i confess, it's been three weeks since i've even opened my live journal. yeah.

Let's see. since my last post on the 4th, i was unceremoniously dumped from my job after working my ass off to get it open, went to Oshkosh for my grandfather's memorial service, then came back and got a new job.

I'm back in the kitchen, working at Tabla off of madison square park. I'm not sure how best to describe it, either indian food using american ingredients or american food using indian spices, but neither one of those fits quite right. Anyway, it is a highly regarded restaurant, and i stand to learn a lot by working there. It's going to kick my ass for a while, but hey, once i get things down, i'll be fine.

In fact, this post is going to be pretty short because i need to shower and get to work. I feel like i'm going to be mostly working or sleeping for much of the next few weeks.

And i'm riding again in the rain today because it's raining again. The train ride to/from work involves 3 separate trains. the first couple nights i was there i took the train home and it took almost an hour and a half. last night i rode home (in the rain) and it took 35 minutes. i'll trade being wet for an extra hour of being home.

Yeah, that's about it for now.

Well, it's almost 6 and i've just got home from work. Then again, this was the time i left work yesterday and since i didn't have the luxury of my bike with me, it took a bit longer to get home. I need to be back at work in 5 hours for some unknown reason.

What I've been doing that has made me work at least 14 hours every day of the last several is open CarnivalNYC. Here's the write up about it in the New York Post.

Not only did I join the carnival, I run the fun bits.

time for curl up with kitten in bed

I spent more time this past weekend at citi field for the two cubs-mets games than i spent in bed. The cubbies won saturday on the strength of derrick lee's pair of homers. Sunday, geo soto had a couple rbi doubles, but it just wasn't enough. My seats were good for both games, the company was nice and my favorite thing about citi field is that it has a better beer selection than any other major league stadium (and most minor league ones except, maybe the duckpond in madison)

Anyway, joakleaf has conned me into joining his fantasy football league. even though i apparently had pick #11 of 14, I have a solid team. I have both Jay Cutler and Matt Forte, which shoudl start payuing dividends as soon as sunday against GB. I also got the Ravens' defense, mwahahaha.

Ok here's where i admit that i don't really know a thing about the nfl these days. so whatever. I hope i win.

I finally took the plunge. After years of resisting, i changed the style of tires i have on my bike. Since it is a mountain bike, i've had big, knobby, fuck off tires, which i loved because they handle the not so even streets of brooklyn and manhattan well and are all-weather. Yesterday, i swapped them out for a pair of armadillo road slicks. The new tires are basically half as wide and, well, offer a lot less traction. This means i go faster. Like, to the point where i'm seriously considering changing out my front gear for a larger one because i don't feel like my gears can keep up with my legs. I'm not getting as much energy out of every revolution as i'm putting into it. the guy at the shop wants me to convert to a fixie, but if i'm going to do that, i'd rather keep my mountain bike as it is and buy a new fixie.

But yeah. i got these in advance of the nyc century ride in a couple weeks. While i have done three 100+mile rides this season, these tires will make it easier.

And since it is both a day off and absolutely gorgeous outside, I'm going to go ride.

I, naturally, have been riding my bike to work every day. It's about a 25 minute ride from my place to union square, and, even with dealing with traffic on delancey and 1st ave, not a terrible ride. Since the lanes are on the third and fourth floors, most patrons are immediately taken up in the elevator. On the ground floor, however, is a little room for the cooks and porters to change. I've been leaving my bike in there, as I do not want to leave my baby outside in union square if i'm regularly working til 2am. But, it is kinda in people's way in that room, so instead yesetrday i locked it in a stairwell that basically noone uses, though we do share with the deli on the ground floor.

So, last night, at the end of the night, i go to unlock my bike. I had clipped my helmet onto the frame, though didn't physically locked my helmet on. I get to the bottom of the stairwell and, lo and behold, some pathetic fuck had stolen my helmet. First of all, how sad must your life be that you steal someone's clearly used helmet? I wish i had head lice or some obscure hair-transmitted venereal disease to which I, being a carrier, would be immune, but would make whoever caught it's genitals to fall off. Or what, because it wasn't physically chained to something else, did someone take it solely because they could?

The other thing that i don't understand is that there is a security camera that was basically pointed at my bike. I do not think it will be difficult for me at all to discover who it was. Bowlmor employees have to sign an honor code when they get hired. If it was someone who works for us, I will make damn sure that they get fired for it. If it was someone from the deli, I am willing to not press criminal charges in exchange for giving them three lashes with my bike chain. This would probably collapse a lung and possibly paralyze them (if you've never seen it, i use a HEAVY chain), but that would meet my satisfaction.

