Wednesday, November 30, 2005

next show for the mo syzlak experience

had a really good rehearsal last night for the upcoming show at earthlink live. nick's new songs sound great and it's nice to have a full out band behind him.

click here for nick's website and a preview of his new album. his first single, 'what you deserve,' just started getting some radio play (in richmond, va...go figure). we're playing five cuts off the album.

here's the promo poster for the show:



the show is part of a series of battle of bands that culminates with the winners getting a slot on the summer warped tour.

showtime is 9:00 at vinyl (the smaller venue inside earthlink live). if any reader is interested, tickets ahead of time (through me) are $5. an outrageous $15 at the door. sorry. we don't get to set the door price. who the hell are they expecting to pay $15 for some bands that no one has heard of? i sure as hell wouldn't...but it would be great to see some folks there (and you vote for us, too)

while i was pumped after last night's practice, i paid the piper afterwards. had to get our acquisition model to our bankers by this morning. got home at 10:30 to crank through what i figured would be two hours of work, max. five hours later, murphy's law demanded that when one finishes work at 3:00 AM, the internet connection won't work.
thankfully i could hijak my neighbor's wireless signal and send it off. 7:30 am came too soon this morning.

i complain a lot, but i do it to myelf. had i not had band practice last night, i would have been done working around midnight (kind of sick that i consider 7:30 AM to 12:00 AM reasonable). am cranking again today, but that's b/c i have a soccer game tonight. am pretty pumped, as i am starting with a new team tonight in the silverbacks premier league. our team is not to good, but the competition is going to be top-notch.

Monday, November 28, 2005

now that's what a i call a taco

i love taco town.

click here.


[safe to play at work]

Saturday, November 26, 2005

other niceville reunion highlights

recreating the pre-prom shot in your date's family room:


proof that some things never change: the cool kids had their own table:





this dude was the pimpest guy in the entire town. first, he was dressed in LEATHER head to toe. leather shirt. leather jacket. leather pants. leather hat. second, he is the manager at a nude resort. third, he had cat's eye contact lens:



mrs. wintermute with some friends:



overall, we had a good time. kind of a rip-off, though, at $90 a plate. the food was a mediocre buffet and there was a cash bar (i mean, for $90 i expect a fricking open bar!).

on the way there, mrs. wintermute laid down some ground rules for the night.


thing to minimize:
  1. don't bring up dragon-con, sci-fi conventions, or my love for star wars
  2. don't make lots of inside jokes, including catch phrases like "flipping out like a ninja"
  3. don't try copping a feel once i get a few beers in me
things to share freely:
  1. i went to harvard
  2. i'm gainfully employed in a decent job
  3. i like sports

priceless

two tickets to your wife's 10 yr reunion: $180

toll booth on the mid-bay bridge: $5


bar tab: $23



value of bouquet received after your wife wins runner-up in the "best looking-female" superlative category: $32


finding out that the chick who won first place has a kid (allegedly with a married man), lives at home with her parents, and is a substitute teacher: priceless

Friday, November 25, 2005

overheard from the dining table

i've spent 70% of this holiday head down, working on the laptop.

closing an acquisition at the end of the year sucks.

some snippets from mrs. w's family that amuse me:

  1. "great day in the morning." my mother-in-law's favorite phrase this week. i'm not sure what it means. something good.
  2. a 45 minute debate over what time the trash will be picked up. repeated declarations that "this is that last thing i'm saying about it"
  3. "putting the trivial pursuit pie piece in your belly button is fun"
  4. "it's not your fart." (ok, this one is an old inside joke that requires frequent repeating at every family get together).

Thursday, November 24, 2005

wish for secret santa

my friends from emory are doing a secret santa/hanaukah harry/curry krishna gift exchange.

i don't know who drew my name, but whomever it is, you may want to consider this awesome find (thanks to boing-boing) for my wish list. it's a little bit above our agreed-upon spending limit, but it would go perfectly in my apartment.




here's the link.

here's the description from ebay:

This item is a full size replica of C-3PO from Star Wars "A New Hope".

