Errata

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Some quick hits from the last few days. --We had "Office Fear Factor" yesterday. There was a 2-pound box of Sour Patch Kids that my friend Charissa gave me for a belated xmas present here in the office. They had been pretty much decimated over the last week, so there was just the few stragglers left in the bottom of all that sour sugar. I bet Teddy $2 that he couldn't eat all that sugar, and he accepted. Gotta give him credit, he upended the bag and fit all that sugar (and it was probably a good tablespoon's worth or so) into his mouth, and then proceeded to turn 6 different shades of red. I think he sucked his cheeks in so far they crossed past each other in his mouth. After his eyes were done watering and he was able to breathe again, I started looking around for other things in my cube that I could pay him to eat that would hurt. About the only interesting thing I had left was a packet of milk chocolate mix.

--The SLF and I went to dinner last night, at La Cucina Flegrea. Fantastic food. Apparently both of the owners (a married couple) are completely insane, but it was still really tasty food, and not amazingly unreasonable for good Italian cuisine.

--I finally broke down and opened a Netflix account over the weekend. Brian informed me that there's no account open/close fee, so I figure while the weather is still crappy I'll keep the account, and if I find I'm not using it enough times a month to justify the cost, I'll cancel and then re-open my account next winter. My first discs should be arriving today or tomorrow... all from X-Files season 4. I'm also really excited about all the non-mainstream movies that I've wanted to see that I can just watch once and then send back.

--The Pittsburgh Auto Show is happening this week, and I'll be going tonight. I've got my camera with me, so expect some good pictures tomorrow. I got a little preview on the walk to the bus last night; some crazy guy driving around the slushy downtown streets in a screaming yellow zonker Ferrari F40. Sweet.

--From The Onion, "Girlfriend Stops Reading David Foster Wallace Breakup Letter At Page 20" has to be one of the funniest fucking things I've ever seen in my life. The PDF is just priceless, with the ASCII art drawing of the chemical composition of Ecstasy.

jam-packed weekend of birthday fun.

in

jam-packed weekend of birthday fun. friday night went to dinner with slf, ryan and dawnie-dawn. after dinner we went over to the holiday to have some (read: many) birthday shots. now i know what Jagermeister tastes like. saturday woke up late (obviously), and made some yummy blueberry crepes. went for a quick bike ride to try out the new one (brrr! cold!), and then started making my mushroom thingy for the potluck dinner i was going to that night. the cooking went ok, but i definitely need a bigger saute pan.

yesterday was pretty mellow; went to the mattress factory, then went and saw the recruit, and then quiet evening at my apt.; making potato/garlic soup and flailing around trying to get redhat 7.2 to recognize my videocard. i'll be writing about all those mis-adventures later.

birthday (or, one day closer to DEATH!!!)

in

ok, maybe i'm being a little overly dramatic, but it is indeed my birthday today. i don't really attach too much significance to my birthdays, since i don't really worry too much about getting old. perhaps the only really significant thing about this year is the fact that i'll be 30 next year. anyway, trying to cobble together dinner with some close friends tonight, so that should be a good time.

ow ow ow ow.

in

started off saturday with a little bit of a hangover from the night before... to make myself feel better, i started tweaking my dad's computer. put some spyware-detection, some popup-blocking, and some memory-defragging on there. while i was doing all that stuff, my stepmom started telling me about their neighbor that had just gotten herself a savannah. for those of you that have never heard of one, they are exotic cats, a cross-breed between a bengal and an african serval. they're supposed to be like dogs; extremely playful, no special vet care required, and they get big. really big. i think it would be great to have a cat that weighed around 40 pounds. the main problem is the price (and the fact that i already have 3 cats, and with how much they shed it's more like 4 or 5), since depending what percentage serval they are (75% can start around $5k for male, $10k for female (1st and 2nd generation males are sterile)). actually, a guy who lives right down the street from me has had a running adventure with a full-blooded serval.

