Nothing spectacular done on Friday. Made dinner with Miss Charming Melodee. I roasted a chicken. She brought appetizers (prosciutto and melon) and dessert (a fruit tart). The fruit tart was less than satisfying, which was disappointing since I'd been really looking forward to it, and especially since it was so huge. She couldn't find a small one, so she bought this big momma, and when we opened the box we discovered that half of it had folder under the other half. And the taste just wasn't that great, largely due to the unnecessary layer of chocolate in the crust. But it's gotten better with each passing day. I also finally drank a bottle of ice wine (or Eiswein) that I'd bought way back in July. It's a pretty thick dessert wine, and I just never had an occasion- or the right glasses- to drink it. I forgot how damn tasty it was, and we drank most of it in one sitting. I actually missed a bit of it with the riesling we were drinking, since the riesling was a bit too tart and the ice wine a bit too sweet. But that was by the fourth little glass. Anyway, a fine evening was had.
On Saturday, our day didn't start till well after three o'clock. Jed was having a little party in celebration of his birthday, amongst other things. MCM and I spent most of the remaining daylight hours by my computer making the decorations we'd promised Jed. Well, she did most of the work. I did the conceptualizing and gathering of the raw materials. Basically, the idea was to insert Jed's likeness into pictures celebrating the other holidays that fell around Jed's birthday on Sunday. So what we ended up with were two pictures of Jed's head on Lincoln and Washington's body, and another one of him on a cupid's body. The Lincoln and Washington pictures were almost seamless, and about the funniest thing we'd seen in a long, long, long time. I was also impressed with the Lincoln mole she managed to get on Jed, and the rosy Washington cheeks. The cupid was a bit unsettling. We always joke that Jed's features are quite childlike and cherubic, but when you see his face on a half-naked little boy's body carrying a heart, you realize how it's all relative. Plus, MCM had to get rid of his chin. Anyway, you can see the President's Day renderings here.
So then we headed over to the party, making a brief stop at Marshall's on Atlantic Avenue to return a comforter MCM had bought almost a month ago. And used. A bit disturbing, but whatever. And man, was it cold. So we were about the first outsiders there, part of the "advance team" as Jed likes to put it. Not many people showed up at all, which was a bit surprising. Even the people who can always be counted on to show up didn't show up. It was fun regardless. Plus, there were lots of snacks. Chips, brownies, cake... features not normally seen in Apt. 1.
On Sunday, Miss CM and I briefly humored the notion of trekking upstate to her parents', and possibly grandparents', house. This never materialized, and I spent most of the day doing nothing at home besides eating and watching basketball. And it was grand. I've become increasingly worried by my over-eating tendencies, but that's barely slowed me down. In the evening we made chicken quesadillas from the leftover chicken of friday. We'd marveled at how little meat was on that chicken, but I wasn't that surprised considering I paid about $2.50 for it. But it turned out that 60% of the meat was on the underside of the bird. So we had chicken quesadillas, and I made chicken broth from the carcass. then yesterday we had chicken sandwiches and chicken soup. And for dinner I had rotini with chicken. And plenty of chicken left over. I always thought "big whoop" to "a chicken in every pot," but man, do those birds go far.
We also watched an hour and half of the Simpsons, followed by the Married...With Children reunion. Was it really time for a reunion? It's only been like 6 years.
So we're in the aftermath of a blizzard right now. It's made commuting a general pain in the ass, what with almost two feet of powdery goodness lying around the street. It'd started snowing on Sunday night, and by the morning it was pretty much a full-scale blizzard. The weather reports said it wasn't yet officially a blizzard, because the winds hadn't reached 30 mph, but it sure felt like a damn blizzard in Greenpoint. The 150 foot walk from MCM's apt to my own was as unpleasant a walk as I've had in a while. The sidewalks weren't shoveled, the streets weren't plowed, and the wind was blowing right in our faces. When I opened the front door to my building, there was a big pile of snow there to greet me. So then I thought maybe I wouldn't go in to work. I was watching tv and listening to the radio, waiting for some city official to drop the magical "Unless it's an emergency, stay home," when MCM called from Queens and said no one was going into her office and she was turning around. And I thought, "Snow day?" yippee. So that was pretty much my deciding vote to stay home. And the city official did eventually show up and to tell people to stay home. And I wouldn't have made it far. Even this morning, after a full day of work, the steps to the subway were still buried under the snow. So MCM came over, and we spent the rest of the morning and afternoon on the couch. Is there a better kind of daylight than an late morning, snow-reflected daylight? I think it's due largely to the fact that you're supposed to be at work or school, or if it were a weekend, you'd be asleep. But instead, you're wide awake and dressed and sitting down to breakfast, which you never do. OK, sun-drenched-beach kind of daylight probably beats that easily, but this is a good second.
So we stayed in and ordered Barbershop on pay-per-view. Well worth the 4 dollars. Then a coupla hours of E! True Hollywood Story, highlighted by the Saved by the Bell story, which I'd been wanting to see. I can't believe that this show's last episode was actually on TEN years ago. Does THAT make me feel old.
I got to do my night job from home last night, which is always a treat. Again, I had to watch the dreadful UPN lineup of The Parkers and One on One. I'm not sure if it's just that the Parkers is so god-awful, but One on One can actually be pretty entertaining.Here's a picture I took yesterday while goofing off with my camcorder and its night vision feature. Personally, I think this person is almost unrecognizable compared to the guy who started this web page 4 years ago, apparently in the middle of some pretty bad hair cuts.
I normally don't wear hats. I just thought it might make me look tough. The saddest thing about this is that scruff on my face is more than 2
weeks old. I'm afraid if one hair falls out, it will look lopsided. Don't ask me why I'm growing it. I'm not so much actively growing it as just not shaving.