Oh Look! Christmas Bullets!

Yesterday I took the day off work to take my grand daughter and MrsRW into the city to go see the Goodman Theater's annual production of "A Christmas Carol" and also to have dinner under the Great tree at Macy's. The production this year was rather flat and the food at the Walnut Room was ridiculously horrid. Either the bloom is off the rose for the play or whatever, but it just didn't sparkle like it did in years past. Not sure I was 100% convinced. Still we had SECOND ROW seats (I was wrong about 4th row, what do I know?) and that was fun. But the Walnut Room (this was better when run by Marshall Field's) had an almost three hour wait and my vegetables were cold, dry, and tasted like they were sitting in somebody's basement a second ago. Breakfast is the only thing to go there for. Champagne and waffles they still do well. Dinner... not so much.

Still, seen through the eyes of seven-year-old Emma this was a great day. At the end of the show when people were taking their bows one of the actors specifically pointed her out and waved to her. She lit up and waved back and was on top of the world after. Plus at dinner a fairy came by and sprinkled her with pixie dust and granted her a wish. Plus she said her chicken fingers were fantastic. So it was a success even if MrsRW and I spent most the the day squinting and going "wtF?"

So I don't know. We either go to the Walnut Room for breakfasts only or find another place. or change our tradition. This was unacceptable. The tree was great this year and Emma sat where she could have it in view completely while she ate. We have some decisions to make before next year I guess.

It is just about as gray and icy out there as I have ever seen it. It is an unbelievable gray right now. I'm not sure this gray ever showed up in nature before. Like some redheads I've seen.

I commented yesterday to MrsRW that coming down into the city for Christmas anymore will get you one of two things: A. a justified and eternal conviction that humanity is comprised of a bunch of fucking boneheads worthy of hate, disdain and ridicule or B. Christmas back in the city is just a wonderful, colorful, exhilarating joy.

I'll get back to you on that.

Well you'll wish you were here Christmas Eve because I'm making roast beef for the daughters and their associated peoples. Then Christmas Day at the oldest daughter's with the whole family (plus the shoehorn needed to fit us all in there). You know you want to be at my house Friday though. Admit it.

What I haven't told anybody is that I'm back on the stomach-watch. Sad to say at the opening of this month I was (don't hate me) up to my highest ever weight - 213. Oh dear. Last night I came in at 203. I've been doing a spot of running, cutting all portions, no fast food AT ALL, lots of greens, no milk and TONS OF WATER instead of beer or soda pop or anything else at meals. Plus fresh-squeezed lemonade (from real lemons = no corn syrup from the concentrates) and smoothies. And fruit. And more veggies. But that's 10 pounds in 22 days and probably I have a disease because that's a little drastic don't you think? Maybe I'm dying. Who knows?

Yeah I was worried about this week and the poundage because of the holidays and all. I expected to put a stop to this weight loss as of yesterday but luckily dinner was inedible so I didn't screw it up there. What's amazing is that last weekend i took my daughters to Stephanie Izzard's (you know, Top Chef winner season 4 blah blah blah) place and we p-i-g-g-e-d out BIG time. So again - wtf. I probably have cancer or something and don't know it yet. Best I can figure.

And on a lighter note, in the past week I subscribed to TWO anarchist publications. They're so cute. If I wasn't on somebody's list before I will be now. But oh well I'm dying so who cares.

I should be back in beforehand but if I'm not a Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones. Whether you want it or not.

Hitler Parody Redux

These things are a year old but they're still hilarious, especially played in a row. This is all earl's fault anyway.

I'm Actually At Work Killing Time

Since transferring my stuff to the unpublished, "edit post" section of Blogger I've been able to use every spare minute I have to work on the project. Which means it's in yet another incarnation. Oh well. The main thing now is the ORDER in which things happen to the protagonist. Plus the ending has changed seven times and is currently up in the air. Like I said, that's just how I roll. My wife says I love the process more than the product. And she's absolutely right. If I never published another word, nothing would change. At all.
EDIT I just have to be careful never to hit "publish" on those windows or else everybody would be scratching their heads going, "why is RW walking around late at night? He met what where??"

When I lived in D.C. I knew a guy who was completely convinced that he was Edgar Allen Poe in a past life. Nothing, but nothing, could dissuade him from this belief. And he was a dour, depressed, sad, barely communicative little fellow who had the same kind of 1840-ish haircut his other self is photographed with. Kind of like 19th century wing or whatever it's called. The lasting image I have of the guy is his sitting on a staircase with his head in his hands for hours. I asked his girlfriend what's the matter with him, and she shrugged and said "He was Edgar Allen Poe in a past life." Like, "Oh it's Tuesday." That was in the 70s. You wonder what he's doing now. If he didn't blow his brains out by now.

I just did finish reading the biography of Edgar Poe and what a whining, manipulative hypochondriac he was. Always begging to borrow money, trying to set up the next wife while the other one is dying. Manic depressive to be sure. There really wasn't anything dark or mysterious about him except for when he binged-drank he disappeared. Big whoop. I love some of his stuff. Some. But there's no deep mystery going on with the guy. He was just an untreated nutjob.

On a somewhat related side note (speaking of nutjob). People's upsetness would probably be more effective if they let other people know what the hell they were upset about. The chances are pretty good that if someone doesn't know what they did to piss off somebody else it wasn't intentional. Folks that just walk away and I never know why and can't remember what I may have done were probably looking for an excuse to get whanked, did something they are embarrassed about, and can basically kiss my ass.

Back to past lives. I know there's plenty of folks who believe in them. I don't, but who is to say? So I don't ever argue against it even though my instinct tells me... "meh." Who knows, though, really? I just hitch a little when it's always somebody famous. Why are there no drunken shit-heads and if you're a spirit and not a body how come the past life is always the same sex you are now? I mean, not everybody thinks this way and I'm not ripping it at all. I mean the way the universe works I could easily see people who are white bigots now having been black slaves a couple of lifetimes ago, and guys in the Nation of Islam being their owners. That would be pretty funny.

What's funny? When I do posts with multiple topics it's always interesting to see which of the folks making comments pick up on which of the topics. Sometimes the thing I think is the main push behind the varied subjects is not what others think it is. But as I'm writing for faithfuls Sybil and Earl pretty much anymore, you could expect that kind of thing, I'd say. (insert smiley)

Gotten some communication that it's sometimes hard to comment here. I don't know why. You can't block specific people and I have it set to "anybody", so it ain't me. I have no idea what the Farco Barnes is up with that.