Leaky Faucets

Cleveland can’t finish. That’s it. The Cavaliers again proved the theory on Thursday. And also last Monday before that. When it comes down to the final moments of a crucial playoff game, Cleveland players just can’t cut it. I’ve seen this my whole life as a Cleveland sports fan. The Indians blowing it in Game 7 against the Marlins in 1997 when we were all ready to rush the streets of downtown Cleveland in celebration. The Browns against Elway. First there was the Drive. Then, more humiliatingly, the Fumble. The Cavaliers couldn’t get past Jordan and the Bulls when, at least in the initial meetings, they were the better team. Remember the famous Jordan game winner over Craig Ehlo, that is still shown incessantly even though Jordan is long retired. Going further back to the first heartbreaking playoff loss in my life as a sports fan was the Browns-who were heavily favored-loss to the Raiders in the frigid Cleveland Stadium of December 1980. Brian Sipe threw an interception in the end zone when a field goal would have done. But of course, place kicker Don Cockroft (pictured above) missed two extra points earlier in the game so he was not to get another chance. When Cockroft visited my elementary school a few years later-already retired-he received a smattering of boos from me and some other juvenile Browns fans who would not forget his failure.

What does it say about a person when they drive a car with a hyper aqggressive name like the Dodge Avenger?  To me, it says they’ve got something to prove and probably wouldn’t feel comfortable driving a Mini Cooper.

Okay, maybe I complain too much about stupid things.  But this is really annoying.  When the liquid hand soap gets low, what should you do?  Get the industrial size soap from the closet and pour it into the dispense?  Yes, that’s exactly what you should do.  Should you fill up the dispenser with water to get a little extra mileage out of the soap?  Absolutely not.  The water renders the soap totally useless.  Aya used to do this until I lectured her enough that she stopped. But it happened again the other day.  I found out our babysitter did it.

Normally, I try to get the maximum usage out of something.  For instance, I’ll use all my might to squeeze every last bit of toothpaste out of the tube or scrape the sides of the peanut butter jar untl its spotless. But hand soap is completely different.  I will not water it down.

Here’s a suggestion for Chinese take out restaurants: employ a native English speaker to proofread your take out menus before printing them.  If you did this, you’d be more likely to avoid mistakes like the one printed in large letters on the menu of No. 1 Chinese & Japanese Take Out Restaurant in Jamaica, Queens: “We Served Sushi.”  I don’t know if that means they served it once only or they just discontinued it, but based on the extensive sushi menu inside I assume they meant to say “serve” instead of “served.”  The same menu also says they are located on Parson Blvd. when it is actually Parsons Blvd.  And in case you’re interested in having No. 1 cater your next event, they assure you that “Party Order Are Welcome.”

This is not an isolated case to be sure.  I’ve come across many Chinese menus with errors such as these.  I suppose nobody else cares but me.

Lately I feel like I’m not into running that much.  Maybe it is because I don’t have a goal this year since I’m not doing the marathon or maybe it is because I’m doing all my running on the streets of Jackson Heights and Corona which I hate with all the traffic and cyclists.  I miss running in Central Park but I don’t really have time to do that during the week now with the baby.  Or maybe running is another thing that has just run its course in my life, another sign that this is the time to make a radical change.  Maybe it is time to move on to other sports.  In the Philippines, I plan to take up tennis and revive my passion for playing basketball, in addition to swimming and maybe scuba diving.  I’ll continue to run, I think (and maybe even do another marathon someday), but it will only be part of my exercise regimen rather than all of it. 

Whew! We dodged a major bullet tonight thanks to Daniel Wong. Who is Daniel Wong? He’s the gentleman who saved our hard drive when we thought it was totally dead or that we would have to pay $2,000 to have Drive Savers recover it. Mr. Wong in all his ingenuity and perseverance never gave up when it looked like it was hopeless. He kept Aya constantly apprised of his progress throughout the ordeal. And by the way, he charged us less than $250. And he makes house calls. Thanks to someone on Yahoo Group Jackson Heights Families for recommending him. The place we went to first, Stone Computer, was worthless. Anyone in Queens who has major computer issues: look up Mr. Wong’s outfit called Flushing Computer. What seemed like a lost cause or an expensive lesson turned into something of a miracle. Perhaps, as Mr. Wong suggested, it was just good karma. We must have done something good, he said, to have luck like this.

We definitely need to back our shit up now.