Rotorglow

Mazdaspeed3
Originally uploaded by rotorglow at 8 Nov '06, 1.09am EST.

In celebration of our inalienable rights as Amurricans to covet and ridicule automobiles, Tim, Kat, Miles, David (who blogs most excellently at The Right Pedal), Michelle and I went to the New England International Auto Show last night. It was good fun. Lots of bright and shiny hardware.

This is the Mazdaspeed3, on which I'm kind of crushing out at the moment. It's the current best-bang for your performance-buck. You can't get more speed for the money. It's the smart, seductive yet very approachable girl who keeps laughing at your jokes and touching your arm.

"So, what are you doing later?" she eventually asks, twirling a lock of hair around her finger.

"Oh....um, well, I'm....look," you stammer. "If things were different, I'd...um...but, see, I've been with Veloce for a couple years, and....Actually, you probably know her..... the hot rear-wheel-drive converitble over there? You're distant cousins, and all."

"Ahhhh, Veloce...." she sighs theatrically. "Sure, I've heard about her, but I've never met her." The MS3 pouts, then brightens: "I'd like to, though; I hear she's really nice and I think we'd all have fun together...." she coos, as she looks up through her bangs.

"Oh! [heh heh] Gosh, well maybe we could all go see a movie or something...."

" 'Or something....' Like 'zoom-zoom!'" she purrs in reply.

Then you faint.

Point is, IF I hadn't driven RWD for 2 years, and IF I didn't feel I needed a convertible, and IF I was in the market for a new car, I'd get an MS3 in a heartbeat (since I don't have $40K/$70K/$100K to spend on wish-list cars in those price ranges [335i, S6, RS4, S8, CLS63 AMG, in order]).

Yum.

Dear Beloved, I am wife of Sacked Deputy President of South Africa, Mr. Jacob Zuma.

Google query that led someone here:

ed bradley's favorite beer

Naturally, Clampants and I riffed on this for a little while, but lots of it was pretty tasteless.

Coke can with iPod
Originally uploaded by rotorglow at 13 Nov '06, 4.53pm EST.

So, it's Monday again, and it's dreary and grey, leaving me to think about where the weekend went, and how to go about making it through to another one.

Friday was some nice yellowfin tuna at Summer Shack, followed by bowling. I ran out of money at the lanes, and the ATM was on the fritz. So I should probably thank Ian for spotting me all that beer. And I should thank Linnea for the ride home. And I should probably apologize to all sorts of people for my glib antics; such is the freedom of not having driven. I fell asleep mostly-clothed, chewing on a stick of gum, and with all the lights on. Not that you asked.

It was a blast, of course. Now, I didn't bowl terribly well (lots of splits, no strikes, no gutters). BUT! I did have an exceedingly clutch spare in the last frame of the last game, which allowed me to close a sizable gap and finish in third place by one pin. Word.

Saturday was....slow. Nice weather, but I didn't get out much. Wanted to wash the car, but, well...see above. I visited Simone and Rocky in the evening to watch some episodes of (the incomparably-great) Greg The Bunny, but that was about as much activity as I could muster.

Sunday: Tim and I holed up at the Big Dog to watch football during the afternoon. As always, the Big Dog = Big Fun. And in addition: Big Eagles win, and a big win by my fantasy football team Mild Acclaim. Alone in first place, a record of 8-2 with 3 to play. Top ranked offense. Etc.

Like I said. Big.

Other stuff: Last week's Robot Radio show is killer. Transcendant. Etc. Get the podcast on the East Village Radio site.

The new iPod shuffle is really small.

It's already Tuesday, which is good. And things have been sort of good-busy since last Monday when I prattled on about bowling. Hence the delay.

The weekend peaked early with a big ol' birthday-ish gathering for pool at Flat Top Johnny's. There are pictures, but you will have to find them for yourself. Well, except for one. This cabbage meme keeps hanging around....Heh.

So I had a super time on Friday night, and it was great to see everyone. Saturday was necessarily quiet, though I did go see Borat (excellent, but not quite as pants-wettingly funny as I'd expected). Sunday was....ok. Brunch at the Plough and Stars (good) followed by a grim afternoon of football (um...not-good).

But I unearthed some Judas Priest on my iPod, and on Thursday I'm heading to NYC for turkey.

There's always next year.

PS: for your edification:
Priest...Live! - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

DSC_0026
Originally uploaded by rotorglow at 28 Nov '06, 12.54am EST.

I'm back from a super weekend in NYC. I'll (probably) write more about that 'ere long, but for now a quick test shot from my new camera, of the Rocket, who was kind enough to clown around when I visited him and Simone on Sunday.

So, let's do a little catching up:

NYC: trip down sucked. Time there was great. Trip back was fast and dry (but fie on the inattentive motherfucker who tapped my bumper at a stoplight with his Tundra). But, you know, it's all about being thankful, and it was splendid to see my family. My grandfather still amazes, telling a variety of stories about the old days when you had to circulate engine oil by hand or else the engine would seize, which was a bad state of affairs if you were on a motorcycle: the bike would stop suddenly, and send you flying over the handlebars. And a kooky French car which burned a quart of oil per tank of gas.

He amazes in all sorts of ways, but these were the funny stories this time around.

I'm toting a new ax. I got a new camera from my parents for my birthday, which they presented to me when we were in NYC. I'm working hard on getting the hang of it. It's actually proving tricky, but that might just be because I'm over-thinking things and treating it like a film camera. Which is easy to do, because I can use all my old Nikon glass on it, and it feels like a Nikon SLR (duh). But practice makes perfect, goodness knows. So I'll just have to keep going.

Sunday was spent recovering, washing the car and shooting some pix of that crazy pooch Rocky, as posted earlier.

And now it's back to the land of dreams. I was remembering the other day how the "ennui" category on this blog came about, when my friend Kate was telling me about post-marathon (or double-century) ennui. And I remember thinking, That's it! And added the category.

Great story, huh?

I'm going to a Christmas party on Saturday, and I've decided I'll be wearing a costume (of sorts). Now I just need to find the supplies. (And no, sadly it has nothing to do with Black Flag.)

But that's a long way off (it feels like). Saturday is so rarely "tomorrow."