Summer of Dan

Always a lion

A few weeks ago before the BCS National Championship game I had a dream about Penn State playing Auburn for the title and winning.

The game was a battle, but the QB play by Penn State was outstanding: 21-24, 250 yards, 4TDs, 0 INTs, and couldn't be stopped. Short passes, intermediate throws, running when needed, just overall smart, athletic QB play.

The Niff was Penn State's QB.

She had 3 TDs in the game and her teammates had her on her shoulders, pigtails all bunched up under her helmet.

It was so vivid I talked about it for a few days and just had flashbacks about it. Maybe because of my Penn State hat? Maybe because Joe Pa is the man? Maybe because she embodies the heart of a lion: Dignified, courageous, magnificent? Maybe because even though it was a dream no one has ever made me prouder than the Niff?

Probably all of the above.

Life on hold

It's quite an amazing thing that happens when your debit card is compromised and your checking account is not only emptied but in the negative by almost $3000.

1. The true colors of your banks shows and quite quickly.
2. Offers for help from friends come at you left and right.

It's not like I needed any more examples of why my friends and coworkers were the greatest bunch of people on the planet, but offers to help have been unabated since New Years Day.

But I did need just one example of why my bank has it's best interest at heart for me to wake up.

Rewind to New Years Day - I was running my 1 mile race downhill that I do every year and 1/4 of the way done I knew I was in deep shit. My lower back started seizing up on me and the rest is history. All you need to know about that race you can see in the picture below.

Just look at the time on the clock, my face, and take a glance at the two little girls to my right. Runner #803 barely looks like she even ran. We finished at the same time. She is like 7 years old. I'm 30. And sadly wearing a shirt that proclaims that Athletes Run. Obviously #803 and #554 are fine athletes. But I digress.

The Niff was at the bottom of the hill and was telling me about an email confirmation she got on her Blackberry for purchasing commuter rail tickets in Helsinki.

Full disclosure: we don't live in Finland. We've never been to Helsinki. We both work in Concord, New Hampshire.

I told her it was likely spam, but she said she got two emails.

Odd.

We called our bank, Citizen's Bank, to tell them about it and they said that someone did in fact purchase that on our debit card. Three times. For $1042 each.

Here enters the first of many flaws in their system: we purchased coffee for the Niff prior to my race, in New Hampshire, around 12:00pm. The tickets were purchased in Helsinki at 1:30pm. We also don't know of any portals that could get us to Finland in 90 minutes.

Flaw #1: Why didn't their system immediately flag and stop our card from being used?

We talked to the Fraud Department, who happened to call us while we were on the phone with the bank. Proactive? Nope. Reactive? Not really, since we are the ones that called first.

My question to the bank was why they didn't call us to verify such large purchases. In the past we've been flagged for anything over $600 and on one notable occasion got a phone call from our bank while we were still in line at IKEA to make sure we didn't lose our card since we usually don't purchase that much stuff at once.

We were told that it was the holiday and the weekend and the Fraud Monitoring Department was off for the holiday.

Wait, what? Oh yeah, because thieves take the holidays and weekends off too. I forgot.

Flaw #2: Why wasn't a call made to us, even after the first purchase?

Flaw #3: Holidays and weekends? Seriously???

We were told they were debit purchases, which meant we needed to wait until the transactions cleared before we could take action. We asked the bank to stop the purchases, they said they couldn't do that. 

At this point, Citizens Bank knew that someone had our card. All they did was cancel the Niff's card. They were not able to stop a pending transaction. For real?

Flaw #4: We were told by the person on the phone we had to wait for our account to basically be emptied before we could do anything, but rest assured, they usually could get the money back in within 48 hours of us going to a branch and signing an affidavit.

Saying we were helpless is an understatement. We went home, I logged onto our online banking and saw even more transactions that were slated to come out. We could do nothing.

But I did.

I fucking paid every single bill I could as fast as I possibly could, even a month in advance because I knew the shitstorm that was coming. I couldn't pay my rent in time or my car payment, because I write checks for them but dammit if I was going to have the rest of our account leached out from under us when the bank sat on their hands and did jack shit for us.