No home is complete without your very own protocol droid. He stands on his own, his eyes light up and there is a speaker in the head for a sound system that the winning bidder could add (sound system not included). The head is moveable from left to right (by hand, not motorized).
This c-3po was on the cover of Make Magazine's second issue. This item has taken me 3 years to bring to the point it is now. He is very near completion and only needs a few details. I make no claims to its accuracy, but rather its a best guess.
The torso, arms and head were scratch built by me. The Arms are PVC, everything else is fiberglass. Starting as clay sculpts and then plaster molds, I was able to make the torso up. The rear plate on the torso is hinged and opens for access to the eye lights and speaker wires.
The waist and legs are also fiberglass and made from Vacuumed formed parts (rumored to be from the Disney Star Tours walk around suit). The actual vac formed parts were not at a quality good enough to use as the droid so I used them as molds. This was much better in the end as the fiberglass is very strong and repairable. The feet and hands are some form of resin.
The detail "pistons" are all made from wood and I would suggest replacing them with resin details. I can give the winner a contact email to get the details as needed. The Pistons on the sides of the knees are the only detail I did not make and add to the prop.
The legs have a metal tube for support and are foam filled to keep the body parts in place. The torso and head are removable. The arms are attached to the torso and cannot be removed.

The finish is Gold Leafed and clear lacquered. I have weathered him for that "new hope look". Also the Black cloth section at the waist with the wires will need to be remade. I did not make it with a big enough waist size so it does not meet in the back (see pics)

SHIPPING: The Item will be shipped in 2 large boxes through UPS. Once the auction ends and I have received the primary payment, I will then box it up and get a quote. Once you decide which shipping quote to go with then you will send the shipping payment. I will have to take this to a "pack and ship" style store, winner will be responsible for the packing costs (I will cover the cost initially, but it will be added to the shipping cost).

giving thanks (pt4)

today i'm thankful for everyone that reads the blog, especially the regulars: the beav, nobf, shoobie, jen, slim shady, moe, joe, prixby, brie, bloodninja, cindy. i'm flattered anytime anyone reads, even more so if anyone reads regularly.

big up to the messenger for putting me on her blog's short list.

and to first time visitors: thanks for stopping by.

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

pulp fiction

this just in: mrs. wintermute, jeremy, and i all like oj with pulp

jeremy is soaking the turkey in a saltwater brine. it's outrageous.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

part 1 revisited

holy shit, i forgot to give thanks to my dad and my in-laws!!!!!!!!!

ok, many thanks to my pops. he's my role model in so many ways and i'm always trying to make him proud. but i think i befuddle him somtimes:




and jerry and susan have been the best in-laws i could have hoped for. they've always welcomed like a family member from day one. they're big on the important stuff and could care less about the stupid stuff that some people get hung up on (religion, race, etc). and they're letting mrs. w and i stay in the same room this week!

giving thanks (pt3)

since i probably won't have internet access at the in-law's, i figured i'd blog what i could before we hit the road this afternoon.

so, part three of my giving thanks: i'm thankful for the great crew in atlanta. having moved here in '96, moved away in '00, moved back in '01, moved away in '03, and moved back in '05, it's become a great patchwork of friends from work, school, soccer, and sometimes i'm not sure where.


the herndons. besides having a flipping sweet dog and wicked back yard patio, they are just about our favorite couple. and we share a love for boston.



moe and joe keep it real. all the time.



shoobie + katztronic. my blogging role model who sets the standard for bloggers everywhere.

additionally, mrs. wintermute's friends from the psych program have become great friends to me in the last four years (holy shit, it's been four year?!?!). we've done a lot of trips together, had three weddings, and they've always made me feel welcome into their crew.


the psychology girls + some strange dude that wandered into our party


kelly + heather




it's nice to have some dudes around, too. esp when they can kick as much ass as dan and keith. they're also great for when we have to move furniture.

and of course, jen and vijay. i have jen to thank for katie, and for so much. and vijay for constant entertainment.

giving thanks (pt2)

today, i'm thankful for the great friends i made in boston. there's a few of you of whom i don't have picture, so i'll give you a quick shout: chen, tamara, santi, kaiser, patrick, ryan, and the soccer team.
treves+wintermute+fu tan clan. after being a cosy threesome for 1.5 years, treves and fu decided to get a little cosier our last semester of b school. it got a little weird. but not too weird.

