Jumpin' At The Woodside

I almost forgot to pass on the story of this fabled knife that actually occurred earlier this month. I can't let the holidays pass without sharing. There's not much to it, but here goes. When Lago and I brought home our Christmas tree, the tree's top branch hit our ceiling. We've always had to cut this top branch off the tree to allow for the star to rest on top. Ah, a saw or simply some scissors will do the trick. Sounds easy enough, right? With the move, finding what you're looking for takes a moment to figure out where that thing may now be, then looking for and finding said item. The hand saw... I think I saw the saw... oh, where was it now... ummm, I know I saw the saw somewhere. Scissors, of course, I know where they are. I just saw them. I go to the kitchen and grab Lago's shears that are actually for cutting meat. They look pretty strong and if they can cut raw meat, by golly they can certainly cut a simple tree branch, right? Wrong. The shears broke alm...

Tony say hello to the turf. Merry Christmas! EAGLES beat the Cowboys -- now that's a Christmas present! GO EAGLES!!!

Our new train, the North Pole Central. In case you're wondering, we've gotten into a tradition of not putting the presents under the tree until Christmas Eve. Buon Natale - Merry Christmas everyone! >> Santa's on his way (NORAD Tracks Santa)

This afternoon while installing a software update, I happened to look out the window, and what to my wondering eye should appear but three tiny deer. (click the image for a larger view) Yes, this is our back yard, and yes we live in the city. I figure they live down the street in the park and ventured down along the creek that runs through the middle of our neighborhood. They stayed for a short time eating leaves. The one in front seemed a little more brave than the other two in the background. I quietly went downstairs and pointed the deer out to Lago. We watched them for a brief moment and then the sound of a nearby train scattered them back down along the creek. I saw some of their larger kin last week when we had a couple foggy mornings. They stood and looked at me and I said hello, but was off to work. I was home early from work today and Lago wrapped presents. She works this weekend during the day, but she's off Christmas Eve & Christmas Day. I have presents to wrap mysel...

O' Tannenbaum 'Round the Christmas Tree Stockings were hung by the chimney with care... While we watched Christmas movies... ... in our Theater Room.

Holiday Greetings Christmas Dreams Christmas Friends Waiting for St. Nicholas Jolly Staircase

No snow here yet, but cold as a bastard! Our highs might be higher than those in Virginia or Pennsylvania, but our lows have been almost the same of late. Went to see “ Spamalot ” on Friday night. Lago and I have been to a number of Broadway shows, but this was our first touring show here in the Queen City. It was great! They took all the best parts from “The Holy Grail” movie and added some great musical numbers. I always thought “The Holy Grail” needed dancing girls. :~) Seriously though, the show was great and so was the cast. You would never know you weren’t seeing the show on Broadway, except the drive home was a lot quicker. Last night, we went to the symphony again, this time to see “ The Magic of Christmas .” Very similar to a Boston Pops holiday show, but again the commute was much better. :~) The first part of the show was more serious, although they had a sing-along just before intermission. The second part of the show was more of your standard Christmas caroles including a ...

Yesterday got the tree, two trees actually. Got a big one for the living room and a small one for the theater room. The two rooms are on the opposite ends of the house. We were disappointed not to be able to get a Concolor or White Fir tree that we've gotten the last couple years. They're not available here. We got a Fraser Fir , which are very prominent here. These are good looking and have soft needles, so we're really happy with these. We put all gears in motion yesterday. I put lights up outside, the full length of the house. Even pulled a "Griswold" and fell off the step-ladder -- too funny. My foot got caught and I just rolled over backwards in the grass. No biggy, pretty funny actually. While I did that, Lago hung real pine garland down the staircase. I also did lights on both trees and did a string of white lights around the staircase garland. We were pretty tuckered out after that and still have yet to trim the trees, besides stringing the lights. I'...

