About halfway through our game on Friday night a situation occurred, the circumstances surrounding which I missed out on, which lead to a penalty kick against our team. Normally this is a disastrous turn of events for a team as the penalty kick is virtually a guaranteed goal. At the time we were leading by some incredible margin, like 8 to 1, which meant the allowing of a goal would matter very little. Because of this, and I think because collectively the team thought it would be hysterical, Nic yelled for me to get in goal and sub for Jeff.
Horrified, I pretended not to hear him. He yelled again. This time I attempted to make what I thought was an airtight case against my being in goal. Nic Milani, a.k.a Diocletian, yelled over top of my protest and sent me onto the field without so much as a heads up as to the rules of the position. To make matters worse, as I was putting on my "goalie shirt" I could hear him tell the other team that I have never been on a soccer field before and to "shell" me.
I made my way out to the goal to die. I couldn't get the gloves on so I threw them on the field. The ref did not like that and told me to put them in the back of the net. The kick came and I did not stop it. I was thankful that it didn't hit me in the face, or worse. Since there was a break in the action I put on the gloves and stretched out, because I thought at the very least why pull a muscle. With my shirt on backwards and my hands wrapped in sweat drenched gloves that smelled of hamsters who've been rolling around in urine soaked cedar, I daftly repelled the murderous onslaught that ensued.
That's not entirely true. The description of the gloves is entirely accurate but there really wasn't a murderous onslaught. Our defense did a great job and I think I only had to block two or three shots. I did get yelled at a few times for trying to pick the ball up when I wasn't eligible but I blame that on Nic. I'm pretty sure that I never want to play goal again.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Spooooky Ghost Cookies!!!
In case you were wondering this is a spooky ghost cookie. My mom made them for me for Halloween because, try as I might, I cannot get the dough right. The recipe for this cookie dough is Alberts-ian cooking arcana. My Mom learned from my great-grandmother who also learned from her great-grandmother and god knows where she learned it from, Bandaloops for all I know. It is one of those recipes that anyone can attempt but only some can master. My aunts (mom's sisters) have all tried for years to get it right and it never compares. The trick is in the amount of flour that is added in total. You have to add enough flour to make the dough workable, then you must knead it in a particular way, all the while adding more and more flour until it feels and acts right. Yes, you read that right, it has to act right. There in lies the mystery. It took my mom years to get it right. I have the same trouble as she did; in the beginning your cookies are bricks because you added too much flour. No one likes bricks, not even thick sugary ones. They can take any shape. This time around she made me ghosts and pumpkins. Come X-mas, reindeer and bells and stars will begin showing up. On occasion she will make me donkey shaped cookies, my favorite. There may even be some snowmen, complete with raisin buttons, raisins being the decoration of choice for buttons or eyes or whatever else. These ghosts have chocolate chip eyes though because when it come to eyes everyone knows that chocolate chips are spookier than raisins.
On to other news. This weekend is shaping up decently. Jon is coming by on Saturday, as is Joe, in the hopes that we might catch the new Cohen brothers flick. No Country for Old Men....looks killer, no pun intended. After that who knows. It's quite likely that the evening will gradually dissolve into beers and silliness. I will probably spend Sunday beginning to "thin the herd" that is my domestic clutter. I'll find out tomorrow if I am moving after the first of the year. I'd give it 90 percent odds in favor that I am. So in the likely event that I am moving I will need to grab some boxes and start thinking about packing some things away. I might actually start making preparations to take some photos of people as well. A well organized photo album is clutch when you are away from home. At least in my opinion.
Music: "Late in the Evening" - Paul Simon
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Yeah, it's a copper me.
So here is what happens when boredom gets the better of you and you have an excess of small gage stranded copper wire at your disposal. It's me, made of copper and I have an umbrella, you know because the weather changes so fast in Michigan this time of year.
The umbrella is a little underwhelming and the glasses turned out a little too Groucho Marx-ish but otherwise not too bad, huh?
Music: "Build a birdhouse" - They Might be Giants
Music: "Build a birdhouse" - They Might be Giants
Sunday, November 04, 2007
New York in the Fall
I'm happy to report that after two weeks in Manhattan I still have in my possession two eyes, two arms, two legs, ten fingers and ten toes. I also have no new scars, bone chips and did not contract the plague, Ebola or MRSA. So, while I did not accomplish all that I set out to at work during that time, I have no problem putting this trip in the success category. My luggage made it on time and intact though I did mangle my bag while attempting to remove it from the conveyor. All of the zipper handles on the front of the suitcase managed to get wedged between the conveyor's sliding plates (the plates get close together as they snake around the curves of the track). Had I grabbed my bag in a straight away I would have been all set but because I grabbed it on a curve I now have only halves and quarters of the original zipper handles left to work with. I don't mind much, I never put anything in the front pockets anyway.
