The LC

Fun With Speidi

Major major major props to Gallery of the Absurd for making my favorite book in the world, Fun with Dick and Jane even better! Now this is my favorite book in the world!

Simply genius.  Nothing else to say.

Summer Update

Ok Ok.  I remembered my login.

There are so many times I think to myself "I should put that on The LC", and then just don't get to it. Since those times are usually stored in my short term memory most of them have vanished, but I have managed to hold onto a few.

Wendy's Ads : Very Very Bad.

As a Columbusite (Columbian? Cow? Follower of Christopher? Ok, let's call it like it is and just say BUCKEYE!), I have an affinity with Wendy's, which was founded in my hometown and is still based in the next burb over from mine.   Granted, fast food has changed dramatically since the old days when it was all fresh cooked and made to order (!), but sometimes you can't help a spin through a drive through.  Anyway, since Dave Thomas died, the company has been struggling to keep its identity strong.  The newest tactic is this talking Wendy head, who pontificates about how Wendy's isn't fast food.  STRIKE 1.  They have a commercial now that heralds the fact that their chicken sandwiches are made with all white meat, and talking head Wendy comes on to say, and I kid you not, "Because if it's not all white meat, it's a gray area, and I don't like gray areas in my chicken." Seriously.  Forget STRIKE 2, we're taking this one straight to YOU'RE OUT!

Lightning Strikes

Here in The LC, the land is roughly 70% woodland, and at our house that jumps to about 99% woodland.  Literally it is as if our house was built somewhere else, and dropped in the middle of the woods, blowing away the trees under it and for about 10 feet in every direction around it.  The trees are about 80 feet tall.  This makes for an awesomely great place to be during violent thunderstorms.  This month we have at least one a day, and twice have encountered lightning strikes on the land.  The first time, it hit our well, and as a result it blew:

• One of two garage door openers
• The house alarm system
• One of two air conditioner units
• Our cable and internet service (for a week!)
• The well pump

The second time, which sounded like the house literally exploded, we only lost our phone service.  It is the most rattling experience.  And Jake freaks out whenever we have storms.  So not very cool.  Luckily, when we move to the farm we will have lightning rods on the house, barns, and even the trees near the house are cabled to ground lightning strikes.

Flipping Out

I can't say enough about this show. You have to just watch it.  It is my life.

Is there Room at the Inn?

Honestly one of the reasons I haven't been on the blog is because I have been spending every waking moment on facebook entertaining guests this summer.  51% has cycled his entire family through this summer.  First his sister came by herself for 10 days, then his parents came for a week, then his mother came back for 2 weeks over the 4th of July, then his dad, sister, and neice and nephew came for a week.  The last one was particularly fun, because we decided to all spend a night in our NYC apartment.  Yes, 6 people plus a 100lb dog in our apartment with one bed.  And I'm not talking a bed like the one in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. 

Swim Swim Swim

We put in a pool at the farm and had them install it quickly so that it would give all our guests (see above) something to do.  Plus we wanted Jake to be able to swim this summer as he only got a month of swimming in the Hamptons last year.  We got it done and have been spending a ton of time there.   We are still waiting for the stone for the top and the finish landscaping around it but a pool is a pool.  Even 51%'s mom daned to dip her toes in.

 

 

Eric and Asaf and the Never Ending Rainstorm

Once we cycled through the family, I had exactly 4 hours to prepare the house for Eric and Asaf, who were coming to experience a summer weekend away from the island of fire.  It actually turned out that I had 6 hours, as they got lost in spite of their gps.

We spent a couple of hours in the pool, where Jake took to Asaf as if he were the Dog Whisperer.  He completely disregarded Eric, though.  After we went swimming, we had to go home and prepare for The LC's version of a white party. It was a benefit event, complete with silent auction, cocktails, and a hat contest.  There were even some of our resident celebrities, including Laura Linney, Larry Kramer, and Topher Grace.  Eric and Asaf got scolded for PDA.  (you see only one of us took the white attire truly to heart, including the summer must, white bucks)

 we have no idea who this woman is.

   Jake loves Asaf.

The next day, we took them on a hike to the top of Steep Rock.  The hike up was easy, and the view as beautiful as ever, but on the way down a mother of all thunderstorms trapped us.  What started out as a nice walk in the rain quickly became a serious matter.  We were like Helen Hunt in that flying cow movie, except we weren't in a car, but in the middle of the woods.  Jake was freaked, 51% was relatively calm, Asaf was visibly upset about getting wet and having a 2 hour drive ahead of him, I was trying to keep my contacts from washing away, and Eric was upset that his favorite shirt was soaked.  In fact, I think he took it off and threw it in the river.