1/2 of the study group: nobf + slim shady. spending the first hour of our day, ever day, at 7:30 is a strange bonding experience. me and treves make up the other 1/2.

king friday


the original mpg. who knew we could milk a joke about gerbils for so long?


mpg. he defines loyal and generous. here he is showing wintermute what a fight strap is used for before the bruins game a couple of weeks ago.

mpg + jayne. this pic is really for jayne. well, it's also for mpg to be able to remind her what a sweet guy he is when he's in trouble. both are family to me and made boston about a gajillion times better.

and now the altanta-hbs crew (well, most of it):

andria+ricardo+the newest family member

errol's better half + aj

steve+demetria. neighbors in boston, and now we live a 100 apart in atlanta

big up to aloka and nina. unfortunately, i don't have any pics.




Monday, November 21, 2005

giving thanks (pt1)

for thanksgiving i'm going to blog a mini-series of posts about the things that i'm most thankful for. will be in the order that they come to mind, not any kind of hierarchy or preference. that being said, the first one is mrs. wintermute, of course. my best friend and the love of my life:
my brother. my oldest friend. could not have asked for a better best man. pictured here with his super-cool lady, heather:

sunir + heather

my large and always loving family:

ba + mom


mpg + jayne


ankan+mgp+joe+shena+shan de la shan


my adorable nieces

1 down, 359 to go

just talked to my loan company to set up my first student loan payment due next month.

me: "so, how many payments do i have on this loan?"

loan officer: "well, you have 30 years."

holy shit.

"30? years?"

"yes sir. that's 360 payments. 359 after you make this one."


i will be 57 when i'm done paying these loans. i may even be paying them after my yet-to-be-even-thought-of kids finish college.

the good news is that loan consolidation rocks. it lowered my monthly payment from $460 to $162, with NO net increase in cost (the beauty of federal student loans is that they are not term-driven).

no such consolidation exists for my private loans through citi bank. fukstix.

worst best man toast. ever

anne + tom's first dance, on the bay



a few weeks ago, mrs. wintermute and i visited camp beckwith for the wedding of anne, one of her old room mates. it was a homecoming of sorts for mrs. w because she attended camp beckwith growing up. it's a
really beautiful place on the mobile (emphasis on the first syllable, you yankees), AL bay.

here
are the pics of the wedding; here are the pics of us touring the camp.

anne and tom had an afternoon wedding and an early evening reception outdoors. this made it possible to enjoy our food and drinks on the bay while the sun was setting. great crowd, great dj, even a couple who apparently had some kind of professional dance training. it actually was pretty intimidating. the advice i got as a wee lad was to not worry about how i looked on the dance floor and just relax. well, that works until you see someone next to you who actually knows how to dance. who looks like a contestant from 'so you think you can dance.'


anyway, after the cake cutting the best man got up to give what was the worst best man toast that i had ever heard. i feel that i have room to talk here b/c i've given one pretty decent best man speech and i was on the receiving end of an amazing one from my brother this summer. what made this toast horrendous was not that he insulted anyone, or that he got up and drunkenly stumbled through an incoherent rant. in actuality, he seemed pretty sober. his cardinal sins were twofold:
  1. he didn't know anne at all
  2. he talk about himself almost the entire time
now, infraction #1 is not all the unusual. i can't say that my brother really knew mrs. w that well when we got married. however, to try and talk about the bride really made this dude look stupid. he based his entire toast on the premise that anne is a psychologist. well she is. but not a *clinical* psychologist (the kind that does therapy). she is an engineering psychologist (the kind that designs user interfaces for things like ATMs).

