Saturday...

Another Saturday off... yah! Spent the majority of the day setting up my parents' new computer (they got a Dell, dude!). Spent the majority of that time wrestling with their Linksys wireless router and adapter trying to persuade them to talk to the cable modem so as to promote general internet connectivity. After several hours and a couple of aborted sessions with Linksys' offshore Indian tech support (live chat and on the phone) it just started to work, for no particular reason. AUGHHHHH!!! That's the kind of thing that drives tech support pros crazy! Anyway, all is now well and my parents are navigating the information superhighway in a Mustang now, not a Festiva. Somehow I think this counts as a good deed.

I've rented "Broken Flowers"..I hope it's as good as advertised.

Tastes like chicken....

One of the advantages of having parents who live a half hour away is that when they are out and about near your home they can drop off, say, a container of homemade chicken noodle soup loaded with vegetables. Such was the case tonight.

Thanks, Mom!

Another weekend over and done with....

Here it is Sunday night again....where do the weekends go?

Friday night....outing to the St. Louis Science Center with a few friends. I couldn't remember the last time I'd been there. Fun times! Funny moment: friend B. cajoled us into joining him at a nearby Steak N' Shake for a late night snack. We drove to the described location only to find a pile of rubble where the restaurant should have been. "I SWEAR IT WAS THERE A MONTH AGO!!!!" Luckily he saved face because there was a Denny's in the vicinity.

Saturday....I spent several hours with my dad in his basement wood shop. We've been working on building some plantation shutters for my kitchen windows. I'd been looking to buy some but they're mighty expensive so Dad dug through his woodworking magazines and found some plans. We put in a Saturday a few months ago and got one pair mostly built. Yesterday was spent painting the individual parts. I'll be saving a TON of money and they'll look just as good as what I'd have ordered. My mom made some killer chili for supper - we ate while taking in their Saturday evening marathon of home-improvement shows on PBS. They draw the line at Lawrence Welk, however.

Today was church and lunch with the family, including bro. and sis-in-law. They're thinking seriously about getting a puppy to complement their happy household.

Pittsburgh and Seattle in the Super Bowl, huh? How do you suppose advertisers will like that matchup? I actually think it will be an exciting game. Seattle is the more dominant team, in my estimation, so I tentatively predict a return to glory for the beleaguered NFC this year.

On a serious note, today was Sanctity of Human Life Sunday in churches across the country. I believe all life is sacred, no matter what. That's as political as this blog will be, I promise.

My Tunes has updated tonight. Also, Whatispossible has updated with a tale of an annoying roommate. :)

now to put the sheets back on my bed so I can sleep in it tonight...ugh..here comes Monday.

New Blog...

I've created a new blog for discussing music I like. It will be updated occasionally.

MyTunes

Thursday...

It's Thursday - nothing much happenin' this week.

The Rams are thisclose to hiring Scott Linehan as their new head coach. Word is that he's on the same offensive level as our former coach. That's fine, but I hope he hires a high-level defensive coordinator to give our defense an extreme makeover. Does he come equipped with thick skin? I hope so. I guess all NFL coaches do, to some degree. I hated to see Joe Gibbs and Tony Dungy lose their games last weekend. They are both good men and excellent football coaches.

Last night was my division's annual holiday party. This year it was a holiday/retiree party due to the 11 people in my IT division who have retired or will be retiring soon. They all took the early retirement buyout that was offered last fall. Unfortunately the new VP got stuck dealing with a systems problem and didn't make it until very late. That's the breaks when you're in IT, unfortunately. (side note: luckily, our new corporate parent didn't replace the retiring VP with one of their guys. They promoted from within our ranks, which means he is temporarily doing his old job while also being the VP of the division.) The party was held at the Moolah Theatre's basement bowling alley and lounge. We dined on Hodak's famous fried chicken and sides, and a marvelous sheet cake for dessert. Yours truly even bowled a few frames.

I should clarify why our holiday party is held in January. A few years back, my boss was recovering from surgery in December. Therefore, we decided to hold the Christmas party in January, when he could attend. It worked out so well that we have made it a new tradition. This ensures a better attendance, since we invite executives and manager-types from other divisions that we work with.

Got the message?

I found this on the floor - comes in handy if you ever encounter anyone who doesn't get the message. :)

There's no substitute for the real thing...

(studying Genesis 16-17 - the story of Sarai and Hagar)

- in the lecture, the teaching leader ( white male, mid-30s) made his first point: "Whenever a Hagar is substituted for anything, nothing good ever comes of it. Case in point: Van Halen." That was almost as funny as the night he dropped a "can you smell what The Rock is cookin'?" in the middle of a lecture a few years ago. Coming from a straight-laced Christian attorney-type, it was unintentionally hilarious.

Friday the 13th...

