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?