key point, wouldn't you think?
now, let me say that before i met mrs w, i barely knew clinical psychology from clinical gynecology. it's not that i expect everyone to know this difference. but if you're going to base an entire toast at someone's wedding on what they do, you may want actually know that is.

so the best man rambles on about psychotherapy, oblivious to anne's reaction.
this, by itself, is a fairly forgivable mistake. so he made a bad assupmtion. not the end of the world.

the toast centers on his interpretation of a some japanese image exercise where you picture a ladder, a rock, and a tree (or something like that) and then interpret that image (i pictured a large rock which means i like to be an anchor for my friends, etc). whether or not this crap is valid is beside the point. the best man talks for five minute about HIS image! who the fuck cares about what he thinks?!?! it's not his wedding! and then he didn't even say anything about tom (the groom). no funny stories, not advice, nothing.
i would have yanked his best man status away from him on the spot.

thankfully, he shut up and we moved on to eating the cake.

Sunday, November 20, 2005

white people invade MARTA (or, going downtown for the u2 concert)






[my chickenshit pansy ass didn't bring my camera, even though just about everyone else did. so thanks to chap's photostream for pics from last night. props for getting them up so quickly!]

last night rocked big-time. thanks again to mpg for the phat tickets. what a wedding gift!!!

having listened to institute, the opening act, online, we decided they were largely forgettable and skipped their set. no loss.

u2 continued their practice of having a fairly stripped down set. zootv was over the top and pop mart was outrageous (bono commented that it almost bankrupted them), elevation was practically a practice in minimalism. the vertigo set was a bit more done up, with a cool curtain and the now-familiar stage within a stage set up.

here's the set list:

Main Set: City of Blinding Lights, Vertigo, Elevation, I Will Follow, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, Beautiful Day, Happy Birthday, Original of the Species, Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own, Love and Peace or Else, Sunday Bloody Sunday - Rock the Casbah, Bullet the Blue Sky, Miss Sarajevo, Pride, Where the Streets Have No Name, One, MLK

Encore(s): Until the End of the World, Mysterious Ways, With or Without You, The First Time (acoustic), Stuck In a Moment You Can't Get Out Of, Bad



having dead-center seats provided all kinds of great views. as always, bono connected with the crowd so well. his tribute to his dad before 'sometimes you can't make it on your own' was really touching. not to get too cheesey here, but it made me think about how many ways there are to see u2's songs. when i was younger, i really heard the defiance in songs like acrobat, sunday bloody sunday and 40. in college i really heard the heartbreak of songs like so cruel, please, and love is blindness. now, i really hear bono's relationship with his father on so many of the songs.

two encores!?!?! can you beat that?

the only disappointment was not getting to hear 40. mrs. wintermute was thrilled that they played stuck in a moment both nights (rarity on this tour). they did stripped down version, with the edge on acoustic guitar and no drums or bass.

no matter how many times i've heard it on the radio and now seen it concert, the old-standby's are just incredible: sunday bloody sunday, where the streets have no name, i still haven't found what i'm looking for, and one.

heading down to the concert it was amusing to see the giant white invasion of abercrombie-clad clones on marta (atlanta's transit system).

thanks again, mpg for the tix!

Saturday, November 19, 2005

last's night set list

most notably, u2 has resumed ending the show with 40. that could be bad news for me, as they tend to change the set list in cities where they play two shows.

here's what they played on night one in atlanta.