Today is Friday the 13th, so here's a little off-kilter, random-thoughts post for your reading pleasure...
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Courtesy of Wikipedia - "Blazing Saddles" was the first movie to feature a character breaking wind on-screen. That zany Mel Brooks!
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Q: Where does a crazy person walk in the forest?

A: on the psycho-path!
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It snowed this morning, but none of it stuck to anything. That just doesn't seem right! :)
Actually, it did stick. to the grassy areas.
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How about Rhapsody.com? 25 free song-plays with each account. That's a nice try-before-you-buy deal that I've taken advantage of recently.
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I'm meeting some friends tonight at a local coffeehouse for a talk on the significance of Bob Dylan's music in modern society--should be interesting.
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As previously stated, I normally work Tuesday-Saturday, but scheduling needs have dictated that I work a straight Monday-Friday for the next couple of weeks. Which means I get a 1-day weekend this weekend but a 3-day weekend on the back end. This, coupled with the fact that I have to be in at 8:00 this Saturday morning and at church for tech at 8:00 Sunday morning, means that I don't get to sleep in until next Saturday at the earliest. Ugh.
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Rainy Tuesday Night...

Tuesday night trivia party + warm apple pie with friends at Applebees...I can think of worse ways to end a rainy Tuesday night.

Monday Night...

The Blockbuster mystery is solved - my brother rented a movie while he and his wife were visiting her folks for Christmas and the movie was returned to the wrong store. The part about it being rented on January 1 was their error. I think I'll let him keep the card for now...

St. Louis Rams radio broadcaster Jack Snow lost his battle with staph infection tonight. He was a true Rams "company man," putting in many great seasons for the team on and off the field.

My BSF class started back up tonight after a 3-week break for the holidays. We studied Genesis 15, where God makes a covenant with Abram. It's a deep chapter with some great passages of scripture.

Skip (Back) to My 'Lou...

I'm back from Malden - made the 170-mile trip in 2.5 hrs from my front door to my grandparents', non-stop. You math majors can figure out my average speed. :) As with any road trip, it helps to have good music to pass the time. This trip it was Incognito, Caedmon's Call, and Ivy.

Had a great visit with my grandparents ( I say grandparents but I should state for the record that my Papaw's first wife, the dearly beloved Mamaw, passed away in 2003 and Papaw re-married last June). As I previously stated, it had been way too long since I'd been down and stayed overnight. They have a great house on a huge lot west of Malden proper. It gets so quiet at night out there, you can actually hear yourself think. Seriously.

We ate out last night at Hyde-A-Way's Catfish Inn (or just plain ol' Hyde's if you're local). Hyde's is a catfish joint just east of the Edge of Nowhere, or so it seemed. I believe the route my Papaw took is commonly known as The Back Way, as we touched a country road for every letter of the alphabet, and then some. I lost track of them as I took in the gorgeous sunset over the horizon (I briefly wondered if we were going to end up on the doorstep of Cooks In Kansas). The fish and fixins were delicious, so much so that I slightly over-ate and my stomach protested mildly for a few minutes after dinner. On the way home, Papaw asked me (only half-jokingly, I think) if I thought I could find my way back there. He might as well have asked me if I thought Ariel Sharon could recover from his stroke and return to power in Israel--the answer to both questions is, "not likely, no."

I awoke today to a breakfast of bacon, eggs, and orange juice. This was a bonus, as I'm not that nice to myself on Sunday mornings here at home. Church was at 1st General Baptist - I'm always proud to walk in with my Papaw, as he's as well-respected as he is well-dressed. I renewed acquaintances with some of my late Mamaw's side of the family, including Cooks In Kansas' KMom and KDad. Lunch was at a local diner before I set out for home.

I arrived home and this message was on my answering machine - I apparently rented "Hitch" from a Blockbuster Video in Columbia, MO on January 1 and it had better be back in before noon tomorrow or I'm buying it. Yep, gotta get my other Blockbuster card back from my brother.

On The Road Again...

I'm headed down to Malden to visit the grandparents...long overdue trip.

R.I.P. Super Smokers and other Friday musings...

Another one bites the dust....Super Smokers BBQ has suddenly ceased operations. Their restaurants' employees showed up for work last night as usual and by the end of the night they were out on the street. Of course I have no idea what their financial situation was and if you believe the newspaper account, they did what they had to do. Nonetheless, it seems cruel and heartless to leave their employees, not to mention loyal customers, out in the cold with no warning. I wonder why, if they saw this coming (and they had to have seen it coming), they didn't just set a closing date at the end of the year and call it quits? I can't vouch for the quality of their product as I have never eaten any of it but it was apparently very, very good.

This happened recently with a local chain of appliance stores, as well. Their situation is more ominous, as they had, oh, many thousands of dollars in undelivered orders for customers and the AG's office was properly miffed.

