The Husband Store

A store that sells husbands has just opened in New York City, where a woman may go to choose a husband. Among the instructions at the entrance is a description of how the store operates. You may visit the store ONLY ONCE !

There are six floors and the attributes of the men increase as the Shopper ascends the flights. There is, however, a catch… you may choose any man from a particular floor, or you may choose to go up a floor, but you cannot go back down except to exit the building! So, a woman goes to the Husband Store to find a husband . .

On the first floor the sign on the door reads:

Floor 1 - These men have jobs and love the Lord.

The second floor sign reads:

Floor 2 - These men have jobs, love the Lord, and love kids.

The third floor sign reads:

Floor 3 - These men have jobs, love the Lord, love kids, and are extremely good looking.

"Wow," she thinks, but feels compelled to keep going. She goes to the fourth floor and the sign reads:

Floor 4 - These men have jobs, love the Lord, love kids, are drop- dead good looking and help with the housework. "Oh, mercy me!" she exclaims, "I can hardly stand it!"

Still, she goes to the fifth floor and sign reads:

Floor 5 - These men have jobs, love the Lord, love kids, are drop- dead gorgeous, help with the housework, and have a strong romantic streak.

She is so tempted to stay, but she goes to the sixth floor and the sign reads:

Floor 6 - You are visitor 4,363,012 to this floor. There are no men on This floor. This floor exists solely as proof that women are impossible to please. Thank you for shopping at the Husband Store. Watch your step as you exit the building, and have a nice day!

Random brilliance thoughts

It’s the ultimate tale of unrequited love! It has everything – beautiful female lead, strong male lead, and a love so strong it reaches across geographic, language, and species barriers! That’s right boys and girls – King Kong is out on DVD today!!! I foresee a DVD purchase in my future. I may as well get the original 1933 version. I think I’ll pass on the tripe that was the 1976 version w/ Jessica Lange and Jeff Bridges, and a man in a bad gorilla suit. Oh yeah, here are some random pix of the boys.



Random Stuff:

The McNairs and kids are nice people. Mrs. McNair reminds me A LOT of her sister R in L.A.

I feel like I'm spinning my wheels. I need to get out of the rut I've been in for the past 3-4 years. (I wonder if there's any connection b/t this feeling and me being in school?)

I want my kids to be musical. I looked at a set of drums, an 88-key keyboard, and an electric bass (for me) today.

UNC's Lady Tar Heels just beat my other favorite team to advance to the Final Four. I imagine Baton Rouge is off the hook right now with both their teams advancing.

I eat far too often when I'm not actually hungry. You can guess what's going to happen the the pizza leftovers at home when I get there.

When my boys were about 2, the docs told us that Jalen projected to be about 6'4" when fully grown, and Nick about 6'6". I'm guess I should scrap the books and teach them to jump, shoot, and dribble. Or I could give them cigarettes and have them end up about 5'8". I hope Noah doesn't end up being the runt of the litter - but then, someone's gotta be.

Anybody got some good credit they want to lend me?

I'll take those shiny shirts, Karl

I've got to stop letting my wife buy me clothes.

LSU 62, Duke 54

Interesting opinion by Michael Behe here, the author of "Darwin's Black Box", and a critic of Darwinian evolution. This particular article is about the filtering of scientific data through the materialistic worldview of most scientists.

Nick's hair didn't turn out to be very curly. As a matter of fact, it doesn't look very different at all. I guess a trip to the barber is now in order.

At least it's not a Jheri

My son is about to get an S-Curl. Fifteen years after they were popular. This should be interesting. At least it should eliminate the crying when we comb his hair. He's determined to let it grow long enough to be braided. Coincidentally, he first expressed his desire to get his hair braided around the time the M.R.S. braided his little brothers. Hmmmm....

Noah had his adenoids removed today. He's been asleep for most of the day, but now he appears to be back to his old self. Hopefully this will allow him to breathe through his nose now, and get rid of the Darth Vader-like breathing. I guess I should prepare to watch some hoops now. See ya after Dook goes down!

