Jenn Martinelli Blogging in Boston

"Today bigotry and racism saved the day."
- Cartman

Ah, South Park. There's an even better quote, but Rob "claimed" it. So you'll have to check his blog for it, though he's too lazy to put it up so far.

Besides just your shopping experience, now they are ruining my internet service provider.

Speakeasy is the only ISP we've had that doesn't totally suck ass. They actually give you reliable service, they allow you to run a server, they have customer service people who actually know what they're talking about, they offer a decent range of products, etc.

Apparently Best Buy's big plan is to expand their small business clientele by adding Speakeasy's services. Too bad they didn't think about all the people who have Speakeasy now who are going to drop it because they don't want broadband service from fucking Best Buy. So good job Best Buy, you'll get to keep all the idiot businesses who already use you for technology services for God knows what reason, and maybe you'll sign up a couple more dummies, but I predict you'll lose most customers with brains in their heads.

I have no idea who we're supposed to get broadband service from now. Our other options suck. We need a business provider basically.

Thanks for nothing, Best Buy

Check out what Rob has to say about the matter too.

It was our dream come true when we finally could get Speakeasy. And it got even better when we could get their Onelink service which meant we didn't need to pay Verizon for a phone line in addition to the charge from Speakeasy for the DSL. Now they have to go and break our hearts.

SIGH.

I just heard an announcement on the radio that the Charles/MGH T station reopened today.

First of all, it never closed. Secondly, the new part of the station has been open for a while - I've used it several times. Maybe what they meant was it was finally complete and they moved all the construction crap and ladders, etc. out of the space.

It just annoys me when people make dumb mistakes like that.

Apparently a study finds lots of problems with kids - and their families - who spent significant time in daycare before kindergarten.

Well in case you were wondering apparently this is another story about how if you can't work from home or have a parent stay home with your kids, then you just shouldn't have any or they grow up broken. Seems a little harsh. What exactly is everyone supposed to do? Most people can't afford a stay at home parent and plenty of people's careers don't let them work from home.

We've got a lot of problems in this society folks.

I got a nice note from Hester Willa today:

Dear Auntie Jenny,

I'm sorry I missed your visit! I swear, my moms 
make me so tired. They jabber on at me all day 
long and I finally have to crash to avoid all 
the crazy faces they make at me. A baby can 
only take so much, you know?

ANYWHO, thank you for the cute sweater vest! 
Mama says that sweater vests are dorky, but 
I like it. The color makes my eyes pop, which 
is rad. I'm glad I finally have something cute 
to team with my cream owl pants. Thanks again 
for the sweet and thoughtful gift!

Also, don't worry: If I'd been awake when you 
were here I would have puked on you for sure. 
I got Auntie Y. last night TWICE--hee hee hee 
hee hee! I love making everyone scramble for 
dry land--keeps 'em on their toes. I'll catch 
you next time, though--be sure to bring your 
slicker!

Kisses!

love,  
Hester Willa

I'll have to request a photo in the allegedly dorky but actually totally cute and hip sweater vest so everyone can see it.

Dear MBTA,

I live five minutes from the Charles MGH stop on the redline. This morning I left my house around 9am to catch a bus at South Station (3 stops on the redline in case you didn't know) at 9:30. Since it should be about a 5 minute ride on the train, this should have been no problem.

However, I had to wait 10-15 minutes for a train to show up and when it did, I could only ride it 1 stop, to Park, where I then had to take a shuttle bus the rest of the way because of a "public safety exercise" or some such other nonsense.

Hmmmm. Since you don't run 24 hours (which you would do if this were a real city like New York - oh yes, I said it) doesn't it seem like the best time to do things that require shutting down train service would be when the train service is already shut down?

Needless to say, I missed my bus and had to take a much later one, which messed up my plans for the day and meant a visit that was supposed to be about 4 hours was instead about 1.75 hours. Oh, and while I'm on the subject, thanks for the awesome train schedule to and from Worcester.

You suck.

Sincerely,
Jenn

See? Billy and Cleo really do love each other.

At least when they're sleeping.

A little while ago, Emily went hunting. Did she find a bird? A mouse? Worse, a rat? A baby bunny maybe?

No, she found...

A biscuit! This was supposed to be part of Heather's dinner, but she foolishly left freshly cooked biscuits out on the stovetop where Emily the hunter could find them. She dragged this innocent one up on top of the fridge to be devoured.

But, she got caught! When I confronted her with the evidence, she perched on top of the cabinet and tried to look innocent.

But I know your tricks, kitty. I have the evidence.

This header photo was originally posted 2/24/2007. This is from Amherst, NY, which is just outside Buffalo. Boston's grocery stores have nothing on suburbia's. Case in point, this is just the produce section but it's at least as big if not bigger than the entire Whole Foods near our apartment at home.

Ship packages. Click the link below for the full rant.