So we waited. Until the transactions cleared. Then we went to the bank. We were told there that it would take 5-10 business days to get money back in the account.

Wait, what?? We were told 48 hours. 

Wrong. 5 days minimum. Not 5 days from when we called them to report fraud on our account but 5 business days from when we signed some paperwork.

Ok...well...how come it takes 5 business days? Citizens Bank has branches that are open on Saturday and Sunday, I mean, that's why they are my bank. Because I can go there every day of the week. So, those should count, because it's their business days, right?

Of course not.

Flaw #5: When someone tells you that you'll have your life back in 48 hours, actually mean 48 hours. 

Flaw #6: In issues of fraud, perhaps you should count the weekends. This goes back to Flaw #3. Staff your organization so this happens less and in the event it does that people can get their lives back together even faster. Dipshits.

We went on our lives the best way we could. We have been taking cash from our savings and buying groceries, charging whatever we need to knowing we'll eventually have a checking account to pay it off immediately.

I called the other day to check on the status of it as it was the 5th business day. Ahhh that magic number! 5 business days!!!

"Sir, it takes 10-14 business days."

Flaw #7: When you say 48 hours, then 5 business days, then 10 business days I will never believe you ever again and will never trust you with my money. Plus you better be prepared to pay my medical bills when I hear that bullshit and have a stroke.

I was at work when I was told this. I'm thankful I have understanding people where I work. Everyone I work with in general is awesome, the people that work in my immediate vicinity are nothing short of saints. In fact I'm applying to the Catholic Church for sainthood for them after this is all finished.

Because I lost my fucking mind.

I let the woman on the phone know that in no uncertain times that my life was fucked up because of this and the longer it goes on the worse it gets. She didn't give a shit.

"I'm sorry sir."

"You aren't sorry, don't say you are. My life is on hold until you guys make good on this. We did nothing wrong. We in fact called you to tell you our account was compromised. We signed an affidavit. If you find that I am lying please by all means put me in jail. Do you realize I had to ask my rental office to hold my rent check? That I have a new car I need to pay for but my checks are worthless right now? And you guys keep lying to me, telling me it will be 48 hours, then 5 days, now 10? Are you kidding me? How would a family of 5 get by? Don't you get it? You DON'T. I've had an account with you guys for 17 years now, I opened up a savings account when I first moved to this state when I was 13. 17 loyal years of business. And there is nothing you can do? Well, there's something I can and will do. I'm going to move all of my business to a local credit union. I'm going to warn friends and family about Citizens Bank. I'm going to warn them that they aren't as safe as they think they are. I'm going to use every chance I get to tell people the truth about Citizens Bank. And I hope that what I tell them helps even one person. And I hope that you actually take note of the flaws of your system that I've outlined and that you fix them. Because no one should have to go through this. Ever. Someone stole part of our lives and you don't seem to care. Thanks."

And it went on. And on. I asked for this woman's supervisor, told her the same thing and she told me the same thing, "I'm sorry". I told her that she has no idea what I'm going through unless this has happened to her. She told me she would call me when the money is back in the account. I laughed, I told her I've been checking it 20 times a day online and she can feel free to call but much like the fraud on our account I would find out before the call was made.

The Niff found out from UConn (her Alma Mater) that their school store was compromised and credit card/debit card information could have been taken. Usually you never find out where and how, but we did. Is it all because of the attention that UConn got for the women winning 90 games in a row? Because some douchebag hacker across the pond saw UConn on the news every fucking night for a month? And they figured, "Shit, I bet they are selling a ton of merchandise, this might be a great hack...". Who knows. Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe it was compromised from within.

Bottomline as far as debit purchases online - don't do it. Use a credit card that has fraud protection. Trust me. If you don't have one get one and if you can't get one don't do it. It isn't worth the living hell you can go through.

Citizens Bank had many opportunities here to make things right. They didn't. I hope this opens people's eyes. I hope it educates people. I hope that things change because of it. The optimist in me says a lot of good can happen out of this. The realist tells me nothing will change.

