hidden treasure

starting up the front steps tonight, i spied something foreign amongst the bushes separating our sidewalk from the house next. i used my foot to dislodge the strange article. as it tink-tink'd onto the ground, the first thought that jumped into my mind was "a crack pipe?" i turned with my brow furred to amy, who exclaimed "how exciting!" "definitely blogging material," i retorted.

so i fetched my camera and a plastic bag. now, i once swept the back alley to clear away broken glass that manged my bicycle tires and found a few discarded needles where the junkies frequent; but a crack pipe, never! i shot this photo and a few others to make sure i got "the shot," and then used the plastic bag to pick up the object. it appears to be made of a thin chrome pipe, similar to an old radio antenna, broken off and then a mouthpiece fashioned of black electrical tape. i am assuming that this was to soften the coarse end of the metal, and could also serve as an insulator if the metal got hot when the other end was ignited.

turning the object to peer into the other end of the pipe, my curious expectation grew as i was certain that i would see for the first time in my life what charred crack cocaine looked like. my anticipation quickly deflated as the contents were unquestionably plant-based. for a brief second i questioned whether it was just brush from the bushes, so i took a little twig with my other hand and scraped out the contents. it was stubborn and the little twig broke. i determined that it must just be some high school kid's homemade pot pipe and turned the bag inside out over top of the pipe and threw it away deep in the corner of a roll-off construction dumpster two houses down our row. i would venture a guess that i may never get to see what a crack pipe looks like in this lifetime, and i do feel quite fortunate of that.

 

20 hrs of mandi

 

mandi mcb was home, in silver spring, md, this past week. amy and i went and picked her up outside of a bass pro shop that was boardering a monster mega-mall in the late afternoon on saturday. we travelled the 20-mile return trip to baltimore and decided to go out for tea and a snack, so we went down to liquid earth in fells point and righted our craving. the vegan cupcakes were quite decadent on this day, i can tell you.

we talked away the afternoon together, just like old times. then we went uptown and stopped off at the helmand for some fine afghan grub and then stopped at the brew pub for a sampling of their finest. after a beer spiked with laughing and amanda joy, we made our way home and popped in the charlie and the chocolate factory dvd, of which mandi and i had not seen. again, just like old times, mandi and i crashed within the first 15 minutes of the movie and amy, who claims never to be able to sleep when a movie is playing (poor soul doesn't know the bliss she is missing), was stuck finishing off the film.

we got up in the a.m. and went for coffee and breakfast, in that hierarchy. sadly, amy and i dropped mandi off at noon-thirty to meet up with her family again. it was good to see ms. mcb. 

periodicals

amy's friend, julia, gave her a gift subscription to national geographic magazine last year. i would have to say that it is one of the finest gifts ever. the hours of enlightenment, pondering, questioning, that ensue each issue arriving in the mailslot are numerous.

yesterday, i did a little online browsing and found a video section available that has snippets just enough to wet your appetite and curiosity. national geographic is glorious.

enlightenment

this is a project receiving general support from the open society institute. very enjoyable.

smoothies

while having dinner at Telusha's apartment in London, Deven's other sister Divia started a conversation about a smoothie and juice company that started up within the past couple years and has a very unusual business model, something that she called a "hippy mentality." now, this became of great intrigue; to meet the british coefficient of our own creed of say, ben and jerrys (prior to their sell-out).

innocent drinks states quite clearly on their label to give them feedback, and lists their address prefaced with the statement "feel free to pop around." so we took them up on their open offer and went down to the headquarters. the workplace was quite unusual, with long astroturf "green grass" carpeting, full-glass conference rooms with "blah...blah...blah" etched on the glass panels, a lunch area with picnic tables indoors juxtapose 4 giant beanbag chairs (note the udders on the distribution trucks as well). all the while, we slugged down free smoothies and juices.

what was particularly interesting about the laid back atmosphere was the way that the work stations were integrated cross-departmentally; in other words, there would be an IT guy, sitting next to a marketing person, sitting next to a distribution person. i can see arguments from both sides of that coin, but i found it of notable interest. the large beach umbrellas above some of the desk workstations were attention grabbing as well. altogether a great off the beaten path diversion, that paid off again as we left their building and were asked to fill up a bag of smoothies for the road. cheers!

look kids... big ben, parliament...

little did i know, in my USentricism, that big ben is actually the name of the bell within the clocktower itself. nonetheless, it was a remarkable sight to see.

being a buff of b-rated movies and all, i long to journey to featured places from movies like the alamo in san antonio. more specifically, i then reel in enjoyment when you get to the alamo and see a large sign posted at the door that says "the alamo does not have a basement." and i know that legions of pee wee's big adventure fans try to answer the very same quandaries in life.

