watching expired appliances align

i'm not sure i'm a 'party' guy. i'm definitely not a 'city guy.'

i'm feeling the urge to see and be seen at a lot of parties this summer. but can i even be a party going sort of person if i don't wear sunglasses? i think i own two pairs of sunglasses.

i bought one pair for one dollar two years ago at coney island. they've got plastic black frames supporting two mirrored lenses. these are the sort of sunglasses you might put on your five year old child for the school talent show. these are not glasses anyone should actually wear into the sun. the odds are good they've got the stickers about protection from uva and uvb rays still on them, but i don't believe those stickers. is that what sunglasses protect from? or is it just sunscreen?

my second pair of sunglasses was purchased at the height of my 'maybe those hippies aren't so bad' days. during my high school's senior skip day, a friend and i traveled to springfield mall where i bought a pair of black metal framed ray-ban's with circular lenses. they suited my long hair and tie-dye that summer. by the time college ended they weren't worn out but i was convinced that the roundness of the lenses mirrored the roundness of my cheeks a little too closely.

during the past three years, i'd given up on contact lenses. now that i've cast my glasses glasses to the wind and i'm wearing the contacts again, it's time to reexamine my sunglass options.

Posted by Marc at 02:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

i got really sunburned at the beach. there was no skimboarding. and i think i left my horseshoe skills at home. i still had a blast, though.

Posted by Marc at 09:57 PM | Permalink

I�m going to make a big assumption and guess that I really won�t be spending the entire weekend tossing horseshoes toward a metal post in the ground. If that turns out to be the case and I find myself on the beach staring at the ocean, there�s one activity that currently fascinates me. Skimboarding.

Yeah, so the chances of me actually finding a skimboard while at the beach (I�m certainly not going out to buy one) are incredibly low. I�m not giving up hope until Friday afternoon. I just like the idea of actually trying it out. If I were to manage to actually ride a skimboard for ten feet I think I will have made some pretty crazy headway. It�s the closest I may ever come to participating in any sort of "extreme" sport (other than that time I rented the Dave Mirra bmx game for my Playstation 2).

It�s highly likely I may have tried skimboarding once in my life. The circumstances surrounding the event are a little fuzzy as it probably occurred in the early 1980s. While at Nags Head with family and friends of my family, one kid did have a skimboard. I remember him being a nice guy and he probably let me run and throw it onto the surf a few times. I was as uncoordinated then as I am now, so my success rate was probably 0% (thus erasing the event from my memory).

While looking for information about Birdwell Beach Britches, I came across this webpage - Skimboard Inland - about skimboarding in the suburbs. It totally reminded me of the sport and made me ready to have a go at falling down repeatedly.

Posted by Marc at 06:01 PM | Permalink

I�m headed to North Carolina�s Outer Banks this weekend, but I�m not sure if I�ll ever make it to the beach. I learned today that the house where I�m staying has a horseshoe pit. For the past three months whenever I�m with a group of people and we�re outside I get the overwhelming urge to pitch horseshoes. And I usually share this enthusiasm with my friends - who don�t seem as keen on the subject. The conversation usually turns to lawn darts and the ridiculousness of legislating backyard sports. That�s cool. I understand why the conversation goes that way. (And I wouldn�t mind tossing lawn darts if the situation presents itself) But I�m serious about fulfilling my desire to pitch horseshoes. It sounds like I�ll get my chance this weekend.

I haven�t actually held a horseshoe (in a non-wall decoration setting) since the summer of 1994. While at a family reunion in the western part of Kentucky a horseshoe game developed. I wanted to enjoy it then, but I just wasn�t able to get into things. The horseshoe pit was rather makeshift and set away from the picnic house in a slightly wooded and shaded part of our party area. I don�t think horseshoes should be played in the shade. It�s a backyard sport that requires full sun. And maybe part of my thinking of the definition of sport requires sweat � and to work up a sweat while pitching horseshoes, I�m going to need to be in the sun.

During the summer of 1989 I became a convert to horseshoes as a full-blown, incredibly fun recreational activity. This time the family reunion was being held in Virginia � at my parents� house. My grandparents lived a few miles away and their yard was bigger, allowing them to host most of the outdoor activities.

