It was a hairy situation

How great of a firefighter would I make?

I have been known to have a bit of a neck hair problem. If I don't clean it up every couple of weeks it looks like an ape is climbing out the back of my shirt. So after going about a month and a half without shaving it I finally shaved my head and got rid of the monkey on my back. I had grown my customary beard while growing my hair out and so decided to shave that too. As a joke I left the mustache until Alyssa came over to see it. When i went over to give her a kiss (with mustache) she turned her head away so I couldn't kiss her lips. I don't think she liked it. It's gone now but it will return, possibly as a handlebar. The look on her face says, "You idiot, get rid of that stupid caterpillar on your lip!"

Can You Spot Six Differences Between the Pictures?

Before

After

Actually there is just one difference; though it is a big one. Because the rainy season has begun Josh and I decided it would be a good time to redo the front walk. We got rid of the hideous, oversized, pebbled-concrete pavers (my apologies to anyone out there who may have some like that) and put in a nicer more patio style look. It's hard to tell from the before picture, but they had nine stones tic-tac-toe style with random shrubbery in between. I like the new look better!

BTW: Happy Thanksgiving!

Dorks

So I went by my friendly neighborhood (closing) circuit city and saw guitar hero two on sale for only $45. Being behind in my gaming by an average of three years i went ahead and bought it. Vorp is a dork.

A Sophisticated Wine Party & Food Fest

Our dish

Tyler Moxley of The Moxley Team @ Alain Pinel Realtors Pleasanton held his fourth annual Wine Pairing Party Saturday night, the 25th of October. I pretend that I'm some sort of high brow individual but really I just go for the snacks. Alyssa and I brought an Anderson Valley Cab with an assortment of cheese and cracker options as well as a fresh loaf of a sourdough baguette. I did all the prep and presentation though the dish was her idea. I liked it and it got pretty much taken care of at the party. The rest of the food and wine options were nowhere near as boring as ours though. There were some tasty looking swans containing a nice chocolate mousse, and salami with cream cheese and pepperoncini peppers which i ate about half of (the platter). Good times with good people.

My Favorite

Our host with many, many empty bottles.

Taboo!

Alyssa rules at Taboo! 'Nuff said.

Back to the Blog

Sunrise over the Bay

When I started this blog I was hoping to update it about once a week. Recently that hasn't happened, I guess I'm just too damn busy. Lots of stuff going on though. Alyssa's mother Alicia recently had a birthday, we went to Fuddrucker's. She loved the gifts I got her, though Alyssa did all the shopping, I just contributed some cash.

Last Thursday Alyssa and I spent the evening in the beautiful Embassy Suites Burlingame (she slept on the sofa bed Grandma, honest). My cousin Margo is the guest relations person there and hooked us up with a beautiful room on the bay and some VIP treatment. Friday morning we went up to the city to check out the California Academy of Sciences renovation. Alyssa and I both enjoyed it very much but we're both dorks so if you like aquariums and the like you will probably like it just as much.

Sunday my Grandma Pat celebrated her 80th Birthday. Most of my family surprised her at her home church which was quite a kick because her church boasts a regular attendance of 10 and my family brought 25. She was super surprised and deflected all the praise directed at her to the Lord as she always does.

So yeah, I've been busy, but don't worry I still think my life is as cool as I've always thought it to be, and will continue to share it.

Good Times

So Bryn and Ryan finally discovered the sex of their unborn child, a girl, (see c'est une belle vie for more details) and Alyssa and I played some more party games with them Saturday night. The best part for me, was that the part that seemed to excite them the most about having a girl, was that they didn't have to worry about being peed on whilst changing diapers. It was pretty mind altering to see the two of them together and know that some time in the next few months that baby that Bryn has been cooking is going to be out and about. I truly can't imagine the joy they must feel right now bringing a child into the world.

In other news no progress on the top 100 but I have started Six Feet Under Season One on Comcast On Demand. It's pretty dang good and unexpectedly (to me) stars Michael C. Hall from Dexter. Kind of funny seeing an actor I recognize primarily as a serial killer playing the part of a funeral director.