Most of my time was spent working at Alice Tully Hall at Julliard. They are building an addition on to the existing structure (roughly doubling the size of the building) and will need to hook old things to new things in order for everything to function properly. My job was to see if the old things were in good enough condition to work properly when they start everything back up in a few months. My conclusion: No. They may well try it anyway. It was a pretty dirty job. It involved climbing on rickety old ladders into spaces people my size are not meant to be in to do things that were in some cases unnecessary. I did them anyway of course and had to laugh a little when I picked up a newspaper in one crawl space to find a headline about a game that Doc Gooden pitched for the Mets.....in 1984.
I didn't take a lot of pictures mainly for two reasons. First was that I was just in New York not too terribly long ago and took some of the more touristy pictures then. Second, I got out of work at dusk more or less every day so getting decent lighting for the pictures I might have taken was nearly impossible. A tripod and some fast-ish film would have been great but all I had was my point and shoot digital pocket camera and so i was forced to give up on some of the shots I wanted. So I took a few cityscape sort of shots looking out from the Central Park and then everything else was just sort of "hrmm...that might look cool as a B&W hanging in my house" sort of picture. Here are a few:
Bethesda Terrace: They've just finished replacing the ceiling tiles under the bridge. It looks great.
I really love the color of the stone. Having an overcast sky really helped me capture the colors accurately.
The lake that abuts the terrace is behind me. Notice how there is almost nobody around. The weather was also very helpful for keeping passers by out of my pictures.
The benches are solid wood with cast iron posts. Again, note the lack of people.
This picture looks like something out of the first Ghostbusters movie.
Most of my time was spent working at Alice Tully Hall at Julliard. They are building an addition on to the existing structure (roughly doubling the size of the building) and will need to hook old things to new things in order for everything to function properly. My job was to see if the old things were in good enough condition to work properly when they start everything back up in a few months. My conclusion: No. They may well try it anyway. It was a pretty dirty job. It involved climbing on rickety old ladders into spaces people my size are not meant to be in to do things that were in some cases unnecessary. I did them anyway of course and had to laugh a little when I picked up a newspaper in one crawl space to find a headline about a game that Doc Gooden pitched for the Mets.....in 1984.
I didn't take a lot of pictures mainly for two reasons. First was that I was just in New York not too terribly long ago and took some of the more touristy pictures then. Second, I got out of work at dusk more or less every day so getting decent lighting for the pictures I might have taken was nearly impossible. A tripod and some fast-ish film would have been great but all I had was my point and shoot digital pocket camera and so i was forced to give up on some of the shots I wanted. So I took a few cityscape sort of shots looking out from the Central Park and then everything else was just sort of "hrmm...that might look cool as a B&W hanging in my house" sort of picture. Here are a few:
Bethesda Terrace: They've just finished replacing the ceiling tiles under the bridge. It looks great.
I really love the color of the stone. Having an overcast sky really helped me capture the colors accurately.
The lake that abuts the terrace is behind me. Notice how there is almost nobody around. The weather was also very helpful for keeping passers by out of my pictures.
Some sort of preservation society has done a lot of work restoring areas of the park to their original state. I was surprised and delighted to see the addition of these park benches all over the place. They really change the feel of the park.
The benches are solid wood with cast iron posts. Again, note the lack of people.
This picture looks like something out of the first Ghostbusters movie.
I also came upon this vine canopy while strolling through the park. I don't know what kind of vines these are but they looked cool without any vegetation on them. It must be nice to sit here in the summer.
I spent my evenings getting fattened up at my uncle's apartment. Between the gin & tonics and chateau neuf and the wonderful dinners I swear I put on 5 pounds. Delicious though. It was really great to see both he and Mary. I don't get to see him all that often and as luck would have it he had those two weeks off from work so we were able to spend a lot of time hanging out. My last weekend in town we went out to Shelter Island. Dale and Eric, friends of Tim and Mary both of whom work with Tim at SNL, have a house there that they bought about 5 years ago. They had to do some renovations to it after they bought it and are still in the process of putting some things back in place, like the shutters, which you will notice are not present. It's a great house. We stayed in the guest house which was renovated straight away after their purchase. It had a cool Franklin stove in the living room which I made full use of. Saturday's weather was not good but Sunday was brilliant and sunny and cool but not cold. The perfect sort of day for sitting around drinking French 75's and cooking food, which we did. It was very relaxing and much needed and I can't wait for the opportunity to go back. Here are some pics:
Looking out from the guest house balcony.
