October 2006 Archives

9:30a, The Minuteman-
Nenie is up in near the front door when Joaquin, the security guard walks in.

Joaquin: Hey Nenie, how's it goin'?

Nenie: Pretty good man. You?

Joaquin: Good man. Hey, you get any customers in here in costume yet?

Nenie: Man, in this town, it's kinda hard to tell, yknow?

Joaquin: Good point man, good point.

Previous Week's Weight: 254.2lbs
This Week's Weight: 256.4lbs
This Week's Loss: +2.2lbs
Total Weight Lost: +0.2lbs
Next Goal: 243.0lbs
Pounds to Go 13.4lbs

Nena walked in last night just after I finished watching the Battlestar Galactica miniseries. I picked it up yesterday to give me something to watch while Nena is in Seattle next week since broadcast TV just doesn't do it for me right now...OK, so it does but it's that time of year when I have to save up shows to watch them with Nena when she's in town, cuz it's less complicated that way.

Anyway, she walks in the door and says to me.

"Y'know, if Jar Jar Binks wanted to move to Kansas, that'd be OK."

How do you not love this woman?

Seriously.

Anyway, we're headed down to The Q- Duke City, Aztlan to pick up the new car tonight. That, my friends should be awesome. Y'all have very little idea of how pumped I am about this. So freakin' cool. WHOO!

Forget the legal and/or religious arguments for/against gay marriage. Right now, I know why heterosexual marriage exists.

Cuz it keeps men from dying.

Report from Nena out in the field. Where the field is Kansas...Wichita to be exact.

Nena dropped in to her favorite tea house EVER, which happens to be in, yknow, Wichita. Anyway, she's seated next to a table full of Old White Ladies(tm).

Customer: Excuse me, do you work here?

Me: No, I don't. I just like to run around with a Minuteman nametag pinned to my chest to mess people up.

*shakes head*

Somedays you're Dante Hicks. Somedays you're Rob Gordon.

A few years ago, during an online conversation with Willy and the kidz I said that the next car I owned was going to be a hybrid.

This was based upon two, very interrelated suppositions that ended up not being totally correct.

1) 'Turo was gonna make it to 250K
2) The auto industry was serious about making hybrid technology work.

In the end, the auto industry has yet to get serious about hybrid technology and 'Turo didn't live long enough to see it happen.

Yesterday when we got up, our To Do list looked like this.

Get Up
The Minuteman
-pick up new schedule
Garcia Honda
-Get on waiting list for new car
Lunch...somewhere
Happy Nails
-Pedicures and Manicures for EVERYONE!
Dillards
-Makeup for Nena
Costco
-Samples and general fun walking around looking at 300gal. jars of mayo
Target
-Brita filters, toothpaste, Kleenex...
Home

In reality it looked like this...

Previous Week's Weight: 256.2lbs
This Week's Weight: 254.2lbs
This Week's Loss: -2.0lbs
Total Weight Lost: -2.0lbs
Next Goal: 243.0lbs
Pounds to Go 11.2lbs

Sell House?
Check.

Get Promotion?
Check.

Da Bears Pull Comeback on MNF?
Check.

Hung in ABQ with Nena and DJ Marley?
Check.

Going to Put a Downpayment on a new car tomorrow?
Check.

JLo and NotPuffy Married by Rev. Nenie?
Check.

Chilled with Cody, Al, Grandmastah Gunder, Jo and Drieg back home?
Check.

So what could make this week better?

Finding out that one of the profs that ran me out of KU is BAILING ON THE PROGRAM. Yup, she's gone. totally screwing the dept. over to take a job here. Which, like, ummm, isn't really in keeping with her lofty, take no prisoners career ambitions.

But, yknow. Whatever.

BEST WEEK EVER!

What has four thumbs and isn't a homeowner anymore?

That'd be these guys.

Yup, as of today Nena and I are no longer proud homeowners. We're proud former homeowners.

This has totally been the best week ever.

It's amazing. Buying your first home is pure, unrelenting joy.

