Ramblings from the Marginalized

Hi Folks,

Are you looking for great Italian food, New York style pizza, or the best sandwich in CT...for free? Okay, it's not free, but you can win a gift certificate...keep reading.

Mona Lisa...This small, but inviting establishment, gives the diner a truly great experience, no matter what you order. The atmosphere is cozy, warm, and friendly. Erin, one of the waitstaff, will take care of you like no other; she makes you feel as if you are the only person in the restaurant, paying attention to your every need. This is rare in this day and age, when most restaurants try to push the diner out the door as soon as their meal has been consumed.

I have been visiting Chef Abbas at Mona Lisa for about three years and this writer can say, that without a doubt, he is one of the best Italian chefs in Connecticut. Using only the freshest ingredients, he takes special care as he prepares each delectable dish, paying attention to nuance, presentation, and flavor. He boldly creates dishes that you simply cannot find anywhere else, while also creating standard Italian entrees.

Listed here are some of my favorite entrees:

Greek Salad- Everything you’d expect in a great greek salad, but with a bolder than average taste.

Classic Mediterranean Shrimp- Lightly sauteed shrimp in a luscious lemon/butter sauce, tossed over pasta.

Pasta Alfredo- You would swear that Chef Abbas WAS Alfredo. It should be called “Pasta Abbas”. It’s outrageous!

The Mona Lisa Grinder- This is, without a doubt, the BEST sandwich in CT. Words cannot describe it’s flavor, texture, and finish. It’s hard to believe that this is a grinder.

Calzones- You HAVE to try the “meat lovers with mushroom” variety. It’s both completely satisfying and filling.

Pizza- All of them are great, but the ‘Mona Lisa’ and ‘pesto’ are to die for. Also, ask for “sausage & mushroom”; their sausage is amazing...never dry or overly greasy and chunky.

CONTEST TIME:

Would you like to win a $25 gift certificate to Mona Lisa Ristorante? Simply goto ROCKWARS and email me, stating your name, email address, and mailing address in the email. The winner will be notified by email. You will not be added to a listserv. Employees of Mona Lisa are not eligible for this contest. This contest is available only through ROCKWARS.

For more information on Mona Lisa, please visit www.monalisaristorante.net.

Cheers,

The Force Drainer - Paul Starybrat

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Earlier this evening my daughter asked me to go into her closet and get a game for all of us to play. I normally avoid going into her room at all costs, especially her closet. However, after my wife agreed to play with us I gave in and dug out the game she wanted us to play... Fraidy Cats!

While I was getting the board ready (some assembly required) my daughter asked my wife which cat she wanted to be (the orange one) and then asked me which one I wanted to be (the yellow one). After taking possession of the yellow cat my daughter suddenly decided that she had to be the yellow cat.

I held off on giving it to her until my wife gave me one of those looks. So, I gave it to her after giving her one of those, "you can't get your way all the time in life" speeches. At the the end I threw in one of those, "I will show you no mercy" remarks.

We were playing the game and the dog was running all over the board. Each of us got sent back to the starting area once but my wife pulled in an early victory. My daughter and I were both gunning for second place and wouldn't you know it? I came in second and the dog sent her crying back to start! Yeah, we put that one away and now it was my turn to pick a game.

While putting the Fraidy Cats game back in her closet she made a comment, "no Ticket to Ride Daddy!" I was not planning on pulling that one out, I was aiming for Tiki Mountain!

I got this game a few months ago and have only managed to play it a few times. Every time I played it I had a blast but, for some reason my daughter would not let us play it. She wanted to restrict us to games that are in her closet and her closet only. After I commented that I would just rather not play anymore games this evening my wife got her to agree to allow me to bring in three games from my game room and then we would vote on which games to play.

With sadness in my eyes I took Tiki Mountain back to the game room and came back with three games; Pirate's Cove, Apple to Apples and Aggravation.

I knew we would not be playing Pirate's Cove so I was not at all surprised when that game was nixed. After my daughter tried to nix all the games, "I can't play Apples to Apples because it says 9 and up and I'm only 8," we managed to convince her that she could play the Apples to Apples game with us.

That game went very well except for the fact that it was only three players and my daughter has a way of making it known which card she played. she does not come right out and say which one she played but, after playing our cards she will look at the one I played (the one she did not play) and say something like, "Hamburgers, who played that card?" Yeah... 'nuff said?

In the end my daughter won that game but it was all right as she was not being as cranky as she was earlier while playing Fraidy Cats. In fact, she was in such a good humor that we pulled out Aggravation and gave it a shot.

