Category: Friends

Best. Weekend. Ever

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…or this year, at least.

Once in a while I make exactly the right choice. This was one of those times. What a great weekend! Had a quite lovely time visiting old friends Dan, Lori, and New York–none of whom I’ve seen enough of in recent years. Pictures and other such things to follow, but probably not until after I get some sleep and get through a really brutal four days at work.

Completely unrelated: Anyone who’s paying attention knows I’m not wild about hot weather. But I’m also starting to get a little alarmed that it’s well into May and I’m still tempted to turn on the heat because it’s only 60F in my living room.

At least my casserole was good…

Let’s just be honest and admit that Thanksgiving was sufficiently miserable that I’m feeling pretty secure in not being too excited about that other holiday. Aside from watching this movie again and deciding I liked it even more the second time around, there was precious little to recommend this particular Thursday in November. But having just talked to two friends who had an even worse day (week), I’m keeping mine in perspective.

Random Thursday night stuff for your viewing pleasure:

  • Hmmm. A job that (1) has lots of high-end requirements, most of which I could meet, (2) is located in a ridiculously expensive place where I don’t want to live, and (3) pays astonishingly little given the first two points. Oh boy! Count me in!
  • Wasn’t this originally a sight gag at the end of a Bugs Bunny cartoon?
  • Even though his mommy dresses him funny, this guy clearly gets it. And extra points for the brilliant term “cupcake urbanism.”

Nighty night.

US Tour 1997: Day 22

Fifteen years ago today:

Back in my hometown of Greensboro, I drive through town with my dad, drink with friends at New York Pizza on Tate Street, visit the Kinko’s where I worked during college, and continue drinking at “rock and roll drag night” at the now-demolished Palms bar downtown.

Original narrative.

Saturday night in the basement

It was a wonderfully gloomy, stormy day today. Nice background for a wedding, although the principals might not agree. Regardless of weather, it’s a happy thing to watch two people who so clearly should be married actually doing so. Congrats to Carroll and Lex.

Saturday was much better than Friday, which pretty thoroughly sucked in many most ways for me. Many thanks to Duncan for helping to temper the suckage for a while on Friday afternoon; you maybe don’t know quite how much I needed that. And my apologies to anyone else who came in contact with me in any way whatsoever, especially my parents and the poor folks at the Harris Teeter on Cloverdale. Enough said. I’m not joking when I say it was a pretty shitty day.

But now I’m contentedly in the basement, listening to Capitale Rock and working on Groceteria databases and (hooray!) on the last of the analog home video. I should be done with that by tomorrow. The digital stuff requires much less babysitting and I’ll finally have my home video archived to…um…archival standards very soon. That will make me very happy. Then I can start making MP4 access copies so I can easily watch it all on the Apple TV. Or not…

Saturday in the basement

I spent most of today in the basement digitizing video and playing with photos of vintage supermarkets and not eating very much. It was fun but I feel kind of gross now and my eyes are really tired so I probably won’t do it again tomorrow.

I still may buy a new computer, though.

DC is on hold for a week or two. I forgot about a previous commitment involving cake. I don’t like to miss engagements that result in the consumption of cake. Happy occasions for deserving friends are always a nice diversion as well. Especially if there’s cake…

What I’m gonna do now, though, is go to bed, wishing that I were in Canada and thus would have an extra day this weekend.

A dad I never met

In addition to recognizing how great my own dad is this year on Father’s Day, I’m feeling kind of inspired to recognize how very important someone else’s father came to be in my life.

Back in 2003, one of my oldest and closest friends lost his father to an illness that I assumed was either caused or exacerbated by smoking. I’d never met this man. Wouldn’t have known him from Adam if I’d seen him walking down the street. But the day he died, I decided that I would be one less person that my friend would lose to smoking. And I decided that very day that I was going to quit after almost twenty-five years as an addict. I set the date for about a week later and on 3 November 2003, I had my last cigarette. I never once looked back after that day and haven’t touched one of those disgusting things since.

So in a certain way, this dad that I’d never met saved my life–or at least significantly enhanced and lengthened it. I don’t think I’ve ever told his son this story and I probably should have before now, because the son obviously played a pretty big role in my decision too.

Father’s Day just seemed like a good time to mention it. So thanks to father and son…

North of the border

So as you may have gathered, I made a quick trip to Canada last weekend. There was a “weekend getaway” aspect to the trip and I did get to hang out with my friend Sarah in Toronto. There was also a business aspect. All in all, it was a great long weekend–if a bit exhausting from all the driving. I always feel so peaceful and calm in Canada. An added bonus was that it was rather chilly so I was able to extend the winter I never really had by a few days.