Tragic.

SOMEONE NEEDS TO GET THIS SIDE!

This is alarmingly similar to the night the Niff moved from Connecticut up to New Hampshire.

Only my sister was on one end yelling at us that "Someone needs to get this side!".

What she failed to realize at the moment was:

1. Because of how the couch was positioned no one could get to her side
2. The person that needed to get her side...was her.

I swear my sister would be the ultimate State worker.

What matters

Do you ever feel that some years just fly by? Other years drag by? Is that a 'getting old' thing? Or is it just all relative?

• I love Netflix, but my biggest pet peeve is self-induced. Sometimes depending what I've recorded on my DVR or bought on DVD or whatever just happens to be playing or what I've Red Boxed lately I just forget that I have a Netflix movie.
  
  Not anymore.
  
  The free site, Still At Home, connects to your Netflix account and sends you an email to remind you what movies you have out and how long. They aren't incessant, you get one a day but it's a constant reminder, a visual one that causes you to pause at least once a day and figure out if you might as well return it or sit down and watch the thing already.
  
   
  
  
• Taking over 6 months to buy a car is one of the worst/best experiences of my adult life. Knowing that you know the ins and outs of every car in the same line you are interested in, that you know what all the options are for all the cars in that same class, that you know what the best price you could possibly get for it, and exceeding all those expectations because of how long you took and what you learned along the way is a priceless experience.
  
  I really think in high school they should have classes that teach you how to buy cars, to teach you all about credit cards and how to use them, to teach you all about college in the tuition/student loan/expectation/how most people don't use there degrees and not pigeon hole yourself with some romantic degree thing, and to teach you all about buying houses and investments.
  
  Wouldn't that be great? Teaching you life lessons, instead of forcing you to fill up your credits on some bullshit you will never use.
  
   
• When the Steelers played the Ravens a little over a week ago and Haloti Ngata smashed in Big Ben's nose I couldn't help but think it looks similar to mine.
  
  
  
  Granted mine looks a lot prettier than Ben's looked above and I didn't need surgery, but big props to him for going back in. I know just what it feels like and can't say it's something that I'd like to feel again. Blame it on my hard head for bending my facemask and having it cave in around my face after my straps snapped off.
  
  
   
  
   
• I'm pretty fed up with the government lately. Every time I turn on the TV I hear and see that the Democrats are trying to do this but the Republicans are doing this because it 'sends a message' or the Republicans are doing this to offset what the Democrats are doing in this lameduck session. I don't want to get into politics so I will leave it at this: politicians fucking suck. Our government may be made up of people, but it certainly doesn't act like it is for the people. It's ridiculous. Not one of those fucking people in office go through what we go through, they've almost all lived lives of luxury, they change laws and pass bills that give them pay raises for doing absolutely nothing, and they don't work together. I've said it many times on my blog: our government needs to be afraid of the people and until they are, until they are afraid of us and we are no longer afraid of them, nothing will change. 
  
  
  
• When the Niff and I bought our new ride we were given a getaway package to The Balsams. Looks alright, I guess.
  
  
  
   
• Home Alone is the best Christmas movie ever. This isn't up for debate. Seriously - the music is fantastic, the plot is top notch, and it has everything from comedy to action to drama with a little thriller/suspense mixed in with that old guy next door with the shovel. It should be on TV every day each December. A few times each day. Hell, throw it on TBS, they play everything else at least 3 times a day until you never want to see it again and pull your eyeballs out when it comes back on for the 20th time that week.
  
   
• Living in New England there is a little part of me that wants to kick the shit out of the guys on the NFL Network when I see them on the sideline in wool overcoats and leather gloves and scarves when the game is in San Diego. And it's 60 out. With a slight breeze.
  
  Ok, I lie.
  
  A big part of me.
  
  
• Good luck goes out to my buddy Jimbo who is the best Linebacker, hell, best player, I've ever had the privilege of playing with. Jimbo retired after our championship last year and moved to Florida. It was absolutely killing him to not play anymore so he dug out his cleats and pads and happened upon the Broward Bears, a team that has some talent, including a couple ex-NFL players on their team. I don't know jack shit about the Bears, but knowing Jimbo, that team is a lot better with him on defense.
  