I was positively thrilled to have gone shopping one day to purchase an Aerobie. Of course, the real fun came the next day when the horseshoe action got into full swing! My grandfather, his brothers and their wives had set up the stakes and the pits in the old garden area. It proved an ideal spot for the next few days of horseshoe fun. I was (and still am) just a beginner - my relatives had their technique figured out

The simple act of tossing two pound metal horseshoes at a stake in the ground just forty feet away proved to be an excellent way to spend an afternoon. Imaging playing now with a beer in hand sounds even more irresistible. And it�s much easier to chase a horseshoe that�s rolled away than to climb the neighbor�s tree that�s snared an Aerobie. During that weekend I was converted to the world of ringers and leaners. Trying to knock your opponent�s horseshoe away from the stake seems like a much cooler, real world thing to do than the hoity-toitiness of going all "Heathers" on your friend�s croquet ball.

While in North Carolina this weekend, the odds are good I can be found not at the beach trying to impress with my suave bodysurfing, but in the pit showcasing my 1 1/4 turn shoe pitch.

Posted by Marc at 07:44 PM | Permalink

i sit at the computer with '120 minutes' in the background. it's been an uneventful, but refreshing weekend. i saw a few movies (thoughts on those coming soon). i am guilty of watching the first 30 minutes of 'sweet november' on cable. but that's not all. i also watched the first hour of "america's sweethearts." when people talk about wanting to watch bad movies, i'm down with that. but why can't i make it to the end of them?

Posted by Marc at 12:41 AM | Permalink

i'm not sure if i've ever taken a gillette mach3 razor in my hand and held it like i hold my other razors. there�s a mach3 in the bathroom, but i�m freightened by it. so sleek � so modern. i'm loyal to my gillette atra. i've had the atra for at least twelve years - if not longer. i don't even want to contemplate the day i lose it.

of course, i'm no saint. i've cheated on my atra - and do so on a somewhat irregular basis. my recent (of the past three years) getaway shaving implement of choice is the gillette SensorExcel. i recently purchased new blades for it and i feel like i'm getting a fine, fine shave - but it's a light razor. while shaving with such a lightweight tool i find that i don't have time for contemplation. and the time i spend contemplating my life while performing this weekly task is a most necessary part of the process. as i look in the mirror and hold the SensorExcel i can feel the blades slide along my face in almost too zippy a manner!

i always return to the atra. i find it presents a sufficient degree of flexibility (ooh - that pivoting head!) and a smallness of area around the blades. with the atra, i can control which parts of my face i'm shaving. i fear the giant three blade approach of the mach3 would destroy any sense of finesse i now pretend to have while shaving my beard. the mach3 is for people who don't have facial hair. i�m wary of those people.

Posted by Marc at 09:30 PM | Permalink

i think all the activity of the past two weeks has finally caught up with me. there's a backlog of photos to post and i've got a giant headache. and a runny nose. and a slight cough. and i feel like i'm in need of two days of sleep. and all this is after a sunday of sleeping on the couch. i have a cold. or a fever. i'm not sure which. if i had one of those plastic strips for my forehead, i'd take my temperature. i'm sure it would be higher than normal.

while resting in bed earlier tonight it occurred to me that i've had multiple checking accounts over the course of the past 12 years. in all those years, i've never ordered checks with anything other than the basic check design. sure, i've varied the color depending on the account, but i've never ordered checks with little pictures of the simpsons. or checks with a watercolor like background of my university. or checks with pooh and pals. i think i've missed out on a lot. if i were the type to write checks in the grocery store, i'm sure i could get some funny looks. and i'm sure those checks would brighten the lives of those receiving the money at time warner cable. or is it aol time warner cable? i think it's time they spin that business off. but that's just me. nope. no little line drawings on my checks. as much as i love astronauts, i've got no images of snoopy in a space helmet. or wood cuts of chimpanzees (representing primates in space). i've been forced to put all my checking creativity into the "notes" section of my checks. now that i'm old all i can muster is the random account number or the delightful catch phrase i utter at the beginning of every month - "rent."

Posted by Marc at 07:53 PM | Permalink

it really is time to learn how to use sunblock. i spent a good deal of time in the bright sun yesterday afternoon. when i looked in the mirror today i could see the wrinkles on my nose. my red nose. it's sunburned. crispy like a fry? i'm not sure about that. it's sunburned to the point of almost hurting, but not really. my skin will start peeling in a matter of days. i also sunburned my lips - so much so that someone noticed saturday night. a saturday night spent in astoria at the famous bohemian hall and beer garden. as expected, i drank a fair amount of beer in a less than fair amount of time. because of my recent goings out and the day spent in the sun, i had to leave early. leaving in just enough time to stumble a few blocks away and into a nearby burger king. i know i've written a lot about fries in the past few days - but what in the world is going on with the fries at burger king? they're french fries (emphasis on the fries). i don't think there is any potato in those fries at all. and don't worry, i'm about to start reading 'fast food nation' soon.

