He Knew He Was Right

So here I am at the New Meadowlands Arena. Ok, first of all...hmmm, actually for my first Giants game in their new stadium, I don't know what "first of all" I want to raise. The weather, the trains, the stadium, or the condition of Big Blue. I left my house at about 8:30. At 28 degrees, there was a perfect autumn chill in the air. I have simply seen too many games wearing short sleeves these past few years. Be it domed stadiums, more southerly ones, more unseasonably warm games (I mean over 70 in Lambeau?!--I was almost tempted to not count that as a real Packer home game...), I'm finally at a game wearing long sleeves, and know I may have a jacket on by half time. Perfect football weather! Then there was that trip here. Having sat on the exit ramp of the NJ turnpike for over an hour the last time I went to the old Giants Stadium, I'm simply not in a hurry to drive here. But, luckily, I was not in a hurry to get here today. Even with everything perfectly sy...

It strikes me that if I can post my blog entries on Facebook, I should be able to do the reverse. So, what follows is one of those Notes going around, tweaked just a bit for posting here... The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here. Instructions: Copy this into your NOTES. • Bold those books you've read in their entirety. • Italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read only an excerpt. Tag others. Tag me as well so I can see your responses! (Or not, after all reading is not a competition! I'm betting that we're all well over 6 books, and I am curious to see the common ground). 1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen 2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien 3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling 5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee 6 The Bible 7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte 8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell 9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman 10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens 11 Littl...

November 15, 2010 Dear Sir or Madame: While on a week-long business trip, I made plans to meet a friend of mine in Bethesda on Tuesday November 9. I arrived at just about 6:00pm, and found parking on Norfolk Avenue. I noticed the spot I pulled into had a non-operating meter. I then saw that the spot to the left of that had a note affixed to its meter stating that it was broken and that two quarters had been inserted. Since the spot to the right of me was vacant, I pulled back. I didn’t notice anything wrong and inserted two quarters. No time registered. Not sure what to do, I looked around, saw nobody to ask, and so wrote a similar note and inserted it into the coin slot. I walked the very short distance to the restaurant on Del Ray and told the host what I had done. He explained that the town is known for issuing summonses and suggested that I move the car to be safe. So I walked back to the car, and pulled into the metered garage on Del Ray. In the garage, I encountered three more co...

So, here I am in the Verizon Center, kind of high up, but still with a clear view of all that is occurring on the ice (1-1, early in the second). I really like the sport, but it is a distant third to baseball and football for me. With those two sports, there is no question about it, my mission is to see every team play at home, and I'm getting close in baseball and am more than halfway there with football. But hockey? No, I can't do hockey too. Can I? This game makes six arenas (counting that of the defunct Hartford Whalers, who like many CT and surrounding state residents relocated to warmer areas down south), but I really have no touch-them-all desire here. Then again, I guess I'd like to see home games for the Original 6. And maybe the Canadian teams too. Oh yeah, and maybe even that first expansion wave. Well, I don't know. I guess I'll just get to them when the chance arises. Either way, it's time to get back to enjoying this one, now 2-1 Caps. Go home tea...

1) I let mother nature blow them away. Coincidentally, this made the neighbor's list of the top 10 most hated ways other get rid of leaves... 2) I crush small handfuls in my hands. You know which leaves I mean: the ones when you open the door and a bunch of them are packed into the corner of the door frame, just waiting to get in the house. If they're dry, and a broom isn't handy, I just grab them, rub them together in my hand, and toss them to the side. That's right; I let them know who's boss. 3) I sweep them out of the garage, the basement hallway, the kitchen, and any other place into which they've made their way. 4) I rake, and I rake, and I rake. Ok, enough of the enviro-friendly leaf disposal stuff. I have a lot of trees, and sometimes I just need to bring out the big boy toys... 5) I use my leaf blower (gas; not electric) to move them into a small wooded area on the side of my lot. Overuse of this tool, though, was also noted on the neighbor's most h...