  Good luck Jimbo and be safe out there.
  
  
• Speaking of championships, congrats to Mark for winning his dodgeball championship last week. 3 years of almosts, and woulda/coulda/shoulda. 3 years doesn't sound like, but they pack a number of seasons into just one year. Well deserved, well earned. I have many videos I'll post when I can upload them.
  
  
• Random Fact #2314: I wear two silicon bracelets every day - my LIVESTRONG on my right wrist and my CHARITYTREKS.ORG bracelet on my left. I haven't taken off the LIVESTRONG since I first put it on October 27, 2004, right before the first pitch of Game 4 of the World Series. I've played 6 seasons with it on, sleep with it on, and if I roll it over the color on the other side is a very interesting shade of yellow I've never seen before. Let's just hope the wearing silicon bracelets for extended periods of time don't cause cancer or something like that. Oh the irony.
  
   
• If you like to read, if you like food, if you like reading just awesome writing, you need to check out this:
  
  
  
  It's more of a short essay type book, every chapter is a different subject and is closer to stream of consciousness than what he normally writes. I can't put it down. Virtually. Since I'm reading it on my Kindle. And on my Kindle App on my Blackberry.
  
  But seriously it's fantastic!
  
  
  
• The Niff is the best - every day I wake up I run to the advent calendar she bought last year and pull out a Lindt ball. Seriously - why can't we use this advent calendar year round? Ok, that's excessive. 
  
  Right? What about for my birthday month?!
  
  There is something special about opening the door and finding a Lindt ball that the person you love put in there, knowing you would wake up and eat it. I always wonder what she was thinking when she put that particular Lindt ball flavor in that door. Did she put back to back Peanut Butter Lindt's in there on purpose? Because she knows I love peanut butter? Or to throw me off on my guessing? Or just because?
  
  I think about this shit every day. I'm a lucky guy. Some people don't have that. It really is the little things.
  
  
  
• See this guy? Cappuccino Dave. He'll be at work when I get there tomorrow. Our holiday party is tomorrow and this guy is making us free drinks all damn day. Can you say eggnog late? Vanilla cappuccino? Anything else he can make? Yeah, it's fucking awesome.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Speaking of awesome - if it's going to be cold in New England please bring on the snow. The Niff loves to snowshoe, I had a lot of fun last year, even when I crossed my snowshoes a dozen times and fell into a tree dropping 3 feet of snow on top of me and had to call the Niff back to help me back to my feet. It was very serene and fun out there. It's a great workout and you don't even think of it as one, plus you are outside. Win-win, right?
  
  
   

 

A Memory of Lotus Rocks

I tend to take a lot of pictures on my Blackberry and I'm guilty of almost never uploading them or sharing them.

Not today. 

As you can see Ray likes to eat. I figured I would save him some time and just let him eat out of the container. What a great dad I am.

I really missed the shit out of this place this summer. The Niff and I went camping last year and rented this cabin. What a great little getaway. So awesome. I wonder if they are open in the Fall...more importantly, I wonder if I could convince the Niff to stay here in the Fall...

Whenever I would drive through Boston with my family to see my grandparents when I was a kid we would drive past this. For years it wasn't even a banner, it was just a giant shamrock painted onto the side of the building. I am willing to bet it is underneath the banner. This is when I knew I was on my way to New Hampshire.

Earlier this year at what is easily the coldest I have ever been at any sporting event in my short 30 years, James, Flack, Mark and I grabbed a bite before the Sox game down the street. I had to get a picture with Flack and John Locke. I wish I could blow this up poster size.

Boston is historic. Boston is beautiful. Boston is amazing.

Occasionally at work I need to relocate animals/insects/random living creatures. Either they get into the building or they put themselves in grave danger and require my AWT (Animal Whispering Techniques). This was Myrtle the Fertile Turtle. I moved her twice in one day, she was too close to the parking lot. She must have been pissed because the last time I saw her she was back where I moved her from twice digging holes and trying to lay eggs. She wasn't amused with me.

