Insufficient Postage

Forgive me Internet for I have sinned, it's been one week since my last confession blog post. And now it's been about three seconds since I last blasphemed.

This time I have a legitimate excuse (no really). Thursday morning my parents and sister came into town, and so most of my non-work time was filled showing them the sights and being a filthy tourist. And even though they left Sunday, I still have an excuse, since apparently my neighbors have finally figured out how to password protect their wireless routers, leaving me utterly without broadband. Those bastards.

So I suppose a "Week In Review" is in order. And even if it isn't, here it is. Watch out, it's pretty lengthy.

As previously mentioned, my parents and sister came into town Thursday morning. They didn't want to get a hotel, so I told them they could just stay at my place. Sure, it's a studio apartment, but it's a big studio apartment, large enough for four grown humans to sleep (sometimes on the floor!), so here they stayed. And while I was at work, here they stayed.

For weeks beforehand I'd asked them what they wanted to do while they were here, and their only answer was, "oh, we just want to see you," which while that's sweet and all, doesn't give me any clues as to things they, you know, want to do while they're here. Thursday and Friday night were pretty low-key, dinner and sitting around, mostly. But they got to see me, so I hope they were happy.

Saturday morning we took a bus down to my office, so I could show them around. They were impressed with all the free food, the scooters, and the incredible view beside which we get to eat lunch. As they should be, it's awesome.

After that was Battery Park and a ferry to Ellis Island. My mom's grandfather came through there on a boat from Wales early last century (boy, that feels weird to say), and we were hoping to find a record of his voyage. And find it we did, much to my mom's enjoyment. Apparently they've completely digitized all seven million hand-written immigration records for Ellis Island, and have them in a searchable database with scans of the original ships manifests and everything. It was pretty sweet to see in actual handwriting the first record of my great-grandfather's passage into America, complete with his age, height, work plans, relatives, etc. all carefully catalogued almost a hundred years ago.

So that was Saturday, and they left Sunday afternoon. Most of the rest of Sunday was spent lazying around, because that's what Sundays were made for. Also I had no internets.

Monday night I went to go see Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman, the preview for which was mentioned previously in passing. It turned out to be a very good movie. Or at least I liked it a lot. At first it was very difficult to see Timothy Spall as anything besides Peter Pettigrew, but by the end he had completely sold me. I won't ruin any of the plot, but suffice it to say it takes a special kind of person to be able to kill people for a living. If you get a chance to see the movie, I recommend it.

Tuesday and Wednesday were both pretty slow, but last night was quite the opposite. I went back to the UCB Theater (the scene of the crime) to see witness the Dave Hill Explosion. It was a very special evening for the Explosion, because none other than resident expert John Hodgman and internet superstar Jonathan Coulton were in attendance. The show was pretty hilarious, though Coulton only got to sing two songs before they had to call it a show. Hopefully I get to see more of him while I'm here.

And today was, well, Friday. And Thank God it Is. Tomorrow's Saturday, and you know what that means -- taking a bus down to Baltimore, Maryland, America's coldsore. For what you ask? Why, you'll just have to wait and see!

Congratulations on making it to the end of this lengthy post. Or at least for having the foresight to skip to the last sentence before you closed the window.