Well, the P’burg Stateliners lost this morning, but still great to see the game and get all the background stories about the old hometown. It was weird watching the game and then seeing local commercials for Charlotte, a little disorienting. Started switching to the Macy’s Parade during commercials so got the full holiday experience. Lago’s got the turkey going and we’re enjoying a bottle of Chandon Blanc de Noirs, a very nice California sparkling wine as a pre-meal starter. I had a bottle of French Pinot Noir set aside for the meal. It was highly recommended, but after tasting it was only so, so. We decided to go with one of our traditional favorites of the Clos Du Val from California. It's a Cabernet and not really meant to go with turkley, but it's always very good, so we figure why not go with a wine we've enjoyed time and again. Eat, drink and be merry! For desert, we’re having a deep-dish apple pie from a McCormick & Schmick’s recipe -- I personally sliced the ap...

Phillipsburg vs. Easton - 100 Years Every year fields the game of the century (USA Today) A rivalry for the ages (USA Today) AUDIO/PHOTO GALLERY

This is the first year, probably since I was a kid, that I’ve had to deal with falling leaves. Our place in Virginia didn't have a lot of trees being a fairly new neighborhood. Mostly, we had a wooded area away from the house, and the trees we did have in the yard were small and didn't generate a lot of leaf action. I remember back when I was a kid growing up in Harmony, NJ, we had almost every tree imaginable in our yard. We had apple trees, maples trees, oak trees, pear trees, cherry trees - we even had grape vines, red and white. Dad used to try his hand at wine making, but I think he mostly wound up with some good vinegar. What I remember most about our annual chore of leafin’ back then, was raking the leaves into a big pile so my sisters and I could run and jump into the leaves. Then we’d rake them back up and jump into the pile again. For Halloween, we’d stuff some old jeans and a shirt with leaves – don’t remember what we did for the head, a pumpkin maybe? I also remembe...

I know what you're thinking. Thanksgiving is coming up and you want to get your game on first thing in the a.m. on the big holiday morning. Yeah, you've got the Macy's Parade, that's fine and dandy. Lemme tell ya, they may not be the pros, NCAA Division I-A or any college team, but my high school, the Philllipsburg H.S. "Stateliners" of Phillipsburg, NJ, has the distinction of celebrating the 100th anniversary of playing their arch rival, the Easton H.S. "Red Rovers" of Easton, PA, on Thanksgiving morning at 9am ET on ESPN2 & ESPN2 HD. In my hometown, this is the equivalent of Auburn vs. Alabama, Notre Dame vs. USC, Oklahoma vs. Nebraska, etc. It's been awhile since I've been to the big "Turkey Day game" in person. The last time I went, the morning started with a pork roll & egg sandwhich accompanied by a beer, with many more beers to follow. I think every game I went to was either cold or raining or both. Hey, you've go...

The Carolina Panthers are playing Monday night and who "woulda thunk" we'd get the Eagles game on TV this afternoon - woohoo! Got my jersey on and the brew's a flowin' - BOOYAH baby! Go Eagles!!! Even gettin some G. Love coming back from commercial and don't ya know it, McNabb to Stallworth - TOUCHDOWN!!! Holy Bobble-rewsky - did you see that! Brown bobbles the catch and Buckhalter takes it in for the score! BOOYAHHHHHH! I love me some HDTV!

Lago and I went to the Charlotte Symphony last night. It was a special 75th Anniversary Concert Celebration of the Symphony and they welcomed back former conductors going back to the 1950s. They opened with Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro," which many may know from Bugs Bunny's Looney Tunes cartoons, hence the obscure reference in the title of this post. I like a lot of the old classics like Mozart, Beethoven, Vivaldi and Bach, because to me those guys were the "rock stars" of their day. I listen to more jazz than classical, but when you listen to some of the classical pieces, some of them grab you right in your gut - you don't need an electric guitar to rock. Beethoven's 9th is one of my favorites and almost anything by Mozart. They played another piece by Mozart at the end of the evening. It's amazing how nothing else sounds like Mozart. As soon as his music starts it grabs your attention and forces you to listen. We plan on going again to the sym...