And today it is raining. I'd really like to be able to wear a helmet on my ride in, but my local shop doesn't open until after i leave for work. sucks sucks sucks

So national grid is replacing the gas main all along Halsey St. They seem to save all of their loudest work for 8-10am. Since i've been working till 1am most of the last several nights, this is getting to be a problem. I've learned to take a nap on their lunch hour, but this is not an ideal situation. Also, with no notice today, they've just shut off the water to my building. so the shower i usually take before i leave for work will not happen. boo. if they had even left a note on the door, i would have taken it this morning.

There's been a couple helicopters circling overhead for about half an hour now. I wonder what they are doing.

so, i'm into week two of my training for my new job. So far, basically, everyone thinks i'm awesome. This is probably at least in part due to my innate awesomeness. For example, the first three days, i was supposed to be training behind the desk, learning the computer systems for both bowling and shoe rentals (completely separate systems as the lane computers are run on this old, DOS based system, which made me kinda happy and the shoe rentals are on the POS system used by the servers and the bar) The guy training me seemed genuinely surprised when i picked things up immediately. Like, he showed me how to do something once, then i was doing it myself. At the end of the night he said it was as if i had been working there for months. In the middle of the second desk training shift, the GM came over and gave me the quiz of every question he could think of to ask about the desk, from how to do things on the computers to any stupid thing the customers might ask. I answered them all correctly, so he said 'ok, you're done, we'll move you on to the next thing'

The next thing was trailing some of the servers. Again, they seemed surprised that within the first couple minutes I was acting as if i had worked there a long time. What can i say, I'm generally competent. Again on the bar last night, other than that i don't know some of the drinks or their exact measures (i've never made a mai tai before) the bartender said that it seemed to take me about fifteen minutes then i was up to speed.

Oh and then there was the day last week where the company's VP of Revenue came in and said 'Hey, Josh. We hear that you're rocking the training'.

So yeah, training is going well. I still can't wait to begin the job i was actually hired for, but part of training is the gm seeing what the three of us manager can handle, and so far, i've shown that i can handle whatever they send my way.

Oh, and as a complete side note, yesterday marked 6 months that i've been seeing emily. So that's going pretty well too.

My paid account expires today. I think i'm not going to renew it, but drop down to the free account for the first time in basically six years. I've been posting a whole lot less than in the past, there are ever fewer friends through which this is my primary means of communication, and coming on the heels of my unexpected trip to the midwest, i just don't feel like spending $25 on it.

So farewell polls. So long lots of userpics. It was fun, but for $25 I can do without you.


Oh yeah, and i should have my midwest pics up this morning.

Well, my start date for my flashy new job has been pushed back a week. I need to go to wisconsin because my grandfather is dying. His body has been slowly deteriorating over the last 8 years since his surgery to relieve fluid on his brain. He has been steadily losing motor skills and about a week ago, lost the ability to swallow. Not being able to walk around is one thing. Even the (probably unrelated) loss of hearing is surmountable. Not being able to swallow presents a host of new problems. Not least of these is the increase in cost of his daily care, which is a burden my grandmother cannot long sustain.

So, instead of starting my new job tomorrow morning, I'm getting on a plane to chicago. I will be happy to see my family, whom, other than when I took my mother to the bahamas in february, I have not seen since last april. The annoying part for me, other than wanting to go ahead and start, is that I was finally just about to get back to the financial stability I enjoyed right before I left sarabeth's. Not only will I not be making any money this week, but airfare, rental car, gas, food, etc adds up pretty quickly. I had been saving to move when my lease is up at the end of september, but now it looks like that may be delayed a month or two. So the timing is good in that I am able to push back my start date with no negative effects on my job, but financially, this is a very bad time for me to be spending + not earning.

I totally forgot to make my trade deadline predictions, in light of all the recent job happenings.

NL East - Phillies
NL Central - Cubs
NL West - Dodgers
NL Wildcard - Cardinals

AL East - Red Sox
AL Central - White Sox
AL West - Rangers
AL Wildcard - yankees

That makes my brackets for the playoffs:

Dodgers v Cards ------- Cubs v Phillies
-Dodgers v Cubs-
Dodgers


Red Sox v yankees ------- White Sox v Rangers
-yanks (dammit) v White Sox
White Sox

then the dodgers take the series in 6

hello again livejournalists. something terribly exciting is happening. I just got offered an incredibly awesome job. For those not in nyc, there's a popular bowling alley off union square called bowlmor. It's been there since 1938, and really the ownership team that bought it in 1997 is credited with reestablishing bowling in the city. The roof above it has a big plastic dome over it which most recently has held a high end nightclub, pressure, that noone ever went to. So they shut that down and, in october, it is going to reopen as Carnival NYC.

