What a beautiful day!

We had winter weather, then summer weather, then wintery weather again but today feels like spring.

Freaky Friday

Yes, it is Friday the Thirteenth. It does not mean anything.

The song I woke up to in my head...
And I am not embarrassed to admit that I still love...



Yes, Jane Child was awesome!

Walkability

Have you been reading the walkability piece in Slate?

I love walking and I think it is a great way to get from point a to point b with the least amount of impact on the people around you.

As part of the series, the article highlights the Walk Score of various areas. I looked at almost all the addresses that I have lived in as an adult. (Belltown in Seattle was the most walkable at 97 points. The lowest was the house that I grew up in at 40. I also looked up some friends' addresses. 88 to a 12. There were some that were surprising with a friend's urban home scoring a 36.)

Walk Score brought me to City-Go-Round which is an invaluable resource.

This is the second time recently that Walk Score came up. All Over Albany asked "How Walkable is Albany?" last month.

The Hunger Games
Cracked presents "What if the Hunger Games were 100% honest?"

Randomness
I had a dream where I was one of the cast members of HIMYM and we were all living together in a summer share. Kevin Marshall may have been called by Marshall.

When a friend was looking for something to order in terms of takeout, I realized the paucity of good delivery/take-out places in Sycaway/Brunswick. This did get me think of who had the most convenient yet quality takeout/delivery in the area.

What do you call the blister/sore spot on the roof of your mouth that you have for a couple of days after taking a bite of too hot pizza?

Aside from rest, how can I treat a blister/hot spot on the top of one of my toes? I have lotioned it up with antibiotics and it is covered, but...is there anything else I can do?

Is anyone else doing the Dodge the Deer Trail 5k? Better question...does anyone else want to do it with me?

When I find myself agreeing with Peggy Noonan, does that mean that she is making sense or that I am becoming more conservative/reactionary as I get older?

It is not secret that I love Slate's Political Gabfest, but does it seem off when John Dickerson is not on?

Finally

Child Celebrities Opposing Kirk Cameron

CCOKC - Child Celebrities Opposing Kirk Cameron - watch more funny videos

H/T Sandor
Have a great weekend, everyone!

Thankful for Thursday

Geekery and Wanting

Isn't it cute? I am serious. What would I use it for though?

You can find it at ThinkGeek.

Thanks to All Over Albany
All Over Albany included a link to my post about my great great grandfather's book about the Geology of the Capital District in their What's Up in the Neighborhood post. Thank you, All Over Albany.

Thankful for ScarJo
It is not odd for someone to say that they crush on ScarJo. Why would it be? However, if you do not crush on her, maybe this will change your mind?



Yes, that is ScarJo covering "Summertime"...I do not think that I have anything else that I have to listen to today.

Via Pretty Much Amazing

Running
I went out to do 5k last night.



I love running this route and I can run it forever...the only problem is the weird elevation changes...so, to save my knees, I walk them...it allows me to keep going and it allows me to get a good sweat on, even if it screws up my split. I am not going to age gracefully, damn it.

I do have to average 2.2 miles per day for the next 19 days in order to reach my goal for April. My goal for May is to double my goal for April. Yes, I am trying to cause permanent injury. I know that I am never going to break 5 minutes again (I was able to do that at 18...I am more than twice that age now.) but I want to really push myself, even as friends (yes, Ashley, I know you are concerned) shake their heads at me.

Being in on the joke...

The other day, the loverly Paige informed me that I could be the Frank Black in her Pixies coverband. I did take it as a compliment, even though I am not that bloated...yet. I may be just as unbalanced, though.

It did make me sing this song in the shower this morning.


Though I think that Paige was thinking that we would do this as our first cover...


It's cute, no?

Pinterest and Someecards


Hee!

(Schadenfreude is awful yet awesome, no?)

Oh, Michigan

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

A Poem about Baseball
Ode to Opening Day
by Dave Landsberger
Promise smells like peanuts, ice in the urine trough, the citrus of halter tops
and sunburned comrades clenching salted cylindrical meats.
Today, Opening Day: An excuse to take the day off and not flock to pornography.