Main Set: City of Blinding Lights, Vertigo, Elevation, Beautiful Day, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - In a Little While, Mysterious Ways, Original of the Species, Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own, Love and Peace or Else, Sunday Bloody Sunday - Rock the Casbah, Bullet the Blue Sky, Miss Sarajevo, Pride, Where the Streets Have No Name, One - Ol' Man River

Encore(s): Until the End of the World, The Fly, With or Without You, Happy Birthday, Stuck In a Moment You Can't Get Out Of, Yahweh, All Because Of You, 40

Friday, November 18, 2005

what was i thinking?

five months ago i declared how to dismantle an atomic bomb disappointing.

what was i thinking?

i've been listening to it non-stop in preparation for saturday night. it's flipping sweet.

city of blinding lights and original of the species harken back to boy and under a blood red sky.

i guess vertigo was just a shitty pick to have as the lead single.

the ticket says no cameras allowed. has anyone tested this at philips? i really, really want to have pics, esp since we have great seats. but i'd hate to lose my new camera. for once, i'm actively soliciting comments.

first tree

growing up, we put together our christmas tree a few days before christmas. this year, for some reason, mrs. w and i felt very motivated to get in the holiday spirit. we found a great tree on craig's list for $35 and some flipping sweet decorations at target.

decorations have gotten much cooler since i was a kid. thanks to george lucas for his wilingness to license star wars on anything and everything:

3PO+darth+yoda


final touches on our first tree

headed to niceville next week for turkey day and spending christmas with my fam in the 'nati. i was sad that i would miss turkey day with my parents (first time ever). my mom, to my suprise, took it in stride. "well, it's not a big deal. we'll see you at christmas."

christmas at the wintermutes will be different for mrs. wintermute. first, there's the obvious one: no church. we're just about the least religious family on earth. not anti-religious, just a-religious. my dad recently went to temple a few times while my mom was visiting our grandmother for a month, but i think it was for the community aspect b/c he got sick of sitting by himself at home. a few years ago my parents had this big revival where they started going to temple regularly. then the temple politics (the jains and hindus share one temple, and the hindus didn't want the jains to put up some of their idols, so the jains were pissed) disgusted them and that was it. i think that about sums up why organized religion does not appeal to me.

in the future, i don't think mrs. wintermute and i will take our munchkins to church or temple or whatever. i do want to try hard for them to retain their cultural heritage (well, the indian part. living in america, it won't be hard to keep the american side!). the hardest part will be language. already my skills have diminished greatly. i learned gujurati from hearing my parents speaking it around the house and having my grandmother live with us. short of enrolling little neo and luke in langugage classes, they won't have any connection.

another big difference is that we are way laid back when it comes to opening gifts. everyone sleeps in until 10, strolls downstairs for a big leisurely breakfast, then we get to the gifts around noon. no sense in getting up early to open gifts while you're cranky.

then we get on the phone and call almost all our relatives to wish them a happy holiday. with a large dispersed family, christmas is just about the one day you can get everyone on the phone at once.

finally, another big difference (a great one at that) is that the day before HAS to include a trip to skyline chili or penn station. can't wait.

obvious

thanks to richard

Thursday, November 17, 2005

country club portrait

bloodninja and cindy had their engagement party two weekends ago, which i unfortunately missed. from all accounts, it was a phat party. now, i know both of you read this blog and that a lot of our close friends do, too. so i'll tread lightly here...

at the entrance to the party, bloodninja's parents had positioned a larger-than-life portrait of the lovely couple. a few observations:
  1. they are the waspiest jewish people i've seen. ever. in the world.
  2. the portrait looks like it was commissioned for a country club sitting or a j.crew catalog
  3. we will make fun of this portrait for a long, long time
  4. i thought parents stopped doing this kind of thing after their child's bar/bat mitzvah
to his credit, bloodninja said he didn't know his parents were going to put it there. here's the beautiful couple:

buffy and preston

if you were the predator...

...this is what bloodninja would look like using your thermal imaging technology

ipod # 1: RIP

the nice folks at the apple store's genius bar confirmed that my ipod is dead. the hard drive is fubar. nothing can be done. thankfully, i've vigilently backed up my music to an external hard drive.

