Since i've been neglecting my blog here, I have added my twitter feed to the right side of the site. So even when I'm away, you can see some of my randomness.

yay Sox
boo Mets
job is killing me at the moment
enjoying the rainy cooler weather
hockey season has begun again

Got to see Ravi and Jason as The VLA came to NYC to play some shows. It was quite awesome to see them play and bring back the days of HUGE. Now they are back in Los Angeles. If you watch the FX show "Damages", they did the title track for the show.

So my friend Peter's 30th birthday was this past week and to celebrate, his family sent me and 6 other lucky guys (including Pete) on a rafting trip down the Colorado River through Cataract Canyon. It was an amazing trip and I will be forever grateful that his family was so generous and thoughtful. Pictures from the actual rafting trip were collected on disposable cameras that are still being developed and Colin's digital camera which he had a waterproof case for. But I had a handful of photos from our first and last days in Moab where the average temperature was 105 degrees.

We spent 3 days on the river with our very cool guides Rob and Tanner who made us some excellent meals and navigated us on two rafts and two duckies through a low but still class 4-ish rocky path down to Lake Powell. It was a perfect mixture of excitement, chill time, predictable events and unpredictable craziness. Absolutely massive trip. the pictures will have to speak for themselves and I can't wait to see and hopefully post the rest.

Just plain busy. That's all. But I couldn't not show the world the award I strive for every day. I leave for Costa Rica in a little over a week. Fucking... A...

My hockey team, the Shock, finished our season on an 8-2 run to make it to .500 for the season and squeak into the playoffs. This was a pretty impressive feat considering we were a disaster in the first half of the season going 2-8 and enduring a lot of sloppy play and internal team difficulties. We pulled it together and have become a pretty strong team. I ended my point drought in our last two games scoring 2 goals (one on a breakaway, one on a deflection). Was nice to get them in wins as well. So we eeked into our playoffs against the Phantoms, a team we had been pretty evenly matched with during the season.

Game 1 they came out strong and scored 2 quick goals. We recovered and got 1 back in the 2nd and tied it with 6 minutes left in the 3rd period only to have the goal waved off because the ref said it deflected off of one of our forwards skates while it was in forward motion. He said even though it was not intentional, any forward motion of the skate on a deflection that goes into the goal is no goal. We didn't want to get into a whining war so we finished the game unable to score again and lost 2-1. After further review, the ref was wrong. If the puck is purposely kicked in the net it is no goal, but unintentional forward motion does not nullify the goal. So we were robbed. But that's they way it goes.

Game 2 was last night. We came out stronger and had a good 1st period which ended with us down 1-0. With the score 3-1 in the 2nd I had a shot go off the post. Then midway through the 3rd it started to get a little more desperate and physical. We had to start taking chances and got burned and lost 5-1. I had a few checks and slashed someone in the head in the last few minutes but the refs weren't calling anything so... I took a few more penalties in the last few games trying to use my size a little more on the ice to my advantage which had good results despite putting me in the box more (the website doesn't show all the penalties... I took a couple more than it lists)

Bitter end to the season. We all believed we could win and get to Toronto, but there's always next year.

Okay... I've been sticked by Danimal who should probably know better given the absence of literature from my life in the past few years except for the occasional MacWorld or Electronic Musician. So expect this to be about as lame and disappointing as possible...

You’re stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be?
I've never read it. I'm not even really sure what it's about except that books get burned at that temperature and that sure is a lot of degrees.

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
For sure. Um... well I had a bit of a cursh on Mattie Silver in Ethan Frome. But I think it was more that I just really wanted to be in love with someone in that way. I'm sure there's a better one but that was the first to come to mind.

The last book you bought is:
Managing & Using MySQL. How cool am I?

The last book you read:
I'm cheating a little on this one. I think that a book I am actively currently reading should count. Poe gave me The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien which I am loving. I do like reading, I just don't make time for it. Now I am making time for it and enjoying myself.

What are you currently reading?
Ya see? I cheated above and now I get caught... damnit!

Five books you would take to a deserted island:
This should be funny. Prepare to head back to high school.

• The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary
• Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
• Catcher In The Rye By J.D. Salinger
• The Authoritative Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Waterson
• My Life Story by me

Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons)? And Why?
I'm a little stuck here because I truly don't know too many people who maintain a blog really. So because of my flailing Gothamist connection:

• Tien Mao - He shares quite a bit of useful and sometimes bizarre snapshots on life in NY and wires sports and other columns for Gothamist. I'm curious as to what he reads.
• Joe Schumacher - Another Gothamist dude of the weather variety. Hi Joe!
• I wasn't kidding. All who I know who blog seem to have done this already... and it's not that many people. If you would like to be here, I suppose I am allowed one more so post a comment for me

Current stick path as it got to me: Barrie unleashed the stick on 3/7/05 - Amanda - scooterdeb - Brian - Karma Police - Evelio - Ivy - Suzanne - Jeff - Patricia Lockwood - Frank - Amy - Steve - Ginger - Scopylaw - AI - jose - grey - danimal - me

Rotomonkey and X got married last weekend on Block Island. This ended my marathon run of 12 weddings for this year. Now, to shop for the gifts.

The ceremony was beautiful. We took lots of photos. Block Island is a perfect place for a wedding. There is lots to do, it's very pretty, and small enough that you can easily get anywhere. We did some swimming, I did some running, we rented mopeds, we celebrated, got in trouble with the police, but overall just had a great time enjoying ourselves.

Rumor has it they got stuck on Block Island for a while when they were supposed to leave because of the remnants of hurricane Jeanne. Awww.....

Congrats guys!

(1) Neely and Andrew the night before the wedding and just after the ceremony.

(2) Exchanging vows.

(3) The sunset created a fantastic glow across the lake as it settled in for the evening

(4) Neely's custom wedding footwear. Smart girl for a lakeside wedding.

You'd think with all of the weddings I've been going to, I'd have a few more pictures and a little more info about them. So I'm a little behind, I'll catch up. Last weekend I was up on Lake George for Neely and Andrew's wedding. I stopped by camp for a night to say hello to the Kiwis, and everyone at camp. Man I miss that place. But Saturday it was down to The Sagamore for some pampering, relaxation, and wedding goodness. The day was gorgeous. Sunny, light breeze, not too hot, no humidity. It was really perfect. The ceremony took place right by the lake which was a friggen postcard. The bridesmaids' dresses were some of the nicest I've seen. I'm mean really, how often do you hear a brides maid say, "The dresses are awesome!" I actually heard that. The dinner and party were a blast. Lots of dancing, a hilarious moment as Courtney put the garter on a 17 year old with her dad watching intently, lots of Andrew singing to the music. Some nice words said.

All in all a fantastic celebration. Thanks Clutsams! My best wishes to Neely and Andrew. You guys are awesome.