Read the rest

Don't hate me because I'm so freaking cute.

love,
Hester Willa

UPS officially ruins 3 of my nights (I'm including tomorrow as we have to drive to South Boston then to pick up a package they were too fucking stupid to deliver right the first time) and makes me murderously angry. Of course that means I cry because that's what I do when I'm angry. Thanks for the genes, Mom.

I don't know, do you think it's a problem to eat an entire package of Oreos in less than 24 hours?

I'm pretty sure it's a bad idea. Tedeschi Foods, I blame you and your irresistible "Buy One Get One Free" deal.

There's part of the last, lone Oreo.

I always forget to add a link to Post Secret on my sidebar.

Here's a quote from it today:

"Every single person has at least one secret that would break your heart. If we could just remember this, I think there would be a lot more compassion and tolerance in the world."

What do you think? Do you ever read this site? Some of the secrets are funny or silly, a lot of them are sad.

Um yeah, I think these folks could really use a little more exposure to the outside world.

The dye in a package of drug store hair dye is not sufficient to dye all your hair.

Everybody knows about the pet food recall, right? Check that link for more info on the recall and which brands are affected.

At quick glance the first time I thought it was only weird generic and store brands but Eukanuba and IAMS are on the list too, so check carefully.

Want to damn someone? I thought I would have a million ideas but when I got there my mind blanked on who I'd actually like to damn.

Walk on a cantilevered glass-bottomed bridge suspended 4000 feet above the bottom of the Grand Canyon? Probably not.

I might even have a problem with it, though it sounds really cool actually. But I think in reality I might get dizzy or too freaked out trying to walk across it. All I know is even I remember feeling nervous when 6-year-old Dan climbed on the railings there at the overlooks and leaned over, pointing excitedly. I was sure one of my brothers would plummet to his death. In fact I had a very surreal dream where that happened to Brian which I can still remember very clearly. He was only two and in my dream after he plunged off the side of a cliff my understandably upset mom was crying and saying, "He had a dirty diaper!"

Here's an interesting DIY cleaner maeybe loves. Personally we tend to use tap water and a little smidgen of dish soap, which works great for most things. The vinegar concoction might be better for greasy stuff, I'm not sure.

Also, just an FYI, there was an article in a recent issue of Real Simple about an upscale school for professional housekeepers to the rich and I learned that the best cleaning product for hardwood floors is either water and mild dish soap or a mixture of water and vinegar.

So no need to spend a gazillion dollars on cleaning products - even rich folks don't.

Go see all the exactly right stuff Rob has to say about Google's practices in China.

Precisely what lets these people sleep at night?

How is it that the world decided to forgive China's horrible human rights violations? Did China do something to earn our collective good will? Did they end world hunger? Achieve peace in the middle east? Facilitate unilateral nuclear disarmament? Not according to my sources (ie: my eyes and ears).

Why is everybody so complicit in the inherent evil-ness of all of this?

I debated about whether this belonged in my Technology category or Horrible. Horrible won.

>From: "Brian Martinelli"
>To: "Jennifer Martinelli" 
>Date: March 16, 2007 10:20:09 AM EDT
>Subject: Re: oh my god
>
>Wait... is it you or me who lives in Memphis?
>
>On 3/16/07, Jennifer Martinelli wrote:
>>
>> It's supposed to snow a few inches here today and 
>> people are FREAKING OUT like they've never
>> seen snow before.
>> It's RI-DI-CU-LOUS.
>>
>> Jennifer Rebecca Martinelli
>> http://jennmartinelli.net/weblog
>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/jennmartinelli/
>>
>> In the beginning the Universe was created.
>> This has made a lot of people very angry and 
>> been widely regarded as a bad move.
>> - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

WHO FUCKING CARES?

It's Boston, folks. We're in New England. We're supposed to be able to handle some snow. For Pete's sake you'd think it was Hawaii or something the way people are freaking out.

I just don't get it.

I really like Vera Bradley bags. Well, some of them. I don't like all the patterns, but when they pick a fabric I like for the quilted bags, I love them.

My current favorite pattern is Peacock but there are several that I think are pretty nice.

If anyone wants to get me a nice little gift, I need a new smaller handbag, and I like this one a lot.

I'm just saying.

Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience and rebellion that progress has been made. - Oscar Wilde

Holy crap, remember these? I totally rocked making these for several years around age 11-13. I made HUNDREDS of AWESOME friendship bracelets. Hell yeah.

On the subject of "quit whining and do something", please consider helping out at Boston Shines in April.

If you hate trash like I do then maybe you should do something to help out.

While you're at it, please make sure you're cleaning up after your dog. Especially if you're going to Phillips Street Park where people have apparently decided that once it snows nobody needs to pick up poop. Maybe some kind of magic is supposed to happen involving the poop and the snow, but if so, let me tell you:

1. It's not working
2. There's no snow anymore folks, it's been in the 50's for four days now.

Thanks.