big ben, of course, was a destination that was noted by clark w. griswold in the epic european vacation.

no, this is not the only reason i travel. although it may be in the top 10 reasons. heehee.

we came across big ben on our first day in london, clodding along with our rucksacks on our backs, a bit dreary eyed from the long journey across the atlantic. across the street from big ben was a semi-permanent installation of war protest. mind you, the many offices of parliament are surrounding the area, and mr. blair lives just two or three streets down. it was very interesting to see this. this area is teeming with visitors from all over the world and therefore reaches a broad audience smack in the face with the issue of the iraqi war. whether you are for it, against it, or uninterested in it, the fact that this street, lined with war protest signs, is there forces you to ponder the issue--and while you are on vacation in a foreign land, which also promotes you to think about the globality of this issue.

anyway you look at it, it is inevitably affecting us all.

gettin' hitched

amy and i are officially engaged to be married!

we met nearly 5 years ago in portland, oregon by seemingly random circumstances. mandi mcb was a chum from college at iowa state university who grew up in a suburb of washington d.c. she moved to portland in '98 and after a week's vacation in the summer of '99, i decided to move out to portland to live with her and rossi.

amy, hailing from baltimore, went to the university of maryland at college park, yet another of the seemingly countless suburbs of d.c. while studying the art of partying at school, she met rachel wright who is the sister of andrew wright who, very coincidentally, dated mandi mcb in high school near silver spring, maryland.

after finishing her studies in 2000, amy worked in d.c. for a year and during that time grew curious of the west coast and mentioned her interest to andrew wright who mentioned that he had an old friend who lived in portland that he should get in contact with... mandi mcb. amy emailed mandi and asked a few general questions about the city, and after a few correspondences and the luck of timing, mandi invited her to become a roommate in a new house that mandi was moving into. amy and marianna donnelly came out to portland a month or so later, and on the morning of july 18, 2001, a week and a half after amy moved to oregon, we met.

the agenda for the day was a trip to the oregon country fair with the PDX crew. amy came running down the stairs and whirled into the living room of her new surroundings with a freshly showered and dripping wet head. i was entranced. the memory is so very vivid, what struck me were her captivating eyes and the emotion that she shares in the way that she looks at everything.

we fell in love that summer, and vowed to have a relationship with open communication and no "games," only honesty, commitment, understanding, and love. our love is more potent now than it ever has been, it grows everyday as we grow in life, together.

on the afternoon of thursday, march 16, 2006 seated on a bench at the tate modern art gallery in london, england, amy consented to my proposal of marriage. we have no dates planned at this point, and it may not happen until we are done with graduate school a year from this may, but we are very happy to take this next step together. we'll keep you posted on the planning process when details surface.

london, day 1

a bit exhausted, deven put us up in this fancy hotel for day one.
he had to work until 2am and showed up at the room quite late.
thus far we are having a grand time. more later...

where do we live?

 

so i was dropping amy off at home after work before i had to get to class tonight, and there was a dude lying on the ground holding his head about 1/2 block down. a few people were crowded around him and within a couple of minutes a cop showed up, followed by a firetruck, and an ambulance.

don't know what happened to said dude. either someone clunked him on the head, or he tripped and clunked himself on the noggin. he had a bald head and i think that it was an odd muscley fellow that walks around shirtless when the temp hits 50 and above. he had dark tanned skin like this odd man i speak of. but i had to get to class and only saw the figure quickly scooped up on a stretcher and getting wheeled away before i could make a positive id.

it is always funny to me how quickly something can turn for the wrong with a human. one second you are standing and fine, then a sudden movement can render you helpless (broken ankle, even twisted ankle). many times i picture a marx brothers-esk scene: a single person down as others stand in curious wonder, in come the flashing lights and quickly several people pour out of the vehicle, snatch up the person, shove them in the back of their automobile, and speed away to put the person back together again--leaving behind exhaust and a gaggle of onlookers who inevitably shrug their shoulders and disperse themselves back to whatever it was that occupied their time before the incident. strangely comical to me, the whole scene.

 

another thursday attempt...

...at finding a spectacular bottle of wine. 

this one came as a suggestion from a co-worker who is in barcelona for the next few months. a spanish wine on the affordable side of sub-10 bucks. light body, lively and fruity, missing something... too fruity, perhaps, and no oakey overtones.

what i am looking for is a deep red wine mixed with oak sawdust, i think. something heavy, something meaningful, something sensual and organic. maybe next week...

