark foley fiasco. a lot of interesting psychological talk.

last week, whilst still living at home, i asked my parental unit (a republican elected official) when he was planning to jump ship in the wake of all the scandalous republican behavior and get on the same team as former-republican turned dem jim webb. he looked up from his morning paper and seemed slightly annoyed. his response? a deadpan, "ha. nope." sipped his coffee. back to the paper. end of discussion. i'll just assume he was deep in thought about bringing rail to dulles.

get ready for the weekend! i got an hdtv, so i'm ready!

thanks to reddit for the link

we all think it...

but i don't think i could have put it any better myself:

anonymous IM buddy (10:02:44 PM): so I weigh my options as to who I'm more likely to sleep with, obviously

so, guy or girl? what do you think?

christmas in october

recently, i moved to reston. i know, i know, reston isn't the bright lights or big fun of the city, but, it's all i can afford.

so speaking of big cities, the last time i saw 90% of the stuff that i own, it was all in the big city of lincoln, nebraska. well, that didn't go so well, and last september, i picked up and headed back to town.

then the problem became this: how the hell do you get an apartments worth of stuff back to virginia? well, i hired movers. professional ones.

this can only be good, right? well, yes and no. yes because of course, they went to the fine state of ne and packed all of my stuff up. i didn't have to do it. no because, well, they wrapped everything, and i do mean everything, in paper. not a little paper, but a lot. they wrapped single cds in paper, every spoon in paper, you name it, it was individually wrapped in paper.

this made moving quite difficult. difficult because, well, everything had to be unwrapped... at first i thought it would be annoying, and despite the mountains of paper, it was actually fun. it truly was christmas in october as i unwrapped all of the things that i hadn't seen for more than a year (it had all sat in storage...).

what did i find? plenty of cool stuff that i'd forgotten about... the highlight of the whole move? a brand new, unopened bottle of jefferson's reserve. i also found plenty of things that didn't make me quite as happy... pictures i forgot about, things that broke, etc.

in the end, though, it definitely feels good to get my stuff back.