Pizza Soap

After a FB friend mentioned how after eating pizza, her hands continue to smell like pizza despite washing them. I posted the following:

How many of you out there would be interested in pizza soap if it existed? You wash yourself with it and smell like delicious pizza all day!

Aside from the numerous "likes", here's the wacky conversation thread that ensued (names removed0:

•  as long as It comes with beer deodorant.

  
  
• Yes, but what u fail to explain is.......does it smell like hot fresh pizza or pizza that's been sitting around for hrs. Big diff dude

   
• Yeah why not? Better that than limburger cheese deodorant

  
  
• That's just my point, that's exactly what old pizza smells like

  
  
• Rotten ass cheese

  
  
• I like a brisk yeasty smell.

  
  
• That would be nauseating. How about some bacon soap? Lol

  
  
• I am going to go upstairs and cuddle with my Irish Spring.

  
  
• See now bacon soap I can get on board with!

  
  
• I luv Irish Spring!!!! Yum

  
  
• Yuck. Hahaha

  
  
• ya..and look out for the incoming dog snouts in your critch.

  
  
• Are you high?

  
  
• Not if u run fast enough....

  
  
• Reason why I love FB #436: Post something like this and you still get a whole conversation going. I LOVE IT! MY FB family rocks!

  
  
• no..dogs like bacon.

  
  
• I know, isn't it fun?! We just go lolligaging off in so many different directions

  
  
• The dogs will think it's snausages

  
  
• I can jump like spidy man. They'd never catch me

  
  
• Says the woman who's dog triggered an unfortunate series of events that involved muffins

  
  
• Look everyone, my cuzz-in-law found this:https://www.etsy.com/search/handmade?q=pizza+scented+soap

  pizza scented soap on Etsy, a global handmade and vintage marketplace.

  pizza scented soap

  
  
• The cheese pizza soap will possibly give you a "gnat fruit fly" shower fresh feeling....

  
  
• LOL!!!!! I didn't see the dog comin at my.......BACK!!!! sneak friggin attack man!!!

  
  
• mmmmmm.....smelling delicious pizza soap

  
  
• U people r weird.....

  
  
• As long as the pizza soap has no anchovies! 

  *****************************************************************************************************
• If you made it this far, you might suggest that removing the names makes the thread harder to follow and harder to make sense of. Then, you realize the original topic and say, what the heck does it really matter anyway?

In the end, I hope you laughed.

Moving Past this Storm

When all was said and done, my estimate for my town got between 24" and 30" of snow; I base this on how much snow I moved and the height of my snow blower, I manually carved the path to my front door as my snow blower was not going to go uphill through over 3 feet of snow (that area had lots of drifts). The path I did manually was some workout, a good 20 feet in length through 3 feet of snow then the stair case to the front door.

Not complaining here - just elaborating on the work load - it was a prolific storm after all. According to the news yesterday, it was the 8th snowiest storm ever recorded in MA.

I has some friends in NY that actually complained that they didn't get lots of snow because the Governor and other officials declared it a state of emergency and prepared for such.Can you imagine? Complaining over that?

Back to work in the morning.

White Out

There's an awful lot of snow out there if you are anywhere near me (and quite a few other places too). I went out for round one of move the snow at 5:45 am; I am not sure how my neighbors feel about me running my snow blower at that time but it had to be done.

I am feeling fortunate that my snow blower still manages to get me through these storms, she has been showing signs of age and wear the last couple of seasons but in the end, she has performed well enough to get me through.

IT is quite cold and windy, and sometimes the adrenaline that kicks in as I get to a certain point in moving all that snow takes over and I forget to consider taking a break. Fortunately, I am constantly running that through my head and force myself to do so - usually at just the right time.

I think I ma going to chill out for a bit, maybe take a warm rinse in the shower and watch a movie - round two is forthcoming.

See ya later.

Pics from the Garth Show

These are not Annie Liebovitz shots here, they were taken with my cell phone from the loge, decent seats but still, limited lens capabilities.

 This was was right as they let us into the arena...the "g" kept spinning and there were some messages from garth being played.

