A year ago today, I met Emily for the first time. Within two seconds of seeing her, I spilled my beer. Then, she solidly beat me at three straight games of bocce. Evidently, that was an auspicious omen.

This morning, for the first time, both her cat and mine hung out on the bed for several minutes without hissing. so that's definite progress there. I didn't think that that would happen until march

It's hard for me to think that it's been 9 years. On this day in 2001, my son was born at 11:19pm. As most of you know, he had a serious form of muscular dystrophy and lived only until the first minutes of Jan 20th. Two unimaginably difficult things happened on Jan 20th, 2001, the death of my son and the inauguration of an unelected president; but I'm not going to make this post about politics.

I've noticed in the last weeks that seeing babies make me miss him for a moment or two, and brings back momentarily the sense of loss of that day. But one of the thoughts that keep me from sleep is that I didn't have the opportunity to raise my child. I know kids roughly his age and see plenty more going around the city. I compare what I think he would have been like to what I see, which is depressing in a couple ways. I know his mother and I would have raised him well.

I can't imagine where my life would be if he were still alive today. I can't count the number of significant experiences I have had since he was born that I know I would not have had raising a child. I highly doubt I would be working in restaurants in new york city. His mother still may have become a librarian in LA though.

I wonder what the next 9 years will bring.

For xmas, emily got me a cheesemaking kit from the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company. It's basically rennet, citric acid, salt and some cheese cloth with instructions. She also got me the companion recipe book that shows how to make over a hundred different kinds of cheese, but for that i would need molds, cultures, presses, etc, all of which can be purchased from the company. Anyway, my kit allows me to make 30 batches or mozzarella and/or ricotta.

The first attempt was not great, partially because i didn't know that what i had come up with was, in fact, correct, but that i just needed to keep going with it. The second batch of mozzarella came out more like a ricotta, so i ended up using that for some blintzes. They were fantastic. I've now made a couple successful batches of mozzarella, each subsequent one getting higher yield and a product more like what i had in mind.

Emily is having a potluck for her research assistants on monday and has decided to make a lasagna, so i offered to make both the mozzarella and ricotta for the dish. We took a bike ride down to the prospect park farmers' market with the intention of getting milk there for the process. Unfortunately, organic whole milk there is $7.00 for a half gallon. It takes a gallon to make one batch of cheese. I'm not really in a place where i can spend $28 on milk, so we ended up buying the stuff from the store instead. Seriously, at $7 a half gallon, it would be cheaper for me to get a cow.

So last night i set out to do three batches of cheese, the mozzarella and ricotta for the lasagna and then a batch of whey ricotta from the leftover whey. And, i have to say, both of the first two batches came out really well. The ricotta got a little firmer than i expected, but for this application, there's nothing wrong with that. The mozzarella was, for the first time in my cheese making experience, of restaurant quality. I cut it into little balls which will be sliced in half for the lasagna. But the same amount of mozzarella at whole foods would cost upwards of $20. So i'm happy with that. The whey ricotta has a different character than the whole milk ricotta, but the yield was really pretty small. I need to find other uses for the whey.

I'm going to keep making mozzarella and ricotta for a while, but i think the next step is to get some penicillium roqueforti and some cheese molds and make some stilton. I love blue cheese and really want to try some next. Hard cheeses are a little more difficult and i'd need to fashion or purchase a press, and i'm not sure how well i'd be able to let the cheese age without wanting to just eat it. But that's further down the road.

I recommend that other people try making cheese. It's fun, not too difficult once you understand the process, and there's the added benefit of knowing exactly what is in your product. I still want to make my own beer at home, but beermaking equipment is a little pricier.

The mood is swinging toward:: cheesy

I'm going to jump on the band wagon and fill out a 2009 survey. Already, 2010 has been better to me. Ok, here we go:

What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before?
i joined (and left) the carnival

Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
i don't believe in new years resolutions, as i perpetually work to better myself

Did anyone close to you give birth?
no, but a couple are due soonish

Did anyone close to you die?
my grandfather, Paul

What countries did you visit?
The Bahamas, New Jersey

What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
Financial stability. 'nuff said

What date(s) from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
my birthday.

What was your biggest achievement of the year?
landing the best paying job i have yet had

What was your biggest failure?
leaving the good paying job for a horribly paying job, and leaving that for the better-paying unemployment

Did you suffer illness or injury?
nothing comes to mind, other than incidental hand injuries in the course of working in a kitchen.

What was the best thing you bought?
a vacation for myself and my mom

Whose behavior merited celebration?
shrug

Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
sarah palin

Where did most of your money go?
rent, student loans, credit card debt, baseball, my bike, food and intoxicants. all the rest i wasted

What did you get really, really, really excited about?
my trip to the bahamas, moving in with emily

What songs will always remind you of 2009?
i'm going to try not to think about this year too much.