The house from the road.
Down the road to the ocean.
Looking down the beach. There is a lighthouse out there in the distance.
Sun room in the house. Dale and Eric will be the first to tell you that it is very Golden Girls.
Looking out from the guest house balcony.
The house from the road.
Down the road to the ocean.
Looking down the beach. There is a lighthouse out there in the distance.
Sun room in the house. Dale and Eric will be the first to tell you that it is very Golden Girls.
The following Monday we arrived back in the city and I went to the Seurat exhibit at MOMA. It was pretty cool and not really crowded so that was nice. I had a few hours to kill before I had to head to the airport so I walked around town for a bit. More pics:
7:45pm and I was at the airport waiting to leave. It was a sweet trip and I look forward to my next chance to get back.
music: "Time and Time again" - Counting Crows
music: "Time and Time again" - Counting Crows
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Weekend Update.
Did you know I really like when people just freak the fuck out when they sing. Not in a "Hey...we're called 3 inches of blood...rooooooooccckkk!!!!" sort of way. Think more along the lines of Joplin. I mean she had one of those voices that you only get from smoking unfiltered Pall Malls for 20 years; that kind of gravelly, melodic voice that you appreciate for it's ability to make your hair stand on end when she really gets after it. Melissa Ethridge can do that, or could anyway, maybe not so much now. I also want them, the singer, to surprise me when they do it. I don't want them to start right out singing like that because it loses it's effect on me when it doesn't slap me in the face. Kurt Cobain, he could do it.
Everyone can agree, or should agree, that some music transcends arguments about whether or not you like it. No one should have to ask if you like the Beatles, you just should. But what about songs that aren't all that good, either lyrically or musically or both but have "your thing" in them and because of that one thing you will agree with your friends when asked "is this crap or what?" but secretly add that song to your iPod play list. For example, I have on my iPod a song by Brandi Carlisle that is not really a fantastic song, decent, but not great. It's called "the story" and I listen to it solely for the fact that at 2:55 into the song she just comes unglued for a second before she regains her composure. It's cool. Tracy Bonham - Mother Mother, decent song. Wouldn't be in my play list were it not for the freak outs. They needn't be total melt downs though. A Rush of Blood to the Head by Coldplay, dig that song too. David Gray - Disappearing World also qualifies. Both of those to a lesser ( a much much lesser) degree though.
Another example, Joy likes songs that have the phrase "sha-la-la" or variants there of, in them. It so happens that there are some great tunes with "sha-la-la" somewhere in them. If you tell her that the song has "sha-la-la" in it though she's probably going to think it's alright, even if it sucks pretty hard. No offense. It's cool.
So what else? I mean it seems like a lot of people that I have known have had something like that; something that will bias them toward a song for no good reason. I'd be interested in knowing what those things are. So, if you please, Artist and song Title if you decide to leave a comment.
I'm in New York working at the Lincoln Center for the next two weeks. I'll be staying in an apartment somewhere in downtown Manhattan, not exactly sure where, don't really care. I have the address at my office. I was kind of hoping to be more towards mid-town, since the Lincoln Center is in mid-town and that would seriously cut down on my commute every morning. Our office is on Broad Street though and it wouldn't surprise me to find out that the apartment is in that vicinity. I have the weekends and evenings to myself so I'll be wandering about trying not to get crushed by a falling piano. Sounds stupid until you realize who's blog you're reading. I'll try and post from the city. I imagine I'll have that capability... be kinda pissed if I don't.
more soon.....
Music: "For No One" - The Beatles
Everyone can agree, or should agree, that some music transcends arguments about whether or not you like it. No one should have to ask if you like the Beatles, you just should. But what about songs that aren't all that good, either lyrically or musically or both but have "your thing" in them and because of that one thing you will agree with your friends when asked "is this crap or what?" but secretly add that song to your iPod play list. For example, I have on my iPod a song by Brandi Carlisle that is not really a fantastic song, decent, but not great. It's called "the story" and I listen to it solely for the fact that at 2:55 into the song she just comes unglued for a second before she regains her composure. It's cool. Tracy Bonham - Mother Mother, decent song. Wouldn't be in my play list were it not for the freak outs. They needn't be total melt downs though. A Rush of Blood to the Head by Coldplay, dig that song too. David Gray - Disappearing World also qualifies. Both of those to a lesser ( a much much lesser) degree though.
Another example, Joy likes songs that have the phrase "sha-la-la" or variants there of, in them. It so happens that there are some great tunes with "sha-la-la" somewhere in them. If you tell her that the song has "sha-la-la" in it though she's probably going to think it's alright, even if it sucks pretty hard. No offense. It's cool.