This was before the storm:

After we got back to our cars, we said goodbye to the guys and went home to find our driveway had washed away.  At least no lightning strike!

Don't Stop the Music

On heavy rotation this summer:

• Nouvelle Vague (perfect dinner/drinks/stargazing music)
• Adele (love her.  went to see her in NYC a few months back)
• E=MC2 (enough said)
• Kenny Chesney (OLD stuff, not the recent stuff)
• Lots of Bossa Nova type stuff - good background music for all the guests.

There Are No Words...

Praying For Time

If you watched the Idol finale this week, you saw George Michael perform his 1990s hit "Praying For Time".  It is a truly spectacular song, with a great message.  I am amazed that it came out so long ago - ironically when the other George Bush was President.  It is sad that the message is equally appropriate today as it was back then. 

Back in April, Carrie Underwood gave an outstanding performance of this song during Idol's charity show, Idol Gives Back.  IMO, it was one of the best public performances I've seen from her.  If you watch carefully, you can see the emotion of the song getting to her near the end. 

It wasn't until yesterday that I discovered that the arrangement of Carrie's performance, including her being seated throughout, was done to mirror a performance George Michael did on the BBC several years ago.  His performance is every bit as powerful.

Stay Beautiful

I love this song. 

It has that awesome, carefree vibe.  It reminds me of another kick-ass warm weather song, "No Tomorrow" by Orson.  I can blow the speakers on this one.  The video is cool too.

If you are old enough, you will sense a hint of a classic-rock Boston feel on this one in a few spots.

From the Creators of the Lint Licker

I am not ashamed to say that I bought this pack of gum specifically because I liked the colors of the packaging. 

Surprisingly, the Maui Melon Mint flavor isn't bad either. And as the title of this post suggests, I love Orbit's ads, particularly the cootie queen/lint licker one.

Like Whoa

I was just on the phone with someone, who interrupted me while I was speaking to say "like".  When I asked why they said it, they replied that I had said it 5 times in the previous 3 minutes.  Made me think about the other things I say all day long.  I'm notorious for extensive use of the following:

• Like
• So (usually to start a sentence and usually pronounced sooo..)
• Omigod
• For Sure
• Totally
• Fuck, Motherfuck, Motherfucker or some other variation
• 100% (as in "I'm 100% for going out for dinner")
• No Way
• Whoa
• Serious (or seriously)
• Please? (Instead of "what?" or "can you repeat that?" - I got it from my Dad)
• Shut up

Scary but the above could actually be one of my sentences. Seriously.

CNN Shoots for Gawker, Misses Terribly

I have had a long running hatred of cnn.com, which is the homepage on my computer at work (always has been, as it is business-appropriate in case I have to open browsers with others in my office). One thing that drives me apeshit is that they leave headlines up sometimes for days at a time. They also have a tendency to lead with horribly inappropriate pictures - ones that I would consider to be more NSFW than porn. And their polls are so stupid - my answer is never one of the available choices. So I imagine that they hired someone specifially to figure out how to make their website suck more. Apparently they have succeeded...

Starting today, we now have the ability to order t-shirts emblazoned with cnn's irresistably clickworthy headlines! I kid you not, as this sad evidence shows. Really, who is running the show there?

To borrow a t-shirt from my beloved Gawker as a response to them: "yes - I am quietly judging you"

Rick is updating his blog.....

Seems we all keep in touch now via facebook status updates.  Just enough info to keep us in the loop but not always enough info to get into the deets.  Funny how now a blog is the vehicle for longer communication.  It is like the snail mail of the 90s.  In honor of the status update, I provide this blog update:

Rick is..another year older (last Tuesday)

That is right - my final year in my thirties began this week.  As usual, I claim an entire week to celebrate.  On my actual birthday (a beautiful day in the city), I had a fairly calm day in the office and then 51% took me to Craft for dinner.  Craft is one of my favorite "special" restaurants.  I certainly can't eat there every week,  but on special occasions personally or professionally it can't be beat.  51% had a great bottle of wine, and I had a great bottle of champagne.  At Craft everything is served ala carte, and this always results in ordering more than you should eat - but we do it anyway!  For main courses, I had an awesome braised halibut with all sorts of citrus sides (kumquats, grapefruit, etc).  Delish.  51% had lamb which looked great but I didn't try.  Somehow we ordered like 6 different desserts - including their homemade cinnamon sugar donuts.  We waddled the 5 blocks home and had a ceremonious bite of the beautiful chocoalte cake awaiting me at home from the Cupcake Cafe - although we each felt we were going to explode!