TV and Not Movies

So I've been skirting the responsibility of watching the top 100 movie list because of my recent binge on television on DVD. I'm in the middle of Entourage Season 4, Deadwood Season 1, Heroes Season 2, Office Season 4 (after watching 1-3 to catch Josh and Vorp up), and the Wire Season 1. And the Black Donnellys Complete Series. I just completed Dexter Season 2 which was awesome if you don't mind shows about serial killers that are far from realistic. Also I've begun to DVR the new HBO vampire series True Blood, starring Anna Paquin, and Entourage Season 5.
It's a bit of TV overload I know, but I'm enjoying and invested in them all. So that's why Alyssa and I haven't gotten around to Bringing Up Baby yet. But we will soon, honest.

Waterford Crystal

It's hard to comprehend the simple beauty of watching a professional take something so ordinary and simple and turning it into a beautiful piece of art. The glass workers at Waterford Crystal are true professionals. There is a rhythmic art involved in watching people that know each other and trust each other, work together. Truly enchanting.
Unfortunately, because the only video I took of them working is 111MB, blogger won't load it. I'll have to edit it down.

Ireland the Beautiful

Since I returned from my vacation in early July, I've been promising pictures of the beautiful Irish countryside. The wait is over! Not that anyone cares, but still I feel I need to show some of these shots.

Alyssa's 22nd

Alyssa had a little family get together on Tuesday to celebrate her 22nd Birthday on her 22nd Birthday, (August 19th). She was nice enough to invite my parents and brother, as well as myself of course. She looked very cute in the new shirt I got her whilst modeling her new shoes, which I also got her. My brother got her a birthday card for a three year old which was payback for the Happy 30th card that she gave him (on his 27th birthday). The added bonus was that the card doubled as a crown which he insisted she wear throughout the party. I was impressed she could fit a card made for a three year old on her head. Her mother made the most delicious Lasagne I've ever tasted, and I've had some pretty tasty authentic Italian dishes. All in all it was a pretty great night.

Pacific Coast Highway & Montecito Wedding

This last Saturday my family and I drove from my parent's house in Carmel down Highway 1 to Montecito (near Santa Barbara) for a wedding. The drive was beautiful, I rode with my dad in his convertible and my brother and mother went in her car (also with the top down). The wedding was a really nice backyard ceremony at the Journey's home in Montecito. I wore one of the three shirts I purchased while in Paris with my pinstriped suit, and I think it went off pretty well. Enjoy the pics!

Food.

I like food. Some might say love. Alyssa and I, with prep help from her mother Alicia, made some Penne Pomodoro with a sauteed asparagus side. The Pomodoro was delicious, the tomatoes and basil were homegrown from Alyssa's backyard and I stole some garlic from Josh (just two cloves, don't tell him, he doesn't read this so I'll know if you told him) for the asparagus. Essentially the asparagus was warmed in butter, olive oil, and garlic, and seasoned with a little freshly ground sea salt and cracked peppercorn (from Costco and Safeway respectively). It was also delicious. Fried asparagus sure looks unappetizing though.

Moxicillin

Moxley is all butt hurt that I don't post about him enough. Typically I don't write much about my business associates/realtors but he likes to whine a lot and i can only handle so much of it. So check out Tyler Moxley at http://moxleyteam.com/home/ so i don't have to listen to him whine anymore. Thanks

Yes, I like Chicken Piccata...

...and getting caught in the rain.
Alyssa and I cooked up some delicious Chicken Piccata at the house last night. Alyssa brought over everything (she treated me to dinner) and I had a bunch of BS Chicken Breasts from Costco. It was incredible. Really savory with the tang and acidity of the lemons and capers. Enjoyed the hell out of it. We'll do it again as soon as I have enough counter space to do anything. My kitchen is the smallest little space ever. We made enough for Josh and Whitney to have some too so we got them to do dishes for us. I hate the idea of cooking, it always seems like too much work, but when Alyssa starts, I have to join in, I'm a bit of a perfectionist and feel that unless I'm doing it it won't be done right. So when she cooks for me it usually turns in to her helping me cook, despite her best efforts to keep me out of the kitchen.
Then Josh and I whooped some ass in Pictionary. It's nice playing a game that requires you to think like your partners with a person you've known for twenty years, while playing against two people who have met 5 times in the space of two months. Advantage, Matt! Alyssa also brought over some Casaba melon, a more delicious honey dew in my opinion, and some Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough for dessert. I ate all of the CCCD by myself.

