sometimes i hate sarah silverman, but this is pure gold.


The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo

after work yesterday, i went with bessie and some friends to a chili cook-off. on the drive to fitchburg (wtf?), bessie told us that they had already judged the chili and that people were leaving. but, as it turns out, none of us have any shame, and we were real hungry.

there were at least 10 chilis left on the table at this park, including a few vegetarian offers. the first i tried was wonderful, and i wish that girl hadn't left while i was tasting the others. it was just the perfect consistency, with the right amount of every ingredient (by the right i amount, i mean a lot of everything, including garlic). my old downstairs neighbors were there (it was a physics grad student cook-off, so i guess that was the connection) with their "KY special". i happened to know that she is from louisville, but bessie, on the other hand, assumed the main ingredient was a special personal lubricant. that a better chili would make. our regional chili is served 'nati style, with plenty o'noodles. it brought back horrible HORRIBLE memories from the cafeteria at school, except there were no peanut butter and honey sandwiches served on the side. this chili basically has four ingredients, following in descending order by amount:

-spaghetti
-low quality/gristly ground beef
-kidney beans
-stewed tomatoes, halved

it was every bit as obnoxious as it sounds. blech. i was not surprised by this since they were always cooking the nastiest smelling food. brisket, pot roast, meatloaf, you name it. every day is a meatfest on the first floor of 1053 rutledge, let me tell you.

afterwards, we hellions rented 'harold and kumar escape from gitmo' and stopped by the co-op to pick up some munchies. i, being a fatty, bought a bag of lemon snap cookies, a hippy-dippy raw fruit, nut and grain bar, a chocolate-peanut butter brownie and a fake meat strip. i started with the meat strip, which was hickory flavored and ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS. like, it was a little bit greasy/juicy, but it more or less had the texture and taste of meat, and the hickory sauce was so good. i thought it'd be really overprocessed, but it was a bunch of simple, natural ingredients, so i'm hooked. i definitely wanna try the hot'n'spicy one, too. anyway, we watched harold & kumar, and i must say i haven't laughed so hard in ages (perhaps since i saw H&K go to white castle). it's non-stop physical comedy, with plenty of political commentary and love shit thrown in for good measure. and it's over the top. i feel like it's a movie i should own, which i'm not embarrassed to say.

it's rainy and cool and fall-like here today, so i'm staying in, listening to new tunes and eating. i made chocolatey steel-cut oatmeal and quinoa with bananas and almonds for breakfast. i loves me some healthy chocolate for breakfast. mm. at some point, i'll probably watch 'the house of yes', as well. seems like the perfect rainy-and-dark-fall-day movie, no?

apparently, ben misses me a lot. cute little fucker.

duh, faggotress!

ok, so i started playing around on LJ and found some more fun layouts. not sure i'll stick with this one, but i kinda like it so far. figured it was time for a change, anyway. i really dig the trees at the top. they look like birch, and they have eyes. the trees have eyes. yup. i hated my old, blind-person text, too.

this was an insane weekend with the forward music festival going on. there was also the willy street fair, which occupied a few hours of my time on both saturday and sunday. plus work.

forward seemed to turn out pretty well, though i feel like some of the shows were under attended (neko, for instance). taylour and i started friday evening at the frequency, seeing a willy st. local while having our first beer. afterwards, we headed to the orpheum for neko case. she was great, as usual, and played a LOT of new music, which i can't wait to hear again when her album comes out next year. she's such an amazing songwriter. that red hair gets me everytime, though they obviously use the stage lights to enhance it, plus she puts it up and down every 5 seconds. after neko, i headed to the majestic for monotonix (an israeli rock/metal band), leslie and the lys and dan deacon. it was a performance art night, or something like that. monotonix is insane - they were moshing all over the entire theatre, spewing beer on people, chugging other peoples beers, spewing those beers on other people, grinding middle-aged ladies heads and in general causing a ruckus. matt gerding (part owner) looked like he was going to have a stroke. it was a short but intense set. leslie was next - she had some major mic issues at the beginning, but she was wonderful as usual. also, a short set. dan deacon was last, and he started after 1, which didn't make a lot of sense since the majestic closes earlier than other bars (stupid liquor license). i went into it not being the biggest dan deacon fan ever, and came out still not getting it. he's just some frumpy dude making the bad kind of electronic music while retarded fans jump about the room. maybe i'm just too old for that shit.