  

 The crazy roundish thing had the drummer inside. Nothing like a getting pointed to by the performer :)

 It's like he's playing for our section..haha

Boston's finest on hand to keep us safe

The next two were during the duet "In Another's Eyes"

 Trisha gets to do a short set:

This is Karyn Rochelle, one of the writers of the Trisha Yearwood Song "Georgia Rain" - they let her have a brief moment in the spotlight (she was one of the backup singers all night)

 

Garth, Trisha and a whole bunch of Electricity

It was 1992, during what was then called Fan Fair", when I first saw Garth do a showcase set of about 20 minutes in length. I recall him wearing the shirt her wore on the cover of "The Chase" album.

Last night, Garth was in a position where artist get when touring deep into a recording career, having to choose what songs to add to the set list knowing some favorites will be left out. Most noticeably missing for the show I saw were the classic "If Tomorrow Never Comes" and very surprisingly, the brand new "Mom".

The show was fabulous and well structured considering he was performing twice on the same night for two consecutive nights. Here's the set list/show structure for the more than two and a half hour performance.

1. Man Against Machine
2. Rodeo
3. Two of a Kind, Workin’ on a Full House
4. The Beaches of Cheyenne
5. The River
6. Two Pina Coladas
7. Papa Loved Mama
8. Ain’t Goin’ Down (‘Til the Sun Comes Up)
9. Unanswered Prayers
10. Make You Feel My Love
11. That Summer
12. The Thunder Rolls
13. People Loving People
14. In Another’s Eye’s (w/Trisha Yearwood)

Trisha Yearwood

15. XXX’s and OOO’s (An American Girl)
16. Prize Fighter
17. How Do I Live
18. Georgia Rain (featuring Karyn Rochelle)
19. She’s in Love with the Boy

Garth Brooks

20.  Shameless
21. Callin’ Baton Rouge
22. Friends in Low Places
23. The Dance

Encore

24.  Fever

Second Encore

25. Much too Young (to Feel this Damn Old)
26. Longneck Bottle
27. Standing Outside the Fire

If Garth has a date in your area, or adds more dates and plays in your neck of the woods, please go see the show, you won't be disappointed.

Proud Papa

My daughter's band was so fun to watch last night. I am so proud of my kid for just doing stuff like this. The program is really neat, the idea is that there are so many very young (below legal age) kids that have great musical talent to share but there are so few all-ages show venues that they rarely ever get to play out. The "Rock Off Main St." program is geared to providing a venue for talented young artists who have no other play to perform for an audience.

Here are the songs my daughter's band, Gun in the Ballroom, performed:

1. Time is Running Out (Muse cover)
2. Spooky Scary Skeletons (Andrew Gold cover)
3. Teenagers (My Chemical Romance cover)
4. Fluorescent Adolescent (Arctic Monkeys cover)
5. American Idiot (Green Day cover)
6. I'll Stick Around (Foo Fighters cover)
7. Stacy's Mom (Fountains of Wayne cover)

Gonna Be a Busy Night

Going to see my daughter's first big gig tonight with her band "Gun in the Ballroom". Funny, I knew she was hanging with this band and they were practicing for a while but I thought it was just kind of an after school excuse to hang out...then somehow they got a gig!

Fortunately, the gig is early enough so that I can still go to the Garth Brooks concert. I had the Garth tix before my kids mentioned the gig. The Garth show is unique in that it starts at 10:30 pm in a major arena; the second of two shows in one night.

I am already tired and I haven't evens tarted yet, here's to the hope for adrenaline when necessary :)

NOTE: By the time this post goes live, my kid's show will be over and I will be en route to The TD Garden...updates tomorrow.

92 Radio Follow Up

Ran into my 92 year old colleague that I referred to in yesterday's post and she made me laugh so hard...I just had to share it with you.

After taking the photo that I included yesterday, I printed it and gave it to her along with specific instructions for switching from FM to AM and back.

Today, she says, "What were you trying to do? Test me?" I had no idea what she meant until I asked. She said, "How come you just didn't change it to AM for me?" OMG, I just laughed my ass off!

I told her that after giving her a big printout and instructions, I was just so confident that she would be able to handle the task. She insisted she did it without referring to the instructions.

We both laughed...a lot...it was nice.

92 Radio

This is a picture of the car radio from a colleague of mine who happens to be 92 years of age.

