Last year I performed a wedding ceremony for some friends, the bride someone I have known for many years and the groom a fine gentleman I have gotten to know since they started dating. He is an Army captain currently finishing up his residency in orthopedic surgery ( Read more... )

I have a feeling every parent reaches this point, where their beloved child finally starts doing something that makes the hackles go up, the brain freeze, the hands clench. In other words, the beloved child has found the first button ( Read more... )

We were already to go -- had a temporary living situation lined up and had decided what we were going to do for the next house (namely, buy a lot and put something like this on it -- http://www1.livinghomes.net/homesHertz.html). We thought we had the budget covered and were ( Read more... )

A year plus ago we had our bathroom completely gutted and remodeled. It was a long expensive process but the end result was definitely worth it ( Read more... )

So, we're doing it. We're biting the bullet and putting the house on the market. It feels really really weird to be leaving the House of Toothpaste after nearly 8 years of occupancy -- longer than either Marie or I have lived anywhere in our entire lives -- but it's really too small for our family and the dogs are starting to kill themselves on ( Read more... )

It fucking _sucks_ that I was too sick to have my annual Christmas party this year. It has put me into a funk like you wouldn't believe. Particularly as now we have to figure out how to decorate the damn tree when we've always relied on partygoers to help do it in various silly and original ways.

*grumble*

I'm not bitter. Not at all.

My friend Chris McAfee and I were driving to work the other day talking about the fact that he's about to quit his job and how he wants do something other than just go on to the next job. Comments about Central America and India flitted about, then he said:

"I know, in 6 months or something when things start to melt, we should climb Mt. Shasta"
I ( Read more... )

As promised:


( Read more... )

I absolutely loathe my annual physical. My doctor is as great as they come, but when you get right down to it, she's still sticking things that Do Not Belong(tm) into places where Nothing Should Be(tm ( Read more... )

I'm watching a show on KQED about a guy who's trying to track the migration of humans out of Africa via DNA markers. While in Australia the aborigines he talks to all think he's crazy because they have 40,000 years of oral tradition saying that they originated in Australia, not migrated from Africa. The guy managed to not be an asshole and ( Read more... )