This is quite honestly the most disgusting thing I have ever drank. Yes, even worse than Diet Dr. Pepper's Cherry Chocolate soda. This was taken the day after a movie I saw with Jessie. I took one sip and had her try it. Needless to say the inside of her car was covered in this crap.

This is the side of a gas station up north in Lincoln that is dedicated to aliens. The bathroom is a museum and everything inside is insanely odd. Especially the clerks behind the counter.

This is Rusty. Rusty would be ours in a second if we had a house. DAMMIT.

Every now and then I get to climb up on top of the roof where I work. Such a fantastic view. I wish I could put a lawn chair up there...

Optimus Prime hanging out at Sal's in Hooksett. No big deal.

The tallest mountain in New Hampshire. Home of the craziest weather in the FUCKING WORLD. I'll get to the top of it someday.

I love bringing the Niff back to UConn as often as I can. Their student union is amazing. I just wish they sold replica suits of Jonathan the Huskie.

I picked this up at Goodwill for 10 cents. I would use it a lot more often but the thing holds half a cup of coffee at best. The handle is something kind of awful as well, but the picture is priceless. My tireless search for these people and Lotus Rocks will go on until the day I die.




Lola is quite the balancer. She climbed up our drying racks and was hanging out forever until we noticed her. I think she was just trying to reach The Complete Works of Shakespeare on the top shelf.

This is very common where we live. We live in a nice place, but for some reason I see entire couches in the dumpster, and in this case, what looks like a burned out couch. Totally logical.

The Niff conquering the outdoors in her sick ass snowshoes. Not pictured are the 12 times I fell, including the time I fell into a giant pine tree only to have 4 feet of snow crash down on top of me and not being able to get out without assistance.

Believe it or not but New Hampshire has some seriously good sushi. Take Ichiban for example. Awesome sushi, awful spelling. I think this adds to the authenticity of the food? Nothing like the Love Loll.



My ID badge for our offsite storage facility. Nothing more needs to be said.

Full of spirit

A little more than 6 years ago I was a dog person. I never had any interest or love for cats. I only had one cat ever growing up (named Jessie...yes, we named my sister after our cat) and she wasn't the nicest in the world. Friends and neighbors that had cats seemingly all had cats that preferred to be by themselves, some were even douche nozzles and would scratch you just because you were breathing near them.

When the Niff and I moved in together we decided to adopt a furry little creature. His name is Ray and the rest is history really. He's not only my cat, but he has personality. He likes people. He's a bit shy, but he is friendly. He's curious but guarded. He's smart and inquisitive. He listens and he speaks. He isn't one of those cat that treats you like you are the hired help, he is like family. He reminds me a lot of Sargeant.

Side note: Sargeant is with the Niff and I, high on our bookcase with a picture of him and I. He's in his box and Ray and Lola have never met him. Yet whenever I take him down, the cats are quite interested. Sixth sense or kitteh sense, I have no idea, but they know. Animals are smarter than we all give them credit for.

Ray is truly a great friend. He's my buddy, he loves time with just me on Sunday, but especially loves Sunday Night Football. That is his time with me.

The rest is reserved for the Niff. He adores her. He needs her. He would walk from here to California if she was there just to curl up next to her when she is surfing on her laptop. I never envisioned that cats could be like that.

This video is amazing but really doesn't surprise me. I've heard and seen cats do some pretty ballsy shit, but this is up there. 6 years ago I never would have even watched this video, I thought I knew it all.

But I was wrong. Cats are bad fucking ass.

 

20 years of car payments

The Niff and I have been scouting a new car lately. We need a second car, something that will be great in the winter, has some fun options but won't kill us every month.

I think I found what we need.

Poking around I found a car dealer that seemingly offers 20 years of car payments. 

$80 a month for only 20 years! What a steal!

Glittering Blackness

You know what is better than three day weekends? Yeah, nothing.

• I fell in love with a girl today named Daisy. 3 months old, prettiest, most playful little Boston Terrier I've ever met in my entire life. 
  