Convinced that all technology is against her, she often requests assistance with both work related and personal technology, all "forced" upon her.

Today, her problem was that she was unable to change her car radio from FM to AM. She was adamant that it switched over to FM all on it's own. BTW, it was after I took the picture, which I did so that she can use it as a guide for how to change from FM to AM and the sort, that I started laughing almost uncontrollably that I was hearing a Fergies song in a car owned by a 92 year old lady, in particular, this 92 year old lady!

Anyway, the mystery was solved, I had to contort myself to get into her car (though I could have more easily just adjusted the seat first)...fun times!

Mr. Chair

I guess the problem with demonstrating ability in something is the eventual expectation that you should perform that task again. A few months back, I stepped in and took over the chair duties for a search committee. HR was particularly impressed, at least they said so at the time.

Today I received an email asking if I would chair another search committee, and I accepted the task...here's to a quick and successful search!

Back in 2007, I was part of a very large search committee to find he rector of the church I go to. That was a major undertaking but also a tremendous learning experience. I've used a lot of what I learned during that process in my job and in the searches I have been a part of at work since that time.

I think the only thing I wish I knew in advance before agreeing to chair, or even serve on the committee, is who else was asked to served and more importantly, who else has agreed to serve. Professionally, I know I can handle anyone, but I am at that point in my professional life where if I could choose not to work with some of the more difficult folks, I would.

Fill In the Blank Friday...Monday Edition

I've used this meme before, but it's been a while...it's a good exercise, so here goes:

1. I wish... that delicious food wasn't so detrimental to human health.. And why is is that I could eat a slice of pecan pie in under two minutes and yet it would take a solid week of workouts to burn it off? I wish that weren't true!
2. Yesterday... I performed a miracle on my friend's computer. Her and her husband had already called HP, who insisted they needed a new hard drive - and for a cost of about $250. I was able to revive it and get it to boot.
3. Today... I had a great time with my daughter visiting a quirky and unique sandwich shop. It was an interesting study in the power of language and communication as well - for example, I could say, "My daughter and I had some great quality time together as we drove an hour each way to visit this really unique sandwich shop that also has a great collection of music memorabilia and a super interesting owner." Or, I could say, I drove two hours for a sandwich." Both of these sentences are accurate...interesting, eh?
4. Tomorrow... is the first day of the spring 2015 semester, I wonder what kinds of madness it will bring.
5. Maybe... I will fulfill the promise I made to myself to get a dumpster and clean out this place for real this year.
6. Someday... I hope to find the balance.
7. I love... the people who get me. My real friends who let me be me, even when I am a ass sometimes and say stupid shit without really putting all the thought into expressing what I really mean. I also love that they call me on that shit and put me in my place but do so because they care. I also love firepits, a nice glass of wine, unexpected joyful moments...

I had to keep my last answer for number 8, it's just too darn good!

Roy's Cold Cuts...Yum!

I saw a clip from a local show about places to eat the other day that made me just want to go there as soon as I could. With the MLK holiday today, I thought I would take my daughter and we would have us a nice lunch.

The clip from the "Phantom Gourmet" TV show is below, we had the "Godfather" and "Meatball Parm Deluxe" subs featured in the clip; they were phenomenal!

Aside from enjoying the memorabilia, the awesome food and meeting and chatting with Roy, it was a great time with my kid - love to get good quality time in with her.

Former Wrestler Sends Message

Of all the things one might expect from a pro wrestler, or a former one, a message like this is probably low on the list. I watched it because it came to me and I recall his wrestling career...I share it, because the message is a beautiful one.

Pats Win!

 Perhaps when "The Shredder" himself, John Paolilli, chose to wear this shirt last night at The Road Dawgs gig, it was a good luck charm for the New England Patriots.

While the Colts were a good team this season and Andrew Luck is a talented quarterback and a class act, it was not their (or his) day today by any means.

I am very happy that the Pats will play in the super bowl. I am not happy that they are playing the Seattle Seahawks, but I also must admit that the Seahawks beat the Packers fair and square and earned their spot.

Episcopopoly

I've seen lots of variations on Monopoly, this one just floored me.