So what else? I mean it seems like a lot of people that I have known have had something like that; something that will bias them toward a song for no good reason. I'd be interested in knowing what those things are. So, if you please, Artist and song Title if you decide to leave a comment.
I'm in New York working at the Lincoln Center for the next two weeks. I'll be staying in an apartment somewhere in downtown Manhattan, not exactly sure where, don't really care. I have the address at my office. I was kind of hoping to be more towards mid-town, since the Lincoln Center is in mid-town and that would seriously cut down on my commute every morning. Our office is on Broad Street though and it wouldn't surprise me to find out that the apartment is in that vicinity. I have the weekends and evenings to myself so I'll be wandering about trying not to get crushed by a falling piano. Sounds stupid until you realize who's blog you're reading. I'll try and post from the city. I imagine I'll have that capability... be kinda pissed if I don't.
more soon.....
Music: "For No One" - The Beatles
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
I stole this.
I thought you might like to see what searches bring people to my blog. This was Joy's idea but I have some real winners here so I've decided to share.
Keyword Searches that have found my blog:
1. Mr. Biggelsworth horse racing
2. Sarnia mustache rides
3. Hippity hop bouncing
4. Wig shop Novi Michigan
5. Nicholas Cage Steroids
Some I can see but Mr. Biggelsworth horse racing......ridonkulous.
Keyword Searches that have found my blog:
1. Mr. Biggelsworth horse racing
2. Sarnia mustache rides
3. Hippity hop bouncing
4. Wig shop Novi Michigan
5. Nicholas Cage Steroids
Some I can see but Mr. Biggelsworth horse racing......ridonkulous.
Monday, October 01, 2007
Absent-mindedness Leads to Strong Odor of Bananas; Sooted Foot.
I've been on a huge banana kick as of late. I've heard that Potassium is very important in the regulation of one's blood pressure and you can never be too careful about your health. Is my blood pressure elevated? Who knows....but why take chances with that sort of thing. I mean look what happened to Al Oerter. If it can get this guy, it can get anybody.
I'm not going to fool myself into thinking that I stand a better chance than someone in this kind of shape. At the same time though I think that it's fair to say that my dying from something as banal as complications due to elevated blood pressure is just not in my cards. My demise will be the stuff of legends. There will be bumper stickers issued for those who are in attendance when it happens. They will simply read: " I was there". My life's purpose is not to save another's nor is it to make a meaningful contribution to humanity or to serve as warning to others. My final moments will be to showcase to future populations that the Cosmos does in fact have a sense of humor and just hang on because in a second she'll prove it to you.
I was trying to do a lot of things at the same time last Friday. Cook what I was hoping would be a delicious dessert, do laundry, assess my clothing needs for my co-worker's wedding on Saturday(Several requirements it turns out.), run the vacuum, arrange photos and pay attention to the Tigers game on the radio among other things. Oh, and eat a banana. So I'm walking around, eatin' this banana, and next thing I know I'm missing my banana. Strange, I thought. Not to worry though, thanks to a recent trip to the grocery store I'm well prepared for just such a scenario. So I get another banana. I dive in. When bananas are good, they're f-ing good. And these suckers were aces. Which is why I was saddened and confused to find that only a few minutes later I was again looking around for my banana. "Are you serious?, I asked....myself. So I search for a minute, looking in all the obvious places you might leave a banana. Then I give up. After all, I've got bananas for days in the kitchen, I'll get a shiny new one! So I do. D-licious. I'm feeling good again and I set out to continue on with my chores. 10 minutes later I'm tearing the house apart, wondering out loud what kind of an asshole loses 3 bananas...half eaten bananas no less. How do you do that? Adjectives like vast, colossal and immense will never be used to describe my apartment. And I'm not joking when I tell you that for a moment I entertained the idea that a bird flew into my window and stole them. After what I thought was a fair search for them I gave up.
Some time later I was sitting in my living room listening to the Tigers lose (but they had a great season!) when the faint yet distinct smell of bananas came wafting over me. So I followed it. Opening the closet door I found one of the bananas sitting atop my dryer, which was running. Warm banana, Yahtzee! So I ate it and decided that I should put my clothes away. I had jackets and pants and ties and belts and shoes tossed all over my bed. I began pairing them off, these pants with that jacket, when what should I discover but banana number two peeking through the pile of shirts on my bed. Stupid, right? Dumb to put a banana on your bed, really dumb to pile clothes on top of it. I ate it though. It was good too.