saturday night was a nice big family dinner. my younger sister was in from out of town, and my older sister was there as well with her new man. my grandmother was up from philly because, as my sister astutely pointed out, it was the 1st anniversary of my grandfather passing. while we were all there, my younger sister gave me my xmas/birthday present, a hand-knitted afghan. apparently it took her 5 months to do... i was just floored that she had put as much work into it as she had. pictures below: me and siblings me and siblings recreating old family portrait me and siblings me and siblings me and siblings 

back in joisey

in

set out from philly this a.m. stopped in at my old job to say hi to everyone, and jaime and i went and grabbed a nice sushi lunch. it was really nice to see everyone that i used to work with, but it's also sorta tough; they had a really bad year last year and had to lay some people off. but, it sounds like they have some good things cooking and i'm really hopeful/optimistic for them. made my way up to my dad's place after that, and we had a nice mellow evening. my stepmom made a completely kickass mushroom appetizer thingy. i think i've come to the conclusions that mushrooms are not nearly as bad of a thing as i thought they were previously. i'm gonna have to try and make that, with the slf's help, of course. (look! new slf pictures! aren't we cute?!)

when we were done eating my dad busted out his pictures from his recent trip to barcelona. i don't have copies here, but the pics of the gaudi architecture was incredible.

Helene
Helene so shocked she needed
to immediately start drinking.

after dinner and pictures i went out to look up an old high-school friend that i hadn't seen in 10 years. she didn't go to our 10-year reunion, and although people knew she had gone to florida to join the navy, we all pretty much lost touch with her after that. i remember getting a random email from her about 6 years ago or so, and it went like this: 

To: matt
From: helene
Subject: porn

hey matt, it's helene!  do you know where i can find some good porn online?

i think by the time i got around to replying the address i replied to had bounced, and she sorta slipped out of sight. so, i heard from a friend that they had seen her bartending over the summer at a place right back in our hometown, so i made a few calls, made sure she still worked there, and dropped by for a visit. she didn't recognize me at first, and she seemed shocked as shit to see me.... not suprising, i guess. turns out she's had an interesting life in the last 10 years... married for 3 months, in a bad accident requiring all sorts of rehab, and then back in n.j. to finish her masters and become an english professor. her fiance came in while i was there, too. he was very deep into eastern philosophy; had been a yogi for a few years in india/nepal/thailand/etc., and now was back in the states. anyway, the plan is to head back to n.j. with ryan at some point in the near future, and try and do a better job of catching up with what everyone's been up to the last 10 years.

after my trip down memory lane with helene, i went and hung out with jen, another high school friend, for awhile... along with her roomate and boyfriend. we drank some wine, and in general had a good time.

saw an interesting nature-type thing

in

saw an interesting nature-type thing on the walk home from the bus stop yesterday. there was a large flock of some sort of migratory bird up in the trees, and it was HUGE! several trees had their upper branches literally blanketed, with hundreds more wheeling around in the sky, and still others flying in a steady stream over to another group of trees across the street, plus another stream heading off away from the whole group (on towards their final destination, i would assume). i don't know what sort of birds they were, but they were black and probably about a foot-wide wingspan. too small to be crows, but they definitely squawked like them. the noise was extremely loud, and looking at all those birds it wasn't too hard to imagine a scenario like hitchcock's movie... there were so many that if they did indeed have half a mind to peck my eyes out, it might have been hard to stop them. last night went with the slf to see "gangs of new york". i don't know what i can say about it that hasn't already been said, but there were some stellar performances in that film. liam neeson was brilliant in his short appearance, and it's hard for me to even describe daniel day-lewis' character, bill the butcher. alternating between bloodthirsty gang leader, caring patriarch, and outright crazed lunatic, dd-l should definitely take the oscar.

oh, and leonardo dicaprio's dialect coach should be shot.

lovely low-key weekend.

