freezer

As I was walking to work this morning I noticed that the clouds were conspiring to make pretty pictures in the sky. The sun was rising and lots of squirrels were happily throwing nuts at each other. I met a lady who is having her house remodeled and visited briefly with her talking about pavers and roof work.

Then, as I walked between Wescoe and Budig halls, I saw what I thought could be water filling the Wakarusa Valley south of town. As I stared it looked more and more like a morning ocean scene near Trinidad, California. Breaking away from my reverie so that I didn’t trip down the stairs, I told myself that it was beautiful and that it was “just fog.”

Then I felt a little sadness for thinking of a beautiful ocean scene in the middle of Lawrence, Kansas as “just” anything. How about “just marvelous?”

I don’t know how many of you have already exposed yourselves to the latest in suspense… they’re calling it The Wicker Man. I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but this was quite possibly the worst movie I’ve ever seen… and I’ve seen Battlefield Earth.

In my opinion the only thing worthwhile about the entire movie was the scenery. At least it had gorgeous views and interesting costumes and hairstyles.

I laughed in my seat at various points for lack of anything better to do. And what’s sad, I think, is that the movie could have been great.

Summary: I’d call this a horrifying film rather than a horror film… not even worth a rental fee.

Well… It’s been a little while since the end of the MR340 and the race organizers wanted to get together for dinner. We met last night and had a lovely dinner and talked about the race and next year’s event, too. It was fun to hear the stories and I’m really glad such great people were involved in that amazing trip.

They should get together more often… they have such a powerful force in common.

I added a link in the sidebar for Edie’s and Christina’s River Adventures. They just finished the Missouri River 340. I can’t even begin to tell you how impressed I am with what they accomplished, and I’m really excited about them doing it again next year. (Yes, I sometimes live vicariously… yes, I also receive my mail there.)

Soon I hope they’ll have pictures up from their adventure.

I have been very busy lately. Work has been hanging over my head most ominously. Now that we’re through the upgrade that I started working on over a year ago, I’m pleased to say that it’s been mostly successful.

Now I’m trying to catch up with home, friends, family, and myself. It’s been rough.

We’re getting shake up action at work and I don’t know where I’m going to end up. Lots of techie things to do here, though, and that’s somewhat encouraging and exciting.

The weather has been abyssmal and yesterday I mowed the lawn at sunset, sweating like a river, and finished weedeating in the dark. I’m so very tired today.

We got word from the city yesterday that we’re going to be allowed a 6′ solid wooden fence around our backyard. For those of you who don’t know the whole saga, the west side of our yard faces Iowa Street (a.k.a. US Highway 59, Noisy Boulevard, Crashy Lane).

Unfortunately, our neighbors to the south have a house that faces Iowa Street instead of the street to their south (a.k.a. University Drive, Memory Lane, College Road). The fact that it faces that way makes our west back yard, technically, a front yard. In Lawrence, anyway, you’re only allowed a solid fence of 3′ or an open fence of 4′ in a front yard. If you’ve visited us, you can guess how much noise a 3′ solid fence would block out for us. (Two words… First word one syllable, rhymes with astronaut… Second word one syllable, rhymes with touch…)

So, YAY! We’ll get to build our fence. We’re also taking down some of the trees that were growing through the old, wire fence. It’s been a nice kind of a throwback to last year, when we were cutting down the Mighty Dead Elm (TM).

Today is the last day of school for the boys. Coincidentally today is a Special Day for one of them as well. We’re renting a moonwalk and having young and old kids come bounce around in it tonight. WOO!

I don’t even KNOW ‘er!

Erm. Yeah.

I went to Ameristar yesterday and played $3/$6 Hold ‘Em against a bunch of really nice people. I won money for the first time at a real game and really enjoyed myself. Sunday afternoon might be the best time ever for poker.

After paying for the turnpike and having dinner at Arthur Bryant’s I was still up and I don’t even know what to make of that.

Happy Monday, people!

My grandma’s memorial service was held on Saturday morning. The service was very nice… lots of crying, singing, and thinking. I wanted to send a public, if seldom read, thank you note to everyone who has supported us through this rough time.

Thank you.

I went up to the Underground for lunch today… grabbed a Chik-Fil-A (TM) sammich, waffle fries, and a chocolate chip cookie… walked up to pay for it… and the lady at the register smiled and said hello and called me by name.

Needless to say I was a little bit shocked, but after a second, I recognized her… We were in high school band together… I was a drum major, she was a quad player… we were an item for a little while. I replied to her hello, calling her by name in turn… We both have two kids now…

Huge waves of high-school-and-early-college guilt washed over me on my walk back to work…

I think I should talk with her and try to lay some of this memory to rest.

I just finished reading Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code and I must say I consider it a very entertaining book. Spoilers lurk in this post, so don’t read on unless you want to compare notes…

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