I went to the gym and came back all the while wondering where I could have put the last one. Nothing was out of play now. I began to look between cushions on the sofa, under the chair and finally while I was at the computer table I found it while grabbing for my CD case. It was on the shelf inside the door of the buffet on top of which I keep my computer, duh. Why wouldn't you look there? So I picked it up and set it on the buffet next to my laptop. Better keep an eye on it, right?. So I started to pack up my computer to take to my folk's house for the weekend when the most amazing/startling/"If anyone other than Aaron had told me that I wouldn't have believed it" thing happened. I couldn't get the plug out of the surge strip that was lying on the ground and so I put my banana in my mouth and used both hands to pull on the cord and a foot to hold the strip down. The banana broke and the peel fell onto the surge strip in such a way that it made the connection between prongs and draped across my foot. With a small pop the peel poofed out black soot all over my toes. So there I stood, banana in mouth, cord in hand and blackened foot sporting my best "What the fuck?" styled face nearly electrocuted by a banana.....
This is how I know I am destined for "mortality immortality". A death for the ages...so grand and mysterious that folk songs will be written about me. The entire universe is my very own Rube Goldberg apparatus. You should get to know me better. You are going to want a front row seat for this show. I only hope that it is a few years off still.
Music: "Idioteque" - Radiohead
I'm not going to fool myself into thinking that I stand a better chance than someone in this kind of shape. At the same time though I think that it's fair to say that my dying from something as banal as complications due to elevated blood pressure is just not in my cards. My demise will be the stuff of legends. There will be bumper stickers issued for those who are in attendance when it happens. They will simply read: " I was there". My life's purpose is not to save another's nor is it to make a meaningful contribution to humanity or to serve as warning to others. My final moments will be to showcase to future populations that the Cosmos does in fact have a sense of humor and just hang on because in a second she'll prove it to you.
I was trying to do a lot of things at the same time last Friday. Cook what I was hoping would be a delicious dessert, do laundry, assess my clothing needs for my co-worker's wedding on Saturday(Several requirements it turns out.), run the vacuum, arrange photos and pay attention to the Tigers game on the radio among other things. Oh, and eat a banana. So I'm walking around, eatin' this banana, and next thing I know I'm missing my banana. Strange, I thought. Not to worry though, thanks to a recent trip to the grocery store I'm well prepared for just such a scenario. So I get another banana. I dive in. When bananas are good, they're f-ing good. And these suckers were aces. Which is why I was saddened and confused to find that only a few minutes later I was again looking around for my banana. "Are you serious?, I asked....myself. So I search for a minute, looking in all the obvious places you might leave a banana. Then I give up. After all, I've got bananas for days in the kitchen, I'll get a shiny new one! So I do. D-licious. I'm feeling good again and I set out to continue on with my chores. 10 minutes later I'm tearing the house apart, wondering out loud what kind of an asshole loses 3 bananas...half eaten bananas no less. How do you do that? Adjectives like vast, colossal and immense will never be used to describe my apartment. And I'm not joking when I tell you that for a moment I entertained the idea that a bird flew into my window and stole them. After what I thought was a fair search for them I gave up.
Some time later I was sitting in my living room listening to the Tigers lose (but they had a great season!) when the faint yet distinct smell of bananas came wafting over me. So I followed it. Opening the closet door I found one of the bananas sitting atop my dryer, which was running. Warm banana, Yahtzee! So I ate it and decided that I should put my clothes away. I had jackets and pants and ties and belts and shoes tossed all over my bed. I began pairing them off, these pants with that jacket, when what should I discover but banana number two peeking through the pile of shirts on my bed. Stupid, right? Dumb to put a banana on your bed, really dumb to pile clothes on top of it. I ate it though. It was good too.
I went to the gym and came back all the while wondering where I could have put the last one. Nothing was out of play now. I began to look between cushions on the sofa, under the chair and finally while I was at the computer table I found it while grabbing for my CD case. It was on the shelf inside the door of the buffet on top of which I keep my computer, duh. Why wouldn't you look there? So I picked it up and set it on the buffet next to my laptop. Better keep an eye on it, right?. So I started to pack up my computer to take to my folk's house for the weekend when the most amazing/startling/"If anyone other than Aaron had told me that I wouldn't have believed it" thing happened. I couldn't get the plug out of the surge strip that was lying on the ground and so I put my banana in my mouth and used both hands to pull on the cord and a foot to hold the strip down. The banana broke and the peel fell onto the surge strip in such a way that it made the connection between prongs and draped across my foot. With a small pop the peel poofed out black soot all over my toes. So there I stood, banana in mouth, cord in hand and blackened foot sporting my best "What the fuck?" styled face nearly electrocuted by a banana.....
