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  • Papi Claus

    So. Last night was TheWife’s company holiday party. However, this was not the large-scale, bland, overblown corporate shindig you might be expecting — due to circumstances I won’t go into, it ended up being a group of about a dozen employees and significant (or, in my case, insignificant) others heading out to dinner at a nice restaurant.

    Given that we, as a couple, haven’t gone out to dinner in about 8 months… you can imagine how excited we were at this development.

    (Let’s just say that finding a babysitter for 3 small kids is no easy task.)

    Subsequently: we headed in to the big, bad city for dinner at Sorellina — a trés chic destination located on Copley Square, right next to the Boston Public Library. After a large and absurdly delicious introductory glass of wine – as we waited by the bar for the rest of the party to show up – we sat down to what was easily one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten.

    From my appetizer – a pasta called Maccheroncelli with American kobe beef meatballs and parmigiano in a barolo sauce, which is possibly the most incredible thing I’ve ever put into my body – to my 15oz. Angus Ribeye entree and side eggplant parmesan-type thing… it was eyes-rolling-back-in-your-head delicious. TheWife also seemed more than thrilled with her own market green salad with poached butter pears, gorgonzola and toasted pignoli, as well as her center cut filet mignon entree. (Both steaks were served with sea salt baked potatoes and roasted garlic salsa.) Do I even have to mention that the entire thing was accompanied by gallons of Newton Claret and Masi Valpolicella? No, I do not. Mmm.

    As amazing as the food was, the experience rose to another level altogether when – about 2/3 of the way through dinner – we realized that sitting about a dozen feet behind me was David Ortiz, his wife Tiffany, and another guy who may or may not have been Julio Lugo. Let me just take a moment here to say that, even from the back in an atmospherically-lit restaurant, David Ortiz cuts a pretty recognizable figure. Biiiiig dude.

    Of course, we were all thrilled by our newfound proximity to greatness, but we tried not to come off as too starstruck. Except, of course, for one of TheWife’s colleagues, whose proclivity for poor judgment was apparently enhanced by a half-dozen glasses of wine and goofy cocktails — and who started debating whether or not it would be appropriate for her to walk over and take a photo with her phone-camera-thing.

    Despite a very clear – if gentle – response of “No, that would be a really bad idea” from me and two other guys at the table… she got up and walked over. Apparently, her intent was to ask if it would be okay to take a photo, but she somehow caught Ortiz’ eye and got flustered — so she just held up her phone and took the picture. At which point someone at a neighboring table said loudly, “Wow, that was rude.” The colleague in question then walked back over to our table, looking very pale and shaken. She said, “People are very angry,” then grabbed her pocketbook and jacket, and literally ran out of the restaurant.

    Which made for a pretty interesting evening.

    To review:
    * We got out! At night! Without kids!
    * Red wine is a good thing.
    * Kobe meatballs in barolo sauce on funky pasta is the best thing ever.
    * TheWife really, really, really enjoys red meat.
    * More red wine is a good thing.
    * Someone at our table really pissed off David Ortiz.
    * Waking up after a phenomenal, wine-soaked dinner in the beautiful Back Bay only to realize that… God: it’s Thursday, and you still have to get three kids fed and dressed before you go to work = not easy.

    So. How was your holiday party this year?

  • On a much happier note

    GabekaplerWhile TheWife will be immensely disappointed not to see him running around the outfield at Fenway next spring, it’s still great news to hear that Gabe Kapler is retiring on his own terms — and already taking decisive steps toward building the next stage of his life.

    Kapler was never an All Star-caliber performer, but there was never a moment he was on the field – or in the dugout – when he wasn’t giving you his absolute best. Above and beyond his contributions as a player, he was also one of the most thoughtful and intelligent athletes Boston has seen in my lifetime — something of a welcome change in a professional environment where being cerebral isn’t always seen as a good thing.

    Of course, TheWife may have had other reasons for loving Mr. Kapler… but ultimately, I find it hard to hold that against him. This was no musclehead — as his well-considered decision to take a job managing in the low minors makes clear.

    A few years ago, Charles Barkley created a big stir when – in a Nike commercial – he declared “I am not a role model.” By and large, his point was accurate — which makes a man like Gabe Kapler that much more rare an individual: an athlete worthy of admiration for what he did beyond the context of the game.

  • WTF?

    First Jon Lester – the Sox’ prized rookie lefthanded starter – has to cut short his inaugural season to fight off non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Then, yesterday, rumors started flying around that Phil Kessel – the Bruins prized rookie and the #5 overall pick in this year’s NHL draft – is going to be sidelined with another form of cancer.