Game Night!

Last night Alyssa and I went out with the Lacks for a dinner at The Hopyard in San Ramon. Afterwards we got down with some 25th Anniversary Edition Trivial Pursuit goodness. Alyssa and I won a hard fought battle against Ryan and Bryn after Josh and Whitney withdrew halfway through the game for Josh to go to bed and Whitney to go home. I've discovered the most difficult part of the game is actually landing on the center square after collecting your pie pieces. We added a twist that you had to answer a question when landing on the final square. Ours was, "Which sport awards the Stanley Cup to its championship winner?" being a huge Sharks/hockey fan it wasn't too difficult to come up with hockey. Probably wouldn't be making this post if we didn't win, but we did, so there.

My new dog

Tucker, everyone. Everyone, Tucker. I'm going to be stealing this dog from his current owner Ashley sometime in the next couple of weeks. He is awesome. Full of energy, yet still very soft and cuddly, he was incredibly hard to say goodbye to. I welcome any suggestions on how best to get him away from Ashley, at this point I'm thinking about some shaving cream around his mouth and paying some kid to cry "RABIES!!" and threaten to tell their mother that they were bitten. I'd have to change his name too, Tucker has at least one too many extremely unflattering rhyming words. I can only imagine the nicknames people would come up with.

House Party!

All loyal blog readers are invited to the Ginn-Perry House Warming Party on Saturday, August 23rd. The exact time has yet to be finalized but probably around 2 or so in the afternoon and going all night! The party is being sponsored by Tyler Moxley of the Moxley Team at Alain Pinel Realtors' Pleasanton office, and will include a Margarita machine and catered food. It is somewhat ironic that the only two people who read this blog (Ryan & Bryn) will be out of town that weekend, and so this post is completely useless. But if anybody else actually bothers to check up on ol' Pending Sobriety feel free to contact me for directions or more info.

Flora Of Southern Ireland and Paris

The House! & Movie Update

I'm in, here are some pics:

So of the top 100 list, Alyssa and I have completed the final, or first, depending on how you look at it, 10 films. The most recent three (yet to be blogged films) are The French Connection, Goodfellas and Sophie's Choice. Goodfellas was as great as I'd recalled, and The French Connection was fun, mostly seeing Gene Hackman as a bad ass. Sophie's Choice was good but I didn't like seeing Kevin Kline as a nutcase. He's always been a very likable guy in his films, even in A Fish Called Wanda, when he tortured an animal loving stutterer by swallowing fish out of his tank. Now that's a brilliant movie! Anyhow, I've enjoyed the experience of the first ten and it has certainly broadened my horizons, cinematically speaking.

I've worked 12 of the past 13 days and just recently got Internet back so I've been lazy with the blog. I'm hoping to publish a "Flora of Ireland and France" post, which is pretty much a bunch of closeups of pretty flowers. I know, a little gay, but surprisingly pretty. Until next time.

I'm Baaaack

Josh, Alyssa, and I

Finally. I've pretty much completed the move in process to my first (live-in) home purchase with my buddy Joshua Perry. Yesterday I got the Comcast double play installed, an HD/DVR receiver for our new 42" LCD TV, and another box in my room. And finally, blessed Internet. There was supposed to be a third box in Josh's room but the installers screwed up and brought a broken box. So Josh and I will run the cable under the house up into his room and get an additional box. This is the first time either Josh or myself has lived in a place that gets cable and so far we're not incredibly impressed. I'll be posting pics of the house soon but I just wanted to encourage my readers to come back. All two of you.

