Morning Commute

During my usual morning commute this morning, a large white van pulled out in front of me. I had to slam on my brakes.

Once I caught his eye in his rear view mirror, I gave him The Look. Since he was driving a company van, I made exaggerated gestures, showing him that I was calling the phone number of his office that was posted on the side of his van. (I wasn’t really dialing.)

He got really upset and attempted to speed up to me so, I assume, he could catch my eye and give me The Look or The Bird. Apparently he was paying too much attention to me because he slammed into the truck in front of him.

He and I made eye contact one last time as I slowly drove away, smiling and waving at him.

Sometimes, it’s fun to be evil.

Fun with Remodeling

I have lived in my current house since 2000. I was renting it from my sister and her girlfriend until they decided to sell it to me in 2006.


The house is only 750 square feet so upkeep is easy, but I have wanted to do remodeling work on it for awhile. I made a game out of the process. (I can hear Carlos now: "Of course you did.") I wrote down the names of all the areas of my house, including the outside, on small pieces of paper and placed them in a bowl. Picking a random area, I would work on that area until totally done and then move on to the next.


The first area I picked was the bathroom. Jason, Carlos and I stripped the old wallpaper and painted it. We also picked out new linens from Bed, Bath and Beyond. Months later, after my plumbing problems, I got stalled on the tile work and updating the sink.


I couldn't find anyone to do the work so I was stuck - and frustrated. To make me feel better, I bought myself a gift – a CD rack.


I pulled out all the shelves in my office holding the CD's, ready to move them to the new rack.

Then I thought that since most of the furniture was pulled out of the room, I should just pull out all the rest and rearrange the room.

Then I thought that since all the furniture was pulled out of the room, this would be a good time to paint the walls.

Then I thought that since it’s rarely used I should throw away the twin bed in my office.

Then I thought that since I now had so much extra space I should get an overstuffed chair and a new larger desk.

Then I thought that as long as I was painting the walls, I should get new carpet for the office. The person at Home Depot told me that the $199 installation charge was for any amount of carpet. Instead of paying that again when I replace my bedroom carpet, as I was planning on doing this summer, I thought that I should have that carpet replaced also.

Then I thought since I am getting new carpet in the bedroom, I thought that I really should repaint those walls too. (I am thinking a light yellow. I'm going this weekend to pick out a color. I hope to have the bedroom painted by the end of this weekend. It's a three-day weekend because Monday is Martin Luther King Jr's Birthday and so we're off work.)

And all that started because I bought a CD rack.

Once all this is completed, I’ll post before and after pictures.

Brad Renfro - Rest in Peace

Reminds me of the day I heard about River Phoenix's death. Drugs kill, you dumb kids!

Typical Saturday Night

Carlos and I get along really well, and always have. We have never had a fight in the six plus years we've been dating.

I feel the main reason is because we are very similar - first children with younger sisters very close in age to us, Catholic upbringing, parents still married, and on and on.

In addition though, we celebrate the differences, instead of having them come between us.

Last night was a typical Saturday night for us. We sat around my house, watching TV, reading. After a night out Friday night at Vincent's going away party, it was a welcome rest for both of us. How we approached the night highlights our differences.

I had DVR'ed a two and a half hour Led Zeppelin concert from VH1 Classic and wanted to watch it with Carlos. He is always very patient with me when I go into my Music School mode: "Did you know that this Led Zeppelin song is a remake of an old blues song by Sonny Boy Williamson? Let me play it for you.", "Did you know that this song is from the first Zeppelin album that was released after Rober Plant's son Karac died? Let me show you a picture of him.", "The live version of this song has to be between 1975 and 1977. The album came out in 1975. Zeppelin never played the song in concert after 1977. They were superstitious in that they thought the song may have been a bad omen after Karac's death." (Click the links for the answers.)

Meanwhile, Carlos was reading Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austin.

Viva la difference!

To close, here is a Zeppelin cover band doing a great cover of a great song from Physical Grafitti.

Photos From Paris

I took almost 800 pictures while in France. Here are some of the pictures I took while Carlos and Debbie were in Paris with me.(They were with me for 9 days. I was in France a total of 22 days.)

Back From France

I have returned from France, with many tales to tell. I spent 8 days in Paris, 9 days in Beaugency (about 40 km from Orleans), three days in south central France, and a bit over three total days travelling.

I am very tired and glad to be home.

In the coming days and weeks, I'll post all the details. To start, here is the very first picture (of 797) that I took. This is the view from our first hotel room in Paris.

