I had an old friend come through town this week. We used to frequently travel together in Europe, go camping in California, and hang out in his compound (he did very well in financial engineering) in the great town of Nederland. I even got to see the infamous Dead Guy...
So much fun being on our village Planning Board. To put it into context, they basically act as an HOA for the village, and like most HOAs, they're populated by old biddies with deep busybody instincts. I am the youngest person on the board. Anyway, we had our monthly...
It's been an illuminating experience running a food establishment in the Gulch. Despite the highly educated population who style themselves as worldly and sophisticated, the general food tastes here run close to that of an eight year old boy raised on junk food....
Fun weekend beachside in Canada last week getting a sunburn and alcohol poisoning with Prime, who has a cottage on Lake Erie. My apologies that one of my substitutes for Links managed some slippage. But I'm here again, I'm reliable, I'm drunk. True to form, everyone...
Alumni Weekend is full swing in the Gulch. I'm suddenly median age in the crowds and entitled progressivism which builds over the decades following a liberal arts "education" at an expensive private university is thick in the air. Combine old and crotchety with a...
It's Alumni Weekend here, and the town is flooded with people whose fervent wish is that everything be exactly the same as when they were here. And I know this will shock you, but... there is nothing with a greater sense of entitlement than a group of affluent 50 year...
Busy weekend coming up, what with Alumni Weekend and us catering a large event. Spud just left town so that he didn't have to be pressed into waiting tables. So Prime and I moved our usual weekend assignation to last night, when we had a wonderful dinner at a nice...
Answer: Not at all. Every day, I wake up and pray for the death of my ex-wife. On the first of the month, I send out an extra prayer as I grit my teeth and send off the California-alimony-for-life to that freeloader. And today is that day. Not that I'm bitter or...
In most parts of the world, when it just rains and rains nonstop for weeks on end, and it does so year after year, we give it a name. Often "monsoon." But for some reason, it has not been named such here in Glibs Gulch. They just call it "normal weather." I managed to...
Well, we had a little excitement at normally-quiet Glibs Gulch. See that car on fire? That's WebDom's car. Or was WebDom's car. And driven by 10b0t, who lost about an inch of his beard to singeing. He was on his way to my house to drop the car off, with WebDom and The...
My return to the US this week was fraught with non-adventure. If you think OUR airport security theater is bad, you ain't seen some of the foreign ones. At Istanbul, flying back to Toronto, after the main passport control and x ray/metal detector security screening,...
Yeah, this will be perfectly safe. One of my clients decided that they want me to train their lab people in person, so they kindly offered me an all-expenses paid trip (with a generous stipend) to Istanbul. Despite my paternal family living in Turkey for likely almost...
They actually DO want to put me in a camp. Final exams for both of our local institutions of higher "learning" are over, grades are in, and the students are making a mass exodus. Every street has kids pulling wheelie suitcases behind them, and the have fortunately...
So this week I took a fun little trip up to... Attica. Fortunately, not as a guest of the state, I was visiting a factory that makes glass microbeads. The area is actually quite pretty, greening of spring, rolling hills. It did make me wonder why the most notorious...
A rushed and hectic week at work, so I deserve a short break. So weekend in the Finger Lakes with Prime hitting a few of my favorite wineries run by a few of my favorite people. Prime is more of a beer and spirits sort, but she's gaining an appreciation for spoiled...
Capping off an interesting week looking at the fracture mechanics of chemically strengthened glass. It's a glamorous life. It helps that I'm in a lab with the guy who invented the process, and we had some fun creating demonstration pieces. One was a wine glass that...
It was a big day in the Gulch yesterday, what with parades, drunk students, dachshund races, drunk students, food trucks, drunk students, food and crafts booths, drunk students... Prime came down for the festivities and was suitably impressed at the number of drunk...
It's the biggest day of the year here in Glibs Gulch. Bigger than Christmas, bigger than St. Patrick's Day, bigger than Simchas Torah, even. Hot Dog Day! It's a celebration that's been coopted by one of the local universities, who leases out space for food trucks and...
MOSES WANTS MACARONI PICTURES! SugarFree has some family business to attend to, so I've stepped up with the recycling. And it's timely. After 8 days of breadlessness, Passover has finally passed over, and it's time to move on to the next weekly reading of the Torah....
This antisemitism is getting to be too much. It's still Pesach and we may only eat unleavened bread (and unleavened anything else). Anything risen is chametz and forbidden. And all over the local churches, there's signs saying, "He is risen!" So this is a finger in...
Just back from a trip to Louisville. I was hoping that there would be bats everywhere, maybe pick one up as a souvenir, maybe see if I could go on a smashing rampage, but keep it local. Disappointed I was- I didn't see a damn thing about them. Everything seemed to be...
Sorry, no baby pic today. Glibs Gulch is overflowing with family. Besides the usual WebDom, 10b0t, and Sweet Baby James, 10b0t's previous two children are here. Add in the ravenous pack of dogs and this has not made for a quiet house. Poor Prime came down to the Gulch...
RESIST! I am a lover of cold weather, but there is an aspect of spring that thrills me. No, not that, that's a year-round thing for me. Rather, I love the onslaught of new produce, delicate lettuces, ramps, fresh asparagus, morels, carrots. So, of course, after spring...
That baby is drunk! Dinner last night with a gaggle of Prime's friends. She gave me advance warning about one of them- "She's a PBS junkie and she'll talk your ear off!" Prime was not wrong. The friend, an extremely nice woman, was bubbling over with enthusiasm about...
They're grrrrrrrrreat! Mostly, things are quiet here in Glibs Gulch, no out-of-the-ordinary craziness. The baby is growing up in the cafe, spring is intermittently descending upon us, the students are the usual pink-haired delicate flowers, Prime and I continue to...