A Day Like All Days

This weekend gmjambear and I have been busy exhuming the pond in the backyard. The pond was constructed of a Rubbermaid 150-gallon stock tank, a length of drain pipe that goes we know not where, a whole lot of dirt (backfilled against the fence, which is why it all has to come out) and a retaining wall. We'd gotten most of the retaining wall removed over the year or so since we made the decision to replace the fence.

Yesterday we managed to get most of the remaining bricks from the base of the retaining wall moved, and the dried mud and gravel out of the tub itself. As we worked I noticed a tall and muscular young dude at the house behind us across the alley, who was wearing a pair of really tight, stretchy gray shorts and no shirt; and also a small poodle-mix dog (perhaps a cockapoo) who left us a present in the small patch of lawn between the temporary fence and the alley.

After sifting a few wheelbarrow loads of dirt and rocks, we were done for the day and decided to have dinner at Buzz Inn on Evergreen. We saw a number of cute daddybears and their kids passing by our table as they left. Cue Gary: "aw, hell no." After dinner we finished up some laundry and surfed the net a bit before I decided to call it a night.

I woke up about quarter to six to find Gary had made an excursion downtown. When I came downstairs for breakfast around nine-thirty, I saw Gary was back, but had been up all night, so I gently encouraged him to get some sleep. After breakfast I picked up the present the dog had left, and while doing so had a nice chat with Eric, the young dude with the tight shorts, who had come to retrieve the dog (his name is Puddles) as he'd wandered into our yard. They are busy building a new back porch to go with the addition on their house.

After that I swept up the tub and sifted another wheelbarrow load of dirt, then went inside and caught up with Dad by phone. My sister Sheila's youngest son was scheduled to graduate from high school this afternoon, and my sister Colleen's youngest is preparing to move to Boston in the next month so she is managing separate parties for his friends, for our side of the family and for her husband's side. She had to work this evening so I guess I'll have to call her later tomorrow.

Once I got off the phone with Dad, I decided to pick up a few more buckets from Home Depot, grab lunch, and pick up some groceries at Costco. At Home Depot I asked a cute ginger otter if he knew of anyone who deals in bulk dirt, as we'll probably have 4 or 5 cubic yards left over when all is said and done. He suggested Craig's List because if people are desperate enough for fill dirt they'll come over and dig it up. Another possibility he suggested is the sand and gravel place a couple doors north on the same side of Highway 99. I ended up picking up three 5-gallon buckets and two 18-gallon plastic planter tubs with rope handles. I checked out beside a cute daddy bear with a wife and two girls. He had some nice ink on one arm.

Lunch was at Heaven Sent Chicken on 112th Street. I had the three-piece special with corn and an extra side of collard greens. As I ate I texted Gary to relay the results of the morning so he could read them when he got up, and he suggested I pick up some fruit at Costco as well: grapes, blackberries, and bananas. I was surprised he was awake. At Costco there were at least two cute daddybears shopping; one I kept crossing paths with was tall and dark, perhaps Native American or Hispanic, with elaborate, somewhat faded ink on both arms.

After I got home and got the groceries put away, Gary and I watched part of the Memorial Cup (Canadian Hockey League) final between the Erie Otters and the host team, the Windsor Spitfires; then we started in on the sifting and sorting. Toward the end we traced the PVC drain pipe to an elbow in the middle of the back lawn well outside the perimeter of the retaining wall, and decided we should dig no further but rather get a plumber to trace the pipe so we don't ruin the lawn unnecessarily. Then I fixed dinner: bratwurst boiled in beer (a local microbrew called Scuttlebutt) and finished off under the broiler (unfortunately, we have construction debris piled up too close to the outdoor gas grill to use it at the moment), and fresh coleslaw. After dinner we sort of vegetated in front of the TV until Gary decided he'd better get to bed and catch up on sleep.

• I am rapidly coming to the realization that I'm not going to come anywhere close to the NaNoWriMo goal of 50K words by November 30, given my other commitments this month. I will, however, continue writing as time permits, see how far I get, and maybe try again next year.