Really chilly here tonight, going down to 29! The cool air and my cool Sierra Nevada Pale Ale remind me the holidays are coming, and the holiday and winter lagers & ales are already starting to hit the shelves. I picked up the ultimate stuff, Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome Ale already and with the cool weather may even break some out this weekend. I'm looking forward to other winter/holiday brews by Sierra Nevada, Sam Adams and Harpoon. The Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale is great stuff, but be prepared for a strong, hoppy wallop of a taste. It's one of my favorite holiday brews for the taste and the label, one of the best. I also love the Sam Adams Winter Lager and especially the holiday 12-pack that includes the Old Fezziwig brew. There's nothing like an Old Fezziwig once it gets to be that holiday time and you have the lights low, some Christmas music and the fireplace DVD playing... ahhhhh. There are some winter/holiday brews that have a little too much seasonal sp...

I think all the trick or treaters have gone back home to fill their bellies for the evening and I’m enjoying a glass of the Concha y Toro Casillero Del Diablo wine I forgot to mention in the Halloween Mix post. It’s the Carmenere, which is kind of like a spicy Cabernet – very good. We got slammed with trick or treaters tonight, especially since we thought we might not get any. We were prepared for them though and even have a lot of candy left over. We always get what I referred to as a kid as “the good candy” – in no particular order, Reese’s, Snickers, Three Musketeers, Hershey’s, KitKat, Butterfinger. The mini-size of course, but I remember when I was a kid and the word got out that a house was handing out full-size candy bars, that was like the Holy Grail of Trick or Treating! That house didn’t have candy left for long. Lago is at choir practice right now singing Christmas songs. She’ll be part of the Carolina Voices Singing Christmas Tree this December. She loves that she gets to ...

We carved pumpkins tonight! And now for the scariest photo of them all...

Each year I update my Halloween Mix. It grew to two CDs a few years ago and it may grow to 3 CDs soon. Last year I created a companion CD of classics from all the classical pieces and movie soundtracks which I had incorporated in small snippets into various tracks. I think it was also last year that I decided to make the first CD more laid back and the second CD more rockin’. The tracks are listed below, but this does not do it justice since most tracks are peppered with Halloween sound effects and movie clips. However, most of these tracks are available on iTunes for downloading. One of these years, I may bring “The Martian Boogie” by Brownsville Station back to the Halloween Mix. It appeared in the first couple mixes, but I decided to cut it a few years ago. I mixed in a clip from the original radio broadcast of “The War of the Worlds” which fit in perfectly in the beginning. The track is really long and even when I did have it in the mix it was edited down to four minutes. I cut “In...

I know this isn’t a very “spooky” post considering the time of year and not to mention I’m not even a NASCAR fan, but I had lunch with Jimmie Johnson the other day. He was down at our corporate HQ just south of town shooting some TV spots for us. My pal Sammy invited me along to go down to the shoot. He had to take a script down so I tagged along. We got there just before they broke for lunch and we were invited to sit down with Jimmie for lunch – something the crew who were shooting the spots weren’t even invited to do. We were introduced to Jimmie and we shook his hand. He talked a little bit about last weekend’s win at Martinsville and that he expected to get bumped from behind in the final laps, but “that’s short-track racing.” Sorry Monkey, I didn’t get an autograph, but I saved my pickle from lunch. It’s in the mail. :~)

Halloween is our second favorite holiday and last night we went to the Queen City Ghost & Graveyard tour. I was hoping it would be more about telling ghost stories and walking through old graveyards, but it was more theatrical going from haunted place by bus with actors taking on ghostly personas at each location. Still good Halloween fun. We went to dinner after at the LaVecchia's Seafood Grille . It was our first visit to the four-star restaurant. They’re a seafood and steakhouse with a funky décor and live music on the weekends. We discovered a new Pinot Noir – new to us – in the Lange Pinot Noir from Oregon. It was very nice. I started with the she crab soup and Lago had the oysters rockefeller. Then Lago got a lobster done LaVecchia style, which is all the meat pulled out and saute’d in a buttery wine sauce over veggies. I had the filet and crab cake. All the food was excellent and so was the service. We asked the waiter to take his time and he did just that. We like to ta...