Wednesday morning I did a bit of shopping in midtown, then headed up to the country for the balance of the week.  Tonight we will have a big dinner to cap off the birthday week.

Rick is..LOVING E=MC2! (last week)

It is no secret that I am a huge Mariah fan, ever since her first album came out.  All through the 90s, there was a Mariah album to serve in parts as the soundtrack to my life.  We each had some tough times in the late 90s and for her into the first few years of this decade.  She finally got through it with the release of The Emancipation of Mimi back in 2005.  Well, I've been waiting for this one for awhile.  Scheduled to be released on my birthday (see above), I thought there couldn't be a better birthday gift.  Well, thanks to a friend (Thank you R!) I received a promotional copy 4 days before the official release.  All I can say is that it is on heavy constant rotation.  She has some great stuff on here - easily 3 or 4 number one hits.  This album is going to weave its way into our summer soundtrack like Emancipation did a couple years ago.  Wait until the remixes of "OCC", "I'll Be Lovin U Long Time" and "I'm That Chick" come out.  Love her. Congrats Mimi.

(Funny side story - one day back in 2000, I had just gotten out of a cab at Jane and Washington, ready to head into our new apartment.  I noticed a flurry of activity on the opposite corner, in front of Industria.  Turns out Mariah was doing a photo shoot right in front on the sidewalk.  I immediately called 51% - who was up in the apartment.  Apparently I didn't get much out besides "Mariah" "now" "throw camera off the balcony" "NOW!".  Poor 51% scrambled to find a camera (this is when we all still used those disposable cameras), came out to the balcony, and threw it down to me - now screaming hysterically at him and flailing about on the sidewalk.  Of course the camera sailed right between my helicopter chopper arms and crashed on the sidewalk....  Imagine what I was like when J-Lo moved into the building..)

Rick is..an American (on Tuesday)

And by that I mean I filed and paid my taxes.  Actually I did it on Monday, so no part of my birthday would be spent in the line at the post office.  Let's just say that I helped both the Federal government and the State of New York get a little "greener" if you catch my drift.  Ouch.  It is a drag sharing my birthday with the tax deadline - especially since my best friend (and accountant) is a tax partner for an accounting firm!  She always manages to remember me.  This year she sent me cookies from Elena's at Chelsea Market.  My favorite year was the year she was literally so swamped that she Fedex'd me a $20 bill and oreos and a snicker's bar from the vending machine in her office. Classic.

Rick is..PISSED at Tivo (on Wednesday)

So you also know I am a fanatic about American Idol.  Well since we were out to dinner on Tuesday for my birthday (see above), I was relying on Tivo to tape the Mariah Carey (SEE ABOVE!) night of AI.  Well, I get back to the country on Wednesday night, and notice that not only was it not about to tape the results show (with MC performing!), it also chose not to record the performances from Tuesday!  What the hell is a "Season Pass" good for if you don't record every episode of the season!! We are not speaking right now.

Rick is..getting shit done (all week) 

Spring has come out of nowhere in CT suddenly.  So this week I have had landscape crews at both the house and the farm.  At the house, we are doing the usual spring clean-up, plus a few instant changes to get the house ready to put on the market - which we are doing anytime between two weeks and never, we haven't figured it out yet. Yesterday and today we have had the lawn re-sodded, since the original grass never came in so great.  We also had the woods cleaned up a bit, and we are going to add a little more landscaping around the front of the house for "curb appeal" (although there is no curb to see the house from as it sits about 700 feet off the road).  At the farm we have several crews going through to begin cleaning up the land.  The pastures, fencing, and stonewalls hadn't been maintained for a while before we bought it, so we need a major "catch up" to get it under control.  They have been there for three days and it already looks better.  We keep debating when we are going to move to the farm - the farmhouse is, um, a bit rustic compared to our current house.  But everytime we go to the farm, we just fall in love again and say rough or not, we need to get moved there. Stay tuned.

Rick is..cleaning for company (this weekend)

51%'s sister is coming to CT on Wednesday for a 10 day visit.  We get along great, so I'm really looking forward to it.  I pick her up in Hartford on Wednesday, we will stay in CT through the weekend, then down to the city where she will stay with 51% for the better part of the following week.  One more weekend back in CT and then she flies back to Ohio on Cinco de Mayo.

I think that is enough of an update for now.  Everyone stay cool and stay out of trouble!

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As long as his "boys" are of legal age.
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