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November 25, 2007

polka hontas

for a family allegedly descended from that loveable loser captain john - the smith family seems to have a fair amount of difficulty getting together to celebrate thanksgiving. this year was no exception. mom came down with the flu at the last possible moment so the thanksgiving day celebration in the retirement capital of tennessee was put on indefinite hold. so my sister called and implored me to drive up to asheville, nc. and so i did. but i wasn't happy about it. because driving any distance over the thanksgiving holiday...well, let's just say there's not a whole lot to be thankful for in that whole process. but it gave me ample opportunity to listen to some mixes i'd been working on and wow - can i just say i'm thankful for cd mixes. and for micah recommending that avett brothers album to me because i seriously can't stop listening to it.

anyway, i arrived in asheville on wednesday afternoon - did some lite last minute grocery shopping and christal and i set about preparing the meal. i'm not really renowned for my skills in and around the kitchen (unless of course we're talking about pasta - because nobody can cook up a batch of pasta like yours truly) so i was relegated to mincing herbs and dicing vegetables which i did in a very bad ass fashion. and my efforts must have surely been passable because by mid-morning i was upgraded to making the glaze for the turkey. the glaze - in case you were wondering - consisted of bourbon, molasses, and apricots. naturally i was pretty keen on the bourbon. i even helped myself to a few pulls on the old bottle along the way (the holiday season can be so tough).

we got all the kids to the table around four and after dimitri sang the thanksgiving prayer we began our feast. and i must say it was delightful. christal's mashed potatoes were fantastic. she insisted that the extra dash of starchy goodness was due to the hidden layers of gouda. (try the cheese it's gouda). afterward there was pumpkin cheesecake and then much digesting.

i must say that in spite of the fact that we were missing 65% of the family we managed to have a successful thanksgiving nonetheless. i taught eve the appropriate use of the rejoinder face! and she taught me that the secret to true love is in fact similar hair colour. it's true. clearly i've been overthinking this whole thing! eden destroyed my digital camera - sadly, there was a picture on that camera - a picture i was particularly fond of that i fear may be lost. forever. so for those of you who haven't yet purchased an i-pod for yours truly i would like to add new camera to my christmas list. thank you in advance for your kindness and generosity. i certainly don't deserve any of it.

Posted by young_christopher at 11:45 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 19, 2007

everybody needs a little time away...

life in chattanooga has been pretty claustrophobic lately and our young hero has been idly filling his days fondly pondering what life must be like in other cities. cities that may not be so scenic - cities that may or may not have a chili's right. down. town. and so when the opportunity came to do a bit of work related traveling, our young hero...you know what? let's just get the unmasking out of the way. it's me. i'm that young hero - the kind of hero enrique igleasias (translated ricky churches) can only dream of being.

and because i am so heroic, when the offer was proffered to do some work in new mexico i was more than happy to oblige. and so last sunday i landed in the magical land of albuquerque a land so full of promise, dusty pride, and an obscene amount of vowels - i almost didn't mind being saddled with a candy apple blue p.t. cruiser. actually, that's not true. i minded that quite a bit. i don't think i made eye contact with another human being whene'er i found myself behind the wheel. i even walked to dinner on a couple of occasions to avoid embarrassment.

i managed to assuage my shame with impossibly fantastic amounts of greasy mexican food and of course free cable television in the hotel room. all in all it was a nice little week away. i visited a new city - i got a lot of work done - i became acclimated to mountain time (what the locals referred to as God's time zone) and i even managed to take a trip up to santa fe on thursday. and in case you were wondering if i sang the song i totally did. there and back. if only the p.t. cruiser had a sun roof. eat your heart out bale!

probably the singular bad ass moment of my life to date....or so i thought because i haven't even gotten to the denver excursion with the only person who has ever given my heart the strength to hit every high note that always seemed impossible before. and of course it was pure magic from start to finish. there was much dining and dancing - and then the requisite brewery tour (sadly the coors light twins were nowhere to be found) - capped with a bit of lite karoake that vanquished my would be romantic rival james. and then of course this happened:

not a bad way to spend a rockin' weekend. in the rockies.

Posted by young_christopher at 10:55 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

November 8, 2007

to wish impossible things

so today was a banner day at 4808. after one year and four months of waiting the city of chattanooga finally delivered a trash receptacle to my front doorstep. which was a nice surprise because i had all but given up on ever receiving one. when i first moved into the house in july of 2006 i asked my neighbor mike what the receptacle reception process was all about and he told me all i needed to do was call 311 on my touch tone phone and a modestly priced receptacle would be delivered to my front doorstep. well apparently 311 really is a joke in my town because i called. and called. and called. with no success. each time an operator would tell me that ordering a trash can would take 4-6 weeks (because they have to be made from scratch apparently) and in the meantime they would schedule me for curbside pickup. meaning i could place trash bags on the street and the garbage men would collect them. this of course never happened.

the city trash cans are designed to be picked up by those trucks with the automated arms and the driver never gets out of that truck. ever. and honestly why would he? the machine (quite literally) does the work. the neighborhood dogs on the other hand were more than happy to pillage through my refuse. most people think they're after soup bones and other such tasty delights but what they were really after was my identity. seriously i saw one of them run off with a credit card statement and now i've got a balance from an online casino that i can't pay. those dogs and their poker.

meanwhile i resorted to various and sundry stealth missions dumping bags of trash into area dumpsters under cover of darkness. there were a couple of close calls at the car wash up at bi-lo and then suddenly there were no more close calls to be had because the owner got wise and locked up his dumpster. and so then i considered stealing a trash can from the neighborhood. most of my neighbors have multiple trash cans anyway and after all i was in need. sadly, i was born with an above average conscience and so i could never go through with it. but i had to do something.


so finally last week i picked up the phone and called 311 and i once again pled for a trash can to be delivered. the woman on the other end told me that there would be a $60 fee...a fee that had never been discussed before so i became curious. or maybe i was incredulous. my curious and incredulous faces are very similar. and trying to tell the difference between the two is like trying tell twins apart. i know this because people often make this comment to me - and also because i always look at myself in the mirror whilst talking on the telephone. which makes conversations in the car quite risky but that - as uncle jack so sagely rejoindered - is my challenge....

anyway - back to the fee in question. according to the computer screen that sophie was consulting a trash container had been delivered to me back in june and i would have to pay the $60 fee for an additional container. i vehemently assured sophie that no such delivery had ever taken place here at 4808...until today.

i really should drop by the city offices and thank sophie for her initiative. not only did i not have to pay $60 for a phantom garbage can she hand delivered a free receptacle to my door in under a week. actually i have no idea who dropped the can off but nonetheless i am forever grateful to sophie. perhaps i'll invite her over for a drink. she had a nice phone voice and lord knows i never leave the house these days anyway. but then she'd probably figure that out when i answered the door in my pajamas....and all the food in my refrigerator is stamped meals on wheels. but hey, i gave up on the trash can too soon. perhaps there is a lesson in there somewhere. that maybe. just maybe i still have some life left in me.

Posted by young_christopher at 7:18 PM | TrackBack