Please Hold, we will be with you shortly

I have a post percolating in my brain about Game of Thrones.  Geoff and I have both been working crazy schedules between his school schedule and interviewing for work and my endless work schedule.

Then Jay died on Saturday.

Jay was really Carron’s friend, but he was a larger than life person who made the world a happier, better, and funnier place for being in it.  I knew Jay through Carron but both Geoff and I had met him and like him immensely.  He was Carron’s brother from another mother and circumstances in life had left him in a position to always make sure that Carron had what she needed if there wasn’t enough work that month.  He was generous, giving, hilariously funny, and kind.  Everything you’d want in a best friend and separated at birth brother.

Jay was violently murdered on Saturday in Mexico.  No, I won’t link to the article or any photos.  We don’t want or need to remember him that way.  I choose to remember him as the kind man who made Carron so happy and and who was so good to so many people.  I choose to remember the man who loved animals and always had a dog nearby.  The man who contributed to animal charities and animal rescue.

So we’ll probably be a little sporadic in posting around here for a while.  Between our schedules and the fact that a giant hole has been torn in Carron’s world, Game of Thrones posts can wait.  We have funeral preparations to make, emails to send, and people to contact.

Requiem in aeternam, Jay.

~Kelly

The two different kinds of apocalyptic fiction

The first is the kind that I read and/or watch.  Stuff like The Walking Dead comics, or Mira Grant’s awesome Newsflesh trilogy of novels, or movies like Deep Impact, and even video games like Left4Dead 2 and Fallout 3.  I guess the thing I find most interesting is seeing how people adapt. It’s compelling drama.  And while I find it entertaining, it does have a certain amount of practical value if it makes emergency preparedness a little less dull, as even the CDC has discovered.

Then there’s the other kind.  The kind that makes seemingly ordinary people lose their minds, because they think it’s real.

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The Great Blizzard Freakout of 2015

You may not know this (I am assuming a lot of Amish read our blog), but we are going to get a lot of snow very soon.

Yes, clearly we are already headed for the history books on this one and it hasn’t even happened yet.  I think we have already broken records, mostly in regard to media hype.  “I’ll take apocalyptic references to the Blizzard of 1978 for $500, Alex.”  The French Toast alert system is so far into red that it’s gone way into the infrared spectrum.    Everywhere I go, it’s Blizzard Freakout mode, and the handful of people being reflective are talking about the big one of 1978.  It’s like I am attending a history conference about that massive weather event of my childhood.

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The Pats, our Mini, and absurdity taken to new heights

Anyone who knows me well knows that when it comes to football, I am decidedly… meh.  I just never got into the sport the way that so many other people (like Kelly) have.  Baseball is another story.  I love it.  Even hockey and soccer are sports I care WAY more about than football.  But still, I look forward to whenever the Pats go the Superbowl, because that inevitably means people I know will be throwing great parties with lots of beer, wings, and general awesomeness.

So this year the upcoming wingstravaganza Superbowl party seems to be dominated by talk about this mess regarding the slight under-inflation of footballs.  And frankly, I am a bit puzzled by the whole thing.

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I thank God for our city council

The Cambridge City Council has voted in a policy order to make known that they are opposed to the 2024 Boston Olympic bid.   I get the impression that no one in the group to bring the 2024 Olympics to Boston thought to discuss their plan with surrounding communities to feel the waters, so to speak.

I cannot believe that any serious person would think that hosting the 2024 Olympics here in Boston is a good idea.  And with such a relatively small window to prepare, it is quite unrealistic.  In fact, it is hands down one of the dumbest ideas I have heard put forth in a long time.

Where would we put it all?

Yes, I know Kelly has talked about this already, but I have to throw in my own two cents worth, because this is something that has actually gotten me quite a bit fired up and angry.  It is yet another case of the privileged few dictating to everyone else.

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A beautiful and storied ship, part two

So like I was saying in my earlier post, I managed to get a pretty-much full tour of the Fletcher-class destroyer USS Cassin Young last Saturday.   I took a lot of pictures.

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Hello again, everyone. Long time no blog.

I am just now managing to recover from I guess what you might call a flare-up of my old back injury.  For a little while, it was pretty bad.  But it is getting better.  I have been utilizing the collection of canes that Kelly and I got not quite six years ago when I managed, in the space of a few months, to badly injure my right knee and then my back.  Probably the worst injuries, at least in terms of recovery time, that I have ever had.

But this current episode makes no sense to me.

Continue reading “Hello again, everyone. Long time no blog.”

@amandapalmer, @neilhimself, & @GeorgeWBush walk into a bar…

Neil & Amanda sit down and have a drink.  George says OW.

Ok, bad joke.  But it was inspired by this tweet from Goodreads this afternoon.

11.6.14 Goodreads Twitter

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A good Dornish meal to honor the Red Viper

 

I have been wanting to make a Dornish meal for some time, and now that I have had a long weekend home to help Kelly as she recovers from her surgery I have had some time to make it.   So here is my traditional Dornish meal of dates, cheese, olives, chickpea paste, and flatbread.  And wine, of course.

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Brimfield 2014 – The Loot – Part 1

Geoff and I found a lot of great things at Brimfield this year.  Unlike past years we didn’t go looking with extremely specific things in mind.  This helps tremendously because you tend to happen across things that you can use or give as gifts and spend more time browsing and less time hunting.  I’ve managed to photograph most of the items.  We’re going to break them up into a few posts over the next week or so because listing them all at once would be insane.

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