went to burrito drive, slept 3 hours friday night, then went to work at 8 on saturday morning. good times. saturday, after attending the willy street fair with bess (and sharing a funnel cake), i took a little nap to get ready for saturday night's shows. i could've been watching local and/or no-name bands all day long, but i knew i'd be up late again. bessie and i caught OCD automatic at the majestic, then stayed for flosstradomus (a group of DJs who play decent tunes). OCD was really fun (especially his mix of whitney's "dance with somebody"). flosstradomus was actually really fun, too - i danced my ass off until ~closin' time.

slept 3 hours saturday night, then went to work at 8 on sunday morning. sound familiar? ugh. work was easy sunday (worked the west shift which = typing "areas of morning fog, then becoming sunny" 7 different ways for california papers, and "mostly cloudy, chance of showers" 4 different ways for seattle). sunday afternoon, bessie, taylour, leah and i explored the expanded willy street fair. i swear to god, that place offers the BEST people watching in madison, wisconsin, USA. we grabbed some food, sat on the curb and watched the freaks stroll by. if you're thinking "it sounds like heaven", it was. i had some tofu pad thai from the corner store followed by a waffle cone full of pumpkin-gingersnap ice cream from the chocolate shoppe. mmmm. for obvious reasons, i also ate a giant slice of pestoral pizza from the roman candle, followed by 47 garlic-rosemary crackers with hummus.

after getting a total of about 7 hours of sleep over the weekend, i was ready to die. i was in bed by 7:45 and asleep by 8. i did not wake up once until 6 a.m. this morning. 10 hours of sleep = heaven. i was wide awake, so i went to the gym at 6:30, and here i am, waiting for the fog to burn off so i can enjoy another sunny and warm afternoon. speaking of areas of morning fog, then becoming sunny....

madison is the new california.

WHITE!



good lord.

hi, my name is andy, and i'm an american apparelaholic.

a pre-landfall wobble to the northeast appears to have spared galveston and houston the worst of ike's surge waters, as the eye passed directly over galveston, rather than 10 to 15 miles to the west. that's not to say that extensive damage hasn't occurred, but the extreme scenario warned about for days was shifted a bit to the east of galveston, where the population is much lower. obviously, we won't know the full extent of damage for weeks or months, but it is likely that ike will rival some of the worst hurricanes we've seen over the last 50 years. 

this is a scary, SCARY situation setting up for the houston/galveston area on friday night and early saturday. ike remains a category 2 storm at this hour, but conditions remain favorable for further strengthening once the inner eye collapses and a new one develops (which appears to be happening now). assuming a strong cat 3 or weak cat 4 at landfall just west of galveston bay, ike's surge will inundate MOST of galveston, with water surging up the houston shipping channel into the southeast side of houston, as well. this is a rare occurrence, so let's all hope the evacuation process runs smoothly today and tomorrow. otherwise, as the governor of TX has warned, the loss of life will be significant (on the order of tens of thousands if people think they can ruff it out). there are 6 million folks living in the houston metro area - more than 6 times as many as lived in new orleans, pre-katrina.

never mind the fact that many buildings in galveston will be completely wiped away into galveston bay (and perhaps into houston itself). the northern and western parts of the city are just high enough to escape a significant surge, but that part of the city will see the worst of the winds, so structural damage will still be significant. the greatest loss of life typically comes from the storm surge, however.

ike will probably have hurricane-force winds all the way up to dallas, with flooding rains spreading from TX and LA into the mississippi valley and eventually the ohio valley. we'll feel ike's effects here in madison on sunday, in the form of a few sprinkles and windy conditions.

assuming ike reaches cat 3/4 (or 5?!) intensity, the economic loss may approach $100 billion when all is said and done. if ike were to make landfall east of galveston, the loss would be much less; however, at this point, it seems most likely that houston/galveston will bear the brunt of this hurricane.

