These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

Today is a big day. If you read this blog with any regularity at all, you know that one of my great loves in life is for Troy football. Well, this evening will bring my first visit of the year to Troy Memorial Stadium, and my first look at this year's edition of the Trojans. It's just a scrimmage, but the season starts for real next week, meaning that tonight and my next ten Fridays in a row are booked solid. Nice. I look forward to this time of year practically from the time each season ends, so it'll be awesome to get out to the stadium and sit under the lights while I see how the guys look for this year. Especially since the weather is already in midseason form - forecast temperature for tonight is around 70°. Nothing beats a nice evening in the stands at Troy Memorial. After that, Brandi and I are going to go see Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which opens today. I've seen all the prequels on opening day, and I can't let this one be an exception. I'm a little disappointed that I didn't get to see a midnight showing, as I did for each of Episodes I-III, but only one theater in the area was hosting one, and...well, it just wasn't in the cards. (By contrast, at this time on the day The Phantom Menace opened, I was already on my way to see it a second time.) So we'll see it tonight, and that'll be fine. I'm really interested to see how Star Wars translates to full-on computer animation, and what the reaction to it will be. I'm sure it won't be nearly the spectacle of the regular films, but as long as it's entertaining and tells a good story, that's all I really care about. With football season starting and a new Star Wars movie opening on the same day, I feel like a kid on Christmas morning. It'll be a chore to get through the rest of the work day, I'm sure.

The Breeding Properties of M&Ms

This is the funniest thing I've read in quite some time; I felt it my duty to share it with the world. The breeding properties of M&Ms

Midsummer Musings

When you're a kid, summer seems like the best, most important time of the year. At least, it always seemed that way to me. You got a couple of months off from school, the weather allowed you to get out of the house (if you wanted to, which I didn't always), and it seemed like there was always an adventure waiting to happen. Now that I'm an adult and working for a living, on the other hand, I'm barely aware that summer even exists. It's just like every other time of year. The work schedule keeps plugging along, there's rarely time or the means to get away from the house, and there's nary an adventure to be found. It's sad, really. It's a nice time of year, especially as the sun goes down and the heat dissipates. So, to that end, I'm hereby resolving to spend more time outside for the rest of the summer (and by "summer," I guess I really mean "as long as it's nice"). On one hand that won't be too hard, with football season getting ready to start, I'll soon be spending a few hours outside every Friday and on some Saturdays, whether the weather is nice or not. But even beyond that, I'd just like to get out of the house a little more often to appreciate the season, even if it's nothing more than sitting in a chair outside my door and writing (as I'm doing now), reading, or listening to some tunes on my iPod. To that end, I'd like to thank the Cincinnati Reds for giving me back my evenings. Admittedly, I'm something of a slave to watching the Reds on TV, something I can't do from outside with no cable outlet out here. But watching them lately has been an exercise in frustration, and now that they've traded Griffey and his climb up the all-time home run leaderboard to Chicago, there's no compelling reason to continue the self-flagellation. Oh, I'm sure I'll continue to catch the games fairly often, but hopefully I can at least break the habit of scheduling my evenings around them. I mean, hey, if I need a fix, I can always bring a radio out here with me. As far as outdoor space goes...where Brandi and I live is just weird, man. There's another house directly behind our place, it's not situated in the other direction (their front door faces our back door), and it's pretty close - I'm out on my back patio right now, and it feels almost like I'm hanging out in someone else's front yard. Bizarre. I could sit out front, but it's a little more public out there, and when I'm doing something like this, I really don't want people to stop and chat if they happen to see me outside. I mean, people I know would be fine, I guess, but this is a friendly neighborhood, and having strangers pop over, I'm fairly certain, would not be an uncommon occurrence. That's not a bad thing in and of itself; if I was just outside to relax and ponder the mysteries of the universe, I'd be all for it, but if I'm reading, writing, or otherwise working, I would not. And therein, I suppose, is my answer - work in the back, chill in the front. Brandi has been in California all weekend, and I have to admit that I'm a little jealous. I've not been to Cali myself, and it's someplace I've always been interested in checking out. She's been out there for a fitness conference, and she says she's been having a lot of fun and learning a lot, so that's cool. I'll be picking her up at the airport later tonight. As for me, I've been just chilling out by myself (aside from the cat) for a few days. And really, having a few days to do my own thing (which mostly involves a couch and a PS3) really isn't a bad consolation prize. I miss the days when you could actually go to the gate when you were dropping someone off or picking someone up at the airport. I know those days are long gone and never coming back, but for me, a trip to the airport was always a lot more interesting when I could go back and watch planes land and take off - I'd always get there early just for that. I've also been continuing on with P90X, the workout routine Brandi and I started a few weeks ago (you've seen the infomercial, I'm sure). Tuesday will be the end of the third week, actually, meaning that it's almost time for our "recovery week" and the end of Phase 1. I have kind of mixed feelings about the workouts. I'm glad I'm doing something, at least, and this is definitely pretty intense. I just hate how long each workout is. Each day is at least an hour and usually closer to an hour and a half. Working out for that long, in itself, doesn't present a problem; it's just a pain to fit it into my schedule, particularly when I'm trying to eat in such a way that I have enough fuel for each workout but not so close (chronologically speaking) to the workout that it makes it difficult to go through. But hey, I've committed to it and I'll see it through, and hopefully the results will be worth it. On that note, I think it's time to go inside and get something to eat and relax for a little bit before I set out for the airport.

