Emptying the Notebook

This past weekend was one that needed another weekend tacked onto the end of it for recovery purposes. Seriously, when my alarm clock went off on Monday morning, my first thought was why in hell did I set my alarm for so early on a Sunday morning? Oh...crap.

On Friday night I went to the Troy-Wayne game, of course. Playing Wayne now that they've become an area powerhouse makes me wonder where they were back in the late '90s when Troy was the dominant team in the area. No one around here (with the exception of Centerville, who stepped up and took their losses like men, and the teams in our league, who didn't have a choice) wanted anything to do with us then, and the Trojans were forced to fill their schedules with weak teams from other areas of the state - Akron Coventry, Columbus West, Cincinnati Woodward, etc. - who did nothing to help the Trojans prepare for the tests they'd face when they made it into the playoffs. But now that Wayne (and other teams in the Dayton area) are strong, you don't see the Trojans ducking them. Part of that, I'm sure, has to do with league scheduling, now that all the "big schools" in the Dayton area have come under the umbrella of the Greater Western Ohio Conference, which wasn't the case ten years ago. But that's certainly not the whole story, as Troy has shown a willingness to take on anyone (in recent years they've played area bullies Kettering Alter, Valley View, Chaminade Julienne, plus Columbus power Dublin Coffman, etc.). I just think it's an interesting contrast in scheduling philosophies. For myself, I'm glad Troy plays strong teams. Sure it means more losses, and an occasional blowout, but at least you know you're being tested.

As everyone knows, I love going to high school football games, but there's one part of the experience that drives me crazy, and unfortunately, it happens mostly at Troy Memorial Stadium. After the game, when I leave the stadium and go out to the parking lot, all too often I find propaganda leaflets stuck under my windshield wiper or jammed into the door handle of my car, almost always informing me that I'll be going to Hell. Now, for what it's worth, I'm totally comfortable with my own spiritual status, which, to my way of thinking, is no one else's business or concern. But do you want to know who I think is going to Hell? That's right: the people who put this shit on my car, and all the cars in the lot.

On Saturday, Brandi and I went to the wedding of a couple of her co-workers. It happened to be a Catholic wedding, so I told Brandi, who had never been to a Catholic wedding before, that she should pack us a lunch and a couple of pillows. She thought I was kidding...until the wedding lasted an hour and a half. Our own wedding, for the record? Fifteen minutes.

After the wedding finally ended, we headed over to the reception, which was held at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. In going from a Catholic church to a military base, I've rarely spent a day when I was more out of my element. In all seriousness, though, the reception was very nice - the bar was open, and (most importantly) the food was awesome and plentiful.

On Sunday, Brandi and I ventured to Columbus to meet some friends for lunch. Patrick and Sarah live near Athens, so Columbus is a convenient midway point; and Matt and Jessica live in Columbus, so it was easy enough for them to join us. I'm generally terrible about keeping in touch with people, so it's always great to get together and catch up. We got to spend a couple of hours together. I'm really glad there's a good place for us to meet; now we just need to take advantage of it more often.

Watching Monday Night Football last night reminded me exactly how much I love HD. I could actually see the tears in Brett Favre's eyes each time he threw an interception.

I've been experiencing some technical difficulties lately. It seems as though my iPod has given up the ghost, despite my various efforts over the past several weeks to revive it. It seems the hard drive is corrupt beyond repair - I've tried restoring it through iTunes, formatting it through Windows, and even working with a third-party program that's supposed to diagnose and repair most issues, to no avail. I've no idea what else to do with it. Somehow, this means that Brandi is getting a new iPod, and I'll take over her old one. We ordered her one of the new models that just came out, and of course, it's on backorder. Supposedly it'll be on its way sometime in the next two weeks, but I'll believe it when I see it.

On top of that, my car's in the shop right now. It had a strange burning smell anytime it was running, and then recently it started leaking oil. Wonderful. I really thought, when I got out from under the Neon, that I was done with car trouble for at least a while. Unfortunately, it hasn't really turned out that way. Hopefully this will turn out to be something minor.