You know you've made it when...

You have fictional character based on you... check out this article. You may be familiar with Chip. Although, I have never "demanded" anything from one of my students; that seems kind of harsh!

In addition do any of you use netscape? I can't post on this blog with it. Every time I sign in it crashes.

Prelims

I finished my writtens for my Prelims last friday. We will see next week whether I pass the orals or I leave here with a master's degree. Wish me haste. ( I figure luck isnt all its cracked up to be, and frankly, I am just ready for them to be over.)

Why I don't post (nag, nag, nag)

It has come to my attention that some of you people have WAY too much time on your hands and just post and post and post. Don't you people have anything else better to do????

Just kidding. :)

Actually, I have my own blog for my jewelry/stationery stuff and I try to post on it (and update my Etsy store and keep my website current and actually do some work...). All the internetting gets to almost a chore after a while. :P But I do read ye ole blog, and it does in fact make me laugh. I just don't have enough energy left to post 98% of the time.

But today, I shall contribute. Stumbling through my webby world, I found this non-diet friendly blog. Bookmark it if you like to bake: the Cupcake Bake Shop. Mmmmmmm, tasty.

And for all you "Lost" fans (anyone...anyone??) click here to make your own fish biscuits. Genius.

There...now you can't say that I don't post. HA! ;)

Home Improvement

So I'm in between trips to the Home Depot right now - taking a break to blog. We're replacing all of the brass door hardware in the house with brushed nickel and replacing the outlets and switches to go from the dirty looking off white color to clean white with stainless steel cover plates. My cordless drill gave out a while back, so I'm using this project as an excuse to replace it.

It must be a good week for electronics to give out, because our washing machine also stopped working. We went out yesterday to buy a new front loading washer. They delivered today, and we're trying it out on some smelly socks right now. The cats are thouroughly freaked out by the various noises that the front loader makes. Hopefully they'll get used to it.

Here's a pic of the new washer:

As promised

Nathan's new work bench.

See, he's already working that wood.

Back in Houston

So we're back in H-Town after a long week of tending to the family in B.R. To fill everyone in, my grandmother (titi - Arabic for grandmother) passed away on Monday. She was 82 and had been losing a fight with cancer for a while. Nothing brings a family back together like a funeral. I saw cousins I haven't seen in decades. I've always liked the way my family is so closely bonded.

On to the good news:

My brother has FINALLY been accepted to medical school. He starts this fall at Texas Tech in Lubbock. For those of you who don't know, Lubbock is west of Abilene, south of Amarillo, and north of nowhere. Not much to do there, so he won't be too distracted. It's about a 10 hour drive from Houston, so I probably won't be seeing Dan and Becky much anymore. I'll need to locate new movie watching buddies.

Happy V.D. everyone!

Here's hoping there's flowers, chocolate and some Barry White waiting for you at home!

My friend Sara sent me this:
"Our high school  FHA used to sell candygrams and in order to expedite filling out many of the cards, we wrote "Happy V.D." After Valentine's Day, we received a talk on why this isn't an appropriate greeting for the holiday o' love."

obsessed with football

We all hate the simpering fruit cuckold king from the end of Braveheart, but here is an extra reason for rushing to give the throne to Wallace and Isabella's illigitimate child.

The bastard banned football!

At least no sane Italian Doge would do that...

cool tunes

For a good listen, you folks should check out K.W. Shepards latest, 10 days out. The music is smooth and the DVD that accompanies it is worth watching. Some of it was filmed not too far from here (bunch of white folks in a church listening to blues...). The most interesting part is it was the last recording for many of the artists as blues took a real hit in 05.

Holy matrimony, Batman!

I agree with David. Blogs are much more fun if there's plenty to read.
So on that note...
Today is our wedding anniversary ... and I'm at work. Buggers wouldn't let me have the day off. But that's okay, I'm not bitter... we've already purchased the strawberries and champagne, so I think it'll be a fun night. And I'll come to work tomorrow hungover and sleep deprived. Serves them right!

I got my pictures from Jefferson developed. I'm really happy with them, if I could ever find the time and a scanner to make them digital, I'd post them, but I don't see that happening umm... ever. But, I'll make some 8x10 copies of my favorites and mail them to you guys in Houston and you can do with them what you will. I think it'd be pretty cool to see one turn up in one of your projects, Stevie! But no pressure, of course. If Charity and Nich are interested in any free photos, just let me know and I can send some your way, too.

But enough of my self-promotion...
Rugby's about to start up again this weekend. So we're getting ready for that.
Nathan's got woodworking under his skin again, and he's building himself a bench for it. We got a lot of it done last night. I'll post a pic when it's finished. I'm sure he'll be very proud of it. Then he can start building me some end tables or something!
Work that wood, baby. Work it!
Sorry.. I don't know what came over me...

Oh, we got DDR at my house now! Yay! We got Ultramix 4, though and I like the song list on the version you guys had much better. This new one's mostly Japanese techno and stuff. But it's still a fun time and the songs are growing on me...
Well, ta ta for now!

A king in my own hole

Well so here it is February. I am in the middle of my prelims... I have two weeks left to finish my proposal and am not much passed the outline. I am sure it will be a busy week. Alas all will work itself out with that. I recieved my TEvals for fall semester back this past week recieving a 5.0 out of 5.0 in overall teacher effectiveness, yet the department hasnt seemed to notice. Charity and I have both been ill since we have been home, myself with a cold and her with some sort of stomach bug.

It will still nearly be two months yet before my sport starts, so here I will sit on my couch or play DDR to pass the time until it warms up. Last week I went to hastings and purchased The Pale Horseman and the Lords of the North. They were both well worth reading. I also found a book called Napoleon's Pyramids by Deitrich that seems promising but just started it on it last night.

IPCC reslults released last friday, so that is pretty much the hot buzz on campus. If you haven't seen An Inconvenient Truth, you should. I carry it around in my backpack just in case.... It was not nearly as politically steeped as I would have assumed considering the source, but neither was Band of Brothers (incidentally, this is also a good watch).

The new season of Rome has started, and that is where I spend my Sunday evenings. (Deep in the land of High Definition). Until we meet in texas...

Blogging and Keeping in Touch

So I thought I should help make this like a real blog where people post on a regular basis.

We're getting ready to embark into another soccer season here in Houston (thanks for the great lead in post Nate c/o Melissa). I'll play my first real game since December-ish on Sunday, and I can feel the nerves building already. Sunday night 6:00 PM we'll see what kind of a season it's going to be. I'll be sure to post the score for y'all next week. In other soccer news, Italians are officially too obsessed with the sport (see this article), and Mexico still can't seem to score a goal in the US (that's 8 games in a row now).

Besides soccer, there's not much excitement here. I'm working overtime trying to complete my current work project. My car is still in pieces (see previous sentence for the reason why).

That's all I've got for now. I'm going to try to post again soon.