in

lovely low-key weekend. friday night was dinner with the slf's parents. saturday morning we made some craps in her new crap pan, which has been a bit of a tradition on saturday mornings for us now. then we grabbed the new climbing shoes i bought her for xmas, and we went to boulder a bit at the co-op. saturday evening the slf went off to work, and paul came over for a little while, and i gave him half of the money for my new (used) bike. then i could start putting stuff on it! i got some kickass xmas presents from brian and jen the other night; a lovely fender for keeping the stripe off my back, and a headlight for those late-night commutes home. plus, since it was a slow evening, i had some time to go online and look for some more parts i'll need to get in the near future: -- a toolkit! -- new brakes. -- a new saddle. you know, to protect against "soft tissue compression". -- new cable runs.

sunday paul and mara came over to watch some of the hot nfl action. he whipped up some black bean dip, and i busted out chips, salsa and hummus, and a good time was had by all. now it's back to the grind. whee!

i *heart* teh intrenet

in

if i haven't said it before, let me say again, i love doing things online. no big deal for anyone, right? shopping, bill payment, etc. the thing is, i've been online for a long, long time; since the days of mosaic 0.9, and i've been doing online transactions for pretty much as long as they've been available, and i was always frustrated by the lack of services.

but... now i finally feel like the internet is pervasive enough to actually be useful:

this morning, i had brought in all my driver's license renewal stuff; stamps, form, checkbook. oh, wait... i can renew online? bam! done.

a few weeks ago, i got a parking ticket in philly. the ticket sat on the floor of my car for about a week, and then i finally decided to bring it inside and pay. oh, wait... i can pay the ticket online? bam! done.

the internet is the ultimate tool for a procrastinator such as myself, and i love it dearly.

update: this is another reason why i love it. d00d y00 sux0rs!!!

all in all, not a

in

all in all, not a bad weekend, unless you're a pittsburgh sports fan. saturday a.m. the slf and i went to go see my beloved rangers take apart the penguins. slf had actually waited on a few rangers at her restaurant the night before, and said some sort of something about promising them to take her top off if they won the game for my early birthday present or something. :-P then she went to work, and i went home to watch the steelers lose. they didn't get wrecked as badly as i had predicted they would after last week, but it was still pretty bad. i thought after the titans came out 14-0 that it was going to be as much of a disaster as the 49's-bucs game, but they managed to keep it close and exciting.

saturday night was a little wing-ding at a friend of the slf's, and we had a good time, although i sorta fell asleep on the couch by the end of the night. i've been fighting a bit of a cold, and my body's answer is to sleep as much as possible.

yesterday was a whole lotta nuttin'. laundry, football, cleaning, etc. i *almost* went out for a bike ride, seeing as how it was all nice and sunny out, but it was colder than it looked.

today should be more exciting; the slf is making some sort of hippie stew during the day, and then tonight we're going to exkursions to get some climbing shoes and a harness for her, and then going to borders and vicky's to blow our respective gift certificates from xmas. i might actually have some exciting news later on today, but then again, maybe i won't. stay tuned.

ow! quit it! ow! quit it! ow! quit it!

in

ok, so i think i'm getting a stomach ulcer. why do i think this? well, the last week or so, i noticed that whenever i eat anything relatively spicy, i get immediate heartburn, and i've been burping more than usual, which for me is a lot to begin with. the kicker was this morning, when dave told me on the bus that i had some kickin' breath, even though i had just brushed my teeth before i left the house. the idea that i could have one doesn't surprise me; december was a horrible month; stress about the holidays, stress about work, eating schedule and foods all messed up. so, because i don't feel like running out and getting scoped just yet, i figure i'll try it the hippie way:

--i just ran out and picked up some licorice root. --even though nobody is sure what actually causes ulcers, i'll try and stay away from the foods that seem to be aggravating it for right now. --going out to the drugstore to pick up some sort of antacid; pepcid a.c., or pepto pills or something (can't tolerate the pink liquid). --work on lowering my stress level. it's already a good deal better after the holidays, but i need to keep level and maybe even meditate a bit at night. --if none of those work, maybe i'll pick up some of this crazy honey.