whoa, momma. so last night i went to a post-birthday shindig at a family-of-a-friend's house in the nabe and enjoyed a few frosty beverages. the wisconsin ironman tri was yesterday, and it was still going on after dark, so a few of us crawled up to MLK to watch and cheer on the last of the finishers. talk about inspirational. most of the last few coming through the finish line were 50-somethings or older, including one 72-year-old man who was fit as a fiddle. if someone as old as my grandmother can do it, anyone can. we stayed right up until the cut off at midnight. i watched the start at 7 a.m. on my way to work. can you imagine 17 hours of near-constant motion?!?! it kinda makes me want to train for a mini, but i'm not sure i have the stamina or focus to train for something like that at this point in my life. plus, the swimming part scares me. i have the body for it, but the last time i swam i thought i was gonna have a heart attack. granted, that was like 15 years ago.

promptly afterwards, simone and i made an impromptu stop into natt spil on our way home and closed the place down, half flirting with the bartender and getting free shots and $2-pbrs the entire couple of hours. i woke up at 10:30 today, and i think it's safe to say i feel like death warmed over. it was kind of a perfect night, though.

rebecca leeman = sarah palin. actually, sarah may turn out to be a bit more like rebecca's mother, gladys, but still. SCARY!

that sarah palin sure is a charmer. and the clip of her daughter licking her hand to fix trig's hair? god bless america! it was oh so painfully clear which parts of that speech she didn't write. i can't wait for a debate/something slightly less staged.

wtf was up with her son chewing gum and acting like an 11-year old, though?!?

i'm settling back into my place this morning by enjoying some/too much delicious coffee and listening to the last few weeks of 'this american life', including the break-up episode. i totally know EVERYONE goes through these things, but it's great to hear it all put together in a concise and funny little public radio show. it's not like ben and i have actually broken up, but the emotions are basically the same. the first bit of the show follows a woman who copes with a break up by writing a song (which she plays for phil collins, on air. eek). so maybe in my free time, which is plentiful these days, i'll write a silly sad song, which i will most certainly not play for mr. collins.

more and more these days, particularly after this vacation, i'm finding myself ready to leave madison. part of the funk i've been in has a lot to do with being bored at work. a lot of friends have left/are leaving, and i feel like my job is going nowhere fast. newspapers are folding left and right, and i guess more than anything i'm worried i won't have a job when i show up at work one day. we're having a big meeting tomorrow to discuss these things and where our department is going. change is good, and it's certainly something i need in my life more frequently than most others (i think), so i hope good things are about to happen. i'm checking the job boards daily, so you'll all be the first to know when i find a better option.

there is a lot of inspiration around, and i admire the people who are doing wonderful things with their lives. my friend simone saved up a ton of money and is about to embark on a year-long tour of the world, starting in argentina on september 11th. she'll eventually head to new zealand, and later asia. k-gap followed her love to the west coast and is starting a new and exciting life in portland (cat pee and all). y'all know the story of ben and nyc. i'm totally inspired by my uncles lifestyle, even if it is in part due to their excessive salaries. anyway, it's not that i'm feeling sorry for myself, it's just that the cards haven't necessarily been in my favor lately, and i'm not quite sure how to go about turning them just yet. one thing i must do is get rid of my debt, which seems more and more difficult all the time. perhaps i'm making poor decisions in what i do with what little money i make. boo frickin' hoo. so many people have it much much worse, and i totally know i'm lucky to have the life i do.

that said, with all the changes going on in the world (and the weather), i'm ready for change myself. it was nice to come home to a brief bit of summer yesterday, but i'm so glad to have the windows open right now (and sweatpants on, and socks - either of which i NEVER wear). the remnants of hurricane gustav are about to give us a big soaking tomorrow - it actually looks to be a rather raw day, with temps barely making it above 60 and a stiff breeze to boot. tomorrow apparently will be the first time the remnants of a hurricane have passed over southern wisconsin in 20 years. that's a bit hard to believe since we got them all the time in southern indiana. we need the rain, and in an indirect way, we have hannah to thank for what will fall tomorrow. that storm is probably gonna cause a ruckus along the eastern seaboard this weekend, and then ike will raise hell somewhere along the US coast next week.