I caught the end of the Rose Bowl the other night. I saw bits and pieces of it while I was at the Y but watched the spectacular ending from my comfy club chair at home. When it came down to 4th and 5 near the goal line for Texas, I asked Vince Young via my television, "it all comes down to this; what're you gonna do, son, what're you gonna do?" Of course, we know that he subsequently scampered into the end zone to put his team on top to stay. The game was all that you'd like it to be - the two best college football teams in the nation playing their patooties off for all the marbles in front of a national TV audience (which proved to be 21.7% of homes with a television). I give hefty man-props to young Mr. Young. As a man, the ability to come through in the clutch is a huge validation of one's manhood. Moreover, it's every quarterback's dream to lead his team to victory in the big game. I'm just glad the game wasn't a blowout.

The sort-of-cool-yet-sort-of-tragic thing about television on Thursday nights is that you can catch 3-hour marathons of "COPS" on competing cable stations AT THE SAME TIME! FX and CourtTV were the culprits last night. You've all seen enough of them to have your favorite COPS moments....come on, now. Mine are the paint huffers who insist they aren't huffing even as their spray-painted upper lips give them away. Another occurred last night as a 'cuffed 'n stuffed young criminal boldly challenged a cop to a fight as his partner in crime cracked up in the seat next to him. I chuckled as well.

While we're on the subject of television, I was unfortunately entranced last night by a rerun of "My Three Sons" from the mid-60s. The family had been to the circus and that night one of the lions escaped and ended up at their house. The rest of the show revolved around their discovery of said lion. THE ENTIRE REST OF THE SHOW. You mean TV was that easy back then? You could get away with that? That seems so tame, no pun intended, in comparison to today's "viewer discretion advised" television world.

I did delete the tribute post to the fallen miners - all the newsheads on TV are blathering on about who to blame for the bad information, which repulses me so I took it down.

I would like to state for the record that I do own "Big John" as a 45-RPM vinyl record.

So I'm taking tomorrow off...what to do, what to do?

Some change is good...

I decided I didn't care for my old blog template and am trying out something new here....what do y'all think?

Stream of consciousness....

Life is returning to post-Christmas normalcy 'round here. The school buses are once again rumbling through my neighborhood, I-55 was noticeably more clogged this morning, and the parking lots at work are filled up once again.

The just-past NFL regular season officially became 16 Weeks We'd All Like To Forget in St. Louis Rams-ville yesterday. It was a day to treat staff/staph infections, apparently. The Rams are trying to cure theirs by "terminating" their mad genius head coach. Then today, we read that their interim head coach joined in the fun by going into the hospital to treat his. It wasn't enough that poor Joe Vitt had to step into a bad situation, he had an infected left hand, to boot. To make matters worse, broadcaster Jack Snow's staph infection took a turn for the worse last week and he continues to fight for his life as I write this. A very weird year for the team, indeed.

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In the Fun with NFL Player Names department, the Seattle Seahawks have an outstanding rookie whose name really is Lofa Tatupu. Seriously. I recently pondered on what I could do with that name:

Joe: "Say, Bob, what's that you brought to the party?"
Bob: "A lofa tatupu, what's it look like?"
Joe: "Oh. Sorry I asked..."

say it to yourself, it'll make a bit more sense. And, NO, I don't make a habit of making fun of people's names, but this was just too good to resist. :)

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I'm adding a link to Bob Rybarczyk's column on STLtoday.com. He's a freelance writer who writes some pretty darn funny stuff. Check it out.

Happy Ewe Near!

That's what you say when a contented sheep passes by you. (courtesy of the NYT crossword puzzle in today's Post-Dispatch.)

I spent the last afternoon of 2005 as I did the previous year, with an afternoon hike on the Chubb Trail. It takes off from Lone Elk Park near Valley Park, MO and descends into the Meramec River valley. This time of year hardly anyone is on the trail so it's a nice place to "unplug" for a couple of hours. It travels mostly through a bottomland forest but eventually opens up into a beautiful prairie grassland by the river. I had my camera with me and took some great pictures.

I rang in 2006 with a few good friends, progressive-dinner style. We met at A.'s house for appetizers, then on to J. and K.'s house for meatball sandwiches, sides, and a few rounds of Mad Gab. Dessert was served at B.'s parents' home (his house is small) where we partied in their basement and inhaled much chocolate fondue-age (chocolate-covered strawberries...mmm!) I shot a few games of pool and enjoyed hangin' out with everybody until it was time for the big ball drop at midnight. I regretted that I forgot to bring my sack of Black Cat firecrackers (that date from the year 2000), in order to ring in the new year properly.

Started the new year off in fine church-fashion today. It was a pleasure to renew acquaintances with my buddy M. (author of Whatispossible) who is home for the holidays from his job assignment in India.

The rest of the day has been spent quietly with the crossword puzzles from the newspaper and a Band of Brothers marathon on the History channel.

I wish all the readers of this blog a satisfying and blessed 2006 - may all your hopes and dreams come true.