Random title that has nothing to do with the post

Nothing much going on here.  Waiting for the NCAA tourney to kick back into high gear Thursday.  I expect Duke to go down at some point this weekend.  Right now I’m on the UConn bandwagon.  As for the women’s tourney, I feel cheated – they have UNC and the Lady Vols in the same bracket.  If they both win out, they’ll have to play each other BEFORE the Final Four.  The ACC might get 3 teams in the Final Four – that would be impressive even though I don’t relish the thought of the Lady Blue Devils being there.  Anyhoo, it’s off to read some scientific mumbo-jumbo Infinity style.  Ciao!

Oh yeah – I think the M.R.S. is about to join the blogosphere.  She set it up last night, so maybe she’ll start posting soon.  I’m not on blogger right now so I haven’t linked to her yet, but her URL will be shonta77.blogspot.com.  Sayonara.

Oxen in a ditch

So I go outside to load the truck and go to services. I notice the truck appears to have a pronounced lean. "No way," I say. "Not today. Not as I'm trying to get to services to give my first sermonette!" Sure enough, when I get to the truck I see the front tire on the passenger side is flatter than a pancake. I have a can of Fix-a-Flat, so I decide to use that instead of changing the tire. That way I can get to services and handle the tire later. The can recommends that the valve stem be at the 4:00 or 8:00 position. I decide to back the car up a little bit to get the valve stem in the right position. I put the key in the ignition and turn. Nothing happens. I turn it again. I get a clicking noise, but no ignition. So I have a flat tire AND a dead battery? "No way. Not today. Not now." Well, I guess I can take the time to change the tire now. In my suit and white shirt, might I add.

I own a Chevy Blazer. The jack and lug wrench are in a compartment in the back of the truck. I go to open the hatch and BOO-YAH! Nothing happens. (?!?!?!?!) Now I have to climb over the back seat to drag out the equipment I need. Great. As I'm finally changing the tire, the M.R.S. calls our uncle to see if he can come give us a boost. He's working. Great. Anyway, our next-door neighbor comes home as I'm finishing up changing the tire and offers to boost us off. At first, nothing happens. Just as I'm starting to think the problem is with the alternator or the starter, the Blazer starts up. Yes!!!! We pile into the vehicle, pull off, and hightail it down the road. We have to stop to put a little air into the spare, and hightail it some more until we get to services. Thirty minutes late. No sermonette para mi! Luckily I remembered to call our elder when I first noticed the tire was flat and other arrangements had been made. So now I've got a reprieve until the end of the month. At least the sermonette's ready.

I guess the church wasn't ready for some "new truth"!

Gary, if you read this, we'll be seeing your uncle Rod next week.

Cotton: The other white meat

Thanks for all the well wishes and the cyber- group hug after my meeting/presentation. It went fairly well. The toughest member of my committee wants me to focus my research more towards answering a particular biological question - trouble is, I haven't come up with one. Oh, I have some things that I'm trying to find out, but he wants me to use the data I'm generating to address something a little more specific. It looks like I'll be taken the written portion of my qualifying exams in mid-to-late April, and my NSF grant proposal that I'll defend orally will be due at that time as well. Then again, this may not happen until July; it depends on when my 4th committee member can fly in from Washington State. Anyway, this is where the rubber meets the road; I expect to be doing a lot of lab work, data analysis, and studying for the next few months. I'm treating this sort of as my "last hurrah" weekend... *sigh*

Now I've gotta go and pull a Manuel B. Yes, that's an inside joke.

Must... resist... darkside...

I was flipping through the channels last night when I saw this band on our local PBS station.  I stopped because I thought it was Alison Krauss & Union Station, but I was wrong.  Before I knew it though, I’d spent about half an hour watching them perform!  The band was Rhonda Vincent & Rage.  Anybody out there in the blogosphere heard of them?  They were absolutely fantastic – particularly the banjo player and the fiddler!  The M.R.S. just shook her head.  I feel I must go listen to some rap to balance things out.  (Don’t worry, none of the hard-core, “gangsta” stuff.  I like rap-lite.)  

