New For Tree 2013

I had to have it

Buffet Etiquette

Headed out this evening to get me a new phone. Old one broke. That's a new record, had it for like 6 months without destroying it. Laura insisted on going Best Buy because of their insurance, which is pretty much "break you phone, we give you a new one". Sold. Because I will break it. Galaxy S3 in pebble blue. That mean anything to ya?

We were fresh outta fresh fruits so we headed over to the grocery and sure enough that creature in Laura's belly saw the Chinese buffet sign and had made up its' mind. Yuula was on best behavior...

etiquette training begins tomorrow

I'll Hear Ya

big day for new release news...

First is the new Sigur Rós album Kveikur, which is surprising considering their last album came out last May. They usually take awhile to brew, so who knows what's going on here. Uncontrollable artistry or toss-offs from the last album. This doesn't seem like a toss-off.

First new Travis in a long while. No title or release date yet but they did put out the schmancy VHS video single.

Then The National and Deerhunter almost back to back in May. No videos, just cover art, but sometimes that's just as good.

sometimes.

What You On About

new Vampire Weekend

not bad

In The Rain I Thunderbolt

I did get my new phone today. Same just bigger. And faster. And deeper. And tastier.

Here's some new photos I took with it....

The First Five Shots

We are not kind to cameras. The Lumix DMC-FZ7 has been our day to day shoot-all for a couple years now. We've been making by with the cell phone fanciness for travel purposes to try and keep the Lumix safe, but even that semi-limited usage has taken its toll. It still has a handful of sessions left in it, but we're not gambling folks. With our photo taking habits, it would be too risky to be playing without an understudy.

Enter the Nikon D5000. Nikon has just put out their new cameras, one being the upgrade of the D5000, making it an unstocked sale item across the board. Throw together a few member discounts and some space on a store credit card and that bad boy was shipped to our front door before we could get excited about it. I'm not much on camera specifics, despite my extensive Graphics I education junior year, but this thing seems to be pretty powerful.



I've got a 236 page instruction manual to flip thru that I really am going to try and do this time around. It would be nice to know what all these buttons do.






Those were my first five shots. I haven't read the manual yet.

No Mo' Cold Woes

New fridge day. They delivered just after noon. Dragged that old beat up ice box out back, put it out of its misery and replaced it with a sleek and sexier model. Gives the kitchen a sinister tone, but as long as it keeps our food cold I don't care what kind of company it keeps.

The old.



The new.



I finally found a use for that stupid chef basket. It was Yuula's toy til now.



So how does one celebrate refrigeration?



It's been a while.

Out By 10 My Ass

This is taking a while, but at least it's taking. Laura is probably gonna be late for work but at least it's a good excuse. She ain't worried about it. I'm taking the munchkin into Denville to help Nancy with her new winter program. Should be fun.

Just found out our new insurance with full coverage on the new ride. Went up. Twenty cents.

And the color of the vehicle: Autumn Red Metallic. I call it Tinny Apple.

And it's snowing.

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It Has Orange Seats

So, turns out this car Laura found wasn't a car at all, but in fact a minivan. And a pretty good deal on a minivan, complete with Bose soundsystem, sunroofs, DVD player, automatic everything and orange leather seats nonetheless. So after a relatively quick test drive and a fair amount of some so-called haggling over money, a deal was struck that may or may not have involved trading in the one and only Sexy Bird. It was a hard decision but.... it was an easy decision. Saturday morning we go to pick up our brand new (to us) 2004 Nissan Quest minivan.

You'll see the whole thing when it's all ours.

It's Not Sunny, But It Will Be

Tonight!!!







Nothing else matters

Donut Date, Depot & Daybed

We may have added dresser to that headline too, but we didn't find one we liked. Oh well. That's too many D-words anyhow. But we did meet for donuts. And lattes. How fancy! The receipt even said fancy on it. It's becoming a tradition. We'll see how long it'll last.

Then we headed to the Home Depot to pick up some paint and wainscoating for baby's room. Last minute impulse kinda thing, with the wall enhancement. Let's wait til it's done tomorrow to see whether or not we can call it an enhancement or not. Thank goodness my parents are coming up tomorrow to help. By this time tomorrow, we could have a nursery. Could.


After a long hunt we finally lucked out with a daybed. Finally our company will have an official place to hang their head while they stay with us. And we got dressers and all kinds room decor to go with it. Great deal for two brand new mattresses and a pretty nice bed frame. Most of these trundles are hideous. We got a steal. Now we just need a door.

Tomorrow's a big day. We got our paint. We got our mouldings. The whole left side of the house is getting a transformation. Two rooms that used to exist to collect junk are being given purpose. They're up to it.

Bustin V. Smooth-On

V.

I gotta weigh some pros & cons and I choose to do it here....

