Day: August 24, 2006

Woke up.
Got out of bed.
Did not a thing to my head.
Found my way downstairs and drank a cup…

From that point on, this day in the life was different than the usual Thursday, but very similar to many other days in ways that really matter. After a protein shake including soy milk, yogurt, whey, a banana and berries, Kyle and I headed West on the Mohawk Trail… destination: 1912.

Our first stop was in historic Deerfield at the Yankee Candle Shop Factory. What a cool place! We had a nice lunch at their Chandler’s Restaurant that was surprisingly good… I had the pilgrim sandwich, a traditional pairing of fresh carved turkey and sage stuffing on multigrain bread. The cranberry sauce was enjoyed on the side and it was quite nice, as was the Pepi Pinot Grigio. Pepi’s web site describes it better than I could:

Yep, it tasted just like that… I do believe Kyle thoroughly enjoyed his chicken tenders and fries chased by a large, ice cold milk. From there we entered through the Yankee Candle Museum and enjoyed a little history lesson on candle making. After that it was just a blur of Halloween stuff with some guy who looked like Voldemort (natch), a Christmas holiday village where it snowed, thousands and thousands of candles, and a Hummer dealership. OK, I made the Hummer part up, but the place was big. We scored 3 22oz’ers: Buttercream (Kyle’s fave), Ginger Citrus and Autumn Wreath for $50. I’ll tell you this, Ginger Citrus smells way better than those tallow candles of yesteryear.

As we rode South on 91 toward Springfield, Kyle was enjoying “Titanic” on his portable DVD player received last Christmas from Auntie Noreen and Uncle Kev. What he didn’t realize was that our next stop was to be at the Titanic Historical Society Museum in downtown Indian Orchard, MA. What a treat for my boy! Literally located in the back of a jewelry store, the museum is a real labor of love for the curators. There are artifacts, movie posters and many models of the infamous ship. With the audio of the 1997 self-titled film playing in the background, I watched Kyle take it all in. He chatted up the woman about Rose, Jack and even some of the people who were not Hollywood fiction. Then he saw it. “Oh, I knew they’d have the diamond!” he gleefully exclaimed upon seeing an exact replica of “Le Coeur de la Mer” (The Heart of the Ocean).

After about thirty minutes, we’d seen all of the tiny homage to history. I know it was very special for Kyle and so, it was for me. We headed home with the sun setting to our backs on a day different than the usual Thursday.

It’s official. Pluto has been shown the intergalactic door and is no longer considered a planet by the International Astronomical Union. To me, Pluto will always be the last bastion of the solar system I grew up with, and there’s no freakin way I’m snipping Pluto off the mobile in my room.

The Plutoversy has produced some interesting commentary from the rocket science set, some of whom can’t seem to um, theorize beyond their own local spinning rock. I’m sure, for example, Alan Boss, a planetary theorist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, was speaking universally when he declared, “We have a duty to satisfy the whole world.” Really Al? What if those nasty Klingons think Pluto is a planet in their hood?

Anyway, Pluto’s demotion really pissed some people off, including NASA’s New Horizons project mission head Alan Stern, who barked, “It’s a sloppy definition. It’s bad science. It ain’t over.” Love that passion, Al (another Al?) but I think we could probably spend $700M a little more constructively than on flying to Pluto, OK? Listen, I can predict with certainty exactly what the thing will beam back to Earth when it finally gets to Pluto in ten years: “It’s f#$%ing cold here.”

Finally, since every controversy can be analogized into a battle of the sexes, Jack Horkheimer, who has a better name than either Al, and is also host of the PBS show “Star Gazer, got cute when he said, “It’s like an amicable divorce. The legal status has changed but the person really hasn’t. It’s just single again.”

Speaking of divorce, Forbes magazine has some advice for their male and lesbian readers: “Don’t Marry Career Women.” So, I agree, but only if the “career” is at KFC. Seriously, if I ever get married, or even date a woman for any length of time, she’ll have to be smart. I mean, after the otherworldly thirty seconds of sex, I want someone interesting to talk with… Smart? Yeah. Married to their career? No, thank you. After all, how’s a woman going to be a good partner if she’s constantly thumbing her blackberry?