  
  
  
  Must.Have.One.
  
   
• The greatest band that you've heard but haven't realized it just yet is Explosions in the Sky. Go do yourself a favor and listen to any one of their albums. While you are at it, check out Brendan James and Transfixed. Not just because I know both artists, but because they are both so incredibly gifted at what they do, which is put music on my iPod and make me proud that I know them. Two totally different artists, but they both share the same passion for music. Both are on iTunes, both have songs you can sample on their sites. Awesome stuff.
  
   
• Every Friday I post a variety of different pictures but one kind that I really enjoy posting are the ones that depict animals that display love. Usually it is to another of it's own kind, but I think there is a really special message when it is love extended cross species. Sometimes I think that all the answers to everything are around us. A dog loves it's master unconditionally and yet most people seem as if that concept is a foreign language. Seeing a picture of a dog jumping in a pool to help his cat friend just serves to remind me that people have a lot of work to do in the arena of tolerance. Some people think of animals as being lower on the food chain and maybe they are, but they are much higher on the spiritual food chain than humans might ever be.
  
    
• Spike seemingly always has a Star Wars Marathon running. I think they should just create a second channel called Spike 2 or The SW that only runs a Star Wars Marathon 24/7. All the damn time. What would be bad about that?
  
   
• You know why Fall is better than any other season? Chilly nights and bonfires, hoodies and sweatpants, and putting your fan in the window to pull in the cool air. Oh yeah,and that game called football...
  
   
• Saturday morning the Niff and I went to the farmer's market down the street. We go as often as we can and it is 1000 times better than just buying all our produce at the store. One thing I love about it is not everything is just produce - there are gourmet popcorn stands, custom pastries, good coffee nearby, and a billion friendly people and their dogs. I saw a booth this weekend with custom homemade jams and jellies. Holy shit. Amazing. I tried the Hot Pepper Jelly and loved it so much I bought a 9oz. jar of it. I've had Red Pepper Jelly that has a little bite to it, but this stuff lights the back of your throat on fire for a few seconds and then simmers. Too addictive.
  
   
• Fair season has kicked off with a bang. Jessie came up in the wee hours of the morning to join the Niff and I at the Hopkinton Fair for when it opened. There is no downside to going as soon as they open - we parked about 600 feet from the main entrance, there wasn't shoulder to shoulder traffic, and all the food booths opened shortly after the fairgrounds did. 
  
  And let's be truly honest here - at the end it was all Schnitzels and Giggles.
  
  
  
  
  
• I went on a short 13 mile bike ride with the Niff the other day after work. It was the first time I had ridden since a couple weeks before the AIDS Vaccine Ride. I'm still a bit sore and my biking cardio was almost non-existent at the beginning but it started to come back towards the end. As it cools off I can already tell I am going to love riding even more.
  
   
• I'm quite thankful the Jets finally came to terms with Darrelle Revis. If I turned on SportsCenter one more time only to hear the latest update about how Revis has yet to report or hadn't spoken to the Jets in weeks or how long his holdout was in days, hours, minutes, and seconds I was going to go apeshit.

Just putting this out there. Because. You know.

His name is Earl

Despite the constantly changing weather in New England, hurricanes aren't all too common. I can remember all of maybe 2 or 3 serious hurricanes in my life. By far the best place to check out a hurricane is the beach - the waves are huge, the clouds are insane, and the wind is intense. The Niff and I are considering hitting the beach on Saturday for some boogie boarding in the morning. I'm just hoping the sharks hold true to their form and decide to stay a little further out in case the riptide pulls us out further than we would like.

Waking up is the hardest part

Summer is winding down. At this point I always ask myself if I've been to the beach enough, stayed outside long enough, enjoyed the outdoors as much as I should. The answer is invariably no. Interesting.