 

recent comments section boondoggle

blogger has a lameass patch for integrating a recent comments section in their protocol. through research and experimentation, i am happy to bring you a recent comments section that is only slightly lame.

i hope to work the kinks out in the near future, and i am sure there is an easier way to access the information to list the sidebar section...any suggestions.

this configuration i have devised is a javascript plugin that receives an rss feed from a google.group that receives an atom feed from new comments in blogger. talk about walking around the block to get to the front door of your house from the back.

again, this is still a test/trial and i hope to figure out an easier/intuitive way to list recent comments. if you have any suggestions, your input is more than welcomed. thanks.

love that junk food

outstanding!

on the road again

started running again yesterday. had to take the past week and a half off. a week ago last saturday, i had awoken and half-ass did my morning stretches to let my spine know that it was going to be used for its upright vertical services. in retrospect, it is always clear to me that when i half-ass or slack-ass the stretches, i have been more prone to "throw out" my back. well, that is precisely what happened.

bending over to pick up the hepa air purifier, intending to move it to another room, i felt a too familiar *snap*. this event led me to lie on my back most of saturday, and limited moving around for the succeeding 2 days. i strapped on the back brace that was prescribed to me at the onset of my chronic lower spine problems about 10 years ago. i popped some ibuprofen and tried to remain very mindful of my movements, using my stomach muscles to hold up my cage, taking the pressure off of the sacral region.

amazing as it is, the body always seems to recoup. i can still feel that it is not 100%, but i have chosen to integrate my necessity for running back into my life. trying to really ease into it, so as not to interrupt the mending process, and concurrently not to let it get too soft on me.

hello, philly style

...and then phillied up

anne, andy, sean, amy, and i went to philadelphia on saturday
for a sampling of some of the city of brotherly love's finest
vegan establishments before (and after) viewing the body worlds exhibit at the franklin institute. unfortunately, pictures were not allowed in the exhibit, otherwise you would be seeing some fascinating stuff. in lieu of this, i bring you another tale...

it all happens when the sign is quite clear...
and the beautiful display case is loaded with goodies...
...the aftermath.

el vino

amy and i have begun to fancy a glass of wine on thursday nights the past few months.

i have always enjoyed drinking wine, and even hosted a few wine and cheese parties in college (the reasoning as two-fold: as a stab at a refined shindig and as a satirical parody of a refined shindig--much the way i look at life in general).

wine is something to invest great interest into. the complexity of flavors, the organic odor, the delicate variance between growing regions and vintage years, and, of course, the strange occurrence of deep purple remnants in your toothpaste suds after you have a glass of red--so many things to enjoy.

i hope to find a vintner that we enjoy. it can be such a daunting task to buy a bottle of wine for just the label, or the price tag, alone. sometimes you wind up with something that more closely resembles balsamic vinegar. other times, it seems right on, yet missing just a little...something.

the ideal bottle is a deep lively red, with a medium body, slightly dry and complex bouquet of fruit, and finished with a rich oaky, almost peaty/earthy warmth. this is the closest we have found thus far. any suggestions?

scam magnet

this evening i came home to a small collection of mail strewn across our living room floor from the daily mailcarrier mail-slot shot put. i secretly imagine that everyday when the mail deliverer comes to toss the mail through the slot in the front door, he/she peeks in the window to see just how far she/he can launch it across the room. if i were a mailcarrier, i know i would.

anyway, there was an unusual item of mail that was screaming scam, differing from plain olde unsolicited solicitations that pock-marked the floor (incidentally, the mail toss was further than yesterday--still not as far as i have seen it though).

there was a plastic credit card from some lame bank name that no one has ever heard of, and it was blaring with print and stickers that you need to call the activation code before using it. "what the f***," exclaimed i while picking up the phone to contact this company to tell them to fill in the asterisks and take me off their mailing list. as the phone was ringing on the other end, i flipped the page over and began to read the small print.

this immense motherload scam issues you a credit card with a 1x activation fee of $199.99, and an annual fee of $198--wait, wait, here's the kicker-- it is only applicable for charges made to their product catalog! the catalog will be sent out to you after activating the charge, and there is no website, no description, and no way to talk to an operator--as i quickly found out and allowed their automated phone system hang up on me.

friends, we have seen many scams come to light in recent years. let us hope that none of us falls to the predation of a heartless-spineless-unethical weasel unknowingly. and it is always a good measure to take advantage of your allotted free credit report issuance. You can get one per year from each of the three companies the FTC has agreements with. The irony is, even in acquiring these free credit reports, the individual companies try to entice you to purchase other services from them. will this madness never end?