A Crazy 48 Hours

Wednesday was my last day in Paris and started off with a bang that didn't end until I arrived home 48 hours later. Bear with me, this will take a while.

Woke up Wednesday morning, took a shower, got dressed, went shopping with my brother. He bought this really nice shirt that we dropped off back at the apartment before heading out to complete our souvenir shopping. As we were walking to the Metro stop my brother looks at me and says, "no joke, our car is gone." The night before, my parents, our friend Caroline and my brother parked the car in a no parking spot and it got towed. I didn't know this at the time, I thought Brian had just forgotten where the car was parked. So, parents and Caroline come out to verify the car is gone, then Brian and I say we got to finish our shopping we'll see you later. Four police stations later they finally track down the car in time for Caroline to give us a ride to CDG. On our two hour drive to CDG from Paris in the worst traffic of my life i hear a little beep coming from my mom's phone. She had received a text message from Aer-Lingus, the Irish airline we were flying into Dublin from Paris and flying from Dublin to SFO in the morning saying "We're sorry your flight tonight has been cancelled." Which meant that we couldn't make it to Dublin in time to catch our flight home and meant we would be stuck in Europe for at least an extra day but probably two more because we didn't find out about the whole Dublin airport radar failure until very late in the game causing any open flights to fill right up. Well I wasn't having any of that, I wanted to go home and was determined to catch our flight out of Dublin the next morning, so I started looking at Travelocity and other sites trying to get into Dublin before our 9:40 flight the next morning. British Airways had a 10:00 PM flight out of CDG to London Heathrow and a flight arriving into Dublin from London at 8:10 AM the following morning. Unfortunately after booking the flight I realized that the early morning flight was out of London City airport not Heathrow. Which meant we had to get a 100 Pound (app. $200) cab ride at 4 in the morning to the complete opposite side of London after staying up for the four hours after arriving in Heathrow. Cool part was driving by Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the London Eye, the Tower of London, and Tower Bridge all lit up and beautiful at 4:30 in the morning. So we had the first flight out of London City airport in the morning, the plane was already there, no way for it to be delayed or late right. Of course not. There was a "catering Mixup" causing the flight to leave over half an hour late and causing our window in Dublin to shrink to 45 minutes from an hour and a half. We landed in Dublin, I literally sprinted through the airport, was able to talk a customs official into letting my family skip the line for passport control and customs, and then sprinted past baggage claim leaving my bags to try to check us in before check in closed. Check in was closed. I ran over to a desk, got her to refer me to her supervisor, and explained the whole situation of our last 30 hours sleeping in Heathrow, buying new flight, etc. By this point my family had arrived with our bags and we were able to check in and get on the plane! We got in the plane with 20 minutes to spare and arrived at SFO 10 hours later. Unfortunately no one wanted to pick us up so we had to catch BART back to Castro Valley and then get a ride from Alyssa to home.

The whole experience so exhausted me that I've had an 102 degree fever since we got home. And a nonstop case of explosive diarrhea. Through Saturday. But I did make it home in time.

If anybody is in contact with the Amazing Race producers please forward this story their way.

So Long and Fair Well

Yea I know it's fare not fair but yesterday I went to the W.T. capital of the world, the Alameda County Fair! Alyssa and I went with our friends Ryan and Bryn Lack, and had an absolute blast. I almost made myself vomit with the combination of greasy foods, beer, jerky rides and super sweet desserts. Ryan and I used all the tickets up on the good rides so the girls only got to go on this Merry-Go-Round.

Yes that is me doing the sound effects.

Also, the Blog will be going on a bit of a hiatus, I'll be in Europe for the next three weeks (Ireland and Paris) and when I get back I'll be moving in to the new house I just bought with my buddy Josh. So things will be a little crazy until we both get settled in.

Pulp Fiction

This movie rules. Straight up awesome. Probably the best comedy I've ever seen in its originality. Also has tons of violence and swearing, they drop the F-bomb 265 times in this movie, but the dialogue is so brilliant I can't help but to laugh out loud over and over again. And, surprisingly, Alyssa enjoyed it also, though she did say she'd never watch it again. I caught her laughing a lot. "have you ever given a man a foot massage?"