The beginning of a new business quarter for hobos!
The parking lot vendor affixes his counterfeit caps in single file rows,
the scalper polishes his subdued innuendos in the mirror that magicians his
medicines.

A security guard shaves against the grain, thinking nothing of the inmates who would
charge his field,
and a blimp beautifies itself by fattening.
There are prayers in the locker room today, in the boom-boom room yesterday,

and even if the seagulls interrupt our prayers to congregate and discuss small morsels
on the field,
tomorrow’s prayers can be located in the box scores.
Here’s to the single piece of trash blowing across the diamond, transfixing the park’s
eye like a hornet,

tobacco and manila mangoes tingeing the groundskeepers of all thirty cities.
Here’s to scheduling weddings around bobblehead nights, golden sombreros.
Soon, the Red Line passengers will learn to hate the Red Line post-baseball game

like one is conditioned to hate traffic, tax season, Soviet chessmen.
Tell me: What is the market share for Lemon Chills during the offseason?
The first home run of the year is measured by the silence that precedes it:

The crack of the bat is much louder than the ash trees of the Earth care to remember.
To everyone who has a grandfather without a World Series to shuck their memories
with,
think of each broken bat as a wishbone.

To everyone whose grandfathers have passed on, the videogames of heaven are played
in your eyes: Keep a scorecard for pretty girls,
the eternal battle of Left Field vs. Right Field regarding suckitude.

We will watch, we will adore, we will blaze our children in letters.
We will center our gaze on the high ratio of goatee wearing men, tanned by offices of
the sun.
We hold these truths to be self evident: beer me.

Via Slate's Hang Up and Listen

Finally
Today is a day that honors the greatest sandwich of all sandwiches.

It is National Grilled Cheese Day!

Geology of the Capital District

Dr. Rudolf Ruedemann was my great great grandfather. (I did not know that he had a Wikipedia entry, but that is a happy accident. I mean it was an accident that I found it and it makes me very happy.)

In 1930, he published the "Geology of the Capital District".

I found this yesterday while looking through some of my grandfather's things (He passed in 2010 and we are getting ready to sell the house.) and I took the time to look through it. It is amazing. I mean, I know nothing about geology but I watch enough weird things on NetFlix that I have a bit of understanding of the language.

The capital district of New York, comprising four quadrangles (Schenectady, Cohoes, Albany and Troy, in their order from northwest to southeast) covers an area of about 900 square miles (877.90 square miles to be exact). It is situated in the subtriangular inner lowland formed between the Adirondack mountains in the north, the Rensselaer plateau in the east and the Helderberg escarpment and plateau in the south. Its geographic center is formed by the confluence of the Mohawk and Hudson rivers, toward which point the greater part of the district can be said to slpe and the drainage is directed.

There is a copy of it available on Google Books but there is not an e-book available. That is unfortunate because there is a supplement section that has some wonderful maps and images of the area from the 1920s, long before the Empire State Plaza.

I love this area, and I love my family, and this made me feel a lot of pride for both of them. Oh, and how cool is it that he was both a geologist and a paleontologist? (I just called my mother to verify something and she said, which the Wikipedia entry does not list, that he also had a Masters in Botany. Even cooler.) (Notice in the above writing sample that there are parentheticals being used well...it is genetic, apparently.)

As an aside, I love that Google Books lists the original as being from The University of California. I wonder in the NYS Museum still has a copy of it.

Wednesday Means a Bird Attack

Attack of the Birds

For years, what was my grandparents' home, has been harassed by a female cardinal. No, seriously! Watch the video. That animal is persistent.

What does it mean? It is not like I was wearing a Mets hat yesterday.

Truly, this is an angry bird.

Traffic Analysis and Teat Cream
I had my first visit ever from Lyndonville, VT yesterday! Why is this exciting? Because Lydonville is the home of Bag Balm which is one of my favorite things ever. If you need a good salve or balm for what ails you, including hot spots and such, I have to suggest this. I have been using it since high school and farmers have been using it for so much longer.

Odd Dreams
I had a dream last night where I was stuck in a bus station during a Homeland Security lockdown. I ended up stealing a pack of cigarettes (craving much?), a bottle of Polar Club Soda (yes, by brand), and a bottle of cheap champagne from a vending machine. Yes, this vending machine had all three of the items and it was the old "pull handle" variety of machine.

