Birthday and Christmas

by | Dec 23, 2003 | Personal

Well, at this point, since I can actually see my webpage, I’m going to go ahead and assume that all went well with the great migration. For those of you who weren’t aware, over the weekend Chip moved Hindenburg (the server) from New Hampshire to Indiana. It’s now resting comfortably somewhere near Jason’s watchful eye. It’s also been put on a much faster connection, so huzah for that.

This weekend Lauren threw a little surprise party for me, just family and cake, that sort of thing. It was fun. I got an absolutely kick ass Ted Williams poster proclaiming the baseball legends love for the soft drink known as Moxie. Moxie of course is a rare New England delacacy at this point, long gone from national circulation and effectively killed by the evil Coke and Pepsi empires. Most people would describe it as simple “that black shit in a bottle” or “motor oil and cough syrup with a hint of nutmeg”. I call it tasty. Then again, I’m pretty weird. I also got two really nice (and wearable) sweaters. 9 times out of 10 when you get clothes for present you say thank you and then immediatly stuff them as far back in the closet as possible. I can actually wear these. I also got a Mighty Mouse lithograph, a copy of PCU on DVD, a killer bathrobe from Geoffrey Bean, an Eluminex keyboard from my boss and a $50 EB gift card. Jason also sent me a belated wedding present in the form of the sweetest headphones ever. As Chris, who also has a pair, can attest too, the Sony V700DJs kick ass. A lot of it. That was way too nice of Jason. I’ll have to thank him appropriately.

After present and cake Lauren’s dad and I headed off to see Lord of the Rings while the girls finished their Christmas shopping. The movie was good. On par with the second I think but not signifigantly better and certainly not worse. It was very enjoyable.

Sunday Lauren and I relaxed all day, cleaned up the apartment a little and went out for dinner that night. We ate at the Spagetti Warehouse downtown. I haven’t eaten like that since, well, Boston. So, all in all it was a pretty fun birthday.

Today I’m back at work and trying to finish as many things as possible so that I don’t have to come in tomorrow. My parents fly in Christmas day and they’ll be here all week. Should be an interesting week.

Matt out.

Damn, almost forgot

by | Dec 19, 2003 | Personal

If Nagle hadn’t reminded me and if Lauren hadn’t told me that she wrapped my gift already, I would have completely forgotten it’s my birthday on Sunday. You guys know I’m not big on birthdays. Actually, given my birthdays in the past I don’t see what I’m not anti-birthday yet. For those of you who don’t know, my birthdays typically have sucked. There were a few exceptions. Last year I was in Colorado with Lauren for my birthday. I skied and it was good. For the past fews years, Chip came over and we watched DVDs all night. I think we’ve done the Kevin Smith marathon twice now. Those were fun birthdays. For a few years there however, my birthdays were something along the lines of: wake up, eat a pizza, go back to bed. Seriously. My parents usually didn’t do anything and most of the time I was alone for most of the day. This year I think Lauren and I are going out for dinner. There’s a nice Italian place here in town that’s almost like being back in the North End of Boston. They do it up right. I will eat and drink and be merry and then perhaps go home and watch Clerks.

Salsa shark.

Wow. 23. That’s going to take a while to sink in huh?

Red Sox and the Holidays

by | Dec 18, 2003 | Imported Entry

I took a listen to the radio this morning and, since I hate FM pop-rock-shit radio, I had it on the local AM news station. This morning, amongst traffic reports and weather updates I heard about Nelson and Garcia (two New York Yankees players) being charged with assault from the brawl in the 3rd game of the ALCS. I did a little dance. I don’t really know why. Also, I have to express my concern and confusion over the recent trade rumors and such. First, the sox picked up Curt Shilling, which is nothing short of a miracle. Now the RedSox have three of the best arms in baseball. The Yanks on the other hand, have lost Clemens and Penent, their two aces. All they’ve picked up to stop the bleeding is an aging Gary Sheffield. Then there’s this Arod deal. Thats Alex Rodriguez for those of you who don’t know. He is what many consider to be THE best player in baseball. The RedSox want him. He WANTS to come to Boston. But theres a 7 year multi-million dollar contract in the way. They have until tonight to figure something out, literally. While Arod is, well, fantastic and all, the downside to him coming to Boston would be that they would be trading Manny for him and wouldn’t have any place or money to keep Nomar around. So, they finally fix the holes in their less than stellar pitching staff and want to throw away the best hitting team in baseball. Seriously, did anyone see their slugging percentage for the post-season this year? It was sky-high. They had the best bats in the entire post season, hands down. No one can argue with that. They had a solid 1-2-3 line up, and a 5-6-7 line up that got hotter than hell. Now that they would have a team to finally do battle with the Yankees, they want to throw away their best player and Manny (who isn’t half bad) and destroy their batting line up? Huh? What the hell are they thinking? I know what they’re thinking. They’re thinking that Arod is so much better than Manny that its an obvious trade. What I don’t think they get is that both Arod and Nomar play shortstop. Where are you going to put them? The only thing I can think of is that you put one of them at 2nd and move Damian Jackson some place else, like the minors.

But that’s just my two cents.

Besides the RedSox, everything is pretty much status-quo around here. Our Christmas tree did however die. We’ve replaced it with a fake one. Apparently when you get trees from Texas, they don’t have a real long life span. We even did all the little things you’re supposed to do to keep it healthy. We put some of that flower life extender crap in the water, we kept it on a corner away from hot air vents, we watered it every day. And here it is, a week before Christmas and only a week and a half after we got it and it’s dead. D-E-A-D. Dead. That’s just not right. We’re going to go and ask for our money back.

I also got my shopping done for the holidays, Lauren’s presents (and everyone elses for that matter) are on their way from various internet places. Chris, I’m sorry bud, but one of your things was on back order so you’ll be getting it a little late. Same thing goes for Chip. Sorry guys. You’re just too damn hard to shop for.

Oh, and for myself, I’m up to 100,000 kudos in Project Gotham 2. I was all proud of myself. I’m up to the “Roadster Series” and moving along nicely. I’ll see if I can’t get Xbox Live setup over Christmas and give that a try too. That and Dish, which I’ve found out, offers NESN (New England Sport Network). The glory of NESN and EVERY Bruins game shall be mine.

Matt out.

Gift Giving

by | Dec 13, 2003 | Imported Entry

Ok. I want to get you people nice things for Christmas… which means you need to update your Amazon lists (Chris and Chip) or ThinkGeek Lists (Chip). I need accurate addresses people! Unless of course Chris wants his gifts to go to New York. :p