COMMUTE

Bustin: 40 minutes round trip thru wooded backroads & a small suburb

Smooth-On: 2 hours 10 minutes round trip out to 80, down 33 and thru the city of Easton

Advantage - Bustin


ATTIRE

Bustin: whatever the hell I want

Smooth-On: a navy blue Dickey suit, buttoned up, tucked in & belted

Advantage - Bustin


MUSIC


Bustin: each station has it's own personal radio, so I heard a mixture of death metal, hip-hop and jazz most of the day, but I'll usually be driving alone all day so it's all about the iPod

Smooth-On: satellite radio usually tuned to 80's or 60's pop

Advantage - Bustin


SUPERVISION
Bustin: a collection of mellow, probably ex-hippies that know there's a job to do but aren't worried about it actually getting done and like my jokes

Smooth-On: a gaggle of overly obsessed foul-ups that think if a mold rubber doesn't make it to Germany by tomorrow the world may very well come to an end, and no jokes

Advantage - Bustin


DECOR


Bustin: a confusing mix of multi-decadinal decor including 70's wood paneling, 50's art deco bathrooms and a kitchen full of microwaves & refrigerators from the 80's.

Smooth-On: concrete floor, concrete walls, no windows

Advantage: Bustin


ACTUAL JOB
Bustin: driving back and forth between Stroudsburg, Allentown, Scranton, Pittstown, Perth Amboy & Elizabeth, and all the places in between

Smooth-On: packing boxes full of plastic molds & rubber, mixing batches, crashing forklifts and throwing anything I can get my hands on at Sarah

Advantage - Bustin


WILDLIFE


Bustin: bunnies in the brush

Smooth-On: possums in the plant

Advantage - tie


MONETARY COMPENSATION
Bustin: 5% more than Smooth-On, not to mention the money I'll save on gas

Smooth-On: 5% less than Bustin plus two tanks of gas in the Dodge Dakota each week

Advantage: Bustin


FINAL RESULTS
Bustin: 8
Smooth-On: 1

Gotta go call to quit. New job!

She Left Before Me

New things today. May not be new for long. We'll have to see. But she left before me. That's a new one. I gotta say, it was nice not to be up at 3:30. But not getting used to it yet. The day will tell. And all is sunny. Except for the deer who ate her pickle plant. Schtuppe is taking care of him. I don't expect it to be an issue,

MomWear

it was quite necessary

Icebreakers Be Damned

P.S. - for future reference, it's a brilliant idea to start a new job the day after an Super Bowl, especially one like last nights. Instant conversation piece and not a single awkward moment all day. Now tomorrow, tomorrow will be different I'm sure.

One more, with Peyton on his butt.

The Whole Door/Window Thing

I Guess I Got It After All

Why the dinosaur? Good question. Considering the news of late, we thought it best that I expedite my efforts to refocus my lifestyle into something more accommodating to that of, say a local profession, something that would allow me to sleep in my own bed at night and not the number of seedy hotel rooms not to mention school floors I've been frequenting, receive steady payment rather than hunting down dollars and dealing with unsupervised parental boards, and most importantly, to keep my feet on the ground. So in early January a job hunt began. I haven't had a "real" job, I guess ever, mainly sticking to fly-by-night jack-of-all-trade assignments. But I knew there'd be a time, and the time is now.

So why the dinosaur? Well, the search led down a few different paths and the decision to follow one had to be made. I took an interview at a large tan brick building last Tuesday which I thought I had nailed. Only later that day did I receive a courtesy call informing me that I did not, in fact, get the job. Disappointed I gathered myself up and retraced my steps to where I was before I made the seemingly ill-fated decision to ask the prettiest girl at the prom for a dance. I had a few other logs on the fire.

So you're still confused about the dinosaur? Well just yesterday morning, amidst a slight lull in the revamped job hunt, we were interrupted by a call. A call from inside the large tan brick building. They had re-analyzed the candidates and decided that I was indeed the man for the job, could I start Monday, and I need to buy some new shoes. Fair enough. So here's where the dinosaur comes in.

The company that has taken a chance on me is called Smooth-On. I know. I thought the same thing. But nonetheless it seems like an extremely cool place to work. They need more trees, but I'll see what I can do about that. You see Smooth-On specializes in liquid rubbers & plastics. The kind used to make models & prosthetics but also the kind used for special effects and lifecasting in films and television. So you've seen Smooth-On products if you've seen movies like Alien, Lord of the Rings, Saving Private Ryan, Pirates of the Caribbean, Ghostbusters, Batman, Jurassic Park, Die Hard, Harry Potter, Star Trek, James Bond, The Matrix, King Kong... the list kinda goes on. Also on broadway, if you got out to the theater for Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera, Spam-A-Lot, Beauty & the Beast, Mary Poppins & The Lion King, you've seen them there too. Apparently these guys are the first ones to invent and design these silicone masks that are now used anytime you see a ghoul or a goblin or an ogre or just a bloodied Bruce Willis. He's always bloody. So that's why the dinosaur. That one just sticks out to me as the most ludicrous. Like, my boss makes dinosaurs. Wacky.

Here's some of their more horrifying work on display:



















I have a feeling that this is a scary place to work at Halloween.

They do more than just disgusting masks and special effects tho. They do casting, model making, taxidermy, candlemaking, sculpture and architectural restoration, which for some reason piqued my interest. I guess they can pretty much do anything that involves liquid rubber & plastic, which clearly means, anything.

These guys made a lifesize whale!

They can make you look tough.

And teach you how to smash thru glass.



Should be fun. Let's not get fired.