Not built Stanley Tough

Among the moments from my recent holiday visit with my family not touched upon in my most recent entry- (6 January "Back like a rebel...") - is my ensuing amazement with the preponderance of programming on the HGTV channel(Home and Garden, for the none of you that need an explanation)

I sat through the unveiling show for the new "HGTV House" in Sonoma, California which at least 3 of my family members want to win and spent their holiday internet time submitting repeated entries for- I would have had more of a resistence to change the channel to it had the BCS not rendered the idea of meaningful New Year's Day college football bowls a complete joke or thing of history- and Monica Pederson and her purple jumper dress

Anyhow- over the time I spent watching TV in New Jersey not spent trying to catch up on Mike Francesa's-post Mad Dog existence on YES and theorizing about the Pahlanuik version of Urkel- I spent a great deal of it watching what my mom and sister wanted to- as a good family member and when there was no live sports or anything better on

Could not believe that "HGTV" seemed to be the female ESPN of sorts- the likes of "House Hunters", "Curb Appeal" and others as go-to programming was kind of surprising to me- even though I have a former roommate who used to TiVo "House Hunters" as some supposed sort of educational guide to him buying a place- like he was going to buy on the beach in Baja California or some of the other relatively exotic spots on the show- No one wants to see the best houses in the most boring areas of the world- but most people buying a house would like to buy a house in the quietest, more boring areas- by nature- and I can understand that (to some degree)

Anyhow- the real idea that I don't watch HGTV or any cable-TV home improvement shit seriously- is because I'm a real sissy (was going to say fag- didn't want to be un-PC) with the tools and paintbrushes, etc.

A great example is today- where I went and bought a new Brita filter for my sink- during a usually horrible visit to Target- I digress- was replacing the one I broke trying to replace filter while drunk a number of months back- took awhile for me to fit it even semi-succesfully while semi-sober- after a bit of effort- it is running water while filtering it without spraying it all over the place in my kitchen

The bottom line for me is- I'm pretty much a fag (or sissy like said before in some form of senstivity) when it comes to tools or home improvement-type shit

-Speaking of trips around here- the Walden Street bridge in Cambridge - "Fucking Cambridge" as I have thought to myself and would have otherwise titled this- is finally open again after the more than 2 years than was predicted before October 2006

I cannot believe it is open at this point (January 2009)- after they spent so much time advertising the "Autumn 2008" date so much- as much as I cannot believe the "Detour" signs away from there are still up on most of the other approaches to the Walden Street bridge-I thought it would be at least 2010 before the bridge was done- driving to it tonight- I was going to follow my now-usual left down Sherman Street

Kept going and was surprised by 4-way Stop signs and about hood-level speed-bumps at Raymond Street and Walden Street- that used to be a light and no bumps- I guess the whole street is going to have a lower speed limit and the last 2 years without it won't give anyone that lived without it an an alternative- but, good luck with that speed bump, like that and the painted traffic circle, et al.........

I will say- I've driven through a fair amount of both Waltham and Cambridge to annoint them equally on so-called snow/ ice removal- had to drive through one of the many back areas of the Watch City to get to Watertown the other day- still cannot believe there are towns around here that act as though we are in the south or something