Monday morning dillema

Every Monday morning I come in to work and someone has put their Netflix movies from the weekend in the "outgoing mail" bin. The rule at my company is you are allowed to place any private mail in the outgoing mail bin so long as it has the proper stamp.

Each week I ponder taking the movies out of the bin, watching them for myself, and mailing them in the next day. The Netflix user wouldn't even know. Of course, I'd be stealing, technically, which is why I haven't actually done it yet, but they are just calling to me...

What would you do?

Election Reflection

Now that there's been a little separation time from the inauguration, I thought looking back at this historic week would be a nice way to end the weekend, and what better way to do it than via blog entry.

I imagine that when we look back at the inauguration of Barack Obama, people will ask that age old question "where were you?" much as people do for important events, be they tragic, disastrous, or awe-inspiring. And sadly, my answer will be "in a meeting that ran 40 minutes over." That answer kind of makes me want to pound my fist into the wall, but I don't think that will actually change what happened (maybe if I punch really hard...) While much of the country gathered around a tv or computer screen to watch and listen to the 44th president's speech, I was inwardly fuming at my superiors' ignorance.

I think what missing Obama's inauguration live (I've since watched him give the speech online) made me realize most is the difference between experiencing a presidential election in college and in the working world. Although many of my friends' experiences last Tuesday differ from my own, I know that had I been attending class, I would have not only listened to the speech, but also dissected, analyzed, been handed assignments based on this analysis, and most importantly, reveled in the awesomeness of inauguration day. Although I was not quite as excited about the inauguration of the last president, I know that the opportunity was not lost for learning. And I also know that those around me took time to experience the days on which President Bush was elected and inaugurated.

I also became painfully aware of how exasperating it was to experience an occassion as momentous as the inauguration of Barack Obama without my closest friends. During the last election we laughed, cried, debated each other, and watched every moment, together. This time around I felt like something was missing.

If I was in charge of creating federal holidays, I'd deem inauguration day as one. That way those who want to experience the day as they want to can do so, and those who could care less can do that too--at home.

The Kugel Mystery--Revealed!

First, I'd like to apologize to my readers for not being the best at updating my blog on a regular basis. I promise I'm working on fitting more time into my schedule to post, I guess I didn't realize that everyone would check back here so often! I'm glad you do though!

For the past four months, boston.com has had in it's "most e-mailed" story list a story about prize winning noodle kugel on almost a daily basis. In fact, the story has occupied the number one or two slot for many of those days. Now, as the name of this blog suggests, I'm always up for some delicious kugel and it did not shock me when the story first appeared in this "most e-mailed" section. Kugel, for those who do not know, is a Jewish food that is sometimes referred to as "noodle pudding," but basically it's egg noodles mixed with things that are both delicious and awful for the human body and then topped off with something sugary and crunchy (my mom uses cinnamon toast crunch). In short, it is something I look forward to at most Jewish holidays and often hoard.

My friend/office-mate Tami and I first remarked about the kugel story back in September when it appeared, laughing about how a story about kugel could make it into the top 5 e-mailed story list at all, but our laughter soon turned to amazement at its staying power. The story was beating out some pretty major news stories: The 2008 campaign trail complete with Sarah Palin's antics, Barack Obama's election to the 44th presidency, the announcement that the U.S. has been in a recession since December 2007 (unbelievable!). Still the little-kugel-that-could train rolled on, and every time that Tami and I thought it had been voted off the most e-mailed list, it would make a surprising comeback. People started to comment on the story, asking The Boston Globe to investigate the kugel craze sweeping Boston.

Well, after nearly four months of this, Tami finally got fed up earlier this week and e-mailed Boston.com to say "Hey, is there some sort of glitch in your system, or is kugel REALLY that popular?" and low and behold, someone from customer service told her it WAS, in fact, a glitch in their system and they did not know why the story continued to why the kugel couldn't be kept off the list. MYSTERY REVEALED! What a scam! I feel like I've been lied to for so long!

OK, really it doesn't change anything, I know how delicious kugel is, but I did for a few months, think that everyone had gone kugel crazy. I'll have to go back to living in the real world.

Cousins galore

I don't know about you, but around the holidays I see a lot of my cousins. We have get togethers with both sides of the family for Hanukkah celebration (really just an excuse to eat) and in past years, depending on the status of the Patriots, we also have festivities around the games, taking up multiple weekends. Of course this year the Patriots lost their starting quarterback, went 11-5 and STILL somehow did not make the playoffs, but I suppose that rant is for another post.

So this year, I had a normal dosage of cousin-ness. My family is pretty close, but on both sides of the family the age differences among cousins spans about 1o or 15 years. That might be normal, but I guess I'm realizing that it takes until you get to a certain age (maybe, say 24) to appreciate that I actually have a lot in common with someone 10 years older or younger than me. And what, you might ask, brought this realization upon me? Guitar Hero. Actually, Guitar Hero World Tour. Remember the commercial (yes I think this is hilarious, I don't care who of you hates one of these men)? That was me, plus three of my cousins playing, plus another two and one of my sister's singing along as fans.

Seriously, it was awesome. Aaron was SICK on the drums. If only they were real he might actually have something there. I was not-so-sick on vocals and occasionally guitar. My sister Amanda and I kept getting like overheated from playing in sweaters because we were really giving it our all, and i mean there's a reason Mick Jagger runs around on stage in tiny little T-shirts. The best moment was probably when I took a moment during "Livin' on a prayer" to listen to the horrible noise coming from the basement that was our group jam.

What I'm trying to say is I had one of the greatest Hanukkah celebrations thanks to a video game, and I don't care what that says about me. If only that thing had been around 10 years ago, maybe we could have started this gig then and really had fun spinning that dreidel, if you know what I mean.

Apparently we were playing Guitar Hero World Tour at the same time that some members of the Bruins were playing Rock Band at the annual "Wives Charity Carnival." You can check it out here but just know that the Comak version was definitely better.

Running in the new year

The title is supposed to look like a play on words, like 'ringing' in the new year, but now that I read it, it just looks like a post about running in the new year... which, I guess it is! So, first, happy new year. 2009 has arrived, which means only one more year of the fun New Years glasses (me, above, modeling the 2008 version). Or maybe the glasses makers will just get creative for post-2010. Yes, that was one of the first thoughts to cross my mind when pondering the new year.

So, I've decided to make a resolution of sorts. I am not usually the resolution type. Never fail the gym is packed with new years resolutioners who keep it up for like five weeks (although maybe not so in this year's economy), and I'm generally just bad at making an absolute resolution to do something. But I was inspired by my friend Steve. I learned that he had set a goal for 2008 to do 100 runs. That's roughly one run per every four days. Now, I run a lot more often than that, but I thought it was kind of cool that he had set a goal to do an activity that he already enjoyed doing to keep fit.

My resolution is even more simple than that: keep track of my mileage. I figure I must run at least 500 miles a year, probably more like 600 or 700, but the thing is I'm just not sure. However, next year at this time, hopefully I'll be able to look back and say "Woooow I ran xxx miles this year!" in that same way that Flavor Flav says "Woooow" when he sees a fine woman.

Anyone brave enough to make some resolutions of their own?