Author: Markman

Maybe it’s not a good sign for the start of the week when you fall down the stairs and clog up the toilet. That’s how my Monday started this morning between the hours of 6 and 7 am. Luckily the fall wasn’t anything major (I was trying to avoid the cat at the base of the staircase) and the toilet wasn’t anything major apparently, so that’s good.

Did so much cooking last night while watching the Oscars and I also took to watching some program on John Gotti Jr. which I thought was pretty good. Did you know with the exception of some tiny parts of Thelma & Louise I have never watched a movie that had Brad Pitt in it. I actually can’t stand the guy. That’s not why I never watched any of them – it just happened to work out that way, but now I have to keep the streak alive. Never saw Fight Club? Nope. Seven? Nope. Oceans Eleven? Nope. Nada. None. I don’t think he’s that great to begin with – can’t act for beans in my opinion.

This morning started out with a visit to the dentist to get going on some procedures I need to get done and completed with a full set of new x-rays of my mouth. After that I prepared getting ready for what I’m making for dinner tonight – a little dish called Balsamic Fig Chicken with potatoes and mixed greens. Looks like a pretty simple recipe actually but that’s for later tonight….

Next, I’m working on some plans to do an overnight sometime up on Plum Island. Did it a couple years ago and it’s time to do it again – enjoyed ourselves there pretty much so it might be great to revisit. Maybe also check out the Pink ‘Spite’ House again. Speaking of that, I did pass by one in the North End of Boston last week,locally known also as the Skinny House. A spite house is a building constructed or substantially modified to irritate neighbors or any party with land stakes. Spite houses may create obstructions, such as blocking out light or blocking access to neighboring buildings, or can be flagrant symbols of defiance.

I then spent part of the afternoon going through and filing my taxes for last year. I decided to get through it all a bit early this year – now that’s that out of the way I can focus on other things.

Random thoughts: My amaryllis is down to it’s final bloom. I was pretty pleased overall with the way the plant did – to think I picked it up at a local supermarket. I’ve been reading some online articles about it and may attempt to get it to re-bloom next season, assuming I can keep the plant alive that long. We’ll see.

Also I need to be able to catch some breaks lately – plugging away but starting to get a little overwhelmed. It’s like two steps forward and one step back. However, I know I tend to jump to conclusions in my mind (maximizing worst case scenarios) that sometimes end up being way out of proportion, but after I sit with it for a while – I realize that that way of thinking was foolish and not helpful. Brains are weird. Hope that’s the case starting next week and that I’m freaking/bumming out for nothing. Until the next occasion which lately seems to happening all too frequently and all too quickly for my tastes and I do it all over again.

This is shaping up to be the year of live music shows for me. On tap for us so far are the following:

• Def Leppard/Motley Crue/Poison/Joan Jett @ Fenway
• Bat Out of Hell Play (Meatloaf)
• Johnny Mathis ( something different for sure for my musical tastes)
• Bon Jovi/Bryan Adams in Jerz
• Damone (possibly, but I saw them last year)

The following shows I’ve entered contests to win tickets:

• Hall & Oates (had entered to win tix but lost)
• Goo Goo Dolls
• Guns n Roses

and maybe some more to come! Seems like a lot of acts are coming out of the woodwork this year.

Finally heard back from that other group. I need to set up a meeting sometime next week to see if I’d be a good fit and if so formally apply for the position (which is weird because I’ve been here so long already and that kind of work for over 10 years now), so not to jinx myself but hopefully things’ll turn out right in the end. I think I’ll need to format my resume though – I haven’t done that in so long!

Well this day has started out great so far – my external monitor at work just crapped the bed – luckily after about a half hour the IT dept was able to get me another one so that’s back in business. Just a hassle, you know?

Damn, that Irishman was one long ass movie. Not sure why it was up for so many awards – it was OK but I didn’t see anything particularly Oscar worthy about it. Spending the rest of the evening watching the Puppy Bowl, could care less about the real big game.