Movie Ideas

I don't know if it is just watching all these "great" films or me being bored but recently I've been running movie ideas through my head. On my way home from work today I started thinking about Battle Royale, a Japanese movie with a cast full of high school classmates that are left on a deserted island and are forced to kill each other off to survive. Only one person gets to win by killing everyone else and being allowed to live. Anyhow I would love to see an American version with all of the overexposed, unenlightened, Lala Land morons roaming around. Starring in no particular order, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, maybe include the outspoken politico's; Brad Pitt and wifey, Bono,the scientologists; John Travolta, Tom Cruise and throw Shia LeBeouf in there cause he's in everything now anyway. I can only imagine watching them fight to the death and how little their celebrity ideals would mean to them in that scenario. Just an idea. I think I'll start working on a script.

The Last Picture Show

Another movie down. Monday Alyssa and I finished The Last Picture Show, a 1971 movie about a 1950's town. Pretty boring and really unrelatable for us ( I just made that word up, it means I was unable to relate to a movie about expansion and the loss of small town community when I've never seen small town community in my lifetime). It was decent though and a trip to see Jeff Bridges and Cybil Sheperd looking young and hot. Cybil even got a little naked for it which was a shock considering what she looks like now. Pulp Fiction is next which I love and crack up to every time I see it.

Father's Day at the Ginn's

Today was (and is) Father's Day. My family got together at my parent's house around noon for a BBQ and cards. My dad got a set of Philips noise canceling headphones from my mom. She saw them at Costco for $60 and thought they'd be worth a shot. Unfortunately my brother, mom, and myself also could use a nice pair of noise canceling headphones, what with the upcoming flights and extended periods in the car with my family over the next two+ weeks, so she got everyone a pair. My brother and I chipped in on some pipe wrenches for my dad. His reaction was essentially "Yay, pipe wrenches" Nothing to get too excited about. Anyhow, here's a horrible picture of my family trying to get the smile cam on my camera to work from far away. Like my brother said, "it's a smile cam, not an eyebrow cam."

And yes, I know, we are a bunch of dorks.

The Skullet (or is it Skullit, skullett or skullitt?)

As evidenced by the no hair shot in the Whoops post I recently cut my hair. Due to increasing pressure from an incredible and varied number of blog readers (Ryan), I felt obligated to show the middle step of my hair cutting process. The Skullet:

And yes Alyssa thought I was serious about keeping it like that but she forbade me from publishing the video I took of her entrance. And her reaction was more apathy towards it as opposed to outright revulsion so it doesn't make that great of theater anyhow.

The Right Thing Was Done.

Alyssa and I got to watching the Spike Lee joint "Do the Right Thing" on Saturday night. I thoroughly enjoyed the flick, she had seen it before and didn't like it. I think her ideal movie involves sunshine, rainbows and a happy ending, but I'm hoping to convert her to more pics that require you to think.
I found it interesting that as a person generally shown to be at least somewhat radically inclined towards his race, Spike Lee did a very good job portraying racial tension in this country without bias. Or at the very least didn't try to justify the actions of the black people in his film. Also interesting that someone shown to be a peacemaker early in the film ultimately has a breaking point just like everyone else and evolves into a fire starter (figuratively and literally).
Ultimately I found the film to have two morals; one, the racial situation in this country has got to be changed for the better and two, don't hang out in a poor New York neighborhood on an incredibly hot day, because people can have short tempers.

Whoops!

So I was cutting my hair in the normal fashion yesterday when the strangest thing happened. Namely, I screwed up. I gave the clippers to Alyssa to trim the hair I couldn't see to a shorter level due to my hairy neck. After she finished she gave the clippers back to me and I proceeded to clean up the work I had already done. Without realizing the clippers were now set to a different length. Whoops! So now I have the shortest hair I can recall having. Thankfully it still grows back.