well, i'll keep ya posted.

slack slack slack (or, happy holidays, everybody!)

in

i'm not going to bother to make apologies for not updating more recently... i think that my posts are going to be of the decidedly short variety until the project i'm trying to kick out the door goes (dec 31). -i was in rhode island and m.a. this week... flew out late monday night, and flew back tuesday night. couple of quick notes from that trip: --people in r.i. and massive-two-shits can't drive. they sit in the left hand lane of the highway, doing only the speed limit, with two empty lanes to their right. (and they won't get over) --i had a cool car to cruise around in, tho. i had a nissan maxima from the rental company. fast, and with those fun hid-xenon headlights. --radio there is just as bad as it is here. their clearchannel owned "alterna-station" wfnx (like, as in, "wow, man! effin x rocks!") was just awful with their playlist. --the meeting i went to was in a very nice hotel... they kept stuffing you full of snacks on your breaks; breakfast junk, little candy bars, etc. it was nice.

-i'm completely unprepared for xmas this year. i think i only know what i'm getting for 1 1/2 people, and i haven't bought a thing yet. i'm going to have to either do all my shopping (around work) this weekend, or it's gonna be an xmas eve extravaganza at target.

-finally, this is too funny.

more later (maybe)... i need to fill in some more links on this post, anyway.

quickies: -yesterday was a most

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quickies: -yesterday was a most craptacular day at work, and it's not going to get better anytime soon. we have an insane deadline for a project (actually, several projects all rolled into one) that i have no idea how i'm going to hit, and to top it all off i'm going to be spending two and a half glorious days in rhode island doing a lovely dog 'n' pony show for another client that has a deadline 6 months from now.

-i see that tivo is finally going to add one of the features i've been asking them for for awhile; being able to program your tivo through a website. it would be very cool to be away from home, say, on a hellish two day trip to rhode island with your boss, and OH NO!!! you forgot to tivo joe millionaire! so, you log on, put in the instructions to record the show (assuming you don't already watch a ton of reality-tv crap, or at least your tivo thinks you do), and when you get home, it'll be there. that's a nice feature, especially since my cats don't know how to work the remote, and don't even know how to answer the phone when i call.

-more comp stuff: results have been posted from the prg comp, and although they misspelled my name (i emailed them and they're going to correct it next update), i placed 13th out of 56!!! i'm pretty stoked about that, considering how hard everyone there was crankin'. i also emailed jim horton (organizer of hound ears) to get him to put up scores.

ok, so i've been awful about updating.

in

ok, so i've been awful about updating. i started to write a fairly decent post last night, and then while trying to use my dictionary toolbar to check my spelling of "vacuum" some sort of conflict between the toolbar and my popup killer software made ie explode. i had even selected all the text and hit ctrl-c, but when i opened up notepad to try and paste in my saved nuggets of wisdom, nothing happened. doh! so, here's the cliff's notes version:

the slf was in boston all weekend, so i was free to do whatever i wanted. of course, this just consisted of sitting around, watching x-files episodes on dvd, and playing a little gta:vc. that was my friday night. saturday i slept in waaaaaaaaay late, and the motivated myself to do a bit of food shopping. i haven't really had food in the house for like 3 weeks, so it was time to get out there and get some stuff. first i went to giant eagle to get some basics, since they'll sell me detergent and diet soda that's not made from hemp juice, and then on to whole foods to stock up on all sorts of yummy veggie goodies. back to the safety of my apartment, and time for some more x-files and gta:vc. i vacuumed and did laundry, and i also worked a bit on my next project, which is a total redesign of gnc.com, which is supposed to launch january 1. we're going to try and go the whole w3c/css compliant route, and it should be very cool when it's all done. i'm a bit worried about the deadline, which is why i was working on it over the weekend when i should be slacking.

