http://www.wigitozzi.com This is where 'everything else' goes. Mon, 21 Dec 2009 20:25:01 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I'll save you the long story. The short story is that it really is too much bother to make coffee for myself in the mornings, so I stop at Holiday and get it on the way to work. The advantage of getting coffee at Holiday is that they have this very ... http://www.wigitozzi.com/?p=203 The phone call ended a bit strangely: "I'm still short, I wear about a size 12, I am kinda blond now, and I'll be wearing a white Nationals shirt and a blue jacket." This is strange because it was uttered by a friend I had known all my life. There was ... http://www.wigitozzi.com/?p=162 The other night I was getting ready to go to bed. My going-to-bed ritual is a bit more complex than most other people, because I use a CPAP. For the uninitiated, a CPAP is a device that combines a gentle air pump and a mask to pressurize your airway. This ... http://www.wigitozzi.com/?p=156 Of the pop culture holidays, Easter has become one of my favorites. Retailers haven't been able to find that hook that turns Lent into the consumer feeding frenzy that some of our other religious-turned-consumer holidays have. And while the religious pageantry is now lost on me, a nice dinner with ... http://www.wigitozzi.com/?p=140 There are two problems with having a cold. One is that you don't feel like doing that much, except lying around and watching television. The other is that you lie around and watch television. And since I am watching television, I must tell you, I am confused. There's a drug out there ... http://www.wigitozzi.com/?p=134 I don't care for shopping... not even a little. A shopping trip with me almost always ends badly. Since I don't shop much, the latest trends in retail are lost on me. On the other hand, I did work in television for a while, so I am fairly tolerant of advertising, ... http://www.wigitozzi.com/?p=3 I am shy about some things. For example, if I happen to be over to someone's place for dinner, I am not likely to help myself to the last piece of chicken, even if I am famished. It is just one of those things... you never know if the host ... http://www.wigitozzi.com/?p=7 There are certain milestones you reach in a relationship. They pass without particular notice. In fact, they are notable for their triviality. But the fact that they occur tell you that you've reached a certain level of intimacy in your relationship. I had one of those the other night. I was ... http://www.wigitozzi.com/?p=11 You can tell a lot about a man by what he keeps in his top right desk drawer. In my case, you can also tell a lot by what sits in front of the second computer on my desk. So yesterday, I decided that I needed to go through the two ... http://www.wigitozzi.com/?p=17 I continue to be amazed by the power of Facebook. I got a friend request from someone that I went to junior high school with. Those junior high years are crappy years anyway... We're all trying to figure out the whole boy-girl thing... we're awkward and silly. We're shy, and often ... http://www.wigitozzi.com/?p=14 I knew today would be an emotional day... I got up early to watch the inauguration. My partner needed to be to work at 8... so I took her a little early, so I could get back in time to watch the swearing in and Obama's speech. I was driving back home, ... http://www.wigitozzi.com/?p=40 I have been a hard core hockey fan for most of my life. I have had season tickets to two different NHL teams. I played hockey from about the age of thirteen. My love for hockey led me to work at ice rinks in high school and college, and much ... http://www.wigitozzi.com/?p=20 I got up late this morning, and decided I would toss a load of laundry into the washing machine. When I went downstairs with my arms full of clothes. I was greeted at the bottom of the steps by the family cat, named Mouse. "Meow." "Hey, Mousie! You're right, it is a ... http://www.wigitozzi.com/?p=23 For those of us who live in Southcentral Alaska, our western skyline is graced by some of North America's most active volcanoes. One of them, Mt. Redoubt, has become quite active in the past 48 hours, and scientists at the Alaska Volcano Observatory believe that an eruption may be imminent. Volcanoes ... http://www.wigitozzi.com/?p=27 I read a blog over the weekend that got me thinking... This blog was about how a group of people decided to get their DNA tested, to see the degree to which they were related... and in the process discovered that some people who thought they were related