and then before we know it, it'll be snowing again. ugh ugh ugh.

who wants to place bets on when palin is kicked off the ticket? my uncles think it'll be before the end of the week. how awesome would it be if it actually happens? i'm just afraid that if she stays on, there will be enough retards in this country who believe the republican talking points (which make no fucking sense!!) to ensure a mccain win. bah. i'm so glad gustav stole the thunder from the RNC without doing too much damage in the south. hannah may do the same in the southeast later this week, with ike probably hitting the U.S. next week. these are not good times to be living south of the mason-dixon line.

i'm sitting on my uncles front porch at the moment, just waiting for the next train to take me to newark while enjoying the last piece of peach pie and a cup of coffee. phil and arthur left early this morning to catch the first train back to the city. i'm completely obsessed with the mass public transit system on the east coast. i know it pales in comparison to some countries in asia and probably europe, but it is so easy to get pretty much anywhere. NJ transit has a stop 4 blocks from here (their place is in the woods, about a half mile from the ocean), and the train will take me directly to newark in a bit over an hour.

this place is absolutely beautiful, and i'll miss it immensely, as always. we got four really good days on the beach, and now it's finally starting to sink in that summer is coming to an end (even though madison will be close to 90 today, something that still hasn't happened this summer!). my uncles introduced me to several new (to me) types of yoga and meditation, and i think i can take something with me from here to deal with rough times i have at home (i.e. missing ben, hating my job, etc.).

ben and i had a really good day together in the city last week, and i did end up staying the night. i contemplated heading back up to the city last night to see him, but i think maybe it would've been a bad idea. as it is, i can barely keep it together. i don't know when i'll see him again - perhaps christmas, but more likely not until next year. that in itself will be all the closure i need, since we technically never broke up. he was an absolute sweetheart, goddammit. called me 'babe' (which never happened before), and asked me when i was moving to nyc (which never happened before). fuck.

life goes on, and it's about time to finish packing and head out the door. to those friends who haven't left madison yet - see ya soon.

s'ok to be gay.

k. chenoweth = a classy jerri blank. please watch.

call me a sexist all you want - electing this woman as next-in-line to the presidency would set women's rights back 80 bajillion years. gimme a break.

who agrees to this sort of thing when you just gave birth 4 months ago?! also, if you watch the coverage of her acceptance speech in dayton, mccain is standing over her fucking shoulder, reading her speech as she goes along the entire time. hello, creepy mccreepygeezer! gross.

what scares me most is that this is the sort of thing that could shockingly win repubs the election. i have no more faith in america after the '04 election.

i leave you with this extra special quote, taken from gov. palin herself -

As for that V.P. talk all the time, I’ll tell you, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the V.P. does every day? I’m used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration. We want to make sure that that V.P. slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans and for the things that we’re trying to accomplish up here for the rest of the U.S., before I can even start addressing that question.

the plane from madison made it to ewr nearly an hour early. as long as i live in madison, i'll never fly out of any other airport. 12 people on a plane? leaving early? 5 minutes from door to gate? yes, please.

i'm having a wonderful day with ben. had breakfast near washington square park, shopped, got a couple of books for the beach, bought way too much at h&m and uniqlo (my new favorite store. it's a japanese gap for fashion-forward dorks). saw a squirrel eat an organic candy bar out of a wrapper. watched 5 people use their iphones to take pictures of said squirrel. listened to a tourist say 'only in new york' at said squirrel. yeah, this is the life. ;)

oh, and we just saw jamie from 'shortbus' walkin' down the street in the village. ya know, the guy who sucks his own dick at the beginning and tries to kill himself later? yeah, that one. gimme some.

i'm having a lot of fun with ben. happy times, for sure. we're chilling at starbucks now (wretch), but i have free internet and needed to catch up on email (and gustav, and my blog). i haven't decided if i'm going to jersey on friday morning, or perhaps later.

tonight, probably having dinner in brooklyn then goin' out in williamsburg.

my camera is dead, so i probably won't have many (or any) fun pics to share from the trip. i'll just have to be real good with my words. wish me luck!

i'm supposed to fly out a bit after 6 tonight. fuckin faa.