Yes, that is the version we have. The ancient Deluxe version of the game. This thing is so old all of the dice have little stress fractures on them!

At any rate we set down to playing it. I explained the basic rules of the game and we started. For those who are unfamiliar with the game think of Sorry mixed with Parchisi. You need to get your marbles around the board and into your safe zone. There are some shortcut spaces on the board and the super shortcut space is in the middle. If you land (by exact count) on another player's marble you send it back to their home. Any guesses on how this one turned out?

After about turn five or six I had already sent one of my wife's marbles back to home and one belonging to my daughter. My wife just gave the "I'll get you back for that look" while my daughter (very tired at this point) erupted in tears and yelling. Once again I was the bad guy for playing the game as written.

A few turns later my wife got me back but my daughter was becoming very disruptive. She was making up some strange house rules (that we ignored) such as no one can use the shortcuts and ignoring the rule on landing by exact count on a home space. Several turns later I won and those two duked it out for second.

Not long after putting the games away my daughter was conked out on the couch. It was a long tiring day for her and I guess she just could not take it anymore. I don't know why she was so tired, I was the one who spent most of the day painting the living room walls and trim. All she had to do was go shopping with my wife and be a kid.

There you have it, my own personal horror story.

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We are currently running a number of eBay auctions to benefit my daughter's gril scout troop. If any of these things tickle your fancy feel free to bid and win!

THREE ITEMS FROM BATH & BODY WORKS /CUCUMBER MELON

GIRL SCOUT COLLECTIBLE TIN/2006/ GIRL SCOUT PROMISE

SET OF 6 JASON "CATS WITH CHAIR" COASTERS

WOMAN'S LEVIS BLACK JEANS / STYLE 515 /SIZE 12 /NICE!

BROWNIE SCOUTS TRY-ITS AND FUN PATCHES LOT OF 9

Other items will continue to be added and can be found here.

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The Internet is currently buzzing with a story of twins in Britain who met and married, only to be seperated by a judge. This story was passed around and no confirmation is forthcoming as to the validity of the story. Now comes the big question:

The details on the story state that two people (adopted) met later in life, fell in love and got married, only to have their marriage annulled by a judge.

The story is being spread by a Lord David Alton. This same Lord David Alton is currently pressing for the laws to be changed to allow for adopted children to have more rights in finding out who their parents are.

So I ask you, is this a true story being passed around or a clever anecdote designed to help him pass a law?

Sources: Miami Herald, BBC.

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I know that it is not exactly news to most people but Christmas is almost upon us. It is a religious holiday that has been converted into the holiest of days to those who belong to the world of retail shopping. It is the holiest of days to those who belong to the religion of consumerism.

I also enjoy a bit of consumerism now and then (I bought my Wii last year) but I find that shopping at this time of year is the worst. There is never any place to park and the things you want are often in short supply (unless you go to eBay) if they exist on store shelves at all.

Do you know that this is going to be the first year (since we started the tradition) where we will not have a picture of my daughter sitting on a mall Santa's lap? I just realized that. I will also be working Christmas Eve (1PM - 9PM) so my daughter and I will have to do our annual "Sugar Cookies for Santa" Scream and Fight Fest in the morning. Then I get to go to work while my wife deals with an over-excited 8 year old who can't wait ten minutes (let alone 10 hours) for Christmas.

Another funny thing about Christmas in my house is that my daughter is a late sleeper. What I mean is that after she wanders into our bed around 3AM she likes to sleep in. In the past she has done her sleepy-walk routine right past a room full of presents, bleary eyed and unaware. I don't know if we will be so lucky this year. I know that I do not want to get up at 3AM to open presents!

I know that later on, on Christmas Day, we will leave our nice warm home and travel down the road to Grandma's house where we will have to endure several hours of relatives. Some relatives we enjoy, some we do not. I'm not going to go into too much detail here because some of them may be reading this. Suffice to say, when it comes to the Christmas get together I would prefer to stay home and enjoy time with my immediate family.

As good as the foods smell when we go out I know that 90% of the dishes being served are not compatible with my body. I end up picking at the snacks and getting an upset stomach for the rest of the day because everything else contains something that I am allergic to. Yeah, it is just so much fun for me.

Enough about me and my holiday plans, what are you going to be doing?

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Ten years ago today I married my wife. We had not known each other very long when it happened.

We were on a trip to Las Vegas together when we got the insane idea to get married. Neither one of us wanted a huge wedding so we eloped in Las Vegas on the day before Halloween. We would have done it on Halloween but we had heard a rumor that the state offices would be closed on Halloween.

Aside from ourselves the only family member present was my wife's Aunt Doe. She was present for the ceremony and cried. Afterwards we went out to eat.