turned out not ... http://www.wigitozzi.com/?p=43 I don't remember how old I was, but probably not any older than ten. I had received a "snorkel parka" for Christmas... and while clothes are generally not at the top of the list of things that a ten-year-old kid wants for Christmas, this parka was very cool, and I ... http://www.wigitozzi.com/?p=50 I don't care for the holidays. I will admit, at least a part of that is just me being contrary, but regardless, more than half of it is a philosophical aversion to the commercialism and resulting sense of obligation that comes with gift-giving. I get a bit overly sensitive about ... http://www.wigitozzi.com/?p=53 Does it say more about me or my waistline that I've been butt-dialing a lot lately? I received a text message from a friend last night. I responded, and went to bed. This morning I got dressed, slapped my phone to the belt holster and went out to start the car. ... http://www.wigitozzi.com/?p=60 A few years back (three phones ago) I had a phone that was quite prone to butt-dialing, and found myself accidentally calling the home phone quite a bit. I would get home and one of the kids would tell me that I had called accidentally when I was out running ... http://www.wigitozzi.com/?p=56 ... But not about the day the music died. It will start with yelling in the middle of the night. Middle-aged men cursing and throwing things. Bar owners and patrons disgusted, and choosing to go home early. People that otherwise sleep soundly will lie awake, staring at the ceiling. For a while, ... http://www.wigitozzi.com/?p=70 I was speaking with a friend over the weekend, and she was lamenting how busy she was... to rehash an old cliche', "There doesn't seem to be enough hours in a day..." I agreed with her. I mentioned that I longed for the good old days, when the day had twenty-four ... http://www.wigitozzi.com/?p=64 One of the operational premises behind daylight savings time is that by setting your clock ahead at 2 am on a Sunday morning, you minimize the impact of the time change. At 2 AM on a Sunday, almost everyone is asleep. Very few people are going to miss an appointment ... http://www.wigitozzi.com/?p=74 I was born and raised in Washington, DC. I didn't notice anything unusual about my childhood. The Smithsonian was where you went on a class field trip a couple times a year, and the Kennedy Center is where your high school graduation was. It never occurred to me that kids in ... http://www.wigitozzi.com/?p=77 Today was a very distracting day... my mind was elsewhere... and it got me in trouble... twice. I was at the local burrito place, and after lunch I felt the need to return some of the iced tea I had for lunch. I had my sunglasses on... and the restaurant was ... http://www.wigitozzi.com/?p=83 I don't have kids. I never wanted kids. Actually, I did once. But I laid down, and the feeling went away. My partner has kids. They're really kids in adults clothing. One of the kids has kids. The kid's kid spent the weekend with us. So, it was off to the store. To get food for the kids's kid. Broccoli and chocolate ... http://www.wigitozzi.com/?p=85 I was just reading an article in The Washington Post about a bird, the bar-tailed godwit, that migrated nonstop from Alaska to New Zealand. It is a fascinating story... But I got distracted. What kind of a name is 'godwit'? Definitely not a 'Merican name. If an American had named it, it would ... http://www.wigitozzi.com/?p=80 It is Saturday morning, and my usual Saturday ritual is without direction. My partner and I have made it a habit to take off on most Saturday mornings to get breakfast somewhere. For a long time, we went to a place in midtown, where we found good food and a very ... http://www.wigitozzi.com/?p=88 Consider these scenarios: It is Sunday afternoon. Too late for lunch, too early for dinner. You've just finished watching your favorite football team win. The weather outside is terrible. It is the middle of the night. You wake up. You go to the bathroom. You lie back down, but you can't get ... http://www.wigitozzi.com/?p=95 I was commenting on someone's blog, and came up with this pearl of (depressing) wisdom: "Nostalgia is just a stop on the road to disappointment." http://www.wigitozzi.com/?p=98 Somehow, I think this is backwards. I know some very capable people. I also know some pretty broken people - addicts and alcoholics... In a lot of respects, those two groups are almost completely mutually exclusive. Among my group of capable people - and by capable, I mean people who are totally ... http://www.wigitozzi.com/?p=106