My Job

Work-wise, I am the head of a university duplicating, printing, and graphics department. I work my ass off at my job. It's a tough job, but I really enjoy it.

Last week, I was helping my boss with some graphic work. My Assistant Manager overheard a compliment thrown my way by him. She sent this email to him later that afternoon:

I wish to relay my observations regarding Marshall's value to this dept. I overheard your comment about Marshall's speedy typing when you were in his office this afternoon. He works at that pace all day long every day.

As I gain experience in this dept. I am trying to lighten the load for him, but I feel that I have barely made a dent. After 9 months of training, Marshall is still teaching me the details of running this office. There appears to be no limit to the intricacies of form production/inventory, copy machine contracts/service and duplicating/printing.

Marshall is a fantastic teacher, an understanding boss, a superb coordinator, the king of multi-tasking and therefore, more efficient than anyone I have ever met. As a bonus, he is always cheerful and positive. I think he is probably irreplaceable, so let's hope that nothing entices him to stay in France while he's on vacation in October.

Thanks for 'listening'.

I didn't know anything about it until my boss forwarded the email to me with this comment: "Marshall, this is between you and I. Read below. I forwarded it to [his boss] and [his boss's boss]. I must say I have to agree with everything Karen said. You do an excellent job."

What a kind thing to do! That really made my day.

The Golden Light of Victory

I happened upon the TV show "Ninja Warrior" on the channel G4. The show, imported from Japan, is a reality competition of top (mostly Japanese) athletes trying to complete obstacle courses.

It's a fantastic show!

There are four stages of competition. One hundred start the first stage. In two of the four tournaments I have seen so far, NO ONE has made it to the fourth stage. The show just ends with no winner. Imagine a United States show like "Survivor" doing that.

My favorite competitors right now are Shingo Yamamoto and action star Kane Kosugi.

Here is Shingo trying to conquer the final stage.



Here is one of the few YouTube videos of Kane competing that I could find.

Connecting The Dots

Even in this age of mostly shitty music, I am always trying to find good new music to listen to. Here is the story of how I recently discovered one song.

In February 2007, Rolling Stone magazine featured Panic! At The Disco on their cover. (Yes, the “!” is part of their name.) Six months later, that magazine made it to the top of my To Read pile. After reading the article about the band, I downloaded some of their songs from LimeWire. I narrowed down my favorites and played those for Carlos – “Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off”, “Disconnect The Dots”, “The Only Different Between Martyrdom And Suicide Is Press Coverage”, “I Write Sins Not Tragedies”, and “I Constantly Thank God For Esteban”. The length of their song titles is a bit annoying, but the actual songs are quite melodic.

He and I both agreed that “Disconnect The Dots” was our favorite of the bunch, though Carlos did like the time signature changes in that last (“Esteban”) one.

I found their album on Amazon, but didn’t see our favorite song listed.

On further research, I figured out that Panic! At The Disco didn’t actually sing that song. A band called Satanic Panic In The Attic did. The LimeWire member who uploaded the song had misnamed it.

That was the end of the story until I was preparing this blog entry. Looking for the song’s video on YouTube, I found out that the band’s name is NOT Satanic Panic In The Attic. That is the name of the album. The band’s name is Of Montreal.

They are from Athens, Georgia – home to REM and The B-52’s. Satanic Panic In The Attic is their sixth album, released in 2004. Carlos and I sampled most of the songs from the album and they’re all really good. I recommend buying this one. (It’s on my Amazon Wish List if you’re looking for something to buy me for my birthday.)

And that is the story of how Carlos and I got turned on to “Disconnect The Dots” by Of Montreal.



Lagniappe: Panic! At The Disco’s "Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off".

The Past Comes Back

Tonight, my friend (of 20+ years from high school) Peggy was in town from Seattle with her husband Brendan. She wanted to come home to celebrate her 40th birthday.

After a small party at her parent’s house, they were scheduled to go to Rivershack, a local bar. Carlos and I headed over there about an hour after they arrived. He and I didn’t immediately see Peggy, but did see Karen (another 20+ year from high school friend) and talked with her. As Carlos kept talking, I went to the bar to get us drinks. In front of me was someone that looked really similar to Teddy Geiger but a bit older. For those who have never heard of him, see the picture on the left. I thought he was cute and I told Carlos so. He remarked that he had noticed the same guy a bit earlier and thought the same thing.

Time passed and we finally ran into Peggy. She told us that her son, Dustin, from her first marriage, who she had when she was 19 and I haven’t seen since he was 5 – and who is now 21 - was in the bar.

I think you can guess the end of the story.