Surprise Brian Butler

Happy Birthday Brian.
~
Katelyn and Jay got you a copy of Brokeback Mountain and other stuff wrapped in pink. WHAT UP WITH THAT????
~
Not that there is anything wrong with it, despite the obvious and unfeeling reaction from Lauren and Jill.
~

The Lucky Bastard

Jason Shauer is the lucky bastard that I told you about earlier. This is a better picture of Bridgit.

Lucky Bastard!

Jill and Kate are Coming Over

Maybe I'll take their picture. They seem to like that.

Cost of Cedar

Just bought the 1x12 red cedar to use for the tender seating. $6.67 a linear foot from Moynihan Lumber in Beverly. It seems like everytime I go to the lumber yard, I get an acute case of sticker shock. I could get 5/4 1x6 cedar and resaw it and glue it, but the lack of labor makes the 1x12 worthwhile. Regardless, this stuff is clear and beautiful stock and will make the seating and interior of the tender sing.

Guns of Navarone

Watching the Guns of Navarone, starring Gregory Peck, David Niven and Anthony Quinn. The last time I saw this film was in 1961 at the Open Air Drive In Theater on the Lynnway in Lynn with my Father, Mother and Brother Jamie.

The film is really well done, and I remember how my father seemed to enjoy it. Very tough war time decisions involving extreme sacrifices and brutal consequences.

Weekend Planning

Lots of stuff to get done this weekend.
~
For Operation Moonshadow, I have to get some mortgage statements to Mark Ferrante, and meet Mike Rockett and Steve Spillane to plan the renovations.
~
For the Tender, the interior has to be sanded and another coat of epoxy added. Two of the floor stakes have to be planed down and the flooring planks have to be sanded and epoxied. The seating planks have to be laid out. Maybe I'll also epoxy fillet the centerboard case in place, which technically would make the boat waterproof and launchable.
~
I also have to start thinking about the basement flooring and cabinet work.
~
Now I'm definitely on overload.

Christmas Shopping

Most year's, I've gone with Joanne to the outlet stores in North Conway to do our Christmas Shopping. This year, she went alone because I have to meet Mike Rockett on the school rehab this Saturday.
~
I find Christmas shopping to be fairly stressful.... and tiring. It's not that I don't like to do it, but there are things that I'd rather do.
~
I doesn't matter, because I've already bought everything for her that she wanted. Every time she said that she might like something, I fired up the Web and bought it online. Right then and there from my couch. The UPS guy showed up with the stuff two or three days later, and I haven't had to move my ass.
~
You've got to love the internet. What a freaking convenience!

Fancy Free

Friday Night. I'm home alone. Joanne is up at the condo in North Conway, NH doing Christmas shopping. You can't hear it or smell it, but I just farted.

~

Just a nice, loud, smelly, masculine fart, with no spousal fallout. It's not a Ryan level fart. His are world class. But it was competitive.

~

Then I noticed something.... No dirty looks. Even Isabelle and Ronick, my cats, didn't glance at me.

~

I have farted with no recourse. A freeby.

~

Cool!

Unseasonal

Sitting outside on the deck at Darwin in complete 60 degree comfort. Somewhat disconcerting for December 1.

Great Grandfather

What's your Great Grandfather's first name? That's your father's or mother's grandfather. I don't know either!
~
That is a whole life that went by, directly related to your existance, and you don't know jack about him - even his first name.
~
How important can our life's issues be if in less than 100 years, nobody will know if you even lived?
~
Makes you wonder about sweating the small stuff, or taking life too seriously.
~
"Try not to try too hard... It's just a lovely ride."
- James Taylor
~
Just 400 years ago, thousands of Native American Indians lined the shores of New England. In less that 100 years, 95% of them were dead with no progeny - victims of European microbes. We have virtually no record of this rich culture - even the widespread decimation is theory and conjecture. That happened in a blink of our human existance - a relative nanosecond in man's time on earth. Right in the land that we dwell. All of their issues and experiences - like they never happened.

See 1491 by Charles C. Mann

A Rat's Ass

Don't give one.

Nanepashemet Peeps of the Week - 4

Can you feel the excitement? Some peeps lives will change tonight as they achieve the coveted, cherished, and richly rewarding status of being named a Nanepashemet Peep of the Week.
~
Those of you who have experienced this status know of which I speak.
~
Thanks for your nominations. Literally hundreds of emails received that even took a while for a mass delete. Naturally, I didn't read any of them.
~
Now, without further ado (what the hell is "ado" anyway?) I now announce this week's NANEPASHEMET PEEPS OF THE WEEK.

• Emily Buttorff
• The Nurse Who Gave Me My Flu Shot
• Yang Sihamoni
• James Taylor
• Brayden Turner
• Kim Reny

For the vast amount of losers, the holiday season should be enough to shake off the dissapointment of not being named. For the rest of you chronically depressed losers, what can I say? There is still a chance in a million that you will be named next week. Don't give up hope.