sunday a.m. was the comp at the gym. i had a swell time; there were lots of cool problems, but i didn't think i had scored all that well, since i was just working on a few hard things, and didn't really flesh out my scorecard with mid-range problems. so, i didn't turn in a scorecard at the end of the day. scores were posted at the wall last night, and i would have been 2nd in men's advanced had i turned my card in... oh well!

i'd like to do some more programming for the site in the near future, at least weed out all the really old content, and freshen up the sections that people are actually visiting. there just never seems to be enough time for stuff (of course, i say this right after i talk about how i did nothing but watch x-files and play games all weekend)... x-mas is right around the corner, which has me freaking out a little bit. i always plan to do all my shopping online, but it always winds up being a money/slacking issue... i like to try and buy meaningful gifts for people, but the problem is that i'm really bad at thinking up what those meaningful gifts should be.

well, at least the slf will be back from boston tonight... i have missed her just a little bit while she's been gone.

mmmmm, delicious (or, stimpy! get the boy a glass of meat!)

in

my eating habits have always been the butt of jokes among my close friends. ryan always likes to tell people that throughout college i subsisted entirely on hot pockets. while not entirely true, when i first started at school i was poor enough that i stole food from my apartment-mates so i wouldn't die. once i had started working at my various crappy jobs, i was making enough money so that i could eat, but i wasn't exactly indulging in haute cuisine every day. i can't cook to save my life, so my diet consisted of whatever i could throw together easily (or, while at one of my crappy jobs, whatever looked good that i felt like paying half price for.). fast-forward to present day, where i'm slightly more gainfully employed. i still can't cook, but at least when i go out to eat i eat a little bit better. there is, however, the whole meat issue...

i am a carnivore, pure and simple. i was raised one, and although my best friend went through years of vegetarianism, i always figured that it would be too hard for me to stop eating meat. i think in the last few years i'm eating less than i used to, although brian once commented that i ate meat with every meal, that's not as much the case anymore. there are a few reasons for this. one, i just don't have the taste for red meat that i once did. probably because the more i looked at it, the more i was reminded of all the bad things that can happen to it as it graduates from "bovine university" on the way from the high-density feedlot to my mouth. two, i really have trying to eat in a more healthy fashion since i started this whole climbing thing.

becoming a vegetarian would be a great thing for me for several reasons: --the slf is a vegetarian. she's very cool and not preachy at all about the fact that i eat meat, and we have no problems when we go out to dinner or when she cooks, but then..... i... uh.... well, i guess that one is not really an issue. --the whole foods that just opened up is a huge incentive. there's all sorts of tasty, easy-to-make veggie treats. plus, their deli department has all sorts of pre-cooked tofu-laden dishes that look delightful. --it might be easier for me to lose a little bit of weight. i'm not fat, but i'm not as lean as i'd like to be. everyone thinks i'm crazy, or a workout anorexic or something, but since i started sitting and typing for a job with all sorts of yummy snackies around, and not running around 14 hours without eating, i've got a bit about the middle that i'd like rid of.

now, as much as i would love to go veg, there are a few problems with it: --i really like chicken. --i really, really like sushi. --i've still seen plenty of fat vegetarians.

so, i think for me the key is everything in moderation, and get my new bike all fixed up so i can start riding more.

but.... the point of this whole post is that occasionally i backslide. i've been in new jersey for the past two weekends. last weekend was my 10-year reunion (yes, i swear i'm going to write about this soon. uncaptioned pictures (which will be meaningless to anyone who _didn't_ go to my h.s.) are here), and this weekend, obviously was thanksgiving. n.j. has the greatest delis in the world.... all sorts of meat/egg/cheese breakfast sandwiches, and all served on a "hard roll" (kaiser, for you non-natives). my favorite has always been the taylor ham and cheese. maybe you'd call it "pork roll", maybe you'd call it "canadian bacon", but whatever you call it, it's damn tasty. amazingly enough, something that is so ubiquitous in n.j. is impossible to find in pittsburgh. over the last month or so i've been on a bit of a quest to find one. there aren't even any places downtown that have an old-fashioned flattop stove, unless you count primanti bros., which i don't. in any case, being in n.j. the last two weekends has afforded me the opportunity to go out and get myself one or two of these tasty treats, and that is definitely something to be thankful for.