Carnival is basically what it sounds like, it's going to be a state fair on the roof of a building in lower manhattan. There are going to be all the classic carnival games and foods, and live circusy entertainment. My friend Dan, who is a clown (as in toured with Ringling clown) got hired a couple weeks ago as director of entertainment and gave me the hr guy's contact info. I sent a resume last friday, and got a call back within 15 minutes. Monday i met with the hr guy, wednesday i met with the gm and then about an hour and a half after meeting the gm, got a call from the hr guy that they wanted me to meet with the president. That meeting went very well, as did the other two.

So now, I am going to be the liquor manager for them. Bounce bounce bounce. It's a big, exciting job. It is more responsibility than even my same title at sarabeth's was, but nothing beyond my abilities. And, since noone has ever done anything like this before, there's no blueprint. I can be creative, even while working for a corporation. Not that Strike Holdings, LLC is Global Megacorp or anything, but it is still the first time i've worked for a company since i left Jimmy Johns back in north carolina. The benefit of that is i will be starting at more money than i've ever made before, i get full medical and dental and, for the first time in my life, a 401k.

Bounce bounce bounce bounce bounce.

Logan didn't especially appreciate being danced around the room. But i'm so excited. More on this as details develop.

A couple nights ago I was finally able to convince three other people to play Bambu. Yes, I'm spreading the game yet again, mwa ha ha ha. I had the first tour, of course, and was solidly in the lead. In fact, I really only took more than two or three points twice. Unfortunately they were on the other players' all-in-ones.




This hand was so bad I had to take a picture of it. I took 38 points. The other bad all-in-one for me scored me 37 points. If not for those two hands, I would have had the winning score.

Thought you'd appreciate that. You may show it to the Noah too.

And yes, those are Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cards we are playing with.

Here's one of those 100 question memes that i saw on desist's journal, so i posted it too.

( cutsy cutsy )

I could never really believe the Stones when they sang 'Satisfaction'. Indeed, as a teen, I long thought that if Mick Jagger could't get any, what possible chance did I have?

When Mark Mothersbaugh sings it, though, I find the song to be much more earnest.




In looking for this, i also found a version by Aretha Franklin and another in a live set from Bjork and PJ Harvey. Kinda cool

so yesterday and today, i had two consecutive days off with nothing scheduled to do. Well, there was a dr. appointment, but that go moved to tomorrow. Anyway, the weather forecast looked good, so I thought I would try to do something I've wanted to for some time: ride my bike to Montauk.

Tuesday night I plotted my route, packed two days worth of food, and attached my tent to my bike again, as i did for my ride up to Hyde Park over memorial day weekend. My plan was to ride to Hither Hills State Park, just outside Montauk, pitch my tent, dump off my stuff, ride up to the lighthouse (which is about 100 ft from the furthest eastern point of the state of new york), turn around, ride back to the tent, sleep, get up and ride home this morning. Well, it didn't quite work out that way.

The riding to Montauk part went just fine. I left at 6:17am. The roads are mostly smooth and flat, for the most part Hwy 27 or it's cousin 27A have nice wide shoulders ideal for cyclists. I took a couple food breaks, my first real break was when I got to babylon around 9. In researching my route, there was an article I found that suggested riding the LIRR to babylon and starting the ride from the train station there, instead of elbowing through queens and suburban long island traffic. There may be something to that, but at the same time, I can say i rode from brooklyn to montauk now. So there :p

Anyway, I'm cruising along and around 6:00, make it to hither hills. I go to the ranger station and say that I'd like to pitch my tent for the night, only to be informed that the last permit had been given out about 20 minutes previous to my arrival. I wasn't so happy about that. I had just ridden 12 hours and did not intend to turn around and ride back. I really didn't want to spring for a motel for the night (not in the trip budget), so I raced forward to the Montauk train station to see if I could find a reasonable solution. I remember from my other trip to montauk that the trains leaving there headed back west were few and far between. Sure enough, the previous train left at 2:51 and the next one was at 10:38. Urg.

In my frustration, I called Emily. When I reached her, she was actually at my place, feeding and playing with Logan. She asked if i wanted her to pick up a zip car and come get me. After weighing the options, I told her yes, come pick me up.