    Kessel is 19. Lester is 22. Both are world-class athletes at the beginning of what appear to be enormously promising careers.

    I know you can never (ever) make sense of something like this… but how does this happen? And then happen again?

  • Good parenting is all about love.

    “You make me want you to be a better person.”

    – TheWife, apparently channeling Jack Nicholson from As Good As It Gets, whispering sweet nothings to an unidentified 18-month old girl who may or may not have a twin sister.

  • Like Santa Claus say, you a ho ho ho

    I don’t know about Santa, but this year we’re celebrating the holidays by finally going HD. It’s been a long time coming, as I’ve been drooling over my friends’ HDTVs for years now… but about two months ago I finally convinced TheWife that the time had come to upgrade our existing set-up.

    The straw that broke the camel’s back was when our TV stopped producing sound. This actually happened about a year ago, and is probably inevitable in a TV that we purchased in the summer of 1995. Granted, at the time it was a pretty sweet deal — a 27″ TV? With stereo? I was over the moon. However, in the decade-plus since, as our resolution and color purity has gone downhill and the alleged stereo speakers have sputtered and then, at last, died, our satisfaction has dwindled.

    What’s kind of amusing is that the sound might have actually been out for months before we discovered it — because I’ve had the TV hooked up to my old Sony stereo (purchased in 1994) from day one, so even with the TV speakers gone we were still hearing (distorted and muffled) sound. It wasn’t until we lost power during a snowstorm last winter that I turned on the TV with the stereo still off and found myself asking, “Hey… why isn’t there any sound coming out?”

    Anyhow. I’ve been daydreaming of upgrading for years, and with prices dropping substantially we decided to finally take the plunge. I started doing research in mid-November, and while I wasn’t ready to jump on some of the great Black Friday deals when they occurred… we now have the new system all lined up (in my mind, at least).

    Presently on order:
    1. TV STAND/MOUNT
    Our living room has three doors, a large fireplace, three large windows, and logistically no place to flat wall mount a TV. Which means that our new TV has to occupy the same corner space where our lame duck TV sits on an old (and not entirely stable) stand. Okay, fine, you say… there are plenty of corner stands out there, and you can buy corner arm mounts as well. Not so quick, my friend: putting a flatscreen TV on a stand is fine if you’re living in a house populated by adults or older children, but if you’ve got young kids running around who are fully capable of knocking a large, thin, and (by definition) not entirely stable 70+lb TV off its stand and onto themselves… you’ve got an issue to contend with. (In other words, a stand alone won’t do.) Plus, our house was built in the 1920s — meaning, our walls aren’t intended to support the weight and strain of a 70+ lb. TV, plus the room corner in question consists of walls that back up to our home’s exterior — in other words, we can’t just punch through the wall and set up some kind of anchor on the other side. And no, I don’t trust our studs and crumbling plaster to support the weight by themselves.Tvstand

    So: we needed a piece of furniture to work as a stand (holding components) in our room’s corner, while still offering the functionality and stability of a mount. Plus, it had to somehow fit in with the old-school New England colonial look of the room (in other words, cold and modern would not be ideal).

    That was my dilemma. Four days of research later, I found this stand, which can also be ordered with a backing metal mount for Plasmas… and the first piece of the puzzle was in place.

    2. HOME THEATER IN A BOX
    I visited Circuit City. Best Buy. Tweeter. I visited some online forums. I found a consensus. Then I double-checked against last month’s Consumer Reports recommendations. The answer was the same every time: if your budget is $500 or less, the Onkyo HT-S790 is the only way to go. And this morning, Circuit City had it on sale, plus a $50 web-only coupon, plus a $30 mail-in rebate, plus free shipping. Hence: I just ordered it. (I’m so happy, I think I just wet myself.)

    Still stalking:
    3. HDTV
    So then there’s this debate: Plasma? LCD? DLP or some other kind of projection TV? I did a lot of research and talked to a bunch of people, and it came down to: A) DLP/Projection — great picture, but many more maintenance issues than Plasma/LCD, plus it’s not the space-saver we’d been hoping for. Not enough of a price break to justify going in this direction, either. B) LCD — amazing picture, brighter than Plasma, but when you’re talking a larger-sized TV (we’re thinking 40+ inches), the prices are substantially higher than Plasma. Plus, there’s the refresh-rate issue: LCDs are getting better, but if you watch a game on an LCD… you’re gonna see some blurring around the edges when someone’s running or a ball is in motion. Not ideal. C) Plasma — the main concern here is screen burn (like what you get if you don’t have a screen-saver on a computer), but from what I’ve read it’s not too much of a concern if you don’t abuse the TV (like they do at Circuit City, where they’ll have it on ESPN for 16 hours a day — leaving the indelible impression of a scroll bar acrosss the bottom) and break it in properly (100-200 hours, depending on who you believe). Once you get past that… the picture is incredible, you can see it from almost any angle, and prices are dropping like a rock.