This is how I know I am destined for "mortality immortality". A death for the ages...so grand and mysterious that folk songs will be written about me. The entire universe is my very own Rube Goldberg apparatus. You should get to know me better. You are going to want a front row seat for this show. I only hope that it is a few years off still.
Music: "Idioteque" - Radiohead
Saturday, September 22, 2007
"La France!" - Part 2
Week one complete, on to week two. We left Montpellier on the 9am train to Paris. One more thing that should have gone off without a hitch yet ended with me being "lucky" to be on the train. Once we got on the train we had to try and find two seats near each other. Even though I bought two seats next to each other that is apparently no guarantee of actually getting it. So we wandered around and eventually Joy would narc on a guy with no ticket to get him booted leaving his smelly seat vacant and calling my name.
We arrived in Paris and hopped in a cab for destinations unknown. I told the cab driver the name of the hotel and the approximate street location and he had no idea where to take us so he dropped us off near where I told him. After foolishly asking a crepe vendor for directions we phoned the hotel and asked how to get there. Surprisingly this was not that helpful. We took cover from one of the afternoon deluges and a short time later arrived at the hotel. Now let me just say that all is not what it seems on Expedia.com. I've stayed in nice hotels. I stayed in a really great room at the Waldorf in NYC and so I foolishly thought that if I spend an equivalent amount of money for a hotel in Paris I ought to get roughly the same accommodations; at the very least the same service. Not the case in fact. A lady showed us to our room and to the shock and dismay of all of us the room was adorned with a painting over the bed that I would guess at having been painted in the "I'm selling this out of my van down by the river" style. Even the lady that worked there smiled, chuckled and said " 'zis is 'ze first time I have seen 'zis " and called down to have us put in another room. I don't know what is happening with hotels these days but all of the charm is gone from the rooms. If you want to have a room with anything not corporate looking you have to get a suite. This was a four star hotel, with Capote and Hemingway listed in the guestbook. What in the hell? The location was good, no doubt about it. But even the service was lack luster. When we informed the hotel restaurant that we would be taking cocktails and dessert in our room they informed us that we most certainly would not be. So we ordered drinks and waited in the bar. The drink price is directly proportional to the serve time. If your drink costs 20 Euros, it will take twenty minutes to arrive. In our case we ordered two drinks which meant we were to wait 40 minutes for their arrival. We waited. Drank our underwhelming drinks and went to bed.
It rained a lot. When it wasn't raining it was cloudy and not very warm. We had one nice day all week and it was sunny and 72. Thank god I packed sweaters. I thought for sure I was wasting my time with them when I packed them. We walked all over town, hitting the a lot of the more famous landmarks. The Louvre:
Joy and I are suckers for sculpture. We wanted to get to the Rodin sculpture garden as well but with all the rain we decided not to go. The Louvre is quite lovely though. It would be nice to be able to experience it without all of the crowds. We also saw the Arc de Triumphe:
Invalides:
Notre Dame:
It was a fantastic trip. Certain things put a damper on it at times most notably the loss of my luggage. Oh well. I really enjoy spending time with Joy and I was really happy to finally meet Philippe. If I had the chance I would have changed the weather in Paris. It was Joy's B-day present after all and I would have liked it to have been less soggy. If I get a chance I will try and scan the film that I took so that you can see some of those. It's more of the same as what you see above.
Thank you so much for all your hospitality. I'll send grocery money to make up for my having eaten all of your food. I hope to see you again very soon.
Music: "Little Acorns" - The White Stripes
We arrived in Paris and hopped in a cab for destinations unknown. I told the cab driver the name of the hotel and the approximate street location and he had no idea where to take us so he dropped us off near where I told him. After foolishly asking a crepe vendor for directions we phoned the hotel and asked how to get there. Surprisingly this was not that helpful. We took cover from one of the afternoon deluges and a short time later arrived at the hotel. Now let me just say that all is not what it seems on Expedia.com. I've stayed in nice hotels. I stayed in a really great room at the Waldorf in NYC and so I foolishly thought that if I spend an equivalent amount of money for a hotel in Paris I ought to get roughly the same accommodations; at the very least the same service. Not the case in fact. A lady showed us to our room and to the shock and dismay of all of us the room was adorned with a painting over the bed that I would guess at having been painted in the "I'm selling this out of my van down by the river" style. Even the lady that worked there smiled, chuckled and said " 'zis is 'ze first time I have seen 'zis " and called down to have us put in another room. I don't know what is happening with hotels these days but all of the charm is gone from the rooms. If you want to have a room with anything not corporate looking you have to get a suite. This was a four star hotel, with Capote and Hemingway listed in the guestbook. What in the hell? The location was good, no doubt about it. But even the service was lack luster. When we informed the hotel restaurant that we would be taking cocktails and dessert in our room they informed us that we most certainly would not be. So we ordered drinks and waited in the bar. The drink price is directly proportional to the serve time. If your drink costs 20 Euros, it will take twenty minutes to arrive. In our case we ordered two drinks which meant we were to wait 40 minutes for their arrival. We waited. Drank our underwhelming drinks and went to bed.