• When I hear anything by Creedence Clearwater Revival I always think of my dad. And I get sad. I am lucky enough to have him in my life still. I see him fairly frequently and keep in touch all the time. We do lunch at least every few weeks when our schedules matchup but anything by CCR brings me back to when I was a kid. Growing up my dad always listened to it, as well as Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Allman Brothers, James Taylor. He was always around because of his epilepsy. I have very vivid memories of our first house with him listening to music and writing or reading, and having a shitload of world maps up on the walls and him doing his thing. It's one of my happiest memories I have. So I do get sad. I get sad because I know one day he won't be around anymore and when I hear CCR on the radio I'll get a lump in my throat and need to pull over. He just turned 54 and I've been around for 30 of those 54 years. I am thankful for that.
• Friends don't just help friends out when they need it. Good friends are proactive about helping you. I'm learning a lot thanks to Mark. Great information.
  
  
  
  
• A funny thing happened a few weeks ago - the only pair of glasses I had started getting a bit wobbly on the bridge. They were about 15 months old so I called Lenscrafters to see what they can do. While I was on the phone, they fell apart in my hands. Literally.
  
  
  
  I was pretty shocked that they fell apart like that. They said they were out of warranty by a whopping almost 4 months. I told them I would come in and see them. I saw the manager, explained I've never dropped them and it seems odd they would break there because they are made of titanium. She proceeded to tell me that titanium is a very soft and lightweight metal. I told her I knew how strong it was, my facemask is made up of it, but they shouldn't break. And then she seriously asked me, "Oh, so you wear these when you play football?".
  
  Wait, what? Did you just ask me that? I laughed at her, I told her if facemasks can handle high speed collisions that my glasses shouldn't have fallen apart in my hand. She didn't care. She said she could give me a deal maybe on the frames. I told her I had no interest in spending anything on glasses that were defective. They cost me over $400 and lasted me 15 months. I asked her if she knew a brand new car would die after 15 months would she buy it? Or a computer? Or a brand new TV? She said of course not, but did nothing. I told her I would buy my glasses online and left.
  
  I got my prescription from the eye doctor and my PD from Lenscrafters (Pupilary Distance is how far from the side your pupils are, usually your eyeglass maker has this measurement. They take it when the draw a dot on the lenses to see where the center of your eye is). I went to Zennioptical.com. I filled out all the information and bought 3 different pairs of glasses, all prescription, with shipping including, for under $40. They all fit beautifully, I can change them as desired, and I saved a shitload of money. Best thing I ever did.
• Tomorrow night I get together with the boys for some good old fashioned fantasy drafting. Kraig will most likely have the most questionable moves, Mark will most likely have the most elaborate rating system for his players, Flack will unquestionably sit way too close to me so he can stare longingly into my eyes between picks, and Steve will absolutely try his best not to drink too much, lest he have a bad draft like he did last year.
• We are over halfway through my football season and we are sitting at 5-0. We had our first big test last weekend and passed. We have two more games before THE MOST BITTER RIVARLY IN NEFL HISTORY:
  
  
  
  It's always a good game. Let's just hope we can settle on the spelling of 'rivalry'.
• Just as the weather seemed to be changing into fall like temperatures it spikes back up with this summer-ish humidity always-sweaty-as-hell crap. I want 50s please. Stat.
• Speaking of summer/fall, I've amounted a wee bit of progress towards my conquering all the 4000 footers in New Hampshire. The Niff and I trekked up Mount Major (all 1786 feet of it) to get a little pre-4000 footer work in.
  
  
  
  The wind up top must have been close to 40 mph but felt like 100. Awesome view as always.
  
  The second little part of my insane adventure was I bought a map:
  
  
  
  According to Steve aka Mr. Map this is THE map to have. This doesn't guarantee I won't get lost a few hundred times like in Blair Witch but as long as I don't kick it into a stream I think it will be helpful.
• Samsung is keeping the Tab hush hush, but this time next week we will know more about whether the iPad has some serious competition or not. Running Android 2.2 and supporting Flash, the Tab has a chance to pull some attention and dollars away from the iPad, which in turn could drive down costs for the iPad. I swear to God, if the smallest iPad was $199, every single person would be walking down the street with one.
  
  

I really need to make a special trip to Minado. Stat. All you can eat sushi buffet for the win.