    So. Which plasma? If money isn’t an issue, you go for one of the Pioneer Elite series. Tragically, I’m not a billionaire playboy, so money is an issue — and, subsequently, the Panasonic 42″ Plasma is the answer (one heartily endorsed by Consumer Reports). On Black Friday, Circuit City had ’em for $1199 — and it’s killing me that I didn’t jump on it. (I wasn’t ready.) Which leaves me waiting patiently for the price to drop, at which time I’ll pounce on it like a jungle cat on a wounded gazelle. And oh, how I will feast.

    (Christmas bonus, don’t fail me now…)

  • This bodes well

    Headline from The Brushback:
    “JD Drew Attracted to Boston’s Superior Medical Facilities.”

    It’s funny… until you realize that it’s probably true.

    (sigh)

  • On an unrelated but hopefully more appetizing note…

    I’d meant to post this earlier in the week, but then… uh… circumstances overtook me. So: a brief photo essay on Thanksgiving in Castle TwoBusy.

    PART THE ONE
    We hosted — 12 adults, plus a handful of small children (mostly ours). It’s our house rule that no one can come to Thanksgiving empty-handed, which limits the amount of prep work we have to do to a manageable logistical nightmare. And thus, half an hour before our guests arrived, the table was ready for a full-on harvest feast: Thanksgivingtable_4

    (please note TheWife’s homemade banana-cranberry bread, which was delicious.)

    PART THE TWO
    The bird — a 22+ lb. monster that I massaged and spoke to sensually for days before finally undressing and then… uh… dressing… in all its Thanksgiving finery. We named it after one of TheWife’s co-workers, in honor of its Rubensesque figure.
    Crystalturkey

    (please note the perfect, golden-brown skin, as well as my extra-sensual, apple, celery, raisin and sherry-infused stuffing. Damn, I’m good.)

    PART THE THREE
    Then a whole bunch of in-laws showed up.

    (photography omitted to preserve the illusion of a Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving experience.)

    PART THE FOUR
    In which the Thanksgiving party – overloaded with tryptophan and Shiraz – passed out immediately after leaving the table.

    Img_0216_1

    THE END.

  • And suddenly, we had an explanation.

    I’m not patient zero!

  • Is “horktastic” a word?

    UPDATE
    * Number of ill children in my household: 0
    * Number of ill adults in my household: 1.5
    * Number of times I sprinted down the hall yesterday to make a sudden visit to Curt Schilling: 6Mannymillar
    * Percentage I feel better today as compared to yesterday: 50
    * Percentage TheWife feels worse than yesterday: 42,000 (approx.)
    * Encapsulation of TheWife’s evening: “Every time I stand, I throw up.”
    * Number of times Curt Schilling called WEEI yesterday to talk about trading Manny for Jake Peavy, and signing J.D. Drew as a free agent: 1
    * Number of times my heart leapt at the prospect of a Sox rotation featuring Schilling, Peavy, Matsuzaka, Josh Beckett and Tim Wakefield: (incalculable)
    * Number of times TheWife will think about the Sox rotation today while horking up whatever it is she’s horking up: 0

  • …and then I got the plague.

    UPDATE
    * Number of ill children currently in my household: 0
    * Number of ill adults currently in my household: 1
    * Number of times I’ve prayed for death since 2am this morning: 18 (approx.)
    * Number of days I’m taking off as a result: 0
    * Amount of food I’ve eaten today: 1 bagel
    * Food I’ve regretted eating almost instantly afterward: 1 bagel
    * What I’ll actually tell you about what happened at 2am this morning: 0. I’m just going to presume you have the good sense not to ask such tasteless questions, and move on.
    * Number of cars my in-laws have purchased today: 1
    * Number of cars (used) being given to my brother-in-law ThePear as a result: 1
    * Number of ways this is ramping up my pre-existing nausea: Many. Many are the ways.
    * Number of children I’m going to try not to throw up all over when I go to daycare in three hours: 3
    * Cost of detailing my vehicle, should I fail to make it to daycare… uh… digestively intact: $115 (approx.)
    * Number of times TheWife has called to check on my well-being today: 1
    * Number of times she’s talked to my in-laws about their new car: 2
    * Number of times I’ve prayed for death since I started this post: 1

    Please kill me.