Back on Tuesday, Sept. 26, we had two trees removed from the backyard. Over the summer a tree came down behind the house during a big storm, before we owned the house, and was removed by the former owners. That left this one tree with all its limbs on one side kind of leaning over the house. Our plan was to definitely remove that tree. The other tree we removed wasn’t near the house, but it was dying. It looked like it may have been damaged when the tree came down during the storm. We have a third tree on the side of the house that we also had trimmed. The tree crew did a really good job. The tree that was trimmed has a nice balance and you wouldn’t notice it was trimmed unless you saw it beforehand. We’re having the stump nearest the house removed, and they’re coming back to do that next week. They mulched the limbs and the tree trunks were hauled away by a lumber company. I decided to keep the mulch and spread it around the trees in the front and one on the side. It was a lot more mu...

Dave Matthews Band at UVA's John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, Va., 9/22/2006. We got back from Chicago just in time to watch football on Sunday afternoon, what luck! Then it was another short week before we were heading off again, this time back to our old stomping grounds in Charlottesville, Va. We drove up. We stopped at Lago’s parents place on the way there and the way back to drop off and pick up JP Stinkerbutt. We stayed at the Day’s Inn, about a mile from the new arena at the University of Va. (UVA) where we were going to see the Dave Matthews Band (DMB) perform Fri. and Sat. nights, the last two nights of the tour. We picked the hotel for location, not for amenities. Wasn’t bad, but wouldn’t have stayed there if not for its walking distance to the arena. We checked in and then walked about halfway and had dinner at the Ruby Tuesday’s in the Barracks Road Shopping Mall. That was our plan from the get go. We got there early and got a table. People who came in after us ...

Howdy from the windy city! Sorry for the blurry photo. It's from Lago's camera phone taken across the street from our hotel on the rooftop bar of the Rock Bottom brewery. We're getting ready to go to dinner at the Webber Grill and have sangria and some fine grilled meats. We had lunch at the Bubba Gump at the Navy Pier. The food at Bubba Gump's is surprisingly good, and with the weather today it was nice to eat outside. We may hit Buddy Guy's place after dinner - lookout Chicago! Last night we saw Dave Matthews Band - great show! Two of the members of Parliament Funkadelic, who opened the show, jammed with them for the last 4-5 songs. Looking forward to seeing them again next Friday in Charlottesville, Va. Thurs. night we saw Tim Reynolds, who sometimes plays with Dave Matthews, in a solo acoustic set. He was good, but the local Chicago band who opened for him, Dearborn, totally rocked. Hope an agent signs them soon so I can buy/download their CD. Check 'em out ...

Yesterday the plumbers were here to replace our cast iron waste pipe with PVC and put in a cleanout. What no one expected to find was a septic tank since we were told we were on city sewage. So now we’re the proud owners of a septic tank, which as you can tell from the photos was full. The plumbers called a pumping service who pumped it out. They said we’re good for another seven years. Gross-Out Alert : The guy in the photo on the right was eating sunflower seeds while standing over the open tank - ooga-booga! Mmm, yummy. Hurray, we have a cleanout! After the tank was pumped out and the lid replaced, Lago and I went furniture shopping while the plumbers replaced the waste pipe. The trip turned out a little longer than expected because the furniture store did not have the sectional sofa we wanted on the showroom floor. It was at another store in the north end of town. We were glad we made the trip, because the sofa turned out to be exactly what we wanted and we also decided to go with ...