It rained a lot. When it wasn't raining it was cloudy and not very warm. We had one nice day all week and it was sunny and 72. Thank god I packed sweaters. I thought for sure I was wasting my time with them when I packed them. We walked all over town, hitting the a lot of the more famous landmarks. The Louvre:
Joy and I are suckers for sculpture. We wanted to get to the Rodin sculpture garden as well but with all the rain we decided not to go. The Louvre is quite lovely though. It would be nice to be able to experience it without all of the crowds. We also saw the Arc de Triumphe:
Invalides:
Notre Dame:
The most amazing thing that I saw on this trip is Sainte Chapelle. A small chapel built by the monarchy to house religious relics. There aren't any relics left but the stained glass windows that make up the walls are breath taking. We didn't get the full effect because it was over cast the day that we went. Even still, very cool. pics:
It was a fantastic trip. Certain things put a damper on it at times most notably the loss of my luggage. Oh well. I really enjoy spending time with Joy and I was really happy to finally meet Philippe. If I had the chance I would have changed the weather in Paris. It was Joy's B-day present after all and I would have liked it to have been less soggy. If I get a chance I will try and scan the film that I took so that you can see some of those. It's more of the same as what you see above.
Thank you so much for all your hospitality. I'll send grocery money to make up for my having eaten all of your food. I hope to see you again very soon.
Music: "Little Acorns" - The White Stripes
"La France!" - Part 1
Well my beautiful babies, you're finally going to get to see pictures of my recent trip to France. You're not going to get the full effect though because I deleted ALL of my photos from the trip yesterday...... Why? Simple, I'm an A-hole. I copied all of my photos onto my backup hard drive and then formatted my computer and reinstalled windows. All of this before checking to see if said files actually made it to my external drive. Result: I have no photos from this most recent trip that are of good quality. I was able to download the web album that I had created a few weeks ago, so I have about 160 of the 220 photos that I took; they're just 1/12th the original file size. They still look fine on the computer but I had big plans for some of these photos, damn it. I wanted to have B&W copies made of some of them to hang in my house. That's no longer an option.
So the trip began on a Saturday. I flew from Detroit to Amsterdam, like you do, and arrived on time and in good spirits. This was about the time the wheels fell off of my vacation. As I sat, danish and coffee in hand, waiting for my connecting flight the baggage transfer attendant was getting laid. At least that is what I keep telling myself because when it came time for him to do his job and transfer my luggage he balked. Everyone else arrived in Paris with a bag to claim from the conveyor. I waited to see if maybe it just got hung up somewhere and then did what I am accustomed to doing when flying Northwest; I walked to the lost luggage counter and filed a claim. After talking to the representative for Air France (Northwest's partner in France) I was in good spirits. My luggage didn't make my plane but made the next one and would be arriving shortly. I had a train to catch and couldn't wait so I left them all of my information and went on my way with the understanding that I would be receiving my luggage that day. No later than tomorrow. (tomorrow would be Monday at this point as my flight from Detroit was overnight).
I walked to the train station at Charles de Gaulle. It's only like 5 minutes from the arrival gate so I made it with time to spare. It was a pretty good looking station. Modern, light-drenched, sparsely seated. I bought a couple of waters and waited. I was actually a little glad not to have my luggage at this point. Taking a big suitcase on a train is not cool. They have luggage storage areas that are constantly burgled. Sometimes unknowingly. You've got like 3 minutes to get off the train at your stop and you might accidentally grab the wrong suitcase. That's the best case scenario. I feel that if that were the case, you'd likely get your bag back. Sometimes you just have the misfortune of sharing a train with an underpants thieving miscreant and he's just gonna straight up steal your shit. Plus it's pretty tight on those trains and it's just really nice to sit down, take off your high tech backpack that you bought for this trip and put some extra clothes in "just in case", and relax. Maybe read, maybe catch some sleep with the peace of mind that comes along with knowing that nobody can steal your suitcase. I did both. I even drank some coffee from the dining car. It was delicious; tasted like freedom. "What's that? We're coming into a station? Well, you fools can jockey for position all you want by that door, I'm going to finish my coffee and scope out these French girls walking by my window. " That was pretty much my inner dialogue.