Posted by Marc at 08:11 PM | Permalink

i guess they're called classic french fries. i'm not really sure. it's only been during the adult part of my life that i've been aware of their existence. when i think of them now, i think of arby's and their "homestyle" brand of french fries. they're thicker than the shoestring and these fries have a bit of the potato skin left on - for authenticity!

of course, these fries really stood out while i was in college. the mixture of sitting in the frying vats for however many minutes and then being bunched together into a big cup and placed under a heating lamp made them a must have item. i'm talking of what were called 'dukes' fries.' i think that heat lamp is the trick to making fries really work - it sort of seals in all the grease and adds just a tiny layer of crispness. sprinkled with salt and eaten alongside a chicken sandwich, i feasted on these potato creations for four years. just the mention of them makes my mind spin and my mouth drool.

these classic french fries are real fries. they're of a size where you can imagine the potato actually being cut. while eating them you spend your time enjoying the taste and not thinking about how they got all twisted or cut into such a weird waffle shape. and classic french fries work for all those french fry stands. because they're so good, they don't need to be paired with any other foods. the classic french fry can stand alone (and it makes a fine, fine snack).

Posted by Marc at 07:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

the name of the game with steak fries is volume. when i'm at a meal and half of my plate is covered with steak fries, i know i'm going to have a full belly upon leaving the table. heck, having four or five steak fries is like eating an entire potato! of course, the naming of these long, wide fries is brilliant. they compliment a steak dinner perfectly. what better way to sop up the juices of the steak than using a crispy on the outside, supersoft on the inside french fry? and that's where steak fries can go horribly wrong. finding the balance of crispiness to softness seems to be something a lot of restaurants can't achieve. and as much as i loved growing up with ore-ida french fries from the oven, the thought of having those steak fries, with their never perfect outer shell, frightens me. too often steak fries end up being a gooey mess - all the smushiness of a baked potato with none of the taste. whenever i encounter what i like to think of as water logged steak fries i always try to compensate by adding too much salt and pepper. the brilliance of steak fries - when they're done right - is they're an ideal fry for an adult dinner. there's nothing silly about them. no fake flavors added. no silly "curly" shapes. just a big fry with the right proportion of crispiness and potato-ness.

Posted by Marc at 07:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

waffle fries have two great things going for them - amazing texture and maximum surface area. when i think about having waffle fries as part of my fast food meal, i think of chick-fil-a. how can i not? their waffle fries are the prefect compliment to their chicken sandwiches. i love how the fries are served in those heat-retaining foil lined bags. sadly, i can't remember the last time i had waffle fries. they were certainly never available at the college dining hall's 'fry bar.' only one place in my college town had them - and i only discovered that place during my senior year. it was a sort of diner like place tucked between a hotel and a home depot. or between a motel and a lowe's. i only ate there once or twice - but just the discovery of waffle fries at a place other than chick-fil-a was great. it gave me hope for the future. a restaurant in brooklyn used to serve waffle fries (and you never knew if you were going to get waffle fries or curly fries), but they went out of business. oh, i miss waffle cut french fries.

Posted by Marc at 09:37 PM | Permalink

during the fall of 1989 (or was it 1990?) i first encountered 'curly fries.' it was thanksgiving and i was at a family gathering in columbus, oh. after visiting the recently opened wexner center for the arts at ohio state university we stopped at rax for lunch. rax is that ohio valley chain akin to arby's. arby's is one of those fast food special delights that i only enjoyed every few months while growing up. anyway, i think rax had recently introduced the curly fry. being the shy, overly picky eater that i still am today, i was hesitant to order this new variation on the traditional fast food string cut french fry. columbus is, of course, a hotbed of fast food activity. someone in our party ordered the 'curly fries' and i was bold enough to try one or two. i won't say that i've been hooked ever since, but during the next few years i enjoyed my share of special occasion curly fries. with their tight curls and special blend of seasonings, curly fries 'pop' in your mouth. they're crispy on the outside with just the right amount of potato content on the inside. by the time i turned 18, curly fries were everywhere - it was such a delight visiting the 'fry bar' during those trips to the college dining hall. i find that five or six curly fries mixed with other fries are a brilliant addition to the french fry food group.

Posted by Marc at 07:09 PM | Permalink