wow (or, awash in good luck)

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lots of stuff has been happening... i think i'll work backwards. first and foremost, verisign finally got their act together. i had recieved another phonecall wednesday evening telling me that the fax i sent them was fine and dandy, but they still needed an "authorizing signature" to make everything go through. sent that thursday morning, and finally got an email just a short while ago telling me that they have finally reset my password. you can even see my fancy new dns mappings! by the time i get back from this weekend, the dns should be all propagated and stuff, and i'll be able to start developing on my new .net site.

i had to stay a little bit late at work tonight in order to get my latest project out the door. on the walk to the bus, i was going right through the middle of "light-up night". it was a zoo, and the rain was starting to come down and get even colder, so i was happy to get out of there. (btw, what's up with that woman's hair???)

so, after reading my entry about bike-hunting, my homeslice paul hooked me up! he has a gently used trek cross bike (and it was even housed in my building; mutual friend holding on to it for him), so i'm going to take that off his hands, and put some swanky components on it.

wednesday night i watched the penguins lose to the canadiens in overtime. the slf had gotten some really kickass seats, tho. we were in prime puck-catching territory, if not for those snazzy nets.

weekend (or, be careful where you park that thing)

in ,

this will be a nice long post, as a lot happened this weekend. friday night, the SLF and i went to pi for dinner, and then to dave and casey's for a little bit of the grape. it was a very nice time, although there was one odd moment. paul and his girl came a little bit later on in the evening, and the conversation between the SLF and another woman there turned to how small and cute paul's girlie was. the other woman (whom the SLF had only met one time before) said something to the effect of "they never have clothes for us big, ugly ho's"... my head snapped around at that one, and i waited to see the SLF to cut her open to show her the black stuff inside her, but it didn't happen.

saturday morning was brunch at the SLF's friend's house. there was lots of tasty treats... crepes and this fantastic baked potato and veggie thing, and a kickass apple crisp thing for dinner with like double-thick crust. here's a few pictures from that:

patty group 1 group 2

after brunch we ran back to the SLF's house for her to get changed, and then we were off to the bob mould show.

the opening act was this guy jason from a chicago-area band called verbow. he was very good... fantastic voice, lovely songs... a nice opener.

bob was really good. his voice is so strong, and he has such a stage presence. i do have to say that i didn't enjoy this show as much as when he opened for the first gut pagaent show. his acoustic stuff was more amplified this time... not as clean and pure. he did some really good stuff, tho... opened with "wishing well", and did some old stuff, and then some stuff off of his upcoming album. one thing he talked about between songs was this incident, which i had read about before the show, and was telling all my friends gleefully about it. bob basically retold the events as they happened, and then also mentioned that the woman in question had posted like 9 times to *his* message board to explain herself. it was all quite amusing.

then bob switched it up. he put down the 12-string, and picked up his electric and started doing songs from "modulate", which is his "electronica" record. he put on a cd of the backing music, and played and sang along. it totally didn't work for me; sounded like he was playing/singing at half the speed as the backing track. he did a few encores, and in general i thought the show was very good. full review thread here. below are the only 3 pictures that came out halfway decent (i try to not use a flash at these sort of things):

jason from verbow bob 1 bob 2

along with the SLF, ryan and his new boyfriend friend were there. after the show we wanted to go out and have a little fun, so we decided to go to brewers. this is a "hotel bar"; in addition to the bar on the ground floor, it's also a halfway house for semi-homeless gay men. it's also a nice hangout for a good assortment of crack whores, as well as a healthy helping of black transgendered prostitutes, all of which are named "mahogany", for some reason. you just have to understand what a scary place this is. i had never been there before, but ryan had been there several times before. one time he went he had his briefcase stolen, and another time he was at the bar, talking to a semi-cute, well-dressed boy, when he started to smell something. the bartender comes running over and throws the guy out; turns out he had shit himself while ryan was talking to him. i just want the scene to be set.