I stopped in Pittsburgh on the way up, my last visit there since we sold the house. Frankly, I was a little nervous about that. There’s a lot of “breakup baggage” associated with Pittsburgh. But I love Pittsburgh and I’ve decided not to let negative associations ruin it for me (a decision I’m trying to make on a regular basis lately) so I drove into town, had my Italian sub at Tom’s Diner in Dormont and then drove up to Mount Washington to look down on the gorgeousness. And it was good.

On Saturday I made the drive to Niagara Falls with a brief stop in Erie. The border crossing was relatively uneventful, all things considered, and I made my way into Fort Erie for cash before driving the 30 km to Niagara Falls. It was at about this point that I realized it was starting to get cold and rainy and I had somehow neglected to pack a jacket. So it was off to Value Village. I checked into my ridiculously cheap room ($29) at the Super 8 and eventually headed back out in search of dinner. I found said dinner at a wonderful place called The Flying Saucer Restaurant, which was kind of like eating inside an episode of Space:1999, decked out as it was in that beautiful late 1970s vision of the future. I also walked around the Clinton Hill tourist zone for a few minutes.

Sunday morning brought breakfast at a most wonderful diner that was way off the beaten (tourist) path and was dirt cheap–particularly by Canadian standards. I explored Niagara a bit before meeting Sarah at the new Walmart (it was right off the QEW and had a big parking lot, making it perfect for said rendezvous) so we could make a day trip to Toronto. It was great seeing Sarah; we had lunch and roamed about The Annex a bit before popping in to the new Loblaws at Maple Leaf Gardens and then heading home. After sending her back across the border, I explored a bit more.

On Monday morning, I packed up, checked out got gas, had breakfast at Bassell’s, and did my necessary grocery shopping and other final errands. I shot a few photos downtown and managed to locate the building that served as the morgue in Niagara (I’d scouted a couple of other locations the day before). Then it was back to the USA, appropriately entering through the hellhole known as Niagara Falls, New York. I stopped by Wegman’s, detoured through Buffalo, and got on the Thruway.

After my late start, I couldn’t quite make it home in one day, so I spent Monday night in one of the newly-renovated Motel 6 locations outside Charleston WV. My room was sort of a half-assed version with mostly new paint and a new (but yet still cigarette-burned) bedspread and no actual new furniture.

After a quick breakfast and an unproductive stop by the Charleston Department Store, I came home.

Photos:

Day 14: Schenectady and environs

Stats:

Didn’t drive all day.

Meals:

Notes:

Breakfast with Rick at Broadway Diner. We drove around Albany, Troy, and Watervliet among other places. Visited an interesting architectural salvage place where I considered (for about three seconds) buying a “Walk/Don’t Walk” sign. Hung out at home this afternoon. Pizza with Duncan and Rick tonight. A very pleasantly restful day. Really good to see Duncan and Rick.

Photos (flickr link):
For some reason, some of today’s photos may not be displaying. Use the flickr link to see them all.

Day 13: Ottawa to Schenectady

Stats:

Odometer start: 14218

Gas:

  • Esso, Ottawa. $1.24/litre. Bought $20.00 worth to get me back to the US.
  • Sunoco, Ogdensburg NY. $3.56/gallon. 12.4 gallons.

Meals:

  • Breakfast: Ada’s Diner, Ottawa. Two eggs scrambled, pea-meal bacon, potatoes, “brown toast”, coffee. $8.99.
  • Lunch: Jumbo’s Diner, Gouverneur NY. Pulled pork sandwich, fries, water, coconut cream pie. $8.23.
  • Dinner: Blue Ribbon Restaurant, Schenectady. Meat loaf, mixed vegetables, mashed potatoes, salad. Duncan bought.

Notes:

Drove around Ottawa a bit with Robin this morning before dropping him off at work. On his recommendation, had breakfast at Ada’s Diner on Bank Street (good call). Got gas nearby to tide me over until I re-entered the US (where it’s more than a dollar a gallon cheaper) and then headed out of Ottawa. Made one last Canadian grocery run in Prescott and crossed the border. No problems at the crossing. The nice little old lady at the border started talking about “Carolina blue” when I told her where I worked. Didn’t have the heart to tell her I worked at a different campus.

Gas in Ogdensburg and then I headed toward Schenectady on NY 812 and NY 12 through Gouverneur and Lowville. Got on the Thruway at Utica and arrived at Duncan and Rick’s house about 6:15. We went to dinner and then to the brand new Shop-Rite and drove around downtown a bit. Came home and watched “Big Bang Theory” and “Modern Family.”

My phone is really on its last legs. I’m having to do a hard reboot every time I use the camera or Shazam. Hope it holds till I get home.

Photos (flickr link):
For some reason, some of today’s photos may not be displaying. Use the flickr link to see them all.