I think I drink too much coffee. I can’t help it, I feel sometimes as though I need it. I must be addicted to the caffeine I think. Usually I’ll have a cup a little bit after I wake up. I do this because it helps me to get started, it gets my cognitive functions going, so to speak. And I like the plain old coffee, none of that specialty flavored stuff. During the week I’ll also have 2 or three in the afternoon. And finally, once every two days or thereabouts I’ll have a cup in the late evening. It doesn’t affect my sleeping at all.

Today is the Superbowl but since the Pats aren’t in it, who cares? Not that I cared even when they were in it. Instead we’re going to hang out over another couples house and watch the Irishman. More later…

On the corner of Prince Street, in the heart of the North End of Boston. Prince spaghetti day! No, actually it’s Groundhog Day and he didn’t see his shadow which means an early spring, so let’s hope that’s true!

I spent the day in town today so over the next few I’ll be posting various pics that I took around while hitting over 31,000 steps on my activity tracker. (That’s 13 miles of walking!)

I started by going through Downtown, through Faneuil Hall, , then up into the North End, over to the waterfront briefly, up to North Station, down along Fort Point, over to the Leather District, over to Copley around Trinity and the BPL and part of the Back Bay – basically all over. Why did I do this? Well, I had some free time and I was jonesin to capture some new content without any particular ideas of what I could see. Just being spontaneous and see what happens. I also wanted to see how far I could push my body – seems like 13 miles is pretty much the maximum I can walk in a day (and the weather wasn’t too bad!) – after that I start turning to mush.

This first pic above is from Faneuil Hall, and the statue is actually a giant size version of a former mayor of the city, as an exercise to the readers I’ll let you figure out which one.

After all that walking I met up with LD and we went out to an early dinner at a place we like in Braintree. Then it was back home, resting watching some 20/20.

Speaking of watching, I was able to watch the first episode of Star Trek: Picard after all, as the powers that be have decided to place the episode up on YouTube to watch for free for a limited time, so if you want to catch it better hurry up quick. I must say that I am very impressed with what they’re doing. Two thumbs up from me – however I’m still not paying for CBS All Access. And speaking of sci-fi type stuff – did someone mess with the timeline because lately it feels like everything is a bit off from where it should be – for example, Kobe Bryant has passed; Prince Harry is leaving the monarchy; dinkweed is in the Oval Office; the world seems so divisive these days – just seems like something isn’t right. Did a Crisis on Infinite Earths or Back to the Future Part II actually happen? I’m becoming ever more mindful of the layers of fragility at this uncertain time in history…

I like the way this photo came out. I titled it “Rise Above” because of the buildings rising up into the sky surrounding the old State House into the morning fog, but also as I zoomed in, which I didn’t notice before, due to the window washers. I think what’s cool about this photo are the building details which you can see better as you zoom in – I find a certain kind of hidden beauty in that. Also the way I need to feel lately, so there’s that. Other themes that resonate with me as I look at this are the muted colors, the fog, things like that – relevant to how I’m feeling in a lot of ways these days.

What’s up with all the Aaron Hernandez specials on all of sudden?

Thoughts on the Hello Fresh – I did good on my first try although this particular recipe was very easy to prepare. Does seem like their ingredients are fresher than Blue Apron but that’s just my limited observation. Probably no different really.

Finally I did get a chance to see the David Harbour Hellboy movie this morning on HBO (I had DVR’ed it a while back). All in all, he’s good but I did prefer the Del Toro movies better. I guess it doesn’t matter since it didn’t do well at the box office so I suppose that’s the end of that.

Rest of the day is pretty much just taking it easy. Reading, napping, chores, etc. Might update this post more later…

Rather uneventful day, catching up on some shows and watching Red Sparrow starring Jennifer Lawrence on HBO (she was good in it but the movie itself was blah). Doing some reading of The Power Broker and playing with Carson.