Time Capsule Additions

Some things I've thought of since my last post that I'd include in my time capsule circa 1989-1991: A folder or binder full of the pathetic drawings and fiction I was creating at the time My first pair of glasses (in all their gigantic glory) My first pair of Reebok Pumps A lock of hair from my mullet Postcards depicting places I'd been on family vacations My autographed photo of the band Firehouse My Def Leppard t-shirt A videotape full of music videos recorded back when MTV actually showed them Calvin and Hobbes comics clipped from the newspaper A Dean R. Koontz novel...possibly Lightning (although, given my propensity even then to re-read books I like, it would have been easier to part with The Mask or The Face of Fear) I'm still interested in hearing what other people would put into a time capsule if they and a friend were creating it around 12-13 years of age, so, again, please leave a comment below or shoot me an email - barbaricyawp(at)woh.rr.com. I do have a quasi-serious reason for asking, beyond just being a fairly interesting topic for conversation, so even if you only have one or two things in mind off the top of your head, I'd love to hear about it.

Time Capsule

A hypothetical situation: let's say, when you were 12-13 years old, you and your best friend decided to make a time capsule to open in twenty years. What would you have put into your time capsule? I'm really interested in responses from anyone and everyone who happens to come across this blog, whether you read it on a consistent basis or not. Feel free to leave a response via the comment form below, or you can email me at barbaricyawp(at)woh.rr.com. For the record, my own would contain: pictures (definitely school photos, probably some snapshots as well); baseball cards (heavy on the Reds and Mets); action figures (probably GI Joes when I was that age, but maybe some Star Wars guys too for old times' sake); some cassettes (Def Leppard, Poison, Warrant); and, if I could bear to part with them, maybe a Nintendo game or two - I'm thinking something like Excitebike or Fester's Quest.

House Update and Notes

After all that, Brandi and I did NOT end up going to look at that house last night. Not for a lack of intent, however. The agent was running behind after a previous appointment, so when she called, we opted not to meet her. It was starting to get dark, which would have made it hard to look at an empty house, and we really didn't want to waste her time - we found out they already have an offer on the house, and we're not in any position to make one ourselves. Still, I think we have decided to get serious about moving toward buying a house, which means doing things in the correct order. We may start checking out open houses, but no more appointments until we're much further along in the process. Last Friday was July 4, Independence Day, and it also happened to be my 31st birthday. Number aside (and 31 isn't bad, it just seems weird), it was a good time. Brandi and I went to Cincy for a Reds game on Thursday night - the Reds won, and we saw a pretty sweet fireworks display after the game. Friday was the annual family cookout, and it was good (as always) to see everyone. My cousin Mike and his wife Lisa came over for a few drinks after the fireworks, which was a lot of fun. Yesterday I received this as a semi-late birthday present (it was late only because we weren't here when UPS came on Thursday) from my wife. It's really heavy, and totally awesome. Bill Watterson is a genius. Thirteen years later, I still carry around a little bit of ache that Calvin and Hobbes ended when it did, but now at least I have all the strips that were published that I can revisit whenever I want. I plan to go through it slowly on my initial read-through to savor all of them, particularly the ones I haven't seen in years (or maybe at all)...we'll see if I'm able to stick to that, or whether I devour them in mass quantities. Speaking of genius, I've spent the past few days revisiting the work of the late George Carlin through his three books and the comedy specials that have been playing on HBO. It seems to me that a fair portion of his material wasn't comedy per se, but his own genuine thoughts and feelings that happened to be funny mostly due to their reflection of the absurdity of life. I suppose that's what most comedians strive for, but George was on another level. I discovered his comedy when I was in junior high or maybe early high school, and he had a pretty profound impact (in terms of clarification, at least) on what I believe, and on my willingness to be out of step with the mainstream. And someone who puts so much focus on the English language has always been okay by me. I wasn't at all crazy about the camoflage jerseys (?) and blue caps (!) the Reds wore this past weekend. Honoring the nation and the troops is all fine and good, but I think there was probably a way they could have done it without such a horrific mutilation of their uniforms. I think the stars and stripes design in the wishbone-C of the blue caps was nice, but let the caps themselves stay red. I mean, seriously...blue?