Selling your first home is pure, unrelenting relief.

If I had it to do all over again, I'd still buy my own home. But, it's nice to be out from under the burden of paying rent and a mortgage on a place no one's living in.

It just might be.

Da Bears pulled out a great comeback
(more on this later)

Hung out in ABQ for a few days
(more on this later)

House should close Thursday
(cross your fingers)

Should put downpayment on my NEW CAR on Saturday
(cross your fingers/more on this later)

Got that promotion at The Minuteman.
(More on this NOW!)

We're in town for JLo and NotPuffy's (which is different from Puffiamiyumi) wedding when I get the strange feeling that I really should check my email.

I can't explain it, and Drieg and I are running late to pick up Grandmastah at O'Hare, but I NEED to check my email.

I do.

Ed's mom died two and a half hours before I checked my email.

I don't talk about him much, but this was my best friend from the first grade until he was replaced by Gunder and Fesser in the middle of high school.

We had our differences, and I haven't really spoken to him since I graduated from Carleton...but he's an incredibly important part of my life and while growing up, his mom was pretty interchangable with my mom for a lot of things.

Now she's gone. Cancer. Too soon.

Thank you Ann, my anothermother. God bless. I'll miss you terribly.

In this morning's inbox, from THE REALTOR(tm)

"Everything is looking good with the buyers, they have already completed inspections and their loan committments have been met."

WHOO!

So close, so close I can taste it.

Shit can still go wrong, but, I'm Hopeful.

(Cue "Holiday")

Have I mentioned how much I love radiant heating?

No?

OK, I love radiant heating, it's amazing.

No, not radiators like we had back in NFLD, I'm talking radiators built into the floor that make the floors toasty and since heat rises, it makes the air in the house warm too. It's freaking brilliant.

Maurice Sendak is not dead.

Shel Silverstein is dead.

Has been for seven years.

Please do not respond to seeing the new Sendak book on the shelf with "but I thought he was dead?!?"

Because he isn't.

To reiterate, Uncle Shebly- worm food. Uncle Maury, alive and publishing.

Thank you.

Santa Fe is the new Seattle.

Seriously, there's mountains, and it's been cold and rainy for the past few days.

Forecast says there's gonna be more of the same coming for the rest of the week. Which is not what I signed on for when I voted for this whole southwestern relocation thing. But, yknow, it could be worse, right?

I came home today to find a tumbleweed sitting on my front porch.

Add this to the list of mundane things that I never expected to see/do.

Whipped- v. Not bumping your wife's scheduled recording of Gilmore Girls on the TiVo in favor of the free, live telecast of UFC 64 even though said wife is out of town for the next 10 days and probably won't have the opportunity to watch said episode of said television program.

Not that I'm complaining, yo.

I'm just saying is all.

Previous Week's Weight: 255.0lbs
This Week's Weight: 256.2lbs
This Week's Loss: +1.2lbs
Total Weight Lost: +1.2lbs
Next Goal: 243.0lbs
Pounds to Go 13.2lbs

John Lennon once said that "life is what happens when you're busy making other plans." And while I'm not normally one to quote The Walrus, I can't deny that the man was right. Life is what happens when you're too busy to let your friends know what's going on.

Life at The Minuteman continues to amuse and horrify me. It took me a while to get over that at the end of the road I've been traveling the majority of my life, a job at The Minuteman was what awaited me. I'll admit most of this was borne out of some rather embarrassing elitism. But after spending the past six weeks laughing and ranting with my coworkers by day and reflecting on the many crap jobs and sacrifices my father made while I was growing up, I've come to realize that this, all things considered isn't that bad a deal.

Plus, as Gunder said, there's nothing wrong with loving a job you don't want.

Previous Week's Weight: 255.0lbs
This Week's Weight: 255.0lbs
This Week's Loss: 0.0lbs
Total Weight Lost: 0.0lbs
Next Goal: 243.0lbs
Pounds to Go 12.0lbs