Back

I'm back from Boston.  It was a suprisingly fun vacation that went by unsurprisingly quickly.  Trying to squeeze in time with both sides of the family and fit everything into a week is always an adventure.  I did get to go golfing with my dad which was nice.  I shot a fairly honest 51 for 9 holes, which is pretty good for me since I've golfed 5 times in my life.  And I did end up down by the Charles to watch the fireworks.  Since the weather was nice there were more people than usual which only added to the insanity of the sprint to the train immediately afterwards (= you pick up your feet but you keep moving down the street). 

A nice family tradition that we've started the last few get togethers is paintball.  I"ve got to say that it usually ends up being the highlight of the trip for me.  We are all fairly competitive and vengeful so it is a great way to cap off the trip.  We had the place to ourselves and did 3 v 3.  we mixed and matched teams of me, my brother (shadowcrypt), my mom, my dad, my 2 sisters.  It got pretty intense.  Halfway through we told one of the refs that we were family and he's like "oh, so that's why you guys are all attacking each other like crazy!"  My kill/Death ratio was pretty cool and my sisters look like they've got small pox all over.  Good times, I'd recommend it to anyone.  next year we'll try to get my wife and grandmother into it too.

The whole trip has left me exhausted.  It's all I can do to stay up until 10:30pm this week, my body still hasn't recovered.  As soon as I can keep my eyes open I'll be back to headquarters on COD.

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Reading

I used to be a pretty big bookworm.  Not just men's health and pornos, but actual novels and classic reads.  I can't tell you how many times I've read Mitchener's Hawaii.  Since college though I've pretty much fallen off the bandwagon.  Between family and technology it's hard to sit still and get any reading done.  I may pick up a book for the summer as an excuse to be outside sitting under a tree.  It's really not a bad thing to do.  It builds vocabulary and teaches sentence structure, things that the interweb will probably never be know for.  Until I pick up a decent book though, I'll do most of my reading on the can.  I used on of my freebie gift cards to Barnes & Noble to get a year of Newsweek.  Once you get past all the political articles there is some good stuff in there.  And there are some very competent writers that pull my interest into topics that I'd never go looking for otherwise.  In last month's there was a neat little study about blogging.  Apprently more and more shrinks are encouraging patients to blog as an outlet and a stress reliever.  I could have told you that, but since I don't have a Phd after my name no one would listen.  (I'm assuming is personal opinion blogs NOT just the porno and youtube vid ones)

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Speaking of blogging for stress reduction...

I got into the office this morning and didn't even have all the lights on when the phone rang.  The woman on the line wanted to know how and why we had schedule such garbage for the children.(one of the things we do is weekly entertainment for the kids downtown, a partnership with an arts council)

Well, of course I asked what she meant.  She went on to go through just about every act and entertainer and call them garbage and said how her husband thinks that they're garbage too.  When I asked for an example she pionted to the juggler, the magician and the childrens song singer as acts that didn't appeal to children.  She then asked why we didn't have the Elvis impersonator that has appeared in the past.

Pardon me Mrs.stupid crack whore slut bitch cunt, I don't seem understand your reasoning.  Could you please explain to me how a magician is not for children but Elvis is?? Freaking Elvis???  What would make you happy?

Her:  well how about that Elvis guy

Me:  I understand your concern for elvis, is there anything else that you think would be appropriate

Her: Children's entertainment, for kids.

Me: For example....

Her: you had the Erie playhouse there last year, have them back.

Me:  I'm sorry ma'am you must have us confused with another series, we have never had the playhouse here.

Her: yes, you did.  Last year.  They said they were from the playhouse.

Me:  No, ma'am.  I'm sorry if you're confusing us of if there is a miscommunication, but we didn't have them last year.

Her:  Yes you did.

Me:  OK.  The other line is ringing, I need to get that, was there anything else???

There was some other stuff in there but the concept is the same.  Everything is garbage and she doesn't have a clue what wouldn't be garbage.  There was also a lot of huffing and sighing too on her part.  What  a great way to start the morning.  Hope everyone else is haveing a great day.  Happy friday eve.