I then rode on to the lighthouse, took a bunch of pictures, chilled out on the beach a while, then, as the sun was setting, rode back into town, took refuge in a pub, and bunkered down for the cavalry to arrive. Three and a half hours after i called her, Emily walked into the pub. It took me half a day to get from one end of the island to the other, and she did it in 3.5. Then again, i think i burned a few more calories in my transit. So, i bought her dinner, loaded the bike into the car, and we were off. Now, if i had known that i wasn't going to be camping, I wouldn't have brought my tent. The weight+drag probably cost me 5-10% efficiency, and when you're talking distances that far, that really adds up. I kinda wonder if i hadn't had the tent on the bike, if i would have made it to the campground in time. Oh well.

Anyway, Here is my route Map my ride says I went 132.84 miles. I do believe that. That's 27 miles further than my previous one day ride, though that ride was up and down many many hills going up the hudson, this was much flatter and easier. I guess my next destination/goal is vermont, then canada. If I had five days, I could make it to montreal and back. Hmm...

Yesterday was a rare event. Since Emily and I started going out in late february, we have had exactly three days off in common. Yesterday was one of them, so we sought to make the most of it. I had a bike from Sara for Emily to use, and we rode down to coney island. Emily had not been on a bike in 2-3 years. But, just like riding a bike, it comes back to you pretty quickly. So kudos to a 10 mile first ride back, now get a bike of your own.

Anyway

We went down there for a number of reasons. First, she had never been before. Reason enough. Also there was the AVP Beach Volleyball tournament, in which a friend of a friend of emily's was playing. We watched a mens' match on the main court, then the friend of a friend's match was up on another court. For posterity, her name is Jenny Davis and she was playing with Annette Jordan against the Lindquist sisters, who had the most annoying fans on the beach. Davis/Jordan lost the first round fairly soundly. The second round was more even, then the rain came. There was about three minutes of pretty hard rain that play continued through. It drizzled a couple minutes afterward then stopped. The Lindquist sisters seem to have lost their momentum. They wern't finding the holes in the defense as easily. It was clear for a short time, then the deluge began. For about 8-10 minutes it was monsoon season in south brooklyn. Three more points were played (all going to Davis/Jordan) before the ref called a break and they all ran for cover. Once play resumed, The Lindquists' mental game was gone. They lost game two pretty quickly, then completely folded in game three.

Afterward's Emily and I went to Peggy O'Neill's, the bar attached to the outside of keyspan park. the service place was understaffed, and the service suffered. We never did get the second round of beer we ordered.

The Cyclones game was good. They gave up a first inning run to the Valley Cats, and were down the whole game. Trailing 2-1 going into the bottom of the 9th, they put together a walk and four consecutive hits. The game winner was a double off the deep centerfield wall that would have cleared the bases if the game didn't end as soon as the first run scored. The Cyclones are now 12-2 and still undefeated at home.

Anyway, it was a really nice day, we both had a good time. Now, I'm going to a rooftop party that won't include fireworks because they're only happening on the hudson this year, not the east river. Stupid politics.

So today was Logan's dreaded annual checkup. You may recall from last year, that the vet wanted him to lose about a pound, going down to 14.5 or so. Well, he was weighed at 14.3. Yay! Go go gadget kittydiet! Besides his improved weight, the vet says everything looks great, that he seems like a happy, healthy kitty and to keep doing what I'm doing. I feel like an actually responsible pet owner, not just some guy with a cat.

And, as a treat for being so well behaved at the vet, I'm making tuna for lunch and Logan gets to have all the juice.

Here's what the AP had to say about the Cyclones' Bobblehead promotion last night:

Presidential Bobble

And here's a thing in the NY Times this morning about beer and food, with a mention of the place I just started at. Ii hope this turns into more customers

Beer!

Last night I went to my first Coney Island game of the season with Emily. The give away last night was a Baracklyn Cyclones Obama Bobblehead. It is fantastic. Everyone needs a presidential bobblehead. He's wearing a Cyclones jersey with #44 on it. Anyway, seats were great, as usual, basically if you extend the third base foul line into the stands, that's where i was sitting. In yanquis stadium, those seats are in the $1250 area. Love, love, love my $15 box seats.

The Cylcones beat the Hudson Valley Renegades 7-3, though two of the renegades runs came in the top of the 9th with 2 out. Their starting pitcher was having problems with the strike zone, walking 5 in two inning, throwing two wild pitches and a passed ball that could have gone either way. The cyclones capitalized and, well, that's why they are in first.

So, all around, it was a win.

i rode in the tour de brooklyn today. but between that and working 30 hours since friday night, I'm kinda mentally exhausted and can't believe how much difficulty even these two sentences have given me.