I arrived in Montpellier a few hours later but nearly 24 hours since I took off from Detroit. So I was a little tired and I smelled like sleep, though hadn't really slept much. Kind of an interesting phenomenon. Joy greeted my at the train station. Joy was the reason I was going to France, you see. She has moved to Monpellier and is living the good life in the south of France while I am left to contend with the many splendors of Novi, MI. We're still bff though so it's cool. I took two weeks to visit her for her 30th B-day and check out her town. Montpellier is a really cool town. She blogged about my visit Here.
We had a grand adventure! I got to meet Philippe for the first time and I have to say I think we hit it off pretty well. He's very busy this time of year with work though and so we only got to hang out at night. We had many fine discussions and he introduced me to Roquefort, a regional French cheese. I'm not going to lie, it has the aroma of gym socks. It does taste good though. We put it on bread with butter and chased it with wine with Philippe shouting "la France!" all the while. Here are some photos of Philippe:
Sorry buddy, I don't have much left to work with. The top photo has Philippe wearing the Detroit Tigers shirt that I brought for him. You'll have to take my word for it since you can't see it. He looks cool in it.
Days 2-6 saw me making daily pilgrimages to Monoprix. I still didn't have my luggage and was trying to buy clothes as needed. Joy took me to the Levi's store on Wednesday and I got a pair of sweet 512's. I actually bought two pair, but the really dark pair I purchased fits me like a sausage skin. Strange, they are the exact same size according to the tag. Oh well, whenever I get my receipts turned into Air France, I'll get reimbursed for them.
The week was very chill. We walked around a lot and checked out the sites. I rented an apartment in the Canourge that was spacious and breezy so we hung out there a few nights and watched movies and had drinks. Some pics of the apartment and the view:
There is a church tower that can be seen from the window of my apartment that Joy took me to check out. It's massive. It's littered with bullet holes from the last time the Protestants and Catholics couldn't get along. It was closed so we couldn't go inside but here are some pics of the outside:
That's me down there. I'm not little, this place is just humongous.
Writing the wish.
Placing the wish.
Completionary shooters.
We walked around a bit and found a patch of flowers that we decided to take photos in. I know what you might be thinking, "Great Odin's raven, Aaron! What is going on with your hair?!?" Well, I'll tell you. It was hot, the weather, and I decided to get my hair cut. Joy told the dude who did the cutting that I was in his care, so style away. But no mullets. He went for a surfer-ish sort of theme and came up with this. I changed it the very next day. The length was perfect, but the styling was all wrong. Here we are in the flowers:
I'm not drunk, this is my inquisitive face.
Here are some additional pictures from our wanderings about town. You will notice that at some point I am wearing a new shirt. My luggage arrived on the sixth day of my stay. Thankfully just in time to salvage the one day trip that I was looking forward to most.
A mustache to rival my own.
Ponder'n some thing or'nother while drinking a beer.
House I purchased while I was there. Calendar is filling up fast, get your party reservations in now.
La Comedie at night. Aaron Alberts, not pictured, is busily wolfing down a small bowl of mango sorbet from the Haagen Dazs kiosk.
As I mentioned earlier we spent our last full day traveling to St. Guilhem. Beautiful old, like old, city about a 45 minute bus ride from Montpellier. It sits in a mountain valley and it has water running through the streets all year round. There is so much water that they route some of it into drinking fountains for people to enjoy. It's good too, I had some. Anyway we walked around town and checked out the monastery that is situated in the town center. Really cool old monastery with a quiet courtyard ringed by places of worship that drown in kaleidoscopic light from the stain glass windows. We also walked along one of the sight seeing trails that leads out of town in an effort to try and hike to some ruins that over look the city. First off, it was hot as balls that day. There is no shade, and we ran out of water 3/4 of the way up. Which as it turns out is as far as you can really go anyway because the road is blocked. It did offer some really nice views of the valley and town below. Had we the time we could have gone swimming in the river near the town or even canoed down it, but there was a bus to catch if we wanted to get back to Montpellier. What a phenomenal day though. I got to see a great place and spend the day cracking up with my favorite person. We even had a photo shoot. The pictures didn't turn out all that well though. The light there at mid day is just too harsh. It was so bright and direct that even the tables reflected up onto our faces. I managed one great shot of joy but as it is on film and not digital I'm afraid you won't get to see it. Actaully, Joy took a good one of me too but same deal, it's on film. Anyway, here is our day, or at least the photos that remain of the day.
Continued in my next post "La France!" - Part 2
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