18 months seems like an awfully short life for a $300 piece of technology. when i remarked something to that effect in the store, the apple guy said that it's not unusual. i don't take it to the gym or do much besides plug it into my car stereo or listen to it on the airplane, so it hasn't been knocked around that much.

but here's what really sucks: After reloading my songs on to my new laptop, itunes tell me that i've 3 of my 5 fairplay allotments (old laptop + ipod + new laptop). i'm going to put the songs on mrs. wintermute's ipod. that means when i get a new ipod, i'll have used up my five uses. when mrs. w's mini inevitably dies, we'll have to repurchase those songs (having anticipated this limit, we've been downloading all of our new songs directly to her ipod). i think this is kind of ridiculous. i understand limits on sharing songs, but five machines? come on.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

(the oddest) toliet (in knoxville)

you know the infamous bathroom scene in trainspotting? where ewan mcgregor finds the door marked toliet and the editors inserted text saying "the worst" toliet "in scotland."

last week in knoxville i came across a bizarre bathroom in the knoxville airport, at the private jet hanger.

i've mocked up a diagram. so picture this:


  • walk in the men's room
  • two sinks immediately on the right
  • two urinals past the sinks, also on the right
  • on the left, across from the sinks, are three toliets, WITHOUT STALLS
i mean, what they hell where they thinking? i've seen some stalls that lack doors, but no stalls at all? in a public bathroom? in an airport?

how bad would you have to go in order to crap out in the open like this?

thankfully, i was just there to wash my hands (having spilled half a gallon of gas refilling the rental car) and no one was on the shitter.

i'm not sure which of four scenarios would be the worst:
  1. walking into the bathroom to take a leak or wash one's hands and finding someone shitting out in the open
  2. taking a shit out in the open while people come and go, taking a leak and/or washing their hands (hopefully they follow the former with the latter)
  3. taking a shit, and having someone else come into take a shit. now you're really too close for comfort
  4. walking into to shit and discovering that not only is someone on one of the three toliets, but that he has claimed the middle one. so no matter what, you are sitting next to him.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

one of the greatest wedding gifts...

stage shot courtesy madkiwi's photostream

...came via my cousin mpg: two tickets to u2.

the show is this saturday night at philips arena. we've got great seats.

8 months ago i tried to find these tickets on ebay and the bidding quickly got out of hand. i bailed when the seats costs more than the wedding bands we were shopping for that day.


i know that mpg hauled ass to find them for me, and it probably entailed trading sox-yankees tix. big up, mgp!

this my third time seeing them in concert; mrs. wintermute's first. the set lists look great. i love that there's a bunch of stuff from under a blood red sky (one of my favorites and by far the most under-rated album in the catalog). here's what they played last night in miami:

Main Set: City of Blinding Lights, Vertigo, Elevation, I Will Follow, The Electric Co., I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, Beautiful Day - Blackbird, Original of the Species, Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own, Love and Peace or Else, Sunday Bloody Sunday - Rock the Casbah, Bullet the Blue Sky, Miss Sarajevo, Pride, Where the Streets Have No Name, One - Ol' Man River

Encore(s): Until the End of the World, The Fly, With or Without You, All Because Of You, Walk On, Bad

Monday, November 14, 2005

in my country, this is crazy


kazakh officials are not too happy with borat.

maybe katztronic and moe can intervene?

here is what he said at the mtv music awards:


"There is one singer called Shakira... sorry I laugh because in Kazakhstan this word means vagina. For example, 'Can I touch your shakira?' or 'I have seen your wife's shakira, it hangs like the mouth of a tired dog."

Following Madonna's performance

"That singer before me. Who was it? It was very courageous of MTV to start the show with a genuine transvestite, he was very convincing. It was only his hands and his testi satchels that gave it away."

Introduction to Gorillaz

"There is one singer called Shakira... sorry I laugh because in Kazakhstan this word means vagina. For example, 'Can I touch your shakira?' or 'I have seen your wife's shakira, it hangs like the mouth of a tired dog."

Introducing Green Day

(Borat is dressed in a very revealing wrestling lycra costume), "Hello it is me, Freddy Mercury. I joking, he die of AIDS. It me Borat, I not a la la loo lee. The only sex disease I ever have is gonoreah. 15 times! The ladies like Borat! Now please welcome Coldplay."