Due to my odd dream...

I think that this t-shirt would be appropriate.

Available from SnorgTees

You don't know what a weeping angel is?

Just take some time and watch...



By the way, the Weeping Angels are in New York right now.

Raise your voice because there is no one there to listen to you

I know that you have done it. Some people do it in the car. More people do it in the bathroom. Some people, regardless of the propriety of it, will do in the office or the classroom. I have heard my mother, my father, and my son do it. I have been caught doing it by people that I have known forever and people I have just met.

Where do you do it?

Where do you sing like no one is listening and no one cares?

(Yep, you thought I was talking about something else for one second, weren’t you?)

FAU and I have been talking about this. I sing in the shower, as a number of you can attest to, while FAU sings in the car. FAU wondered what my top five #showersongs were.

Here they are:

1) No Children – The Mountain Goats

2) Divorce Song – Liz Phair

3) This Charming Man – The Smiths

4) This Modern Love – Bloc Party

5) Total Eclipse of the Heart – Bonnie Tyler

So, what are yours? If you want, post to your social media platform of choice with the tag #showersongs

FTR: When I was doing research into this to see if there was data on the number of people who admit to doing this, I came across a wonderful Wikipedia entry: Bathroom Singing.

The Monday after Sunday before Tuesday

Mad Men
Do you watch Mad Men on AMC? Which character is your favorite? Over the past two seasons, my favorite has become...wait for it...Sally Draper.

I love the relationship that Sally has developed with her non-custodial father, Don, as well as the more antagonistic relationship that has been nurtured between Sally and her mother Betty. (Not that I am looking at this as a projection of my personal life. A) I am not nearly the "man of his era" that Don Draper is. B) My ex-wife is a wonderfully attentive and caring mother (and wife) who has a very good relationship with her son.) For me, the scenes that I most look forward to, and have since season 3 when she left the suburbs to travel to midtown, are Sally's interactions with Don. There is a sweetness and a realness to them that I find amazing. I would love to see more relationships like this on television.

Easter
What did you do for Easter? I spent time with my family, which was interesting in and of itself, but one of the best things about it was that I had a picture taken with my mom. It made me happy.

Thanks, Mom, for being wonderful.

Radishes
There were no radishes at the TRFM but there were some at Price Chopper. I did not get them (seasonal is important to me) but they were there, tempting me.

Radishes, coarse salt, black pepper and olive oil with a crusty bread and an ice cold over hopped beer...this is a recipe for a perfect afternoon.

Baseball
The Mets are in first. The Red Sox are winless. All is right in the world, at least after the first weekend of baseball.

Why I Quit Smoking

As Wendell Berry writes, “Tobacco is fragrant, and smoking at its best is convivial or ceremonious and pleasant.”

Wednesday will mark one month since I quit smoking. Yay me, right?

A little more than a month ago, TEA told me (yes, told me) that I should quit smoking and I told him that I would try. Well, I did try, that day, and I backslid. I like to smoke. I really like to smoke. (Seriously, look at what I wrote three years ago on the subject.) The people I enjoy hanging out with smoke, tolerate smoking, or smoke on the side. Most of the people I have dated as an adult have been those who either actively smoked or smoked on the side, stealing a drag or a cigarette when they could, but making sure that others did not know about their habitual smoking. I love sitting outside on a hot day with a cold drink, a good book, and a cigarette. Well, I guess…I loved doing something like that as it is not longer going to be an option.

Yes, I have always known that smoking is bad for me, and that it makes my clothes smell like death and that the negative aspects socially outweigh the positive but there is something about a cigarette that makes it the substitute for doing something, anything, else. (One of the things that I have been doing to fill that void in my life is running more consistently than I have in years I mean, I have gone running 6 days a week for the last three, which is something that I have not done since high school, twenty years ago.) And I miss it. I cannot go for a run when I crave a cigarette while watching Mad Man (I have talked to other former smokers about this, and they all say that the program is a trigger for them as well.)

But I have quit, and yes, I have quit before, but this time, I do think that it will stick. I quit because of the best reason in the world.

I quit smoking because it was important to the most important person in the world and I will do anything for him.