When we got back there were a lot of stunned family members and friends. I don't think anyone expected us to do it and some believed that our marriage would not last. It has been ten years now and I am looking forward to the next ten, and the ten after that and so on.

A few weeks ago my wife and I had an argument and I remarked (off the cuff) that I did not know why I married my wife. It was meant as a joke or a tension breaker but I could see that it had a different effect, an undesired effect.

I am taking this opportunity to fix the mess I made that night and to reaffirm my love and devotion for my wife. Sometimes she jokes that I spend more time online than off so I might as well do it here.

Reasons I married my wife (no particular order)
• She can cook - Not just in the kitchen but when she is in the kitchen she is a great cook. I enjoyed this a lot more in the early part of our marriage, before all the food allergies kicked in. These days I am stuck with a very limited diet and eating out always results in some type of intestinal distress. I don't know how she stands me and my severely limited diet.
• She is patient - She is able to juggle a lot of things and not show stress. I could not juggle half the things she does yet she does it all, hardly ever complaining.
• She gives great back massages - Well, she does!
• She is a good grounding influence - I admit it, I get a lot of hair-brained ideas into my head and if not for her I'd have likely strapped myself to a rocket powered sled at some point in the last ten years and killed myself. Maybe that's why she keeps our life insurance policy up to date?
• She's good looking - Not just then either, she gets better and better looking each day. Yes, my prescription for glasses is current!
• She's smart - She has enough sense to figure out things on her own and she's not afraid to share her two cents with me, on occasion.
• She's good with people - Part of being full of hair-brained ideas also means I tend to forget things (and people). I count on her to keep relationships going smooth because I tend to forget those simple parts of life. I can sometimes be abrasive with people too and she knows how to fix my mistakes.
• She's everything I want in a partner for life - I don't know what else to say, she fulfills me. She doesn't take my crap and keeps me on my toes. I need that, I just don't normally admit it!

There you have it. Happy Anniversary honey, you're the greatest!

image is from my wife's flickr page

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According to Hitwise the top ten Halloween costume searches for the 4 weeks ending 10/20/07 are as follows:

• hannah montana costume
• master chief costume
• pirate costume
• wonder woman costume
• little red riding hood costume
• hannah montana halloween costume
• tinkerbell costume
• pippi longstocking costume
• flapper costume
• raggedy ann costume

What costume are you planning to use for this year? Do you make or buy?

My good friend Force Drainer went out as a scary demon last year (yeah, that's him in the picture) and won a few contests, not sure what he plans on doing this year.

One thing he did tell me is that he is putting together some sort of contest for kids in CT where they can win a chance to have a Star Wars character join them on their trick-or-treating excursion.

What about me? I am always the guy who stays home and hands out the candy. One year I hid in the yard with my lightsaber replica and jumped out at kids to scare them when they approached the front door! Yeah, that was a lot of fun.

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A few weeks ago my daughter received an invitation to a sleepover birthday party. I was looking forward to it with great gusto while my wife was apprehensive and nervous. My mind was saying, "awesome! kid gone for the night!" My wife was thinking, "oh no, I'm so nervous, she'll be gone all night!"

Well, the day of the party came and my wife brought her over and dropped her off. My daughter asked her to stay for the party part but my wife told her she couldn't and to have fun.

My wife did take some pictures before she left and let me tell you, there were a lot of girls at this party. I think it was about 19 little eight year old girls running around that house when she left. I don't know what the girl's parents were thinking inviting so many kids to a sleepover party unless they had a stockpile of pain killers in the house! I use to run card game tournaments for kids and I always gobbled down a few pain killers before each event to deaden the eventually pain my head would experience as all those kids would sugar up, open their mouths, and just babble. Being a birthday party you just know there will be a high quantity of sugar flowing through those kids veins.

A little while later my wife and I were relaxing at home (I was relaxing) when the phone rang. My daughter was calling just to say hello and tell us she was having a good time. They had just finished watching the Last Mimzy and were getting ready to watch High School Musical. My wife asked her is she wanted to come home and my little girl said no, she was having too much fun.

The hours went by and we settled down to catch up on the last few episodes of My Name is Earl. Man I love that show! After that I had to do some website maintenance on some of my sites while my wife checked on her eBay auctions. It was nearly midnight when we went to bed.

Within five minutes of going to bed the phone rang, it was my daughter. She sounded far too awake for midnight and she wanted to say good night to us. I handed the phone to my wife and the dialogue changed from "good night" to "I miss you please come and get me!"

So my wife got dressed and brought her home. I guess my little girl is still my little girl for a little while longer!

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