From the publishers website: "Based on the classic American board game—with a stewardship objective—this educational game is filled with respectful humor about the realities of building and maintaining an Episcopal church while bringing awareness and recognition to churches and church organizations nationally. Game includes board, offertory plates, steeples, cornerstones and bricks, tokens, Time, Talent, and Treasure Cards, Operating Budget Cards, property deeds, offerings, dice, and property brochure."

Brrrrr

It was 58 frigid degrees in my house when I awoke! I went down to the boiler room to assess the situation and was able to determine that the circulating pump was working, and the boiler was on, but there was still no heat.

I remembered from several years back, that I should check down below the boiler and saw no flame. Aha, the pilot has gone out.

I was remotely confident that I might be able to avoid paying a plumber, so I went to work, and I was slightly petrified for the off chance I might blow up my house and perhaps even perish in the process. I unscrewed a few things, I had the flashlight with me, I even believe that my sweats in combination with my positioning left me with a resemblance to a common stereotype about plumbers.

I recall my last plumber showing me how to light the pilot, but that was some time ago. I did attempt a few things and then made the decision that if this was the only problem, I'd rather pay a plumber than risk blowing things up - so I caved and made the call.

To his credit, my plumber did attempt to walk me through if and was actually successful, but the pilot would not stay lit and so came the diagnosis that the thermocouple needed replacement. Within an hour, he had come by and made the repair. He did tell me to be sure the baseboards got hot, to ensure they didn't freeze...that set in some panic as I was writing the $150 check to pay for services rendered.

As of this writing, it's back up to 65 degrees and all is fine!

The White Elephants and a Shot of Water

This is a picture of all of the "crappy" gifts that were acquired at the white elephant swap this evening. My contribution to the mix, for which I earned 2nd place in the best worst gift award, was a VHS copy of the movie Titanic along with a VHS VCR (you can see them in the bottom right of the picture).

The item that I picked was the Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post calendar. I opted to "steal away" an elephant paperweight (not easily visible in this shot). My daughter happens to like elephants, so I figured I would go for it. Of course, the woman who I swapped it from was pick #1 and got last pick, and she swapped it back.

Someone else had gotten a really cool crappy gift. Cool in that it was something my kid would love even more - Canned Bread, from Japan. In fact, the woman who brought it, just got back from Japan yesterday and brought it back with her for this purpose of this swap. I know, you are all getting hung up on the idea of canned bread - unless of course you are Spongebob Squarepants fans and know of Squidward's love for this product.

It was fun getting together, there were twelve of us, just laughing and having some fun!

As we were winding down, after we had paid our check, a server comes over holding a beer and a shot and puts it in front of me; I was perplexed because I hadn't ordered them - like I mentioned, we had already cashed out. Server leans over and said these are complements of the family over there, and points to a table with some folks I know. I went over the say thanks and say hello, where I was informed that the shot was just water, for joke purposes. Then of course, they were interested in the fact that I was with 11 ladies :).

It was fun, I was the only guy because the other guys that were invited didn't show up!

The White Elephant in the Room

From an email I received from a colleague:

"I think it would be fun if we did a “White Elephant” gift exchange. For a “White Elephant” (cribbed this from Wikipedia): each participant supplies one wrapped gift. The gifts are placed in a central location, and participants determine in what order they will take turns selecting them. The first person opens a wrapped gift and the turn ends. On subsequent turns, each person can open a new present or gets the choice to "steal" another person's unwrapped gift. When a person's gift is stolen, that person chooses another wrapped gift to open. When the last person has taken their turn, the first person to open a gift gets their choice of all gifts then the game is over. Gifts are typically inexpensive, humorous items. The term white elephant refers to a gift whose maintenance costs exceed its usefulness.

Let’s re-gift our “gems” from the holidays (or see what remains on the 90% off gift sales after the holidays). I’ll give a prize to the person who *gives* the gift voted the Best “Worst” Gift. (You can’t vote for your own to win the prize.)"

I've thought about this for quite some time. My decision was final yesterday as to what I would throw into the mix as my white elephant - a two part gift, that I think has a good chance of being best worst.

I want so badly to divulge what it is but just in the slim chance that someone that will be there reads this blog, I'll post it after the party, which is Friday evening.