Compared to this time last year, are you...
i. happier or sadder? about the same
ii. thinner or fatter? about the same
iii. richer or poorer? well, i'm broke right now, so poorer

What do you wish you'd done more of?
snorting heroin

What do you wish you'd done less of?
working for very little compensation

How will you be spending christmas?
i'm not sure yet

Did you fall in love in 2009
huh, yes

What was your favorite TV program?
Battlestar Galactica

What was the best book you read?
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver or The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene

What was your greatest musical discovery?
that if you go to the symphony at lincoln center on a monday night during football season, you'll get better seats than the ones you paid for.

What did you want and get?
a blowjob on my birthday

What did you want and not get?
there was a job that should have been mine that someone else has now.

What did you do on your birthday, and how old?
i spent the day with my girlfriend's family in nashville. I turned 2^5.

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Financial stability

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
i do not now, nor expect any time soon to possess a 'personal fashion concept'. When it's cold out, i wear warm clothes. When it's warm out, i wear cooler clothes.

What kept you sane?
My kittyhead fuzzypants, Logan

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
i don't really pay attention to that shit. I guess Janette Sadik-Khan, the NYC DOT commissioner, because i love what she's doing for cyclists.

What political issue stirred you the most?
the fact that everything is going to shit.

Who did you miss?
my grandfather, several persons from my past that are no longer in my life.

Who was the best new person you met?
my girlfriend's nice, freya. :)

Was 2009 a good year for you?
Meh

What was your favorite moment(s) of the year?
walking out of the interview for that fantastically paying job, knowing that i had nailed it.

What was your least favorite moment of the year?
losing that same job because of some dumb corporate bitch who apparently didn't like hearing the suggestion that she should be doing her job.

Where were you when 2009 began?
at work

Who were you with?
people who worked for me

Where will you be when 2009 ends?
it ended. i was playing beatles rock band at Lisa's place with Emily and Walid. We drank champagne from plastic baseball helmets

Did you break up with anyone in 2009?
only a couple jobs

Did you make any new friends in 2009?
Yeah

What was your favorite month of 2009?
February, because i got to spend a good portion of it in the bahamas

How many different states did you travel to in 2009?
10

How many concerts did you see in 2009?
a couple, mostly free ones at celebrate brooklyn

Did you have a favorite concert in 2009?
David Byrne

Did you drink a lot of alcohol in 2009?
yes

Did you do a lot of drugs in 2009?
Eh, you know...

Did you do anything you are ashamed of this year?
nothing comes to mind

Did you treat somebody badly in 2009?
not really, i don't think so. if someone has different information, let me know.

Did somebody treat you badly in 2009?
An employer or two

What was your proudest moment of 2009?
making, for a couple months at least, more than both my parents combined

What was your most embarrassing moment of 2009?
next question

What are your plans for 2010?
Get a good paying job, keep it for a while, keep moving towards owning my own restaurant.

Top 5 films of the year
Star Trek. I also saw an outdoor screening of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with William Goldman there, that was pretty cool.

i'm starting to pack books, and it's going a little slowly, because i keep opening them to random pages and reading for a while. From the story "The Loathsome Couple" in Edward Gorey's Amphigory Also, one of my favorite pairs of lines:

By twilight of the next day the body was buried and the mess cleaned up.
They sat down to a meal of conrflakes and treacle, turnip sandwiches, and artificial grape soda.

So, as i mentioned yesterday, I'm going to be moving. So i'll now ask if anyone wants to help with the process. there are two exciting opportunities available

On the 30th, is the actual move. I was going to start around noon. As i don't have much stuff, if i have a couple extra hands helping out, it should all go rather quickly. I will pay the standard help move rate of pizza and beer.

There are cats in both locations, so be advised if you have allergies.

Or, if you prefer, on the 31st, I'm going to be cleaning and repainting the old place. So if you want to pitch in a couple hours there, that'd be appreciated too. Again, food and beer I will supply.

is there anything worse than artificial banana flavoring?

I'm so glad to have my cat. today is the first day off i've had in over a week and a half, and it's as comforting to me as i'm sure it is to him, to have had him in my lap pretty much all day. He's warm and made of fuzzy. likewise i'm warm and an important food source. it works out for both of us.

So, some newses: 1. yesterday was my last day at tabla. i just couldn't afford to work there. The 55 hours a week i was spending there made it impossible to get a second source of income, and the peanut and a half they were paying me each week was far from enough to cover all my bills. so yesterday was my last day. i'm going to enjoy the next two weeks, then find a job in january.

2. i'm going to be going down to nashville for christmas. actually, i'll be down there for my birthday too. Why nashville, you ask? because that's where Emily's parents live. when they came up for thanksgiving, they invited me to come down. I think it's partly because they want to use me for my mad cooking skillz, but they also seemed to really like me. I easily fool parents like that.

3. two days after i get back from tennessee, i'm moving. I'm going to be moving in to Emily's place for at least a couple fo months. we will see how that space goes with the two of us in it, but most likely, we'll be looking for an apartment in march or april. so yeah, i guess one could say things are going pretty well relationship wise.

i hear the mailman just came, which means there's a netflik waiting in my box for me. i've finally made it to season 4.5 of Battlestar. Fracking cylons. I had a question for sci fi fans: which would you prefer to have as an enemy, the cylons or the daleks? Either way, i still want a Tardis.

peace, y'all

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.