At the press conference "My 13-year-old son is travelling here by foot, with his two wives and his three childrens." "If he survives the journey I have promised him that he can make penetration with Colombian prostitute Shakira."


"Unfortunately my wife was unable to leave Kazakhstan as she is a woman... this is a good news, she is a boring. High Five!!!"
the response, from bbc.com:

Kazakh foreign ministry spokesman Yerzhan Ashykbayev did not detail what form any action might take.

But speaking to journalists at a news briefing in capital Astana, he said: "We do not rule out that Mr Cohen is serving someone's political order designed to present Kazakhstan and its people in a derogatory way."

He said Kazakhstan reserves the right to take legal action to "prevent new pranks of the kind".

Mr Ashykbayev described the comedian's MTV appearance as "utterly unacceptable, being a concoction of bad taste and ill manners which is completely incompatible with ethics and civilised behaviour".

A spokesman for the Kazakhstan Embassy in London said he could not immediately confirm the report from the Reuters news agency.

destroy explorer

i like anything that:

  • Script autodetects IE
  • Displays switch splash screen to IE users
  • Switches people to Firefox
  • Three levels of seriousness
  • Google gives you referral money for switches
  • Infuriates Microsoft
click here.

Number One Blog Fan

Big up and happy birthday to NOBF.

Here's slim shady and nobf in beacon hill last weekend at my favorite brunch spot, the paramount.


more about the weekend to come, soon

Sunday, November 13, 2005

it's 8:50, do you know where your wife is?

8:30 am: mrs w rolls out of bed. i see her walk towards the stairs out of one sleepy eye
"where ya going?"
"uh, downstairs"

8:31 am: that's kind of weird. i guessing she's feeling motivated to get the coffee maker started. but still, saturdays are for sleeping in! oh well.

8:40 am: hmm, why don't i hear anything downstairs?

8:41 am: call out her name with no response. weird

8:42 am: go downstairs. where the hell is she? not in the guest room (where her closet is). not in the bathroom (on the off chance she wanted to start the day with a bath).

8:43 am: call her cell phone. shit, it's sitting right here on the counter.

8:45 am: ok, pull it together. check if her keys are gone. yup. look in the garage to see if her car is gone. yup. ok, she probably went to san francisco coffee to get us breakfast.

8:46 am: wait, her keys are in my car from last night. run to my car. they're on the floor. run back to the apt. her spareset is gone. but the ipod is still here.

8:47 am: two scenarios emerge:
  1. she went to get us breakfast
  2. she came downstairs to get something and surprised an armed intruder. he forced her out at gunpoint and is making her drive him somewhere.
8:48 am: calm the fuck down. get my heart down. her purse is gone. that's good. an intruder probably wouldn't tell her to take her purse.

8:49 am: could she have gone to early morning yoga? hmm, odd that she wouldn't even say good morning, but maybe she didn't want to wake me up. should i call jen? yeah, i'll call jen. leave somewhat frantic message with jen.

8:50 am: call moe. he's an eagle scout. shit, he's not up. leave message

8:51 am: emily and jim will know what to do. but they might be sleeping in. ok, call the beav's cell phone. leave message

8:53 am: i should eat breakfast. and where the hell are my glasses? i can't see anything. gotta calm down. can't eat breakfast. imagine the article: while his wife is abducted, psychopathic husband eats cereal and reads npr.org.

9:00 am: mrs wintermute walks in with two bags of groceries, takes one look at my face and says, "uh oh, i had a feeling you might freak out." she went to publix to surprise me with banana pancakes, oj, and bacon.

she's the best wife ever.

i'm the most paranoid husband ever.