ryan's boyfriend friend drove all of us in his new xterra, and i wouldn't say that he's the best driver. he sort of darted from the main road onto the sidestreet where brewers is, and almost nailed some guy in a black pickup truck. we parked, and as we were just about to get out of the truck, the guy we nearly killed came back down the street, honking and shaking his fist at us.

ryan: maybe we should turn the car off, wait for him to drive away, and then park somewhere else. ryan's boyfriend friend: nah.. it'll be fine.

into the bar we go, and it's scary. women who used to be men, most people looking like they hadn't had a bath in several days... it was quite.. um... "earthy". everyone (besides me) was doing shots of blueberry pucker (ick!), and we were all having a good time. awhile after we got there, a new group of people came in, including a female impersonator. i managed to get a few pictures of us with some of them:

marys 1 marys 2

we finally leave and head back to the truck, and of course the windshield is all smashed in. fucking hick motherfucker had come back with a baseball bat and smashed most of the driver's side of the windshield, and knocked the sideview mirror mostly off. ryan's boyfriend friend got a glass splinter in his finger sweeping some chunks off of his seat, but mostly everyone was unscathed. it was still a little freaky tho.

I *heart* Whole Foods

in

i have found a new love, and she is whole foods. went last night to the grand opening with the SLF, and that place is just phenominal. i had been to one in austin maybe about 5 years ago (i was doing training for my previous job), and i was just blown away by the selection, and that was before i even thought about making a conscious effort to eat healthier. anyway, with the crappy selection of food jobbers that are around here, it was so nice to walk in that door last night. their produce is amazing. i got a bag of the nicest green grapes that i've had in recent memory, and every other bag on display looked to be its equal. their seafood looked fantastic... reasonable pricing on the fresh stuff, and a great selection of flash-frozen cuts; tuna steaks, salmon steaks, etc. moving on to the meat department they had all sorts of ready-to-go treats... flank steak stuffed with asparagus, blue cheese and garlic(!), salmon stuffed with crabmeat, and lobster stuffed with tacos (wait, strike that last one).

their cheese department rivaled that of la chacuterie in shadyside... both in selection and knowledgable and helpful staff. i think i need to have a little wine 'n' cheese bash again, post-haste.

the "crunchy" department was unrivaled... every type of natural potato chip, all the kashi cereal, bars, and underpants (i think) you could shake a stick at. fresh bread that was fantastic.

the SLF was impressed as well... all 3 things that she sort of wistfully said "i wish they had this one thing that i love, but i know they won't"... they did, and at good prices, too.

i think i pretty much spent the entire night walking around saying "i need to have a lie-down."

i'm going to try and get over there tonight and do some serious shopping, but i don't know if i'll have time. my best friend's parents are in town this weekend, and i'm heading out tonight to go to w.v. for a climbing wedding. no, the wedding ceremony won't be held on a cliff, but it is going to be down at the new river gorge, and on bridge day, no less. that means that i need to be down and on the right side of the river before tomorrow a.m., because the bridge is going to be closed all day. furthermore, that means that if i want to see the other parents for a little while, i need to do that right after work, and then truck on down so i can pitch my tent and get to bed at a reasonable hour. can't climb 3 days straight w/out lots of rest.

i realized the other night at the j mascis show that i've started to think in blog. as i'm watching the band, i'm thinking to myself about the lines i might write, and where i'll find useful links to illustrate my points; either sites i already know about, or searches i'll have to do. (i was looking in vain last week for a site i saw years ago that involved dumb guys taking an aquarium pump and sticking the hose up their asses and inflating their stomachs from the inside over the course of a few hours. don't ask.)