New TV and a Rainy 4th

Posted on by grahams

The new TV is totally awesome….  I’ve been totally binging out watching movies in HD…  Star Wars, Batman, Superman Returns, it’s been a real nerdapalooza..  I’m 9/12ths through the Star Wars series, having to stop halfway through Empire the other day out of exhaustion…  I’m sure the novelty will wear off at some point, but right now I’m really enjoying it..  Of course, this means being a total couch potato in the summer, but whatever.. =)

Yesterday, to celebrate the 4th,

[info]coco_b

really wanted to go down to the esplanade and watch the Boston Fireworks Spectacular(tm).  We are usually in Hopatcong for the 4th, but with it falling on a Wednesday and large amounts of my vacation already claimed for other things, it just couldn’t happen this year.  I really, really hate things like this, and I’m fairly ochlophobic, so while I do like a good fireworks display, I’ve never felt a desire to attend the Boston festivities.  But Corinna really wanted to go, and we really will likely only do it every few years when we can’t make it back to Jersey, so I figured what the hell…  I went along with the plan, whining and complaining, of course… :P

We got to the Esplanade around 3:30ish and it was already packed…   We managed to find a spot right down by the river really close to the barge, though…  It was on the river bank, so there were lots of reeds and some rocks, but the reeds were already matted down so we just tossed our blankets on top of them and settled in.  Fireworks weren’t until 10:30pm, so it was going to be a long day…  Unfortunately, that long day was rainy and miserable…  It rained on and off throughout the day, but it rained pretty constantly starting around 8pm and continued until about 10:30pm, when the fireworks started…  We were totally soaked to the bone…

I mean, don’t get me wrong, the fireworks were great…  But having to deal with all the bullshit just to see the fireworks?  I guess I’m just not interested enough in fireworks to invest that much in seeing them…   Maybe if it wasn’t raining it wouldn’t have been such an awful time, but I really didn’t have much fun at all… 

After the fireworks were over, all 500,000 people needed to get home…  We all needed to funnel through a few pinch-points to get out onto Storrow and start walking to the train..  People really backed up at these pinch points, and it was just a sea of people…  I got really freaked out, my heart started racing and at one point I felt like I was going to pass out.  It’s bad enough leaving a club after a show, but that’s only 500-1000 people..  This was a sea of people as far as the eye could see…  We eventually crossed the bridge and made it out onto Storrow, which was a relief….

Various Weekend Bits

Posted on by grahams
[info]coco_b

and I spent most of the weekend hanging out around the house and plowing through the massive unpacking chores ahead of us..  Corinna finally had the opportunity to get the bedroom mostly in order, so the boxes of clothes are mostly gone and things are starting to find their “right place”.  I continued to sort through my stuff, trying to pare down stuff…  I’ve come across even more stuff to give away.. 

Eventually I’ll post a master list of stuff, but if you have the need for a Netgear 8-port 10/100 switch or a SMC 8-port 10/100 wired NAT firewall/router, or a PS1 without any cables or controllers, which I believe still works, but I haven’t touched it in years…  let me know. 

I ordered my TV, it’d be awesome if it came before the weekend, but I doubt that will happen…

Dear Hillary

Posted on by grahams

Dear Hillary,

I don’t like you, I feel like you aren’t honest, I feel like you are way to driven by polls as opposed to convictions.  But Celine Dion?  Talk about pushing me away….  She not only sucks, she’s Canadian!?!?!

Love,
sean

Quack

Posted on by grahams

Dad was up this weekend, both for a visit and to bring back Hawkeye.  It had been awhile since he had been up to Boston, and he had the honor of being the first overnight guest in our new house.  The house is still a complete mess, with boxes all over the place, but at least now all of our stuff is in the house now (and out of storage or my parents’ house).  Now it’s just a matter of unpacking it all and putting things in their place.  I’m trying to get rid of as much crap as I can as I unpack things, especially a lot of the geek cruft I’ve accumulated over the years…  I have several boxes which are just full of cables, and that’s just ridiculous!

Anyway, I got home from work a little early to meet with the RCN technician who was there to install the two CableCARDs into my new Tivo Series3 HD.  It took about 45 minutes, some of which was the technician waiting for someone at dispatch to pick up the phone and activate the cards…  You would think they would just do that before sending out the tech, but that would make sense.  Anyway, after the dispatch guy putzed around for like 20 minutes they were eventually up and running with almost all of the channels, but Discovery HD, HDNet, and HDNet Movies had no picture or sound.  I made an executive decision to neglect to mention this to the tech and deal with someone over the phone instead.  This morning I read on the Tivo Community Forums that those three channels were the only members of the HD Tier, so I assumed that the HD Tier was not activated on my account.  Sure enough, a quick call to RCN resolved that (in theory, I’m at work so I can’t test it.. :P).  Now I just have to get an HD television… :P

After the tech left my dad called and said he was mired in traffic on 90..  Pretty unusual, since most people are leaving Boston around that time, but who can predict traffic around here…  Anyway, Dad arrived around 5:30pm, and Corinna got home for work soon afterwards..  After a quick tour of the new place, we hit up the Summer Shack in Cambridge for dinner..  I normally might have preferred the downtown location, but I was pretty hungry and it was a home game for the Red Sox, so it tends to get a little hairy down there…  Dinner was awesome, and afterwards we headed back to the house and took a walk along the Charles before settling in for the night.

Saturday was pretty busy, we left the house pretty early to head over to the Museum of Science.  We weren’t actually going to the museum, though, instead we were picking up a Duck Tour there.  We got there around 11am, but they were already sold out until 3pm, so we ended up heading over to Harpoon Brewery for one of their tastings.  It was a pretty good time, even if I’m not the world’s biggest beer fan.  I did manage to get a case of their draft root beer, which is delicious.  The Duck Tour was OK, but I think it was pretty redundant for someone who’s lived in Boston for 6+ years..  I did learn a bit about Charlestown, which I had never really explored much…   I made some BBQ chicken and grilled veggies for dinner and we watched a movie which was terrible.  Never watch this movie, and reprimand

[info]equalize

and

[info]rat_girl3

for making me write about it.  I now realize they hate me with every fiber of their being.  Little did they know that not only did they attack me, but their car bomb also took out

[info]coco_b

and my father.

My dad left Sunday morning, but before he did I made some french toast and bacon for breakfast…  It came out pretty good, I used half a baguette I had lying around for a few days, so it was good and stale and really sucked up the custard.  After dad left there was much napping and eventually we saw Crazy Love with the film club.  It was a small turn-out, but it was a good time.  The movie was almost unbelievable, just a crazy story..  We had a good time afterwards discussing the film and other randomness.. 

[info]adamfletcher

turned up towards the end, he was passing by on his way to play pool with

[info]gib

at Flattop’s.  After we finished chilling with the film club peeps we popped over to Flattop’s to say hi to the two of them, which was cool…