So I’ve got a grad committee meeting tomorrow @ 11:00.  I’m working on the Powerpoint presentation now, and it’s coming along quite slowly.  I know they’re gonna rip me apart, but at least it’ll be done by 12:30.  “Why are you taking this approach?”  “What biological questions are you trying to address?”  Yadda,yadda, yadda…  I also plan to schedule my written & oral comprehensive exams for sometime in April.  I guess I need to check my calendar and see when the Holy Days are again.  Then if – IF – I pass, I will officially be a PhD candidate.  After that, it’s just a matter of finishing up my research, writing up my dissertation, defending it (i.e., get ripped by my committee again)  and getting’ on through.  Wish a brotha luck.  Better yet, join me a prayer or two!  I have a feeling I’m gonna need a group hug tomorrow.

What happens in TN stays in TN

Chattanooga has been a blast! We missed the Bible study last night because it took us 5 hours to get here instead of the expected 3-3.5. Apparently the roads were especially dangerous yesterday - we were stuck behind 3 separate accidents on 285 and I-75. We finally arrived around 8:40, just as the Bible study was winding up. We checked into our hotel and as expected ran into brethren in the hall. We were starving by this point, so we walked down the street to City Cafe. Once inside, we ran into Juan, Jason, Rebekah, Leif, and Camille and shot the breeze for a minute before making our way to our seat. The diner had quite an impressive selection of food: fried appetizers, spinach & queso, fajitas, quesidillas, breakfast, Greek food, Italian dishes, and the LARGEST desserts I've ever seen. Since we were starving, of course we ordered too much food. Our server gave the M.R.S. a glass of wine, a humungous slice of strawberry cheesecake, and a chocolate chip cookie the size of Cuba (for Nick) on the house. We eventually waddled back down the street and turned in for the evening.

Did I mention the diner had a full bar?

Sabbath services were wonderful. Mr. League gave the sermon, filled with a lot of good advice. I couldn't tell you what the overall theme of the sermon was, but it was interesting nonetheless. Mr. Fritts and the choir sang a beautiful song for special music; "God Chose Us" by Paul Williams. I think there were 90 people at the Bible study, but there were at least 200 present for services. Tennessee, Atlanta, and Blairsville (GA) were well represented; I also met brethren from Laurel (MS), New York/New Jersey (including someone whose blog I read on occasion), L.A., Dallas, Charlotte, Bluefield (WV), Birmingham, and a surprise visitor from our congregation in Anderson. Most everyone stayed for the dance as well. I'm not really a dancer, but I got on the floor once or twice - once to do some incredibly difficult dance called the Bunny Hop.

I don't know what tomorrow holds. Juan is trying to put together a basketball game. I think Marshall M. a ball, shorts, sneaks, AND a jersey (?) just in case he stumbled in to a pick-up game. I'll give Juan a call in the morning to see what's up. If that falls through, we might hit the IMAX or the aquarium down the street - or we might check out the new aquarium in Atlanta. They DO have whale sharks and belugas.

To top it off, we made it back to the room just in time to see my beloved
Tar Heels spoil Senior night for JJ Redick and the boys in Cameron indoor stadium. Life is great!

I-85 to I-75 to I-74

Day 1 of the Couch-to-5K program went well. I wanted to keep on going since I didn't even work up a sweat. How am I going to find time to run this weekend? I guess I'll try to squeeze some running in Sunday when I get back from Chattanooga. Do I take the fam to the aquarium in Chattanooga, or do I hit the new one in Atlanta on the way home? The facility in Atlanta has 2 whale sharks that I'm dying to see. If I didn't know any better I'd think the decision has already been made.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend, even though I don't dance. I've contacted a few people from Blairsville and Atlanta who are going. I guess I should book us a room before we get there. How did civilization develop without the internet? I need to stick Post-it notes all over our hotel room reminding me that services will be at 10:30 Sabbath morning instead of the 2 p.m. that I'm used to. I do hate that I'm going to miss Dr. Doug Winnail's visit to our local congregation this week. *sigh*

Oh well, the Sandman beckons. G'night folks!