• Our neighborhood association is inviting Zack Dailey from the Everett Silvertips (see post) to speak to us next Tuesday the 24th. Unfortunately, I will be unable to attend since I have dress rehearsal for the show that night. Rats. gmjambear LOL'ed and said he'd try to get a picture.

• Speaking of the show, our first performances are only a week away: Saturday, 11/28 and Sunday, 11/29 at Benaroya Hall, Seattle. These will be our headline performances with Betty Buckley. We will be using the magnificent pipe organ this year! Also we have A Very Special Christmas Special, a piece adapted from Little Shop of Horrors (in which I play a harried grandpa), a Bollywood number complete with an Indian dance troupe, and a tribute to Michael Jackson. Further details and a link to tickets here.

gmjambear and I went to see the Everett Silvertips play the Portland Winterhawks at home at the Everett Events Center. This was our first visit to the arena and our first Silvertips game, but not the first time we'd seen the Winterhawks as we'd seen them play Seattle at KeyArena.

The game got off to a rather inauspicious start as the Winterhawks scored three unanswered goals, two on power plays, in the first period. But the Tips' fortunes turned around rather rapidly once they scored their first goal with seconds remaining in the first period.

During the first intermission the scoreboard video captured a series of fans with signs, like the old Burma-Shave ones, that read "Portland/is now back to/full strength/and they still suck!" Sure enough, every time thereafter that the announcer mentioned that Portland had returned to full strength (after their last player completed his turn in the penalty box), the crowd roared back in unison, "AND THEY STILL SUCK!" ;-) Conspicuous by its absence was Gary Glitter's "Rock And Roll Part I" (or was it II?) over the PA system, as every time we attended a game in Seattle (whether Portland was playing or not) that would always elicit a chant of "Portland sucks! Portland sucks!"

During the second period one player grabbed the stick out of another player's hand, which prompted one fan to shout, "I bet that's not the first time you've grabbed another dude's stick!" A few moments later Silvertip #21, Zack Dailey, ended up falling down, sailing across the crease completely into the net. Reactions included "You're supposed to get the puck into the net!" and "Good thing it was Dailey, he's the only player who could fit!" Like the first period, the second period closed with an Everett goal in the final seconds.


Zack Dailey, courtesy Everett Silvertips (www.everettsilvertips.com)

[Edited to add: gmjambear remarked that this picture reminds him of his younger brother Vince.]

There were a lot of fights in this game, particularly in the third period as the score mounted in Everett's favor. At one point Dailey got entangled with a Portland player with close to a foot of height on him (Dailey is only 5'6" tall), and pretty much gave as good as he got. Several Portland players left the ice on 10 minute misconduct penalties. The fellow next to me said that Portland always plays dirty and usually ends up regretting it.

Toward the end of the game Everett broke a franchise record by scoring their tenth goal of the game, ultimately winning 10-4.

Where: Desk at Home
Wearing: Nothing
H Factor: 6
C Factor: 8

Last night gmjambear and I shuffled off to Buffalo to see the Sabres vs. the Ottawa Senators. We parked out at the U.B. South Campus in Amherst and took the train from there to the HSBC Arena. I like the train, and wish Rochester had a light-rail system again (they had one in the 1940's and '50's but removed it to build Interstate 490).

At the game itself we got a warm welcome from Sabretooth (the mascot) who tried to give us both a hug at once. ;-) The game was a very defensive one -- the first point wasn't scored, by the Sabres, until the middle of the second period -- but suddenly turned in the third as the Sabres scored a second goal, and then the Senators scored two within minutes of one another.

Just after that, the folks who run the scoreboard played a video clip of the lead character in Network (Howard Beale, played by Peter Finch) exhorting his audience, "I want you all to get up, get out of your chairs. I want you to go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell" -- and then they cut the video and put up a stock "Let's Go Buffalo!" animation. I think it would have been more appropriate at that point to let the clip run a little longer and get the fans yelling right along with Howard, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take this anymore!"

But it worked out in the end, as Buffalo scored once more in the closing minutes to win the game 3-2.

We're off to the Empire Bears' 8th Anniversary event at the Tay House. Catch you all later.