Friday, November 11, 2005

immature

yesterday, while interviewing someone who will be senior to me on the team, i was listening to his story about a healthcare technology project he worked on at his current job.

he was telling me about how it can be used for dynamic imaging in diagnosing breast cancer.

i actually had to bite my cheek to keep from snickering when he said "breast." thankfully he said it only once.

i must be 14 years old.

immature

yesterday, while interviewing someone who will be senior to me on the team, i was listening to his story about a healthcare technology project he worked on at his current job.

he was telling me about how it can be used for dynamic imaging in diagnosing breast cancer.

i actually had to bite my cheek to keep from snickering when he said "breast." thankfully he said it only once.

i must be 14 years old.

long days

i love knoxville.

but driving at 5 am to make an 8:30 meeting is getting old. especially twice a week.

I 75 N did not smell as bad as southbound did, thankfully.

having the private jet for the return leg is my saving grace.

the flight from k'ville to peachtree-dekalb is shorter than my daily commute from inman park to alpharetta. laughable.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

high tech dutch oven...

...is when you rip one in the elevator, jump out at the next floor, and then, knowing that your friend(s) has to ride it up to the top floor, hit all of the buttons before he can jump out.

this crime was perpetrated on me last weekend.

you call that a commute?

i'm beginning to hate knoxville. it's too close to fly but still a shity 3 hour drive. and it looks like i'll spend a lot of the next six months on this acquisition.

shit.

i used to think commuting from inman park to alpharetta sucked. can you even call driving three hours each way a commute?

got up at 5 to drive to knoxville, have meetings (albeit, fairly important and productive ones) and then drive back. got home at 8. not really that long of a workday, but spending six hours of it in the car blows.

my saving grace was that david my team mate likes the same kind of music and is cool with driving with all of the windows rolled down.

I-75 has also become unbelievably smelly. i don't know when or how this happened, b/c i've driven the portion from knoxville to atlanta 30+ times (same route as coming from my parents' house to emory during college). here are the smells we experienced last night:
  • just south of knoxville: 40 foot pile of dirty diapers
  • south of dayton, TN and cleveland, TN: rotting roadkill
  • dalton, GA: skunk
  • rome, GA: sweet bbq (which was a relief)
upon checking the b/berry at home last night, discovered that i need to be back in knoxville all day friday.

sweet.

Monday, November 07, 2005

12 months until the next wedding

it has been a jam-packed year for weddings: seven this past year (including mine).

amazingly, no weddings for twelve months, until bloodninja's.

in good news, he officially asked me to be in his wedding party last night, which is awesome. we have an excellent crew.

in the Sometimes It's Such a Small World It's Annoying category, my ex-girlfriend is the maid of honor.

mrs. wintermute finds it slightly bemusing (ever so slightly, at that).

instead of weddings, this upcoming year will feature: babies.

(not mine).

the first wave of friends to get married a few years ago are now the first wave to pop out munchkins.

Thursday, November 03, 2005

boston is great when the tundra recedes

ahh, akhbar and i enjoyed many idylic walks down this path

walking around boston today i felt a real tinge of nostalgia. sun reflecting offf of bright orange leaves, crisp air rolling in off the charles river, thousands of students converging on harvard square speaking a multitude of languages. what's not to like?

i actually miss the big h. there's such an energy on campus. students have this air of earnestness that the real world somehow punctured. i don't want to sound jaded, but office folk seem so deflated in comparison. this morning, 2nd year students lined up in the lobby of my hotel, waiting for their name to be called, as mckinsey was holding first round interviews. when i got to campus, 800 first year students were gathered in four and five person study groups, laptops outs, spreadsheets open, spilling oatmeal on their cases while debating activity-based costing or 360 reviews or the chick they talked to at the kong last night.

having breakfast with 900 type A fanatics will kill you or make you a morning person


i'm ignoring the fact that it snowed last weekend here. autumn in boston is tough to beat. here are some good pics.


harvard skyline, looking out into allston, from my hotel room


student center


yup, the buildings really have ivy on the walls


they closed baker library, the jewel of the campus, for renovations the day before i arrived and finished it on commencement day. today was the first time i got walk inside

you just don't get leaves like this in georgia