The Dance Begins Again

Tonight Brandi and I have an appointment to go look at a house. We do something like this every few months or so, and I'm aware that we're doing it ass-backwards. What we should be doing, I'm sure, is deciding whether or not we're serious about it, determining what we can afford (probably nothing, ha ha) and how we're going to secure financing, and then searching out houses in that range with a plan in mind for questions we need to ask, how much to offer, etc. Instead what generally happens is that we happen to see a house for sale that looks vaguely interesting from the outside, we get the details online, find out it's in a price range that seems reasonable, talk and think about it for a while, get our hopes up a little bit, then realize it's out of the question for one reason or another. That's what's going on again this time. I noticed this particular house on my way home from somewhere the other day, mentioned it to Brandi, and drove her past it at some point, leading to the point we're at now. Now, this is the first time we've gone so far as to make an appointment with a realty agent to actually tour a place rather than just peering through windows (for houses that are already vacated, obviously), and I asked my parents to go along as well so there's someone with house-buying experience along to ask pertinent questions that Brandi and I may or may not think of. For all of that, I'm keeping in mind that we're just going through the motions, because there's almost no way we're going to be able to do this without going through all those other steps first. Not to mention the fact that our lease on this place runs for another full year. As I've written before, when Brandi and I decided to look at houses prior to our move from Bowling Green to Troy, I have mixed feelings about buying a house vs. renting. My feelings haven't really changed all that much - I still have no real desire to suddenly be responsible for repairs, renovations, maintenance, lawn care, property tax, etc. - but I am starting to see more merit in the idea. As much as I like the place we live in now, it's definitely quirky. There's one window that won't stay open, there are areas the air conditioner doesn't seem to cool as well as it should, the garage door opener is temperamental, the shower in the master bathroom squeals when it's running, I don't like the way the light switches control the electrical outlets, the refrigerator is missing its door shelves, and so on. None of these things is that big of a deal, and we could probably get the landlord to take care of at least some of them if we felt like hassling him (he said a few months ago, for instance, that he'd try to find door shelves for our fridge; we haven't spoken to him since), but Brandi's too busy and I don't really deal with people. If this were our place and our appliances, and I could take care of these things without going through a middleman, I would. So it's a double-edged sword: renting, I wouldn't have to pay to have these things fixed, but I can't just do them without going through channels. So that's where owning our own house would be nice. I have no problem letting little stuff like that go in a place we don't own, but I have a feeling I'd be pretty picky in a place of our own. Which might suck, because I know we wouldn't be able to do everything right away; it would have to be a process. But who knows, maybe that could be fun - I say I don't want to get into performing maintenance and upgrades, but hey, maybe I'd dig it once I got into it. (See, that's me talking myself into this. Even though I know - I know - it's not going to happen for a while.) I suppose that's what I have to keep in mind when/if we do start to think seriously about buying a place - sure, there will be some stuff that sucks, but there's a trade-off. Yes, maintenance will be our responsibility, but we can do it without discussing it in committee. Yes, there will be lawn care, but we'll have an actual yard, and we can do what we want with it. Yes, we'll have to pay property taxes, but we should be able to get a monthly payment lower than what we pay now in rent. Pros and cons, but in the end it probably balances out. That's what I'm telling myself now, at least. Time will tell if we ever get a chance to find out firsthand. So we'll go look at this place tonight and get a feel for what we're looking at and looking for, and I guess we'll go from there. And if looking really gives us a jones to buy a place, we'll just have to figure out exactly what we need to do to make it happen, even if not on this place in particular. It feels a little weird to be taking this concept seriously all of a sudden, but I guess it has to happen sometime if it's going to happen at all.