Sincerely,
Your friendly neighborhood enforcer

Billy was in some kind of mood last night, that's for sure. Mostly he was being his normal self all night, lazy and a little grumpy, but mostly just lazy.

Then around the time we were turning in for the night, he started being really growly and grumpy, snapping at Cleo, then trying to eat Emily. Really, almost.

She made the mistake of trying to leave the room at the same time as him, which apparently turned on his chase instinct, and what followed was crazy loud growling and barking, screaming cat, Billy sliding all over the floor and falling on his ass, then tufts of cat hair all over the hallway, making us think Billy had taken a bite out of our poor kitty.

He did in fact pull a mouthfull of hair out of her apparently, but I couldn't find any scratches or bites on her and she didn't seem particularly distressed, so I guess she made it OK. I checked her obsessively about 4 times last night and again this morning.

Billy, cut it out you grumpy jerk!

Did I mention I was a shoe whore too?

Well I am. Because we are being frugal right now, I have many less shoes than I have at times in the past. I think my record is something like 28 or 30 pairs. That may not be too impressive to some people, but for me it's pretty excessive.

Anyway, I have to admit that I'm getting the itch for new shoes. I won't buy any, but maybe some kind soul wants to get me some for my birthday, which is coming up in about 2 months...

I have to admit, if I won the lottery, I would of course pay off all our debts and share with friends and family first, but then I might have to splurge a little on some unnecessary shoe purchases.

Dude, this movie is awesome.

Apparently I should have been a boy or at least should have been reading Frank Miller's comics/graphic novels because I really like the crazy movies based on them.

I think a lot of the people that don't like it are kind of missing the point.

(This is a joint post by Rob and me)

We're sure everyone has read the most recent issue of The Boston Courant and their hard hitting expose titled "City Issues Trash Hit List". So you know the article talks about the fact that property owners in Back Bay, the Fenway and the South End are piling up large amounts in trash violation debts. These are tickets issued by the city's Inspectional Services Department that cover a range of trash violations. Basically, there are a bunch of city employees who walk around every day of the week looking for trash that's out and writing these tickets and sticking them on whatever building is closest. (By the way, in case you missed it, we had a little incident with this ourselves.)

We're no fans of property owners in Back Bay, the Fenway and the South End. Which is to say we don't have anything against them but it's not like this is a downtrodden group of people who need us rushing to their rescue or defending their honor. But, maybe the reason why people are unwilling to pay these tickets is because the whole idea of them is ridiculous. It's not ridiculous that there should be rules related to leaving your trash out and trash collection in a city. We're aware that there are any number of issues, including serious health issues, involved. The problem is the way that the city is choosing to enforce their garbage rules.

If we're property owners, the fact that there's a bag of trash in front of our building essentially means nothing to us. Because there's nothing that prevents people who have no association with us or our building from putting a bag of trash anyplace they want. Furthermore, there's absolutely nothing we can do to prevent that from happening and even if we wanted to make it our responsibility to go ahead and remove that trash, with probably very few exceptions it would be incredibly difficult to have someone stationed outside our building 24-7 waiting for somebody to walk up with a bag of trash and drop it.

Read the rest

Honestly. You've got to give me a break. This is ridiculous. You're an ass with no talent. Why do you need to take a part from, oh, say, a real actress? Is it because you wanted an excuse to cross-dress? Dude, do whatever you want, but don't subject the audience to it - they actually paid for their tickets

What a total ass.

So I fall for clothing marketing hook line and sinker a lot of the time.

How can I not want every skirt on this page? Actually, I was going to stop myself and say, Come on, Jenn. There's probably a couple you don't like, but no. I'll take one of each please. Hey, isn't my birthday coming up? Hmmmmmm. Oh and also, this is just one site. I haven't even visited my other favorites.

Sorry, but apparently you can add to the list of things I'm a whore about clothes. (Also on the list: TV, yarn, and Lifesavers Gummies in Wild Berry.) Oh, and maybe you can add to that list sweaters. At least if you talk to a certain person who used to work at my office. That's a story for another time.

Billy is a big boy today! Twelve years old!

The way we were, 5 years ago.

Apparently in Italy, if your kid gets bad grades it's a good day to go beat up the principal.

So I copied Melissa again.

This is kind of a fun weird game to play. My only complaint is apparently it removes apostrophes in the little descriptions it lets you add. I know how to spell "it's".

Dude, it's so crazy!!! I can't believe Clementine and Hashbrown are parents first of all, and secondly that they will have their little one with them! It's awesome! Congrats, ladies!

My friend T. has started a blog. Let's encourage her to post a lot by reading it often, and, once she fixes her commenting to allow non-blogger people to post, posting comments. :)

Here she is taking a bath recently! She may be home as soon as Sunday or Monday. I can't wait to go visit her again!